CLA

Question 1

Ochsner and Gross (2008)

Answer 1

Identified the areas in prefrontal lobes associated with active reappraisal of the emotional importance of the events
-Activation increases in the prefrontal cortex. More active the more successful the reappraisal

Conclusion: Biological factors do interact in emotion.

• Emotional states cannot arise in the absence of cognition
• Influence is often Biological Influences –> Cognitive Influences

Recognition of an emotion can occur at an unconscious level
-The more elaborate the emotion the higher the involvement of the deliberate conscious process

Question 2

Speisman (1964)

Answer 2

To investigate the extent to which manipulation of cognitive appraisals could influence emotional experience (Genital mutilation)

Three types of soundtracks

• Trauma
• Intellectualization
• Silent Condition (control group)

Checked the participants with heart rate and galvanic skin response (sweat)

Participants in the trauma condition showed higher physiological measures of stress

Conclusion: support the appraisal theory- manipulation of participants cognitive appraisal did not have a significant impact in their physiological stress reactions
Trauma: reacted more emotionally

Question 2

Appraisal Theory

Answer 2

Appraisals are evaluations related to how the situation will impact on one’s personal well-being

• Positive Emotions emerge if the appraisal assesses potential benefit
• Negative emotions emerge if the appraisal assesses potential harm

Question 3

Lazarus (1975) Appraisal Theory

Answer 3

Cognitive factors can modulate stress responses
i.e. The physiological and psychological reactions involves in the experience
(Jaws Soundtrack)

Question 4

Reliability of Memory

Answer 4

Memory is a reconstructive process of images, perhaps related to our social/cultural background, not being too reliable from times to times

Question 5

3 Principles of CLA

Answer 5

1. Humans are information processors and their mental processes guide behavior
2. The mind can be studied scientifically
3. Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors

Question 6

Bruner and Postman (1949) [CLA Principle 1]

Answer 6

How expectations and perception influence what we “see”

Black and Red cards
Continuous red cards made a change to black look like purple or brown- a mixture of red & black

Conclusion: experiment shows how the way we process visual stimuli is dependent to a certain degree on our expectation (pre-stored information)
-Our brain is capable of fabricating illusions which are so realistic we believe they are true

Question 7

War of Ghosts - Serial Reproduction

Answer 7

The effect of culture on memory.

Native American folk tale- recalling the story several times. European and Nat. American participants

Results: Changes show the alteration in culturally unfamiliar objects changed to culturally familiar. The study supports the principle that social and cultural factors affect cognitive processes- difference in participant stimuli (culture) affected mental representations (schemas)

Question 8

Schema Theory- Bartlett

Answer 8

A cognitive structure that provides framework for organizing informations about the world, events, people and actions.

Shortcuts that our brain uses to identify and refer to cultural events or happenings

• Organize information in our brains
• Activated to increase information-processing efficiency.
• Enable the generation of expectations about objects, events and people.
• Regulate Behaviour.
• Relatively stable and usually very resistant to change; ensuring continuity so that we can process information and the ways we act. Schemas can also lead to distortions and mistakes when:
• Settings are unfamiliar.
• The wrong Schemas become activated

Question 10

Schemas- Scripts

Answer 10

Provide information about the sequence of events that occur in a more-or-less un changing order in particular contexts. 
Ex- attending class or visiting the dentist

Question 11

Schemas- Self Schemas

Answer 11

Organizing information we have about ourselves, information stored in our memory about our strengths and weaknesses and how we feel about them

Question 11

Gauld and Stephenson (1967)

Answer 11

Replicated Bartlett’s (1932) study

Question 12

Schemas- Social Schemas

Answer 12

(Stereotypes) represents information about groups of people.
Ex-Women can’t drive

Question 13

Bransford and Johnson (Balloon Picture Schema)

Answer 13

2 groups
One was given a paragraph and another a picture and then the paragraph - (made more sense to the participants)es

Picture as a schema help structure our information, and then we select what we can remember from it. Without this structure we cannot select thus remember.

Schemas encode information

Question 14

Bransford and Johnson (Laundry)

Answer 14

3 groups

• One third just heard the paragraph
• Another third were told that the paragraph was about doing laundry (made perfect sense and remembered it
• Other third learned the topic of the paragraph after they were given the paragraph, it didnt make too much sense to them- the topic served to activate the relevant schema

The topic helped the participants to work out the structure of the paragraphs and allowed them to remember more about it

Question 15

Macrae et al (1994)

Answer 15

Participants were shown images of people labelled doctor, artist, lawyer, skinhead etc.

• They were given the stereotype consistent and stereotype inconsistent personality traits for each label.
• Participants remembered more stereotype consistent personality traits

Demonstrating that we are cognitive misers, we rely solely on our stereotype when we don’t have time for systematic processing or lack cognitive resources to think carefully and accurately

Question 16

Brewer and Treyins (1981) Office Study

Answer 16

The activation of a schema will influence the outcome of information processing

An office setting with random objects that do not fit that setting- picnic basket, skull

Conclusion: When recalling information they remembered the info that was consistent with the schema, they forget info that is not consistent with the schema (picnic basket)

Question 18

Discuss in reference to research studies, the extent to which one cognitive process is reliable (Memory)
-To what extent is memory reliable?

