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Cognitive Level of Analysis

Principles
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This information is processed topdown via pre-stored information in the memory
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An example of
this is the Necker Cube
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The mind can be studied scientifically
Cognitive psychologists study cognition in the laboratory as well as in the context of everyday life
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Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors
Research into schema theory can support this
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Schema theory has been used to explain memory
processes, which include:
Encoding – registering information for later retrieval, i
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transforming sensory information (light,
sound, etc
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e
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The house was isolated and located in an attractive neighbourhood, but it had a leaky roof
and a damp basement
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Half of the participants were asked to read the story from the point of view of a house-buyer
and the other half from the point of view of a burglar
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Then there was another 5-minute delay
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Results:
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The participants that changed schemas showed 7% more recall on the second task rather than
the first
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Cognitive Level of Analysis
Conclusion:
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Schema processing has an effect on retrieval and encoding as it could only have influenced
recall at the retrieval stage
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Evaluation:
+ Shows cause and effect relationship between encoding and retrieval
+ There are standardised procedures so the experiment is repeatable
- There is low ecological validity and therefore low mundane realism because the experiment
doesn’t reflect real life due to artificial situation
Evaluation of Schema Theory:
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Lots of research has supported the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as
memory
It is useful for understanding how people categorise information, interpret stories, and make
inferences among other things
Schema theory has contributed towards an understanding of memory distortions as well as
social cognitions
It is not entirely clear how schemas are formed in the first place or how they influence
cognitive processes

Multi-Store Model
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed the multi-store model
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Sensory memory registers sensory
information and stores it for up to four seconds in the short term memory
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Information is
transferred to the long term memory if it is rehearsed
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The central executive is responsible for controlling and regulating cognitive processes
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Autonomic level which is based on habits
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It binds information from different sources and shifts between tasks and
retrieval strategies
The phonological loop is a brief store and has a rehearsal mechanism
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A
memory trace lasts 1
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The
phonological store can receive information from the senses or from the long term memory in the form
of verbal information
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It is used in the temporary storage
and manipulation of spatial and visual information
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It acts
as a temporary and passive display store until the information is needed
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Method:
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Participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time – repeating numbers and a
verbal reasoning task where they had to answer true or false questions

Results:
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As there were more numbers, it took longer to answer the questions
The participants made no errors in their answers

Conclusion:
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The verbal reasoning task used the central executive and the number task used the
phonological loop

Evidence for the Working Memory Model
If two tasks are done at the same time, it is possible to perform well if separate systems are used
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Evaluation of the Working Memory Model and Study:
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It is useful in understanding which parts of the memory system may be linked to problems in
reading and mathematics
There is evidence for the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop
Standardised procedures were used so the experiment is repeatable
The central executive is hard to quantify
It is a lab experiment so there is low ecological validity
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Cognitive Level of Analysis

Memory and Brain Damage
The hippocampus is important in the formation of explicit memories, which are fact-based information
that can be consciously retrieved
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Case studies of people with damage to the
hippocampus show that they can no longer form new explicit memories, but they can form new
implicit memories
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They may be
formed via the limbic system and they may persist even when brain damage has destroyed other
memories
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Henry Molaison has his hippocampus removed because he suffered from epileptic seizures
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He could not form new explicit memories, so he
couldn’t learn new words or remember his family
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Clive Wearing cannot create new memories and has lost many of his memories
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He had a herpes virus that attacked his nervous system
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Studying the brain can help us find out about it but it is hard to find people with the same injury
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Children were expected to remember items on lists that were organised into different
categories
The test was repeated with the children several times

Results:
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The Kpelle children did not improve their performance in free recall memory tests, after the
age of 10, in the same way as US children after 15 trials
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When items were presented as part of a story the Kpelle (non-schooled) children did equally
as well as the US children
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Evaluation:
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High cross-cultural validity
Study is reliable and replicable
Cause and effect relationship
Lack of control group
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Cognitive Level of Analysis
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Unethical – children might feel less intelligent
Takes into account how culture can affect memory
Culture influences schemas and thus our memory and can have advantageous effects if asked
to do a task associated with our culture
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A methodological problem exists as most memory research is conducted in cultures with formal
schooling systems
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Evaluate the extent to which a cognitive process is reliable
It is important to have a reliable memory because eye witnesses would have to give evidence but they
might not remember what the person looked like, making memory unreliable
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Freud argued that forgetting is caused by repression – people who experience
intense emotional and anxiety provoking events may use defence mechanisms, such as repression to
protect their conscious self from something that they cannot cope with
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For example, it may appear in their dreams until a therapist is able to
retrieve the memory during therapy
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A child identifies with same sex parent
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It controls pleasure behaviour
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Evaluation:
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Unfalsifiable – cannot be tested
Determinism – doesn’t take free will into account
Takes nature and nurture into account

