Psychology - Unit 1

Acoustoc (STM) = Sounds.

Semantic (LTM) = Meaning. 

Baddeley tested the effects of these on STM and LTM recal.  He believed if you give a pp words that sound similar but have different meanings, they will get confused and remeber less. He gave pps lists of words which were acoustically similar (big, twig) and dissimilar and another list of words that were semantically similar (big, large) and dissimilar. He found pps had difficulty remebering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM, but semantically similar words were little problem in STM but got confused when using LTM.

Bahrick carred out a study to find out how long LTM was by using meaningful information from a pps past. He used pps from the US becuase of thier tradition of producing a yearbook. Pps had to remeber as many names or thier classmates as possible and write them down (Free Recall). Then pictures were taken from the yearbook and mixed with other strangers and had to recognise the ones they remebered (Visual Recall), they were then asked to recognise the names of people (Verbal Recall).

In all cases free recall was not good, the verbal and visual recognition was highest at 90% accurate in those who left school 15 years prior. 48 years after leaving, accuracy droped to 70% for verbal and 80% visual recall. 

First developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin. The sensory store collects environmental stimuli (sound, sight, touch etc.), most is ignored and forgotten but if it recieves attention it trnafers to the short term memory which has a capacity of 7+or - 2 items, a duration of 18 seconds and encodes acoustically. Information is lost if not rehearsed, if it is though, it moves to the long term memory which has unlimited capacity, a very long duration and encodes semantically. This is considered a linear model as information moves in a straight line, information sits in the LTM until it is retireved. 

Support for didderent types of memory - A man called KF suffered brain damage rom a motorbike accident. His LTM wasnt affected but he had poor performance on many STM tasks. In a memory study, pps. were asked to remeber a list of words, they found they could generaly remeber the first few words (Primacy effect) and the last few words (Recency effect) more easily than the words in the middle. This is called Serial Position Effect and supports existance of STM and LTM.

Tulving - Believes that LTM is made of different types of memory. Long Term Episodic Memory (relates to a particular experience). Long Term Semantic Memory (general information) and Procedural Memory (how we remeber to do things).   

Rehearsal - Kullik and Brown proposed a type of memory called Flashbulb Memoy where a shocking event is imprinted directly into the LTM ithout any rehearsal, shows some memorys dont need rehearsal. 

Desighned by Baddeley and Hitch and focuses on STM after the MSM was critisied as too simple. STM is made of different storeswhich can work independantly or together.Made of 3 components.  Central Executive - Manages the system, decides what needs to be done and when. Visuo - Spatial Sketchpad - (Inner eye), organises information visually. Mental rough paper.  Phonological Loop - Rehearses information Phonological Store - (Inner Ear). Deals with sounds, speech. Articulatory Loop-  (Inner Voice) rehearses sounds for up to 2 seconds. 

Explains multi-tasking - Baddeley gave pps a task of tracking a spotof light with a pointer while carrying out another visual task of imagining a capital letter and saying where an angle occured. Pps found this very difficult as it used the same section of memory. They could successfully carry out a task using different components.

Evidence - Brain scans have shown different parts of the brain that could relate to eachsection of the model. It`s a flexible system where rehearsal is only one optional process.

Central Evidence - Little evidence for the central excecutive as most research is done on the other components. 

LTM - Relationship to LTM unclear as it`s not explained how information tranfers or communicates with it. 

A procedure used by police officers in interviews to question a witness of an event. 

Schema (Schemata) - Information about the world that may help us take a situation (a bus driving away and a boy running after it) and undrstand what is happening (missed the bus). 

Comes in 4 parts - 

Report - Witness reports every single detail they remeber, not matter how irrelevant.

Recreate - Mentally recreate the scene.

Reorder - May reorder the events for example going in reverse

Recall - Recall the event from different perspectives. 

A meta-analysis of 53 studies found an average increase of 34% in the amount of correct information using the CI compared with standard interviews.

However most of these studies used college students in a lab. This is a biast sample so it`s hard to generalise and has low ecological validity. Though these results have been supported using cleaning staff in a large Uni in Brazil. Women who watch a video of a person being kidnapped, recalled more information using the CI. 

