Cognitive Psychology

Introduction
- The term cognition refers to the mental structures and processes involved in the
reception, storage, and use of knowledge (Law, Halkiopoulos & Bryan Zaykov, 2010)
- All the processes by which the sensory input is a transformed, reduced, elaborated,
stored, recovered and used (Neisser, 1967)
- 1950s Behaviourism: Based on the premise that mental processes couldnt be studied
scientifically because they cant be observed directly. Developed as a reaction against
the subjective introspective reports used in the study of the mind in the 19 th Century
e.g. Watson (1913) founder of behaviourism
- Chomsky (1959) realized that behaviourism was too limited to successfully explain
the complex psychological phenomenon of learning.
- WWII: Psychologists realized behaviourism couldnt offer sufficient explanation for the
sorts of problems they were being asked to investigate
- Discovery of digital computor: Provided powerful ways for psychologists to describe
and analyze what the mind was doing
- Ebbinghaus (1885): Carried out one of the earliest laboratory experiments
investigating cognition

Two Principles that define the Cognitive LOA

Principle 1: Mental representations guide behaviour
- Cognitive Psychologists believe that mental processes and stored representations of
the world determine behaviour is central to human experience
- Useful to model mental processing using an information processing approach whereby
they investigate:
o How info is examined from the outside world is received and encoded
o How storage and representation of this information occurs by individuals
o The ways in which this information is manipulated and used by the individuals
o How we output information back into the world to be received by others
- Computer analogy: The human mind is similar to a computer that both can be seen
as information processors. The brain is seen as the hardware and the mind, thoughts
and mental representations/images as the software. Both people and computers can
store, retrieve, transform, produce new and return information.
- Top-down/bottom-up processing: Information processing comes via the bottom-up
processing, the sensory system. The information is processed in the mind by top-down
processing via pre-stored information (schemas) in the memory. When the information
is processed there is some output in the form of behaviour.
- Applications: Schema Theory; operate through top-down processing
Principle 2: Mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
- Cognitive Psychologists believe that the mind can be studied scientifically by
developing theories and by using a nos. of different scientific research methods
- Mental processes/representations can be studied scientifically even if they cannot be
observed in the same way as behaviour:
- Testable theories can be developed and come from unobservable cognitive
structures/processes
- Theories can be tested using an appropriate scientific experimental research method
 - Applications: Models (Atkinson & Shiffrin), Studies of Brain damaged patients (H.M &
Clive Wearing)

Outcome 1: Evaluate Schema theory with reference to research

studies

Schema Theory: How knowledge is stored and organized in our memory

- Schema: an actively organized packet of information about the world, events or
people stored in LTM.
- They act as frameworks through which to view the world and allow us to navigate a
complex world through pre-existing guides for action and thoughts.
- Humans are active processors of info and integrate new info with existing stored info
- What we already know will influence the outcome of information processing
- Schemas can affect our cognitive processes
- Our interactions with the world are rarely completely new and are determined to some
extent by relevant, previous knowledge organized in schemas
- Research: Jean Piaget 1926 (first to use concept of schema) & Bartlett 1932 (the
pioneer in this area, scientifically investigating the effects of schema on memory)

