Research Studies for the Cognitive Level of Analysis
GENERAL LEARNING OUTCOMES
Outline (at least) two principles that define the cognitive level of analysis. Explain how and why these principles are connected to the research at this level of analysis. (8 marks)
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Explain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis may be demonstrated in research (8 marks)
Glanzer and Kunitz - primacy / recency
Aim to test the primacy - recency effect, participants asked to read a list of 20 words then asked to recall as many as possible; in one variation they were asked to do a distraction task before recall
Participants tended to remember the first and last few words better due to rehearsal / last few words being in STM
Clive Wearing brain scans
Aimed to look at how Clive Wearing's condition affects brain activity
Showed significant damage to hippocampus and frontal cortex - affects emotional and memory
HM case study
HM showed damage in hippocampus and amygdala
Bartlett (1932) - War of the Ghosts
Aim was to prove that memory is reconstructive / to investigate whether cultural schemas influence recall, asked White-American participants to read a Native American folk story then asked to recall / reproduce
First method - serial reproduction: one person reproduces original story, then second person reproduces reproduction etc. 6 / 7 times
Second method - participants asked to read story then asked to reproduce from memory after 15 minutes
Found that culturally-specific details were sometimes missed out / replaces
Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the cognitive level of analysis (22 marks)
Loftus and Palmer - car crash study
Participants shown a clip of a car crash then were asked to estimate speed of the cars when they "smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted"
Speed estimates varied, with "gentler" words having lower speed estimates
Tali Sharot - 9/11 flashbulb memory
Aim to investigate the existence of flashbulb memories, 24 people who witnessed 9/11 were used, asked to recall events of the day and also asked to recall summer holiday as a control and then scanned using an fMRI machine
People closer to event had greater depth of recall, detail of 9/11 much higher than control
Areas responsible for LTM retrieval (parahippocampal gyrus) was more active in control, amygdala (emotional memory) more active recalling 9/11
Clive Wearing brain scans
Aimed to look at how Clive Wearing's condition affects brain activity
Showed significant damage to hippocampus and frontal cortex - affects emotional and memory
Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis. (22 marks)
Loftus and Palmer - car crash study
Participants shown a clip of a car crash then were asked to estimate speed of the cars when they "smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted"
Speed estimates varied, with "gentler" words having lower speed estimates
Seligman - learned helplessness in dogs
Dogs were placed in an enclosure where the floor was lined with electrodes, electrodes were activated periodically and the dog would jump over a low wall that would slowly be raised by the researcher
When the wall was too high the dog could no longer jump and even after the wall was lowered again the dog made no attempt to jump and was shocked by the electrodes
COGNITIVE PROCESSES
Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies (22 marks)
Bartlett (1932) - War of the Ghosts
Aim was to prove that memory is reconstructive / to investigate whether cultural schemas influence recall, asked White-American participants to read a Native American folk story then asked to recall / reproduce
First method - serial reproduction: one person reproduces original story, then second person reproduces reproduction etc. 6 / 7 times
Second method - participants asked to read story then asked to reproduce from memory after 15 minutes
Found that culturally-specific details were sometimes missed out / replaces
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies (22 marks)
Glanzer and Kunitz - primacy / recency
Aim to test the primacy - recency effect, participants asked to read a list of 20 words then asked to recall as many as possible; in one variation they were asked to do a distraction task before recall
Participants tended to remember the first and last few words better due to rehearsal / last few words being in STM
Craik and Tulving - levels of processing study
Aimed to test the theory of LOP, participants presented with 60 words and 3 questions about words designed to activate different levels of processing (structural, phonetic, semantic)
Then given a list of 180 words in which the original words were mixed and asked to pick out the original 60
Participants were more likely to pick out words that were asked about using the semantic level of processing
Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive process (8 marks)
Clive Wearing brain scans
Aimed to look at how Clive Wearing's condition affects brain activity
Showed significant damage to hippocampus and frontal cortex - affects emotional and memory
Discuss how social and cultural factors affect one cognitive process (22 marks)
Cole and Scribner (1974) - free recall
Investigated free recall in USA and Kpelle people of Liberia, schooled and unschooled Liberian children and schooled US childrens had to recall a selection of culturally-specific words gouped into 4 lists
In second part, words were meaningful objects in a story, Kpelle children performed well in this task
Schooled Liberian and US children performed similarly in recall, schooled participants used chunking
Bartlett (1932) - War of the Ghosts
Aim was to prove that memory is reconstructive / to investigate whether cultural schemas influence recall, asked White-American participants to read a Native American folk story then asked to recall / reproduce
First method - serial reproduction: one person reproduces original story, then second person reproduces reproduction etc. 6 / 7 times
Second method - participants asked to read story then asked to reproduce from memory after 15 minutes
Found that culturally-specific details were sometimes missed out / replaces
With reference to relevant research studies, to what extent is one cognitive process reliable? (22 marks)
Loftus and Palmer - car crash study
Participants shown a clip of a car crash then were asked to estimate speed of the cars when they "smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted"
Speed estimates varied, with "gentler" words having lower speed estimates
Brown and Kulik - flashbulb memory
Aimed to investigate whether events with an emotional connection are remembered better, interviewed 80 US participants, 40 white and 40 African-Americans, had to answer questions about 10 events, 1 personally chosen
African Americans recalled more FBMs about civil rights leaders than White Americans; assassination of JFK had most FBMs
Discuss the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes (22 marks)
Montague - pepsi / coke challenge
Aimed to examine customer preference of brands (coke and pepsi), given blind tests and known tests of each while being given fMRI scans
In blind tests, scans showed that customers preferred pepsi but in known test, they stated they preferred coke
Clive Wearing brain scans
Aimed to look at how Clive Wearing's condition affects brain activity
Showed significant damage to hippocampus and frontal cortex - affects emotional and memory
COGNITION AND EMOTION
To what extent do cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion? (22 marks)
Ledoux - fear in rats experiment
Investigate the role of the amygdala, rats were conditioned to feel fear when they heard the sound of a bell, researchers injected tracers to establish a pathway
Rats were lesioned and had their auditory thalamus removed and were tested again using the bell
Found that rats no longer felt fear after their thalamus was removed
Speisman et al. - audio track interference
Aimed to prove Lazarus's theory of appraisal's interference with emotions, participants shown an unpleasant documentary about circumcision of boys, split into 3 groups
1 - trauma group, soundtrack accentuated pain, 2 - denial group, soundtrack suggested ritual was joyful, 3 - intellectualisation, no emphasis on pain / anthropological approach
Found that participants reacted more emotionally in trauma group
Evaluate one theory of how emotion may affect one cognitive process (22 marks)
Brown and Kulik - flashbulb memory
Aimed to investigate whether events with an emotional connection are remembered better, interviewed 80 US participants, 40 white and 40 African-Americans, had to answer questions about 10 events, 1 personally chosen
African Americans recalled more FBMs about civil rights leaders than White Americans; assassination of JFK had most FBMs
Neisser and Harsch - challenger study
Based on Challenger shuttle incident, 24 hours after incident subjects were asked about what they remembered, asked again 3 years later and asked to rate confidence level on accuracy of recall
3 of 44 participants had perfect recall, 25% had completely inaccurate recall, 40% had distorted memories
Challenges existence of FBM