MODELS OF MEMORY
Multi-Store Memory Model:
A model is the visual representation of a theory, designed to explain the
theory. Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store memory model (MSM) is a model
explaining their theory of memory. It explains how information flows through three
stores, each having different capacities and durations: sensory memory, short-term
memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).
Model – visual representation of a theory, its purpose is to explain the theory.
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Sensory memory: is, as its name suggests, based on the five senses of sight,
hearing, smell, taste and touch, which are briefly retained memories of stimuli
kept for just a fraction of a second. If we attend to this information (i.e. if we
‘notice’ it), then it is transferred to short-term memory.
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Short-term memory: lasts for about 30 seconds and is encoded phonetically
and structurally (by sound and appearance of the words or items); and its
duration can be increased by employing mnemonics (strategies to increase
the capacity), by using pictures, or alphabetically or
structurally organising the items in some way. Milner (1956) proposed the
strategy of ‘chunking’ to extend the capacity of memory. We do this when
we remember a phone number as a series of three or more chunks: 979 861
214, for example, rather than 979861214. If material is not processed (usually
through rehearsal), then it is lost when new information comes into the shortterm memory store and displaces it. That information which is rehearsed in
short-term memory is then transferred to long- term memory.
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Long-term memory: processes information semantically (by meaning) and
the capacity is not known; it is thought by many psychologists to be unlimited.
However, information in long-term memory can be hard to retrieve.
Psychologists who have written since Atkinson and Shiffrin have identified
separate types of long-term memory, which we will look at later.
MSM MODEL:
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This is the most ‘famous’ model of memory, and its concepts are quite
‘commonly’ in everyday life.
This model was created by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968.
Its goal is to explain how memory flows through three ‘stores’ and each
having different capacities and durations of time in which information
can/will remain there:
 Sensory memory
 Short-term memory (STM)
 Long-term memory (LTM)
Multi-store:
 There are 3 ‘stores’ which are theorized to exist in which memory functions.
 The difference between them is characterized by their capacity (to
hold information) and duration (in which information can be held)
SENSORY STORE:
It is believed that we have a different sensory register for every sense: (seconds
before it decays)
 Iconic memory (visual)
 Echoic memory (auditory)
 Gustatory (taste)
 Olfactory (smell)
 Tactile (touch)
 Attention is key to become short-term memory!
SHORT-TERM STORE:
 Can hold 7 chunks of information at a time and lasts around 15-30 secs.
 This store has limited capacity, encodes info acoustically and
must be rehearsed via repetition in order to remain in your memory.
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Milner (1956) proposed the strategy of ‘chunking’ to extend capacity
of memory.
LONG-TERM STORE:
 This store has a large capacity to hold information and can remain there for
minutes or indefinitely. Encoding is mostly semantic but can be visual or
acoustic. There are modern theories to suggest we have different types of
long-term memory.
 Primacy effect: tendency to recall words at the beginning of a list
when asked to remember it.
 Recency effect: the tendency to recall words at the end of a list when asked
to remember it.
MILNER HM:
 Anterograde amnesia – unable to make new memories.
 Hippocampus is needed to make long-term memories.
Treatment for his epilepsy had been unsuccessful, so at the age of 27 HM (and his
family) agreed to undergo a radical surgery that would remove a part of his brain
called the hippocampus.
AIM: To determine the extent of HM's memory deficiency.
METHOD: An observational research method in which data is gathered for the same
subjects repeatedly over a period of time; can extend over years or even
decades. Neurosurgeon, Dr. Scoville, performed an experimental surgery taking out
most of the hippocampus and tissue from the medial temporal lobes; HM was 27.
Milner used many different strategies (like triangulation):
- psychometric testing: IQ testing was given to HM
- direct observation of his behavior
- interviews with both HM and his family members
- cognitive testing: memory recall tests and learning tasks (reverse mirror drawing)
- MRI to determine extent of damage to the brain.
RESULTS: Concluded that the hippocampus wasn't the site of memory storage, but
the site where it turns short term to long term memories.
 He could remember something if he concentrated on it, but if he broke his
concentration it was lost.
 After the surgery the family moved houses. They stayed on the same street,
but a few blocks away. The family noticed that HM as incapable of
remembering the new address, but could remember the old one perfectly
well. He could also not find his way home alone.
 He could not find objects around the house, even if they never changed
locations and he had used them recently. His mother had to always show him
where the lawnmower was in the garage.
 He once ate lunch in front of Milner but 30 minutes later was unable to say
what he had eaten, or remember even eating any lunch at all.
 When interviewed almost two years after the surgery in 1955, HM gave the
date as 1953 and said his age was 27. He talked constantly about events from
his childhood and could not remember details of his surgery.