Bartlett (1932): provided support for the influence of cultural schemata on cognitive
processes
- Investigated how schemata influenced memory by using 2 techniques:
o Serial reproduction: one person reads the story and recalls it. The second person
reads and recalls the first persons memory of the story.
Laboratory experiment
IV- Position in sequence
DV- Detail of reproduced stories
o Repeated reproduction: Participants werent told the aim of the study and asked to
read the story twice. Then 15 mins later they reproduced the story outloud. They left
and returned to the laboratory 20hour later to reproduce the story again and many
times after.
Laboratory experiment
IV- Time intervals of recall
DV- Detail of reproduced stories
20 English male participants
- War of Ghosts: an unusual story for people from a Western Culture to understand
because it contained unfamiliar supernatural concepts and an odd, causal structure.
- Findings:
o Accounts tended to be distorted in a way that made them consistent with a Western
world-view
o Common found errors in the recall: Rationalization, omissions, changes of order,
substitutions and shortening
o Rationalization: The process of making the story conform to the cultural expectations of
the participants
- Evaluation:
o Methodology:
Laboratory study: limited ecological validity
Time intervals at which participants reproduced the stories not held constant
 Low ecological validity: unfamiliar story to English participants, not similar to real life
Rejected the artificiality of traditional stimulus (e.g. nonsense syllables, word lists) to
test memory. However, the use of a narrative American folk tale was about as similar
to normal prose as nonsense syllables are to words.
Some distortions observed may have been to conscious guessing rather than schema-
influenced memory
Not a highly controlled experiment
Did not explicitly ask his participants to be as accurate as possible in their recollection
of the story
Didnt use standardized instructions or confirmation of the control of the exact
environments
o Ethics:
Study largely adhered to APA guidelines (werent published at time)
Minor element of deception (participants didnt know they would have to reproduce
stories)
o Culture:
Low cross cultural validity: 20 English participants
Highlighted the role cultural schema can play in reconstructive memory
o Gender:
Participants were all male
- Gould & Stephen (1976): Found that the instructions stressing the need for accurate
recall eliminated almost the errors expected on the basis of Bartletts findings.
- Findings have been supported by several well-controlled studies (e.g. Eysenck &
Keane 2010)

Anderson & Pichert (1978): Further confirmed the influence of schemas on cognitive
processes
- Method:
o Participants were asked to either a home-buyer or burglar perspective
o They were then read a passage about two boys who were truanting (skyving) school
o After a delay participants were asked to recall as much as they could about the story
o First recall session: Participants recalled significantly more information about the house
that was relevant to their perspective than the other
o After recall they were then asked to shift to the alternative perspective, and recall the
story again
o Second recall session: Participants recalled more information that was important to
only the second perspective for their schema than they had done on the 1 st recall.
Participants were able to recall information that was relevant to their new perspective,
but which they had not recalled before.
- Results:
o The information that was irrelevant to their original perspective (schema) was actually
learnt (encoded)
o The information was not accessible (recalled) unless a relevant perspective (schema)
was activated
- Encode: To transform an item from one to another
- Recall: The process of retrieving information from memory
- Evaluation:
o Conducted in a laboratory: Ecological validity may be an issue
 o Strength: Strict control of variables, which allowed researchers to establish a cause-
and-effect relationship of how schemas affect memory processes. The lack of control
was a limitation of Bartletts experiment.
o Main problem of Schema theory: very difficult to define what a schema is
o Enough research to suggest schemas do affect memory processes by simplifying
reality and allows us to make sense of the world
o Schemata are useful concepts in helping us understand how we organize our
knowledge
o Cohen (1993): Points out that the whole idea of a schema is too vague to be useful
and argues that the schema theory provides no explanations of how schemas work

Pros
- The world becomes understandable
because we link new info to info we
already know
- Reduces cognitive load: we dont
have to process novel info all of the
time
- Reduces effort
- Shortcuts
- Allow us to store the central meaning
of new info without having to
remember the precise details unless
details were particularly unusual
- Save memory resources
Cons
- Might overlook minor details, because
of your previous expectations
- Info might be remembered incorrectly
based on expectations/schemas
- Doesnt explain how info that does not
quite fit our schemas may be ignored
or forgotten or distorted to make
better sense to us
- Doesnt explain why the
guesses/filling-in of memory by the
default values may be completely
inaccurate
- Doesnt explain how we can
experience inaccurate, stereotyped
and prejudiced remembering

Outcome 2: Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive

process with reference to research studies

Multistore model of memory (MSM): Attkinson & Shiffin (1968)

- Three types of memory stores
1. Sensory Stores
2. STM
3. LTM
o Organized in a linear fashion

