OUR TARGETS
INTRO TO COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
VIDEO TAKE NOTES
• HOMEWORK
• COMPLETE
ASSIGNMENT ON
KOGNITY
•
•
Psychology SL
Assignment #1
DUE BEFORE FIRST
PERIOD TOMORROW
OUR TARGETS
Cognitive lecture
HISTORY
Cognitive psychology
An approach to psychology which focuses
on the relationship between cognitive or
mental processes and behavior.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
• Theorists that contributed to CLA
Targets of the Cognitive analysis
General learning outcomes
• Outline principles that define the cognitive
level of analysis.
• Explain how principles that define the
cognitive level of analysis may be
demonstrated in research (that is, theories
and/or studies).
• Discuss how and why particular research
methods are used at the cognitive level of
analysis.
• Discuss ethical considerations related to
research studies at the cognitive level of
analysis.
Cognitive processes
• Evaluate schema theory with reference to
research studies
• Evaluate two models of theories of one
cognitive process with reference to
research studies
• Explain how biological factors may affect
one cognitive process
Cognitive processes
• Discuss how social or cultural factors affect
one cognitive process
• With reference to relevant research studies,
to what extent is one cognitive process
reliable?
• Discuss the use of technology in
investigating cognitive processes
Cognition and emotion
• To what extent do cognitive and biological
factors interact in emotion
• Evaluate one theory of how emotion may
affect one cognitive process
SOURCE JOHN CRANE PSYCH-IB SYLLABUS
General theorists to know
• Hermann Ebbinghaus,
Tversky and Kahnemann,
Jean Piaget, Leon
Festinger, Frederic Bartlett,
Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis.
•
Memory Research (some is
biological): Atkinson &
Shiffrin, Craik &
Lockhart, Flourens &
Lashley, Thompson, Brown
& Kulik, Milner, Morris, Cole
& Scribner, Elizabeth Loftus.
SOURCE JOHN CRANE
PSYCH-IB SYLLABUS
IDENTIFY IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE
COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
•Theorists did not agree with behaviorism (stimulus and response)
Cognitive Perspective involves the following:
1. Computer Technology and Artificial Intelligence
Norbert Wiener-created the term cybernetics to refer to any
system that has built-in correction mechanisms, i.e. is self-steering. John Crane
Also the terms feedback, input and output.
Alan Turing- The Turing Machine idea which is a computer.(1936) Considered
the father of Computer Science.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy- “Modern Theories of Development, where he
introduced the question of whether we could explain biology in purely physical
terms”
2. Linguistics
Noam Chomsky-generative grammar-create new sentences which never been
spoken before. Interested in the organization of language, mental structure and
“believed that language was species-specific
(human only). All these make him truly “cognitive”.”-John Crane
IDENTIFY IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE
COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
3.
Studies on the develop of knowledge
Jean Piaget-known as the creator of cognitive psychology.
Creator of the term “genetic epistemology-meaning
the study of the development of knowledge.”-John Crane
“Infant explored his or her environment and so how they gained more knowledge of
the world and more sophisticated exploratory skills.
These skills he called schemas (e.g. assimilation, accommodation).”
4. Famous theorists of Cognitive Psychology
•
Hermann Ebbinghaus-meaningfulness of syllables, memorization and
relearning old material.
•
Tolman-cognitive maps animals have an internal representation of behavior.
•
Kohler-insight learning with apes-problem solving
•
Bartlett-existence of schemas
•
Bandura-observation learning
IDENTIFY IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE
COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
5. First Cognitive Psychologists
•Donald Hebb – “Finding of the Hebb synapse,Hebb cell assembly which is called.
consolidation theory, and is the most accepted explanation for neural learning
today. Thinking is what happens when complex sequences of these cell assemblies
are activated. He humbly suggested that his theory is just a new version of
connectionism.”-John Crane
•George A. Miller- limits to short-term memory could only hold about seven pieces
called chunks.