Answer 18

Eye witness testimony

“Memory is a reconstructive process” Bartlett (1932)

Question 19

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Accident Study

Answer 19

Participants saw a film of an accident
The different words (crashed, bumped etc.) triggered different speed estimates and the severity of the accident

-II PART-
Questionnaire- had you seen broken glass, when actually there had been no broke glass, but schema to car crash related to seeing broken glass so we automatically can infer that there will be broken glass

Conclusion: the wording of a question can immediately create a distortion. Different words lead to different reconstructions

Question 19

Clive Wearing

Answer 19

Suffered brain damage and is densely amnesic. Cannot store information for periods longer that seconds

His impairment affected his episodic and autobiographical memory. Unable to transfer novel information from the STD to the LTS

Question 20

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Multi Store Model of Memory**

Answer 20

Classic model of memory- modal or dual process model

Question 21

Grail and Lockhart (1971) Levels of Processing **

Answer 21

The more important/meaningful something is to a person, the more information shall be processed by your mind.

Question 22

Brown and Kulik (1977) Flashbulb Memories**

Answer 22

Investigating shocking events

Question 23

Conway et al (1994)

Answer 23

Resignation of Margaret Thatcher to study FBM (Flashbulb Memory)

People tend to interpret an event from their current perspective

Question 25

Meissen and Harsch (1992)

Answer 25

FBM counter study Investigated memory accuracy 24hours after the accident and 2 years later Results: Major discrepancies (differences), participants had poor results but felt highly confident i how accurately they had recalled the event (4/5) Conclusion: The results challenged the theory of predictions of the FBM theory, participant memories had deteriorated. FBM's are not very reliable, perhaps just ordinary memories

Question 26

Williams et al (2008)

Answer 26

Suggested that FBM's are especially more vivid depending on the importance of the event

Question 27

Phelps et al (2009) 9/11 FBM study

Answer 27

People remember more accurately if they had been closer to the accident site. Emotional arousal determined the vividness of the memory. The more directly you are affected by the event (physically and emotionally) the better it will be remembered

Question 27

The effects of Social & Cultural factors in Cognitive Processes

Answer 27

- Differences in cultures - Individualist Cultures (needs of the individual) - Collectivist Cultures (needs of the group, ex-loyalty for the family)

Question 28

``` Flashbulb Memory (FBM) Conclusion ```

Answer 28

- Highly emotional events activate the amygdala; leading to the formation of FBM's - FBM is a reconstructive memory - Emotionality also influences the extent to which memory is rehearsed and shared - The more intense the emotional experience, the more social sharing- leading to further reconstruction of events (Luminet et al 2009)

Question 29

Individualist and Collectivist cultures and FBM

Answer 29

Research has shown that cultural factors may influence FBM formation and maintenance -People in individualist cultures will form more FBM's Wang and Adyin (2008) Chinese participants recalled fewer FBM's Otani et al (2005) A small percentage of Japanese participants formed FBM of a nuclear accident Culture and social practices associated with it, affect the maintenance of FBM's

Question 31

LeDoux's theory of emotional brain (1999)

Answer 31

Short Route: the amygdala reacts immediately to sensory input and activates response system (fight or flight) Long Route: the sensory input goes via the sensory cortex to the hippocampus. Involved the evaluation of the stimulus- links to cognitive appraisal (Lazarus, 1975)

Question 31

Loftus (Eye-witness testimony)

Answer 31

The video we watched ....

Question 32

Corkin et al. (1997)

Answer 32

MRI to study HM's lesion in the first attempt to study his brain Relationship between damage to the medial temporal lobes (including hippocampus) and HM's amnesia

Question 33

Cole and Scribner (1974) Cross Cultural study of Memory

Answer 33

To investigate free recall in two different cultures, the USA and Kpelle people in Liberia

Question 34

Rogoff and Waddel (1982)

Answer 34

Mayan children did better in a memory task if they were given one that was meaningful to them in local terms.

Question 35

Neisser and Harsch (1992) Challenger disaster)

Answer 35

To test the flashbulb memory by investigating the extent to which memory for a shocking event

Question 36

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)

Answer 36

Participants heard a list of items and then immediately had to recall them in any order Recalled the beginning and the end of the list the best. Recency and Primary effect The almost parabola type of graph

Question 37

Severe damage to the Hippocampus

Answer 37

Is critical to storage information

Question 38

Murdock (1962)

Answer 38

Primacy and Recency Effects People will be most likely to remember the first and last things/words -Primacy effects results from words being retrieved from LTS -Recency effects results from words being retrieved from the STS (Words in the middle did not make it to either LTS nor STS) Serial Position Curve!

Question 39

Eysenck (1990) criticism for LOP theory

Answer 39

Claims that the LOP describes rather than explain- why deep processing is so effective *Elaborate encoding enriches the memory representation of an item by activating many aspects of its meaning and linking jt into the pre-existing network of semantic associations