Download 2 marks - WordPress.com

How reliable is eyewitness
testimony?
Concept - Leading questions can
cause false or distorted recall…
How reliable is eyewitness testimony?
- Describe the issue
• An important issue because of the number of cases
where people are found guilty of crimes with no other
evidence except for eyewitness testimonies.
• An eyewitness is a witness to a crime, who must give
their account of the event, and possibly identify the
criminal from an identity parade or appear in court.
• This can lead to a conviction, so if the eyewitness
testimony is wrong, someone has been wrongly
convicted of a crime they did not commit.
How reliable is eyewitness testimony?
• Elizabeth Loftus is a leading expert in the area
and has done a lot of research into the reliability
of eyewitness testimonies.
• She has identified many useful factors.
• For example, eyewitnesses can be swayed by
identity parades (this is likely to be because they
want to help so feel they must answer, or might
assume that the criminal has to be in the line-up).
• They will be looking to find the nearest match to
the person they saw, not the actual person: this
can lead to wrongful convictions.
Wrongful Convictions
• Cornelius Dupree
• Convicted of rape and robbery
• Exactly one week after the attack Dupree & Anthony
Massingill were stopped by police as they walked along
a street near the site of the incident.
• Police claimed they stopped them because they fit the
general description of two other black men who were
suspected in a separate sexual assault case.
• Both men were searched and although Dupree was
unarmed, Massingill had a handgun roughly similar to
the one described in the recent attack.
Wrongful Convictions
• Both Dupree and Massingill were taken into custody
and their photos were submitted for an identification
lineup.
• Although the male victim did not identify them in the
photo array, the female victim picked both Dupree and
Massingill when presented with the same photos.
• Later in the investigation, police showed the photos to
two women who worked at the store where the
perpetrators tried to sell the fur coat, and both women
did not identify either Massingill or Dupree.
Wrongful Convictions
• On July 30, 2010, the lab issued a report on
the evidence which conclusively excluded
both Dupree and Massingill as possible
sources of the DNA found on the victim’s
pubic hair samples.
Wrongful Convictions
• Jean Charles de Menezes
• Brazilian man shot dead by the London Metropolitan
police at Stockwell tube station on the London
Underground after he was misidentified as one of the
fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing
attempts. These events took place two weeks after the
London bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 people
were killed.
• Later police and media accounts contradicted each
other, specifically regarding Menezes's manner and
clothing as he entered the station, and whether there
had been any police warnings before they fired.
Wrongful Convictions
• Jean Charles de Menezes
• Brazilian man shot dead by the London Metropolitan police
at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground after
he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the
previous day's failed bombing attempts. These events took
place two weeks after the London bombings of 7 July 2005,
in which 52 people were killed.
• Later police and media accounts contradicted each other,
specifically regarding Menezes's manner and clothing as he
entered the station, and whether there had been any police
warnings before they fired.
• He was misidentified and eyewitness testimony of
shootings were incoherent
The issue with EWT
• Witnessing a crime, etc will be emotional. If you saw a
shooting would you think about yours or others life's?
• An eyewitness testimony will not be exact like a video
recording.
• So how reliable is it?
• Witnesses can be swayed in line ups as they assume
the perpetrator is there.
• Loftus and Ketcham (1991) found that innocent
individuals were wrongly convicted 45% of the time by
eyewitness testimonies from the police cases they
studied
Application
• Loftus and Palmer (1974) Study
• Aim: To test their hypothesis that the
language used in eyewitness testimony can
alter memory.
• They aimed to show that leading questions
could distort eyewitness testimony accounts
and so have a confabulating effect, as the
account would become distorted by cues
provided in the question
Procedure – Experiment 1:
• Forty-five American students/ opportunity sample.
• Laboratory experiment with five conditions, only one of which was
experienced by each participant (an independent measures
experimental design).
• 7 films of traffic accidents, ranging in duration from 5 to 30 seconds,
were presented in a random order to each group.
• After watching the film participants were asked to describe what
had happened as if they were eyewitnesses.
• They were then asked specific questions, including the question
“About how fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided
/ bumped / hit / contacted) each other?”
• Thus, the IV was the wording of the question and the DV was the
speed reported by the participants
Results
Procedure – Experiment 2:
• 150 students were shown a one minute film which featured a car
driving through the countryside followed by four seconds of a
multiple traffic accident.
• Afterwards the students were questioned about the film.
• The independent variable was the type of question asked.
• It was manipulated by asking 50 students 'how fast were the car
going when they hit each other?', another 50 'how fast were the car
going when they smashed each other?', and the remaining 50
participants were not asked a question at all (i.e. the control group).
• One week later the dependent variable was measured - without
seeing the film again they answered ten questions, one of which
was a critical one randomly placed in the list: “Did you see any
broken glass? Yes or no?" There was no broken glass on the original
film.
Results
EWT can be affected!
• Juries tend to pay close attention to eyewitness
testimony and generally find it a reliable source of
information.
• However, research into this area has found that
eyewitness testimony can be affected by many
psychological factors:
• Anxiety / Stress
• Reconstructive Memory
• Weapon Focus
• However, a study by Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
contradicts the importance of stress in
influencing eyewitness memory.
• They showed that witnesses of a real life
incident (a gun shooting outside a gun shop in
Canada) had remarkable accurate memories
of a stressful event involving weapons.
• A thief stole guns and money, but was shot six
times and died.
• The police interviewed witnesses, and thirteen of them were reinterviewed five months later.
• Recall was found to be accurate, even after a long time, and two
misleading questions inserted by the research team had no effect
on recall accuracy.
• One weakness of this study was that the witnesses who
experienced the highest levels of stress where actually closer to the
event, and this may have helped with the accuracy of their memory
recall.
