SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science PROJECT PResentation Mentor: Prof. Amitabh Mukherjee Effect of trust on social conformity in Recognition Memory   Pranjal Saxena Y9424 SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science Pranjal Saxena Y9424

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science OVERVIEW Social Conformity: Act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours. Why Recognition memory? Relevant in Eyewitness testimony. Peer influence altering memories of incidents. Friends and Strangers: Conformity is larger among friends than strangers. Exception : McKelvey, Wendy; Kerr, Nancy H. (1988) SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science OBJECTIVES To study effects of conformity on recognition memory with four confederates and a participant with 0 to 4 correct responses. To compare the conformity effects on correct recognition of old images and false recognition of new images. To establish the difference in conformity between cases where the confederates are strangers to the participant and when they are friends with an element of trust involved. SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science EXPERIMENT Database of 130 images: onemillionpeople.com A trial: 4 confederates ,1 participant. Participant convinced to be a part of a “memory test”. Conf. have doctored responses written on their sheets. Image cited from "Graded effects of Social Conformity on Recognition memory" Encoding :50 images shown with a gap of 2 seconds. Retrieval: Another set of images. Part. Identify new and old images. Part. Respond loudly after the Conf. 10 trials each for strangers and friends cases. Hits(no of correct recognitions of old) false alarms(no of false recognition of new items) Plotted Separately SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science RESULTS 1> Experiment1 : Setting a base case: Establishing that memory is better than chance and evaluating memory efficiency in absence of conformity. SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

DISTRIBUTION IN OLD AND NEW 2> Experiment2 : Effects of conformity STRANGERS FRIENDS No of correct confederates COMPARISON: DISTRIBUTION IN OLD AND NEW SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science DISCUSSION Conformity effects well established: Correct responses of the participant decreased as No. of incorrect Conf. Increase from 0 to 4. Coherence with study of Axmacher[1]. Conformity stronger with friends than strangers: This case being Informational Influence(conforming to give accurate information) McKelvey, Wendy; Kerr, Nancy H. (1988): opposite results Case being Normative Influence Conforming to be acceptable and liked by a group. Conformity effects larger on Hits than False Alarms: More likely to forget old memories rather than form new memories. Replication of Axmacher’s results in short version. Diverts from previous studies. SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science FURTHER STUDIES Effect of conformity by variation in task difficulty: 1>Reducing time during Encoding 2>Increasing number of images. Conformity differences between males and females. SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science REFERENCES [1]: Axmacher N, Gossen A, Elger CE, Fell J (2010) Graded Effects of Social Conformity on Recognition Memory. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9270. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009270 [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity [3]: Schneider DM, Watkins MJ (1996) Response conformity in recognition testing. Psychon Bull Rev 3: 481-485.  [4]: Reysen MB (2005) The effects of conformity on recognition judgements. Memory 13: 87-94. [5]: McKelvey, Wendy; Kerr, Nancy H. (1988). "Differences in conformity among friends and strangers". Psychological Reports 62 (3): 759-62 THANK YOU!! SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science