Psych Studies

Front 1

Bouchard et al. (1990)

Back 1

-Twin study investigating intelligence
-MZ twins reared together (MZT)
-MZ twins reared apart (MZA)
Results: concordance rate - MZA 69%, MZT 88%
-Environmental factors play a role but large extent is genetic (inherited)
Evaluation: correlational data cannot establish cause-effect relationships; hard to generalize - self selected sample

Front 2

Martinez and Kesner (1991)

Back 2

To investigate the role of ACh in memory formation
-Rates were trained to run a maze then split into 3 groups
- group 1 received injection that blocks ACh receptor sites, reducing available ACh
- group 2 received injection that leads to more available ACh
-group 3 is control group
Results: group 1 had problems finding their way through the maze. group 2 ran quickly through the maze and made few mistakes. group 2 was quicker than the control group.
Evaluation: study shows that ACh is important in memory from the results. ACh is only one factor that affects memory

Front 3

Case study of H.M.

Back 3

-HM suffered from epilepsy.
-Experimental surgery that removed tissue from the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus.
-Suffered from amnesia after surgery.
-He can remember things 12 years before the accident.
-Found that hippocampus play a critical role in converting memories of experiences from STM to LTM.
Evaluation:
Ecological validity: High, study of a real life case.
Low potential ability to generalise because cases are individual.
Ethics: Patient’s name was kept confidential until he died.

Front 4

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Back 4

-To prove the unreliability of memory.
-45 students were shown videos of car crashes.
-They were then asked a series of questions about the specifics of the car crashes.
-The critical question was “About how fast was the cars going when they hit each other?”
The verb “hit” was replaced with “Smashed”, “Collided”, “Bump” and “Contacted” for different participants.
Those who were asked with “Smashed” averaged the highest mean speed of 40.8 mph.
-Those who were asked with “Contacted” averaged the lowest mean speed of 31.8 mph.
-The phrasing of the question brought a change in speed estimated.
-Shows schema can affect memory.
-Shows the unreliability of reconstructive memory.
Evaluation: -people may not know how to guess the velocity of the car.
-highly controlled=established a cause-effect relationship
-Hard to generalize bc of the sample
-Ecological validity: Low, car crash was not real.

Front 5

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

Back 5

-multimemory model
to test primacy-recency effect
-participants heard a list of items and then immediately had to recall them in any order
-results: participants recalled words from the beginning of the list (primacy effect) and at the end of the list (recency effect).
-provides evidence for multiple stores
-low ecological validity - lab experimente

Front 6

Baumgartner et al. (2008)

Back 6

-neurotransmission/hormone
the role of oxytocin in trust
-player 1 receives a sum of money and must decide whether to keep it or share it with player 2. if the sum is shared, it is tripled. then player 2 must decide if they should shared this sum
-fMRI scans were carried out on the participants
-they recieved either oxytocin or placebo via a nasal spray
-placebo group showed less trust
-oxytocin could explain why people are able to restore trust and forgive in long term relationships.
-giving oxytocin via nasal spray is not natural

Front 7

Bartlett (1932)

Back 7

-schema theory
to investigate whether peoples memory is affected by schemas and the extent to which memory is reconstructive
-asked british participants to hear a Native American legend called 'the war of the ghosts'.
-asked to reproduce it after a short time and then repeatedly over a period of months or years
-the participants remembered the main idea of the story
-they changed unfamiliar elements to make sense of the story by using terms more familiar to their own culture
-becomes shorter after each reproduction
-confirms schema theory and reconstructive memory
-no proper method, no iv, dv, controlw

Front 8

Brown and Kulik (1977)

Back 8

-research on flashbulb memory (emotion)
-investigate whether shocking events are recalled more vividly and accurately than other events
-questionnaires asked 80 participants to recall circumstances where they had learned of shocking events
-participants had vivid memories of where they were, what they did and what they felt when they first heard about the JFK assassination
-also had FM of shocking personal events; sudden death of a relative
-results indicated: FM is more likely for unexpected and personally relevant events
-FM is caused by physiological emotional arousal
-evaluation: FM may be vivid but it may not be accurate,

Front 9

Bandura (1961)

Back 9

-bobo doll -social learning theory
-to see if learning can occur through observation of role models: children imitating aggression of an adult model and whether they would imitate same sex models more than opposite sex models
-36 boys and 36 girls around age 4, divided into three groups based on their levels of aggressiveness
-group 1 - saw adult model behave aggressively towards a bobo doll
-group 2 - saw adult model assemble toys - no aggression
-group 3 - control, saw nothing.
-some children saw same-sex models
-then put in a room with toys and told not to play with them to frustrate them, then taken to another room with a bobo doll. they were observed for 20 minutes through a one-way mirror
results: group 1 displayed significantly more aggressive, imitated the behavior of the model
-supports social learning theory. evidence of observational learning.
evaluation: low EV (lab experiment), ethics for inducing aggression

Front 10

Asch (1951)

Back 10

-asch paradigm experiment
-investigate group pressure on conformity
-Subject was placed into a room with 6 confederates and the experimenter.
-Subject was deceived that the 6 confederates were participants just like them. confederates were told to give all the same wrong answer.
-subject was placed on the second last seat so they will be the second last to give an answer
-they were asked to select the line on the second card that matched the line on the first card
-control group for comparison
results: control group 0.7% error, experimental group 37% error.
-evidently shows that the real participant conformed to the group
-shows that majority group pressure can influence a minority to conform
-high control - establish cause effect relationship
-reliable results
-low eco validity
-only USA males, affects generalization
-real participants were deceived, but then debriefed