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Summary IB Psychology: ALL Study Summaries
KEY studies summarised for IB Psychology.
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COGNITIVESparrow et al
A: To assess whether the internet has become an external memory system and
whether we are reliant on transactive memory
M: Using an independent samples design, participants were asked to type some
newly learned trivia facts into a computer. Half of the participants were told the
information would be saved and they could access it later, and half were told that the
information would be erased—this saved/erased manipulation was the independent
variable. In each condition, half of the participants were explicitly asked to try and
remember the information they were typing.
R: The results indicated that participants who believed they could access the
information later did not recall it as well as the group that believed the information
would be erased. Furthermore, the explicit instruction to remember had no effect on
rates of recall.
C: Reliance on technology such as internet search engines may lead to "digital
amnesia" - the state of being overly dependent on external sources to store and
retrieve information: in other words, the "Google effect" may be having a negative
impact on memory.
Storm et al
A: Test if participants were more likely to rely on Google if they had done previously
M: 60 undergraduates randomly allocated to internet, memory or baseline condition.
All were asked to answer general knowledge questions, except the baseline who
were not asked any questions. In the second part, they had to answer general
knowledge questions as fast as possible but all participants had Google access.
R: Proportion of correct answers using google search: Internet (83%), memory
(63%), baseline (65%).
C: Using internet engines makes us more likely to do so again.
Murdoch
A: Investigate how word position affects memory
M: 16 participants Free recall of 20-40 words, each word presented for 1 sec. 90
secs recall time.
R: Remembered first and last words. Primacy and recency effect
C: Earliest words go to LTM and last ones stayed in STM.
Peterson and Peterson
A: Investigate the duration of short term memory
M: A lab experiment was conducted in which 24 participants (psychology students)
had to recall trigrams (meaningless three-consonant syllables, e.g. TGH). To prevent
rehearsal participants were asked to count backwards in threes or fours from a
specified random number until they saw a red light appear. Participants were asked
to recall trigrams after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds
,R:The longer the interval delay the less trigrams were recalled. Participants were
able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3 seconds delay. However, after 18 seconds
less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly.
C: Short-term memory has a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented. It is
thought that this information is lost from short-term memory from trace decay. The
results of the study also show the short-term memory is different from long-term
memory in terms of duration. Thus supporting the multi-store model of memory.
Landry and Bartling
A: To see if articulatory suppression influences recall of letters
M: Participants randomly allocated into two groups: the control group which didn't
perform articulatory task, saw list for 5 seconds and waited another 5 before
answering and the experimental group which task with articulatory suppression task
(repeating 1 and 2 at two words per second). Participants tested individually and
asked to recall a list of letters. 10 lists each consisting of a series of 7 random letters
that didn't sound alike, each series presented one at a time. Had answer sheet with 7
blanks in a row
R: Multitasking group did worse, 45% accuracy when recalling compared to 76% in
the control group.
C: Disruption results in a less accurate working memory as the phonological loop is
preoccupied so rehearsal cannot take place.
Baddeley and Hitch
A: Investigate if different parts of WMM can be used at once
M: Conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to perform two tasks
at the same time (dual task technique) - a digit span task which required them to
repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer
true or false to various questions (e.g., B is followed by A?).
R: As the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, participants took longer
to answer the reasoning questions, but not much longer - only fractions of a second.
And, they didn't make any more errors in the verbal reasoning tasks as the number
of digits increased.
C: Verbal reasoning used central executive and digit span used phonological loop,
worst performers recited random numbers.
Alder et al
A: Investigate the effect of cognitive disfluency on system 1 and 2 thinking
M: 40 Students did a Cognitive Reflections test with either hard or easy to read font.
Correct answers were measured
R: Harder font = more correct answers
C: Harder font caused system 2 thinking to be used
Lerner and Ma-Kellams
A: Investigate whether system 1 or 2 thinkers can empathise more
M: Volunteer Harvard students. Randomly paired and assigned to be either
interviewer or interviewee. Interviewers: given scripted set of 3 typical interview
questions (e.g. What is your greatest strength and weakness?). Pairs given 3
, minutes to complete the mock interview. All participants completed two Positive and
Negative Emotion Schedules, one assessing their own emotions and one assessing
their partners emotions. All ppts completed a three-item Cognitive Reflection Test
(CRT) with intuitively appealing but incorrect answers.
R: CRT scores predicted empathic accuracy, with higher System 2 thinking
associated with higher empathy accuracy. Participants who scored higher on the
CRT (i.e., those who engaged in more systematic thinking) exhibited greater
empathic accuracy during the mock interview (i.e., lower differences between their
assessment of their partners’ experiences and their partners’ self-assessments).
C: Systematic (System 2) thinking may be positively associated with empathy
accuracy.
Bartlett
A: To investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge
M: Bartlett told participants a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts.
The participants in the study were British; for them, the story was filled with unknown
names and concepts, and the manner in which the story was developed was also
foreign to them. Bartlett allocated the participants to one of two conditions: one group
was asked to use repeated reproduction, where participants heard the story and
were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again repeatedly over a
period of days, weeks, months or years. The second group was told to use serial
reproduction, in which they had to recall the story and repeat it to another person
R: It was found that participants in both conditions changed the story as they tried to
remember it - a process called distortion. Bartlett found that there were three
patterns of distortion that took place. Assimilation: The story became more
consistent with the participants’ own cultural expectations. Leveling: The story also
became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information which was
seen as not important. Sharpening: Participants also tended to change the order of
the story in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the culture of the
participants.
C: Remembering is not a passive but rather an active process, where information is
retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas.
Loftus and Palmer
A: Investigate how leading questions influence eyewitness testimony
M: 45 students participated in the experiment. They were divided into five groups of
nine students. Seven films of traffic accidents were shown and the length of the films
ranged from 5 to 30 seconds. When the participants had watched a film they were
asked to give an account of the accident they and seen and then they answered a
questionnaire with different questions on the accident with one question being the
critical question where they were asked to estimate the speed of the cars involved in
the accident. There was one critical question which was the one asking the
participant to estimate the speed of the cars involved in the accident. The
participants were asked to estimate the speed of the cars. They were asked the
same question but the critical question included different words.
R: The mean estimates of speed were highest in the ‘smashed’ condition (40.8 mph)
and lowest in the ‘contacted’ group (31.8 mph).
C: Leading questions lead to memory reconstruction.
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