Memory

Sensory Memory ( Attention) Short term ( Retrieval, Rehearsal) Long Term

- Control processes: Attention, retrieval & Rehearsal

- The types of memory differ in:
 1. Duration
2. Capacity
3. Coding

- Sensory store: To permit stimuli to be perceived, recognized and entered into short-
term memory
o Stores are modality specific: one sensory store for each of the senses

Sensory Memory

Iconic Echoic
(Vision) (Hearing, Auditory)

o Sperling (1960): Iconic memory has a large capacity and a duration of

250miliseconds
(Subjects fixated on a cross and the letters was hashed on the screen just long enough
to create a visual after image. High, medium and low tones signaled which row of
letters to report)
o Darwin, Turvey & Crowder (1972): Echoic memory lasts 2-4 sec, unlimited capacity
but information decays rapidly and is quickly lost
(Same study as Sperling but to test the capacity and duration of echoic memory)

- Short-term memory
o Extremely limited capacity
o Can store only seven discrete units of information at one time
o Duration: 7 seconds minute lost unless maintained by rehearsal
o Miller (1956): Magical number 7+/- 2 units
o Chunking: Grouping meaningful information together, can remember more than 7

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966):

o Participants were presented lists of 15 words and recalled them in any order
o IV: Immediate & delayed free recall
o Delaying recall by 30sec negates the regency effect causing recall of later words to be
similar to ones in the middle, however doesnt influence primacy effect
o Primacy effect occurs because words remembered from the beginning of the list have
already been stored in the LTM owing to greater rehearsal, while the words at the ends
of the list are still in the STM
o Distracter task reduces regency effects as it interferes with the transfer of the words
from the STM to LTM (preventing rehearsal)
o Offers evidence from two separate stores of memory
Strengths
- Provides evidence for two stores of
memory
- Adds support/agrees with Miller
(1956)
- Highly controlled variables
- Causal link is established between
memory stores and our ability to
remember
- Practical applications
- Catalyst for further investigation of
memory
Limitations
- Would be different with more/fewer
words used
- Would findings be different for
qualitively different items
- Collective emotional to particular
words access experiences
- Emotive vs. descriptive words
- No cross-cultural assessment of the
effect
- Artificiality of the experiment leads to
low ecological validity but perhaps
directly applicable to some school
requirement
- Limit generalisability

- Limitations of MSM
o Information can not be amenable to rehearsal e.g. smell
o Too simple to take into account factors such as the strategies people employ to
remember things (e.g. acronyms)
o Places emphasis on the amount rather than type of information
o Some things are easier to remember which the MSM cannot account for
o Rehearsal doesnt always lead for storage
o Criticized for focusing on the structure of the memory systems and not adequately
explaining the process involved
o People acquire new knowledge without conscious rehearsal
o Doesnt explain flashbulb memories

Working Memory Model (WMM): Baddley & Hitch (1974)

- Refers to the system for temporarily maintaining mental representation that are
relevant to the performance of a cognitive task in an active/attentive state

- Central Executive:
o Limited capacity
o Any cognitively demanding task (e.g. decision making)
 o Modality free
o Baddeley (1996): Capacity to coordinate performance on two separate tasks and
attend selectively to one input while inhibiting others
o Controls attention automatically (habit, responds to environment) and on a supervisory
attentional level (devises strategies to respond to environment in face of unexpected
events)
- Phonological loop:
o Holds the information in speech-based form
o Verbal rehearsal loop
o To hold words were preparing to speak aloud
o Baddeley, Thompson & Buchanan (1975): not limited by nos. of items it can hold
but the length of time taken to recite them. (Words longer to pronounce werent
recalled as often as shorter words)
- The Visuospatial Sketchpad:
o The rehearsal of visual and/or spatial information
o Logie (1995): suggests it is subdivided into the visual cache (stores info about visual
form and colour) and inner scribe (deals with spatial and movement information and is
involved in the planning and execution of body/limb movement)
- The episodic buffer:
o Limited capacity, 4 chunks/episodes, system which provides temporary storage of
information held in multimodal code
o Acts as a buffer between other parts of WM and is capable of combing info from slave
systems and LTM into a unitary episodic representation
o Baddeley (2008): Describes it as like a TV screen in which that hard work
(processing) goes on elsewhere but depends on the buffer for its display

