Anne Biermann (3.1b) Explain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis may be demonstrated in research.
The three principles that define the cognitive level of analysis are: mental processes guide behavior, the mind can be studied scientifically, and cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors. In essence, cognitive analysis is based on surroundings which effect thoughts and thus effect decisions. The first principle can be supported with the research done by Dweck (Stanford) which explains how the mindset of an individual plays a vital role in determining someone’s behavior. The second principle can be supported with the blatant fact that every year, theories and models can be revoked because something new has been discovered that has more empirical evidence to support the same idea. This is how we can tell that mind is consistently being researched and our findings of the brain are combined to form a better understanding of ourselves. Lastly, the third principle is supported with the seemingly simple term: schema. Schema is the mental representation of knowledge. Here, Bartlett argued that everyone has their own thought process, based off of individuals’ distortions, because everyone has their own experiences. Also, these principles can also be connected to individual’s happiness levels. If one feels insignificant due to their surroundings (often a result of upward comparison), one might think of himself as insignificant and thus his decisions might reflect just that. Along the same lines, an example of this could be: A man just recently purchased a car and so he was very happy-until his neighbor purchased the exact same car. The man finds himself upset not because he doesn’t have the same cool car, but because his is no longer new and exciting in comparison to his neighbor. For this, the man might feel belittled because he no longer is recognized on the block for his new car. Because his mood was affected, this could also effect his decision making. From examples like these, it has been discovered that people can manipulate surroundings to study altercations in behaviors.
Lipinsky 3.1 h Memory is affected by both social and cultural factors. This is due in part to environment because different cultures and people face different challenges for survival. According to psychologist Jerome Bruner, all children, no matter their cultural background, learn the basis of their lifestyle through schooling and interaction with family and friends. Other humans and interactions are one of the most key elements in the sharing and transmission of knowledge. This study is a good example of different cultures. Children of other backgrounds learn how to survive and act through older, more experienced people who have succeeded in their culture before them. Like Darwin’s theory, which says that the strongest survive, the strongest and the necessity for survival are different across the world. A weakness in cross-cultural cognitive studies is the favoring of western societies. Traditionally psychologists have performed their cognitive studies in Western countries, which leave the assumption that the results are also accurate for other countries. This assumption, if correct, would mean that if, for example, the same memory test is given to people all across the world, their culture would have no affect in the results. This has been found to be inaccurate, however, and instead psychologists have learned that in order to test memory in any group of people, you must first understand their language and culture. An example of the differences in memory throughout various cultures is a study conducted by Cole and Scribner. The researchers wanted to investigate memory strategies throughout the world. The study was to be a memory test. Cole and Scribner were going to test memorization of a list of words with people of Kpelle in rural Liberia and people from America. The first step in their process was to create equal memory tests. The researchers understood that the same test could not be distributed to both parties, so, by observing everyday life in Liberia, they created a list of familiar words. Cole and his partner were very surprised to find drastic differences in the way the people of the different cultures remember their lists. They used children and asked them to remember words from four categories. They predicted that the older children would remember the most, but that was not necessarily the case. In fact, the older children could only remember better than the younger ones if they had attended school for several years. The children who had not received proper education did not improve their recollection of the lists after the age of ten. The children who had attended school had the same remembrance rate as children in the US. They also used the same memorization strategy, which was chunking, or grouping the words together based on category. When the experiment was given again, but this time in a narrative form, or as part of a story, the non-schooled kids were able to remember easily, and even began to incorporate chunking. This study proves that environment plays a very large role in memories. In school and in places like the US we are taught to problem-solve and organize information in memory, which may cause the difference in remembrance. Here, we are given lists and variations on lists in almost anything we do. From grocery lists to lists of studies in a textbook, we see them daily. Children in Africa, however, probably experience these differently.
Explain the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes.
Technologies that are used in modern psychology to investigate cognitive processes are neuro-imaging techniques that allow the researchers to look at images of the brain functioning in real time. The invaluable information gathered from these tests helps researchers connect various parts of the brain and brain functions with biological behavior.