•Ulric Neisser –” research interests include memory, especially
memory for life events and in natural settings; intelligence, especially individual and
group differences in test scores, IQ tests and their social significance; self-concepts,
especially as based on self-perception.”-John Crane
HOMEWORK
KOGNITY ASSIGNMENT #2
THESE ARE GOING IN THE GRADEBOOK AS CLASSWORK
OUR TARGETS
• Information Process Model Lecture
• Complete Kognity Assignments
Success Criteria
• Know the foundation of Cognitive
Psychology
• Know the Information Process Model
The Cognitive Level of Analysis
Main focus and assumptions
• Cognition- is the mental act or process by which
knowledge is acquired.
Focus on the following
• humans process information, looking at how we
treat information that comes in to the person
(stimuli) and how this treatment leads to
responses.
• interested in the variables that intervene
between stimulus/input and response/output.
• Perception, Attention, Memory and
Language.
– Perception acquiring knowledge
– Attention concerned with acquisition.
– Memory deals with organizing and
retaining knowledge
– Language –how we use it for knowledge
Information Processing Model
• work with models of the human mind
• study processes that are not directly observable
Input
Information
Processing
Output
BASIC INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL
STIMULUS
INPUT
PROCESSES
STORAGE
RELATED
PROCESSES
OUTPUT
PROCESSES
INPUT PROCESSES
• Concerned with perception & sensory registration
STORAGE & RELATED PROCESSES
• Concerned with elaborating, manipulating, selecting & storing info
OUTPUT PROCESSES
• Concerned with production of appropriate responses
RESPONSE
•
Broadbent’s (1958) idea that much
of cognition consists of a sequence
of stages
(input/attention/perception, storage,
retrieval)
One application of the information
processing model: Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is the
science of making machines do the
sort of things that are done by
human minds (Boden 1987).
• Computer metaphor involves
viewing the brain as being like a
computer.
• “AI models assume the human mind
functions in an analogous way to
the computer and so in AI,
computers are tools that are used to
try and understand how information
is processed by the human mind”John Crane
MISUNDERSTOOD LYRICS
Our Targets
Selective listening
Activity
• Write as many lyrics
down
• Take your lyrics and
come up with the
meaning
• Are you correct?
Success Criteria
Know the following
theories:
• Selective Attention
• Feature Extraction
• Review Short term
and long term
memory
Outline one key concept from the cognitive perspective and show how
it can be used to explain behaviour
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
Is your ability to pick and choose among various available inputs.
SELECTION THEORY(1960)
–DONALD BROADBENT ARGUED THAT WE ATTEND TO ONLY ONE OF
THE MANY CHANNELS OF INFORMATION REACHING US AT ANY TIME
BECAUSE THESE CHANNELS ARE LIMITED.
–DICHOTIC LISTENING TASK, SUBJECTS COULD REPORT HEARING
THEIR NAME IN THE CHANNEL THEY HAD BEEN INSTRUCTED TO
IGNORE. OTHERS WERE TOLD TO IGNORE ONE CHANEL BUT WERE
ABLE TO REPORT THE FLOW OF A COMPLETE STORY EVEN THOUGH
THE STORY WAS SWITCHED WITHOUT WARNING TO THE IGNORED
CHANNEL.
ATTENUATION THEORY(1964)
–ANNE TREISBENT’S FILTER SHE TOOK BROADBENTS STUDY AND
SUPPRESSED OTHER CHANNELS BUT DID NOT ELIMINATE THEM.
ACCORDING TO HER STUDY INFORMATION WAS STILL BEING
PROCESSED.
Outline one key concept from the cognitive perspective and show how it can be
used to explain behaviour
RESULTS FROM THESE STUDIES
–
SELECTIVE ATTENTION DOES NOT BLOCK OUT ALL STIMULI.
–
ASSUME THAT YOU WILL FIRST ANALYZE THE VARIETY OF
INFORMATION AND YOU WILL THEN FOCUS ON A SELECT FEW AND
DIRECT MOST OF YOUR CONSCIOUS ATTENTION TO THEM.
What makes one input more important than another?
1.
INFORMATION THAT LEADS TO MORE SATISFACTION TO AN URGENT
NEED SUCH AS HUNGER
2.
PRIORITY TO INPUTS THAT ARE STRANGE OR NOVEL. EXAMPLE IF
YOU ARE AT A FORMAL PARTY AND SOMEONE COMES IN NUDE.
