clinical and social

quantitative as well as qualitative milner gathered lots of qualitative data about hms anterograde and retrograde amnesia but also did some puzzles and iq tests and gathered how much he could remember

- trace a star, over time he made less and less mistakes but had no memory of doing the task before, meaning he was unconsciously coding this into his LTM which was not as damaged.

idiographic approach focusing in detail on individuals uniqueness - hm hard to establish cause and effect as he was only studied after his hippocampus was removed- result of his surgery or if his upbringing eg missing school and low social status

• case studies reduces validity as measuring his memory might not be because of his brain damage but his upbringing- also reduces generalisability as is only one single person others may react differently

schmolck studied more people with mtl damage concluded clear link between damage to the temporal cortex generally and the loss of semantic LTM - damage specific to the hippocampus suffered loss of episodic memory, but not semantic memory. which suggests HM was not a one off experience 

allow us to investigate things we could not otherwise investigate ethically - hm was surgically removed so very precise, kf was rta so not as useful

distinct lack of consensus among psycholgists, doctors and eductaors on how to characterise and define reading failures and how poor a childs reading ability should be to define it as dyslexia. Changes can be made in the classroom to help children struggling with dyselxia, and is therefore important to discuss.

phonological loop a limited capacity, temporary storage system for holding verbal information in speech-based form - phonological store, which holds the words you hear, like an ‘inner ear’: & the articulatory loop, whereby words can be maintained by subvocal repetition Alloway et al. (2009) implicates poor ST working memory (WM) in dyslexia , suggesting that dyslexic children cannot hold all of the speech sounds for long enough in working memory to be able to bind them together to form a word - the working memory capacity to store syllables for long enough to form a word is not available.

visual spatial sketchpad temporary memory system for holding visual &/or spatial information, often through rehearsal. Smith-Spark and Fisk (2007) ****tested VSS span in dyslexic adults using a computerised visual block test (the Corsi test) which showed a significant difference in the length of the VSS span in those with dyslexia compared to those without dyslexia.

central executive supervisory component – it controls WM It has limited capacity – in terms of processing lots of information for a long duration, can process information from any sensory system Swanson and Sachse-Lee (2001) tested children with reading disabilities. Those with the lowest central executive function were also poor on a range of tasks including memory and sentence listening tests.

strategies to improve WM: enhancing WM computer based programmes, such as Cogmed & the N-block programme. These programmes have been shown to enhance WM with long-lasting cognitive gains & academic improvement in both Maths & English. using checklists, simplifying instructions, clearly stating lesson aims, using audio & visual materials ,highlighting or colour coding information, avoiding asking a child to read out loud , as dyslexia is associated with overloading limited WM 

wm suggests different stores do different things Neuroimaging - smith PET scan subvocal rehearsal task broca's area activated, using the phonological store supramarginal gyrus was activated. 2 memory stores that operate differently when different tasks are performed

two stores are phonological and visual spatial sketchpad - KF suffered brain damage in motobike accident LTM was fine but could only remember 2 digits at a time forgetting of auditory letters and digits was greater than forgetting of visual, provides evidence for idea of visual and verbal stores in stores

visual spatial sketchpad temporary memory system for holding visual &/or spatial information, often through rehearsal - vss presumes all information is initially visual, yet blind people often have excellent spatial awareness despite lacking vision - perhaps the visuospatial sketchpad must be separated into sub-components of spatial and visual information - further research must be carried out in order to test for this fully.

central executive supervisory component – it controls WM It has limited capacity – in terms of processing lots of information for a long duration, can process information from any sensory system lack of information and research central executive, despite it being the delegator of the other sub-components and perhaps the most important. Like the research that has been carried out into other components (like the dual-task studies by Baddeley), studies must be conducted to discover more about the central executive in order to under stand the model fully and thus incorporate it into everyday life.

manipiulation of variables to establish cause and effect, baddeley changed whether words wore semantically similar or disimilar which was the independent variable in order to change their scores which was the dependent variable

lacks external validity and has limited generalisability as it is a lab experiement - we do not learn lists of random monosyllabic words so ability to generalise to every day context is limited                                                                          lab experiment means it was carried out in controlled manner with standardised procedure - high reliability as can be replicated and preprepared tests and timed slides gives it high internal validity

another feature is using a standardised procedure - sebastian and hernandez gill read out number lists of increasing length to individuals to test their digit span using the same list

well controlled as anyone with impairments other than age were excluded eg hearing and reading impairment               digit span tasks lack mundane realism – we rarely use verbal memory to memorise lists of digits in everyday life.

