Meden
School
Psychology
News
Volume 1, Issue 1
December 2012
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Chocolate could be good for you?
Chocolate is good?
1
RM applied
2
Case studies
3
Memory exp
4
Memento
5
Book review
6
Crossword
7
Memory applied
8
Psychology in
the news!
Could chocolate stave off
dementia?
Daily dose
could help
keep condition at bay
A daily dose of chocolate
could help keep dementia
and Alzheimer's at bay, a
study suggests.
Researchers found that
consuming cocoa every
day helped improve mild
cognitive impairment – a
condition involving memory
loss which can progress to
dementia or Alzheimer's –
in elderly patients.
For the study, 90 people
aged 70 or older diagnosed with mild cognitive
impairment were split into
three groups of 30 and given either a high, medium or
low dose of a cocoa drink
daily.
The drink contained flavanols – chemicals associated with a decreased dementia risk which are found
in a variety of foods, including cocoa products such as
dark chocolate.
The participants' diet was
restricted to eliminate other
sources of flavanols, such
as tea or red wine.
a calorie-controlled and
Their cognitive function was
nutritionally-balanced diet,
examined using tests of
could improve cognitive
factors including working
function.
memory and processing
speed.
By Rebecca Fretwell
Researchers found those
who drank the high and
medium doses daily had
significantly better cognitive
scores by the end of the
eight-week study in a number of categories, including
working memory.
Those given the higher
doses of the flavanol drink
improved far more than
those given the lowest
dose, the study, published in the journal
Hypertension, found.
Insulin resistance and
blood pressure also
decreased in those
drinking high and medium doses of the flavanol drink.
encouraging evidence Turn over to see psychology applied to
that consuming cocoa
this article!
flavanols, as a part of
How to conduct your own memory experiment!
In 1960, a psychologist
named Sperling devised an
experiment to test if the
sensory section of the
memory had different parts,
such as the iconic store
(things we see), the echoic
store (things we hear) and
the haptic store (things we
feel touch/feel).
To test this theory he creat-
ed a chart containing 3
rows of 4 letters, which he
then displayed for a very
brief period of time (50 milliseconds) to his participants.
How to conduct this experiment for yourself:
1. Draw a table with 3 rows
and 4 columns on either a
large piece of paper or on a
document on the computer,
and write in each box just
one letter. It doesn't matter
which letters, as long as
you only use each letter
one, and they are not in
any order, such as alphabetical.
Continued on page 4
Page 2
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Chocolate & Dementia– Research Methods
Rebecca has applied her
research methods
knowledge to the research
you read about on the
front page. Have a look!
We can see from this article that it was an independent measures design
as each participant only
did one condition each.
This is a good way to conduct an experiment as it
reduces fatigue effect,
however differences between conditions could be
due to differences between participants rather
than the actual chocolate
A good point of this experiment is that the scientists
gave them a controlled
diet which would try to
eliminate other sources of
the flavanols which would
affect the results produced.
would need to be considered as this may also be a
contributing effect.
The sample sizes were
also
not
big
an effect on the working
memory, but doesn’t state
which part exactly? The
central executive, the phonological loop, episodic
buffer, visuospatial
sketchpad? All
of which
would need
further investigation to produce valid,
reliable results.
By Rebecca
Fretwell
enough to make
the results valid
and to make a solid concrete conclusion from these
results.
How‘High, mediever
um or low
the
dose’ is also
Independent measures … is a
theory
not a specific
good way to conduct an
needs
measurement
experiment
as
it
reduces
fatigue
looking
and could
effects
into
show variamore,
tion based on
as otha person’s
er exjudgement.
traneous variables such
as any other medical
It mentions it has
problems they may have,
Page 3
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Case Studies– what are they?
Case studies are a way of
research.
observing psychological pheCase studies are great ways
nomena and are used mainly
of gaining insight of the indifor longitudinal studies
vidual's personal experiences
(those that are carried out
and for developing new ways
over a long period of time).
to conduct research. AltThey are generally used for
hough some scientists argue
gathering detailed inforthat the case study is nonmation
scientific, it is a
about individgood method
ual or small
that has been
Case studies are a way of
group of peoknow to test esobserving psychological
ple who are
tablished thinking
phenomena and are used
unique or have
in psychology.
mainly for longitudinal studies
a rare psychoAdvantages of
logical cases
the case study is
or events.
that it produces
Usually, case studies involves
meaningful data that is qualithe production of a case histies and easy to intory, which includes recterpret, it has high
ords of relevant details
levels of ecological
about the individual or
validity and realism
group, such as family relaas an experiment is
tionships, medical records,
not conducted so
employment history and sothe individual's accioeconomic status. Other
tions and feelings
additional information can
will not be different
also be collected using reto their real life situsearch methods like surveys,
ations.