HM could not acquire new episodic knowledge (memory of events) and he could
not acquire new semantic knowledge (general knowledge about the world). this
suggests that the brain structures that were removed from his brain are important for
long-term explicit memory. HM had a capacity for working memory since he was
able to carry out a normal conversation. Memories in the form of motor skills
(procedural memory) were well maintained.
CONCLUSION: After an MRI scan of HM's brain was performed in 1992 and 2003 by
Corkin, the extensive damage to the temporal lobe (including the hippocampus)
explains the problem of transferring short-term memory to long-term memory as this
is the area where the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is believed to play an important
role in learning and the formation of explicit memories.
LINK BACK: he had short term memory but he had problems in the transferring of
memory from short-term to long-term due to not having a hippocampus. He could
retrieve some memories and information from his past. This is just one example of
biological evidence that STM and LTM are located in different stores in the brain. In
Milner's study, HM had anterograde amnesia - that is, he could not transfer new
information to long-term memory; however, he still had access to many of his
memories prior to his surgery. However, the fact that he could create new
procedural memories shows that memory may be more complex than the MSM
predicts.
WORKING MEMORY MODEL:
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Expands on the MSM and the over-simplistic representation of the MSM and the short
term memory store
Here, the STM is not a static store, rather that it is a complex information processor–
‘a multi-component, flexible system of STM’ called the Working Memory
Working memory: is a system for temporarily storing/holding and managing the
information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning,
reasoning, and comprehension.
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Components:
Central executive – controls attention and the slave system.
Visuo-spatial scratchpad – 'the inner eye' storage for spatial & visual information.
Inner scribe and cache.
Phonological loop – 'the inner voice'
 Phonological store
 Articulatory control system - 'the inner voice'
Episodic buffer: temporary storage system that integrates information from the LTM
Episodic buffer was added to model in 2000:
The episodic buffer is responsible for:
Linking/binding together information from all other elements of working memory
(Phonological loop and VSS) with information relating to time and order.
So that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story from a book or movie.
Buffer- temporarily hold information
So…. ‘episodic’ in the sense that it is capable of holding episodes (integrated
chunks of information)
KF SHALLICE AND WARRINGTON (1974):
AIM: To investigate the relationship between STM and LTM when STM is impaired
PROCEDURE: Shallice and Warrington (1974) studied KF, a man (28 years old) whose
brain had been injured in a motorcycle accident. He fractured his parieto-occipital
lobe which also led to epilepsy
K.F. was asked to repeat numbers, letters, and word strings aloud through various
experiments (in depth study on one person = case study).
RESULTS: KF’s LTM functioned normally, but his STM was severely impaired. Instead of
around 7 items, KF was only able to recall 1 or 2 items from a list.
 KF forgot letters and digits much faster when he received them auditorily than
visually.
 The uneven pattern of deficits suggests that KF had more than one STM store,
which is consistent with the WM model.
CONCLUSION: KF's impairment was mainly for verbal information - his memory for
visual information was largely unaffected. This shows that there are separate STM
components for visual information (VSS) and verbal information
(phonological loop).
LINK BACK: K.F.’s STM was severely impaired in that its capacity was greatly reduced;
later experiments showed that his LTM was intact. The difference between auditory
and visual memory capacity suggests two separate stores for these modalities (see
working memory model below); and the fact that K.F. had an intact LTM and an
impaired STM contradicts the MSM theory that material in LTM has first been
processed in the STM. However, it does support Atkinson and Shiffrin’s contention
that there are separate memory stores for STM and LTM.
SCHEMA THEORY
Schemas – claim that our mind has mental frameworks that help organize
information. Provides an organising framework that helps make sense of
information. They are based on information provided by our life
experiences/beliefs. These schemas help us to save our cognitive energy when
processing the millions of pieces of information we encounter every day.
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Memories are reconstructed each time they are recalled
Schema alters content so that it is consistent with previous
experiences/beliefs
We fill in gaps using schema
Barlett – Rorschach test:
 Bartlett conducted research using the Rorschach test
 He asked participants to look at the images and then asked them to recall
the figures by draw them
 He found that participants would assign labels and names for each shape
and object they saw
 This label often shaped the representation of the object drawn afterwards
 He concluded that perception of the shape determined how it was
remembered
Bartlett (1932): The British psychologist Frederic Bartlett was teaching at Cambridge
University during the First World War, at a time when memory had only just started to
be considered a psychological rather than a philosophical subject. Herman
Ebbinghaus dominated the field at that time. He had spent days at a time learning
lists of nonsense words, testing himself to see precisely how many he could
remember. But Bartlett developed a different approach to the study of memory. He
discovered that when he asked people to repeat an unfamiliar story they had read,
they changed it to fit their existing knowledge, and that it was this revised story they
then remembered.
