cognitive. developmental and biological

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cognitive 1: loftus and palmer - car crash/memory

A; To test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory.

P; opportunity exp1: 45 students into 5 groups of 9 exp2: 150 students into 3 groups of 50

P; Ex 1: all were shown 7 film clips of accidents, they were then asked to describe and answer q’s. Each group was given a different verb for one critical question: smashed, collided, contacted, bumped or hit. Ex 2: all were shown a 1 minute film clip. 1 was asked about smashed, 1 group hit and the other wasn’t asked the q. After one week, all answered “did you see broken glass?”

F; The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants’ memory of the accident. The participants in the “smashed” condition reported the highest speed estimate (40.8 mph), followed by “collided” (39.3 mph), “bumped” (38.1 mph), “hit” (34 mph), and “contacted” (31.8 mph) in descending order.

C; People are not good at judging speed; Leading q’s can affect results; Misleading post-events info can distort memory; Two kinds of memory 1.Info gained during the event 2.Info gained after the event

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cognitive 1: grant et al - Exam conditions/memory

A;  to demostrate the positive effects of context upon memory.

P; 6 pps were experimenters, each had 5 pps. 39 pps (17 - 56 years) 17f 23 m. 1 disqualified

P; Instructions were read aloud. Pps read the article once. They wore headphones and the reading times were recorded. A 2 minute break between reading and test. The short answer q’s were followed by MCQ. they were tested in either silent or noisy conditions. They were then debriefed

F; Statistical analysis of the  results suggest there a significant effect of studying and testing in the same conditions. The results also suggest there was no overall effect on performance.

C; Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance.

Because there is no background noise for testing. Students should be revising with none.

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cognitive 2: moray - dichotic listening

A; To test factors that would enable an unattended, dichotically presented message to be noticed

P:Lab with three studies. 2 had RMD and 1 IMD. male and female pps. Study 1 - memory for words (DV) from the shadowed prose message, a repeated word list in the rejected message and control words were compared (IV). study 2 - instructions were either preceded or not by the pps name (IV) and whether or not the pp heard the instruction was the DV. study 3 - pps listened to passages with occasional numbers in and were told they would be asked questions about the shadowed message or that they should remember all the numbers that they could (IV). the DV was the number of digits reported. Controls= same volume making sure pps name wasnt louder; and that passages were read at a steady speed without expression.

F:Study 1 showed that none of the content of the rejected message (the word list) could be remembered. Study 2 showed that affective instructions (using the pps name ) were sometimes heard, i.e. could break through the attentional barrier. Study 3 showed numbers couldn't be made important enough to break through the attentional barrier and be noticed in the rejected message even when expected.

C; Directing attention away from the message in one ear blocks the verbal content of the message. One’s own name can, at least sometimes, break through the attentional block. Neutral material (numbers) cannot be made important enough (using expectations) to break through the attentional barrier

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cognitive 2: simons and chabris - gorilla/umbrella

A To investigate the effect of several factors on ‘inattentional blindness’

P 228 undergrads

P Lab. IMD. volunteer sample

F Approximately half of all pps failed to notice the unexpected event across all conditions. Pps were more likely to notice the event in the opaque condition than transparent. They were also more likely to see the woman with the umbrella than the gorilla. When pps were attending to the black team they were much more likely to notice the gorilla than those attending to the white team.

C A significant number of individuals are likely to fail to notice an ongoing, prominent but unexpected event when they are otherwise engaged in a primary monitoring task. The ability to detect such an event can be influenced by complexity and nature of the monitoring task.

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developmental 1: bandura - bobo doll

A: to investigate the extent to which children would imitate aggression modelled by an adult, and to investigate the effects of gender on imitation

p 72 children were divided into 3 groups

p . One group saw an adult attack a bobo do;; in a play room. A second saw an adult bhave non-aggressively and a third did not see an adult playing. All children were then frustrated by being banned from playing with attractive toys and left to play in a room containing a bobo doll.

F children who had witnessed the aggressive adult were more likely to play aggressively with the bobo doll. Boys were more likely than girls to imitate physical aggression, especially from a male model.

C children can acquire aggression through observation of adults modelling aggression. They selectively imitate gender-specific behaviour and boys imitate male models, at least selectively.