PET- Positron Emission Tomography, is one technique of measuring important functions in the brain. A PET can be used to locate tumors and memory disorders due to disease (Alzheimer's). It's able to do this because it can identify metabolic changes on a cellular level in an organ or tissue. The new wave of technology is so helpful that scientists can diagnose a disease like Alzheimer's before the patient has and symptoms or is aware of it themselves. Scientists are able to detect early stages of Alzheimer's because of the combination of the PET scan and computer technology developed by New York University School of Medicine, that scans the hippocampus (important brain structure in the formation and recollection of memory).
MRI- Magnetic Resonance Imaging, another technique that gives the researcher a 3-D view of the patients brain, through observing changes in oxygen level in the blood. When an area of the brain is more active it uses more oxygen than other parts, and that is how the researchers see which parts of the brain are used during different cognitive tasks.
Evaluate the extent to which a cognitive process is reliable.
A focus on determining if a cognitive process is reliable is based on memory. Memory may not be as reliable as we think because it can be influenced by other factors than what happened in the first place. So basically, it's not that reliable. This is due to reconstructive nature, which is the brain's active processing of information to make sense of the world. Sigmund and Freud thought that forgetting was caused by repression, which is people who experience intense emotional and anxiety- provoking events use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from knowing things they cannot cope with. They send dangerous memories to unconscious, so they deny the event ever happened. Also, false memories can be created by post-event information. For example, in 2002, when people were asked what kind of car a murderer was driving, they all believed they saw the murderer in a white van, because someone else mentioned a white van earlier, therefore a false memory has been created, based on the post event information. Another example how memory is not as reliable as we think is based on the concept of serial reproduction. That is, when one person reproduces the original story, the second person reproduces the first persons reproduction, and so on. Like the process of rumors/gossip being spread and a legend being told from generation to generation. When a story gets reproduced, it usually comes out shorter, the story remains coherent, and it becomes more conventional (retained details we could relate to/ past experience). People try to reconstruct the past by fitting it into their existing schemas. An example from the book of this is The War of the Ghosts story by Bartlett, 1932. Another example is eyewitness testimony. The nature of the question can influenve the witnesses' memory. Leading questions (suggestive) and post-event information can influence the accuracy of recall, shown in Loftus and Palmer. They asked a group who watched a car crash video to estimate the speed in which they hit each other. Wanting to see if a leading question affects recall, they changed one word in the question, how fast were the cars going when they hit each other? So the word hit was replaced with smashed/collided. The results, yes, recall of the video was affected by changing one word. The different words activated different schemas in memory. BUT, in another study, Yuille and Cutshall, they interviewed people who witnessed a real robbery and determined that changing one word in a question does not make a difference in memory. They criticized Loftus's lack of ecological validity because it was not real life, being in a lab, which are limitations of Loftus's study. This is ecological validity. Another limitation could be debriefing, because I do not believe Loftus and Palmer did this.
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies.
The multi-store model of memory was suggested by researchers Arkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. The model is known for being one of the most influential models we have today in terms of informational processing. The working memory model was constructed based on the multi-store model. The multi-store model consisted of separate memory stores that use processes like attention, coding, and rehearsal in order to operate with the permanent memory store. The model used sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, each serving its own purpose. In 1974, researchers Baddeley and Hitch suggested the working memory model. They didn’t believe that short-term memory was a single store, but rather, that short-term memory uses processes such as slave-systems, attentional control through automatic levels and supervisory attentional levels. In order to prove their suggestion, Baddeley and Hitch performed a research study where they tested dual-task techniques. Their participants were asked to read prose and understand it, and at the same time, remember a list of numbers. They found that it was easier for the participants to remember numbers in sequences of three. They also found that even though there was harm, it was not disastrous. This became evidence that short-term memory has more than one store.
Discuss how and why particular research methods are used by cognitive researchers. ...In the past researchers used laboratories to do their experiments because they could control all the variables there. The only problem was that those experiments were too artificial.These days researchers use a lot of methods for cognitive studies. For example, one of the methods are the case studies. They use people with special things, like brain damage or somebody with a really good memory.Also CAT and fMRI are used in cognitive studies . Cognitive processes are localized in the brain and that gives the researchers possibilities to look at the brain processes. Researchers do these studies to see if some cognitive models are right or not and maybe support them or make their own new model.
