Psychology - cognitive

• What was the aim of Study 1?

  To investigate the effect of questioning on eyewitness memory of a traffic accident.
• What were the key findings of Experiment 1 in Study 1?

  • 55 students watched car crash films.
  • They estimated car speeds using different verbs.
  • The verb "smashed" led to the highest speed estimates.
• What was the procedure in Experiment 2 of Study 1?

  • 156 students were asked about broken glass after watching a crash.
  • The word "smashed" led to false memories of broken glass.
• What conclusion can be drawn from Study 1?

  The wording of questions can alter witness memories of events.
• What was the aim of Study 2?

  To test context dependency effects on memory retrieval.
• What was the procedure in Study 2?

  • 39 participants took part in a laboratory experiment.
  • The IV was the matching or mismatching of study and test conditions (silent/noisy).
  • Participants read meaningful material and were tested on it.
• What were the results of Study 2 regarding noise during study and test conditions?

  The presence of noise or silence had no effect on performance.
• What conclusion can be drawn from Study 2?

  • Performance is better in matching conditions.
  • Students benefit from studying in quiet surroundings.
• What was the aim of Study 3?

  To investigate factors that affect attention in dichotic listening.
• What was the procedure in Study 3?

  • Included three experiments with both males and females.
  • Experiment 1 compared memory for shadowed messages and control words.
  • Experiment 2 tested if hearing one's name affected attention.
  • Experiment 3 involved listening for numbers in shadowed messages.
• What were the results of Study 3 regarding the shadowed message?

  Participants could not remember the content of the shadowed message.
• What conclusion can be drawn from Study 3?

  Directing attention away blocks verbal content, but one's name can sometimes break through.
• What was the aim of Study 5 by Simons and Chabris?

  To investigate the effect of several factors on inattentional blindness.
• What was the procedure in Study 5?

  • Laboratory experiment with 228 participants.
  • Used independent measures design and volunteer sampling.
  • Participants observed an unexpected event while focusing on a primary task.
• What were the results of Study 5 regarding the unexpected event?

  Approximately half of the participants failed to notice the unexpected event.
• What conclusion can be drawn from Study 5?

  A significant number of individuals fail to notice unexpected events when engaged in a primary task.
• What are the key assumptions of the cognitive area of psychology?

  1. Mental processes are key to understanding human behavior.
  2. The mind can be understood as an information processor.
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive area of psychology?

  Strengths:

  • Good scientific status.
  • Extends understanding of human psychology.

  
  

  Weaknesses:

  • Computer analogy breaks down.
  • Cognitive reductionism overlooks other important aspects.