Cognitive area

• Defining Principles

  • Our behaviours are influenced by our internal processes such as memories, language, attention and perception
  • Our brains are like computers and possess information like one. Information is inputted, processed, stored and retrived
• Concepts

  • Reconstructive memory - the way our prejudices and biases unconsciously lead us to have memories of events that are distortions of what happened
  • Schema theory - A packet of info on how you would expect something to be
• Concepts part 2

  • Cocktail party effect - First coined by Cherry. The idea that we have an intentional barrier around us that can only be broken by the sound of your own name in a crowded room
  • Auditory attention - a cognitive process that allows the listener to focus selectively on the stimulus of interest.
• Strengths of the cognitive area

  • Not ethnocentric as internal mental processes are universal
  • Useful in trying to improve mental capabilities
• Simon and Chabris links to cognitive area

  • Visual inattention
  • Can be seen as building on Moray's work by investigating visual (as opposed to auditory - which is a concept) attention. This study also explains why we may not recall information that we see, but do not pay attention to
• Moray links to CA

  • Auditory attention
  • Comprised of three experiments one of which investigates the cocktail party affect and what kind of info breaks the attentional barrier discussed
  • Attention links to the principle our behaviour is influenced by internal mental processes
• Loftus and Palmer links to CA

  • Eyewitness testimony
  • Cognitive because it is about memory - one of the influences that can have effect on our internal influences
• Grant links to CA

  • Context-dependent memory
  • Shows another way in which memory can be affected - whether info recalled in a similar context to that it was first encountered in is easier to remember
• Differences between L&P and Grant

  1. Reliability
  2. 50 participants in experiment 2 in L&P
  3. 39, 10 per condition in Grant - not enough to establish a consistent effect
  4. Different aspects of memory
  5. L&P - reconstructed memory
  6. Grant - context dependent memory
• Similarities between L&P and Grant

  1. Lab experiment
  2. Experiment 1 was a controlled experiment - IV verbs - DV speed
  3. IV - silent or noise - DV how many questions they have
  4. Quantitative data
  5. 16 people said they saw the glass in experiment 2
  6. Got results from each condition - mean result
• Similarities between S&C and Moray

  1. Both used lab experiments
  2. Moray- in experiment 2 IV was have affective or non-affective instruction
  3. S&C - the IV was type of video, event and difficulty
  4. Quantitative data
  5. Mean of 4.9 were recalled from shadowed passage in exp 1
  6. 8% of participants watching the white team saw the gorilla
• Differences between S&C and Moray

  1. Aspect of attention being studied
  2. Auditory attention - if people heard their name - affective message - Moray
  3. Visual attention - would people see an unexpected event
  4. Experimental design used - S&C
  5. In exp 2 of Moray repeated measures design is used as all pp's heard affective cues in the rejected passage, non-affective instruction cues in the rejected passage and no instructions in the rejected passage
  6. S&C was an independent measure design with different participants used in each of the conditions