3.
PRIORITY TO INTEREST SUCH AS HEARING YOUR NAME. OR WHEN
YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN A HOBBY YOU START TO NOTICE IT
EVERYWHERE.
Outline one key concept from the cognitive perspective and show how it can
be used to explain behaviour
FEATURE EXTRACTION
Is your way of deciding which aspects of the selected channels you will focus
on.
•
•
•
Extract the significant features of an input helps a person to identify it
and compare it to other inputs.
Feature extraction depends on experience on knowing what to look for.
Example-Looking for the “juicy” parts in a book.
Outline one key concept from the cognitive perspective and
show how it can be used to explain behaviour
STORING INFORMATION
We call this memory.
• Sensory storage only holds information for only a second.
• Short term memory keeps it in mind as long as you repeat it.
• Long term memory can store it indefinitely.
SHORT TERM MEMORY
• Ways to move items from short term memory to long term
memory.
• Rehearsal
• REPETITION
CIAMTVFBINATOUSASAT
CIA MTV FBI NATO USA
SAT
• Chunking- breaking up items. Grouping them in how they
are related.
HOW MANY DOTS DO YOU
SEE!!!!!!
•
WE REMEMBER NEW
PHONE #’S IN TWO TO
THREE CHUNKS
• 2535717339 OR 253571-7339
• FOR THIS TO MOVE
INTO LONG TERM WE
NEED TO REHEARSE
LONG TERM MEMORY
• This is where we store
information for future
use.
Identify one research method used by psychologists working within the
cognitive perspective and describe how this method has been applied in
one empirical study
OTHER MODELS OF MEMORY
ENDEL TULVING(1972)
• SEMANITIC MEMORY- OUR OWN KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE, RULES
AND WORDS. WE SHARE WITH OTHERS WHO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE.
• EPISODIC MEMORY- MEMORY OF OUR OWN LIFE
L.R. SQUIRE(1987)
• DECLARITIVE MEMORY-(EXPLICIT MEMORY) INCLUDES BOTH SEMANITIC
AND EPISODIC MEMORY. YOU USE THIS WHEN YOU NEED IT.
(CONSCIOUS)
ROEDIGER (1990)
• PROCEDURAL MEMORY- (IMPLICIT MEMORY) DOES NOT REQUIRE
CONSCIOUS RECOLLECTION TO HAVE PAST LEARNING OR
EXPERIENCES IMPACT OUR PERFORMANCES.
• PROCEDURAL MEMORY INVOLVES SKILLS LEARNED AS WE MATURE
SUCH AS DRIVING A CAR OR LEARNING TO TIE YOUR SHOES.
• AS WE GAIN SKILL WE WILL LEARN THE ABILITY TO DESCRIBE WHAT
WE ARE DOING. IT WILL ACTUALLY SLOW US DOWN.
Our Targets
• Cognitive lecture
• More on memory
• Intro to Language
Success Criteria
Know the following :
• Priming
• Retrieving-Storing-Improving
information
• Memory and the brain
• Thinking and problem solving
•
ANOTHER FORM OF PROCEDURAL MEMORY
IS PRIMING.
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BARREL
MONKEY
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BARR__
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HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO GET THE
PUZZLE RIGHT?
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Obama
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU THIS TIME?
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RETRIEVING INFORMATION
Recognition provides insight how information is stored
in memory.
Recall is the active reconstruction of information.
deals with attitudes and personal knowledge.
Eidetic memory-photographic memory only 5% of us
has that.
Relearning
Forgetting-inputs fade away and disappear.
IMPROVING MEMORY
1. Associate items with things you know.
2. Don’t over learn or over study. Study a little at a time.
3. Mnemonic devices are techniques using associations to
memorize information.
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THINKING
Changing and
reorganizing the
information stored in
memory in order to create
new information.
Units of thought
Image a mental
representation of a
specific event or object.
Symbol a sound or design
that represents an object
quality.
Concept is when a symbol
is used to label a class of
objects. Ex: animals.
Concept helps us chunk
large information.
Directed thinking is a
systematic and logical
attempt to reach a specific
goal.
