Download The Cognitive Level of Analysis (CLOA)

THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The Cognitive Level of Analysis (CLOA)
1. Principles and research methods of the CLOA
A. Principles of the CLOA
B. Research Methods of the CLOA
C. Ethics and Research Methods at the CLOA
2. Cognitive Processes
A. Schema theory
B. Models or theories of memory
C. Biological factors and memory
D. Social and cultural factors and memory
E. The reliability of memory
F. The use of technology to investigate memory
3. Cognition and Emotion
A. Cognitive and biological factors and emotion
B. Emotion and memory
1
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
1. Principles and research methods of the CLOA
A. Principles of the CLOA
The historical background to cognitive psychology is twentieth century behaviourism, which argued
that as we cannot directly observe the mind working, we cannot study it, and should instead focus our
study on direct, observable human behaviour. However, there are many phenomena that we cannot
directly observe, such as air, for example. But we infer its presence from the fact that we can breathe,
and its movement from the waving of the trees. Similarly, cognitive psychologists cannot directly
observe mental processes (even brain scans only show us brain structure and activity from which we
infer mental activity), but they can infer mental processes from human behaviour.
Researchers at the cognitive level of analysis (CLOA) study the mental structures and processes
involved in such behaviours as attention, decision-making, memory, perception, problem-solving and
language. Such processes are labelled ‘cognition’. While psychologists at the BLOA study the brain
and nervous system in relation to human behaviour, psychologists at the CLOA examine the
relationship between cognition (the ‘mind’) and human behaviour. As the use of computers grew, so
the mind became seen as a kind of computer, with data input through the senses, mental processing
within the brain and behaviour output.
The main principles of the CLOA are:
•
•
•
Mental representations guide behaviour.
Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
These principles are slightly different from those listed in your textbook, but in essence they mean the
same and are more specific. Please see your Psychology guide p 17-18 for further details of the
CLOA.
Learning outcome:
•
Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis
Mental representations guide behaviour.
We can never experience our world directly: all information is interpreted
according to our senses, our experience, and our knowledge, and so none
of us has exactly the same experience of a phenomenon, which explains
why none of us has exactly the same response to it. In other words, our
‘world’ is processed mentally before we can make sense of it. W e have
selective perception, distorted memories and different understandings and
our behaviours differ accordingly. Cognitive psychologists do not argue that
mental processes are all that affects our behaviour, but that they have a
significant effect on it.
Mental processes are the mechanisms by which our mental representations
are formed, which guide our behaviour. An example of how mental
representations guide behaviour is given by schema theory. Schemas
(sometimes called schemata in the plural) are mental representations that form frameworks within
which we organize and interpret our knowledge of the world. W e have a schema for what a
2
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
classroom would look like (identical desks and chairs, a whiteboard, displays on the wall, fluorescent
lighting, for example) and another for what a bedroom would look like. We are not born with these,
but they develop as we learn more about how the world works. Sir Frederick Bartlett (1932)
conducted a series of studies that showed how unfamiliar material was organized through familiar
schemas to produce a reconstructed memory of a culturally strange piece of writing. See here for a
further discussion of schema theory. We will revisit this theory when we look at the reliability of
memory.
Study demonstrating the principle that mental representations guide behaviour
Tuckey and Brewer (2003) examined how a ‘crime schema’ influenced the types of details
witnesses recalled over multiple interviews. Some witnesses experienced delay before the initial
interview and some between subsequent interviews. Data showed that, in general, schemairrelevant memories (memories that neither confirmed nor contradicted the crime schema) were
more often forgotten than schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent traces after the initial
interview. Delaying the initial interview negatively affected recall at the initial interview, but led to
less decay over subsequent interviews.
Witnesses used their schemas to interpret any unclear information and, as a result, made more
schema-consistent mistakes and were more likely to report false memories concerning these
ambiguous details.
The mind can be studied scientifically.
Cognitive psychologists construct theories concerning the mental processes of
the mind, and then such theories are tested using modern scanning methods,
controlled laboratory experiments and case studies. The internal working of
the mind can be represented through theoretical models which can also then
be tested, and used to make predictions about, and give explanations of,
human behaviour. We may not be able to see the mind working, but we can
infer that certain mental processes are taking place that correspond to a
particular human behaviour.
Cognitive psychologists conduct controlled laboratory experiments to test the
mental models that have been developed to explain such behaviours as memory, language learning,
perception and attention.
3
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Study demonstrating the principle that mental processes can be studied scientifically
Alloway and Alloway (2009) investigated the relationship between working memory and what they
term crystallized intelligence. As opposed to fluid intelligence, which has long been known to be
associated with working memory, crystallized intelligence is thought to be more fixed, relying as it
does on acquired skills and knowledge. Crystallized intelligence is closely linked to brain regions
that involve the storage and usage of long-term memories, such as the hippocampus (see Geary,
2005). Therefore one would not expect it to be altered to any great extent by the use of working
memory, which is a shorter-term memory. This experiment sought to determine the effect of
working memory on crystallized intelligence.
The researchers used an independent measures design with a control group and an experimental
group containing different participants. The participants were fifteen teenaged students with
learning difficulties, eight in the training group and seven in the control group. The training group
engaged in memory-training games in the laboratory three times a week over an eight-week
period. The control group had targeted educational support at school for the same period. The
results showed that participants in the training group made on average an increase of almost 10
standard points in the measure of crystallized intelligence. The control group, who did not
participate in the training programme, showed no improvement in intelligence despite receiving
targeted educational support that was tailored to improve their knowledge and skills. The
conclusion is that working memory training can significantly improve crystallized intelligence and
allow students with learning difficulties to catch up with their peers.
Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
Just as the scientific study of mental processes using brain-scanning
technology demonstrates overlap between the CLOA and the BLOA, so
the principle that social and cultural factors impact cognitive processes
shows that there is some overlap between the CLOA and the
sociocultural level of analysis (SCLOA). None of the levels of analysis
operates alone; they interact to give the fullest explanation possible of
human behaviour.
The principle that cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors refers to the effect
that our education, ethnicity, upbringing, geographical location, gender and many other factors have
on our memory, perceptions, attention, problem-solving and other behaviours. While few
psychologists believe that genetic inheritance and biology play no part in human behaviour, most
acknowledge the effect of our culture and social relationships on how we think and behave.
4
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Study demonstrating the principle that cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural
factors
MacDonald et al. (2000) researched cross-cultural and gender differences in adults’ earliest
memories. To do this, they asked male and female adults from three cultural backgrounds (New
Zealand European, New Zealand Maori, and Asian) to describe and date their earliest personal
memory. Consistent with past research, Asian adults reported significantly later memories than
European adults. However this effect was due exclusively to the extremely late memories reported
by Asian females. Maori adults, whose traditional culture includes a strong emphasis on the past,
reported significantly earlier memories than adults from the other two cultural groups. Across all
three cultures, the memories reported by women contained more information than the memories
reported by men. These findings support the view that the age and content of our earliest
memories are influenced by a wide range of factors including our culture and our gender.
B. Research Methods of the CLOA
Research methods at the cognitive level of analysis are based on the principles already described.
They are:
•
Case studies
•
Laboratory experiments
•
Observations
•
Interviews
Learning outcomes:
•
•
Explain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis may be demonstrated in research
(through theories and/or studies)
Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the cognitive level of analysis
Case studies
In the CLOA, the case study method is often associated with examining
correlations between mental processes and behaviour. Case studies
sometimes focus on people with unusual mental abilities, or with mental
processing problems that result in unusual human behaviour. They can be
longitudinal, which means that they follow the person for a number of years,
re-testing or re-interviewing them at regular intervals.
Why are case studies used?
Case studies are often used at the CLOA to find a relationship between the
mind and a specific behaviour, through examining the mental processes of one person, or a small
number of people. They are used to provide in-depth information about phenomena that cannot be
studied experimentally.
5
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
How are case studies used?
The relationship between mental processes and behaviour can be observed through observation of a
person’s actions; through using brain-scanning techniques to identify mental processes and by
interviewing the person being studied and his/her close friends or relatives. They are not usually used
to try and generalize the findings to others, unless many case studies come up with the same or very
similar results. Then they may be used to generate theories, to recommend action, or to support
existing theories.
Case study
Baron-Cohen et al. (2007) researched the interesting case of Daniel Tammer, who has become
somewhat of a celebrity in the UK. Tammer is a savant (meaning he has an amazing talent in one
area), although he suffers from autism. He can memorise numbers and learn languages far more
easily than can most humans. Tammer also has synaesthesia, which means that he experiences
numbers as colours. Extreme conditions like savantism, autism or synaesthesia, which have a
neurological basis, challenge the idea that other minds are similar to our own.