feature of lab experiments are high reliability -sebastian and hernandez gill found digit span in spanish speaking population was worse than english population. Ellis & Hennelley found poorer digit spans in Welsh-speaking children compared to English children . Stigler et al also found a similar word length effect, but in the opposite direction, in Chinese populations; here longer digit spans have been found in Chinese due to words for digits being short.             

 improve the interpretation & analysis of qualitative data and, inter rater reliability

generate quantitative data

easily to compare and statistically analyse - rule out chance - objective schmolck H.M. scored 98% for living creatures and 100% for objects); MTL+ patients performed worse: 85% for living creatures and 90% for objects

all pps have to consent hm was a patient who had hippocampus removed - resulted in him losing the ability to form new memories. This is called anterograde amnesia. H.M. was in no position to withhold his consent - entirely dependent on the researchers for his care and did not understand his situation "human guinea pig" whose sad condition was exploited by researchers. Howeverfollowed the principle of Respect H.M.'s real identity was kept secret to protect his privacy. Only 100 researchers were ever granted access to H.M., out of respect for his dignity - justified in terms of Social Responsibility

protection of pps not an issue in cognitive as much both baddeley and sebastin hernandez gill dont put pps at risk or are socially sensitive - lab experiments with no danger involved - just rcealling words

protection of pps - reicher and haslam potential pps underwent a 3-phase clinical, medical and background screening to ensure that they were neither psychologically vulnerable or would put others at risk a paramedic, two clinical psychologists and an independent ethics committee monitored the study throughout.

debriefing - Milgram debriefed all his participants straight after the experiment and disclosed the true nature of the experiment. Participants were assured that their behavior was common and Milgram also followed the sample up a year later and found that there were no signs of any long-term psychological harm. deception more in social

^cognitive

^{cognitive functioning is something that is ‘hardwired’ into us - we all have the capacity to remember, & memory works in the same way for most people (although there are individual differences – see earlier slides). this suggests that memory is a biological/physiological or natural phenomena.}

^{Some aspects of HM’s cognitive deficits, such as his language impairment, may have been the result of his low socioeconomic status & his interrupted education (due to his frequent epilepsy & medication for this), & not the result of his brain damage}

^{elements of nurture or environmental factors involved in memory functioning - memories can be affected by our individual experiences, this is illustrated by Bartlett’s Reconstructive theory of memory & schema theory}

^social

^{latane - social impact theory - we are greatly influenced by the actions of others, strength immediacy and number of a group affects the targets behaviour - milgram crane neck experiment nurture}

^{social identity theory - states that simply being in a group, or perceiving that you are in a group, is enough to create in-group loyalty & out-group hostility. nurture Perceived group membership alone, even without perceived competition between groups, can cause prejudice. steele and aaronson african american studdents negative stereotypes}

^{personality is fixed and not subject to change - explains differences in obedience internal/external locus of control [Rotter] individual’s perception of their personal control over events in their own life & their own behaviour. internal locus of control we can control events to an extent & that what happens to them is largely a result of their own ability & effort better able to resist social influence. external locus belief in the influence of luck, fate, other people & that events are largely out of their control - taking less personal responsibility for their actions & being less likely to display independent behaviour & more likely to accept the influence of others.}

reductionist approach is regarded as being high in scientific credibility establishing cause & effect is easier to do if you can isolate the behaviour, areas of cognition have been broken up into their separate or component parts & studied separately Atkinson & Shiffrin multi store model of memory (MSM) reductionist because it artificially fragments the short-term and long-term memory stores without discussing the interconnections between each store however doesnt consider complexity of human memory

case studies adopt an idiographic approach by focusing on unique experience of one person - isn’t considered eductionist features concepts on triangulation, which involves gaining different perspectives through the gathering of different case studies. hm memory issues could be influenced by his surgery, also his childhood and growing up lower socioeconomic background