A problem is that the CI takes time so most police dont use the full procedure as they try to limit reports to 10 minutes. 

Attachment is an emotional bond between two people that lasts overtime and leads to proximity seeking. Learning theory is the beilef that behviour is learnt rather than innate. Attachment is learned through classical or operant conditioning. 

Classical - based on research carried out by Pavlov (dogs). The caregiver acts caringly towards child (unconditional stimulus). The child feels content (unconditional response). Over time, the child begins to associate feeling content with the caregiver.  Feeling of contentment is learned (conditioned response) and associated with caring behviour (conditioned stimulus). Attachment is the association betwen an individual and a sense of contentment. 

Operant - Learning also occurs when we are rewarded for something. Hungry child feels uncomfortable and wnats to reduce this, infant is fed and acts as reward (primary reinforcer). The food supplier (secondary reinforcer). Attachment occurs because a child seeks out the person who can supply the reward.                               CUPBOARD LOVE

Association and Rienforcement - A strength is that we do learn in this way.

Food - The main weakness is the role of food. (Harlows monekys chose the comfort wire mother over the wire mother that only offered food in times of stress) though this is hard to generalise as it was an aanimal study and human behviour is more influenced by complex feelings and thoughts. Also raises ethical issues as they suffered with maternal deprivation though researchers have claimed the bebfits outweigh the costs.

Cupbaord Love - Schaffer and Emerson did a study of 60 wokring class babies in Glasgow and found that they werent attached to the person who fed them but the person who was most sensitve and interactive.

John Bowlby believed that attachment evolved through natural selection to insure the baby survived until maturity. He believed that attachment was innate and that such instincts as crying and smiling are to reinforce care from the caregiver.  Also believed that infants form a many attachments but they have of on special importance (monotropy) and that this formed an internal working model for their future relationships as they build up a model of the caregiver as trustworthy or not as as themselves as desirable or not and the relationship betweeen the two and influenced their later relationships (coninuity hypothesis). The process of attchment took place in the first 3 years (Sensitive period)  and that the attachment should not be broken or disruppted during this period or their would be serious consequences. Looking at Harlow`s monkey study Bowlby developed the concet of a secure base. 

Monotropy - Came from the study of Schaffer and Emerson who looked at babies from woking class families in Glasgow and found that, though they had many different attachments, they had one of special importance which wasnt always the mother but rather the one who spent the best quality of time with them. 

Internal Working Model - From the Minnesota longitudinal study (Scroufe) which fllwed pps. from infancy to adolescence and found continuity between early atachment and later emotional/ social behviour. Those classified as secure in infancy were the most socially competent and popular.

Incontinuity - Suggests that poor early relationshipsalways lead to problems later in life. Main and Goldwyn argued that those with insecure attachments have gone on to develop positive relationships in adulthood if they had positive school experiences. 

Innate - Difficult to support attachment is innate as they havent found any genes that might relate to attachment.

Mary Ainsworth was particularly interested in individual differences. She provided Bowlby with the concept of a secure base. 

Strange Situation - The aim was to see how infants between 9 - 18 months behaved under mild stress. (Stranger/ Seperation anxiety).Data was collected by observers who made records of what the infant was doing every 15 seconds. Parent and infant play, stranger enters and talks to parent, parent leaves, stranger comforts if needed, parent returns offers comfort if needed, strange leaves, parent leaves, stranger enters and offers comfort, parent returns and offers comfort if needed. She identified 3 types of attachment. Securely Attached - 66% of infants showed this. Moderate distress when seperated, goes to comfort on return and easily soothed. Insecurely Avoidant - 22%. Pays little attention to caregiver. Caregiver shows little interest in infant. Infant shows little stranger anxietyand is likely to be comforted if stressed. On reunion, infant makes little effort and sometimes actively avoids contact. Insecurely Resistant - 12%. Infant is very distressed when seperated and difficult to comfort on return. Will want comfort but show agression. Caregiver equally as inconsistent. Infant ignores stranger and resists attempts of comfort.

Systematic Procedure - Easy to replicate. Any differences are not a result of the study. 

Attachment - Allows parents to see they are doing something wrong and allow intervention. 