• The Yuille and Cutshall study illustrates two important points:
• 1. There are cases of real-life recall where memory for an anxious /
stressful event is accurate, even some months later.
• 2. Misleading questions need not have the same effect as has been
found in laboratory studies (e.g. Loftus & Palmer).
• The participants were all students; they may
not be representative of the population as a
whole – Generalisability
• The findings show that memory is easily
distorted, which has implications for
eyewitness testimony in police statements
and courts. The evidence shows that leading
questions can bias the eyewitnesses’ answers.
- Application
• Order effects controlled by random sequence of
presentation of films to each group. Demand
characteristics: student participants may work
out the aim of the research – confounding
variables
• Low ecological validity as it was conducted in a
laboratory. There would be differences between
seeing a car accident on film and seeing it in real
life (e.g., other distractions, high emotional
involvement) – Low ecological validity
• This study was very well controlled. For
example, in experiment 2, one group of
participants were not asked the critical
‘broken glass’ question. Good control over
variables is possible as it was conducted in a
laboratory; doing this study outside would
lack control over all variables (but increase
ecological validity) – Controls
• What about the methodology?
Cognitive practical:
• Big Brain
• Context Cue
Cue-dependent theory of forgetting:
Tulving 1975
• This theory of forgetting applies to long-term
memory, not the short-term store.
• It states that forgetting occurs when the right
cues are not available for memory retrieval.
• Tulving put forward this theory in 1975,
stating that memory is dependent on the right
cues being available, and forgetting occurs
when they are absent.
• Tulving’s theory states that there are two events
necessary for recall:
1) a memory trace (information is laid down and
retained in a store as a result of the original
perception of an event)
2) a retrieval cue (information present in the
individual’s cognitive environment at the time of
retrieval that matches the environment at the time
of recall)
• For Tulving, forgetting is about the memory trace
being intact, but memory failing because the
cognitive environment has changed.
• There is no appropriate cue to activate the trace.
• The most noticeable experience of this cuedependent forgetting is the Tip of the Tongue
Phenomenon (Brown and McNeill, 1966).
• This refers to knowing a memory exists but being
temporarily unable to recall it.
• Cues have been differentiated into:
1) context-dependent cues – the situation or
context (Godden and Baddeley, 1975)
2) state-dependent cues – the person’s state or
mood
Evaluaiton
• The theory is supported by much anecdotal evidence
(personal experiences – most people have experienced the
“Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon” where you cannot quite
recall what you know exists).
• There is also a great deal of experimental evidence
(provided by studies) which support the theory.
• A further strength is that the theory has practical
applications, which are related to cognition and improving
memory and ability to recall information.
• Also, the theory can be tested, unlike theories such as
trace-decay theory.
• Experiments can test the importance of cues as they are
tangible and measurable, unlike memory traces.
Evaluaiton
• However, one major weakness is that the tasks from all
studies supporting the theory are artificial: most often
learning words lists.
• Also, it is only an explanation for forgetting from long-term
memory, it does not include anything about the short-term
store.
• The theory may not be a complete explanation either, as it
cannot explain why emotionally-charged memories can be
really vivid – even without a cue (such as posttraumatic
stress disorder or PTSD).
• It is also hard to prove whether a memory has been revived
from the cue or from the memory trace simply being
activated, therefore it makes the theory hard to refute.
Applying this to the cognitive practical:
Procedure
• 20 participants were asked to arrive at a
classroom.
• At this point they were all given the right to
withdraw.
• They were randomly allocated to cued and non
cued groups by drawing names from a hat.
• Both groups were briefed about the aims and the
procedure (given the right to withdraw, assured
confidentiality and anonymity).
• Both groups were seated in the classroom and shown a
list of 20 words one at a time via powerpoint.
• Each word was shown for 3 seconds.
• Non-cued group asked to go to the library and the cued
group asked to remain seated.
• After 5 minutes the groups were given a blank piece of
paper and a pen top recall all the words they could
remember in 5 minutes.
• Both groups were debriefed, told the aims again and
thanked. They were given the right to withdraw a final
time and told the results of the experiments would be
made available.
Variable and hypothesis
• This experiment is investigating a cause and effect
relationship between context and recall
• IV – environment
• DV – ability to recall
• Hypothesis – participants will recall fewer words
when they recall in an environment that is
different from the learning environment, than
when learning and recall take place in the same
environment.
• So here the direction has been clearly stated so
this is a one-tailed/ directional hypothesis.
• Why have we used a one-tailed hypothesis?
• This experiment is based upon an established
psychological theory.
• If it was not what then we would use a…?
• The null hypothesis (required for every
experiment) states that any difference is likely
due to chance: There will be no difference in
recall of a word list recalled in the same of
different environment and any difference found is
due to chance.
Controls
• What variables must we consider?
• Participants asked to refrain from talking to each
other throughout the study
• Mobile phones switched off
• Participants seated away from each other so not
to copy
• Used a booked room which was quiet and posters
put up on door explain there was an experiment
going on
• All times the same
Selecting participants
• Cue-dependent is a common way of forgetting
so no specific selection is required.
• 20 students, opportunity sampling from
around the school/college
Design
• Independent measures design used.
• Why choose this over repeat measures?
Results
• Consider the results on page 65 – 66 of big
brain.
Jan 2011 – 5 marks
• As part of the course requirements for cognitive
psychology you will have conducted a practical
using an experiment.