Baron-Cohen et al. used this single case study to argue that when savantism and synaesthesia
co-occur, it is worthwhile testing for an undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). This is
because savantism has an established association with ASC, and the combination of ASC with
synaesthesia may increase the likelihood of savantism. So the researchers were using this case
study to state that if two of these conditions are present, then we should expect the third.
In an interview given to the New York Times in 2007, Tammer shows how for him numbers have
unusual mental representations: “The number four, for instance is shy… nines are scary and
imposing. Ones are shiny and bright, eights are blue, fives are loud, and 333 is beautiful.”
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental representations guide behaviour.
Laboratory experiments
The controlled laboratory experiment is still a favoured method of cognitive
psychologists, despite criticism from some that it lacks ecological
validity. (The tasks that people perform, and the surroundings in which
they do them are not a true replication of real life, and therefore the
results are suspect). Brain-scanning technology is more and more
often used by cognitive researchers (especially cognitive
neuroscientists) to observe the link between brain activity, mental
processes and behaviour. The mental processes still cannot be viewed
directly, but they are inferred from both the brain activity and the behaviour.
Some of these experiments would be quasi-experiments (not true
6
© Pamoja Education 2013
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
experiments) because the independent variable, which is manipulated in a true experiment, may well
be something like age or gender, which is assigned by nature and not by the researcher.
Why are laboratory experiments used?
Laboratory experiments are used extensively by researchers at the CLOA, because they believe that
mental processes can and should be studied scientifically. They can use this method to examine
mental processes and behaviour, without interference from extraneous (uncontrolled) variables. This
gives them the possibility of identifying cause-and-effect relationships between the two, though it must
be noted that sometimes all that can be concluded is that there is a correlation between, a mental
process and a particular behaviour.
How are laboratory experiments used?
They are used to test cognitive theories, especially those relating to behaviours such as perception or
memory. Cognitive psychologists have developed models that are argued to demonstrate how the
different types of memory function, for example. Such models, based on theories of memory, can be
tested under controlled conditions in a laboratory, in order to be able to draw conclusions about their
effectiveness in illustrating the process.
Laboratory experiment
Lustig and Hasher (2002) conducted an experiment to determine if interference from prior memory
experiments had any effect on working memory span (WMS – as measured by the ability to
remember words in a series and make a sentence with them). The 72 participants were randomly
assigned to two groups. Group 1 performed the W MS task on Day 1. They were therefore the
inexperienced group, who did no other task other than the WMS one. Group 2 participants
performed other memory tasks on Day 1 and Day 2, and completed the W MS task on Day 3. The
inexperienced group was able to recall more words and make more sentences. The groups did not
differ in the quality of the sentences they produced but only in the number of words they were able
to recall and use to generate sentences.
The researchers concluded that their findings raise theoretical questions as to the nature of working
memory capacity as measured by W MS and important practical concerns about the use of W MS as
indicating capacity across groups and individuals who may differ in experimental experience.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
Observations
There are several different types of observation laid out in the
table below. For more details, see the qualitative research
methods section of the course.
7
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Type
overt
Explanation
The subject knows that s/he is
being observed and has given
permission.
covert
The subject does not know
s/he is being observed and
therefore has not given
permission. Sometimes
undercover filming is involved.
participant
The researcher participates in
the group and the activity or
behaviour being observed.
This could be either overt (with
the permission and knowledge
of the subjects) or covert
(secretly and without
permission.
non-participant
The researcher does not
participate in the activity or
behaviour, but merely
observes it. Again, this can be
overt or covert.
The observation takes place in
the environment in which the
behaviour normally occurs.
The observation may take
place in a natural environment,
but often takes place in a
laboratory. Extraneous
variables are controlled and a
situation is artificially
constructed.
naturalistic
controlled
Advantages
Ethical, and the subject
can usually be
interviewed afterwards
in order to examine the
meaning of what was
observed.
Behaviour thus
observed is much more
likely to be natural,
especially if the
researcher has set up
a secret camera and is
not affecting the activity
in any way.
As a participant, the
researcher is more
likely to have close
contact with the other
members of the group
or with the subject and
a relaxed situation may
ensue in which
information if freely
shared and behaviour
is natural.
The researcher does
not disturb the balance
of the group by joining
it.
Should give high
validity in that the
behaviour is natural.
No uncontrolled
variables to affect the
behaviour.
Disadvantages
People do not act
naturally when they are
being observed.
Unethical, and once
the researcher
approaches the
unknowing subjects for
permission to share the
results, such
permission is likely to
be refused.
The researcher’s mere
presence in the group
(even if covert) may
affect the balance of
the group and the
subjects’ behaviour.
Unless it is covert, nonparticipant observation
is likely to result in
unnatural behaviour by
the subjects
Uncontrolled variables
may affect the
behaviour.
Unnatural situation can
affect the subjects’
behaviour.
Why is observation used?
Observation enables cognitive psychologists to evaluate theories and inferences and test their
predictions about behaviour. Observation of human behaviour can enable researchers to draw
conclusions concerning the mental processes involved in such behaviour. Naturalistic observation
especially can give a holistic view of behaviour in a natural environment.
How is observation used?
Observation is often used during the case study method or experimental method, to supplement data
obtained through other methods, such as scanning, cognitive testing or interviews. Observation can be
quantitative and/or qualitative, depending on how the data is collected. If the researcher uses a list or
grid that depends on checking whenever a particular behaviour is exhibited, then the data this results
in is quantitative, as the number of incidences are recorded and often compared with the results from
other subjects. If the researcher makes notes about the observed behaviour and also
8
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
their thoughts concerning what is observed, then this becomes more in-depth and qualitative, as it not
only gives a more detailed picture of a single person or single group’s behaviour, but also takes into
consideration the researcher’s own thoughts on the behaviour and his/her position as an observer.
Observational study
Miranda et al (2002) conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme for treating
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) carried out by teachers in a classroom context. One
of the methods used (alongside using teachers’ and parents’ behavioural ratings and school
records) was direct observation of behaviour in the classroom, and academic records of children
with ADHD. Fifty children with ADHD participated in the study. The teachers of 29 of the 50
students were trained in the use of behaviour modification techniques, cognitive behaviour
strategies, and instructional management strategies. The other 21 students formed the control
group. The results showed increased academic scores, better classroom behaviour was observed,
and teachers exhibited improved knowledge about how to respond to the children's educational
needs, in the experimental group.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically. (Though you would have to note that this
was as part of a behaviour-modification experiment).
Interviews
Interviews may be structured, where the interviewer
completes a checklist of questions with tick boxes or yes and
no answers. They may also be unstructured and more like a
conversation between two people, with a video or sound
recorder used to capture the tone of the interviewee’s
comments and replies. Or they may be something in
between, where there are some closed questions that require
factual answers and other more open-ended questions that
allow the interviewee to expand and discuss. Focus group interviews involve the interviewer
facilitating a discussion amongst a group of interviewees. You will learn more about different types of
interviews in the qualitative research section of this course.
Why are interviews used?
Cognitive psychologists use interviews, as they do observations, to supplement other methods, to
develop theories and to gain in-depth insight into behaviour. Cognitive testing can sometimes form
part of an interview. The interview is used to gain access to the person’s mental processes through
conversation about their behaviour and feelings.
9
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
How are interviews used?
Interviews are often used at the end of a cognitive experiment to explore a person’s feelings about a
phenomenon, or to ask them about the behaviour that has been observed and sometimes measured.
They contribute to the triangulation of methods that results in a more holistic picture of human
behaviour.
Study using interviews
In a New Zealand study, Wade et al. (2002) investigated the reconstructive nature of memory and
false memories, using three separate interviews over a period of 7-16 days. In earlier research on
how adults can be led to report false childhood memories, subjects had typically been exposed to
personalized and detailed narratives describing false events. However, W ade et al. exposed 20
subjects to a false childhood event via a fake photograph and imagery instructions. This method
was chosen, because image-enhancing technology is readily available and therefore people are
frequently exposed to altered images.
Over the interviews, subjects thought about a photograph showing them on a hot air balloon ride
and tried to recall the event by using guided-imagery exercises. The researchers chose hot air
balloon riding to be their target false event because it is an activity available to all New Zealanders
(there are several hot air balloon festivals across the country each year, and dozens of hot air
balloon operators), yet it is significant enough for family members to confirm that the subject never
experienced it.