Dual- task studies: provide evidence for WM model

- Robbinson et al. (1996): Considered the involvement of three different components
of WM in the selection of chess moves by weaker & stronger players
o Dual Tasks (i.e. Interference tasks): Participants are asked to carry out a demanding
cognitive task while at the same time performing a secondary task
o Cognitive demanding task: Select chess move from various positions
o Second cognitive task: Repetitive tapping (control), Random nos. generation (central
executive), Pressing keys on keyboard in clockwise fashion (visuospatial sketchpad),
rapid repetition of the word see-saw (phonological loop)
o Findings: Selecting a chess move involves the visual-spatial and the central executive
but not the phonological loop. Similar for stronger and weaker players.
o Provide evidence that STM has more than one unitary store

Strengths & Limitation of WM

Strengths
- Makes sense of a range of tasks
(verbal reasoning, reading, problem
solving, visual & spatial reasoning)
- Supported by considerable
experimental evidence: Dual task
studies
- Applies to real life tasks e.g. reading
Limitations
- Little direct evidence for how the
central executive models, the capacity
has never been measured
- Not a comprehensive model of
memory (doesnt include STM & LTM)
- Does not explain changes in
processing ability that occurs as the
 (phonological loop), problem solving
(central executive), navigation (visual
and spatial processing)
- Does not over emphasize the
importance of rehearsal for STM
retention
result of practice or time
- Lieberman: Criticizes the VSS as
blind people have excellent spatial
awareness although they never had
any visual information. The VSS could
be separated into two different
components; one for visual
information and one for spatial
information

Outcome 3: Explain how biological factors may affect

one cognitive process (e.g. Alzheimers disease, brain
damage, sleep deprivation)

Kandel (1990): Studied the Sea Snail Aplysia

- Short-Term storage for implicit memory involves functional changes in the strength of
pre-existing synaptic connections
- Long-Term storage for implicit memory involves synthesis of new protein and the
growth of new connections

High levels of cortisol & Memory

- Cortisol: stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands in response to
psysiological/psychological stress
- Long-term stress to high levels of cortisol which affects immune functioning and also
memory processes
- Chronic over-secretion of cortisol may hinder the brain in forming new memories of
accessing already existing

Lupien et al. (2002): Carried out in Britain, mixed genders

- Aim: To see if its possible to reverse memory problems with a drug that controls
cortisol secretion
- Group 1: Moderate level of cortisol at baseline
- Group 2: High level of cortisol (and signs of impaired memory) at baseline
- Procedure:
o 1st group: Both groups were given a drug preventing secretion of cortisol (mytrapone)
then they completed a memory test
o 2nd group: Both groups were given a drug (hydrocortisone) to restore their level of
cortisol to the previous levels
o Results were compared with levels in a placebo group
 - Results:
o Participants in Group 1 had no problem restoring normal memory function
o Participants in Group 2 had no memory improvement and hydrocortisone caused even
greater memory loss
o Cortisol at a high-level is detrimental and cant be repaired
- Evaluation:
o Methodology: laboratory study (low ecological validity, high internal validity), ruled out
placebo effect
o Ethics: consent given to drugs, vulnerable population group as they stressed
o Culture: Not a random samble, culture could change overtime, low-cross cultural
validity
o Gender: Mixed males & females

Alzheimers disease
- Auguste Deter in 20thC Germany had signs of dementia at 51
- Emil Kraepelin: Found the lumpy clumps outside of neurons and tangles inside the
cells
- Alzheimer & Kraepelin (1906): named the combination of memory loss and
neuronal scarring Alzheimers disease
- Clumps outside of neurons are known to be plaque of the protein beta-amylod
- Tau: tangles inside the cells made of a protein
- Plaques deposits on the outside of the neurons of the cerebral cortex
- Cerebral cortex: muscle control, sensory perception, memory, emotions, speech
- Tangles: Dead and dying nerve cells containing tangles, which are made up of twisted
strands of the protein tau
- The abundance of the protein in beta-amyloid in the brain is thought to produce
plaques, and the plaques to lead to tangles
- Plaques and tangles act as scars or lesions in the brain
- Its not well understood yet how and why it occurs

