#cogstudies

N & H suggested that flash bulb memories are due to rehearsal of events we perceive as dramatic.

Aim: Investigate the accuracy of a memory immediately after an event and two years later 

Method: Studied witnesses to space shuttle "challenger" explosion that killed 7 people. The participants were interviewed 24 hours after the event and again 2 years later 

Aim: Investigate if personally significant events can cause flashbulb memories

Method: 40 black Americans and 40 white Americans were interviewed about vivid memories of major events such as the assassination of JFK, Malcolm x, Martin Luther King and the day of Princess Diana's death. They tested their hypothesis by comparing non-consequential events against consequential events. 

Aim: To investigate cross cultural memory differences between mayan and US children 

Principle: Social and Cultural factors affect cognitive processes 

Method: Naturalistic experiment. iv: culture, dv: ability to reconstruct setting. Constructed a diorama of Mayan village, similar to the place the children live. Watched a researcher select 20 objects from a set of 80 and placed them in the diorama (cars, animals, people etc) The 20 were then returned to the other 60 on the table and then children were asked to reconstruct the full scene they had been modeled. 

Findings: Under these conditions the memory of the Mayan children was superior to the US children. They concluded that children of any culture are skilled at remembering if the information is presented in a meaningful context. 

+ Ecological validity 

- No consent 

Aim: Investigate the extent to which manipulation of cognitive appraisal of a stressful event could influence emotional experience

Method: Lab experiment. iv: music condition, dv: physiological stress response. The researchers showed a film about unpleasant genital surgery. To manipulate people's appraisal the film was shown to different groups of participants using different soundtracks. One aimed to emphasize the pain of the surgery (trauma condition), one to portray willingness and happiness (denial condition) and the other another was an anthropological interpretation (intellectualizing condition). During the viewing physiological measures were taken such as heart rate and sweat on palms. Elevation of either indicate stress.

Findings: The trauma condition had the highest physiological measures of stress. It supports the appraisal theory that the emotions of a situation are dependent on how we perceive it 

- ecological invalidity due to lab conditions 

Aim: Investigate the role of the amygdala in emotion 

Method: Lab experiment. The rats were conditioned to feel fear when hearing a bell. LeDoux lesioned the brain to find out what part of the brain made the connection between the bell and fear

Aim: To investigate the accuracy of recall in eyewitnesses to a real crime, in response to leaning questions over time. In this study the crime was a real gun shooting

Principle: Humans are active processors of information

Method: Field experiment. 13 witnesses were interviewed 4-5 months after they witnesses a fatal shooting of a thief who was shot by the owner of a gun shop after being robbed and having money stolen. They underwent the same interview procedure as the police (allowing them to give their account and then asking questions). 2 leading questions were used. ½ of the group were asked if they saw a broken headlight. The other ½ were asked if they saw the broken headlight (when there was no broken headlight on the thief’s vehicle). They were also questioned about stress

Findings: The participants had very accurate and detailed descriptions of the event. They were also asked about the colour of the blanket on the body (seen as details that didn’t matter to police) and they found that over time the memory of the situation was maintained. They concluded that memory retention was largely due to relation/involvement in the situation. The misleading questions had very little effect on recall. 10 participants were unaffected by the questions.

+ higher validity than Loftus

- Difficult to generalize due to one-off nature of the situation

Aim: To investigate the role of leading questions on memory recall

It follows the idea that eyewitness testimony isn’t a reproductions of what they saw but rather a reconstruction of memory based on schematic information

Principle: Mental processes guide behaviour

Method: Lab Experiment

IV: leading verb in sentence (schema of verb)

DV: Speed estimate

45 students watched 7 filmed car accidents. After watching they were asked to answer questions about the accident such as “how fast were the cars going when they ___ each other?” The researcher manipulated the verb in the sentence (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, and contacted)

Clive Wearing developed extensive amnesia as a result of a brain infection. The disease had left him with brain damage and he got anterograde and retrograde amnesia. His memory lasted 7-30 seconds.

MRI Scans shows damage to hippocampus and some frontal regions.

Clive Wearing lost episodic and semantic memory. However, he could still play piano and retained emotional memory of his wife