Fifty per cent of the subjects in this study created complete or partial false memories. The results
bear on ways in which false memories can be created and also have practical implications for those
involved in clinical and legal settings.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental representations guide behaviour.
C. Ethics and Research Methods at the CLOA
Learning outcomes:
•
Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis
While there may not seem to be the same ethical
problems as we saw with the BLOA, there is a set of
ethical issues that apply to research at the CLOA.
Cognitive psychology mainly uses the experimental
method. Informed consent should always be sought from
participants, and some studies, such as those into
eyewitness testimony of crimes, can involve undue stress
for participants. When conducting case studies and
10
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
interviews of people with severe brain damage and memory impairment, the question arises of how
these participants can give informed consent. Often, as with young people, consent is then obtained
from the nearest relative. Confidentiality and anonymity should be promised, though we notice with
Clive W earing that his identity has not been protected, and HM’s identity was revealed after his death.
Cognitive neuroscience uses technology to investigate mental processes. However, brain scans such
as fMRIs are based on computer modelling, and can make disputed assumptions about the
significance of brain activity for mental processes. Moreover, scanning procedures are timeconsuming and can be uncomfortable. (People with claustrophobia would find an MRI scan, which
involves lying in an enclosed tube for a prolonged period, very stressful).
Example of an unethical study at the CLOA
Loftus and Pickrell (1995) investigated whether it was possible to implant a totally false childhood
memory in an adult. Twenty-four participants (3 men and 21 women) ranging in age from 18 to 53
completed the study. Each participant was provided with a booklet containing brief accounts of
three true childhood incidents which were provided by the relative. Relatives also provided
"information about a plausible shopping trip to a mall or large department store" so that a fourth
false incident that supposedly occurred when the participant and close family member were
together could be included in the booklet in the third position.
Participants were told that they were participating in a study on childhood memories, and that the
researchers were interested in how and why people remembered some things and not others. They
were asked to complete the booklets by reading what their relative had told the researchers about
each event, and then writing what they remembered about each event. If they did not remember
the event, they were told to write "I do not remember this."
The results were that on completing the booklets, 7 of the 24 subjects ‘remembered’ the false event,
either fully or partially. After the first interview, one subject changed her mind, and after the second
interview, which revealed that one of the memories was false, another declared that the lost in a mall
memory was false. This still left 5 subjects out of 24 who were convinced that they were lost in a
shopping mall as a child.
Ethical considerations
The participants were deceived. Three of the participants in the prior pilot study were children and
informed consent was not obtained from their parents or guardians. An experiment that involves
manipulating a person’s memory by using a trusted family member to tell a false story may open
the possibility for potential psychological harm. See Crook and Dean (1999) for further discussion
of this study.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental representations guide behaviour.
11
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
2. Cognitive Processes
This section looks at CLOA research into mental processes and how they function in relation to
human behaviour.
A. Schema theory
Learning outcome:
•
Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies.
As mentioned earlier, in the section on the principles of the CLOA, schema theory is related directly to
the principle that mental representations guide behaviour. It was the philosopher Immanuel Kant who
first developed the idea and introduced the word schema. For example,
he describes a ‘dog’ schema as a mental pattern which "can delineate
the figure of a four-footed animal in a general manner, without limitation
to any single determinate figure as experience, or any possible image
that I can represent in concreto." (Kant 1781). His book starts with the
words “There can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with
experience”. Experience of a ‘school’ allows us to develop a schema
that shapes our knowledge of what it is to be in a classroom, for
example.
Schema theory was introduced into psychology by Sir Frederick Bartlett
(1932). While conducting a series of studies with British students on the recall of Native American
folktales, he noticed that many of the recalls were inaccurate, and involved the replacement of
unfamiliar information with something more familiar, as people tried to make sense of what they had
heard. In order to account for these findings, Bartlett proposed that people have schemas, or
schemata. These are unconscious mental structures that represent an individual's experience and
knowledge about the world. A fundamental aspect of schemas in Bartlett's theory is that they are
composed of old knowledge. He stated that they are "masses of organized past experiences"
(1932:197-198). These experiences affect a person’s current understanding and memory.
Loftus and Palmer (1974) reinforced the idea of schemas and introduced the notion that they are
susceptible to manipulation by information introduced after an event. By manipulating the verb used
when questioning eyewitnesses about a video of a car crash, the researchers were able to establish
the reconstructive nature of memory. The different verbs used activated slightly different schemas
which then influenced the estimates of speed. Typical schemas of cars smashing into one another
contain an assumption of speed that is higher than a schema of cars hitting one another.
In 1983 Rumelhart and Norman described how schemas could link together, could have both fixed
and flexible components and could try to understand new information through a process of ‘best fit’.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, schema theory was also frequently used to explain cross-cultural
differences and lack of adaptation to another’s views. In 1995, D’Andrade pointed out that although
the English verb to write and the Japanese word kaku are direct translations of each other, to write in
English does not mean the same as it does in Japanese. To the Japanese, this writing can be an
image, a sketch or a word or a character. The writing schema in English, as well as a pen or pencil, a
paper or board and a hand that guides the implement to make marks, also includes language. The
act of writing cannot be a picture; it has to be something in some language (1995: 123). The writing
schemas are different in each culture. This has been used in cultural anthropology and psychology to
12
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
explain how interactions between people of different cultures can be affected by the lack of
understanding of the other’s schemas.
More recently schema theory has been applied in the field of abnormal psychology. Based on the
work of Aaron Beck with cognitive representations such as the ‘cognitive triad’ (1979), the idea of
‘schema therapy’ developed in the past ten years out of the theory that much mental distress, and
especially depression, could be traced to faulty cognitive structures in the mind of the sufferer.
Changing these structures through schema therapy could help lift the depression.
Critiques of schema theory have mainly focused on the vagueness of schemas, arguing that as they
are so flexible and can conform and change with any number of situations, they cannot be verified to
exist. Others say that schemas are too rigid and simplistic. For example, from the area of learning
theory, Susan Clark (1990) writes that “Schema theory has its limitations--for example, it makes too
much of an attempt to fit something as evidently complex as knowledge acquisition, storage, and
retrieval into a simple, familiar framework-prototype”.
The agreement seems to be that some of the studies exploring schema theory lack ecological validity
(see Bartlett and Loftus and Palmer), and the term schema theory should be ‘schema theories’.
Study demonstrating schema theory
Wang and Ross (2007) examined the impact of culture on schemas, and how prior information in
the form of shared knowledge shaped the constructive process of memory. They focused on
autobiographical memory, which is memory for personal experiences
The researchers defined culture as the rituals, daily routines, and practices of a person’s life. They
included social institutions (such as the family) as well as the actions, thoughts, emotions, and
moral values of individuals, arguing that culture regulates psychological functions both within the
person and in his/her interactions with others. Through socialization, individuals acquire knowledge
and skills that serve cultural goals.
Autobiographical memories often include details of what happened, who was involved, and where
and when the episodes occurred. Wang and Ross assessed whether culture affects why people
remember, how people remember, when people remember, what people remember, and whether
they judge remembering to be necessary at all.
They found that there were cultural differences concerning the goals and functions of
autobiographical remembering. These differences had important consequences for the content,
style, emergence, and general accessibility of autobiographical memories
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental representations guide behaviour.
• Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
13
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
B. Models or theories of memory
Learning outcome:
•
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies.
William James (1890) was the first psychologist to put forward the idea that there were two separate
types of memory – primary memory, which was, according to James,
the initial place in which information is stored, and secondary
memory, which is where the memory stays when it is not being
retrieved. Information in primary memory is always accessible,
whereas it takes an active cognitive process to retrieve information in
secondary memory.
It was 1956 before this idea of separate memory storage areas was
reinforced by the cognitive psychologist George Miller, who provided
detailed evidence that the capacity for short-term information storage
is limited. He conducted tests of memory such as repeating a series
of digits, which showed that regardless of how long the series was, correct recall of digits appeared to
plateau at about seven items in most people. Some people could remember nine and some five, but
very few varied from this capacity. However, the definition of an item is flexible, and if information was
‘chunked’ into seven items, each containing several pieces of information, then the capacity for
remembering was extended (Miller, 1956).
Much more recently, Cowan (2001) has suggested that the capacity of what has by now become
known as short-term memory might not actually be 7 plus or minus 2, as Miller suggested, but instead
may be much less—3 plus or minus 1. This revised estimate comes from a review of studies
suggesting that storage capacity is much lower than seven when participants are prevented from
using strategies such as chunking or rehearsal.
