Positive/negative effect of cog

• What are the 2 studies we are looking at for positive effect?

  1) Bavilier 2011 - 50 hr video games + decision making.

  
  

  2) Glass, Maddow + Love 2013 - 40 hr video games + cog flexibility.
• Bavilier 2012

  -> Positive (few errors and quick decision making - reliable).

  
  

  Aim - investigate connection between video games and decision making.

  
  

  Procedure - Studied 2 groups of people who said that they had not played a video game in the past year.

  1) told to play 2 action games in 2 hour slots for a total of 50 hours.

  2) told to play a simulation game for 50 hours.

  
  

  Then asked to look at computer screen which had a pattern of dots and to determine which way the dots are moving. Some easy to know some difficult.

  
  

  Findings - Those who played the action game did tasks faster with less mistakes due to system 1 thinking and being able to look at a large amount of information quicker.

  
  

  Conclusion - Regular video games can lead to more reliable, quicker thinking and decision making than those who don't play regular video games.

  
  

  Critical thinking:

  +

  Temporal validity - 2011, meaning we use the same technology than what is used in the study.

  
  

  Is a control group - measures cause and effect.

  
  

  -

  They were not tested beforehand therefore how do researchers know that their thinking and decision making was quicker than before?
• Glass, Love and Maddow 2013


  -> Positive - improvements in cog flexibility - reliable.

  
  

  Aim - investigate whether fast-paced video games improve strategic thinking.

  
  

  Procedure - 72 US female students, who regularly play video games for less than 2 hrs per week.

  
  

  - Wanted to measure cog flexibility, meaning if they are able to switch between cog tasks when solving problems.

  
  

  Told to play video games for 40 hours over 8 weeks - either a fast-paced game (StarCraft) or a simulation game (The Sims). After 8 weeks they re-measured cog flexibility.

  
  

  Findings - Those who played StarCraft (fast game) had an improvement of cog flexibility.

  
  

  Conclusion - Suggesting that regular video games lead to more reliable and quicker cog flexibility than those who play a simulation game.

  
  

  Critical thinking:

  +

  Temporal validity - 2013, same tech.

  Did tests cog flexibility before and after allowing for good comparison.

  
  

  -

  Sample - small and only used US females as well as students - YAVIS.
• What is digi tech?

  Electronic tools, systems and devices which store and process data. E.g., social media, online games and phones.
• Why is it important to understand digi tech on cognition?

  UK Office of Communications 2021 - Adults spend 4 hours a day on the internet. Young adults spend over 5 hours per day.

  
  

  Exposure to technology is changing cog processes and intake of information.
• What does it mean if digi tech has a positive/negative effect?

  Positive - strengthen memory, making memory reliable.

  
  

  Negative - unlikely to remember things, making memory unreliable.
• What are system 1 and system 2 and how do they link to digi tech?

  1 - automatic fast reactions, takes little energy and concentration due to being unconscious reactions.

  
  

  2 - slower and conscious reactions. need concentration and thought.

  
  

  When playing video games - we use both, system 1 for fast pasted games (e.g., shooting/action) and system 2 for slower games (e.g., sims).
• What is digi tech? What is the theory? What is a fact which supports digital tech?

  Electronic tools and systems which store data and information.

  
  

  Digi tech has been seen to influence cognition with the internet being popular since the 1990s. Especially social media making it easier to look at peoples lives.

  
  

  - The internet functions as a large collective memory store, meaning people don't have to store memory only storing how to access the memory. Too early to know all the impacts of cog process due to it being new.

  
  

  Collective memory = shared pool of memory, knowledge and information from social group. This consists of transactive memories.

  
  

  - This is positive as it frees up cognitive resources making more room for mental activities however the internet can be biased and makes people lazy.

  
  

  Fact = UK Office of Communications = average adult spends 20 hours online a week.
• what does reliability refer to when looking at cog process?

  The consistency of information over time. If they made it more reliable it would have a positive effect and vice versa.
• What are the 2 studies regarding the negative effect on cognition?