Biological factors may affect the cognative process of memory in multiple ways. The biological process of the actual formation of a memory happens when connections form or grow between neurons, forming what is called neural networks. Scientists study these through lesioning, which there are actually a few issues with. First of all, in the studies the scientists were just cutting out random parts of an animals brain until it could no longer complete the task it has been given. This has ethical considerations because of the abuse to animals, but also there are major problems with the study. Other biological factors that affect the cognative process of memory are the hippocampus and the amygdala. These are specific areas in the brain where different kinds of memory are stored, which factors directly into the process of memory as seen by the long term memory system, where specific kinds of memories are classified as labeled as such. The hippocampus affects explicit and declaritive memory, and the amygdala affects implicit memories. Finally, biological factors affecting memory is shown quite sufficiently in brain damage. Going with brain localization, when specific people are hit in parts of the brain which are significant to memory function, certain parts of memory are effected, but others are not. In one study about a man named Clive Wearing, he lost his memory outright, but could still play piano and maintained strong affection for his wifey. Because Clive didn't suffer any damage to the hippocampus, his explicit memory was affected, but his implicit was not, again, clarifying the biological factor of brain localization and it's impending affect on memory.
Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis.
-Mental processes guide behavior Psychologists see the mind as complex machine—rather like an intelligent, information-processing machine using hardware (the brain) and software (mental images or representations). Information input to the mind comes via bottom-up processing. This information is processed via pre-stored information in the memory. That’s when output is shown in the form of behavior.
-The mind can be studied scientifically This is demonstrated through use of theories and models of cognition which are discussed and continuously tested. Cognitive psychologists, like Ulric Neisser have said that it is important to study cognition in the laboratory as well as in a daily context so that it doesn’t get isolated from our everyday experience. Through this process, new findings result in amendments to original models, or a model or theory is simply rejected because the empirical evidence no longer supports it.
-Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors. Schema, which is defined as a mental representation of knowledge, is a cultural factor because people remember things based on the specific ways memories are significant to them. Frederic Bartlet coined the term schema and further investigated the influence of schema on peoples’ memories. He found that people have a hard time remembering a story from a different culture because they can’t identify with it so they reconstruct the story to fit in with their own cultural schemas.
Sheila Mendoza Section 3.2 Learning Outcome A • Evaluate the extent to which cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion A small structure in the temporal lobe that is critical in the brain’s emotional circuit is the amygdala. In 1999 LeDoux describes two biological pathways of emotion in the brain. The first pathway is a “short route” that goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala. This “short route” is useful in situations that there is little time to respond to an emotional stimulus such as a life and death situation. The second pathway is a “long route” which takes the emotional stimulus from the thalamus and through the neocortex and the hippocampus before reaching the amygdala. This pathway allows for a more detailed evaluation of a situation so that inappropriate responses to the stimuli are avoided. Lazarus (1975) stated that cognitive appraisal is important in how people react to emotional stress. In the experiment by Speisman et al. (1964) a film was shown to the participants about a horrifying initiation ceremony. But the soundtrack of the movie was manipulated. The first condition was the trauma condition which emphasized the pain in the initiation. The second condition was the denial condition which implied the participants of the initiation were willing and happy. The final condition was the intellectualization condition which gave an anthropological view of the ceremony. The researchers found that participant reacted more to the trauma condition. This proves that emotional reactions are produced in part by a person’s cognitive appraisal.
Silverstein, Anna 3.2B: -Evaluate one theory of how emotions may affect one cognitive process.