Bartlett was the first psychologist to use the term ‘schema’ to describe this
phenomenon of the reconstruction of memory. He viewed it as the organisation of
previous reactions and experiences in order to understand and predict present and
future experiences. While the original schemas arise from the senses biologically,
they are soon used cognitively - not only to accommodate new experiences, but
also to shape reactions to them. In his classic ‘War of the Ghosts’ study (see below),
he shows how his British participants adapt what they hear to their British schemas
that they have constructed through experience, distorting the story in the process.
Schemas:
Bartlett (1932): “the organisation of previous reactions and experiences in order
to understand and predict present and future experiences. While the original
schemas arise from the senses biologically, they are soon used cognitively - not only
to accommodate new experiences, but also to shape reactions to them”
Piaget (1952): “cohesive, repeatable action sequences possessing component
actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning”
Assimilation is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or event – once a
child understands that a dog is hairy or furry with 4 legs, then all dogs are understood
to belong to the schema.
Accommodation is changing an existing schema or developing a new schema
when it cannot adequately explain a new object or event: on seeing a cat for the
first time this child may think it is a dog, until she is told that dogs do not meow, they
bark and look a little different; that this is a cat. The child then needs to modify the
dog schema to include barking, as well as develop a cat schema for four-legged
furry animals which meow.
BARTLETT (1932):
AIM: To investigate the effect of a culturally-specific schema on a culturally
unfamiliar story.
METHOD: Participants were students at the University of Cambridge, and the original
study was carried out as part of a series of studies into the reproduction of folktales
that was published in 1920. Some of the methodological details are taken from this
publication.
1. Individual recall and reproduction of the story. Participants read the ‘War of the
Ghosts’ Native American folk tale over twice to themselves at their own normal
reading pace, and looked at any accompanying pictures for a period of four
minutes. (It is not clear from Bartlett’s account whether this particular story had
accompanying pictures or not). First recalls and reproductions were begun 15
minutes after the original study of the material. In cases where a participant gave
repeated reproductions, no reference to the original or to their own earlier
reproductions was allowed.
2. Serial reproduction. One participant read the tale, and after a set period of time
reproduced it in writing. This reproduction is then read to a second person, who
reproduces it after a set period of time and then reads it to a third person, and so
on. This is like the children’s game of ‘Chinese Whispers’.
RESULTS: In both types of reproduction, the story was subject to three processes of
reconstruction:
 Omission of the irrelevant, unfamiliar and unpleasant:
 Material that seemed irrelevant to the story was quickly left out of it.
Ghosts are meant to occupy a central position in ‘The War of the
Ghosts’, but this was not apparent to the British readers who dropped
this reference to ghosts almost immediately. Only that which seemed
to be rationally connected to a coherent story was retained.
 Unfamiliar terms were also lost, though sometimes, if they were in the
context of something more familiar, they were transformed.
 Unpleasant material was omitted. ‘His face became contorted’ was
often left out of the accounts.
 Transformation of the material:
 Familiarisation of unfamiliar material: ‘canoes’ became ‘boats’ and
‘paddling’ became ‘rowing’
 Rationalisation of the material. Once the mention of ghosts had been
omitted then explaining the painless wound and the strange death
becomes problematic. The participants managed this by stating that
the wound was from an arrow and his spirit left his body when he died.
Words such as ‘therefore’, ‘for’ and ‘because’ are inserted to make
the story coherent.
 Transposition of details from one part of the story to another
 Reversal of the parts played by different persons: in the story, firstly one
of the warriors says they must go home because the Indian has been
hit. In later reproductions he himself begs to be taken home. First he
declares his own conviction that he will live, but later this is changed to
a warrior telling him that he will live.
 Movements of objects: the arrows in the canoe become transposed to
the Indian being hit by an arrow. The use of the verbs ‘hit’ and ‘shot’ in
the original probably contributed to this.
The changes in the serial reproduction were greater than those in the individual
recall and reproduction, but the processes of reconstruction remained the same. He
called this process ‘conventionalisation’ (1920, p. 31).
CONCLUSION: Bartlett concluded from his research that memory was an active
reconstruction based on previous cultural schemas that were constructed from
culturally specific experience, in this case of what a story was. It was not, as thinking
current at the time believed, the accurate retrieval of static memory traces. As he
wrote: ‘Remembering is not the re-excitation of innumerable fixed, lifeless and
fragmentary traces..., [but] ...an imaginative reconstruction or construction, built out
of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organised past
reactions or experience’ (1932, p. 213).
LINK BACK: This links back to the schema theory because every time the participants
were asked to recall the story they would use their schema to fill in gaps of words
that were unfamiliar or unknown to them, therefore changing the story to make sure
it was consistent with their own experiences and beliefs. Because the story is a bit
complicated. so they reconstructed the memory of the story in their brain and also
altering content with their own experiences and beliefs such as changing the word
of canoes.