• Evaluate your experiment. You may wish to look
at:
• your sample
• how you controlled variables
• your research design decisions
• any ethical issues
Evaluative points:
• Because the sample was opportunity we could have deliberately
picked people we knew had the desired characteristics
• We all used the same standardised instructions which increases the
reliability of our study
• It was carried out in a quiet classroom, which is a natural setting for
the participant so increasing ecological validity
• Some participants may have told others about the study so they
may have tried to give us the results they thought we wanted
• All participants were 16 to 18 so we cannot generalise the results to
older people
• As it was an experiment so we don't know if the participant’s
behaviour was natural or a result of demand characteristics
Level 3 – 5 marks
• A thorough answer, giving very good strengths
and/or weaknesses, comprehensively
communicated.
• The candidate has referred to their own study in
some way at least once.
• Given time constraints and limited number of
marks, full marks must be given when the answer
is reasonably detailed even if not all the
information is present.
Jan 2009
•
Explain why it might be preferable to use a research method that produces
qualitative rather than quantitative data (4)
- If candidate explains why quantitative methods are better than qualitative methods
then zero marks.
Candidate can gain credit for applying question to their own study (but does not have
to).
- Qualitative methods conducted in more natural circumstances tend to produce
more ecologically valid data as they are real life situations/eq; (2 marks)
- Quantitative data produces narrow, unrealistic information which only focuses on
small fragments of behaviour/eq;
- Qualitative methods produces more rich detailed type of information/eq;
- Qualitative methods enables the researcher to delve into the reasons behind their
quantitative findings/eq;
- Qualitative data can be broken down to quantitative data but not vice versa/eq;
Look for other reasonable marking points.
May 2009
•
•
A field experiment was carried out to see if environmental cues can aid recall. A
student ice hockey team learned a list of 20 unrelated words in an ice rink. Half the
group were then taken to a library (control group) whilst the other half
(experimental group) stayed in the ice rink. Both groups then had to recall as many
of the 20 words as possible.
The results are shown in the table below:
Mean Number of
Words Recalled
(out of 20)
•
Control group
(Library)
Experimental
group (Ice rink)
10
16
Which design is being used in this study?
• Independent measures design
• Explain why this design is appropriate for this
study. (2)
• Explain why this design is appropriate for this study.
-
2 marks for a complete answer, 1 mark for a partial answer.
If more than one advantage given mark all and credit the best.
-
There is no practice/fatigue effect/eq; 1 mark
As the participants either went to the library or the ice rink/eq; 1 mark
No order effects/eq; 1 mark
No order effects as different participants are used in each condition/eq; 2
marks
Need two groups to compare the results/eq; 1 mark
A comparison group is required to see if the change in environment had
an effect on recall/eq; 2 marks
-
-Look for other reasonable ways of expressing this answer
Which measure of central tendency is
being used in the table below?
Mean Number of
Words Recalled
(out of 20)
Control group
(Library)
Experimental
group (Ice rink)
10
16
Which measure of central tendency is
being used in the table below?
Mean Number of
Words Recalled
(out of 20)
Control group
(Library)
Experimental
group (Ice rink)
10
16
The Mean
Would this study have high or low
validity? Explain your answer.
Would this study have high or low
validity? Explain your answer. (2)
• 2 marks for a complete answer, 1 mark for a partial answer. A
suitable example would serve as elaboration. MAX 1 mark if no
reference made to the actual study.
• High validity as it was in a natural setting for the hockey team (ice
rink)/eq; 1 mark
Even the students in the library were in their natural setting as well
as those in the ice rink which would be high validity/eq; 1 mark
• Low validity as learning a wordlist is an artificial task which is not
carried out in everyday life/eq; 1 mark
Low (construct) validity as a task such as learning a list of words
may not be testing how memory normally works/eq; 1 mark
• Look for other reasonable ways of expressing this answer
The researchers would have followed ethical guidelines. With
reference to this study, explain two ethical guidelines they would
have to consider .
The researchers would have followed ethical guidelines. With
reference to this study, explain two ethical guidelines they would
have to consider .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1 mark for each guideline (ID mark) + 1 for each explanation
NB: 1 mark for ID, second mark in each case must relate the study to the ethical
guideline to gain credit
There are many guidelines that could be chosen. If more than two are given mark
all and credit the best.
Right to withdraw; ID mark
The ice hockey team/players had to know that they could pull out from the
memory experiment at any time and withdraw the data they had recalled/eq;
Debriefing; ID mark
The ice hockey team should be told all about the purpose of the experiment on
cue dependent memory so they know what they have participated in/eq;
Informed consent; ID mark
The ice hockey team/student team must give their permission to take part in the
memory experiment after they are told what is involved/eq;
Confidentiality; ID mark
The results and personal details of the ice hockey team/‘group’ should not in any
way be made public to anyone without their permission/eq;
Outline one weakness of field
experiments in general.
(2)
•
•
2 marks for a complete answer, 1 mark for a partial answer.
If more than one weakness mark all and credit the best
•
E.g. Lack of full control over variables/eq; 1 mark
•
Difficult to replicate due to lack of full control over extraneous variables /eq; 2
marks
•
E.g.Could be lack of informed consent/eq; 1 mark
•
Informed consent is difficult to obtain as informing the participants they are being
studied would disrupt natural behaviour/eq; 2 marks
•
E.g.May be more expensive and time consuming/eq; 1 mark
•
The researcher may require additional skills in arranging and setting up a field
experiment compared to the skills required for a lab experiment/eq; 2 marks
Jan 2010
• Identify one study from the Cognitive
Approach
• Craik and Tulving (1975)
• Godden and Baddeley / deep sea divers
Jan 2010
• Describe the findings (results and/or conclusions) of the study you
identified in (a).
• Credit should be given for results and/or conclusions drawn from
the study only. No marks should be given for procedure or aims. 1
mark per point/elaboration of findings.
