Online textbook link

Yo,

Here's a link for the online textbook:

https://pearsonactivelearn.com/

KOP!

Schmolck et al (2002) - AO1 summary info

Yo,

Here is a good summary for the AO1 part of Schmolck's study:

Schmolck (2002)

Aim

To look at the relationship between performance on semantic memory tasks and the extent of temporal lobe damage to find out to what extent is it involved in semantic memory

Specifically to look at HM’s performance to see what was different from the performance of the other patients with brain damage

Procedure:

 

Participants

Six patients with amnesia were compared to eight ‘normal’ participants

3 patients had encephalitis leading to their amnesia (EP, GP, GT) who had large medial temporal lobe damage and varying damage to their anterolateral temporal cortex (MTL+)

HM- who had lateral MTL damage

2 patients with amnesia caused by damage in their hippocampal formation (HF)

They gave semantic knowledge tests to patients who had damage to the MTL and to the ALTC (they varied in damage, measured by an MRI scan or fMRI scan).

They also used patients with damage to the hippocampal formation (which is within the MTL)…so they looked at those who had whole MTL damage and those who just had damage to one part.

Testing procedure:

They conducted 9 tests over 5 different sessions

Seven were from the semantic test battery and two constructed by the researcher

48 items were used – 24 objects and 24 animals. These were further categorised into categories: domestic land animals, foreign land animals, water animals, birds, electrical household items, non-household electrical items, vehicles, and musical instruments (these are the ‘objects’ or ‘drawings’ etc in the tests)

 

Results

Tasks 1-9:

•       Those with Hippocampus damage (HF) were able to name, point out, and answer questions about objects they were given with considerable accuracy. (Similarly to the control group)

•       Those with MTL+ performed less well. They also had difficulty thinking of examples from a category e.g. dog breeds

 

•       HM did the worst (in MTL group)

•       The MTL+ found it most difficult to identify and recall facts about living objects compared to non-living objects in all tasks.

Tasks 10-13

-MTL+ performed well (but one made 8 errors)

-All MTL+ scored well on the colouring task

MTL+ & HM scored below 90% on the palm tree task

MTL+ produced regular plurals and verbs but performed less well at producing irregular verbs and plurals. HM was fine in both

 

Conclusions

The MTL+ patient data shows that damage to the anterolateral temporal cortex is consistent with loss of semantic knowledge that results in ‘blurring’ or overlap of conceptual knowledge that leads to confusion.

Semantic knowledge is associated with the anterolateral region and not the medial temporal lobe.

 

 

 

KOP!

 

 

 

 

 

FA2

Yo,

It's all on cognitive and research methods... there will be a revision session prior to the FA2 where I'll try and cover as much as possible!

KOP!

Working Memory Model - Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Yo,

Baddeley and Hitch suggested that memory is comprised of different systems and these systems are involved when we use our memory (hence the term 'working memory'). There model had 3 systems: the central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP).

The Central Executive:

This is a limited capacity (see overload below) system for general processing of information in memory. It was originally seen as a homunculus (a very small human) that guides the activity of the 2 slave systems (so called because they are not independent of the central executive) and how they function. It was also thought to be modality free - it can handle information in different forms (i.e. visual, sound, touch).

The Phonological Loop:

This is one of the slave systems that deals with the temporary storage of verbal information. Inside the phonological loop are 2 components - the rehearsal system and phonological store. The store can only hold a small amount of verbal information (which we will test in the lesson) for a few seconds, this duration can be increased by the rehearsal system (the inner voice, just like rehearsal in the MSM).

The Visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP):

This slave system deals with verbal AND spatial (i.e. the location or position of something) information. The VSSP can either process information directly (by looking at it) or getting visual information from LTM (i.e. remembering a friend's face). The VSSP maintains visual information, it allows up to observe the world and understand it by relying on visual information in LTM. There is a limited capacity to the VSSP, which we will investigate in the lesson.

Overload:

Working memory is seen as limited capacity because it can affected by distraction (someone talking to you whilst trying to remember a number), overload (trying to remember a list that is too long), and overwork (trying to perform complicated calculations in your mind). This has been demonstrated in dual task experiments (expt's that involved completing tasks that use either the same slave system, or 2 different slave systems) - ppts are asked to do 2 verbal tasks at the same time (i.e. repeat a string of numbers out loud whilst answering true or false questions)

BUT the WMM does explain why people can do well at dual task experiments. When asked to do a verbal and a spatial task at the same time, ppts performance is not as poor.