THINKING AND DECISION-MAKING
“Thinking involves using information and doing something with it, for example,
deciding something. Thinking is based on factors such as concepts, processes, and
goals. Modern research into thinking and decision-making often refers to rational
(controlled) and intuitive thinking (automatic).”
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Describe the Dual systems theory (Kahneman)
System 1 and System 2
Thinking and decision-making are closely related: we do not make a decision
without thinking about it, even if only for a split second. There are two theoretical
areas of thinking and decision-making: normative and descriptive theory. Normative
theory is concerned with how people should make decisions in a condition of
uncertainty: it is concerned with identifying the rational choice. Descriptive theory of
thinking and decision-making is concerned with describing what people do, and
explaining this with reference to the predictions made by normative theory.
Normative theory has been used extensively in philosophy
and behavioural economics to explain rational decision-making. Examples used to
explain thinking are formal logic, probability and utility theory. Descriptive theories
are used in behavioural economics and psychology to explain how people actually
behave. The two theories we will be discussing are both descriptive theories that
attempt to explain how people engage in thinking and decision-making:
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Dual-Systems theory (Systems 1 and 2 thinking)
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Theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour
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DUAL-SYSTEMS THEORY:
The dual-process reflects the existence of two separate but interacting systems of
thinking and decision-making: System 1, which is automatic, holistic and intuitive
thinking based on heuristics and System 2, which is analytical, logical and slower
thinking.
System 1 operates automatically and cannot be turned off at will, mistakes of
intuitive thought are difficult to prevent. For example, we cannot stop ourselves from
seeing an optical illusion, even when we know that it is such an illusion. The same is
true of cognitive illusions, such as the different cognitive biases brought about
through heuristics, which we will look at in the next section. System 2 operations are
effortful, and require conscious thought: Kahneman refers to it as the ‘working mind’.
It is the system that follows rules, compares objects on several attributes, and makes
deliberate choices between options.
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System 2 has low processing capacity and this requires high effort and the exclusion
of attention to other matters. This is not to say that all System 1 thinking is inaccurate,
or is all based on heuristics that automatically result in bias. Kahneman points out
that not all intuitive judgements are produced by heuristics; the accurate intuition of
experts is better explained by the automaticity that comes with prolonged practice.
(Driving a car along a familiar, empty road is one example of this.)
ATLER & OPPENHEIMER, 2007:
AIM: Investigate how font affects thinking.
METHOD: 40 Princeton students completed the Cognitive Reflections Test (CRT). This
test is made up of 3 questions, and measures whether people use fast thinking to
answer the question (and get it wrong) or use slow thinking (and get it right). Half the
students were given the CRT in an easy-to-read font, while the other half were given
the CRT in a difficult-to-read font.
RESULTS: Among students given the CRT in easy font, only 10% of participants
answered all three questions correctly, while among the students given the CRT in
difficult font, 65% of participants were fully correct.
CONCLUSION: When a question is written in a difficult-to-read font, this causes
participants to slow down, and engage in more deliberate, effortful System 2
thinking, resulting in answering the question correctly. On the other hand, when the
question is written in an easy-to-read font, participants use quick, unconscious and
automatic System 1 thinking to come up with the obvious (but incorrect) answer
LINK BACK: participants who had easy to read font made the decision to give the
wrong answer because they used system 1 as it's faster and it operates
automatically, it was a rushed decision. However in the hard to read font, the
participants took more time to read and understand the writing so it was a higher
effort and attention. They used system 2 to make their decision. They made the
decision slower but it was still correct in the majority.
EXTRA TERMS: (can be different questions)
Intuitive thinking – fast and automatic – system 1
Rational thinking – slow and controlled – system 2
RESEARCH AND ETHICS
RESEARCH METHODS:
Case study:
 Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or
community.
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Typically data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several
different methods (e.g. observations & interviews).
Research may also continue for an extended period of time so processes and
developments can be studied as they happen.
The case study method often involves simply observing what happens to, or
reconstructing ‘the case history’ of a single participant or group of
individuals.
Case studies allow a researcher to investigate a topic in far more detail than
might be possible if they were trying to deal with a large number of research
participants (nomothetic approach) with the aim of ‘averaging’.
Key words:
 In depth investigation
 Individual or small group of people
 Triangulation
 Qualitative data (mostly) but can be quantitative
 Longitudinal (extended period)
HM:
In Milner HM a case study was used because it's an in depth investigation of a single
person to better understand his memory and data was gathered through variety of
methods such as psychometric testing: IQ testing was given to HM, direct
observation of his behavior, interviews with both HM and his family
members, cognitive testing: memory recall tests and learning tasks (reverse mirror
drawing) and MRI to determine extent of damage to the brain. This showed
triangulation. Most of the data gathered was qualitative however some could be
quantitative for psychometric testing. It was a longitudinal study where data was
gathered on HM repeatedly over an extended period of time.