• TE: If (a) is blank/insufficient for identification but findings in (b) are
clearly identifiable as an appropriate study from the Cognitive
Approach full marks can be given e.g. Loftus and Zanni.
• If the findings described do not relate to a study stated in (a) but
are clearly identifiable as a study from the Cognitive Approach then
max 2 marks.
If (a) is incorrect e.g. from a different approach and the findings
refer to (a) then 0 marks.
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
• Recall was about 50% higher than when it took place in
the same environment as learning.
• Mean number of words recalled in the dry land
learning and recall condition was 13.5 and 11.4 for
underwater learning and recall/eq; [figures can be
more or less similar and appropriately paired])
• This contrasted with 8.4 mean recall in the underwater
learning and dry land recall and 8.6 for dry land
learning and underwater recall/eq;
• The study thus demonstrates how the environment can
act as a contextual cue that helps recall and prevent
forgetting/eq;
Craik and Tulving
– 80% semantic 50% phonemic and 18% of structurally
processed words were recalled/recognised.
[percentages can be more or less similar and
appropriately paired])
– The researchers had found that the deeper the
processing the more durable the memory/eq;
– This demonstrates elaborative rehearsal is more
effective than pure maintenance rehearsal in
improving memory recall/eq;
– Semantic processing involves the most cognitive work
so thinking about the meaning of the words leads to
them being remembered best/eq;
Outline one strength of the study you
identified (a).
• Must be a strength not a weakness. If more than one
strength given mark all and credit the best.
• 2 marks for a complete answer, 1 mark for a partial answer.
1 mark per point / elaboration.
Study must be referred to at least once to access both
marks.
• T.E. - If study in (a) is incorrect / non cognitive study then
no marks for strength in (c). If (a) is blank but answer in (c)
focuses on an identifiable Cognitive study then full marks
available. If a strength of a cognitive study but a different
one from the one given in (a), or if a ‘generic’ strength, then
max 1 if the answer is appropriate.
Outline one strength of the study you
identified (a).
• E.g. Godden and Baddeley (1975) Strength
• The study can help students with their revision by
getting them to use cues to help learning/eq; (1st
mark) Students can make use of contextual cues
by learning and recalling in the same
environment (2nd mark)
• The experiment was conducted in a realistic open
water environment for divers (1st mark) so has
higher ecological validity and results relate to real
life situations/eq; (2nd mark)
Outline one strength of the study you
identified (a).
• E.g. Craik and Tulving Strength
– The study does have a practical application to real life;
giving meaning to material is one way of improving
your memory/eq; (1 mark) Students can be taught to
make notes which have meaning rather than just
reading information that makes no sense to help them
revise/eq; (2 mark)
– As a laboratory experiment the study has tight control
of extraneous variables/eq; (1 mark) which also
makes it more likely that the IV influenced the DV/eq;
(2 mark)
st
nd
st
nd
Jan 2010 (5)
• There are three types of experiments (natural, field and
laboratory). Compare field experiments and laboratory
experiments.
• Comparisons involve looking at similarities and
differences. You may wish to include strengths and
weaknesses such as:
• validity
• reliability
• ethics.
There are three types of experiments (natural, field and
laboratory). Compare field experiments and laboratory
experiments.
• Marking points are indicative, not
comprehensive and other points should be
credited. In each consider Or Words To That
Effect (OWTTE). 1 mark per point /
elaboration.
• Credit use of appropriate examples which
illustrate comparison e.g. Milgram and Hofling
Credit can be given for similarities and / or
differences do not need both
There are three types of experiments (natural, field and
laboratory). Compare field experiments and laboratory
experiments.
• Lab carried out in an artificial setting field is in a realistic environment/eq;
• Lab has low ecological validity field has high/eq;
•
•
•
•
Both involve manipulation of IV by the experimenter/eq;
Both aim to measure cause and effect /eq;
Lab has greater control than field over extraneous variables/eq;
Lab are easier to replicate and test for reliability of results as conditions
are controlled (1st mark), field less able to replicate due to lack of control
over extraneous variables/eq (2nd mark)
• Demand characteristics are more likely to occur in lab due to the artificial
environment (1st mark) less likely in field due to more natural
environment where participants are less likely to know they are part of a
study /eq (2 marks);
• For example in Milgrams lab exp pps were more likely to be influenced by
cues around them than the nurses in Hofling’s field experiment/eq;
Tests of difference
Level of measurement
Participant design
Nominal data
Ordinal data
Interval/ratio data
Repeated measures or
matched pairs
Sign test
Wilcoxon Matched
Independent groups
chi-squared test
Mann-Whitney
Related t test*
Unrelated t test*
Tests for relationship (correlations)
Ordinal data
Nominal
Interval/ratio data
Spearman’s Rank Correlation Co-efficient
chi-squared test
Pearson’s Product Moment
Correlation Co-efficient*
e.g. if you have ordinal data with independent measures design and you’re looking for
a difference, you will use Mann-Whitney ‘U.’
May 2010
• Each of the approaches in psychology has
main features (underlying concepts) that
define it.
• Describe one or more main features of the
Cognitive Approach in psychology. (4)
• Possible features include:
• Information processing; understanding of
memory; understanding forgetting;
experiments; computer analogy; There are
others [including not on the spec such as
perception, which are creditable if correct]
• Information processing; (possible ID mark)
• Similar to a computer we input information,
process and provide an output/eq;
• E.g. The multi-store model of memory
receives, retains and recalls information from
the memory stores/eq;
• We received information directly from our
senses/bottom-up processing/eq;
• Understanding memory; (possible ID mark)
• We encode , store and retrieve information
which makes up our memory/eq;
• [The following are not features as such but
can be used as examples of features:
Multi store model, levels of processing, eye
witness testimony, cue dependency,
interference, trace decay, reconstruction,
repression and so on.]