Depending on how a situation affects one's well-being, the said person will appraise the situation accordingly. Lazarus(1975) suggested that stress experiences are not only physiological but cognitive as well. Lazarus and Folkman claimed that a person's stress experience can be moderated by appraisal of threat and their resources for dealing with the stress. They are influenced by the nature of the danger, motivation, and one's opinion about themself.Speisman conducted an experiment in which he showed three different groups a movie of an unpleasant genital surgery. With each group, a different soundtrack played with each different movie: one that emphasized the pain and mutilation, one that showed the participants willing and happy, and one that showed the anthropological view of the ceremony. The experiment purposfully used the soundtracks to influence the people's appraisals of the movies and evaluated the people's responces. The results showed that the participants that saw the traumatic film reacted more emotionally to the movie. This study goes back and supports Lazarus's theory, that the way a person appraises an event brings up different amounts of emotional stress accordingly.
3.1 Learning Outcome E The schema theory, in relation to cognitive processes, argues that information is mentally represented through a web of beliefs, knowledge and expectations and is thus properly organized for storage. Schemas also allegedly influence the perception of memories. In this way, the typical human being would draw upon their schema to recall past stories and those denouements to form assumptions as to the resolution of a movie that they're currently watching. Likewise, schemas and pre-formed expectations can be expanded to regulate relationships, our predictions of personalities and reactions influencing our interpretation of another being. As schemas seem to cause people to percieve situations rather than unbiasedly observe, distortions in memory recall arise. Contextually, a “distortion” may mean a gap in memory filled by what the brain assumes (relying on schemas) may have happened based on past patterns noticed. However, some psychologists (Cohen 1993) argue that the working definition of a schema is too vague and the acquisition of schemas amorphous. Other psychologists rely greatly on schemas, using the theory as a foundation for their theories (Multi-store model of memory, working memory model, etc.) So as to explore the theory of the mind pruning memories to fit past patterns (which eventually lead to schemas), Bartlett (1932) conducted an experiment involving the summarization of another culture's story. Participants were asked to read a Native American legend and, upon being asked to reproduce the story, it was found that problems in an accurate retelling would occur. The plot of the legend was unfamiliar in Western culture and the story became severely shortened and altered, the distorted points being reminiscent of popular Western stories. Thus, participants altered the legend to fit into their schemas of how a story should go. That the brain systematically processes information based on patterns of events and goes on to interpret future situations in relation is the staple of schema theory and most of cognitive sciences.
I wasn't sure if I needed to post my answer here and in the older slot. Oh well!
3.1D Discuss Ethical Considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis.
The ethics involved in cognitive studies strongly question ecological validity, especially in the Anderson and Pichert case, in which the participants were given one schema (house-buyer) at the encoding stage and another at the retrieval stage, to test the influence of the latter schema (burglar) on recall of information. The experiment was conducted in a highly controlled environment, in a laboratory. However, because the variable was so controlled, the researchers were able to establish a cause and effect relationship on how schemas affect different memory processes. Another problem includes lesioning, a task in which researchers cut away brain tissue, after having animals retain memories of specific tasks, i.e. running through a maze. The repeat this procedure until the animal is no longer able to perform the task. Ethics in such studies may be high questioned, pertaining to the amount of physical/mental harm or pain endured by the animal. This type of study may violate the ethic of protection from physical harm, but depending on researcher's attitudes towards animal testing, the study may or may not be used to validate claims. Finally, the ethical consideration of the anonymity of the participants must be taken into account. Clive Wearing's case was unique, because his wife had given consent to have his named used in the published study, however if she had not given permission, Mr. Wearing's confidentiality rights would have been violated. Mr. Wearing's case is similar to HM's, as they both have anterograde amnesia, but unlike Mr. Wearing, his brain damage could have been prevented. He had had surgery for his epileptic seizures at the age of nine, in which they removed tissue from the temporal lobe, and while the seizures stopped, he lost the ability to form new memories after the surgery. Later, researchers discovered that the hippocampus, the amygdala, and other areas close to the hippocampus had been affected by the surgery. With the MRI Scanners, the scientists had a much better understanding of the areas affected by the operation, in which case they knew that physical harm had come to the participant, another violation of ethics.
Anne Biermann (3.1b)
ReplyDeleteExplain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis may be demonstrated in research.