ETHICS:
Informed consent:
 The purpose of the research, expected duration, and procedures
 Their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research
 The foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing
 Any potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects
 Any prospective research benefits
 Limits of confidentiality
 Incentives for participation
 Whom to contact for questions about the research and research participants'
rights
HM:
HM gave consent before any of his memory was gone, so he wouldn't have
remembered that he signed consent and any of the procedures going on. HM did
not have the right to withdraw and wouldn't remember. Corkin the neuroscientist did
the experiments like MRI while Milner did observations. Someone else gave the
consent for HM because he couldn't give it himself. However they did keep his
confidentiality.
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Vulnerable – cognitive impairments
Corkin (neuroscientist) and MIT had permitted Molaison to sign his own
consent forms beginning in 1980.
1992 Molaison had a court-appointed conservator, after his parents were
incapacitated. This person made decisions about consent.
Who also donated his brain to science after his death.
RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY
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Memory is not an exact copy of the experience.
Reconstructive memory is a theory of elaborate memory recall, in which the
act of remembering is influenced by various other cognitive processes.
E.g. A schema that helps organize and interpret information.
Memories are reconstructed each time they are recalled (from storage).
Schema alters content so that it is consistent with previous
experiences/beliefs.
We fill in gaps using schema.
When we encode and retrieve episodic memories, we are influenced by
our perceptions, past knowledge and personal beliefs.
Although we may feel as if we retrieve memories intact from our LTM, there is
a lot of evidence that memory is an active process of reconstruction. As
Bartlett (1932) showed, cultural schemas allow us to reconstruct remembered
stories and events out of our own past experiences. What is more, although
we may have shared those experiences with friends and family, it only takes
the action of asking two siblings to remember the same event from their
childhood to make us realise that we reconstruct them differently from each
other. Each of us has a unique experience of an event and a personal way of
recollecting it through our own schemas.
This reconstructive nature of memory is important for our day-to-day living, but
it is even more important when it comes to questions of eyewitness testimony.
The California Innocence Project was formed in 1999, and was the first of
Innocence Projects worldwide. One of the main issues on which their lawyers
focus is that of eyewitness misidentification of suspects.
In the last fifty years, many studies have been conducted into eyewitness
testimony and the three factors that are most likely to affect it: high emotion,
including weapon focus; the desire to ‘fill in the gaps’ in a relevant way, and
post-event information that can distort memory.
Post-event information:
The classic Loftus and Palmer (1974) study into eyewitness testimony illustrates the
reconstructive nature of memory. At the end of their journal article, Loftus and
Palmer state: ‘(I)t is natural to conclude that the label, smash, causes a shift in the
memory representation of the accident in the direction of being more similar to a
representation suggested by the verbal label’ (p.588). This is very similar to schema
theory, and it could be argued that ‘smashed’ suggests a ‘serious accident’
schema that then triggers the higher estimate of speed, and the suggestion of
broken glass at the scene. However, it is worth noting that Loftus and Palmer’s study
itself is not an investigation of schema theory.
LOFTUS & PALMER:
AIM: To investigate how information provided after an event had occurred
influenced the memory of a witness for that event. In this case, the information given
was a change in wording of a critical question.
METHOD: Two laboratory experiments were used for two segments of the study, each
adopting an independent measures design. The researchers used an opportunity
sample of 45 college students from the University of Washington for the first
experiment and 150 participants for the second.
Experiment 1: Participants were shown seven 5-30 seconds film clips of traffic
accidents. The clips were excerpts from safety films made for driver education. After
each film they filled a questionnaire about what they had seen. They were also
asked some questions about the accident. The critical question (IV) here was,
‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ (Bold italics added,
not in original.) Different conditions were used, where the verb was changed to
‘smashed’, ‘collided’, bumped’, ‘hit’ and ‘contacted’. Participants had to estimate
the speed in miles per hour.
The films were shown in different orders in each condition. This experiment was
conducted over one and half hours.
Experiment 2: 150 participants were divided into three groups. All participants
watched a one-minute film on a multiple-car accident. They then answered some
questions about the film. The critical question was, ‘How fast were the cars going
when they hit each other?’ (bold italics added, not in original). The verb was
changed to ‘smashed’ in the comparison group. The control group was not asked to
estimate the speed.
The participants were asked to return a week later. They were not shown the film
again but asked several questions about the accident in the film. The critical
question was, ‘Did you see any broken glass?’ They had to answer in terms of ‘yes’ or
‘no’. The question was placed in a random position on each question paper. The
video did not have any broken glass.
RESULTS:
Experiment 1 – When the critical question had the word ‘smashed’ or ‘collided’,
speed estimates were higher than for the other words used. For ‘smashed’ it was 40.8
mph, for ‘collided’ 39.3mph, while for ‘contacted’ the estimate was 31.8 mph.