There are several models of memory, arising from theories of storage and processing. As computer
functions became more complex, so theories of memory as operating like a computer also began to
look at processing rather than just at capacity and storage. Your text goes into some details regarding
memory models. The purpose of learning this material is to apply it to meeting the requirements of the
command term and the learning outcome, so we are going to focus here on an evaluation of two
models of memory: the multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and Baddeley and Hitch’s
(1974) working memory model.
14
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Multi-store model, Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
The multi-store model (MSM) suggests that information flows through three stores which each have
different capacities and durations.
Information is first stored in sensory memory for a fraction of a second. If we attend to this
information (i.e. if we ‘notice’ it) then it is transferred to short-term memory. Short-term memory has
a limited capacity (remember Millers 7 plus/minus 2?) and also limited duration of about 30
seconds. W hile in the short term memory, information is encoded phonetically (by its sound).
Information that is rehearsed in short term memory is then transferred to long term memory. If
material is not rehearsed it is lost when new information comes into the short term memory store
and displaces it.
The information in long-term memory is processed semantically (by meaning) and the capacity is
not known; it is thought by many psychologists to be unlimited
15
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Strengths of the multi-store model
The multi-store model of memory is an influential model that has led to the development of other less
storage-based and more process-driven theories such as the working memory model.
Research by Miller (1956) already mentioned, showed that short term memory operates as a limited
capacity store by demonstrating that it can only hold between 5 and 9 bits of information before
becoming overloaded, resulting in information being displaced.
Peterson and Peterson (1959) demonstrated that short term memory has a limited time span of
around 20 seconds and without rehearsal the information soon fades.
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) conducted research into the serial position effect. They found that
participants recalled more words from the beginning (the primacy effect) and the end of a list of words
(the recency effect). This suggests that the earlier words in the list had been transferred to long term
memory and that words later in the list were still in short term memory.
More recently, Terry (2005) tested the serial position effect in the recall of television adverts and these
results supported earlier laboratory experiments.
Case studies such as the case of Clive W earing have also been used to support the existence of
different memory stores. His anterograde amnesia supports the multi-store model as his short-term
memory had been left largely intact but he could not transfer new memories from his short term
memory to his long term memory.
Weaknesses of the multi-store model
Experiments testing the multi-store model lack ecological validity in the way they often use word lists
which are not a valid indication of how we actually learn and recall things in everyday life. The model
has been criticised for being simplistic and not accounting for the complexity of short-term and longterm memory.
For example, the case study of Clive Wearing can also be used to challenge the multi-store model as
Clive was able to continue his professional-level piano playing. This type of memory is known as
procedural memory. Many psychologists now argue that there is more than one type of long term
memory store including an episodic memory (e.g. autobiographical), semantic memory (facts) and
procedural. The multi-store model does not take this into account.
Warrington and Shallice’s (1970) case study of K.F. found that despite a damaged short-term memory
K.F. was still able to form new long term memories. Following a motorcycle accident his short-term
memory capacity was nearly zero. Short-term memory is, according to the multi-store model of
memory, the gateway to long-term memory, so his long term memory should also have been
somewhat damaged, at least for events that happened after the accident (anterograde amnesia).
However it was found that K.F. was still able to form new long term memories, suggesting that there is
another way to access long term memory other than the model suggests.
16
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Working memory model, Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
Building on Atkinson and Shiffrin’s research, Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative
model of short-term memory which they called the working memory model. They argued that shortterm memory is not a static store, but is a complex information processor.
The central executive is the most important component of the model, although little is known
about how it functions. It is a frontal-lobe process and is responsible for monitoring and
coordinating the operation of the visuo-spatial sketch pad and phonological loop and relays their
information to long-term memory. The central executive decides which information is attended to
and which parts of the working memory to send that information to be dealt with. Baddeley
suggests that the central executive acts more like a system which controls attention processes
rather than as a memory store. This is unlike the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial
sketchpad, which are specialized storage systems. The central executive enables the working
memory system to selectively attend to some stimuli and ignore others. See this interview with Alan
Baddeley on the functions of the central executive.
The phonological loop is the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material.
It consists of two parts. One is the phonological store, which acts as an inner ear and holds
information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds. Spoken words enter the
store directly. The other is the articulatory control process. It converts written words into an
articulatory (spoken) code so they can enter the phonological store and it acts like an inner voice
rehearsing information from the phonological store. It circulates information round and round like a
tape loop. This is how we remember a telephone number we have just heard. We say it aloud or in
our minds over and over again and so keep it in our working memory.
The visuo-spatial sketchpad deals with what things look like and how we are in relation to other
objects as we move around. If we are asked what our friend looks like, we see a picture of him or
her in our minds. This is our visual-spatial sketchpad drawing from our long-term memory (literally).
Baddeley (2000) updated the working memory model after it failed to explain the results of various
experiments, adding the episodic buffer. The episodic buffer acts as a 'backup' store which
communicates with both long term memory and the components of working memory.
17
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Strengths of the working memory model
Most psychologists are agreed that short-term memory is a ‘working memory’ with processing and
filtering powers. The model is based on two premises: if two tasks make use of the same component
(of working memory), they cannot be performed successfully together, but if two tasks make use of
different components, it should be possible to perform them as well together as separately.
Baddeley and Hitch conducted a dual-task study in which participants were asked to perform two
tasks at the same time - a task which required them to repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal
reasoning task which required them to answer true or false to various questions. The participants
were able to perform both tasks satisfactorily, and the researchers suggest that this is because each
task used a different component of the working memory (Hitch and Baddeley,1976).
This was supported by Robbins et al (1996) who found that chess used the visuo-spatial sketchpad
and this suffered no interference from rapid repetition of the word see-saw (using the phonological
loop) , but random number generation or tapping numbers on a keypad reduced the ability to make
chess moves.
Weaknesses of the working memory model
Andrés and van der Linden (2002) looked at patients with frontal lobe damage and concluded that not
all central executive processes are exclusively sustained by the frontal cortex. Evidence suggests that
there are some common brain areas but there are also differences from task to task.
There is little direct evidence for how the central executive works and what it does. The capacity of
the central executive has never been measured. Moreover, the working memory model only involves
short-term memory, so it is not a comprehensive model.
Finally, the model does not explain changes in processing ability that occur as the result of practice or
time.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
C. Biological factors and memory
Learning outcome:
•
Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive process
Changes in brain structure and brain function due to ageing,
accident or disease can all affect memory. The case studies of
Clive W earing (Sacks, 2007) and HM (Milner et al. 1968) are
evidence of how damage to the hippocampus results in
anterograde, and in W earing’s case, retrograde amnesia.
Schizophrenia has also been argued, though not conclusively, to
be related to an excess of dopamine in the brain. This dopamine
hypothesis comes from three main sources: post-mortem studies
on the brains of people who had been diagnosed with
schizophrenia while alive (Iversen, 1979); anti-schizophrenic drugs
18
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
are thought to bind to dopamine receptors to prevent uptake, and therefore reduce symptoms; high
doses of L-Dopa (which is converted to dopamine in the brain) given to people suffering from
Parkinson’s disease can sometimes produce schizophrenic-like symptoms, or confused thinking,
hallucinations and paranoia.
One of the clearest examples of biological factors affecting memory is that of Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease, so named because it was identified as a separate disease by the German
psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, is the main identified cause of dementia. It
is more likely to affect us as we age: Brown (2007) gives the prevalence in the USA as approximately
46% of people over 85 years old, yet only 10% of those between 65 and 85 years old. There is an
early-onset version of Alzheimer’s disease, which shows the same biological damage, and is thought
to have a strong genetic component.
It is a serious degenerative brain disease comprising confusion, delusions and sleeplessness that
severely affects the episodic and semantic memory. This is the autobiographical memory for personal
experiences, people and events and the memory for the meaning of words, naming and general
knowledge about the world. Procedural memory, of how to do things like ride a bicycle, play an
instrument or have a conversation, remains intact for most of the course of the disease, which can
take between two to fifteen years to run its course, resulting eventually in the person’s death. There
is no cure at present.
With the use of fMRI scans, and post-mortem brain studies, cognitive neuroscientists have begun to
identify the particular biological factors underpinning Alzheimer’s disease. The first area of the brain to
show damage is the medial temporal lobe in each brain hemisphere. This is where the hippocampus
is located, which, as we saw with HM and Clive W earing, is vital for episodic memory. The damage
shows up as a loss of brain cells and damage to neurons responsible for the production of
acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that is vital for memory. Acetylcholine is contained in high
concentrations in the hippocampus in people without Alzheimer’s disease, but in very low
concentrations in people with the disease, due to the loss of brain cells in the forebrain, which are
responsible for producing this neurotransmitter.
