Study 1-2: Bartlett Study 3: Bransford and

Schema Theory mental constructs/representations that

organise our knowledge, beliefs and and Brewer & Treyens Johnson
expectations.

Multi-store Model that suggests the transfer from Study 1: Milner’s Study 2: Glanzer and
Memory Model sensory information to short-term Magic number Cunitz
memory to long-term memory (the three
components of MSM)

Working Memory Model based on MSM that suggests that STM consists of Study 1: Landry and Study 2: Warrington
multiple different stores for different types of information.
Model The main components are; central executive, the slave Bartling and Shallice
systems (phonological loop, episodic buffer, visual spatial
sketchpad), and long-term memory storage
The dual process model of thinking and decision
making suggests that there are to independent
Thinking and systems for processing information. They are Study 2-3: Tversky and
Cognitive Approach
referred to as “System 1”(rational thinking) and
Study 1: Wason
Decision Making Kahneman
“System 2”(intuitive thinking)

according to the reconstructive memory Study 1: Loftus and Study 2: Yuille and
Reconstructive
memory theory, memory is an active process Palmer (1974) Cutshall
which involves the reconstruction of
information
Emotion and this idea centers around flashbulb memory.
Flashbulb memory is a highly detailed and
Study 1: Brown and
Memory
vivid snapshot of the moment where Kulik (1977)
(flashbulb)
surprising or emotionally arousing news was
heard.
Biases in Thinking
The tendency to rely too heavily on the Study 1: English and
and Decision
first piece of information, the “anchor”, Mussweiler
Making - offered when making decisions
Anchoring Bias
 Schema Theory
Definition- mental constructs/representations that organise our knowledge, beliefs and
expectations. Study 2- Brewer and Treyens
Study 1- Bartlett (1932)
Aim: To investigate how memory reconstruction is affected by cultural
schemas
Participants: British participants
Method: The participants were allocated into two groups and told a
Native American story. After Bartlett told the story to the participants, he
asked them either to do a serial reproduction of the story or a repeated
reproduction of the story over a month. Serial reproduction is to retell
the story to another person and this was told to seven people. Repeated
reproduction is to repeat the story to the researcher and this was done in
seven trials in one month.
Results: The result of this experiment was that the word count of the
stories was reduced to 180 words. But the way that the participants retold
the story was the same. There were patterns in the way that the
participants retold the story. When the participants retold the story, they
changed information to make it more familiar. They also excluded
information that was not important to the story. And lastly, they added
details or changed the way the story was told in order to help to make
sense for them.
Conclusion: Bartlett concluded that people tend to reconstruct
the story to fit their own cultural schemas. We do this because our
schemas help us make sense of the world and if we something
doesn’t fit our schemas, we lose that understanding.
Aim: to investigate the impact of schema on memory
Participants: 86 university psychology students
Method:They asked each participant to individually to wait in an office for a short
time while the researcher went to finish the experiment with another participant.
Then, after 35 seconds the research came to get the participant and brought her
into another room where they were asked to recall objects in the office. The
objects in the office were either congruent or incongruent with an office schema –
that is, a mental representation of an office. For example, the office had pencils and
a stapler, but there were also objects like a brick and a screwdriver. The students
were asked to remember these objects under three different conditions: a recall
condition, a drawing condition and a recognition condition.
Results: researchers found with the recall and drawing conditions that the
participants were more likely to remember items in the office that were congruent
with their schema of an office (even if they weren’t actually in the office) but did
not recall objects that were incongruent. However in the verbal recognition
condition where they were asked to choose objects from a list, they were more
likely to identify the incongruent objects with their schemas such as the skull but
also recalled more items that were schema congruent but not actually in the office.
Conclusion: The researchers found that schemas affect the reconstruction of
memory, it also shows that the participants did not create a “photographic
memory” of the office, they used their past experience to predict what would be in
the office when asked to recall the objects. This shows that we are active
processors of information and that we reconstruct our memories based on our
schema.
 Schema Theory
Definition- mental constructs/representations that organise our knowledge, beliefs and
expectations.
Study 1- Bransford and Johnson
Aim: explored whether activating schema improved their participants' recall of an ambiguous tape-recorded message
Participants: 52 participants
Method: The participants were allocated into three groups. In the No Topic group (n = 17), participants heard a passage with no additional
information. In the Topic After group (n = 17), participants were told the topic of the passage after hearing it. In the Topic Before group (n =
18), participants were told the topic of the passage before hearing it. All participants were told that they were going to hear a tape-recorded
passage. They were told that they would later be asked to recall the passage as accurately as possible. All participants were tested at the same
time, but they had different answer booklets. For those who were in the Topic Before group, their instruction sheet said, "The paragraph you
will hear will be about washing clothes." After listening to the passage, they were asked to rate their comprehension of the passage on a 1 - 7
scale. Then, on the final page of the booklet, they were asked to recall the passage as accurately as possible. The Topic After group's
instructions included, "It may help you to know that the paragraph was about washing clothes." Participants were given five minutes for recall.
Results: Participants who were told the message was about ‘washing clothes’ before hearing it remembered more of the 18 idea units (5.83)
than those who were told what it was about after (2.65) they had heard it or not told anything at all (2.82).
Conclusion: This is an important study as it clearly demonstrates that activating a schema can be helpful as it enables people to comprehend
information better and therefore to store it according to meaning.