Non directed thinking has
no order and tends to
random.
PROBLEM SOLVING
•
•
Strategies-specific methods.
Set-when a particular strategy becomes
a habit.
Creativity
• Is the ability to use information in such a
way that the result is somehow new,
original and meaningful.
Flexibility
• The ability to overcome rigidity.
• Recombination when the elements of the
problem are familiar but the solution is
not.
Insight
• Occurs when the problems have proved
resistant to all problem solving efforts
and strategies. Frustration happens and
you stop and temporarily abandon the
task but recombination happens at the
unconscious level. And you have an
“AHA” experience.
• An epiphany happens and you solve the problem.
MEMORY AND THE BRAIN
SOME PSYCHOLOGISTS THEORIZE IT IS CHANGE IN THE NEURONAL
STRUCTURE OF NERVES.
OTHERS CONTEND THAT LEARNING IS BASED ON THE MOLECULAR OR
CHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE BRAIN.
PROCEDURAL MEMORIES- INVOLVES ACTIVITY IN YOUR BRAIN CALLED
THE STRIATUM, DEEP IN THE FRONT PART OF YOUR CORTEX.
DECLARATIVE MEMORIES RESULT FROM ACTIVITY IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS
AND AMYGDALA. (MISHKIN & PETRI 1984)
IT IS NOT CLEAR HOW NERVE CELLS (NEURONS) ESTABLISH
CONNECTIONS WITH ONE ANOTHER WHEN LEARNING OCCURS.
COMPLEX PROCESS OF CHEMICALS PRECEDES THE FORMATION OF NEW
CONNECTIONS OF NEURONS.
INCREASE LEVELS OF CALCIUM, PROTEIN AND LEVELS OF GLUCOSE.
HAVE BEEN EVIDENT WITH NEW BRAIN RESEARCH. (KALAT 1992) WHAT
TYPE OF FOOD WOULD HELP WITH MEMORY ACCORDING TO THIS
STUDY?
HOMEWORK
• WATCH ON YOUTUBE
• Genie (Secret of the Wild Child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h
mdycJQi4QA
• COMPLETE WORKSHEET AND TURN IN ON
TUESDAY
OUR TARGETS
• BRIEF DISCUSSION ON GENIE
• TURN IN HOMEWORK
• THEORIES OF PERCEPTION
SUCCESS CRITERIA
• DEFINE AND EXPLAIN PERCEPTION
• CONNECT THEORISTS TO PERCEPTION
• OPTICAL ILLUSIONS AND THE BRAIN
THEORIES OF PERCEPTION
• Each sense organ is part of a sensory system which
receives sensory inputs and transmits sensory
information to the brain.
• A major theoretical issue on which psychologists
are divided is the extent to which perception relies
directly on the information present in the stimulus.
• Some argue that perceptual processes are not
direct, but depend on the perceiver's expectations
and previous knowledge as well as the information
available in the stimulus itself.
EXPLAINING PERCEPTION - A TOP-DOWN
APPROACH
Helmholtz (1821-1894)-founder of perceptual
research.
• sensations and our conscious perception of the real
world there must be intermediate processes.
• believed perception is more than direct registration
of sensations, but that other events intervene
between stimulation and experience.
PERCEPTIONS AS HYPOTHESES - R L GREGORY (B 1923)
• signals received by the sensory receptors trigger neural events, and appropriate knowledge interacts
with these inputs to enable us to makes sense of the world.
• we respond to certain objects as though they are doors even though we can only see a long narrow
rectangle as the door is ajar.
• Perceptions can be ambiguous
PERCEPTUAL SET
• "a perceptual bias or predisposition or readiness to perceive particular features of a stimulus".
Allport 1955
• Perceptual set is a tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and
ignore others.
• According to Vernon, 1955 set works in two ways:
– (1) The perceiver has certain expectations and focuses attention on particular aspects of the
sensory data: This he calls a 'Selector'.
– (2) The perceiver knows how to classify, understand and name selected data and what inferences
to draw from it. This he calls an 'Interpreter'.