The three principles that define the cognitive level of analysis are: mental processes guide behavior, the mind can be studied scientifically, and cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors. In essence, cognitive analysis is based on surroundings which effect thoughts and thus effect decisions. The first principle can be supported with the research done by Dweck (Stanford) which explains how the mindset of an individual plays a vital role in determining someone’s behavior. The second principle can be supported with the blatant fact that every year, theories and models can be revoked because something new has been discovered that has more empirical evidence to support the same idea. This is how we can tell that mind is consistently being researched and our findings of the brain are combined to form a better understanding of ourselves. Lastly, the third principle is supported with the seemingly simple term: schema. Schema is the mental representation of knowledge. Here, Bartlett argued that everyone has their own thought process, based off of individuals’ distortions, because everyone has their own experiences.
Also, these principles can also be connected to individual’s happiness levels. If one feels insignificant due to their surroundings (often a result of upward comparison), one might think of himself as insignificant and thus his decisions might reflect just that. Along the same lines, an example of this could be: A man just recently purchased a car and so he was very happy-until his neighbor purchased the exact same car. The man finds himself upset not because he doesn’t have the same cool car, but because his is no longer new and exciting in comparison to his neighbor. For this, the man might feel belittled because he no longer is recognized on the block for his new car. Because his mood was affected, this could also effect his decision making. From examples like these, it has been discovered that people can manipulate surroundings to study altercations in behaviors.
Lipinsky
ReplyDelete3.1 h
Memory is affected by both social and cultural factors. This is due in part to environment because different cultures and people face different challenges for survival. According to psychologist Jerome Bruner, all children, no matter their cultural background, learn the basis of their lifestyle through schooling and interaction with family and friends. Other humans and interactions are one of the most key elements in the sharing and transmission of knowledge. This study is a good example of different cultures. Children of other backgrounds learn how to survive and act through older, more experienced people who have succeeded in their culture before them. Like Darwin’s theory, which says that the strongest survive, the strongest and the necessity for survival are different across the world.
A weakness in cross-cultural cognitive studies is the favoring of western societies. Traditionally psychologists have performed their cognitive studies in Western countries, which leave the assumption that the results are also accurate for other countries. This assumption, if correct, would mean that if, for example, the same memory test is given to people all across the world, their culture would have no affect in the results. This has been found to be inaccurate, however, and instead psychologists have learned that in order to test memory in any group of people, you must first understand their language and culture.
An example of the differences in memory throughout various cultures is a study conducted by Cole and Scribner. The researchers wanted to investigate memory strategies throughout the world. The study was to be a memory test. Cole and Scribner were going to test memorization of a list of words with people of Kpelle in rural Liberia and people from America. The first step in their process was to create equal memory tests. The researchers understood that the same test could not be distributed to both parties, so, by observing everyday life in Liberia, they created a list of familiar words. Cole and his partner were very surprised to find drastic differences in the way the people of the different cultures remember their lists. They used children and asked them to remember words from four categories. They predicted that the older children would remember the most, but that was not necessarily the case. In fact, the older children could only remember better than the younger ones if they had attended school for several years. The children who had not received proper education did not improve their recollection of the lists after the age of ten. The children who had attended school had the same remembrance rate as children in the US. They also used the same memorization strategy, which was chunking, or grouping the words together based on category. When the experiment was given again, but this time in a narrative form, or as part of a story, the non-schooled kids were able to remember easily, and even began to incorporate chunking.
This study proves that environment plays a very large role in memories. In school and in places like the US we are taught to problem-solve and organize information in memory, which may cause the difference in remembrance. Here, we are given lists and variations on lists in almost anything we do. From grocery lists to lists of studies in a textbook, we see them daily. Children in Africa, however, probably experience these differently.
3.1 J
ReplyDeleteExplain the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes.
Technologies that are used in modern psychology to investigate cognitive processes are neuro-imaging techniques that allow the researchers to look at images of the brain functioning in real time. The invaluable information gathered from these tests helps researchers connect various parts of the brain and brain functions with biological behavior.