accommodation
assimilation
 Multi-store Memory Model
Definition- Model that suggests the transfer from sensory information to short-term
memory to long-term memory (the three components of MSM)
Study 1- Miller’s Magic Number (1956)
Aim: To investigate the capacity and duration of STM
Participants: N/A
Method: Participants had to memorise a string of numbers,
increasing each time by one digit. Then the participants had to recall
the numbers.
Results: The basic finding was that participants could recall between
5 to 9 items.
Conclusion: Miller concluded that the STM was limited in both
capacity and duration which was why only those number of items
were recalled. Miller also concluded that chunking helped people to
better recall information.
Study 2- Glanzer and Cunitz
Aim: to investigate serial position effect to show there are two
processes involved in retrieving information.
Participants: US Army enlisted males
Method: The participants had to memorise 15 items and then do
a free-recall task. There were two conditions for the recall. One
condition had to recall immediately after seeing the list. The
second had a timed delay.
Results: From the first condition, participants were better at
remembering items at the start of the list (primacy effect) and the end of
the list (recency effect). In the second condition, participants were able
to remember items at the start of the list (primacy effect) but not the
end.
Conclusion: The researchers concluded that the first items on
the list tend to get rehearsed more, moving to LTM which is
unaffected by delay. The last words on the list aren’t
rehearsed as much which is why they disappeared from the
STM in the second condition. This shows that STM and LTM
have separate mechanisms behind them.
 Working Memory Model
Definition- Model based on MSM that suggests that STM consists of multiple different stores
for different types of information. The main components are; central executive, the slave
systems (phonological loop, episodic buffer, visual spatial sketchpad), and long-term memory
storage
Study 1-Landry and Bartling (2011) Study 2- Warrington and Shallice
Aim: to investigate if articulatory suppression affected memory Aim:to investigate the impact of brain damage on STM .
Participants: psychology students Participants: Patient
Method: In the experimental group, participants saw a list of Method: A series of tests were done on a patient who had
letters, then had to recall them while speaking aloud (articulatory suffered from brain damage due to a motorcycle accident. He
suppression task). The control group saw a list of letters, but had was presented with information orally and then visually
to recall them without speaking aloud. which he had to recall
Results: The scores of the experimental group were much lower Results: The patient was able to remember the visual
than the control group. The participants in the experimental information much better than verbal. He could still transfer
group had a more difficult time recalling information. information from short-term memory storage to long-term
Conclusion: The results support the WMM because disruption of
Results: This supports the WMM because it shows there are
the phonological loop through the use of articulatory
different stores for different kinds of information. The patient
suppression lead to less accurate working memory.
studied could recognise visual and auditory information (e.g.
telephone ringing) but not verbal. Thus, there must be
different components for information.
 Thinking and Decision Making: The Dual Process Model
Definition- The dual process model of thinking and decision making suggests that there
are to independent systems for processing information. They are referred to as “System
1”(rational thinking - slower) and “System 2”(intuitive thinking - faster)
Study 1- Wason
Aim: To investigate how logical reasoning affects decision-making
Participants: n/a
Method: Participants were shown cards. They had to answer the following question: Which card(s) must be turned over to test the
idea that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red?
Results: Most participants chose cards with an even number, and a red card. This was incorrect. The correct answer was the
even number and the brown card.
Conclusion: Wason concluded that participants use matching bias to solve problems. This means that we are influenced by
the working of the question. Most people used S1 to answer the question. In later trials, it was found that when the task
wasn’t abstract, most participants could choose the right cards to turn over.