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developmental 1: chaney - funhaler

A - to test whether a ‘funhaler’ could provide positive reinforcement to improve adherence in child asthmatics compared to devices in current use.

p 32 children who used a funhaler instead of their normal spacer inhaler

p field RMD.. IV was the type of device used: a standard spacer or a funhaler. The DV was the level of compliance to prescribed medical regime.  The funhaler used a number of features to distract the  children from the drug and to reinforce correct use of the device (spiner, whistle, bright colours). Parents did a questionnaires after.

f the findings showed that compliance was higher when using the funhaler, with children showing greater satisfaction and willingness to use the funhaler compared to the standard inhaler. Parents’ attitudes towards medicating their children were also more positive when using the novel device.
C: the funhaler may be useful as a functional incentive device that could improve compliance to medical regimes in young asthmatics

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developmental 2: kohlberg - moral dilemnas

A to investigate moral development from age 10 to 28

p 75 american boys aged 10-16 were followed up for 12 years.

p longitudinal study.  Every three years they were presented with moral dilemmas designed to measure specific moral variables such as motives for obedience and the value of human life. Moral dilemmas were also given to children in a range of cultures.

f based on their responses to moral dilemmas moral development was divided into three broad levels of morality each of which contains two stages. Each stage is a distinct moral philosophy. There were differences in pace but not sequence of development across nationality, social class and religion.

c there is a universal sequence of stages to moral development. Children in the same stage of moral development tend to reason in the same way.

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developmental 2: lee - crosscultural morals

A cross-cultural evaluations of lying and truth-telling in situations involving prosocial and antisocial behaviours.

p  228 chinese and canadian children aged 7, 9 or 11

p the research method was cross-cultural study, cross-sectional design. Children  randomly assigned to one of two conditions: physical or social stories. The story was either prosocial or antisocial and contained either truth-telling or lying. Pps were read four stories and asked to rate each on how ‘good’ or ‘naughty’ the story’s character was.

f both cultures rated truth-telling in antisocial situations very positively and gave similar ratings to lie-telling in antisocial behaviours. Chinese children rated truth-telling in prosocial sits less positively and lie-telling more positively in prosocial sits than canadian children.difference became greater with age and comments of the chinese children reflected their beliefs about modesty about one’s good deeds.
C moral reasoning is shaped to an extent by cultural and social norms. The influence of these factors on moral evaluations increases with age

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biological 1: sperry - split brain

A investigate the effects of hemispheric deconnection on perception and memory

p 11 patients who had  separate the left and right hemispheres

p using apparatus that could display stimuli independently to the left or right visual field. They were told to say, write or find what they'd seen. Other tests used objects placed either separately or simultaneously in each hand, which pps had to find or name. Manual tests, such as copying hand positions, were also conducted

f in split-brain patients, each hemisphere can perceive and remember info presented only to that hemisphere. Verbal responses were possible only when info was presented to the left hemisphere (e.g. through the right visual field or right hand)

C hemisphere deconnection cause the 2 hemispheres to operate differently, each having it's own consciousness, including perception and memory. This produces a ‘doubling’ of conscious awareness, as each hemisphere is unaware of the other.The right hemisphere, although much less linguistic thna the left, can use logic.

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biological 1: casey - go/no-go task

A to test whether delay of gratification in childhood predicts impulse self-control abilities in adulthood.

P The research method was a natural/quasi experiment. Longitudinal study composed of two experiments, used IMD and RMD. pps: 562 individuals who completed a gratification delay test aged 4. Ex 1 was a behavioural task that tested whether individuals who were less able to delay gratification as children (low delayers) would, as adults, show less impulse control in suppressing responses to ‘hot’ cues relative to ‘cool’ ones. In ex 2, researchers used fMRI to examine neural correlates of delay of gratification in a task requiring responses to happy or fearful facial expressions.

F; ‘low delayers’ as children had greater difficulty suppressing responses to ‘hot’ cues compared to those identified to ‘high delayers’.Experimenters identified the right inferior frontal gyrus as a key region of the brain used in withholding responses, with low delayers showing reduced activity in this region during ‘no-go’ trials. During the trials involving the most alluring stimuli, part of the limbic system known as the ventral striatum was more active in low delayers compared to that of high delayers.

C The ability to resist temptation differs between individuals and is associated with varying levels of activity within the inferior frontal gyrus and ventral straitum. 

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biological 2: blakemore - cats

A test whether kittens raised in an environment of vertical or horizontal stripes would develop normal vision.

p: lab. Imd. kittens spent time in a striped cylinder from 2 weeks to 5 months and were tested on their visual perception. IV was the visual orientation of the rearing environment. DV was measured in 2 ways: behaviour in a normal environment and a psychological investigation of the direction of orientation of neurons in the visual cortex. Controls included being reared in darkness, the absence of contours in the cylinder and being prevented from seeing their own limbs.