Unrealistic - A lab experiment to hard to generalise. Lacks ecological validity.

Validity - Lamb claims that the ** only assess attchment to the person the child is with at the time. Main and Weston found that the behviour of the infants varied depending on who they were with at the time. 

Ethics - Puts the infant under a lot of stress though if the infant appears to be getting too stressed, the episode may be cut short. 

Securely Attached - Develop an internal working model which leads to positive relationships and use carer as secure base so are more ready to explore.  More likely to have a close and trusting relationship.

Insecure Avoidant - Feel uncomfortable becoming close and frightened of making a commmitment.

insecure Resistant - Tend to feel unloved and worried they will be left. 

Cultue is an issue in Bowlbys evolutionary theory. If attachment is biological and innate, then secure attchment should be the main for of attachment regardless of culture differences. There are two main types of culture - Collectivistic - (Western cultures - USE, GB) Value independace and importance of individual. Further yourself for your own good. Individualistic - (Japan and Israel etc)Where groups work and live together, share tasks and child rearing. Value being dependant on one another. Better yourself for good of others. 

Tronick studied an african tribe (Efe) who lived in extended families. Children were looked after by different women but still had one primary attachment. 

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies into attachment using the ** interested in inter-cultural (countries) and intra-cultural differences (in same culture). Found secure attachment was most common in every country (supporting Bowlby). Insecure was the next most common everywhere but Japan and Israel. Intra-cultures had a variation 1 and a half times greater han inter-cultural.

Culture - Cultures differ so what may be a secrue attachment here in a individualistic cultre may be strange in Japan where they encourage dependancy. The mothers rarley leave the child so in the ** they would be classified as insecurely attached. 

Imposed - Etic - A technique designed in one culture and imposed on another.

Sub - Cultures - In a culture there may be different sub-cultures. In Tokyo they found similar attachment types to the West but a more rural study found lots of insecure resistant types. 

Once children have formed an attachment, during seperation they follow three stages. Protest - Child cries and protests when parent leaves. Can be comforted. Despair -   Anger subsides and are calm but upset. Likely to refuse attamptes to comfort and may appear withdrawn and uninterested. Detachment - If seperation continues, child may begin to engage with others but be wary. Likely to reject caregiver on return and show anger. 

Infants respond differently, age is a factor of this. Distress is not strong in under 6 month olds and appears most frequently between 7 moths and 3 years (ties in with Bowlby). The mre closely they are kept on daily routine, less stress. 

Jane, Lucy, Thomas and Kate- All under 3 when placed in foster care for a few weeks with the robertsons while thier mothers gave birth. They kept high level of emotional care and similar routines. Fathers visted to keep up attachments. All seemed to adjust well though Tom couldnt be cuddled. Didnt reject mothers on reunion. 

John- Placed in a residential nursery for 9 days. Father visited regulalry. Behaved normally first 2 days. Tried to get attention but couldnt compete with others. Nurses busy, seeked comfort in teddy bear. Over next few days, refuse food and drink and stops playing. Nurses change shift regularly so no constant care. By second week sits quietly on fathers visits, sucks his thumb and hugs teddy bear for large portions of the day. On final day he rejects mother when she comes back for him. Continued to have anger outburts for many months afterwards. 

Validity - High, nauralistic observations so also high ecological validity. 

Generalisation - Only used a few children so may not be a representative sample.

Emotional Care - Raised imporantce of emotional care. 

Never forming an attachment.

Genie - Born in 1957 and when she was under 2 years old, family was told by a doctor she might have learning difficulties. Her unstable father isolated her in her room. Tied to a potty by day and tied to a sleping bag at night. She was beaten when she tried to communicate and her mother and brother werent allowed any contact. She was rescued at 13 when her mother ran away. She couldnt stand upright and had very little speech, she was fostered by a psychologist who was studying her. Showed progress, developed limited language and attachments. However, when funding ended she was returned to social services where she was put in foster homes. Genie regressed.

Czech Twins - Mother died shortly after they were born and hey spent a year in an institution. Father remarried and they were brought up by thier step-mother who was thought to have serious mental problems. They were locked in a dark closet and regularly beaten severly. Rescued at 7 but were both severly retarded, no speech and were very scared of adults. Recieved two years of physio, speech and psychotherapy. 2 sisters fostered them and by age 14 they were normal and both had successful relationships.