interviews and observations,
Some disadvantages
with the individuals and their
of case studies are
family members answering
that it's difficult to
questions asked to keep imreplicate findings so
portant information up to
is hard to establish the reliadate.
bility of the study. It is also
Most case studies share the
difficult to generalise to refollowing features:
sults beyond the individual
- the method is often very
or small group being studied
descriptive and the data colas case studies are mainly
lected is qualitative in rich
conducted on unique cases,
detail.
meaning there is a low popu- the research is often very
lation validity.
focused on a specific aspect
Finally there is high chance
of behaviour, which us
of researcher bias as they
known as a narrow focus in
can often become too involved in the study and write
their opinion into their findings.
Ethical issues are a key part
to any psychological experiment or study, and case
studies have very few. One
of the most important issues
that need to be strictly kept
is protection from harm, and
with case studies, this is a
great example of when the
issues doesn't apply as any
events that occur with may
lead to either physical or
mental harm will happen naturally, not caused by participating in an experiment.
However,
confidentiality is an issue,
as the studies
are often
done on an
individual
case, so
names are
often used
(such as with
the case of
Genie) although this
problem is
sometimes overcome by using initials.
So there you go, a short
summary of the concepts of
sugar a case study is and
what it involves!
By Georgia Clay
Page 4
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
How to conduct your own memory
experiment! Continued from front page
2. Next, find some friends
or family who would like to
participate. However, you
must inform them what they
have to do in the experiment, without telling them
what the findings should
show so they don't have
any idea what they need to
do to achieve the results
you want (this is known as
demand characteristics,
where the participants become aware of what the
researchers expect to find).
You mustn't force them into
participating either, as this
goes against the ethical
issue of informed consent
(participants consent to taking part, and understand
what they are consenting
to, unless the participant is
under the age of 16 then
parents or carers should
give consent as well/
instead).
(WITHOUT the table showing for the moment) so that
everyone can see it clearly
and ensure there are no
distractions that could lower the validity of the experiment. Then show the grid
in the count of
one quick second (as it's
hard to count
50 milliseconds by yourself), ensuring
the table is
clear to see for
the participants for the second that you show it.
6. Once the participants
have written down all the
letters they can recall after
the one second that you
showed them, make a tally
chart of the letter that were
recalled to find which were
the most remembered.
7. Finally, explain the pur3. Sit your participants
poses and what the
down, slightly
experiment set out to
away and
Next, find some friends or
find and then fully
family who would like to
from each othparticipate. However, you
debrief the particier so that they
must
inform
them
what
they
pants so that any
can't copy any
have
to
do
in
the
experiment,
questions can be
answers, and
asked, and to ensure
give them
that no one has beeach a pen and paper to
come distressed or anrecord their recalled words
noyed because they only
down.
managed to recall a few
4. It's time to start! Tell your
letters. Remember it's all
participants that you're gofor a bit of fun!
ing to show a grid of letters
Your results should show
on the board and they must
that each participant can
write down as many of the
only recall four or five
letters as they can.
words, but may also report
5. Ensure that the computseeing more letters even
er or paper that you have
though they cannot recall
drawn your table on is in
them. This is due to the fact
front of all participants
that the image of the table
fades during the time it takes
to recall these four letters,
proving there is an ICONIC
store in the sensory memory,
as it is the image of the table
that you see in the memory of
your recall.
This experiment was also
repeated by Sperling for a
second time, but using
three sounds with different
pitches. There was a high
pitched tone played the
first time the table of letters
was displayed, and the
participants were asked to
recall letters in the top line of the
table, the medium tone was
played and the table shown with
the middle line being asked to
be recalled, and the low tone
was played with the table shown
as the bottom line was asked to
be recalled.
The participants didn't know
which line they would be asked
to recall until after the table had
been taken away.
The findings to these were that,
on average, 3 items from each
row were remembered from
whichever of the rows had been
cued by the different pitched
tones.
This suggests that there is an
ECHOIC store to the sensory
memory as it was the tones that
led the brain to think it had to
concentrate on the different
rows.
In conclusion, you will be able to
amaze your friends and family
by testing this experiment with
them and then informing them of
the how and why with your
knowledge!
By Georgia Clay
Track him. Find him. Kill him.
Cast: Guy Pearce… Carrie
-Anne Moss & Joe Pantoiano
Over view: Leonard
wakes up one night to
find his
wife missing from
their bed.
When he
goes looking for
her, he
interrupts
a man in
the process of
sexually
assaulting her in the
bathroom. Leonard suffers a blow to the head
which destroys his shortterm memory. The last
thing he remembers is
his wife dying, and he is
adamant on revenge.