Experiments - some key definitions

Yo,

Add these definitions into your white RM booklets:

experiment - investigations where a variable is manipulated or altered, and its effect can be measured, while maintaining control over other variables that might affect the situation
lab experiment - an experiment conducted in a controlled environment
field experiment - a piece of research that takes place in the setting where the behaviour would naturally occur
operationalisation - defining the variables specifically so they are directly measured and tested
independent variable - the variable manipulated (changed) by the researcher to show a difference between the conditions
dependent variable - the variable that is measured or the results of the experiment

Remember to have examples for each key term - this is worth a mark in any 'define' exam question

KOP!

Episodic and Semantic memory

Yo,

Here is the information you need to know about this theory of memory. Make sure you understand what the two types are memory are - come up with some examples. Also, how the two types of memory are related. The evidence from studies will form our evaluation - you do not NEED notes on them but I would suggest thinking about how they might be useful for evaluation.

KOP!

Phrenology - a potted history

Yo,

Franz Joseph Gall was born in Baden, Germany, on March 9, 1758. Gall studied medicine in Vienna, Austria. He became a well known neuroanatomist and physiologist. He was one of the first to study the localization of mental functions in the brain.

Gall believed that there was a relationship between the size and shape of the skull and mental faculties and character. Although the ideas of phrenology were different, it gained wide acceptance. Gall began his lectures on phrenology in 1796. In 1802 the government and Roman Catholic Church ordered him to stop his lectures. He was forced to leave Vienna and go to France. He continued study phrenology in Paris.

Many people condemned Gall because he could not provide real scientific proof of his theory. Phrenology was also considered a money making fraud. Gall’s phrenological theories were best accepted in England, where the ruling class used it to justify the inferiority of colonial subjects. Phrenology became popular in the United States from 1820 to 1850.

Phrenology was based on head reading and character analyses as well as looking at the interactions between the faculties of the brain.  Most phrenologists would run their bare finger tips over a head to distinguish any elevations or indentations. Gall thought they should use their palms when doing the readings. Gall believed the bumps on the skull represented specific personality characteristics. 

The invention of the psychograph came from the study of Phrenology. The psychograph was invented by Lavery and White. It was a machine that could do a phrenological reading complete with a printout. Many people who had the phrenological readings were satisfied and felt that the results were extremely accurate.

Gall's idea of phrenology was based on several concepts:

• the brain is the organ of the mind
• the brain is a collection of organs representing the characteristics of the person
• these functions are located in specific parts of the brain
• the size of each organ is representative of its power
• the shape and size of the skull relate to the shape and size of the underlying organs and is representative of the individual's mental faculties.

Since the mid-19th century, phrenology has been remembered as a very controversial science. This was even true during the height of phrenology. Today, the ideas behind Phrenology have been absorbed into many other disciplines making some aspects still alive today. The idea of phrenology lived on in other sciences of measuring and comparing human heads- most notoriously the attention to cranial size, forehead shape etc. used by late 19th and early 20th century racial anthropologists to confirm their belief that Europeans were superior to other humans. Phrenology was also used to determine whether or not someone was a criminal. Could you imagine deciding this just by the shape and size of a persons head?

Ironically, most of phrenology's basic premises have been justified. For example, the idea that many functions are localized in the brain is now a common idea. There is much research being done on the localization of brain activity.  Also, areas of the brain that are more frequently used may become enlarged with use.  This is what phrenologists believed to be true. Modern brain imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) make the localization of functions something that we can witness and are not just guessing at. To this day there are still self-appointed experts who work, talk, teach and write on the "scientific" aspects of phrenology. Many of the past phrenologists were not able to pass down the ideas to the next generation because it had been already discredited. Despite the fact that phrenology had been widely discredited, the British Phrenological Society was only disbanded in 1967.

The idea that different areas of the brain are associated with different functions has been tested and supported through today's research. Phrenologists also said that the areas used the most would become enlarged which has also been found to be true. Gall's area for speech and verbal memory was located very closely to today's Broca's and Wernicke's speech areas.

KOP!

Thematic Anaysis - evaluation

Yo,

So the evaluation is very similar to qualitative data, we touched on some of the strengths and weaknesses in the lesson. Here are some evaluation points based on thematic analysis:

KOP!

Multi Store Model of Memory - Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968

Yo,

Cognitive assumptions:

1. Cognitive psychology focuses on information processing: such as vision, perception, hearing, memory, reasoning, problem solving, making judgements etc.
2. The idea that the brain might process information like a computer

We will be doing some experiments to test some of these features, and they will form part of the evaluation, along with some supporting evidence.

