Week 5 - Perspectives on cognition Flashcards
Who did research into cognitive dissonance?
Leon Festinger
Who did research into the reconstructive nature of memory?
Frederick Barlett
Who did research into false memories?
Elizabeth Loftus
What is cognitive psychology?
- Behaviourists argued that internal mental processes cannot be verified by reference to observable behaviour and should be ignored
- Cognitive psychologists argue that it is of crucial importance to study internal mental processes involved in making sense of the environment and responding appropriately
What is cognitive dissonance?
The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating ti behavioural decisions and attitude change
How can you reduce cognitive dissonance?
1) Focus on evidence supporting one’s beliefs
2) Reduce the importance of conflicting beliefs
3) Change the conflicting belief so that it is
consistent with other beliefs of behaviours
4) Adopt what other people believe
5) Apply pressure to people who believe differently
6) Make the person who believes differently significantly different from oneself
What is a schema?
A mental representation of knowledge stored in the brain. A network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations
What are memories?
Reconstructions guided by schemas
What is the social reproduction technique?
The transmission of a story, pieces of knowledge etc., by being passed on repeatedly from one person to another
What was the Loftus and Palmer study with cars?
7 films of traffic accidents, then asked how fast the cars were going when they collided, smashed, contacted.
Did the different words change the speed they would say?
Loftus and Palmer did a study about a mall. What was it?
The found that you can create or implant false memories in people’s minds of events that never happened
They told people 4 events that happened in their life but one of them was fake, and most of them said they could recall it
Loftus and Palmer’s research helped court rooms by the development of what?
Leading questions - Leading questions can lead to inaccurate memories
Witnesses are not allowed to engage in post-event-discussion - The value of this has been shown as post event discussion can lead to memory conformity and inaccurate memories