Extraneous Variables - Dont know if Genie was retarded from birth or not also Czech twins may have formed attachments to each other. Also suffered malnutrition or abuse so it`s difficult o assess the effects each of these had.

Retrospective - Looking back ad trying to piece together what happened so lacks accuracy.

Ethics - Because they are seriously affected, may not be able to give full consent.

Day Nurseries - Children are usually divided into smaller age based groups. Should be one staff to every four childrenaged2 - 3. Regulalry inspected and employ qualified staff.

Childminders - Maximum of 3 children in care. Must be registered and inspected though not all childminders had childcare qualifications. 

Andersson did some studies in Sweden that found these are good for social development. However, DiLalla found a negative correlation between amoutn of time children spent in care and the amount of prosocial behviour. These may contradict because they measured the quantity of care not the quality. Campbell carried out a longitudinal study which looked at social development and both quantity and quality in Sweden between ages of 18 months and 3 years.Compared daycare, childminders and children who had not made it into daycare. Observed in homes before they started daycare and observed after. Assessed at 2.5, 3.5, 6.5, 8.5 and 15 years old. Found long time spent in care under 3.5 years weere less socially competent. However, more days but shorter hours were more socially competent. Children who were socially skilled at 3.5 tended to still be so at 15 suggesting social skills were developed by then. 

Assessed - All were assessed before they took part to provide clear baseline of their social skills.

Range - Used a range of measurements to assess thier social competence including teacher,play worker and self reports.

Culture - Was developed in Sweden so may be hard to generalise.

Ethics - Parents gave fully informed consent.

Investigations have reported that children who have been in day care are more likely to have higher levels of agression. The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) has followed 3000 children in GB since they were 3 including nurseries, childminders and play groups. Sammons findgings indicated there is a slight risk of increased antiosocial behviour in xhildren who spent more than 20 hours a week in nurseries. The risk increased further when they spent more than 40 hours in care. Melhuish a researcher in EPPE also stated that increased agression was a problem in children whose carers were constantly changing. The NICHB did a study and foudn that children who were cared for outside the home were more likely to exhibit problem behaviour. A study of early child care who looked at children who were 4.5 and in kindergarten had data being recorded on social competence and problem behaviour icluding being agressive and challenging behaviour. Compared to one on one care by childminders they found the group care tended to have more adverse effects. The more time they spent in group care, the more agressive and disobediant they became when they were between 2 and 6.  Remained unchanged despite quality, maternal sensitivity and family factors were taken into account. 

Qualitative - Words, describing feelings, reactions e.g diary. Can be turned into quantitative data by placing in categories as descriptions then adding up how many descriptions there are in each category. 

Quantitative - Number, how much or how long there are of something.

Not the same as experiment type (lab, natural and field). 

Repeated Measures - Using the same subjects in each condition of an experiment. Strengths- Extraneous Variables are kept constant. Better statisical tests can be used because of less variation.Weaknesses-  Demand Characteristics as they may guess the aim of the study and act differently. Order effects such as learning and boredom may become constant errors. (Can use Counter Balancing which involves each condition being tested forst or second equally but does not get rid of it.)

Independant Measures - Using different subjects in each condition. Strengths- Order Effects do not influence second condition. Demand Characteristics are less of a problem as they are partake in one condition. Weaknesses- Independant Variation. Worse Statistical Tests can be used due to variation. More Subjects needed.

Matched Pairs - Using different but similar subjects in each condition. Strengths - Variables kept more constant. Order Effects do not occur. Demand Characteristics are less of a problem. Weaknesses - Never be a perfect match. Difficult. Time Consuming. More Subjects. 

Random - Only occurs when every member of a target population has an equal opppertunity to be selected. Strength- Provides the best of an unbiased representative sample. Weakness- Very Difficult.

Oppertunity - Selecting those that are available at the time. Strength- Quick and Easy. Weakness- Biased.

Selfl-Selecting - (Volunteer) Strength- Easy and Non Biased. Weakness- Biased to Subject.