PET- Positron Emission Tomography, is one technique of measuring important functions in the brain. A PET can be used to locate tumors and memory disorders due to disease (Alzheimer's). It's able to do this because it can identify metabolic changes on a cellular level in an organ or tissue. The new wave of technology is so helpful that scientists can diagnose a disease like Alzheimer's before the patient has and symptoms or is aware of it themselves. Scientists are able to detect early stages of Alzheimer's because of the combination of the PET scan and computer technology developed by New York University School of Medicine, that scans the hippocampus (important brain structure in the formation and recollection of memory).
MRI- Magnetic Resonance Imaging, another technique that gives the researcher a 3-D view of the patients brain, through observing changes in oxygen level in the blood. When an area of the brain is more active it uses more oxygen than other parts, and that is how the researchers see which parts of the brain are used during different cognitive tasks.
Lui
ReplyDelete3.1 I
Evaluate the extent to which a cognitive process is reliable.
A focus on determining if a cognitive process is reliable is based on memory. Memory may not be as reliable as we think because it can be influenced by other factors than what happened in the first place. So basically, it's not that reliable. This is due to reconstructive nature, which is the brain's active processing of information to make sense of the world. Sigmund and Freud thought that forgetting was caused by repression, which is people who experience intense emotional and anxiety- provoking events use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from knowing things they cannot cope with. They send dangerous memories to unconscious, so they deny the event ever happened. Also, false memories can be created by post-event information. For example, in 2002, when people were asked what kind of car a murderer was driving, they all believed they saw the murderer in a white van, because someone else mentioned a white van earlier, therefore a false memory has been created, based on the post event information. Another example how memory is not as reliable as we think is based on the concept of serial reproduction. That is, when one person reproduces the original story, the second person reproduces the first persons reproduction, and so on. Like the process of rumors/gossip being spread and a legend being told from generation to generation. When a story gets reproduced, it usually comes out shorter, the story remains coherent, and it becomes more conventional (retained details we could relate to/ past experience). People try to reconstruct the past by fitting it into their existing schemas. An example from the book of this is The War of the Ghosts story by Bartlett, 1932. Another example is eyewitness testimony. The nature of the question can influenve the witnesses' memory. Leading questions (suggestive) and post-event information can influence the accuracy of recall, shown in Loftus and Palmer. They asked a group who watched a car crash video to estimate the speed in which they hit each other. Wanting to see if a leading question affects recall, they changed one word in the question, how fast were the cars going when they hit each other? So the word hit was replaced with smashed/collided. The results, yes, recall of the video was affected by changing one word. The different words activated different schemas in memory. BUT, in another study, Yuille and Cutshall, they interviewed people who witnessed a real robbery and determined that changing one word in a question does not make a difference in memory. They criticized Loftus's lack of ecological validity because it was not real life, being in a lab, which are limitations of Loftus's study. This is ecological validity. Another limitation could be debriefing, because I do not believe Loftus and Palmer did this.
Elyana Feldman
ReplyDelete3.1 F
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies.
The multi-store model of memory was suggested by researchers Arkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. The model is known for being one of the most influential models we have today in terms of informational processing. The working memory model was constructed based on the multi-store model. The multi-store model consisted of separate memory stores that use processes like attention, coding, and rehearsal in order to operate with the permanent memory store. The model used sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, each serving its own purpose. In 1974, researchers Baddeley and Hitch suggested the working memory model. They didn’t believe that short-term memory was a single store, but rather, that short-term memory uses processes such as slave-systems, attentional control through automatic levels and supervisory attentional levels. In order to prove their suggestion, Baddeley and Hitch performed a research study where they tested dual-task techniques. Their participants were asked to read prose and understand it, and at the same time, remember a list of numbers. They found that it was easier for the participants to remember numbers in sequences of three. They also found that even though there was harm, it was not disastrous. This became evidence that short-term memory has more than one store.
hey guys this is Josianne's!
ReplyDeleteJosianne Bremmer 3.1 c
Discuss how and why particular research methods are used by cognitive researchers.