Post-mortem studies have shown that the amount of brain substance in the folds of the brain is
decreased and the spaces in the folds of the brain are grossly enlarged. The best analogy is that of
the cauliflower: the healthy brain is like a fresh cauliflower, with the florets tightly compacted; the brain
of someone who dies of Alzheimer’s disease more closely resembles an old cauliflower, where the
shrunken florets hang limply on the withered stem, with large spaces between them. The brain
shrinks.
On a more microscopic level, the acetylcholine-producing neurons have two characteristic forms of
damage: the deposit of amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. They act together in the
destruction of brain cells.
Amyloid plaques are mostly made up of a protein called B-amyloid protein which is itself part of a
much larger protein called APP (amyloid precursor protein). These are amino acids. We do not know
what APP does, but it is made in the cell, transported to the cell membrane and later broken down.
Two major pathways are involved in breakdown of APP (amyloid precursor protein). One pathway is
normal and causes no problem. The second results in the changes seen in Alzheimer's and in some
of the other dementias. (Selco, 1990, in Law et al, 2010:86).
Neurofibrillary tangles are composed of a protein called tau protein. Tau proteins play a crucial role
in the structure of the neuron. In people with Alzheimer's tau proteins cause abnormality through
overactive enzymes resulting in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles. Neurofibrillary tangles result in
the death of the cells (Kensinger and Corkin, 2003, in Law et al, 2010:86).
19
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
For a fictionalised, medically-accurate account of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, see Still Alice, by
the Harvard neuroscientist Lisa Genova.
Study demonstrating how biological factors affect memory
The very first PET scan in the world of amyloid plaque in a living patient was performed in 2002 by
Professor Agneta Nordberg at Karolinska Institutet on a 56-year old Alzheimer's patient. The
researchers then monitored the patient as the disease progressed with regular PET scans and
memory tests. After the patient died, the team carried out pathological and neurochemical analyses
of the brain tissue. (See Kadir et al. 2010)
The results showed that high concentrations of amyloid plaques were discovered at an early stage
of the disease when the patient suffered only slight memory loss. The levels remained unchanged
during the course of the disease, in contrast to the increasingly declining energy metabolism in the
brain, which was also measured using PET as the patient's memory gradually deteriorated.
One formerly unknown connection that was discovered in the study is that the greater accumulation
of plaque is accompanied by a reduction in the number of neuronal nicotinic receptors in the brain.
These receptors are central to memory function, and this new finding demonstrates that the
receptors are affected early on in the disease development. Further, inflammatory changes were
measured in brain regions with low levels of plaques which suggest that the brain inflammation
related to Alzheimer's disease might have a different cause and evolve at different stage of the
disease compared to that of amyloid accumulation. Studies on this are currently being carried out
on living patients using PET technology.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
D. Social and cultural factors and memory
Learning outcome:
Discuss how social or cultural factors affect one cognitive process
As Bartlett’s theory of schemas would suggest, our culture, language, upbringing, education and
many other social and cultural factors have an effect on how we remember and what we remember.
Cole and Scribner (1974) argue that cognitive abilities are universal but
not cognitive skills. Cognitive skills are dependent on the environment:
education, social interaction, culture and technologies make up the
environment. They studied memory skills in both American and Liberian
Kpelle children, and found that schooled Kpelle children performed better
in the recall of word than non-schooled Kpelle children They also found
that overall American children performed better than Kpelle children.
They explained this by W estern education emphasizing certain cognitive
strategies such as clustering / categorising which aid memory. However,
the cultural contaxt of the memory task was just as relevant: when the
task was changed from a word list to a culturally relevant story, the Kpelle
20
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
children had no trouble remembering.
Such studies can be supported by other cross-cultural studies such as Rogoff & Waldell (1982) with
Mayan Children in Guatemala. W hen Mayan children were presented with a culturally inappropriate
free-recall task, their performance was poorer than their American counterparts. However, when
Rogoff and Waddell gave them a memory task that was meaningful in local terms performance on a
memory task increased dramatically.
More recently, researchers have looked at the role of culture in autobiographical memory, with Qi
Wang comparing how Chinese- American children and American children recounted a story about
their early childhood.
Study demonstrating how cultural and social factors affect memory
Imbo and LeFevre (2009) tested the effects of working-memory load on solving maths problems in
3 different cultures living in Canada: Flemish-speaking Belgians, English-speaking Canadians, and
Chinese-speaking Chinese. Participants solved complex addition problems (e.g., 58 + 76) in noload and working-memory load conditions, in which either the central executive or the phonological
loop was loaded.
The Chinese participants were faster than the Belgians, who were faster and more accurate than
the Canadians. The Chinese also required fewer working-memory resources than did the Belgians
and Canadians. However, the Chinese chose less adaptively from the available strategies than did
the Belgians and Canadians.
They concluded that these cultural differences in maths problem-solving are probably the result of
different instructional approaches during elementary school (practice and training in Asian countries
vs. exploration and flexibility in non-Asian countries), differences in the number language, and
informal cultural norms and standards.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
E. The reliability of memory
Learning outcome:
•
With reference to relevant research studies, to what extent is one cognitive process reliable?
As we have already seen, cultural, social and biological factors
all affect memory. Later in another section, we will look at how
emotion also affects how and what we remember. Here, we
pull together theories on the reliability of memory.
According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, people force
themselves to forget painful memories by repressing them into
the unconscious. He thought that these memories continue to
exist, however, and can be recovered by a psychologist or
21
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
psychotherapist, especially through hypnosis, or dream analysis. Many researchers disagree and
believe that these supposed ‘recovered memories’ are actually created memories that never
happened. Just as the reconstructive nature of memory has been pointed out by Bartlett (1932) and
applied by Loftus and Palmer (1974) to eye-witness testimony, so has the controversy of the extent to
which we can trust memory extended to a debate over ‘false memory’.
In the early 1990s there were many court cases in the USA and the UK, where parents were sued for
damages by their children, who accused them of child sexual abuse, which they had remembered
during psychotherapy. It was assumed that the abuse happened and was repressed, and only
remembered – often years later- in the safety of the client-therapist relationship. However, accused
parents and children who ‘remembered’ and then later withdrew their accusations, have sued
hospitals and therapists for implanting false memories. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was
set up in the USA in 1992, and the British False Memory Society was founded in 1993.
Elizabeth Loftus is a leading researcher in the field of recovered and false memories. W e have
already considered her studies into implanting false memories of being lost in a shopping mall. Later
she found that highly suggestive therapy procedures (e.g. guided imagery, dream interpretation,
hypnosis and exposure to false information) could lead to even richer false memories. In one study,
about one-third of participants were persuaded that as children they had nearly drowned and had to
be rescued by a lifeguard (Loftus, 2005). She concludes that memory is fragile and at the moment it is
impossible to distinguish between false memories and true ones.
However, there is also evidence that accurate memories can be recovered, and evidence of the
accuracy of testimonies from witnesses to real-life crimes, rather than those set up on the laboratory.
(See Yuille and Cutshall, 1986). McCloskey and Zaragoza (1985) also argued that post-event
information does not completely replace the original information in eye-witness testimony, and if
subjects are given misleading information and are later offered a choice of the original or a neutral
alternative, they will choose the original.
Memories are also more easily retrieved when we are placed again in the same context where we
created the first memory. This is why the police sometimes take victims back to the scene of the
crime.
22
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Study demonstrating to what extent memory is reliable
Researchers at North Carolina State University (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of
studies into the memories of older people and concluded that age-related declines in
memory and cognitive functioning may not be as pronounced as once believed. They
argue that notions of changes in mental abilities associated with growing older may in part
be attributed to how early studies into cognition and ageing were conducted.
Researcher Thomas Hess and his colleagues have argued that some of the age
differences that have been found in standard laboratory studies may be due to ‘stereotype
threat’ – a fear that one’s behaviour will reinforce a negative stereotype that exists about a
group to which one belongs. In their study, which grew out of the meta-analysis, the
researchers had older adults read mock newspaper articles on recent findings related to
ageing and memory. Half of the articles presented actual negative findings that suggested
that mental decline was inevitable. The other half outlined more positive findings that
implied that some memory skills were preserved with age and that mental decline could be
slowed. After reading the articles, the subjects were given a basic memory test in which
they had to recall a list of words. Individuals who read the positive article performed about
30% better on the memory test than those who read the negative article. Moreover, in
memory tasks that were relevant to their everyday living, rather than abstract tests, the
older people performed as well as younger ones.