• Factors that influence
• Expectations
• Emotion
• Motivation
• Culture
EMOTION/ MOTIVATION THEORY
BRIEF BIO HISTORY
• Genetics – evolutionary theory
• Homeostatic drive theories (Cannon 1929)
– Hypothalamic theory
– Glucostatic theory (Tardoff, 82)
– Lipostatic theory
• Drive-reduction theory (Hull, 1943)
– physiological needs + psychological drives.
• Hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954)
• Cognitive theories of motivation
– combine with social motivational
needs or desires
• Curiosity (need to explore), cognitive
consistency (to think and act in
consistent way - Festinger), need for
control (to assert control over one’s life –
otherwise, e.g. learned helplessness),
need for achievement (MacClelland –
Thematic Appreciation Test). (Crane
2013)
Expectation- Bruner & Minturn, 1955
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION
Allport, 1955 has distinguished 6 types of motivational-emotional influence on perception:
• (i) bodily needs (eg physiological needs)
• (ii) reward and punishment
• (iii) emotional connotation
• (iv) individual values
• (v) personality
• (vi) the value of objects.
STUDY
Gilchrist & Nesberg
• 1952, found participants who had gone without food for the longest periods were more likely to rate
pictures of food as brighter. This effect did not occur with non-food Pictures.
CULTURE
Deregowski
• perceiving perspective in drawings is in fact a specific cultural skill, which is learned
rather than automatic
• Several cultures prefer drawings which don't show perspective, but instead are split
so as to show both sides of an object at the same time
OUR TARGETS
• FEATURE
EXTRACTION
LECTURE
• GENIE THE WILD
CHILD
OUR TARGETS
• MEMORY, MEMORY
OUR TARGETS
• Models of memory
•
RETRIEVING INFORMATION
LECTURE
Answer
1. Wrapping Paper (rap + ping + paper)
2. Tinsel (tin + sell)
3. Nutcracker (nut + cracker)
4. Mistletoe (Miss + ell + toe)
5. Fruitcake (fruit + cake)
6. Chestnuts (chest + nuts)
7. Reindeer (rain + dear)
OUR TARGETS
NOTES ALL DAY
• Cognitive labeling theory
• Cognitive appraisal theory
• Role of brain structures
• Optical Illusions (perception)
Crash Course
• Perceiving
• Sensation Perception
Cognitive labeling theory – Schachter and Singer (’62)
• all emotional experiences are preceded by a generalized state of arousal. The nature of the subjective
experience is determined (“labelled”) by the individual’s cognitive assessment based on external,
situational cues or internal ones such as imagination. – the study
• emotions are learned, as an emotional label is derived from previous experiences of emotion in similar
situations.
Cognitive appraisal theory – extension of the above – Lazarus (’91) –
• the experience of emotion is related to how one appraises it – his study: participants who viewed a film
of industrial accidents experienced less stress if told that the characters were actors (denial condition)
or were asked to consider the film in terms of its value for promoting safety at work (intellectualization)
than when given no instructions.
the limbic system is a network of structures
in the forebrain, including the
hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus, and
cingulate cortex.
EMOTION/ MOTIVATION THEORY
James-Lange theory of emotion (1880’s)
• bodily changes come first and form the basis of
an emotional experience
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion – (1927)
• changes of emotional state and changes
in ANS occur simultaneously
Role of brain structures
• The Papez circuit (’37) – hypothalamus
(emotional expression) + limbic system
(emotional feeling); (-) it is oversimplified;
• Papez-MacLean limbic model (‘49) –
improvements to Papez, increased emphasis on
the hippocampus and amygdala (:aggression). (-)
the model deals mainly with high-intensity
emotions, such as rage and fear.
• LeDoux’s modified limbic theory (‘95) – two
separate brain circuits involved in emotion: rapid
• emotional response (thalamus – amygdala) and
slower emotional response (thalamus – cortex,
• thereby affected by higher mental processes)
Optical Illusions
• An optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is characterized by
visually perceived images that differ from objective reality.
• The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a
percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus
source.
• Physiological ones that are the effects on the eyes and brain of
excessive stimulation of a specific type (brightness, tilt, color,
movement)
• Cognitive illusions where the eye and brain make unconscious
inferences. They can also be known as "mind games".