...In the past researchers used laboratories to do their experiments because they could control all the variables there. The only problem was that those experiments were too artificial.These days researchers use a lot of methods for cognitive studies. For example, one of the methods are the case studies. They use people with special things, like brain damage or somebody with a really good memory.Also CAT and fMRI are used in cognitive studies . Cognitive processes are localized in the brain and that gives the researchers possibilities to look at the brain processes. Researchers do these studies to see if some cognitive models are right or not and maybe support them or make their own new model.
Gee
ReplyDelete3.1.G
Biological factors may affect the cognative process of memory in multiple ways. The biological process of the actual formation of a memory happens when connections form or grow between neurons, forming what is called neural networks. Scientists study these through lesioning, which there are actually a few issues with. First of all, in the studies the scientists were just cutting out random parts of an animals brain until it could no longer complete the task it has been given. This has ethical considerations because of the abuse to animals, but also there are major problems with the study. Other biological factors that affect the cognative process of memory are the hippocampus and the amygdala. These are specific areas in the brain where different kinds of memory are stored, which factors directly into the process of memory as seen by the long term memory system, where specific kinds of memories are classified as labeled as such. The hippocampus affects explicit and declaritive memory, and the amygdala affects implicit memories. Finally, biological factors affecting memory is shown quite sufficiently in brain damage. Going with brain localization, when specific people are hit in parts of the brain which are significant to memory function, certain parts of memory are effected, but others are not. In one study about a man named Clive Wearing, he lost his memory outright, but could still play piano and maintained strong affection for his wifey. Because Clive didn't suffer any damage to the hippocampus, his explicit memory was affected, but his implicit was not, again, clarifying the biological factor of brain localization and it's impending affect on memory.
Aganovic, 3.1 a
ReplyDeleteOutline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis.
-Mental processes guide behavior
Psychologists see the mind as complex machine—rather like an intelligent, information-processing machine using hardware (the brain) and software (mental images or representations). Information input to the mind comes via bottom-up processing. This information is processed via pre-stored information in the memory. That’s when output is shown in the form of behavior.
-The mind can be studied scientifically
This is demonstrated through use of theories and models of cognition which are discussed and continuously tested. Cognitive psychologists, like Ulric Neisser have said that it is important to study cognition in the laboratory as well as in a daily context so that it doesn’t get isolated from our everyday experience. Through this process, new findings result in amendments to original models, or a model or theory is simply rejected because the empirical evidence no longer supports it.
-Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
Schema, which is defined as a mental representation of knowledge, is a cultural factor because people remember things based on the specific ways memories are significant to them. Frederic Bartlet coined the term schema and further investigated the influence of schema on peoples’ memories. He found that people have a hard time remembering a story from a different culture because they can’t identify with it so they reconstruct the story to fit in with their own cultural schemas.
Sheila Mendoza
ReplyDeleteSection 3.2 Learning Outcome A
• Evaluate the extent to which cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion
A small structure in the temporal lobe that is critical in the brain’s emotional circuit is the amygdala. In 1999 LeDoux describes two biological pathways of emotion in the brain. The first pathway is a “short route” that goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala. This “short route” is useful in situations that there is little time to respond to an emotional stimulus such as a life and death situation. The second pathway is a “long route” which takes the emotional stimulus from the thalamus and through the neocortex and the hippocampus before reaching the amygdala. This pathway allows for a more detailed evaluation of a situation so that inappropriate responses to the stimuli are avoided. Lazarus (1975) stated that cognitive appraisal is important in how people react to emotional stress. In the experiment by Speisman et al. (1964) a film was shown to the participants about a horrifying initiation ceremony. But the soundtrack of the movie was manipulated. The first condition was the trauma condition which emphasized the pain in the initiation. The second condition was the denial condition which implied the participants of the initiation were willing and happy. The final condition was the intellectualization condition which gave an anthropological view of the ceremony. The researchers found that participant reacted more to the trauma condition. This proves that emotional reactions are produced in part by a person’s cognitive appraisal.
Silverstein, Anna 3.2B:
ReplyDelete-Evaluate one theory of how emotions may affect one cognitive process.