Welge (2009):
- Examined the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 156 individuals for the quantity of beta-
amyloid and tau
- Procedure:
o A needle inserted into the lower back to collect the CSF and then is analysed for the
quantity of beta-amyloid and tau proteins
o The less amyloid in the CSF the more likely of it is to be in the brain and the greater
chance of Alzheimers
o Having more tau in the CSF raises a persons risk
- Findings:
o Technique is sensitive enough to accurately predict atleast 80% of the time which
patients would progress to full-blown alzheimers within 1 or 2 years
o 94% cases, assessing the quantity of these proteins in the CSF enabled the
researchers to differentiate Alzheimers from other forms of dementia
- Methodology: Correlational study (no causal link can be drawn between the proteins
and disease but there can be drawn a relationship between the two), laboratory study
- Ethics: Anonymity, informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality > ethical
implications of participants wanting the right to know the results
 - Uncertainty remains of cause of Alzheimers disease e.g. Scientists are confounded by
the fact that 40% older people who are autopsied have plaques and tangles in their
brains but showed no sign of dementia when alive

- Some other unknown pathology might be the cause of Alzheimers and the plaques
might be either coincidental or a side effect

The case of H.M. (1950s)

- Medical temporal lobectomy: Medical portions of both his temporal lobes removed
in order to control his epilepsy
- Improved his health but left him with amnesia
- Incapable of forming new LT explicit memories
- Normal STM (can remember things for brief periods of time while he concentrates on
them)
- Normal implicit memory (can demonstrate retention of information by improved
performance through he has no conscious awareness of the information)
- Findings:
o One or more structures of the medial temporal lobes plays a role in converting STM
into LTM (process: memory consolidation)
o Memory deficit due to damage to the hippocampal formation
- Hippocampal formation composed of three cortical structures: the hippocampus,
dentate gyrus and subicular cortex.

Outcome 4: With reference to relevant research studies, to what

extent is one cognitive process reliable (e.g. reconstructive
memory)

Eyewitness testimony & Schema Theory:

- Bartlett: Much of the psychological research on EWT has been based on Bartletts
account of memory as a reconstructive process
- Loftus & Palmer (1974): The idea that eyewitnesses dont reproduce what they
witness but rather reconstruct their memories on the basis of relevant schematic
information has provided the basis of much of the pioneering work on EWT

Verbal Overshadowing in EWT: Schooler & Engstler Schooler (1990)

- Method:
o Participants watched a 30sec video of a bank robbery
o Participants performed a 20min distracter task (reading an unrelated text and
completing comprehension questions)
- Manipulation of variables:
o Verbalization: Subjects wrote detailed descriptions of suspects face in as much detail
(5min)
o Non-Verbalization (control): These subjects performed an unrelated activity (5min)
- Test:
o Participants saw 8 faces simultaneaously on one page: the robber & 7 faces that are
verbally similar
o Participants tried to select the face of the robber
- Evaluation:
 o A mayor question remains is the possibility that the verbal recording may have reduced
an emphasis on holistic characteristics
o Verbalization may give the recorded representation a featural emphasis that makes it
difficult to put the face back together again for the holistic recognition of the task
o Laboratory experiment: Low-ecological validity
o High reliability as easy to replicate and controlled extraneous variables to increase
internal validity
o Generalized to similar education and age group. Not a random sample of a cross-
section of society. Undergraduate students & 80 participants.

