Topic A: How do we see our world?

Topic A: How do we see our world?

1. Carmichael, Hogan and Walter (1932)

   • Aim: Carmichael, Hogan and Walter (1932) wanted to find out whether words shown with pictures would affect the way the pictures were remembered.
     • Procedure: He used a laboratory experiment (with independent groups design) in which 95 participants were shown 12 pictures (the stimulus material).
       • Strengths: By using a control group Carmichael et al. could be sure that people’s drawings weren’t always distorted in the same way.
         • By using 2 different lists they showed that the verbal labels affected people’s drawings.
         • Weaknesses: In real life things are not generally ambiguous as the stimulus figures shown
     • Findings:The drawings produced by people who heard words from list one were very different to list 2.

2. Schemas and eyewitness memory

   • Schemas are useful because they help us to predict what might happen but in the case of eyewitness memory we might think we see something based on our perception
   • Allport and Postman: Allport and Postman, 1945, the black man in the suit and the white man with the razor – people remembered the black man holding the razor in a threatening way.