Depending on how a situation affects one's well-being, the said person will appraise the situation accordingly. Lazarus(1975) suggested that stress experiences are not only physiological but cognitive as well. Lazarus and Folkman claimed that a person's stress experience can be moderated by appraisal of threat and their resources for dealing with the stress. They are influenced by the nature of the danger, motivation, and one's opinion about themself.Speisman conducted an experiment in which he showed three different groups a movie of an unpleasant genital surgery. With each group, a different soundtrack played with each different movie: one that emphasized the pain and mutilation, one that showed the participants willing and happy, and one that showed the anthropological view of the ceremony. The experiment purposfully used the soundtracks to influence the people's appraisals of the movies and evaluated the people's responces. The results showed that the participants that saw the traumatic film reacted more emotionally to the movie. This study goes back and supports Lazarus's theory, that the way a person appraises an event brings up different amounts of emotional stress accordingly.
3.1 Learning Outcome E
ReplyDeleteThe schema theory, in relation to cognitive processes, argues that information is mentally represented through a web of beliefs, knowledge and expectations and is thus properly organized for storage. Schemas also allegedly influence the perception of memories. In this way, the typical human being would draw upon their schema to recall past stories and those denouements to form assumptions as to the resolution of a movie that they're currently watching. Likewise, schemas and pre-formed expectations can be expanded to regulate relationships, our predictions of personalities and reactions influencing our interpretation of another being. As schemas seem to cause people to percieve situations rather than unbiasedly observe, distortions in memory recall arise. Contextually, a “distortion” may mean a gap in memory filled by what the brain assumes (relying on schemas) may have happened based on past patterns noticed. However, some psychologists (Cohen 1993) argue that the working definition of a schema is too vague and the acquisition of schemas amorphous. Other psychologists rely greatly on schemas, using the theory as a foundation for their theories (Multi-store model of memory, working memory model, etc.) So as to explore the theory of the mind pruning memories to fit past patterns (which eventually lead to schemas), Bartlett (1932) conducted an experiment involving the summarization of another culture's story. Participants were asked to read a Native American legend and, upon being asked to reproduce the story, it was found that problems in an accurate retelling would occur. The plot of the legend was unfamiliar in Western culture and the story became severely shortened and altered, the distorted points being reminiscent of popular Western stories. Thus, participants altered the legend to fit into their schemas of how a story should go. That the brain systematically processes information based on patterns of events and goes on to interpret future situations in relation is the staple of schema theory and most of cognitive sciences.
I wasn't sure if I needed to post my answer here and in the older slot. Oh well!
3.1D
ReplyDeleteDiscuss Ethical Considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis.
The ethics involved in cognitive studies strongly question ecological validity, especially in the Anderson and Pichert case, in which the participants were given one schema (house-buyer) at the encoding stage and another at the retrieval stage, to test the influence of the latter schema (burglar) on recall of information. The experiment was conducted in a highly controlled environment, in a laboratory. However, because the variable was so controlled, the researchers were able to establish a cause and effect relationship on how schemas affect different memory processes.
Another problem includes lesioning, a task in which researchers cut away brain tissue, after having animals retain memories of specific tasks, i.e. running through a maze. The repeat this procedure until the animal is no longer able to perform the task. Ethics in such studies may be high questioned, pertaining to the amount of physical/mental harm or pain endured by the animal. This type of study may violate the ethic of protection from physical harm, but depending on researcher's attitudes towards animal testing, the study may or may not be used to validate claims.
Finally, the ethical consideration of the anonymity of the participants must be taken into account. Clive Wearing's case was unique, because his wife had given consent to have his named used in the published study, however if she had not given permission, Mr. Wearing's confidentiality rights would have been violated. Mr. Wearing's case is similar to HM's, as they both have anterograde amnesia, but unlike Mr. Wearing, his brain damage could have been prevented. He had had surgery for his epileptic seizures at the age of nine, in which they removed tissue from the temporal lobe, and while the seizures stopped, he lost the ability to form new memories after the surgery. Later, researchers discovered that the hippocampus, the amygdala, and other areas close to the hippocampus had been affected by the surgery. With the MRI Scanners, the scientists had a much better understanding of the areas affected by the operation, in which case they knew that physical harm had come to the participant, another violation of ethics.