psychology

capacity of sensory memory

very small amount of info can be held, it decays very quickly

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capacity of long term memory

unlimited, keep learning things till you die. no one has reached it's limit.

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what procedure do you use for finding capacity of stm? how is it done?

span measures. a list of numbers/letters placed in front of someone, taken away, then they have to recall correctly the items in the right order.

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what did jacobs find out?

jacobs used span measures on lots of people and found that the average person remembers 5-9 items. stm is very limited

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problems of using span measures

lacks mundane realism- people wouldnt be expected to recall random numers/letters in real life.

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what did miller find out?

that people could chunk things (in span measures) and remember more items. miller found that people remembered '7-/+2 chunks'.

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miller's catch phrase

miller's magic number 7

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how can you gain full informed consent?

psychologist tells the participant EVERY detail of what they are going to do.

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problem of giving full informed consent

it will change paticipants 'demand charcteristics'

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if you don't gain full informed consent how do you gain consent?

presumptive consent, prior general consent

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whats presumptive consent?

psychologist asks others if 'the participant would object to taking part'. the people they ask bmust be within the participants same target population. if the others say 'no' the psychologist asks others or and experiments on someone else

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negatives of presumptive consent

if asked the participant might not take part. you aremore likely to volunteer others to do more harmful things than you'd do yourself.

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positives of presumptive consent

no demand characteristics. peers should know if someone would be willing.

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what's prior general consent?

psychologist vaguely asks participant if they are willing to take part in research on ____ in the near future. and tells them they might be misled but fully debriefed after.

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postives of prior general consent

psychologist talks directly to participant, closer to bps guidelines, easier to do the presumptive consent.

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negatives of prior general consent

too vague and participant might not choose to do so if they knew exactly what it involved. might change demand characteristics.

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Brown Peterson technique

peterson and peterson wanted to fins out how long info stays in stm. gave participants trigram then they count backwards in 3s for certain amount of time after time over they recall trigram.

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results of brown peterson technique

80% of trigrams remembered after 3 seconds. 10% of trigrams remembered after 18 secs . STM has a limited duration.

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problems of brown peterson technique

1. lacks mundane realism 2. could be lost through displacement not decay (the time) 3. earlier trigrams confuse participant for present trigram 4. need to get informed consent and debrief

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Bahrick's investigation

392 participants had to match names and faces of ex peers in high school. after 34 years people could remember people really well. after 48 years they didnt aswell because either long time or old brain. bahrick shown that ltm is very long term memory

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reuctionist

theory only looks at part of the whole picture or explained too simply.

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investigator effects

psychologist effect on participant; mannerisms,age,gender,speech,presence,appearance

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mundane realism

how close to real life the investigation is

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ethics

bps guidelines

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Elizabeth loftus research...

found that false memories can be implanted (lost in the mall), people can be prosecuted for something they didnt do, used in positive way eg dieting.

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Types of Sampling

Random- eg name in a hat, Opportunity- people who are around, Volunteer- sign up sheets etc

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Designs (how much you tell people)

SINGLE BLIND DESIGN- participant kept in the dark, DOUBLE BLIND DESIGN- both participant and experimenter kept in the dark

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Designs (How participants are grouped)

Independant measures - you only sit one condition. Repeated Measures- You sit all conditions. Matched Participants- sit one condition but someone matches you in other

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Individual Differences

Everyone is different. One explanation may not account for everyone. Some people are better, quicker and more intelligent than others. Everyone has a different life.

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Eye Witness Testimony

Evidence given by witnesses to events using only their memoryL

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Leading Question

When an interviewer talking to an eye witness leads a person into giving a false testimony simply by the words that are used in the questions.

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Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmers Experiment 1...

5 conditions. Participants watched the same short film of car crash. Later participants were asked same question 'how fast the cars going when they ** into each other, they changed the verbs. people believed the car was slower with 'contacted' ...

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Problem with loftus and palmer's experiment 1...

lacked mundane realism- conducted in a lab, not setting you'd expect car crash. Investigator bias- give answers way they ask. individual differences- some people better at judging speed. Demand charac- smashed' people try and please and say faster

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counter argument for experiment 1 demand characteristics

loftus and palmer gave them a money incentive if they get the question right, people still said faster speeds with stronger verbs

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Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmers Experiment 2...

experiment 1 repeated with 3 conditions. a week after seeing clip they are asked did you see any broken glass? when words such as smashed were used it was more likely the participant believed there was broken glass.

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The Yekes Dodson Law

says performance (recall) is best in moderately arousing conditions

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Problems with Yekes Dodson Law

lab based situations have shown bad recall when the anxiety levels are moderate BUT real life studies show that people recall more in the times with high anxiety levels.

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Loftus and Burns experiment

participants shown a video of a boy shot in the face. questioned about what they saw. participants couldnt remember much.

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Loftus and Burns experiment- AO2

lacks mundane realism, anxiety levels would be significantly lower than a real life situation. UNETHICAL could psychologically harm the participant, did not gain full informed consent. Individual differences some remember more than others.

