own-race boas and memory for faces

Memory  Paper  Instructions  

The  memory  paper  will  test  your  ability  to  think,  generate  hypotheses,  and,  in  general,   apply  psychological  science.  The  task  will  be  to  take  a  position  in  a  current  debate  in   memory  science.  You  will  then  have  to  support  your  position  by  drawing  on  the  data   that  are  available  on  the  topic.  The  goal  is  to  convince  readers  that  the  position  you  take   is  correct  by  presenting  the  relevant  data  on  the  topic.  Writing  that  both  positions  are   correct  will  automatically  result  in  a  deduction  of  points.  Think  of  this  as  a  “debate”  in   which  your  job  is  to  argue  one  of  the  positions.  This  paper  will  require  you  to  go  beyond   the  textbook.  You  will  need  to  refer  to  journal  articles,  book  chapters,  and,  if  you  must,   websites.  

Each  student  must  read  journal  articles  for  the  paper.  At  least  three  journal  articles  must   be  referenced.  If  you  use  websites,  you  are  responsible  for  any  misinformation  you  get   from  the  website  (the  best  websites  to  use  are  those  of  the  researchers  themselves).   Your  view  in  the  reaction  paper  must  be  supported  by  psychological  science  (including   neuroscience,  social  psychology,  neurobiology).  Your  feelings  and  impressions  are  not   relevant  in  this  paper;  rather  it  is  scientific  data  that  you  must  draw  upon.  You  do  not   have  to  be  balanced.  Choose  arguments  that  support  your  position,  and  refute   arguments  that  may  support  the  other  position.  You  will  be  graded  on  your  ability  to   do  both.  

You  may  email  me  questions  on  how  best  to  do  this.  APA  style  is  encouraged  but  not   required.  Choose  one  topic  from  the  list  below.  If  the  topic  is  pre-­‐approved  by  your   professor  (that  is,  from  the  list  below),  you  do  not  require  the  professors  pre-­‐ approval.  However,  if  you  wish  to  pursue  a  topic  not  on  the  list  below,  please  obtain   your  professors  permission  first.  This  is  to  insure  that  the  topic  is  appropriate  for   memory  science.  Approval  cannot  occur  after  the  paper  has  been  handed  in.  You  must   also  answer  the  question  in  approximately  1,000  words  (about  3  pages).  Papers  will  not   be  read  if  they  contain  fewer  than  900  words,  not  will  they  be  read  if  they  are  more   than  1100  words  (I  am  serious  about  this;  there  has  to  be  a  limit  somewhere,  so  the   bounds  will  be  enforced)  You  must  craft  your  arguments  to  fit  into  the  word  limit.  The   word  limit  refers  to  the  body  of  your  paper  and  does  not  include  title  page,  references,   and  any  supplementary  material  you  add.  

You  may  email  me  questions  on  how  best  to  do  this  project  of  which  topic  to  choose.   APA  style  is  encouraged  but  not  required.  Choose  one  topic  from  the  list  below.  If  the   topic  is  pre-­‐approved  by  your  professor  (that  is,  from  the  list  below),  you  do  not   require  the  professors  pre-­‐approval.  However,  if  you  wish  to  pursue  a  topic  not  on  the   list  below,  please  obtain  your  professors  permission  first.  This  is  to  insure  that  the   topic  is  appropriate  for  cognitive  psychology.  Approval  cannot  occur  after  the  paper   has  been  handed  in.  You  must  also  answer  the  question  in  approximately  1,000  words   (about  3  pages).  Papers  will  not  be  read  if  they  contain  fewer  than  900  words,  not  will   they  be  read  if  they  are  more  than  1100  words  (I  am  serious  about  this;  there  has  to  be  

a  limit  somewhere,  so  the  bounds  will  be  enforced)  You  must  craft  your  arguments  to  fit   into  the  word  limit.  The  1000  words  includes  the  text  of  the  paper,  but  does  not  include   title,  abstract,  references,  appendices,  or  graphs.  

Memory  Paper  Due:  Friday,  December  4,  11:55  pm  via  Turnitin  dropbox.  This  is  an   individual  project.  You  may  discuss  this  project  with  other  students  in  the  class,  but  you   may  not  collaborate.  Each  paper  must  be  your  own.  If  your  reaction  paper  is  plagiarized,   you  will  fail  the  course  and  be  reported  to  the  appropriate  Dean  at  the  University.  

Topics:  

• Distributed  vs.  Massed  practice:  which  produces  better  learning.     • Visual  mnemonics:  Does  the  method  of  loci  improve  the  learning  of  lists?     • Childhood  amnesia:  theoretical  explanations     • Survival  processing:  Nairne  and  Pandeierada  (2007)     • The  generation  effect     • Flashbulb  memories:  special  mechanism  or  general  mechanism.     • Critical  Intrusions:  What  causes  false  memories  in  the  DRM?     • Diary  studies:  what,  when,  and  where  cues.     • Encoding  specificity     • Interference  between  visual  and  auditory  working  memory     • Part-­‐Set  Cueing:  Recall  of  the  U.S.  states.     • Overlearning:  savings  score  and  studying  past  the  point  of  perfect  retention     • Retrieval  practice:  do  you  do  better  after  self-­‐testing     • Own-­‐race  bias  and  memory  for  faces.     • The  accuracy  of  cue-­‐only  vs.  cue-­‐target  judgments  of  learning     • Imagery-­‐based  mnemonics  vs.  one  the  four  principles.