Psychology and Pranking

Psychology: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

• Scientific study– Empirical research

• Experiments, observations

• Behavior: observable actions/reactions– Examples?

• Mental processes: internal activities– Cognitions = thoughts

• Examples?

– Affect/Emotion = feelings• Examples?

Psychology

• In this course we will discuss some aspects of cognitive and social psychology.– Cognitive Psychology: The scientific study of

human mental processes– Social Psychology: The scientific study of human

behavior and mental processes as shaped by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others

Psychology

• Why is it important in the context of pranking?

Remember the Canons of Rhetoric?

• Invention – concerned with finding something to say (what is gonna be said).• Use topoi (relationships among ideas) to generate something to say.

• Cause/effect• Past/future• Similarities/differences

• Arrangement – concerned with how ya order communication.• To culture jam, ya gotta recognize the order of the jammed.

• Style – concerned with how ya “say” or present what you communicate (words, art, images used, use of metaphors, and stuff like that).

• To culture jam, a lotta times ya gotta imitate the style of the jammed.

• Memory – concerned with remembering communication, making communication memorable, and having the ability to “off the cuff.”

• To culture jam, ya gotta figure out how to make the jam memorable to an audience.

• Delivery – also concerned with how ya say or present your communication (gonna have an accent, gonna stand up straight, gonna use Twitter, gonna video, gonna be live – how ya gonna deliver the information?)

• To culture jam ya gotta figure out how you are gonna deliver your communication.

Mnemonics

• Mnemonic technique: A strategy that improves memory

• Examples– Interactive Images– Method of Loci

Interactive Images

• Create interactive images that link the isolated words in a list.

Method of Loci

• Visualize walking around an area with distinctive landmarks that you know well, and then link the various landmarks to specific items to be remembered.

Memory/Mind Palace

• The method of loci has been know by different names.

Let’s briefly discuss a few memory theories.

Different Memory Stores

• We have three different memory stores, or sets of neurons that maintain information

• Each memory store has a different…– Duration: the length of time information is

maintained– Capacity: the amount of information that is

maintained– Theory of Forgetting: how information is lost

Different Memory Stores• Fundamental distinctions among memory

stores were first characterized by Atkinson and Shiffrin– Three-Stage Model of Memory (Modal Model)

SM STM LTM

Capacity Quite Large 7+/ - 2 chunks Quite Large

Duration 100-250 msec 10-30 secs Lifetime

Forgetting Decay Interference Retrieval Failure

The Atkinson & Shiffrin Thee-Stage Memory Model

Levels of Processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)

• Info processing at varying levels of depth – Deep Processing: Meaning and importance– Shallow Processing: Surface forms of items

• Deep Processing results in greater memory• Depth is a continuum

– Structural: The properties of the stimulus word• Shallow• HOW MANY VOWELS DOES THE WORD HAVE?

– Phonemic: The sound of the spoken word • Intermediate• WHAT IS A WORD THAT RHYMES WITH THIS WORD?

– Semantic: The meaning of the word• Deep• DOES THE WORD FIT IN THIS SENTENCE?: THERE WAS A _____ ON THE

SIDE OF THE ROAD.

Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory

• Dual coding theory – memory is improved when items can be stored as verbal and visual codes– Makes memory better– You can forget one without forgetting the other

Improving Memory

• Engage in deep processing (elaborative rehearsal)– Semantic encoding

• Understand what material means

Improving Memory

• Engage in deep processing (elaborative rehearsal)– Self-referencing encoding

• Make material personally meaningful

Improving Memory

• Information on any given topic will be remembered better by individuals who have great interest in it than those who don’t– e.g., the Swazi’s of South Africa superior memory for

information about cows (Bartlett, 1932)

• Interest in a topic is positively associated with pre-existing knowledge and schemas into which new information can be integrated– e.g., existing soccer knowledge correlates highly with the ability

to remember made-up soccer scores (Morris et al., 1981)

18

Improving Memory

• Engage in deep processing (elaborative rehearsal)– Make the information distinct

• Primary distinctiveness – item is distinct from other items in the immediate context

– cup saucer plate fork spoon knife bowl

• Secondary distinctiveness – distinct from items stored in LTM– Orthographic distinctiveness – lowercase words that have an unusual shape– lymph, khaki, afghan LYMPH, KHAKI, AFGHAN

• Emotional distinctiveness – items that produce an intense emotional reaction

• Processing distinctiveness – creation of a memory code that makes that memory distinct from others

Improving Memory

• Engage in adequate rehearsal– Repetition (maintenance rehearsal) is not enough– Testing effect

• Doing practice questions increases retention

– Expanding retrieval• Each item should be tested at the longest interval at

which it can be reliably recalled

Mind Maps

• Mind Map:– A

note-taking/brainstorming strategy consisting of a diagram, including:

• A central idea• Related ideas

– More closely related concepts are located closer to the central concept

• Links connecting them

• Buzan and Buzan (1993)

21

Benefits of Mind Maps

• Presumed Benefits– Encourage active learning– More natural than linear

note taking– Ideas are distilled to their

core, leaving out unimportant details

– Visual images may be easier to remember

– Color coding can be used to indicate category relations

• Empirical Benefits– Farrand, Hussaine, and Hennessy

(2002)• Task:

– Learn the material by:» Mind mapping» Usual study

techniques– Tested 1 week later

• Results:– Mind-mapping group

recalled 10% more» Even though

mind mappers had less motivation for their technique

22

Improving Memory

• Study in the state/context you will be tested

Gooden & Baddeley (1975)

How can you improve the memory of other individuals?

How can you make a prank more memorable?

What if your audience doesn’t want to learn the information?