Experiment 2 – The word ‘smashed’, which implies a more forceful impact, drew
more than twice as many ‘yes’ responses as when the word ‘hit’ was used and as
compared with the control group.
CONCLUSION:
Experiment 1 -The speed estimate was moderated by the verb used to describe the
intensity of the crash. The greater the intensity conveyed by the word, the higher the
speed estimate to match it.
The researchers also suggested that the estimate could be the result of demand
characteristics. Since the participants were unsure of the speed, they offered a
figure that they thought would be most suited for the purpose of the study. Again,
the choice of verb acted as cue to make the participant guess what range of
speed the researcher might be looking for.
Experiment 2 - The estimates of the presence of glass increased with the intensity of
the verb used to describe the crash.
General Conclusion: Leading questions can alter the memory of events and lead to
distortions. One initial change in wording can have prolonged effects on memory.
Loftus and Palmer offered the reconstructive hypothesis to explain the
phenomenon: a person obtains two kinds of information about an event – the first is
the information obtained from perceiving the event itself; the second is the
information supplied or acquired after the event. If there is some difference
between the two sources, integration of post-event information can lead to memory
distortions. The experiments demonstrate how external cues, such as leading
questions or a suggested line of thinking, made available after an event can affect
our subsequent memory of that event.
LINK BACK: the memory of the participants were reconstructed with the use of
different words to describe the crash. Because we associate 'smashed' with fast and
'contacted' with slow/gentle, we fill the gaps in our memory by schema with the
knowledge we have from the use of words. Therefore information is reconstructed
when memory is recalled from their storage of the crash as we are influenced by
our perceptions, past knowledge and personal beliefs. It was post-event information
so that might have influenced their recalling as it was after the crash and distorted
the memory.
CONFIRMATION BIAS
Wason:
 Wason was surprised that more than half of his subjects were unable to figure
out the simple rule.
 He believed these people failed because they only tested examples of the
numbers that conformed to their original hypothesis.
 The correct answer was any ascending numbers (e.g. not just going up in
twos)
 Wason coined the term “confirmation bias” and continued to study this
cognitive error throughout his career.
Confirmation bias: is a cognitive bias in which a person finds information that
supports what they believe, or interprets available evidence as supporting what they
already feel to be true.
 Most people seek data that are compatible with their beliefs rather than
trying to refute the beliefs that they hold.
 We all have the tendency to seek out information corresponding to our
beliefs, perhaps by reading certain newspapers, having friends with the same
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beliefs as us or paying attention only to that which supports what we always
‘knew’.
Contrary to what we are taught about trying to refute hypotheses, most
people seek data that are likely to be compatible with the beliefs they
currently hold.
Wason (1960) demonstrated the confirmation bias in a simple test with British
university students: he gave them the 3 ascending numbers 4-6-8 and asked them to
guess the rule he had used to devise the series. (It was simply ‘any 3 ascending
numbers’.) Before submitting their answers, students had to generate their own sets
of 3 numbers, and ask if they conformed to the rule. Of course, they did, as any
three numbers that were neither identical nor descending conformed, but this
prevented them from isolating the rule. They were seeking evidence that confirmed
what they thought, not evidence that refuted the rule, so it could be more easily
identified. To the extent that the strategy of looking only for positive cases is
motivated by a wish to find confirmatory evidence, it is misguided. An attempt to
refute the hypothesis would have given more clues to its true identity. (This has
similarities to Wason’s ‘card test’ described earlier in this chapter, where participants
consistently used heuristics to choose cards that confirmed the hypothesis rather
than looking for refutation.)
Hernandez & Preston (2013) found an unusual way to reduce confirmation bias, by
making it harder to only focus on and read evidence that supports your own beliefs
and expectations. They examined whether processing difficulty could potentially
lead to less biased verdicts in a mock trial.
HERNANDEZ & PRESTON:
AIM: To investigate how disfluency affects the confirmation bias in decision-making.
METHOD: A lab experiment, using 408 participants (144 women, 259 men, and 5 no
response to the gender question) who completed a brief questionnaire
on Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk survey website. After no responses and double
responses were removed, the final volunteer sample was 398.
All participants were told that they would read information about a defendant and
would be asked to reach a verdict. Participants were randomly assigned to either a
positive or negative bias condition, and then assigned randomly again to one of
four conditions (8 groups in all):
 Fluent crime description
 Disfluent crime description
 Disfluent + Time constraint – given a timer and told to submit their responses as
soon as the timer reached 3 minutes.
 Disfluent + Memory load – shown a list of 9 words of objects unrelated to the
case and asked to keep them in mind throughout for later recall. (These last
two conditions were combined as a ‘cognitive load’ condition once there
was seen to be no significant effect of each separately.)