The conclusion is that a poor memory can be the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If older
people succumb to the stereotypes and expect to forget, then they will.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
F. The use of technology to investigate memory
Learning outcome:
•
Discuss the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes.
We have already seen in the BLOA section how technology is used
to investigate brain structures and processes. It is much the same
for the CLOA, only this time greater inferences are made: from the
brain activity and the subject’s self-reporting, psychologists infer
mental processes such as memory. Because the learning outcome
mentions ‘cognitive processes’, in the plural, we are going to look
at the use of technology to investigate both memory and decisionmaking.
23
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The use of technology to investigate memory
When discussing how biological factors affect memory, we looked at PET scans and fMRI scans to
investigate the presence and progress of Alzheimer’s disease. These are used as part of a
triangulation of methods that involve interviews with the patient’s relatives and the patient themselves,
and cognitive testing of the patient. W hile MRI and CT scans look at the brain’s structure, functional
imaging with PET or fMRI scans reveals how well cells in various brain regions are working by
showing how actively the cells use sugar or oxygen. Functional imaging research suggests that those
with Alzheimer's typically have reduced brain cell activity in certain regions. For example, studies with
fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET indicate that Alzheimer's disease is often associated with reduced
use of glucose (sugar) in brain areas important in memory, learning and problem solving. The
advantage of these types of scans is that they can detect possible Alzheimer’s disease before the
damage to the brain’s structure is visible. Although there is no cure, early treatment of the symptoms
can help delay the onset of the later stages of the disease. However, there is not yet enough
information to translate these general patterns of reduced activity into diagnostic information about
individuals, and this raises an ethical issue: if a PET scan shows reduced use of glucose in a person’s
hippocampus or medial temporal lobe, should the clinician then mention the possibility of Alzheimer’s
to the patient, or is that information that should not be shared until there is more certainty?
In 2006, the Alzheimer's Association awarded a $2.1-million grant to the Alzheimer's Disease
Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) to expand the study to include PET imaging with a new radioactive
substance, called Pittsburgh compound B (PIB). This is capable of tracing amyloid plaques in the
brain. The ultimate goal is to determine whether standardized imaging combined with laboratory and
psychological tests, may offer a better way to identify high-risk individuals, provide earlier diagnosis,
track disease progression and monitor treatment effects, especially in clinical trials of diseasemodifying drugs (Alzheimer’s Association, 2013).
Another ethical consideration with the use of technology to investigate Alzheimer’s disease, is that,
towards the end of the disease, scanning the patient’s brain activity is more to satisfy the research
goals of the psychologist than to effect any alleviation of symptoms for the patient. Informed consent
can only be given by relatives, as the patient by then is past understanding. Is this ethical?
Students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology use technology to investigate episodic versus
semantic memory (memory for events as distinct from memory of general knowledge). The
researchers begin by using the participants’ journals and diaries to create stimuli that will elicit
memory of specific events when they see them inside the fMRI scanner. The participants’ friends or
family members are interviewed to ask them about events that they experienced. In this way, a
collection of events is amassed. The participants take part in an fMRI scan while looking at slides or
pictures of specific personal events, and this is followed by tests to the participants that assess
attention, mental imagination, and vocabulary (MIT, 2003).
Maguire et al used MRI scans to compare the brains of licensed London taxi drivers, who have to
remember a map of the streets of London in order to gain their licence, to a control group who did not
drive taxis. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the size of various parts of the
hippocampus of taxi drivers: the posterior hippocampus was larger in taxi drivers, whereas the
anterior hippocampus was larger in control subjects. The volume of the hippocampus also correlated
with how long the subject had been a taxi driver. This evidence supports the theory that the posterior
hippocampus in each side of the brain stores a spatial representation of the environment and is
‘plastic’, responding to the individual’s needs in response to their environment. This study is not only
an example of how technology is use in memory research, but also an example of brain plasticity.
24
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Study demonstrating the use of technology to investigate memory
Grön et al. (2003) investigated episodic memory performance in healthy older people
(n=24; mean age: 64.4±6.7 years). Episodic memory was assessed with repetitive learning
and recall of abstract geometric patterns during an fMRI scan. Analysis of brain activity
during initial learning and maximum recall revealed hippocampal activation. Correlation
analysis of brain activation and task performance demonstrated significant hippocampal
activity during initial learning and maximum recall. There was a correlation between the
activity in the hippocampus and the successful recall of the geometric patterns. However,
there was no correlation between the effectiveness of the memory and either age or grey
matter density.
The researchers concluded that using the amount of activity in the hippocampus was a
good measure of the efficacy of the episodic memory.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
P
The use of technology to investigate decision-making
Decision-making is the selection of one out of several potential behavioural responses, in a given
situation. Bechara and Damasio et al. (1998) identified the pre-frontal cortex as involved in decisionmaking, and the studies looked at below, build on this earlier work.
Neuroscientists have discovered that decision-making can be identified by activity of single neurons in
a variety of sensory and motor areas. Platt (2002) reviewed studies of decision-making in primates
(monkeys) and concluded that the activation of areas in the pre-frontal and parietal cortex increases
during decision-making.
While the monkey studies provided very detailed insights into the behaviour of single neurons during
such tasks, only a small part of the brain can be looked at with single scanning techniques. Therefore
Heekeren et al. (2004) used simultaneous EEG and fMRI scans to investigate decision-making in
humans and gain a more general insight into the brain processes involved. The researchers
concluded that the decision-making process requires interaction of a multitude of different areas such
as motor-planning regions, the reward system, and brain regions involved in affective processing.
A more comprehensive understanding of how we make decisions will contribute to a better
understanding of disorders of this function in patients with brain lesions, drug and alcohol addiction,
pathological gambling, schizophrenia and impulsive-aggressive behaviour. Also, brain-computer
interfaces for people with physical disabilities, such as paraplegia and multiple amputations will be
able to use the process of brain decision-making to use artificial limbs or electronic assistance
mechanisms.
25
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Study demonstrating the use of technology to investigate decision-making
Tanabe et al. (2007) used PET scans to investigate decision-making in gamblers and
substance addicts. Performance on a widely used test of decision-making, the Iowa
Gambling Task (IGT), can distinguish healthy participants from people with substancedependence, and pathological gambling behaviours. The scans showed that substancedependent individuals experienced altered prefrontal activity on the task.
Then the researchers used fMRI scanning to investigate the processes further. They used
18 controls, 14 substance-dependent individuals (SD), and 16 SD with gambling problems
(SDPG). All participants underwent an fMRI scan while performing a modified version of
the IGT. The result was that group differences were observed in pre-frontal cortex areas
during decision-making. Controls showed the greatest activity, followed by SDPG, followed
by SD. The results support a hypothesis that defects in pre-frontal processing lead to
impaired decisions that involve risk.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
3. Cognition and Emotion
This section looks at the role of emotion in cognitive processes, considering how biological factors
may interact with cognition in emotion, and the effect emotion may have on the cognitive process of
memory.
A. Cognitive and biological factors and emotion
Learning outcome:
•
To what extent do cognitive and biological factors interact in
emotion?
Different emotions are experienced differently by us: we know
whether we are happy or angry, for example. However, researchers
have found it difficult to identify clear physiological differences
between them. Very different emotions seem to have the same
patterns of physical arousal. This has led to two related, but slightly
different theories of the interaction of biological and cognitive factors
in emotion.
Two-factor theory of emotion
As we saw in Schachter and Singer’s (1962) experiment,
participants injected with adrenaline that heightened their physiological responses, interpreted these
responses as different emotions, depending on their environment. Schachter and Singer argue that
26
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
their findings support their two-factor theory of emotion, which states that the physiological arousal
in different emotions is entirely the same and we label our arousal according to the cognitions we
have available. The strength of the physiological arousal determines the intensity of the emotion, but
the interpretation determines which particular emotion is experienced.
There have been criticisms of Schachter and Singer’s study on ethical grounds; on the fact that the
arousal produced by adrenaline injections is unpleasant rather than neutral (Marshall and Zimbardo,
1979, cited in Law et al., 2010); for having a lack of ecological validity (Fiske et al., 2004); and there
have been failed attempts to replicate the experiment (Mezzacappa et al., 1999, cited in Law et al,
2010).
The main criticism has been that this study did not link any specific kinds of cognitions to specific
emotional states.
Appraisal theory of emotion
Lazarus (1982, 1991) put forward a theory of emotion based on the idea of appraisal: we evaluate a
situation according to the significance it has for us. Initially Lazarus distinguished between primary
appraisal and secondary appraisal. In primary appraisal: an environmental situation is regarded as
being positive, stressful, or irrelevant to well-being. In secondary appraisal: account is taken of the
resources that the individual has available to cope with the situation. In re-appraisal, the stimulus
situation and the coping strategies are monitored, with the primary and secondary appraisals being
modified if necessary.