Describe the Levels of Processing
model of memory.
(5)
•
•
•
•
Memory is a consequence of how we process information/eq;
Information that is attended to on basis of how it looks is not
very durable/eq;
Most durable information is that which has been attended to
semantically/eq;
• The theory distinguishes between maintenance rehearsal which simply
retains items for the time being and elaborative rehearsal which expands
upon material and creates more lasting memories/eq; (2 marks)
• Deep processing which is a form of elaborative rehearsal produces longer
lasting memory traces/eq;
• The 3 levels of processing are:
Structural what something looks like Phonemic/phonetic what something
sounds like Semantic what something means/eq; (2 marks)
Jan 2011
• What is meant by a survey? (2)
Jan 2011
• What is meant by a survey? (2)
• 􏰀 Surveys are questionnaires and/or interviews to find out
what people think about an issue/eq;
• 􏰀 There are two types of questionnaire using open
questions or closed questions/eq;
• 􏰀 There are also two types of interview using a structured
or unstructured set of questions/eq;
• 􏰀 A survey gathers information by asking questions of a
large number of people, using written questionnaires
and/or through face to face interviews/eq; (2 marks)
•
Jan 2011
• Write an open question you might ask
participants in this survey about healthy
eating. (1)
Jan 2011
• Write an open question you might ask
participants in this survey about healthy eating.
(1)
• How do you think the media /your parents can
help reduce the amount of junk food eaten?/eq;
• 􏰀 What advice would you give to a friend who
was eating too much junk food?/eq;
• 􏰀 Why do you think some teenagers prefer junk
food to more healthy food?/eq;
Jan 2011
• Write a closed question you might ask participants in
this survey about healthy eating (1)
• How many times a week do you eat chips / burgers /
junk food?/eq;
• 􏰀 Eating junk food is to blame for the obesity
epidemic: yes or no?/eq;
• 􏰀 Parents should take responsibility for educating
children about healthy eating: strongly agree; agree;
don’t know; disagree; strongly disagree/eq;
• 􏰀 Do you eat five portions of fruit/veg daily?/eq;
Jan 2011
• Outline two weaknesses of surveys in general.
(4)
Jan 2011
• Outline two weaknesses of surveys in general. (4)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Participants may not answer honestly because they do not take it seriously/do
not want the researchers to know their true beliefs/eq;
Participants may give socially desirable answers based on what society expects
them to say, that are more favourable, acceptable good/eq; (2 marks)
Answers may be a result of demand characteristics where the interviewee
tries to please the interviewer (1st mark) as it may be possibl guess from the
questions the desired answer/eq: (2nd mark)
Open ended questions are difficult and time consuming to interpret /eq;
Closed ended questions offer little opportunity for explaining the response/eq;
Qualitative data obtained from unstructured interviews may not be easy to
analyse (1st mark) and may be subjective and open to misinterpretation (2nd
mark)
People who return questionnaires may be only those who have time to do so
which can lead to a biased sample (1st mark), which is not representative of
the general population. (2 marks)
Jan 2011
• Evaluate the study you have used in (a).
• You might want to consider issues of:
- reliability
- validity
- application to real life.
- This is a possible question you could be asked
so remember…
Reliability
• Refers to whether if the study were to be done
again, the same results would be found (how
easy is it to replicate the study).
Reliability of studies • Godden and Baddely (1975) – The situation is set
up clearly and the context cues are clear making
the study replicable and the results reliable.
• This included strong controls such as the times of
the learning and the recall and the intervals
between the conditions.
• You can always talk about reliability being a
strength when there is an experiment with high
controls.
Reliability of studies • Craik and Tulving (1975) – Experiments
designed carefully with control and clear
operationalisation of variables. For example
time of the words. The study can therefore be
replicated and the findings are likely to be
reliable.
Reliability of experiments (Lab)
• Laboratory experiments are replicable which means
they can be repeated. This is because controls such as
standardised instructions.
• It is often said that experiments are reliable when what
is mean is that they are replicable. They are only
reliable if they have been repeated and the same
resukts have been obtained. Craik and Tulvings study is
reliable as it was successfully repeated and the same
results were found (this is what true reliability is). What
about Godden and Baddely?
• Experiments are replicable so can be tested for
reliability.
Reliability of experiments (field)
• Difficult to stay that a field study is reliable if
we can not replicate (unless such as Godden
and Baddely they do so and the results were
reliable).
Validity
• test is valid if it measures what it claims to
measure.
• For example a test of intelligence should
measure intelligence and not something else
(such as memory).
Validity in the studies
• Godden and Baddely – The environment chosen
by G&B was a deliberate choice, it was not
unfamiliar to the divers and therefore has some
ecological validity.
• But were the results valid? The two environments
are very different and the task unnatural. We do
not normally perform such tasks in different
environments so the conclusions may not be
valid. Although high in ecological validity to an
extent the study may not be valid.
Validity in the studies
• Craik and Tulving – These were artificial tasks
so could lack validity.
Validity of Lab experiments
• Lack ecological validity and conclusions lack
validity
Validity of field experiments
• High ecological validity as in real setting
therefore conclusions are more valid than that
of lab experiments.