• Changizi, Mark A. et al. (2008): Perceiving the Present and a
Systematization of Illusions. Cognitive Science 32,3 : 459-503.
OUR TARGETS
•
COGNITIVE
LECTURE
– EYEWITNESS
TESTIMONY
– RelapsePrevention
Training
– Changing
recollection
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
• In 1976 the Devlin Committee analyzed all the identification parades held
in England & Wales during 1973 and found that when a suspect had
been picked out 82% were subsequently convicted (Baddeley, 1993)
• Nickerson & Adams (1975) also found that people are very poor at
recalling the appearance of objects seen every day. They asked subjects
to draw what was represented on each issue of a US penny. They found
that on average people could only remember around three out of eight
critical features and even those features recalled were often placed
wrongly.
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Attentional Focus
• evidence suggests that memory of a violent event is stronger than that
for a neutral event (Baddeley, 1993). For example, Loftus (1975) found
that subjects tend to focus on the weapon rather than on the appearance
of the assailant.
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Relapse-Prevention Training
• eyewitnesses are often asked leading questions.
LOFTUS
• one study people watched a film of a car crash and one group were then
asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
Other groups were asked the same question, but the word hit was
replaced with either smashed, collided, bumped or contacted. She
found that speed estimates were highest (40.8 mph) when the word
smashed was used, lower with collided (39.3 mph) and lower still with
bumped (38.1 mph). The lowest estimates were from hit (34 mph) and
contacted (31.8 mph). Added to this, when the same subjects were
contacted a week later and asked about whether there had been any
broken glass, those who had been presented with the word smashed
were consistently more likely to report (incorrectly) that glass had been
broken.
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Changing recollection
eyewitnesses are often asked leading questions.
LOFTUS
• it is possible to change a witness’s recollection by subtly introducing new
information during questioning. Subjects were shown a series of slides
representing a traffic accident in which a pedestrian was knocked down at
a pelican crossing. A green car drove past the accident without stopping, a
police car arrived, and a passenger from one of the cars in the accident
ran for help. Subjects were asked 12 questions about the incident.
Question 10 made reference to the blue car that drove past the accident.
When asked 20 minutes later to recall the colour of the car that drove by
without stopping who have been given the false information tended to
choose blue or bluish-green rather than green!
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Theoretical Interpretation
LOFTUS
• “false memories” were not due to social pressure, lack of confidence or failure to
notice important information in the first place. She argues that it is the actual
memory trace itself that is changed by subsequent information. It appears that
what we remember is a combination of what we see and what we subsequently
think.
Bekerian & Bowers
• argue that the original trace survives and can be retrieved given the correct
retrieval cues.
• Morton (1995) who makes a distinction between primary memory records and
secondary memory records. He suggests that primary records are the way in
which particular events are represented in the brain and are laid down at the time
of the event itself (like episodic memory). When you then try to recall an event
you create a secondary record. The secondary record results from the retrieval of
primary records. Therefore, there will be two records: the event itself and the
recall of the event subsequently. The secondary record may well be distorted by
leading questions and by information from semantic memory, but the primary
record will not be altered at all: given the correct retrieval cue, therefore, it could
be recalled intact.
OUR TARGETS
•
COGNITIVE LECTURE
– FALSE MEMORIES
– FACE RECOGNITION
OUR TARGETS
Introduction to
Cognitive Project
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IB Cognitive Psychology Project
Requirements
Creating a 5 slide PowerPoint on your
study
You need to include the following:
A video that represents your study
What was the aim or hypothesis of the study
Who conducted the study, materials,
participants, method and design of study
Brief bio on the researchers
One specific new study that relate to yours
Why is this study relevant to Cognitive
Psychology? Look at Cognitive Targets
Small replication of the study and example
Each person in your group will have to teach
a slide.
Presentations of this study will start
December 15. You will receive class time to
work on this project but use your time
wisely.
WORK PLAN-DUE TOMORROW B.
PERIOD
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Theoretical Interpretation
• Are you likely to claim “I never forget a face”? How justifiable is such a claim?