There have been two major developments in appraisal theory since the theoretical formulation of
Lazarus (1982). First, it is increasingly claimed that each distinct emotion is elicited by a specific and
distinctive pattern of appraisal. For example, Smith and Lazarus (1993) argued that there are six
appraisal components, two involving primary appraisal and four involving secondary appraisal:
Primary:
•
•
motivational relevance (related to personal commitments?).
motivational congruence (consistent with the individual’s goals?).
Secondary:
•
•
•
•
accountability (who deserves the credit or blame?).
problem-focused coping potential (can the situation be resolved?)
emotion-focused coping potential (can the situation be handled psychologically?)
future expectancy (how likely is it that the situation will change?)
According to Smith and Lazarus (1993), different emotional states can be distinguished on the basis
of which appraisal components are involved and how they are involved. For example, anger, guilt,
anxiety, and sadness all possess the primary appraisal components of motivational relevance and
motivational incongruence (these emotions only occur when goals are blocked).
This is more a theory of cognition and emotion than of an interaction between biological and cognitive
factors and emotion, but Herald and Tomaka (2002) took it one step further. They investigated the
relationships between different emotions, patterns of cognitive appraisal and cardiovascular reactivity
during real emotional episodes. Participants were asked to express their opinion on a variety of
college-related topics in the presence of a confederate behaving in a way to make them feel anger,
shame, or pride by using behaviour based on the appraisal components outlined by Lazarus.
Physiological arousal was measured by monitoring participant’s cardiac activity and blood pressure.
27
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
The results were largely consistent with Lazarus’ theory in that different emotions were closely
associated with specific appraisal patterns.
Study demonstrating the interaction of cognitive and biological factors in emotion
Öhman (2000) presented pictures of spiders or snakes to participants who feared spiders,
feared snakes, and to those who had no fears of either. There were two experimental
conditions:
1. Stimuli were presented at durations that enabled the participants to consciously
recognize them
2. Pictures were shown for 30 milliseconds and followed by a neutral stimulus, so that the
participants would not be aware of the context of stimuli presented.
The results were that phobic participants showed nearly identical physiological responses
to a picture of their phobic animals, regardless of whether or not they had consciously seen
the spiders or snakes presented. These results indicate that appraisal can occur on an
unconscious level.
Whalen et al. (1998) used the same technique to show participants photos of faces with
fearful expression for about 30 milliseconds and participants reported no conscious
awareness of the fearful faces. However, imaging data showed activation within the
amygdala, which plays a critical role in linking external stimuli to defence responses.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
• Mental representations guide behaviour.
Prin
ciple
s
that
ed to demonstrate:
B. Emotion and memory
Learning outcome:
•
Evaluate one theory of how emotion may affect one cognitive process.
Just as biological and cognitive factors interact in emotion, so emotion
itself affects memory. W e discussed earlier (in the section on the
reliability of memory) Freud’s theory that disturbing memories which
generate painful emotions are repressed and may only be recovered
through therapy. Levinger and Clark (1961) set out to test this theory
by looking at the retention of associations to emotionally-charged
words, such as ‘quarrel’, ‘angry’, ‘fear’) compared with the retention of
associations to neutral words like ‘cow’, ‘tree’, ‘window’. W hen
participants were asked to give immediate free associations with the
28
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
words, it took them longer to respond to the emotionally-charged words, and their galvanic skin
responses were higher. (Galvanic skin response is a method of measuring how the skin conducts
electricity, which varies with its moisture level. This is a way of measuring psychological stress or
arousal). Immediately after the word association tests, participants were given the words again and
asked to remember the associations. They still had difficulty remembering the associations to the
emotionally-charged words. This study supports Freud’s repression hypothesis.
However, Parkin et al (1982) replicated Levinger and Clark’s study, but this time they added a delay:
participants were asked to recall their associations seven days after the original test. They found that
higher emotions reduced immediate recall, but one week later the associations to the emotionallycharged words were remembered better than those relating to the neutral words.
As well as repressed memories and recovered memories, the whole false memory debate is relevant
to the question of emotion and memory.
Much cognitive research in the area of emotion and memory has focused on ‘flashbulb memory’.
Flash bulb memories, according to Brown and Kulik (1977), are formed when we encounter highly
emotional information; are maintained through discussion and rehearsal; are more vivid, long-lasting
and accurate than other memories; and require for their creation a special neural mechanism which
stores this information permanently in a unique memory system. In order to test their theory, they
asked eighty participants from the US to answer questions regarding ten different important events.
Nine events were public and most related to assassinations or attempts on well-known personalities.
The tenth event was a personal one that they were asked to think about. They were asked to recall
where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news of each event. They were
also asked to indicate how often they had rehearsed information about each event. The events were
unexpected and most had a personal relevance.
The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 generated the most flash-bulb memories, with 90%
of participants recalling where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Most
participants’ personal flashbulb memory related to the death of a parent. The findings from this study
supported Brown and Kulik’s theory.
However, it has proved difficult to determine the accuracy of these vivid and long-lasting flashbulb
memories, and impossible to find evidence of a special neural mechanism involved in their formation.
Also, it could be argued that there is no need for a special theory of memory for events that have
emotional meaning, as existing memory theory, such as the levels of processing theory (Craik and
Lockhart, 1972) could explain why meaningful events are remembered for longer.
In order to test the theory of flashbulb memory, Neisser and Harsch (1992) interviewed participants
about the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, one day after it happened and again two-and-a-half
years later. One day after the event, 21% of participants reported hearing about the disaster on TV. But
two-and-a-half years later, 45% reported hearing about it on TV. Their memories of how they
knew about the Challenger explosion had changed over time. Moreover, some of them reported in
this second interview being at certain events when they heard, when such events were not taking
place at the time. Neisser and Harsch concluded that although flashbulb memories are vivid and
long-lasting, they are not reliable.
29
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
A study demonstrating the role of emotion in memory
Talarico and Rubin (2003) On September 12th, 2001, 54 university students recorded
their memory of first hearing about the terrorist attacks of September 11th and also for
their memory of a recent everyday event. This is the first study into flashbulb memory
that has used memory of an everyday event as a control. Participants were
interviewed again either one, six, or thirty-two weeks later. Consistency for the
flashbulb and everyday memories did not differ, in both cases declining over time.
However, self-ratings of vividness, recollection, and belief in the accuracy of memory
declined only for everyday memories. Initial emotion ratings correlated with later belief
in accuracy, but not consistency, for flashbulb memories. Initial emotion ratings also
predicted later posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.
The researchers concluded that flashbulb memories are not special in their accuracy,
as previously claimed, but only in their perceived accuracy. Their most consistent
finding is that a flashbulb event reliably enhances memory characteristics such as
vividness and confidence. The true question is not why flashbulb memories are so
accurate, because they are not, but why people are so confident for so long in the
accuracy of their flashbulb memories.
P
ri
n
ci
pl
e
th
at
Pr
in
ci
pl
e
th
is
st
u
d
y
c
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors.
Study demonstrating the role of culture in mediating emotion in memory
Culture and associated social practices (such as sharing memories or expressing feelings
openly) have also been shown to have an effect on the emotion associated with memory.
In individualist societies, where emotion is seen to be a healthy form of individual
expression, it has been supposed that flashbulb memories would be more intense, vivid
and longer-lasting than in collectivist cultures, where individual emotion is not encouraged.
In a recent analysis of cross-cultural studies, Wang and Aydin (2008) tested this
hypothesis and found that Chinese participants had fewer flashbulb memories of public
events than participants from the USA, UK, Germany or Turkey, which lends support to the
theory that culture affects the recall of emotional memories.
Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:
• Mental processes can be studied scientifically.
The CLOA has huge overlaps with the BLOA, especially when looking at biological correlates to
mental processes and behaviour. Many of the research methods are the same and the rapid
development of cognitive neuroscience has led to further collaboration between those studying
physiology and those studying cognition. However, it is worth restating that much of the research still
only shows a correlation between brain activity, mental processes and behaviour.