Macrae & Lewis (2002)

- Describing a face aloud may not be the only way to elicit the verbal overshadowing
affect
- May be possible to enhance face recognition by encouraging global processing
- 90 Participants assigned to one of the three conditions: local processing, global
processing and control
- Procedure:
o All participants were shown Schooler & Engstler- Schoolers (1990) Bank robbery
video
o Completed a 10 min task: Navon Letter Task (Local process group had to identify small
letter & global process group had to identify bigger letter)
- Results:
o Face recognition was impaired for the local processing group and enhanced for global
processing group
- Implications:
o Describing a face aloud may not be the only way to illicit the verbal-overshadowing
effect
o Should also be possible to enhance face recognition by encouraging global processing
- Findings:
o Local processing impairs face recognition not verbalization per se
o Remembering something is a complex interaction between perceptual and
representations and processing operations
o Shows initial findings of Schooler & Engstler Schoolers (1990) could be generalized
beyond verbalization

Studies on EWT: Loftus, Loftus & Messo (1987):

- Procedure:
o Showed participants one of two films:
o Condition 1: A customer in a restaurant was holding a cheque
o Condition 2: A customer in a restaurant was holding a gun
o All participants were later asked to identify the man from a selection of 50 photographs
- Findings:
o It was found that participants had a higher recall for the cheque condition
o Provide evidence for weapon effect
o Loftus et al (1987): Suggest the reason for their findings relates to attention. The
weapon drew more attention than the cheque and therefore less attention was paid to
the face
o Findings were supported by an analysis of participants eye movements
Alternative explanation: Role of emotion in EWT
- Deffenbacher et al. (2004): Meta-analysis on role of emotion in eyewitness
testimony
- Findings: Anxiety and stress reduces the reliable recall of crime detail including
information about the behaviour of the main characters
- Studies have also suggested that anxiety and stress seem to improve eyewitness
testimony. Deffenbacher et al. (2004) explains this by suggesting only anxiety up to a
certain level increases accuracy of recal
- Meta-analysis: Statistical summary of a collection of research on a topic, previously
carried out.

Evaluation of research on EWT:

- Evidence suggests EWT can be unreliable but not that its always unreliable
- Some studies show eyewitness memory can be reliable e.g. Riniolo et al (2003)
found eyewitness memory of the sinking of the Titanic generally accurate, Yuille &
Cutshall (1968) found 13 eyewitnesses of armed robbery in Canada reported very
similar memory of events to original reports 5 months later

Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

- Aims: To record & evaluate witness accounts, examine issues raised by laboratory
research, look at witness verbatim accounts (accuracy and errors made)
- Procedure:
o Participants: 21 witnesses to gun shooting were interviewed by police after incident,
13 agreed to research interview
o Interview:
1 st interview: Each witness described the event in own terms & then officer asked
questions to amplify what had been said. Verbatim report (word for word). Interviews
were recorded by hand.
2 nd Interview: 4/5 months later witnesses were interview by researchers & were
recorded on audiotape & transcribed. Same procedure as with police but there were
two misleading questions (one with a headlight in the thiefs car: said they had seen
the busted headlight when there was none, second was color of a quarter panel of the
car: was blue; were asked about the yellow and the other about a yellow). The
degree of stress was also asked (7-point scale), emotional state before the incident
and any problems after.
- Results:
o Researchers obtained more detail than police as they asked questions of no interest of
the police
o Police achieved more action details than object/person details
o Researchers obtained half action and half description details
o Variability in witness reports as they saw different amounts of incident: 7 central
witnesses (police report: 84.56% accurate), 6 peripheral witnesses (79.31% accurate)
o After 4-5 months: accuracy was similar and high, errors were relatively rare
o Misleading information had little effect on answers: 10 said there was no broken
headlight/no yellow quarter panel/not noticed detailed
- Conclusion:
o Unique event: Not easy to generalize from findings
 o Eye- witnesses are not incorrect on their accounts & most were extremely accurate
which could be as the incident was memorable and unusual
o Flashbulb memory: those directly involved remembered more. Laboratory studies
could not capture involvement which may explain difference in findings.
o Scoring procedures undermined the accuracy of accounts
o Stress didnt affect memory negatively: witnesses felt more adrenaline than stress,
stress came later. This area needs more research.
o Although some detail may be wrong, it doesnt make all details wrong and eyewitness
testimony shouldnt be rejected