walking to school
intuitive and rational
intuitive - you know the way to school
 Thinking and Decision Making: The Dual Process Model
Definition- The dual process model of thinking and decision making suggests that there
are to independent systems for processing information. They are referred to as “System
1”(rational thinking) and “System 2”(intuitive thinking)
Study 2- Tversky and Kahneman
Aim: to investigate whether people mistake representativeness for similarity
Participants: 88 US students at different educational levels (undergraduates, graduates, PhD)
Method: The students completed a questionnaire with the following questions:
Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and bright. She majored in philosophy and she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and
social justice and participated in anti-nuclear movements.

Which is more probable?

- Linda is a bankteller
- Linda is a bankteller and is active in the feminist movement

Results: Almost 90% of the participants answered it incorrecly picking the second option (bankteller and is active in the feminist movement)
Conclusion: People were inclined to pick the wrong option due to System 1 thinking ,overriding system 2 thinking. Quick, intuitive and
emotion-driven thinking made respondents more likely to pick option 2. This is an example of the conjunction fallacy; that specific conditions
have a higher probability than single general conditions.
 Thinking and Decision Making: The Dual Process Model
Definition- The dual process model of thinking and decision making suggests that
there are to independent systems for processing information. They are referred to as
“System 1”(intuitive thinking) and “System 2” (rational thinking)
Study 3- Tversky and Kahneman
Aim: To test the influence of the anchoring bias on decision-making
Participants: high school students
Method: Participants in the “ascending condition” were asked to quickly estimate the value of 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 X 8 in five
seconds. Those in the “descending condition” were asked to quickly estimate the value of 8 X 7 X 6 X 5 X 4 X 3 X 2 X 1. Since we
read from left to right, the researchers assumed that group 1 would use "1" as an anchor and predict a lower value that the group
that started with "8" as the anchor. The expectation was that the first number seen would bias the estimate of the value by the
participant.
Results: The researchers found that the median for the ascending group was 512; the median for the descending group was 2250.
The actual value is 40320.
Conclusion:

system 1 uses heuristics - one of those heuristics is anchoring bias

 Biases in Thinking and Decision Making - Anchoring Bias
Definition- The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information, the “anchor”,
offered when making decisions
Study 1- Englich and Mussweiler
Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a prosecutor's suggestion for sentencing on the decision-making of a judge.
Participants: an independent samples design, 19 young trial judges (15 males, 4 female) of an average age of 29
Method: were given an alledged case of rape. Before the experiment, a pilot test was carried out on 24 senior university students
studying law to test the case materials that were used. There was a suggested 17 month prison term. This was then used to
determine the anchors. After giving the case studies, the judges were asked to read through the penal code and the case studies and
form an opinion about the case. After about 15 minutes, a questionnaire. Half of the participants were given a questionnaire that said
the prosecutor demanded a 34-month sentence and the other were told a 2-month sentence. In the questionnaire the participants
were asked to evaluate their own opinions about the case after seeing what was suggested, (e.g. if they thought they were being too
high or low, if they thought the sentence was realistic or not, if they were certain about their response, etc.).
Results: In the 2 month condition the average sentence was 18.78 months (standard deviation 9.11), however in the 34 month
condition the average sentence was 28.7 months (standard deviation of 6.53).
Conclusion: This showed that the anchor placed by the prosecution significantly affected the average sentence length of the judge.
 Reconstructive Memory
Definition- according to the reconstructive memory theory, memory is an active process
which involves the reconstruction of information Study 2- Yuille and Cutshall.
Study 1- Loftus and Palmer (Part 1)
Aim: To investigate whether memory was influenced by leading questions,
specifically in the estimation of speed of cars in an accident.
Method: Students were shown film recordings of traffic accidents and had to
answer a questionnaire about the accident. There was one critical question in
which the students were asked how fast the car was going during the accident.
The word “accident” was changed to varying degrees of intensity for e.g. “hit”,
“collided”, and “smashed”. Different words were used because they have
different connotations which trigger different schemas.
Results: The critical question where the words had a more intense
connotation had a higher estimate of speed. This is interesting because
the participants all watched the same film.
Conclusion: The researchers concluded that there were two
interpretations of the findings.
- Response bias: Using a verb with higher intensity such as
“smashed” biases the response to a higher estimate
- Memory change: The question may have caused the participant’s
memory representation to change.
- for example a verb of higher intensity such as “smashed”
may have caused the subject to remember the memory as
being more severe than it really was
Aim: To investigate whether leading questions affected
the memory of eyewitnesses of a real crime scene
Participants: Eyewitnesses of a shooting in Vancouver
(where a thief had shot the owner of a shop)
Method: Four months after the event, the eyewitnesses
were called in for the study. They had to answer
questions. There were two leading questions. Half were
asked if there was a yellow panel on the getaway car. The
other half, weather there was a broken headlight on the
car.
Results: The majority of the eyewitnesses answered the
leading questions correctly (or they said they didn’t recall
those details). The eyewitnesses were quite reliable and
accurate in their answers.
Conclusion: This research contradicts Loftus and
Palmer’s findings, the eyewitnesses weren’t influence
by the leading questions. However, the eyewitnesses
associated a lot of emotion with this event which may
have helped with the accuracy of the memory.
 Reconstructive Memory
Definition- according to the reconstructive memory theory, memory is an active process
which involves the reconstruction of information
Study 1- Loftus and Palmer (Part 2)
Aim: To investigate whether response bias or memory change was responsible for memory distortion.
Method: Students were shown film recordings of traffic accidents and had to answer a questionnaire which had the critical questions
from experiment 1. Students were allocated into one of three groups: “smashed into eachother”, “hit eachother”, and a control group
which wasnt asked the question. One week later the participants had to complete another questionnaire without watching the film.
This time, the critical question was whether there had been any broken glass in the traffic accident scene.
Results: The more intense the verb, the more likely it was that the participant answered yes to the broken glass question
Conclusion: The researchers concluded that there was no actual change in memory. They suggested that memory was
influenced by their perception of the event AND post-event information.
 Emotion and Memory: Flash Bulb Memories
Definition- this idea centers around flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memory is a highly
detailed and vivid snapshot of the moment where surprising or emotionally arousing
Study 1- Brown and Kulik news was heard.
Aim: to study white immigrants’ attitudes towards the black population of Zimbabwe based on how long they’ve
lived there
Participants: 500 White europeans aged 20 and older, who have lived in Rhodesia for a period of fewer than five
years to over forty years
Method: a survey containing sixty-six examples of laws and customs in which White Europeans and Africans were
treated differently. Four response choices were provided with 0 for it is very important to maintain the current
system, 2 for a weak feeling of importance, 4 is for a preference for discontinuing the law and 6 for is very
important to discontinue the law.
Results: Found that white immigrants who moved to Zimbabwe developed more stereotypes against the natives the
longer they stayed there. The mean score of the sample was 2.45 illustrating that the majority of Europeans in
Southern Rhodesia favoured the retention of the status quo. 348 of the 500 participants (almost 70 percent) fell
below a mean score of 3.00.
Conclusion: This may have been because they identified with the other white immigrants and adopted the
dominant stereotypes of that “in-group”. The scores show that new arrivals would eventually change their attitudes
over time more determined about maintaining the segregation.