1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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: /journal.pone
[2]: 
[3]: Schneider DM, Watkins MJ (1996) Response conformity in recognition testing. Psychon Bull Rev 3:  
[4]: Reysen MB (2005) The effects of conformity on recognition judgements. Memory 13:
[5]: McKelvey, Wendy; Kerr, Nancy H. (1988). "Differences in conformity among friends and strangers". Psychological Reports 62 (3):
THANK YOU!!
SE 367: Introduction to Cognitive Science