This is the first model of memory that we will look at. Atkinson and Shiffrin focused on the structural features of memory and the control processes involved in forming memories. The thought the structural features were like the hardware of a computer - 'installed' in the brain and the control processes were like computer programs. The control processes are involved in encoding, rehearsing, and retrieving memories.

According to the model, information passes into the sensory memory (a.k.a, sensory register), if the information is attended to then it passes into the short-term memory. Rehearsal is a control process that keeps information in the short-term memory store. From short-term memory, information can be transferred to long-term memory for permanent storage.

Identify what parts of the diagram are structural features, and what parts are control processes.

Details about each store (key terms for this theory will be at the bottom of the post, use the online textbook for definitions):

Sensory memory -
We experience our world through a number of senses, and it is believed we have a sensory memory for each sense. For example, we have a different memory store for visual sensations and auditory sensations. Information in this store decays very rapidly and can only be held for a few hundred milliseconds (i.e. 500ms = half a second).

Short-term memory -
Duration: when information is attended to then it enters this store. Information in this store is thought to remain there for 15 to 30 seconds, and is thought to decay unless it is maintained via rehearsal.
Capacity: Atkinson and Shiffrin assumed the capacity was for 5 to 8 items. However, Miller (1956) refined this to 'the magical number 7 plus or mins 2'. So the short term store as a series of 5 to 9 slots that can hold information.
Encoding: short-term memory holds information in auditory (sound) form. For example, you may see a car but in short-term memory it is held as the word 'car'.
Retrieval: information is retrieved from the short-term memory using a quick scan of the information in the store. Rehearsal keeps information in the short-term store, if there is too much to rehearse then information with the least rehearsal will decay. For example, if you are asked to remember a list of words, the words that you say to yourself the least are less likely to be remembered.

Long-term memory -
Retrieval: long-term memories exist for all sensory information. For example, you can remember the taste of coffee, the sight of a picture, the sound of a friends voice BUT there are multiple copies of each memory. There evidence for this is the 'tip of the tongue' phenomenon - where you know there is a memory for something in there but can't access it; you see a familiar face, where you met that person, what their voice sounds like, but you cannot retrieve their name even though you know it.
Encoding: information can be stored in long-term memory by rehearsal, or linking new information to old information. For example, repeating a phone number over and over again can store it in long-term memory (rehearsal), OR if you know know how to evaluate one study in psychology you can evaluate another because you can relate both to GRAVE.
Duration: potentially the duration is unlimited. Long-term memory can hold certain types of information for the whole of a person's lifetime without deterioration. Other types of information may deteriorate over time.
Capacity: again, potentially infinite, with the potential to hold thousands of images in long-term memory.

Transferring information from short-term to long-term:
The information that enters the sensory register can only be processed in the short-term memory once a verbal label has been applied to it from long-term memory. For example, if you see a monkey (sensory memory), you cannot process it in short-term memory until long-term memory has provided the label 'monkey'. Transfer from short-term memory to long-term memory can occur because of rehearsal, but this may leave a weak memory. A mnemoic (i.e. SCOUT) can provide a stronger trace as the 5 evaluation points are linked by a familiar word or pattern.

Key terms:
control processes, attended information, rehearsal, mnemonic

KOP!

Extra questions

Yo,

Describe the strength, immediacy, and number key words of Social Impact Theory.

6m

Give an example of the divisional effect of SIT.

2m

Evaluate Social Impact Theory.

8m

KOP!

Cults - summary info

Yo,

Here's some info you can use for the key question:

Manson Family

Charles Milles Manson was born on 1934-NOV-11 or 12; sources differ. He is a person with an unusual ability to dominate others. He assembled a destructive, doomsday cult around himself, which the media later called The Family. At one time, it numbered in excess of 100 individuals at the Spahn Ranch some 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles CA. Manson was referred to both as "God" and "Satan" by his followers. As the family's guru, he claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

This quasi-communal cult arose in California during the late 1960s. The Manson Family teachings seemed to revolve around Armageddon. It has been reported that, “[Manson] had a strong belief and interest in the notion of Armageddon from the Book of Revelations. Scientology and more obscure cult churches such as Church of the Final Judgment were also fleeting interests.” It was these ideals and teachings that led Manson and his followers on a murderous crime spree.

The Family, along with Manson, are thought to have carried out at least 35 murders. Most of “The Family” members were never tried due to the lack of evidence or because the alleged perpetrators were already serving life sentences for the Tate/La Bianca killings.

KKK

Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s.