From the mark scheme
E.g. Craik and Tulving
– 􏰀 The study does have a practical application to real life; giving
– meaning to material is one way of improving your memory (1 mark). E.g.
students can be taught to make notes which have meaning rather than just
reading to help them revise/eq; (2nd mark)
st
– 􏰀 As a laboratory experiment the study has tight control of extraneous
variables which also makes it more likely that the IV influenced the DV/eq;
– 􏰀 Even shallow processing could lead to better processing if the material was
distinctive/eq; (1 mark) E.g. you may see something so distinctive that it
creates a mental image/eq; (2 mark)
st
nd
– 􏰀 There are too many problems with actually defining deep processing and
why it is effective/eq; (1 mark) i.e. material which has been deeply processed
will be remembered better BUT you could say material is well remembered
because it must have been processed deeply/eq; (2 mark)
st
nd
May 2011
• Describe one theory of forgetting you have
studied within cognitive psychology other
than the cue dependent theory. (4)
• (Trace Decay)
Trace Decay answer (4)
• Learning causes a physical change in the neural network of
the memory system creating a memory trace or
engram/eq;
• This neural path gives the memory a structural quality/eq;
• Without rehearsal this will decay so it must be reinforced,
repetition strengthens it/eq;
• Trace decay explains forgetting as a problem of availability
• information is forgotten through disuse and passage of
time
• This is inevitable in STM due to its limited duration but
require a significant structural change in LTM/eq;
• Outline one strength and one weakness of the
theory described in (a). (4)
Strength
• Peterson and Peterson argued that the forgetting
they found over their 3 – 18 second time delay
occurred through trace decay showing that
preventing rehearsal caused information to
decay/eq; (2 marks)
• Studies tend to be lab based with good controls
so replicable and tested for reliability/eq;
• Biological evidence shows that traces are created
over a period of days as memories are
formed/eq;
Weakness
• It could be that information has been interfered
with than just simply decayed. Waugh and
Norman who set out to support trace decay
actually concluded interference is the most likely
cause of forgetting/eq; (2 marks)
• The information may actually just not be
accessible due to lack of cues/eq;
• The theory is difficult to test as participants who
are tested after different time periods could
actually be rehearsing and strengthening the
trace/eq;
May 2011
• Mrs Smith is to take over Mrs Jones’s
Psychology class in January, as Mrs Jones is
going on maternity leave. Mr Brown’s class is
not affected by staff change. Researchers have
decided to use this as a natural experiment to
discover whether attendance is affected by
staff change part way through the year.
• Define what is meant by natural experiment.
(2)
Natural experiment:
• It is a naturally occurring IV/ is not manipulated
by the researcher/eq; (adding natural
environment gets an elaboration mark – 2 marks)
• A cause and effect relationship is looked for
between the IV and the DV/eq;
• The researcher takes advantage of a
naturally/real life occurring situation (an event in
the natural environment) as the IV - where the
variable is changed for one group but not
another/eq (2 marks);
Identify both the independent variable (IV) and the dependent
(DV) variable in this experiment (2)
• Mrs Smith is to take over Mrs Jones’s
Psychology class in January, as Mrs Jones is
going on maternity leave. Mr Brown’s class is
not affected by staff change. Researchers have
decided to use this as a natural experiment to
discover whether attendance is affected by
staff change part way through the year.
Identify both the independent variable (IV) and the dependent
(DV) variable in this experiment (2)
• independent variable – must have an element of change in class so
no credit for “Mrs. Jones going on maternity leave” or “the classes
used”
e.g.
• Change of staff/eq;
• Having a new teacher/eq;
• One class having the same teacher the other changing teacher/eq;
• dependent variable – must have an element of measurement
• e.g.
– Level of attendance/eq;
– Students amount of attendance/eq;
– Difference in attendance/eq;
Write a suitable null hypothesis for this
experiment.
(2)
Write a suitable null hypothesis for this
experiment.
(2)
• e.g.
There will be no difference in level of
attendance/eq; (1 mark)
• e.g.
There will be no difference in level of attendance
between the two classes, (any difference is due to
chance)/eq; (2 marks)
• e.g.
A change in teacher will make no difference to
students level of attendance, (any difference is
due to chance)/eq; (2 marks)
Using the table in Figure 1, describe
the results of this experiment.
(3)
Mrs Smith’s and Mrs
Jones’s class
Mr Brown’s class
Class attendance (%)
before January
80%
95%
Class attendance (%) from
January onwards
92%
93%
Mrs Smith’s and Mrs
Jones’s class
Mr Brown’s class
Class attendance (%)
before January
80%
95%
Class attendance (%) from
January onwards
92%
93%
• There was a 12% increase in attendance in Mrs. Smith/Jones class since a
change in teacher/eq;
• There was a 15% difference in attendance between Mrs. Smith’s class and
Mr. Brown’s class before the change in teacher/eq;
• This changed to a 1% difference in attendance from when Mrs. Smith took
over/eq;
• Attendance to Mr. Browns class dropped 2% from January onwards
compared to before January/eq;
Identify one participant or situational (extraneous) variable in
this experiment and suggest how it may have affected the
results. (2)
• Suitable examples:
time of lesson changes
illness accounting for increase or decrease in
attendance homework set or not
holidays booked or not
other winter exams accounting for increase or
decrease in attendance
e.g. time of lesson changes before xmas to the new
year (ID mark)
• if the lesson was first thing in the morning
before xmas and is now last thing on a Friday
in the new year attendance levels may be
lower/eq;
• if the lesson is now during the middle of the
day but wasn’t before xmas attendance may
naturally be higher as most students are in
college at that time/eq;
individual differences such as students’
health (ID mark)
– Students who were unwell before xmas may now
have much better levels of attendance after xmas
as they are much better now/eq;
– Students who were well before xmas may now
have much worse levels of attendance as they are
unwell after xmas /eq;
whether any homework was due in (ID
mark)
•
– A piece of homework due in for one class may put
some students off attending if they have not yet
done it/eq;
– Whereas those students who have not had
homework
– set may expect attend more/eq;
Describe and evaluate the Levels of
Processing model of memory.