F Kittens developed normally, but behaviour and brains did not. Even after time in the light the kittens had poor visual tracking skills and depth perception.Different environments produced specific problems: kittens failed to respond to objects in the orientation opposite to what they had known. Neurons in the brain were also different, each lacking cells responding to the orientation of line that they had not experienced. Most neurons were binocular however, like a normal cat

C The changes in neurons in the visual cortex were the result not of degeneration but of brain plasticity, as neurons matched their sensitivity to the stimulation they received.

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biological 2: Maguire - taxi drivers

A to investigate whether doing a job that demands navigational experience, and sending more years in that job, affect volume of the hippocampus

P the experimental analysis compared 16 right-handed male taxi drivers and 50 non-taxi driving controls (iv) matched for gender, handedness and age range. DV was hippocampi volume, measured with an MRI scan. The correlational analysis explored a relationship between the measure variables of time spent as a taxi driver (between 1,5 and 28 years) and hippocampi volume, using 15 of the 16 tai drivers, excluding the oldest.

F The posterior region of the hippocampus was larger in volume in taxi drivers, and the anterior region was larger in volume in non-taxi drivers.For the taxi drivers, the correlation between hippocampi volume and number of years spent driving a taxi was positive for the posterior region, and negative for the anterior region.

C Distribution of grey matter in the hippocampus changes with use. The posterior hippocampus appears to store spatial info about the environment and to grow larger and used more.

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Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer

Lab = High reliability, low validity (extraneous variables like some students may not be driving, worse at judging speed etc)

Data; quantitative data used, measures of central tendancies were easy to work out; easy to compare.

Ethics; only a video, they weren't making the pps watch an actual crash- less psychological damage. However if some pps had car crashes in the past, it may bring up unwanted past experiances.

Validity; highly controlled- has high internal validity e.g. film clips were all the same, questions all standardised which increases reliability. However pps knew they were taking part in an experiment which could have affected the results/ demand characteristics.

Reliability; response bias factors, the misleading information may have influenced a repsonse but not memory (authority ect). Critical verbs.

Sample; only students, not representative.

Ethnocentrism; used pps from only one ethinicity and one country.

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Evaluation of Grant et al

Lab; low ecological validity because done in lab conditions, can't generalise to everyday life.

Data; strengths= quantitative data easy to compare, can be analysed in an objective manner. Weaknesses= table is/ can be difficult to understand.

Ethics; the right to withdraw was made very clear, the pps had to feel comfortable doing it since they already knew the experimenters (acquintences)

Validity; because it was highly controlled it meant that the reliabilty was increased. However it lacks ecological validity because it's a lab experiment.

Reliability; individual differences can have an effect. It can be replicated because its a lab experiment

Sample; Large age range. Bias of males. Used acquaintances.

Ethnocentrism; used pps from only one ethinicty and one country. 

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Evaluation of Moray

Lab; demand characteristics, low ecological validity, but highly controlled

Quantitative data; e.g number of instructions reported hearing with or without their names. Easy comparison between conditions and the result to be easily summarised. 

Ethics; fairly ethical. Tasks were clearly explained, no harm or discomfort.

Validity; high controls= high validity. Standardised procedure. Demand characteristics, pps my have thought they were 'supposed' to not remember.

Reliability; can be repeated due to the standardised procedure and high control- replicable

Sample; students and research workers, these may out perform the general public on cognitive takes= not representative. 

Ethnocentrism; it's possible that the findings of the study only represent English speaking Westerners. Those who's brain has been shaped by a different culture or language may perform differently on tasks. 

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Evaluation of Simons and Chabris

Lab; there were a number of controls put in place to manage the influence of extraneous variables. 

Quantitative data; 'yes/no' responses to the questions following the video. it provides information that is easy to analyse statistically and not open to interpretation. Although this method produces quite simplistic data, calculating the percentage who noticed the unexpected event means we can directly compare a number of conditons

Ethics; consent was obtained before exp. Unlikely to cause distress, and were fully debriefed. 

Validity; low ecological validity; watching a video in controlled conditions, in real life when concentrating on tasks there would be number of other environmental distractions.

Reliability; standardised script and questions. However there were 21 different experimenters and a range of television screen sizes used (form 13-36 inches) which could've introduced inconsistances.

Sample; volunteer sampling. Undergraduate students= difficult to generalise. 

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Evaluation of Bandura

Field/ Lab; cause and effect can be established, high controls

Data; quantitative data, easy to compare, easy to draw conclusions. Qualitive data; can ask the children why= did they hit the bobo doll becuase the model did or was it for another reason? improves validity.

