Psychology A1 - concept five - cognitive

Question 1

what is a memory script?

Answer 1

-contains knowledge of how a social situation ‘plays out’
-includes what we can expect to happen, how we should behave and what the consequences could be
-restaurant script (Schank and Abelson, 1977), includes knowledge and expectations of the setting, props and actors

Question 2

features of memory scripts

Answer 2

-broken down into scenes ordered by time, example, enter restaurant, sit at table, order, eat and pay
-concern multiple goals, example, satisfy hunger
-dynamic and evolve with experience, example, more often you visit, the more detailed the script is
-influenced by culture, example, restaurants in China, people find their own table
-influence memory

Question 3

what is person perception?

Answer 3

-meet someone new, we don’t view them as an individual person with own unique traits
-instead we categorise them
-mentally place them into a group or ‘type’ of people

Question 4

how person perception works – making assumptions

Answer 4

-gaps in our knowledge of someone new
-once categorised, we fill in gaps with information about the category
-memories contain knowledge of others personalities
-example, view someone as ‘outgoing’ may assume they have the attribute of loud

Question 5

how person perception works – stereotyping and bias

Answer 5

-knowledge can be wrong, based on stereotypes
-we assume person is representative of a group
-therefore, person perception isn’t objectively accurate, affected by our own cognitive biases

Question 6

evaluation: practical applications (+)

Answer 6

-may be able to make person perception more accurate and objective
-when we meet someone new, find it easy to make inaccurate judgements about personality– based on stereotypes
-instead, can make sure we take time to properly know someone without making ‘snap’ judgements
-by knowing how it works, we can resist the tendency to negatively stereotype

Question 7

evaluation: research support (+)

Answer 7

-evidence to support role of memory scripts
-when presented with a routine events in the wrong order, people tend to recall them in the right order
-example, morning routines, presented as ‘get dressed, get out of bed, wake up’ recalled as ‘wake up, get out of bed, get dressed’ (Bower et al, 1979)
-correct order = familiar
-finding supports argument that cognitive scripts strongly influence how we remember everyday events

Question 8

evaluation: cannot explain all behaviour (-)

Answer 8

-may assume a script is guiding behaviour when it isn’t
-when someone behaves in a script-consistent way, how do we know it is due to following a script?
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