A religious tone was present in its activities: "two-thirds of the national Klan lecturers were Protestant ministers," says historian Brian R. Farmer. Much of the Klan's energy went into guarding "the home;" the historian Kathleen Blee said its members wanted to protect "the interests of white womanhood." The pamphlet ABC of the Invisible Empire, published in Atlanta by Simmons in 1917, identified the Klan's goals as "to shield the sanctity of the home and the chastity of womanhood; to maintain white supremacy; to teach and faithfully inculcate a high spiritual philosophy through an exalted ritualism; and by a practical devotedness to conserve, protect and maintain the distinctive institutions, rights, privileges, principles and ideals of a pure Americanism."

  

Westboro Baptist Church

Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American pastor who headed the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps attained notoriety primarily from his vehemently anti-gay activism and his picketing of funerals of homosexuals and soldiers.

Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an unaffiliated Baptist church known for its hate speech, especially against LGBT people (homophobia), Jews (antisemitism), and politicians. The church is categorized as a hate group and is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was headed by Fred Phelps (although shortly before his death in March 2014, church representatives said that the church had not had a defined leader in "a very long time"), and consists primarily of members of his extended family; in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.

The church is noted for its anti-homosexual rhetoric and runs numerous web sites such as GodHatesFags.com, GodHatesAmerica.com, and others expressing condemnation of homosexuality. The group bases its work on the belief expressed by its best known slogan and the address of its primary web site, God Hates Fags, asserting that every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality—specifically society's increasing tolerance and acceptance of the so-called homosexual agenda. The group maintains that God hates those who engage in homosexual activity above all other kinds of "sinners" and that homosexuality should be a capital crime.

Jonestown

Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the mass murder-suicide in November 1978 of 909 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan, and the ordering of four additional Temple member deaths in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital.

"Jonestown" was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project formed by the Peoples Temple, an American religious organization under the leadership of Jim Jones, in northwestern Guyana. It became internationally notorious when on November 18, 1978, over 900 people died in the remote commune, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.

Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the U.S. government. Carter said the Temple concluded that Guyana, a predominantly Indian, English-speaking socialist country, would afford black members of the Temple a peaceful place to live. Later, Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham stated that Jones may have "wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a commune meshed with that."

KOP!

Cults - info and paragraph structure

Yo,

Paragraph structure:

P: 'Psychology can explain obedience/prejudice in cults.' (For later paragraphs, maybe phrase it differently... Psychology can also explain... jazz it up)

Ev: something from a cult that you can use a theory to explain (i.e. some obedience to the leader / some prejudice)

Ex: HOW does the theory explain the behaviour? If you use key terms from the theory, which you should, a brief one sentence explanation then apply them. 

      Then back up the theory with evidence - Milgram (obedience) or Sherif (prejudice) apply the theory - how do the results support the explanation.

      Finally, brief evaluation of the theory/study - give one strength and one weakness, conclude with whether the theory is or is not a good explanation of the behaviour

KOP! 

Realistic Conflict Theory - Describe and Evaluate

Yo,

 

KOP!

Situational factors that affect prejudice - yellow booklets

Yo,

KOP!

Situational factors that affect obedience - yellow booklets

Yo,

KOP!

Sherif - Describe, handout from the lesson

Yo,

Aim:

Sherif and his colleagues wanted to investigate intergroup relationships over time whilst manipulating the situations the groups faced.

The study was interested in group formation, the effect of competition and the conditions under which conflict could be resolved.

Procedure:

The study took place at Robber’s Cave, a camp in Oklahoma, famous as a hideout for outlaws such as Jesse James.

The study had 3 stages –

Stage one: in-groups were created by getting ppts to do tasks that required co-operation.

Stage two: the two groups would be brought together to compete against one another.

Stage three: superordinate goals (key term) were introduced to encourage cooperation between groups in order to reduce the hostility.

Participants:

22 boys, 11 years old (1 was 12 years old), all ‘normally adjusted’ from middle class Protestant families from schools in Oklahoma. The boys did not know each other before the study (the researchers made sure of this).

Procedure (detail):

Stage one

During the first 5-6 days the two groups were kept separate from one another and each group completed tasks designed to encourage them to form a group identity. During this stage, the ppts were observed by researchers (who the boys thought were camp staff); they observed the verbal and non-verbal communication of the boys, and the relationships they formed. Sociometric data (numerical data) was also collected about how the boys rated each other in terms of popularity, skill, etc.

Stage two

Over the next 4-6 days the boys were brought into contact with one another during competitions such as: baseball, tug of war, tent pitching, cabin inspections, singing, and treasure hunts. Points were awarded to the winners of the competitions and each boy had to participate in each competition.

There were also manipulated situations that frustrated the boys, they were led to believe the other group had caused the problem. During this stage, stereotypes between each group were recorded, as well as behaviours and attitudes towards the other group.