  1) Sparrow 2011 - google effect, SAVE, ERASE, SAVE REMEMBER, ERASE REMEMBER.

  
  

  2) Chou + Edge 2012 - Facebook + social comparison.
• Sparrow 2011

  Background: Articles made discussing if google is making us stupid - referring to the google effect (using the internet as a memory, 'digital amnesia').

  
  

  RM - Lab

  Aim - investigate is we make less effort to memorise information if we believe that we can find it on google (an external memory store).

  
  

  Procedure - asked to type 40 trivia facts into a computer, some reflecting new knowledge (e.g., an Ostridge's eye is the same size as their brain) and some reflecting old knowledge (e.g., space shuttle accident during feb 2003) already known to participants.

  
  

  4 conditions:

  1) SAVE - told that the computer would store everything to look back later.

  2) ERASE - told computer would delete everything.

  3) SAVE REMEMBER - told computer would store but they had to try and remember the information.

  4) ERASED REMEMBER - told computer would erase but that they had to try and remember.

  
  

  Findings - Being asked to remember the information makes no difference to recall the trivia facts. But there was a difference if the participants believed that the information would be stored in the computer.

  
  

  Conclusion - Those who believed that they could retrieve info from the computer made less effort to remember. Therefore you are less likely to use the cog process of memory if you believe that we can retrieve the info from external memory sources such as google. Suggesting that digi tech has a negative influence and makes memory unreliable.

  
  

  Critical thinking:

  +

  clearly manipulates iv and shows that there is a relationships between the IV and DV.

  
  

  -

  Ecological validity - we don't use trivia information a lot therefore is it the same as meaningful information?

  
  

  Research is new therefore is hard to conclude anything due to lack of evidence.
• What is social comparison theory? Key terms?


  -> We compare ourselves to others, and determine our own social worth based on those comparisons.

  - People are strongly motivated by statuses online where they feel as if they have to post happy things about her life known as the availability heuristic.

  
  

  Comparison can cause an upward comparison improving motivation and self-improvement, but can also cause a downward comparison causing lack of self-esteem causing negative cog bias.

  
  

  
  

  Usually associated to negative feelings such as a reduce in self-esteem.

  
  

  Chou + Edge - availability heuristic - remember posts of people having fun compared to our own posts.
• Chou and Edge 2012

  Aim - investigate the availability heuristic on FB when comparing to other people.

  
  

  Procedure - Opportunity sample of 425 US undergrad students. Survey including 10-point-likert-scale on whether they agree with statements.

  
  

  1) many of my friends have a better life than me.

  2) many of my friends are happier than me.

  
  

  - Also took note of how often they use FB and the average time they spent with friends per week, as well as the number of friends on FB who they didn't know personally.

  
  

  Results

  - Those who spent more hours on FB were likely to agree with 'other people are happier than me'.

  
  

  - Those who spent more time with friends were unlikely to feel that 'other people are happier than me' or that 'many of my friends have a better life than me'.

  
  

  - Those who had more friend on FB but didn't personally know them were more likely to agree that 'many of my friends have a better life than me' but did not feel that others were happier.

  
  

  Conclusion - More time spent on FB are more likely to compare their own lives. Also found that people overestimate behaviour of others (e.g., My friend is always going on holiday and having fun - when in reality she is just taking a gap year to travel a lot and is posting interesting things').

  
  

  Critical thinking:

  -

  Students = YAVIS - Young, affluent, v?, intelligent, sociable. Young people are also more online.

  
  

  Relies on self-reported surveys = biased or fake.

  
  

  Bidirectional ambiguity = does using FB reduce mental health or do those people already suffer from poor mental health and have FB by chance.
• What is the google effect + the study? What type of memory?

  - Sparrow 2011 - internet a big transactive memory store - only remember how to find info.

  
  

  'Is google making us stupid?'

  
  

  Digital amnesia - forget info which can easily be found online. Arguably good and bad.

  
  

  Transactive memory - massive amounts of memory stored by members of a group. Collaboration to remember info and remember how to access info.