Next they read a witness testimony from the defendant’s school psychologist about
her interactions with the defendant, Donald. This was skewed either positively or
negatively. They then read a description of the objective facts of the case: Donald
was accused of a robbery, but his guilt is ambiguous. In the fluent condition, the
facts were written in a Times New Roman 16-point font. In the disfluent condition, the
text was in a 12-point Times New Roman font that had been photocopied poorly
until the writing was legible but not easy to read.
After reading the appropriate document, participants declared their verdict of
guilty/not guilty and their sentence of 0 to 5+ months. They were also asked to rank
their certainty on a 7-point scale, from 1 = extremely certain he is not guilty to 7 =
extremely certain he is guilty, and their interest in the study, from 1= extremely bored
to 7 = extremely interested.
RESULTS: There was a significant effect of bias on the verdict, with more guilty
verdicts in the negative bias condition, but no significant difference in effect
between the time constraint and memory load conditions, so they were combined
into a single ‘cognitive load’ condition for the other analyses.
Confirmation bias effects were observed, but only in the fluent and cognitive load
conditions: participants who read the fluent information were more lenient when
they were in the positive bias condition, and participants who were in the cognitive
load condition also showed a positive/negative confirmation bias, depending on
their condition. That is, those in the positive disfluent + cognitive load condition
showed a positive confirmation bias and those in the negative disfluent + cognitive
load condition showed a negative confirmation bias. Moreover, participants with
confirmation bias were also more certain of their decision.
The % of participants who found Donald guilty when reading the text under the
disfluent condition was 58% for the positive bias and 60% for the negative bias. This
shows clearly how disfluency interrupted the effect of cognitive bias. There were no
significant effects of bias or condition on interest in the study.
CONCLUSION: These results show that confirmation bias took place when
information was presented fluently, but not when it was presented disfluently. The
fact that confirmation bias also occurred when participants read disfluent
information under cognitive load of time pressure or memory load, shows that
cognitive resources are necessary to overcome confirmation bias. The difficulty
associated with disfluency encourages a slower and more careful mindset when
making judgements, even when coming to an issue with existing biases, and the
pressure of cognitive load makes the confirmation bias more likely.
LINK BACK: People in the positive bias group were looking at the facts from a
positive lens as the evidence supported what they felt already, therefore they had
positive confirmation bias. Compared to the negative bias group where the
negative facts impacted how they felt about the verdict, therefore they found the
defendant guilty and had negative confirmation bias.
EXPLAIN ONE BIAS IN THINKING AND DECISION MAKING (9)
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Intro: Wason, definitions, description of the bias
One study that investigates confirmation bias is…..HP
LB: How does the bias impact thinking AND decision making?
RESEARCH AND ETHICS
RESEARCH:
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Describe the lab experiment method in detail using these terms:
Control over extraneous variables
IV and DV = cause and effect
Random allocation to groups
Standardization
Loftus & Palmer:
IV – question with the adjective describing the crash changing each
time: ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, bumped’, ‘hit’ and ‘contacted’
DV – speed estimates for cars
Participants are randomly allocated into groups.
Every participant watched the same video 7 times and the method
was standardized.
ETHICS:
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Protection of participants – Researchers must ensure that those taking part in
research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and
mental harm. This means you must not embarrass, frighten, offend or harm
participants.
Normally, the risk of harm must be no greater than in ordinary life, i.e. participants
should not be exposed to risks greater than or additional to those encountered in
their normal lifestyles.
The researcher must also ensure that if vulnerable groups are to be used (elderly,
disabled, children, etc.), they must receive special care. For example, if studying
children, make sure their participation is brief as they get tired easily and have a
limited attention span.
Researchers are not always accurately able to predict the risks of taking part in a
study and in some cases, a therapeutic debriefing may be necessary if participants
have become disturbed during the research.
Hernandez & Preston: Disfluent + Time constraint group were given a timer and told
to submit their responses as soon as the timer reached 3 minutes. This could’ve
caused stress on them
EMOTION AND COGNITION
The research by Loftus et al. (1987) into weapon focus, described in the previous
section, can be used as a good example of how emotion affects memory by a
narrowing of perception that concentrates attention on a weapon and means that
the person forgets peripheral details. One classic piece of research which claims
that emotional memories are more accurate and vivid than other memories is that
of Brown and Kulik (1977). Their theory of ‘flashbulb memories’ has been applied by
subsequent researchers and critiqued by many. Flashbulb memories are memories
for the circumstances in which one first learned of a surprising and emotionally
arousing event.
Flashbulb memory – highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment
and circumstances in which a piece of suprising and consequential (or emotionally
arousing) news was heard.
 Are one type of autobiographical memory.
 Eg: stored on one occasion and retained for a lifetime. These memories are
associated with important historical or autobiographical events.