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Christianson and Hubinette experiment

carried out survey on people who witnessed bank robbery. some were bystanders others were threatened with gun. people who were gun- recalled more and were more accurate... does not support yekes dodson law.

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Christianson and Hubinette experiment- AO2

has mundane realism- actually happened to people- no demand characteristics. Individual differences people remember more. some people may recall more if crime was more recent. tested a lot of people- representative applicable sample.

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Weapon focus- Loftus

participants believe they are waiting for experiment.1 condition hears friendly conversation and man comes out with pen. 2nd condition hears an argument and a man that comes out with a bloody knife.people asked to recall mans face, knife cant/ pen do

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Weapon focus- Loftus AO2

0 demand characteristics, real life situation, no one was prepared, unethical people thought danger, individual differences, no full consent, in real life interview long time after, investigator effects from man

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Correlations are

2 sets of data from 1 person. you see if the 2 pieces of data connect (correlate). you test lots of people to compare but need two pieces of data for each individual.

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Scatter Graphs

way of finding a pattern in peoples correlations. must have title and label axis. each dot/cross stands for one person and do not join these up!

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Positive correlations...

Points seem to go up in a straight line from bottom left to top right. If the points are in a perfect straight line this is called a 'perfect positive correlation'

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Negative correlations...

points go in a line from top left to bottom right. if all points are in perfect straight line its called 'perfect negative correlation'.

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No correlation..

the points seem to form no obvious direction

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Correlation Coefficient

a statistical test to make the correlation more precise. it says how strong/ weak the correlation is. -1=perfect negative, -0.9 + -0.8=strong nc, -0.7 - -.4= moderate nc, -0.3 - -o.1 weak nc.. 0= no cor, 0.1 - 0.3= weak pc, 0.4- 0.7 =mod pc, .etc....

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Causation

which variable caused which? how was it caused? e.g. does illness cause stress or does stress cause illness?

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Evaluation of correlations

Quick and easy to collect data from same person, you can easily see if variables are related. negative is causation- which variable caused which?

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Dekle et al .. effects of age on ewt..

believed children are more likely to point someone out for a crime they didnt commit compared to adults. child doesnt have confidence to say criminal not there. children more likely to have memories distorted from things they hear/see after the event

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Flinn et al effect of age on ewt

asked children & adults about event day & 5 months after. both adults & kids remember well the day after but children were very poor at recalling 5 mths after. important as court cases long time after event. a child is not poor ew depends when asked.

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Davies , effect of age on ewt

children can & do make good ew when they are questioned properly dont get too distracted by research saying they are poor ew. dont assume childs lying tricked easily by leading questions.

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Yarmey effect of age on ewt

when asked qstns about staged event 80% of elderly failed to say attacker had a knife in their hand compared to 20 % younguns recalling this. lacks mundane rea not real life not same amount attention? elderly people could have had dementia.

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Poole and Lindsay effects of age on ewt.

kids shwn sciens experimen @ schl. parents read story about a sciens eperi.. @ home. When kids asked about schl experi kids memories altered by fake story. when asked to think abwt where info came frm older kids gave accurate info,younguns still mudl

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Poole and Lindsay effects of age on ewt. - problems

could have investigators effects from parents and teachers knowing what is happening. the psychologists presence could throw child off.

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Poole and Lindsay effects of age on ewt.- positives

has mundane realism, no demand characteristics, sticks to the bps guidelines

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Karpel et al effects of age on ewt

17-25 yr olds and 65-85 yr olds were shown a video of a robbery and were asked what they saw. info from younguns more accurate and were less likely to be tricked by leading questions

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Encoding

is a word to describe how info is coded once stored in brain; visual, acoustic and semantic (stories) are types of encoding. modality describes type of encoding used.

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sensory memory encoding?

varies depending on original modality (what sense did info come from?)

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Short term memory encoding?

mainly acoustic encoding

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long term memory encoding?

memories stored semantically. we attach existing memories to the new ones.

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what did police used to do in cognitive interview, what changed this?

they used to use leading questions, closed questions and would interrupt. home office changed the rules so cognitive interviews could produce good quality memories that are accurate as they can be

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cognitive interview; context reinstatement

mentally reinstate the context of target event. recall the scene, the weather, what you were thinking and feeling at the time, the preceding events etc.

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cognitive interview; report everything

report every detail you can even if it seems trivial

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cognitive interview; recall in reverse order

report the episode in several different temporal orders- moving backwards and forwards in time

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cognitive interview; recall from changed perspective

try to describe the episode as if it was from different viewpoints, not just own.