- Evaluation:
Strengths
- Field Study: looks at a real incident &
real witnesses, High ecological
validity.
- Reliable findings: care was taken
when counting details from the real
incident to make sure witness
testimonies didnt alter what really
happened
Weaknesses
- Problems in generalizing from this
specific and unique incident.
- Could be a case of flashbulb memory:
generalizing findings to criticize
laboratory studies may be unfair
- Problems with scoring (some
inaccuracies noted even if response
made sense): scoring turns qualitative
data into quantitative data and theres
always a chance of interpretation and
bias

Elizabeth F. Loftus and John C Palmer (1974): To observe if questions asked subsequent
to an event can cause a reconstruction in ones memory of that event
Experiment 1
- Method & Procedure:
o 45 Students in various group sizes were shown 7 films (5 30sec) of car accident
o Completed a questionnaire to give an account of the accident of the accident and then
answered a series of questions
o Controlled group: How was were the cars going when they hit eachother?
o Experimental group: Asked the same questions with verbs smashed, collided,
bumped and contracted
o Independent Variable: Verbs
o Dependent Variable: Speed participants estimated
o Controlled order effect: random order of films showed
- Findings & Conclusion:
o Collisions took place at 20, 30 and 2 at 40mph the four films. Mean estimates were for
smashed (40.5), collided (39.3), Bumped (38.1), Hit (34.0) and contacted (31.8).
o People are not good at judging how fast a vehicle was actually travelling
o The form for a question can markedly and systematically affect a witness answer to a
question
o The actual speed controlled little variance, the phrasing of the question controlled
considerable variance
o The variance in the speed estimates were due to response-bias factors or the question
causes a change in the subjects memory representation of the accidents
- Evaluation:
 o Methodology: Laboratory experiment (easier to control variable, limited the ability to
apply to witnesses outside of a controlled environment, low ecological validity),
Controlled extraneous variables (increased internal validity)
o Ethics: Minimal deception, may traumatize participants (consent given)
o Culture: Restricted to students from America only with a certain education
o Gender: Chosen at random
Experiment 2:
- Method:
o 150 Students, various group signs and were shown a film (<1 min, accident 4 sec)
depicting a multiple car accident and then completed a questionnaire
o Controlled group (50): Not interrogated about vehicular speed
o Experimental groups (50): About how fast were the cars going when they smashed
into each other, About how fast were the cars going when they hit eachother
o A week later participants returned and were asked a serious of question about the
accident: Did you see any broken glass? Checking Yes/No, random position on list of
10 questions. There was no broken glass in the accident.
- Results:
o Response yes/no to conditions smashed (16Y, 34N), Hit (7Y,43N), Control (6Y, 44N)
o Smashed leads to more yes responses and higher speed estimates
o Spead estimated: Smashed (10.46 mph), Hit (8.00mph)
- Discussion:
o Information gathered during the perception of the original event and external
information supplied after the face can integrate in such a way that we are unable to
tell from which source some specific detail is recalled.
o The external information, smashed in the question, caused the participants memory of
the accident to be more severe. Therefore, participant is more likely to think there was
broken glass was present linking it to a severe accident.

GENERAL MEMORY STATEMENTS

- Memory isnt a passive container of information
- Memory is an active reconstructive process
- Our sensory systems are bombarded with far more info than they can handle, so we
are forced to simplify it by relying on prior knowledge
- Schemas help us comprehend, memorise, elaborate and organize info much more
powerful than repitition
- Schematic processing can also lead to error and distortion
- Cognitive psychologists divide memory processes into three main stages: encoding
(Sensory info meaningful info) Storage (maintain memory/rehearsal)
Retrieval (recover and use stored memory)
- Two important themes:
o Not like a camera: info already in the cognitive system adds to memories, encoding
memory
o Just because you cant remember something doesnt mean its not in memory: info
can be remembered with right cues, importance of retrieval