Role of amygdala in memory:
The amygdala – a pair of small almond-shaped regions deep in the brain, help
regulate emotion and encode memories—especially when it comes to more
emotional remembrances.
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Amygdala activation enhances memory consolidation by facilitating neural
plasticity and information storage processes.
Enables us to acquire and retain lasting memories of emotional experiences.
The amygdala may be best known as the part of the brain that drives the socalled “fight or flight” response. While it is often associated with the body’s
fear and stress responses, it also plays a pivotal role in memory.
“If you have an emotional experience, the amygdala seems to tag that
memory in such a way so that it is better remembered.”
Encoding and better vivid recall is possible
Emotion most linked to flashbulb memory is suprise because it's unexpected and can
boost adrenaline
BROWN & KULIK:
AIM: To investigate whether suprising and personally significant events can cause
flashbulb memories.
METHOD: The researchers asked 40 black and 40 white American male participants
to fill out a questionnaire regarding the death of public figures – such as president
John F Kennedy and Martin Luther Jr – as well as of someone they personally knew.
They were asked a series of questions about the event including: Where were you
when you heard about the event? How did you feel when you heard about the
event? (to indicate level of emotion) How important was this event in your life? (to
indicate personal experience) How often have you talked about this event? (to
indicate rehearsal).
In the event that they did not recall the circumstances under which they heard of
the event (death of the political leader, or the personal event), the participant just
answered ‘No’ and moved onto the next question. If they answered ‘Yes’, they were
then invited to write a free recall of the circumstances in any form or order and at
any length. They were also asked to rate the personal importance of the event to
themselves.
RESULTS: The categories of circumstances that appeared most often in people’s
memories were: Place, Ongoing Activity, Informant, Own Affect (Emotions), Other
Affect (Emotions of Others), and Aftermath. (Note: a flashbulb memory is not
memory of the actual event but for the circumstances in which one first heard the
news.)
39/40 of the white European Americans and 40/40 of the black African Americans
reported flashbulb memories for Kennedy’s assassination and 69/80 participants
reported a flashbulb memory for a personal shock. Flashbulb memories, but in lower
numbers, were recorded for nearly all of the other famous leaders, with the African
Americans having more flashbulb memories for the Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther
King and Medgar Evans and the black Muslim leader Malcolm X and the European
Americans having more for Gerald Ford and Robert Kennedy. Consequentiality
(personal significance) of the leader was correlated with flashbulb memory for the
circumstances in which a participant heard of his death.
Participants remembered where they were, what they were doing and how they felt
when learning about shocking public events
Researchers found that the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination led to the most
flashbulb memories (90% of people remembered this in context with vivid detail)
African Americans also recalled more FM of civil rights leaders (ex. The assassination
of Martin Luther King) more than Caucasian participants
For the self-selected events, most participants had FM of deaths of family (ex.
parents)
CONCLUSION: Flashbulb memory is the term for the instant and vivid recording by a
neurobiological mechanism of the circumstances surrounding a person being
informed of a personally significant and surprising event. The two main factors of
importance are a high level of surprise and a high level of personal significance,
which combine to create a high level of emotional arousal and a flashbulb
memory.
LINK BACK: the reason why they could recall is due to the surprise linked to the
memory of the circumstances around the event, which supports the theory that the
amygdala plays a role in the consolidation of memory as the emotion of surprise is
why they could recall the circumstances so vividly.
RESEARCH METHODS:
Questionnaire: A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of
questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Questionnaires
can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to
face, by telephone, computer or post.
Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining
large amounts of information from a large sample of people.
However, a problem with questionnaires is that respondents may lie due to social
desirability. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves and so may
lie or bend the truth to look good, e.g., pupils would exaggerate revision duration.
There were open and closed questions, so they had qualitative and quantitative
data.
Brown & Kulik: written interview about their memory, experiences and emotions.
 Questions were standardized, same for everyone.
ETHICS:
Protection of participants – Researchers must ensure that those taking part in
research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and
mental harm. This means you must not embarrass, frighten, offend or harm
participants.


Normally, the risk of harm must be no greater than in ordinary life, i.e.
participants should not be exposed to risks greater than or additional to those
encountered in their normal lifestyles.
The researcher must also ensure that if vulnerable groups are to be used
(elderly, disabled, children, etc.), they must receive special care. For
example, if studying children, make sure their participation is brief as they get
tired easily and have a limited attention span.

Researchers are not always accurately able to predict the risks of taking part
in a study and in some cases, a therapeutic debriefing may be necessary if
participants have become disturbed during the research.
Brown & Kulik: "tenth question asled about a personal, unexpected shock, such as
the death of a friend or relative, serious accident, diagnosis of a deadly disease"
 Emotion (suprise, sadness etc. From hearing about the death of a loved one)
 Distress
 Potential psychological harm
 Debrief needed