(12)
Describe and evaluate the Levels of
Processing model of memory.
(12)
• No credit for pure description of Craik and Tulving’s procedure.
• Craik and Lockhart argued LOP is necessary to explain the transfer of
information into LTM without rehearsal
• Memory is a consequence of how we process information
• the deeper we process it the easier it will be remembered
• Deep processing which is a form of elaborative rehearsal produces longer
lasting memory traces
• The deepest level is semantic processing, and the shallowest is structural
processing
• Information that is attended to on the basis of how it looks (structural
processing) is not very durable
• Semantic analysis (understanding the meaning) results in deeper
processing and deeper processing results in a more durable memory
• It distinguishes between maintenance rehearsal which simply retains
items for the time being and elaborative rehearsal which expands upon
material and creates more lasting memories
Describe and evaluate the Levels of
Processing model of memory.
(12)
•
•
•
•
•
•
It must be the LOP model that is being evaluated e.g. cannot gain marks by
exclusively evaluating Craik and Tulving’s study. However problems with research
that undermine its legitimacy can be used if these then show that the theory lacks
empirical support.
Students can be taught to make notes which have meaning rather than just
reading information that makes no sense to help them revise so the model does
have applications to real life
The model has support from Craik and Tulving’s study which demonstrated that
semantically processed words were more deeply processed and therefore better
recalled than other shallow information
However this empirical support is laboratory based and therefore lacks ecological
validity as both task and setting are artificial
There are too many problems with actually defining deep processing and why it is
effective. E.g. Baddeley (1978) criticises it for being circular i.e. Material which has
been deeply processed will be remembered better BUT you could say material is
well remembered because it must have been processed deeply
Eysenck and Eysenck (1980) argue even shallow processing could lead to better
processing IF the material was distinctive. E.g. you may see something so
distinctive that it creates a mental image
• Level 4
• 10-12 marks
• Candidate has attempted and answered both injunctions in the
question very well.
• Description includes all 3 levels of processing defined well - and
appropriate elaboration/very good explanation of process
• Very good evaluation e.g. refers to methodological, supporting
studies and practical points in relation to actual theory
• The skills needed to produce convincing extended writing are in
place. Very few syntactical and /or spelling errors may be found.
Very good organisation and planning. Given time constraints and
limited number of marks, full marks must be given when the
answer is reasonably detailed even if not all the information is
present.
Jan 2012
• Describe the aim of Godden and Baddeley’s
(1975) study. (2)
Jan 2012
• Describe the aim of Godden and Baddeley’s
(1975) study. (2)
• To see whether words would be recalled better in
the same environment or in a very different
environment (1st mark) in this case the
environments were on dry land and underwater
(2nd mark)/eq;
• To investigate whether a natural environment
can act as a cue for recall/eq;
Jan 2012
• Using figures/data, outline the results of
Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) study. (2)
Jan 2012
• Using figures/data, outline the results of Godden and
Baddeley’s (1975) study. (2)
• Recall was (about) 50% higher when it took place in the
same environment as learning/eq;
• 40% more words were forgotten if recall took place in a
different environment to original learning/eq;
• Mean number of words recalled in the dry land learning
and recall condition was 13.5 mean / 37% and 11.4 mean /
32% for underwater learning and recall/eq;
• This contrasted with 8.4 mean/ 23% in the underwater
learning and dry land recall and 8.6 mean / 24% for dry
land learning and underwater recall/eq;
Jan 2012
• Outline one strength and one weakness of
Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) study. (4)
Outline one strength and one
weakness of Godden and Baddeley’s
(1975) study. (4)
• The study has practical applications for education advising students to
improve recall by reinstating the learning context for exams/eq;
• It can also be used to help police investigations by getting them to
interview witnesses in the same environment to the event they saw/eq;
• The study can help students with their revision by getting them to use
cues to help learning/eq; (1st mark) Students can make use of contextual
cues by learning and recalling in the same environment (2nd mark)
• The study took place in a real life setting and so has greater ecological
validity than laboratory research/eq;
• The experiment was conducted in a realistic open water environment for
divers (1st mark) so has higher ecological validity and results relate to real
life situations/eq; (2nd mark)
• The study had practical applications as it was used to advise divers
working on North Sea oil rigs how to develop strategies to recall
information collected on the seabed when they got back on the rigs (1st
mark)/eq; by using the same context when having to recall, for example
(2nd mark)/eq;
Outline one strength and one
weakness of Godden and Baddeley’s
(1975) study. (4)
• The procedure in learning unrelated words is not an everyday task and so
lacks ecological validity/eq;
• There was a lack of control over some of the procedure including lack of
standardisation and equipment failure (1st mark) which makes it
improbable the study could be replicated and get the same results/eq;
(2nd mark)
• It’s possible that participants who did not have to change environments
(conditions 1 and 2)were able to rehearse the word list more/eq;
• The procedure in learning unrelated words using all this technology is not
an everyday task and so lacks (mundane) realism/eq;
• The sample was small (18) which may not be/is not representative of the
population as a whole so cannot be generalised/eq;
Jan 2012
• As part of the course requirements for
cognitive psychology you will have conducted
an experiment.
• State the experimental/alternative hypothesis
of your experiment and whether it is
directional (one tailed) or non- directional
(two tailed). (3)
• We did this yesterday!
Jan 2012
• Outline one problem you came across when planning and/or
carrying out your experiment. (2)
• What issues could you mention that you could further ellaborate
on, moving rooms? Noise levels? Cheating? Demand characteristics
is also a good one (students not working as hard in the library)
• 2 marks
Answer clearly outlines one appropriate problem but candidate has
also included some elaboration (which relates to (a) such as
experiment may have suffered from demand characteristics and the
candidate has explained what this means)
Jan 2012
• Outline one problem you came across when
planning and/or carrying out your experiment.