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Directional - hypotheses

predicts the direction of the results

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Non directional - hypotheses

doesn't state the directions of the results it just states that there'll be a connection

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Operationalised

this means to clearly define what you mean by the independent and dependent variables. making sure readers will know exactly what you mean and how you'll measure your IVs and DVs

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Sampling

needs to be representative of the target population i.e. the findings can be applied to everyone. representative means you need to get a large target population sample- represents the people of the target population

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Random Sampling

everyone in target population has equal chance of participating (eg names in a hat).. pros= good technique allows to have an unbiased sample.. cons=difficult to make sure everyone is included and if they want to take part

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Opportunity Sampling

most common method. ask anyone whos available. pros= practical and quick way of selecting participants.. cons=sample is unlikely to be representative of wider population (think of setting of psychology investigation)

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Volunteer sampling

when adverts are used to attract participants. pros=allows large sample (if advertised well) statistical tests can work well. cons= unlikely to represent the whole population-only people who would read the adverts can take part.

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how to reduce demand characteristics?

CHANGE METHODOLOGY-after doing pilot study ask people if they figured what experiment was about. use SINGLE BLIND technique- thing is you wont get full informed consent from this

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example of demand characteristics - yarmey et al

tested motion sickness , people where given questionnaire about experience before they did it felt more sick than those who recieved it after - they new what the psychologist was expecting

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Greenspoon effect

psychologists can change participants answers by body language (eg nodding and sounds of dis/encouragement

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pygmalion effect

people perform well because they are expected to by others. eg teachers overheard experimenters talking about an average student but experimenters said they would be really clever. year later they do amazing in school

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investigator effects - rosenthal

gave 2 conditions worms- one he told them that the worms were highly active and they recorded that they were. other group were told the worms were inactive they recorded less movement. there was no difference in worms.

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reduce investigators effects by...

using double blind technique and a computer programme

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Pilot studies

trial runs for experiment. test on a few people to perfect the experiment. benefit coz 1. see if participant figured out the experiment- you can eliminate demand characteristics. 2. check if the standardised instructions & debrief are clear enough

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Independent design

different people are used for each condition

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Independent design- positives

less chance people will work out what you're doing because they only sit one condition, reduces demand characteristics. no order effects

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Independent design- negatives

you need to find 2x as many participants to test on. hard to compare conditions because they are different people with individual differences- one condition could contain people who have wildly different personalities to eachother.

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Matched participants design

different people are used for different conditions but they are made as similar to the other group as possible.

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Matched participants- positives

only use one condition, no order effects. less of a problem of individual differences- 2 conditions as similar as possible makes them more comparable.

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Matched participants- negatives

it takes time and effort to match the conditions. individual differences- will they ever be matched?

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repeated measures design

the same people in both conditions

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repeated measures- positives

only need half as many people. no individual differences. it's easy to compare both conditions

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repeated measures- negatives

easier for people to figure out whats going on (demand characteristics). order effects may occur (perform worse in 2nd condition than first) . experience / memories from 1st condition may affect the second.

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Counterbalance

in repeated measures design- half participants sit 1st condition then 2nd . other half sit 2nd then 1st condition,

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Mindmaps

organise info that needs to be learned, 1 study of trainee doctors shown that students who can do mind maps remembered 10% more than those who dont.

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Mindmaps- evaluation

useful as student is actively involved and has to think whereas note taking is done with less attention and effort. connections allow student to understand topic as a whole. encourage you to select the main important points rather than trivial ones.

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visual mnemonic, method of loci

learn list of unrelated words, pair words with different locations well known to you that involve some order eg shoe was on table.

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visual mnemonic, method of loci- evaluation

useful for remembering lists- but lacks mundane realism you dont have to remember lists like that. not useful with complex material, if the words are connected, if you dont have an imagination and to remember lists from the past.

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features of an experiment

1. independent variable is manipulated by psychologist. 2. all other variables are eliminated/ controlled. 3. participants are allocated to different conditions randomly.

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QUASI experiment

does not have all three features of a true experiment

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TRUE experiment

has all three features of an experiment

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laboratory experiment

takes place in a controlled environment and allows the psychologist to test the effect of the independent variable on dependent.

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laboratory experiment- pros

replicate easily. control the conditions and the extraneous variables well. this amount of control allows us to see the effects of the IV on the DV.

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laboratory experiment-cons

lacks mundane realism-real life isnt controlled and labs are artificial. demand characteristics- people more likely to work out whats going on.

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field experiment

similar to lab experiment but set in a natural setting where the behaviour that the psychologist is interested in takes place. psychologist still controls IV to see effect on DV.

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field experiment- pros

more likely to act naturally in the environment- less demand characteristics and more mundane realism than lab.

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field experiment- cons

lots more extraneous variables. more difficult to do- costs more time and money. less control than a lab experiment.

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Natural experiment

psychologist has no control over the independent variable or the setting the experiment will take place. they look at situations where people grouped themselves naturally.

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Natural experiment- pros

has mundane realism- real life. no demand characteristics- dont know theyre in an experiment. costs time and money. can look at events they couldnt produce themselves

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Natural experiment- cons

quasi experiment. no control over the groups - people could have individual differences. lots of extraneous variables would be present. similar to naturalistic observation.

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