Stage three

The final 6-7 days were devoted to ending the hostility and conflict between the groups. This was done by introducing common goals that needed both groups working together to complete. The three common goals (superordinate) were:

1.     Fixing a water tank that both groups used

2.     A joint camp-over where group members had to work together for food and camping gear

3.     Starting the broken down camping bus

Results:

Stage one

Each group formed their own norms and rules, this was their group identity. By the end of the cooperative tasks, each group had a name – one was the ‘Rattlers’ and the other was called the ‘Eagles’.

After each group was told about the other, there was a definite ‘us’ and ‘them’ attitude.

1.     Which parts of Social Identity Theory does the creation of group names and rules support?

2.     What about the ‘us’ and ‘them’ attitude, what is this indicating?

Stage two

During this stage, the boys demanded competition with the other group. Leaders emerged in each group and the boys became territorial, when the tournament was announced, the boys began to fight, they called each other names (like ‘thief’, ‘braggers’, and ‘stinker’), the Eagles burned(!) the Rattlers flag! They also went into each other’s camps to take things/mess things up. When each boy was asked about who their friends were out of all the boys, 93% said it was someone in their own group.

1.     Is there any evidence here of in-group favouritism?

2.     Out group bias?

3.     What does the 93% data of friendships say about their group identity?

Stage three

Initially, the researchers tried to reduce the hostility by putting the boys together, for example, watching a movie together and sharing the same meal area. However, this had little effect in reducing group prejudice.

The tasks involving the superordinate goals were introduced. The first task (fixing the water tank) required all of the boys to try and find the source of the problem; when the source was identified (a blocked tap) the groups started to work together – there was no name calling. That evening, the cooperation disappeared and name calling re-emerged.

The for the camping bus scenario, the boys worked together to pull the bus and get it started. At the end of the study the researchers reassessed friendship choices. They found a significant number of boys who said their friendships were from outside their group.

1.     What do these results say about reducing prejudice? Is it enough just to be with the out-group?

2.     Does a superordinate goal work straight away?

Conclusions:

Group identities formed quickly. Competition leads to negative out-group bias emerging quickly. Completing successive superordinate goals leads to a decrease in prejudice because it removes competition.

KOP!

Evaluation points for Social Impact Theory

Yo,

Here you go:

And some bonus points because I'm kind:

For next lesson, use the 4 top slides to come up with 1 point for S, C, O, U, T can be done alongside S and C by mini-evaluating the S or C evidence

KOP!

Reicher and Haslam (2006) - Describe and Evaluate

Yo,

Here are the slides for the Reicher and Haslam description - use these if you need to add to your handout. Remember, you only need a brief summary for the three phases (but you will need some method and results). After are some additional evaluation points.

Describe:

Evaluation:

1. The role of television:  Were the participants simply play-acting because of the cameras? If so, why did the participants’ behaviour change at the times predicted e.g. before and after permeability? In any case ‘being watched’ is not such an unusual situation as we are all frequently watched by surveillance cameras.

There may be some evidence that social desirability played a role in changing participant behaviour. However, Reicher and Haslam predicted this, and they knew after which events these behaviours would change. So you could argue being watched lowers the validity (P), the participants were recorded all the time (Ev) and explain 

2. The role of personality: Were the ‘prisoners’ especially strong characters? The fact the participants’ ‘character’ on the relevant dimensions (e.g. authoritarianism) changed over time suggests that personality cannot explain the course of events. In addition, dominance only occurred through shared identity rather than forcefulness of character. Without support, even the strongest personalities failed. This does not suggest that individual differences are not important but that interdependence between individuals and groups is necessary for a group to become dominant.

Here is a good reliability point. Because the participants were put into matched groups (so guards and prisoners had a mix of personalities) and there was a change in their social identity, authoritarian, and compliance data then personality could not be a strong argument.

3. The reality of inequality and power: Did the participants really become engaged with the role play and thus act in a meaningful way? The prisoners expressed dislike of being locked up and being deprived of e.g. cigarettes; the guards’ conversations reflected the seriousness they felt about the role e.g. the disparity between prisoners and guards. All of this points to the engagement with the situation. If the guards were engaged, why didn’t they use their power? The answer is that they chose not to because they did not want to be authoritarian.

Here is a point about validity - the ppts in the prisoner group strongly identified with their role, they behaved like prisoners (so this is valid - 'true to life'). However, because the guards had low social identification they did not use their authority - this is a validity issue because in real prisons, officers use their authority. This may have affected the behaviour that they saw.

This website has a good description and evaluation if you want to go over it.

KOP!