 Ethics; children weren't allowed to withdraw, we don't know if parents gave consent. Also unclear if the child suffered any long-term affects of aggression after seeing the models hitting the doll. Although it's unlikely we can never be sure. 

Validity; low ecological validity because its not a natural environment, children act more natural in an environment they feel more comfortable in.

Reliability; used a lab experiment when observing the children. This allowed Bandura to control the IV. Replicable.

Sample; opportunity sampling, nursery that had links to Stamford University

Ethnocentrism; all children from the same nursery. More violence and aggression in America=gun laws. Limited sample, cant generalise as the violence/aggression the children is exposed to varies. 

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Evaluation of Chaney

experiment: A strength of field experiments would be it's like less likely to have demand characteristics. A weakness would be no control over extraneous variables. A strength of repeated measures would be it's easier to compare results, a weakness would be demand characteristics.

data: quantitative data is easier to compare between the two questions the 2 questions.
ethics: The parents gave some consent but the children did not.

validity: high ecological valdidity because it represents a study that could be used in medicine to actually improve asthma attacks.
relible: field experiment meaning there is less control over extraneous variables
sampling:  gender bias. 22 m 10 f. The makers of the funhaler were involved in the study, more likely to use observer bias.
ethnocentrism: the parents may be much more response in Australia because children are more likely to have asthma attacks.

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Evaluation of Kohlberg

longitudinal study: strength= wide range of evidence, will show differences in behaviour. Weaknesses= expensive, takes up lots of time to get data

Qualitative data; clearly shows cause and effect, however its difficult to compare to others.

Ethics: overall the study was quite ethical, none of the dilemmas were too harsh, consent was given.

Validity: low ecological validity becasue the dilemmas weren't representative of reality. it was all done in lab experiment and so none of the dilemmas were happeneing in real life.

Reliability: all of the pps were given the same dilemmas to compare

Sampling bias: It was androcentric because the sample was all male, this is a weakness because there could be a difference between boys and girls.

Ethnocentric: Kohlberg looked at boys from differences countries and reported small differences from between them. He also didn't find any important differences between different religious/faiths. 

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Evaluation of Lee

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Evaluation of Sperry

method: Quasi. No observer bias.

data: Qualitative. Very rich data, lots of info, unscientific
ethics: Consent was given but the pps were vulnerable. Repeating testing could lead to frustration or even embarrasment

validity: Tests performed did not relate to real life situations, strict lab conditions = very low ecological validity. Parts of the brain may have been damaged in surgery.
Low reliability = due to individual differences - lots of differences between pps in sample. High = lots of controls, so easily replicated.
sampling: Very small sample (11 pps) at the time there was only around 90 people with split-brain. Sample was high % with condition.
ethnocentic: May have been ethnocentric as same cultures may be less lateralised than others - nature/nurture

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Evaluation of Casey

method: Quasi. IV = pre-determined = less researcher bias, could lead to researcher bias though.

data: Quantitative.+ allows for easy comparison - % of errors. - misses out on written data which may have been useful - numerical data may be inaccurate

ethics+ both experiments received institutional review boards approval and all pps gave consent.

- pps could have suffered a loss of self-esteem as being classed as low-delayers.

used lots of technical equipment = research can be gathered objectively. - tasks are artificial and aren’t equivalent to how we experience rewards and cognitive control in everyday life.

+ tasks were completed in standardised conditions - lab experiment - easy to replicate. - Bennette Miller (2010) questioned the consistances of the method used to analyse FMRI scans.
sampling: +could be argued that it's a large sample with 562 children = high generalisability. - high attrition rate - only 27 agreed to take part in final stud

+ could be argued that it tells is that self-control is the result of the anatomy of our brain and is therefore species - specific behaviour, free of cultural bias. - american bias could over empathesize the importance of delay of gratification.

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Evaluation of Blakemore

Validty= research was standardisesd to ensure replicability; exposure to the cylinder was the same for all the cats (5hours a day)

Reliability= lack of extraneous variables enables expermenters to be sure that it was only the exposure to the IV that was affecting the DV

sampling bias= no reason to believe that the cats' brains would not work in tha same way.; in terms of the neurophysiological tests there was no bias. Also have to consider how far the findings can be applied to other species such as humans

Ethics= psychological research is bound by law to protect animals during research. Kittens did suffer some pain and distress. however studies like this are important in understanding the effects of visual depreivation in growing children, this research helps to find cures for these kinds of issues

Research methods= used specifcally designed environments meaning they were able to manipulate and control the type of visual environment each of the kittens were exposed to. 

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Evaluation of Maguire

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