Loftus (2002)
Loftus wrote an article on the Washington Sniper
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A bystander mentioned a white van in an
interview so a false memory was created
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Cognitive Level of Analysis
Aim: To investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge
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A native American legend was told
The participants were British, so the story was filled with unknown names and concepts
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They remembered the main
themes but changed unfamiliar events to match their own cultural expectations

Conclusion:
Remembering is an active process, where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing
schemas
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Memory is unreliable because memories aren’t exact copies
of what happened, they are reconstructed to fit with the schema
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They received a questionnaire asking them to recall information about the accidents
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8 mph
‘Hit’ – average speed was 34 mph
16 of the participants that were asked if the cars smashed into each other saw glass and 7
who were asked if they hit each other said they saw glass, even though there was no broken
glass

Evaluation:
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No representation of emotional response – no ecological validity
Controlled, so there is a cause and effect relationship
Ethics – may cause distress for people
Only US students

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Cognitive Level of Analysis
Conclusion:
Leading questions can alter memory, which means that memory is unreliable and eye witness
testimonies can be unreliable
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Pet Scans: Positive emission tomography monitors glucose metabolism in the brain
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A strength is that they study detailed regions of the brain in action
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Maguire et al
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Procedure:
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11 male London taxi drivers used between the ages of 38 and 52
A questionnaire was filled out about areas of London which they were most familiar with,
movies that were common among all, and landmarks they had visited in person and could
envision in their head
Participants were blindfolded and speech was recorded
They had their PET scans and completed each task with one stimulus at a time

Results:
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All spoke for the same amount of time
High accuracy on all tasks
In the navigation task, the routes chosen were similar
During the tasks, the participants stated that they visually noted the paths, landmarks, and
movies

Conclusion:
The hippocampus was activated in topographic memory retrieval – mainly the right hippocampus
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Evaluation:
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Only male participants
Ethical
Real world routes and landmarks – ecological validity
High levels of control
PET scan could discover something harmful, such as a tumour
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Cognitive Level of Analysis
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Replicable and reliable
Reductionist approach

fMRI and MRI
(Functional) magnetic resonance imaging scans provide three dimensional pictures of the brain
structures using magnetic fields and radio waves
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This is used to see which areas of the brain are used when people perform cognitive
tasks, such as reading or problem solving
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fMRI:
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It does not use radioactive substances
It can record activity in all areas of the brain
3D pictures make it more detailed

Ethics of Scanning
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Participants should sign a consent form to see if they want to know if there are abnormalities
The researchers might find something harmful in the brain, which could alarm the participant
Scans for research are less detailed than scans in hospitals so they could be harder to interpret
Researchers are not qualified to diagnose participants

Cognition and Emotion
Emotion is physiological changes, such as arousal of the autonomic nervous system
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Appraisal is an interpretation
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A cognitive
appraisal of arousal is a decision about what to do based on previous experience
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(1964)
Aim: To investigate the extent to which manipulation of cognitive appraisal could influence emotional
experience
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Emotions may influence
cognitive processes, such as memory, and appraisal may influence emotion
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Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim: To investigate whether shocking events are recalled more vividly and accurately than other
events
Procedure:
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Questionnaire asked 80 participants to recall circumstances where they had learned of
shocking events

Results:
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Participants had vivid memories of where they were, what they did, and what they felt when
they first heard of it
Flashbulb memory is more likely to occur for unexpected personal events

Evaluation:
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Lots of participants – representative
Ecological validity – real life events
Hard to test memory
Hard to replicate so lacks reliability

Neisser is critical towards the idea of flashbulb memory as certain memories are very vivid because
they are rehearsed and discussed after the event
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They had to answer 7 questions about where they were, what they
did, emotions felt, etc
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They were asked how
confident their memory was on a scale of 1-5 and if they had done the questionnaire before
There was then a semi-structured interview where the participants were tested to see if they
could remember what they wrote
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Cognitive Level of Analysis
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They then saw their original answers

Results:
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11 out of 44 participants remembered that they had done the questionnaire before
Mean score of correctness of recall was 2
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For 11 participants the score was 0, and 22
scored 2 or less
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Conclusion:
These results challenge flashbulb memory and reliability of memory because the participants were
confident they remembered the event correctly both times

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