30
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
References
Alloway, T.P. and Alloway, R.G. (2009). The efficacy of working memory training in improving
crystallized intelligence. Nature Precedings. Htl: 1010/npre.2009.3697.1
Alzheimer’s Association Worldwide Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative,
http://www.alz.org/research/funding/partnerships/ww-adni_overview.asp, accessed Feb 23 2013
Andrés, P., and Van der Linden, M. (2002). Are central executive functions working in patients with
focal frontal lesions? Neuropsychologia, 40: 835-845
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Baron-Cohen, S., Bor, D., Billington, J., Asher, J., W heelwright, S. and Ashwin, C. (2007). Savant
Memory in a Man with Colour Form-Number Synaesthesia and Asperger. Journal of Consciousness
Studies, 14, (9-10): 237-251
Beck, A.T. (1979). Cognitive Therapy of Depression, New York: Guildford Press
Brown, G. (2007). The bitter end, New Scientist,196, (2625): 42-43
Clark, S.R. (1990). Schema Theory and Reading Comprehension. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Center, no. ED 325-802).
Cole, M. & Scribner, S. (1974). Culture and Thought: A Psychological Introduction. New York: Wiley
Cowan, N., Conway, A.R. and Bunting, M.F. (2001). The cocktail party phenomenon revisited:
the importance of working memory capacity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 8 (2): 331-335
Bechara A, Damasio H, Tranel D, Anderson SW (January 1998). Dissociation Of working memory
from decision making within the human prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience,18 (1): 428–37.
Brown, R. and Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, (5): 73-99.
D’Andrade, R. (1995). The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Fiske S.T., Harris L.T., Cuddy, A.J. (Nov 26 2004). Social psychology. W hy ordinary people torture
enemy prisoners. Science 306 (5701):1482-3
Frick, R. W. (1984). Using both an auditory and a visual short-term store to increase digit span.
Memory and Cognition, 12: 507-514.
Geary, D. C. (2005) in The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence.
Washington, DC :American Psychological Association
Genova, L. (2008). Still Alice. UK: iUniverse
Glanzer, M. and Cunitz, A. R. (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(4): 351-360.
31
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Heekeren H.R., Marrett S., Bandettini P.A., Ungerleider L.G. (2004). A general mechanism for
perceptual decision-making in the human brain. Nature 431 (7010):859-861.
Herrald, M.M. and Tomaka, J. (2002). Patterns of Emotion-specific appraisal, coping and
cardiovascular reactions during an ongoing emotional episode. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 83(2):434–50.
Hitch, G. J., and Baddeley, A. D. (1976). Verbal reasoning and working memory. QuarterlyJournal of
Experimental Psychology, 28: 603-621.
Imbo, I. and LeFevre, J-A. (Nov 2009). Cultural differences in complex addition: Efficient Chinese
versus adaptive Belgians and Canadians. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory,
and Cognition, Vol 35(6): 1465-1476.
Iversen, L.L. (1979). The chemistry of the brain. Scientific American, 241: 134-149
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology, New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Kadir, A., Marutle, A., Gonzalez, D., Schöll, M., Nordberg, A. et al. (2011). PET imaging and clinical
progression in relation to molecular pathology in first PIB PET AD Patient. Brain 134: 301–317
Kant, I. (revised and translated edition, 2007. Originally published 1781).A Critique of Pure Reason.
London: Penguin Classics
Kensinger, E.A. and Corkin, s. (2003). Neural changes in aging, in L. Nadel (ed.) Encyclopedia of
cognitive science, London:Macmillan
Law, A., Halkiopoulos, C. and Bryan-Zaykov, C. (2010). Psychology for the IB Diploma. Harlow:
Pearson Education Ltd.
Lazarus, R. S. (Sep 1982). Thoughts on the relations between emotion and cognition. American
Psychologist, 37(9): 1019-1024.
Lazarus, R. S. (August 1991). Progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion.
American Psychologist, 46(8): 819-834.
Lazarus, R.S. (1993). From psychological stress to the emotions: a history of changing outlooks.
Annual Review of Psychology, 44: 1-22
Levinger, G. and Clark, J. (1961). Emotional factors in the forgetting of word associations. Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology,62: 99-105
Loftus, E. (2005). A 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory. Learning and Memory, 12:
361-366
Loftus, E.F. and Palmer, J.C. (1974). Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction : An Example of the
Interaction Between Language and Memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 13:
585–9
Loftus, E.F. & Pickrell, J.E. (1995) The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25: 720-725.
32
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Lustig, C., & Hasher, L. (2002). W orking memory span: The effect of prior learning. American Journal
of Psychology, 115(1): 89-101.
MacDonald, S., Kimberly, U., and Harlene, H. (2000). Cross-cultural and gender differences in
childhood amnesia. Memory 8: 365-376
Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R.S. and
Frith, C. D. (2000). Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA. 97: 4398–4403
Marshall, G. and Zimbardo, P. (1979). Affective consequences of inadequately explaining
physiological arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37: 970-988
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003). MIT Open Courseware: Brain and Cognitive Science.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/brain-and-cognitive-sciences/9-52-a-investigating-the-neural-substrates-ofremote-memory-using-fmri-spring-2003/assignments/ . Accessed Feb 23 2013.
McCloskey, M., & Zaragoza, M. (1985). Misleading post event information and memory for events:
Arguments and evidence against memory impairment hypotheses. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General, 114, 1-16.
Mezzacappa, E.S., Kelsey, R.M. and Katlin, E.S.(1999). The effects of epinephrine administration on
impedance cardiographic measures of cardiovascular function. International Journal of
Psychophysiology,31: 189-196
Miller, G.A. (1956). The magical number seven. Psychology Review, 63: 81-97
Milner, B., Corkin, S., and Teuber, H-L. (1968) Further analysis of the hippocampal amnesic
syndrome: 14-year follow-up study of H.M. Neuropsychologia, 6: 215-234.
Neisser, U. and Harsch, N. (1992). Phantom flashbulbs: False recollections of hearing the news about
Challenger in Winograd, E. and Neisser, U. (eds.) Affect and accuracy in recall: Studies of “flashbulb”
memories,: New York: Cambridge University Press.
North Carolina State University (May 23, 2003). Studies Suggest Age-related Declines May Be
Overestimated. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030523080524.htm
Öhman, A. (2000). The role of the amygdala in human fear: Automatic detection of threat Handbook
of emotions (2nd ed.: 373-393). New York: Guildford Press
Parkin, A.J., Lewinsohn, J. and Folkard, S.(August 1982). The influence of emotion on immediate and
delayed retention: Levinger & Clark reconsidered. British Journal of Psychology, 73 (3): 389-393
Peterson ,L.R. and Peterson, M.J. (September, 1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, (3): 193-198
Platt ML (2002). Neural correlates of decisions. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 12(2):141–148
33
THE COGNITIVE LEVEL OF ANALYSIS
Robbins, T.W., Anderson, E. J., Barker, D. R., Bradley, A. C.,Fearneyhough, et al. (1996). Working
memory in chess. Memory & Cognition, 24: 83-93.
Rogoff, B. and Waddell, K.J.(1982). Child Development, 53 (5):1224-1228
Rumelhart, D.E. and Norman, D.A. (1983). Representation in memory, in R.C. Atkinson et al. (eds.)
Handbook of Experimental Psychology, Chichester: Wiley
Sacks, O. (September 24, 2007) The Abyss. The New Yorker, 83: 100-111.
Selco, D.J. (1990). Deciphering Alzheimer’s disease: the amyloid precursor protein yields new clues.
Science, 248: 1058-1060
Smith , C. A. Lazarus , R. S. (1993). Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions.
Cognition and Emotion, 7: 233-269
Talarico, J.M., Rubin, D.C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories.
Psychological Science.14:455–461
Terry, W .S. (April, 2005). Serial position effects in recall of television commercials. Journal of General
Psychology, 132(2):151-63.
Tuckey, M.R. and Brewer, N. (June 2003). The influence of schemas, stimulus ambiguity, and
interview schedule on eyewitness memory over time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied,
Vol 9(2):101-118
Wade, K.A., Garry, M., Read, J.D. and Lindsay, S. (September 2002). A picture is worth a thousand
lies: using false photographs to create false childhood memories. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9
(3): 597–603
Wang, Q. & Aydin, C. 2008. Cultural issues in flashbulb memory. In O. Luminet, A. Curci, and M. A.
Conway (eds.), New developments in the study of flashbulb memories. New York: Psychology Press.
Wang, Q. and Ross, M. (2007). Culture and memory, in Kitayama, S. and Cohen, D. (eds). Handbook
of cultural psychology, New York: Guildford Press
Yuille, J. C., Cutshall, J. L., & King, M. A. (1986). Age-related chances in eyewitness account and
photo-identification. Unpublished manuscript: University of British Columbia.
Zangwill, O. (1972). ’Remembering’ revisited. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 24: 124138.
34