Applied Psychology: Cognitive Approach Unit 1

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What are two assumptions of the cognitive approach?
We should understand behaviour in terms of people's thinking styles and how they process information.
The mind of humans can be likened to a computer
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What is meant by the computer analogy?
People's minds work similarly to a computer. information is inputted, processed and behaviour is the output. Terms from computing are taken to understand human behaviour: processing, retrieval, storage
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What is reconstructive memory?
An idea form Bartlett that memories are not reproductions but reconstructions of events. Memories are pieced together. They can be distorted by schema.
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What is a schema?
A mental package/shortcut with beliefs and expectations which can distort memories.
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What are the three types of reconstructive memory?
Shortening
Rationalisation
Confabulation
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In reconstructive memory, what is shortening?
Parts of memory that don't fit in with your schema are left out. What you remember of an event is shorter.
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In reconstructive memory, what is rationalisation?
Parts of memory are recalled in a distorted way to fit in with our schema. Information that is unfamiliar or strange to us is changed to something that makes more sense to us.
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In reconstructive memory, what is confabulation?
Parts of memories are filled in by existing schema with what we would have expected to happen.
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What is a strength of the concept of reconstructive memory?
It has real life application. People who have witnessed a crime are now understood to sometimes give inaccuracies in their statements because their schema have distorted their memory.
Eyewitness testimonies are no longer solely relied on in court
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What is a weakness of the concept of reconstructive memories?
Not all memories are affected by schema. Flashbulb memories are remembered very accurately.
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What was the name of the story that Bartlett (1932) got his participants to read?
The war of the ghosts
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What was the aim of Bartlett's (1932) study?
To investigate reconstructive memory.
To see if recall of an unfamiliar story would be affected by schema.
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What was the procedure of Bartlett's (1932) study?
20 British participants were given an Inuit folk tale to memorise. They then told it to another participant, who told it to someone else (serial reproduction).
Bartlett kept a record of what they could remember.
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What were the findings of Bartlett's (1932) study?
Evidence of 3 types of reconstructive memory
Shortening - The story went from 326 words to around 180.
Rationalisation - The supernatural element of the story changed. Participants remembered the war, but not the ghost aspect. Changing canoes to boats
Con
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What is a strength of Bartlett's (1932) study?
It used a more realistic material than what other memory studies used making it represent the way memory is used in real life. A story was used rather than a list of words. It has external validity.
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What is a weakness of Bartlett's (1932) study?
It was unscientific. The procedure lacked standardisation because some recalled their story straight away whereas some recalled months later.
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What is cognitive priming?
When you are interpret information in a particular way based on previous information. The prime triggers related networks of schemas in the mind
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What is a cognitive script?
Mental frameworks for events such as going to the cinema and school. They help us know what to do in certain situations as well as what to expect to happen.
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Name the 3 types of cognitive priming
Repetition, semantic and associative
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What is repetition priming? Give an example
When you process the same word quicker
because of seeing it earlier. E.g. hearing avocado and then processing the word avocado much quicker later.
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What is semantic priming? Give an example
Processing information to have a similar
meaning as an earlier stimulus. Reading about fireworks and then processing N__S_ as NOISE instead of NURSE.
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What is associative priming? Give an example
The prime and later stimulus is related but not in a semantic way. They're based on culture and what we grow up seeing paired together. E.g. Fish & Chips
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What evidence supports the idea of video games activating cognitive scripts? Describe it.
Moller & Krahe (2009) students read a scenario where someone was pushed and spilled their drink. Those who played violent video games were more likely to interpret it as deliberate and think physical aggression was an appropriate response.
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What is a weakness of the research supporting Priming?
It lacks replication because when it has been repeated, the results are very variable showing priming may not affect people's behaviour as much as research suggests
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What was the aim of the key study by Harris (2009)?
To investigate the effects of adverts containing food on the subsequent eating behaviours of children and adults.
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What was the procedure of the key study by Harris (2009)?
Children: Shown a cartoon which had food adverts or non-food adverts. They were given a snack and the amount they ate was measured.
Adults: Shown adverts that promoted snacking or adverts about good health, or no adverts. Their eating of snacks was meas
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What were the results of the key study by Harris (2009)?
Children who saw the food adverts ate 45% more snacks than others.
Adults ate more snacks when exposed to snack promoting adverts.
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What were the conclusions of the key study by Harris (2009)?
Adverts can be used to prime behaviour.
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What was a strength of the key study by Harris (2009)?
It has real life application to obesity. Understanding how adverts can effect children's behaviour means policies can be changed to reduce childhood obesity.
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What is a weakness of the key study by Harris (2009)?
It was artificial. Children watched the adverts on their own in school or at Summer camp. This doesn't reflect real life. Presence of others could effect snack eating.
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What is a cognitive bias?
When we interpret information in a distorted way that doesn't represent reality.
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What is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to attribute behaviour to faults
in a persons personality and downplay the influence of the situation.
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Give an example of a fundamental attribution error
If someone is late for work we think it is because they are tardy whereas it could have been a one-off because their phone broke and their alarm didn't go off.
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What is confirmation bias?
Attending to information which reinforces what we already believe and ignoring/downplaying behaviour which goes against what we believe
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What is a hostile attribution bias?
Being prone to interpreting other peoples behaviours as aggressive when in fact they are neutral.
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What is a strength of the different types of cognitive bias?
It has application to real life behaviour. For example the HAB helps us understand why people respond aggressively. This than then be used to help aggressive people by trying to 'undo' the HAB.
Knowledge of confirmation bias helps us understand why people
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What was the name of the two researchers who investigated the effects of leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer
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What was the aim of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
To investigate the effects of leading questions on the estimates of car speeds
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What was the procedure of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
Uni students watched a video of a car accident then answered questions about it. One question asked about the speed of the car. The adverb differed between groups from contacted to smashed. The difference in estimates was measured depending on the adverb
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What were the findings of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
Students who had a more severe adverb e.g. smashed or collided, estimated the car to have been driving faster than the students who has contacted or bumped. For smashed the mean estimate was 40.5. For contacted the estimate was 31.8.
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What was the conclusion of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
Wording of questions can bias responses from individuals
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What was a strength of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
It was highly controlled. All participants had the same standardised procedure such as
witnessing the crash from the same distance. This reduces the chance of distance being a confounding variable.
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What is a weakness of the key study by Loftus & Palmer (1974)?
The sample was biased in favour of young students.
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Which two concepts of the cognitive approach are used to explain aggression?
Priming and
HAB
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Which concepts of the cognitive approach are used to explain consumer behaviour?
Schemas, cognitive priming (subliminal messages and brain washing) and cognitive biases.
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Which theory explains gender and comes from
the cognitive approach?
Sandra Bem's gender schema theory.
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What is meant by the computer analogy?

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People's minds work similarly to a computer. information is inputted, processed and behaviour is the output. Terms from computing are taken to understand human behaviour: processing, retrieval, storage

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What is reconstructive memory?

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Card 4

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What is a schema?

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