Without a short-term
memory to guide him,
Leonard relies on Polarstarted
oid’s, notes and daily tatto do.
toos to assist him in closEven
ing in on his wife's killer.
though Leonard uses a
Leonard has amnesystem of Polaroid phosia and is unable to store
tos and tattoos to keep
recent memories; the retrack of what he's doing,
sult of an attack by two
it's up to him to record
men. Leonard killed the
whatever he considers
attacker who raped and
important. At the mostrangled his wife,
ment of
but a second
making
Without a short-term
clubbed him and
a snap
memory to guide him,
escaped. The pojudgeLeonard relies on
lice did not accept
ment, if
Polaroid’s, notes and
there was a second
he fails
daily tattoos to assist
attacker, but Leonto find a
him in closing in on
ard believes he is
pen, or
his wife's killer
called John with a
if he's
last name starting
out of
with ‘G’. Leonard confilm, or if he just choose
ducts his own investigato not record the infortion using a system of
mation, then his luck
notes, Polaroid photos,
could
and tattoos. The problem
run out.
with being on a quest
and having only shortterm memory is that you
can easily forget that you
just finished what you
MEMENTO: A MUST SEE
This film is definitely aimed fat
an audience with a high level of
visual adventure and longing for
a great story to unfold. The
story is relayed in fragments,
echoing Leonard's experience
of short term memory loss,
with lost of pieces missing from
his jigsaw. For many viewers,
the film will be something of a
head-scratcher, the kind of
thing that bears a few repeat
viewings going back into the
past, and a lot of eye brow raising– but it is definitely worth
watching twice. The plot is
Page 5
complex, and the film rests
greatly on the strong performances of the major characters, which is what makes it
such a good film to watch.
The story focuses on a man
who cannot make new memories and is trying to find the
man who raped and killed his
wife. It’s told backwards in
short sequences. This keeps
you on your toes and makes
you feel the same way as Leonard does, which lets you emo-
tionally connect to the charecters, feeling what they feel
and seeing what they see
though their eyes.
MOVIE REVIEW BY: Amber
Whiting
PSYCHOLOGY NEWS
Page 6
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
BOOK REVIEW– A Curious
Incident Of The Dog In The Night
Time– by Mark Haddon
This book explores the
would be a major problem
difficulties of Asperger’s
for him to understand, so
syndrome from different
lies to him and tells him
perspechis mother
tives. The
died. This
narrator is
could have
This syndrome allows
Christopher
psychologihim to be very
Boone who
cally damintelligent, passing A
is 15 and
aged him at
Level math's with an A
has the
an early age.
grade, but to struggle
syndrome.
His father
with basic human
This synthen kills the
emotion, which doesn't
drome aldog in the
always have a logical
lows him to
story after
answer.
be very inbreaking up
telligent,
with the next
passing A
door neighbor. ChristoLevel math's with an A
pher discovers this fact
grade, but to struggle with
and that his mothbasic human emotion,
er isn’t dead
which doesn't always have
through his own
a logical answer.
investigation of the
His mother and father
have separated, as his
mother cant cope with the
syndrome. She also falls
in love with the next door
neighbors husband. His
father knows that this
dogs death secretly.
This investigation takes
Christopher out of his
comfort zone and on a
journey to London by train
and bus to find his mother.
The end of the book deals
with new relationships that
are formed.
By Sophie Savage.
Page 7
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Psychology Crossword
By Alexia Wormall
Memory improvement
strategies, and how to
use them to help you
revise
Mnemonics are techniques devised to improve
memory, these techniques create new neural pathways in our brains making information easy to retrieve, there is two kinds visual and verbal techniques…
MEDEN SCHOOL
If you would like to submit articles for
future newsletters please email me at:
[email protected]
A note from the editor:
Firstly, a BIG thank you to
all the writers of the first
edition of the Psychology
Newsletter!
Secondly, I want to see
lots more writing! Here are
a few reasons why you
should do it:
1.
2.
3.
Because you love
psychology :-)
You want to show off
your writing skills
You need truthful
things to write on
your UCAS application
Deadline for the next
newsletter is Mon 28th
Jan 2013.
The most common and probably most useful verbal
technique when it comes to revising are acrostics – a
good example of
which is
‘Richard of
York gave
battle in
vain’ which
are the colours of the
rainbow
(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) the first letters correspond to the colours, so to remember a certain
piece of information or and ordered sequence you
could write out an acrostic.
Another useful method is the method of loci. This
technique incorporates facts into another story/
memory for example you can associate a fact to a
room in your house and as you mentally walk through
your house you are enabled to retrieve the information easily.
A visual technique that’s very useful when revising is
mind maps. Each diagram has a distinct look, you are
then able to mentally picture the diagram memorising
colours and shapes to help retrieve information.
By Kai Williams