Bartlett’s Reconstructive theory can be seen as less reductionist, as it considers the role of prior experience in influencing how we recall - & even encode/store – memories. However, this makes it harder to study memory in a precise way, how can we know how past experiences have influenced memory, pps will have different prior experiences etc

working memory model argues msm too reductionist - thinks stm is an active store and has multiple parts that all interact could still be reductionist only 4 parts of stm and does not explain ltm

each participant told the same and read the same propmts, told to do same thing - was a replica of milgram - standardised prcedure replication Burger carried out with his own pps allowed him to compare his own findings with Milgram's to check whether they were consistent, therefore increasing the reliability of his findings.

each pp asked to read a list of words and shock the learner if wrong, increasing each time. artifical task reduces ecological validity as does not portray a real life situation of obedience

burger found no significant statistical difference between Burger & Milgram's findings. Also, after a chi-squared test there was no significant difference between obedience in males and females. - Quantitative data was collected relating to the percentages of participants who would continue to administer shocks up to 150v. Such data is objective, increasing the reliability

to make it more ethical, pps were told shocks weren't dangerous & they were reassured that any harm was the experimenters fault. lowers internal validity as variables that may affect obedience are still there

divisonal effect of social impact the number of targets to be influenced affects the impact of the source: the more targets to be influenced often reduces the impact or effectiveness of the source to change behaviour. [ Latane & Darley] divisional effect of social impact - lone person was more likely to help someone in need compared to a group of people; the lone individual did not have the opportunity to deny their personal responsibility - ****diffusion of responsibility

psychosocial law - not just as strength, immediacy & number of sources increases, so does the social impact the source has on the target - plateau effect occurs, i.e., a point is reached where any increase in the strength, immediacy & number of the course does not lead to a proportionate impact of the target berkowitz et al crane neck experiment, increasing the number of confederates looking up did increase the number of passers-by who imitated this behaviour, the numbers of passers-by who did this grew smaller relative to the size of the confederate group

the targets are those who experience the impacts of social influence - the sources are those who exert the influence on others. low on predicitve validity as does not explain what would happen if 2 equal groups eg same in strength number immediacy who is target who is source

states that social impact is relative to the social forces, strength number and immediacy of a group, eg more people are elling you to ignore something you will. however overimplifies and ignores personality, some people more resistant to authority than others. external/internal locust of control

Authoritarian submission: uncritical submission to perceived legitimate authority. - elms and milgram found that those who were fully obedient, i.e., went to 450v scored higher on tests of authoritarianism & lower of scales of social responsibility than those who defied the experimenter,

personality is a set of traits that remain stable. one categorisation is internal/external locust of control [Oliner & Oliner] interviewed 2 groups of non-Jewish people who lived through the holocaust in Nazi Germany - ‘rescuers’ had scores demonstrating an internal locus of control & also scored higher on measures of social responsibility eg internal leads to less obedience

women may be percieved to be more obedient through gender stereotypes - milgram replicated original with all women and while tension was higher obedience levels were the same as men [Blass] studied 9 other replications of Milgram’s study - consistent with Milgram’s own findings, 8/9 found no evidence of any gender differences in obedience.

through socialisation men and women are taight to behave differenly Kilham & Mann in Australia - 40% of males were obedient, compared to only 16% of females; however, this difference might be explained due to the fact that male ‘teachers’ were paired with male ‘learners’, & female ‘teachers’ were paired with female ‘learners’. Perhaps females were more reluctant to ‘shock’ another female or possibly the females joined together against the situation in an alliance to react against the demands of the aggressive male experimenter

informed consent - sherif the parents had consented to the study, the boys were unaware that they were part of a psychological investigation on intergroup conflict, believing it to be a study about leadership. not possible for the boys to give fully informed consent.

deception - milgram study relied on deception to gather results wanted as pps could not know nobody was really being harmed

protection of pps - reicher and haslam potential pps underwent a 3-phase clinical, medical and background screening to ensure that they were neither psychologically vulnerable or would put others at risk a paramedic, two clinical psychologists and an independent ethics committee monitored the study throughout.

debriefing - Milgram debriefed all his participants straight after the experiment and disclosed the true nature of the experiment. Participants were assured that their behavior was common and Milgram also followed the sample up a year later and found that there were no signs of any long-term psychological harm.