Woodhead & Baddeley (1981) carried out a study in which 100 Cambridge
housewives were shown a series of unfamiliar faces and then asked to recognize
them when they were re-presented together with a series of similar, but new
faces. These housewives were also asked how good they thought their memory
of faces was. There were huge differences between how well they performed in
the recognition test and how good they though their memory was.
• memory for faces depends on a particular system located in a special part of the
brain
Accuracy of face recognition
• Penry invented the Photo-fit, which comprises a box containing sets of features
(chins, noses, eyes etc.) which can be put together to form a face. Penry
believed that in order to perceive and remember a human face one has to
abstract the various features and categorise them systematically.
• the perception of a face depends on processing the pattern of features, paying
attention to the way in which each feature is related to another, rather than
isolating individual features.
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Accuracy of face recognition
• Penry invented the Photo-fit, which comprises a box containing sets of features
(chins, noses, eyes etc.) which can be put together to form a face. Penry
believed that in order to perceive and remember a human face one has to
abstract the various features and categorise them systematically.
• the perception of a face depends on processing the pattern of features, paying
attention to the way in which each feature is related to another, rather than
isolating individual features.
Identity Parades
• the suspect is presented together with a number of non-suspects who look
broadly like the suspect
subtle influences:
• criminal as good-looking it would be important to find out what was meant by
“good-looking”
• bias in recognition in an identity parade is clothing. This issue was studied by
Thomson (1983) who showed that the clothing worn by a criminal could cause
someone else wearing similar clothes to be identified as the perpetrator of the
crime.
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Identity Parades
subtle influences:
• Thomson (1983) also reported a case that actually happened to him. He was
arrested and placed in a line-up, identified and charged with rape. He said that at
the time the rape had taken place he was taking part in a television discussion
(on, strangely enough, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony!) and could not
have committed the rape. It turned out that the woman had been 7 raped while
watching the program and had correctly recognized his face but had incorrectly
assigned his face to the crime. This is called unconscious transference.
• identity parade includes the criminal. Since this may not be the case, then there
is clearly a danger that that false identifications will be encourage. Witnesses will
assume the criminal is in the line-up and may feel pressured to come up with a
• positive identification. One way of avoiding this is to present the people in the
line-up one at a time, without telling the witness how many people will be
presented to them. Lindsey et al (1991) tried this and found that this kind of
sequential presentation reduced the occasions on which subjects identified an
innocent person.
SOURCE-DIRECTLY FROMhttp://cranepsych.edublogs.org/files/2009/06/eyewitness_testimony.pdf
THE RELIABILITY OF WITNESSES
Person Memory
• Memory for people and events is thought to be of two types: episodic and
semantic
Memory for people seems to fall into three categories (Fiske & Cox,1979)
1. memory for appearance: what the person looked like and was wearing. This is
the first thing that people tend to recall and is directly retrievable from episodic
memory because it can actually be observed.
2. memory for behavior: what the person was doing. This is the second thing that
people tend to recall and can also be retrieved directly from episodic memory.
3. memory for traits: what kind of person they were. This is the last think that people
recall and, because it involves inference, is usually the least reliable. It is not
directly observable and may involve information from semantic memory.
Memory for personality traits tends to be of two types (Rosenberg & Sedlak,
1972)
• (a) social desirability-(b) competence characteristics
• remembering the assailant in an attack then you will tend to be swayed by your
assumptions about their social desirability and competence.
• Another thing that seems to improve person memory is encouraging someone to
• imagine themselves in the other person’s shoes (Havey et al, 1980); doing this
helps them recall more about the other person.
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES
(+)Cognitive psychology uses the laboratory experimental method.
(-) laboratory experimentation seems culture-biased and gender-biased.
(+) scientific based
(+) uses humans in their experiments
(+) brain scanning techniques for memory, attention, problem solving (: the
field of
cognitive neuropsychology
(+) case studies on damaged brain patients
(-) poor representativeness, poor experimental control
More Methods Used
• field experiment
(+) natural conditions, (-) poor control of extraneous variables, not
verbal protocol – people reporting on how they solve a problem
(-) problem of introspection – subjectivity;
• verbal report
observation
• questionnaires
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