(2)
• How could you deal with cheating? Or with
demand characteristics?
• 2 marks
Answer shows a clearly appropriate solution to
the problem given in (b) with clear elaboration
and explanation
Jan 2012
• Explain why in psychology using a research
method that produces quantitative rather
than qualitative data might be preferable. (2)
Jan 2012
• Explain why in psychology using a research method that produces
quantitative rather than qualitative data might be preferable. (2)
• Easier to analyse than qualitative data because data is in numbers
(1st mark); this enables comparisons to be made between groups
much more easily (2nd mark)/eq;
• Produces more objective data than qualitative as involves little or
no interpretation/eq;
• More likely to be tested for reliability which may lead to
generalisability to other situations/eq;
• For example counting words in a memory experiment is more
measurable than asking open questions in an interview/eq;
• Can be collected more quickly than qualitative data as tends to use
closed rather than open questions/eq;
Jan 2012
• You and a friend are queuing up at the local
supermarket when you hear cries of ‘Thief! Stop!
Help!’ and look around to see a man running off
with a bag. The next day you and your friend go
back to talk to the store manager and find that
you recall things differently.
• Using theories of forgetting and/or memory,
explain these differences in your recollections. (5)
Jan 2012
• You and a friend are queuing up at the local supermarket when
you hear cries of ‘Thief! Stop! Help!’ and look around to see a man
running off with a bag. The next day you and your friend go back
to talk to the store manager and find that you recall things
differently.
• Using theories of forgetting and/or memory, explain these
differences in your recollections. (5)
• Concepts, theories and research from cognitive psychology include:
Key Issues (flashbulb memory; cognitive interview)
Concepts (leading questions, weapon focus, stress and anxiety...)
• Methodology
Theories of Memory / Forgetting
Some examples:
• e.g. Information processing
• There may be individual differences in the
way witnesses
• input and process what they see based on
schemas which in turn may lead to differences
in recall/eq;
Some examples:
• e.g. Cue dependent
• Those interviewed in the queue itself will be
aided by cues
• (context and state) and so may recall more
detail than others questioned elsewhere/eq;
Some examples:
• e.g. LOP
• Those who used deeper processing are likely
to remember
• more than those who used shallow
processing/eq;
Some examples:
• e.g. Multi store
• Some may have though about and discussed
what they saw (rehearsal) so transferred
information into LTM and will be more able to
recall detail than those who did not transfer
information from STM to LTM/eq;
Some examples:
• e.g Reconstructive memory
• They were behind a barrier so did not see all
the details
• and therefore confabulated some of their
evidence
June 2012
• The students used an opportunity sample in
their Levels of Processing study.
• State one strength and one weakness of
opportunity sampling in general. (2)
State one strength and one weakness
of opportunity sampling in general. (2)
• Allows large numbers of participants to be
recruited quickly / conveniently /eq;
• Not as time consuming as other types e.g.
stratified (as ps are available at any opportune
moment)/eq;
• Likely to be ethical as researcher can judge if
participant is too busy etc/eq;
State one strength and one weakness
of opportunity sampling in general. (2)
• Unlikely to provide a representative sample as
researcher may be biased in who is
chosen/using who is available at the time/eq;
• More likely to suffer from demand
characteristics as family and friends more
likely to be chosen/eq;
• Only those available are used who may all
share similar characteristics/eq;
Jan 2013
• Your younger brother will be starting
psychology at college soon and wants to know
about the underlying concepts of the
Cognitive Approach.
• Describe how the Cognitive Approach explains
human behaviour. (4)
Cognitive approach
• Cognitive psychologists compare the human brain to a computer/eq;
• Information is taken in by the senses before being processed in the
brain/eq;
• The major influence on human behaviour and emotion is how the mind
processes information/eq;
• It is then stored and retrieved from storage during recall/eq;
• Information comes into a computer through a keyboard or software disk.
Humans receive information through their senses/eq;
• The computer then runs programs to process the information.
• Humans process the information via the central nervous system and the
brain/eq;
• The computer gives out output in terms of a printout and humans give a
wide variety of outputs as behaviour/eq;
• We encode, store and retrieve information which makes up our
• memory/eq;
• Theories of forgetting can tell us that we forget things due to availability /
accessibility problems/eq;
• Memory is not like a tape recorder and can be influenced by external
events and internal mechanisms/eq;
Jan 2013
• Your friend is helping you revise and wants to
see if you can pick out the most important
points from theories you have studied.
• Your friend has asked you to explain two
features from the cue dependent theory of
forgetting.
• Outline two features of the cue dependent
theory of forgetting that you think are
important.
Feature of cue dependent theory of
forgetting
• e.g. cues
• When cues present at encoding are not present at retrieval
then
• forgetting may occur/eq;
• Cues (or prompts) are like additional pieces of information
that
• guide us to the information we are seeking a bit like the
• contents page of a book/eq;
• These memory cues may be necessary to access
information
• that is available but not accessible/eq;
Feature of cue dependent theory of
forgetting
• e.g. context cues
– These are environmental cues such as your
classroom/eq;
– For example when someone goes upstairs to get
something and
– forgets what it was, they might remember again
when they are back downstairs in the same place
(context) they first thought about it/eq;
Feature of cue dependent theory of
forgetting
• e.g. state cues
– These are cues internal to the person such as
being excited or
– afraid/eq;
– For example if you learn something when in a
relaxed mood but
– cannot recall it when in a tense mood/eq;