contemporary issues the cognitive approach aidan sammons
TRANSCRIPT
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Contemporary Issues
The Cognitive Approach
Aidan Sammonswww.psychlotron.org.uk
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Contemporary Issues
‘Students should be able to…explain one contemporary issue or debate using terminology or ideas drawn from the cognitive approach’.
Edexcel AS Psychology Specification
Identify key concepts from the approach
Be able to explain them
Be able to apply them to real world situations or problems
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Cognitive Concepts Information processingSchema driven processingReconstructive memoryFalse memory syndrome
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Information Processing
OutputInput Processing
Storage
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Input Processes
Keyboard Mouse Scanner Camera Microphone
Vision Hearing Touch Smell Taste
Computer Mind
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Output Processes
Screen Projector Printer Loudspeaker
Behaviour Speech
Computer Mind
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Human Information Processing
BehaviourSenses Cognition
Memory
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Cognitive Processes
Perception:
interpreting incoming sensory
information
Attention:
selecting information for further processing
Thinking:
sorting, combining, modifying
information
Memory
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The Importance of Memory Not just a store for
information Influences what is
selected How it is interpreted Actively involved in
all aspects of cognition
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Limits of the Computer Metaphor
Processes information passively
Nonsense in, nonsense out
Processes information actively
Tries to make sense of information
Nonsense in, sense out
Computer Mind
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Computer Information Processing
BANG!Can you wreck a
nice beach?
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Human Information Processing
Yes. I can
recognise speech.
Can you wreck a
nice beach?
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Schema Driven Processing Knowledge is
organised into schemas
Schemas allow us to make sense of information
Making sense of information can distort it
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Schema Driven Processing
‘Pickaxe’
‘Turf cutter’
Input OutputSchema
Bartlett (1932)
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Reconstructive MemoriesSchemas are used to reconstruct
memoriesWe attempt to recall things so they
make as much sense as possibleBiases, errors and alterations in
schemas can result in distortions of memory
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Reconstructive Errors Loftus conducted
research in which people were deliberately misinformed about what they had seen
She showed that it was possible to alter people’s memories
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Key Cognitive Ideas The mind is compared to a computer, with
inputs, processes and outputs Unlike a computer, the mind is both active
and selective in the way it processes information
Schemas are used to interpret experiences and reconstruct memories
Alterations and biases in schemas can affect the accuracy of memory
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Alien Abduction
The Truth Is In There
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Alien Abduction Experiences
Abduction occurs at night
Abductee is conscious but immobilised
Aliens carry out medical investigation
Elements of sexual molestation
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Three Possibilities ‘Abductees’ have
really been kidnapped by aliens.
‘Abductees’ are lying.
‘Abductees’ believe themselves to have been kidnapped by aliens when they actually haven’t.
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Occam’s Razor
‘When two competing theories purport to explain the same phenomenon, in the absence of evidence, prefer the simpler one’
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McNally (2003) Tested abductees’
physiological responses to hearing about trauma.
Increased heart rate, sweating etc.
Same responses as combat veterans, car crash survivors victims of violent crime.
Abductees are genuinely traumatised.
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Abductee StoriesAbductees have probably not been
kidnapped by aliensThey do not appear to be lying Therefore, it is possible that they have
constructed false memories of alien abduction
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Creating False MemoriesRequires a person to believe that
something happened, when it did not.This understanding becomes part of
that person’s schematic understanding.As a result, they may spontaneously
‘recall’ a memory that is actually false.
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Loftus & Pickrell (1995) PPs’ relatives
interviewed to help construct a plausible story about getting lost on a shopping trip
PPs interviewed (twice) and asked to recall additional information about the event
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Loftus & Pickrell (1995)With repeated discussion, the ‘memory’
was accepted as true by some of the PPs
7 out of 24 accepted the memory and were able to ‘recall’ additional information
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Loftus (2001) PPs shown fake advert
of Bugs Bunny at Disneyland
Asked if they remembered meeting ‘Bugs’ on childhood visits to Disneyland
35% reported doing so Impossible, because
Bugs Bunny is a Warner Bros character
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Characteristics of Abductees Pre-existing ‘New
Age’ beliefs (astral projection, tarot cards etc.)
Score highly on measures of fantasy/absorption
Episodes of sleep paralysis
McNally (2003)
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Sleep ParalysisOccurs on waking from REM sleepBody remains paralysed after waking30% of population experience it at some
time5% of people also experience
hypnopopic hallucinationsThey continue dreaming, despite being
awake
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Alien Abduction Memories
Construction of alien abduction
memory
Frightening experience of
sleep paralysis
Prior belief in alien abduction
(schemas)
Input from other believers & ‘abductees’
Attempt to make sense of
experience
McNally (2003)
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Alien Abduction MemoriesThe person experiences sleep paralysisThey also experience hypnopopic
hallucinationsThey are motivated to make sense of a
frightening experienceTo do so, they draw on schematic ideas
of alien abductions
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Alien Abduction Memories Contact with other ‘abductees’ reinforces their
belief in the experience and encourages the development of detail in the memory
In some cases, therapists facilitate this process. The resulting memory is real enough to cause
trauma, even though it does not correspond to real events.
Alien abduction experiences are an example of false memory syndrome
Or are they?