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IB SL/HL Psychology (cognitive): Explain one model or theory of one cognitive process (9 marks)
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A level 7 short answer explaining one model or theory of one cognitive process.
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Explain one model or theory of one cognitive process [8]Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes that guide human behaviour. This branch of
psychology aims to uncover the ways in which humans actively process information that they
perceive, and forms models or theories for these processes, which then allow researchers to make
predictions about human behaviour. One principle of the cognitive level of analysis (CLoA) states
that mental processes and representations guide behaviour. Therefore, there is a relationship
between peoples’ mental representations and the way that they perceive and process information,
and this can be explained through Schema Theory. A schema is a mental representation of
knowledge stored in the brain; it can be seen as a network of knowledge, beliefs and expectations
about particular aspects of the world, which is built up through experience and hence is subject to
change. Schema processing is automatic to a large extent, involving information input via the
sensory system, and information already stored within memory. Combining these two sources of
information allows humans to associate new experiences with things they have experienced
before, in order to better understand incoming information and react appropriately. Hence
schemas serve a role in helping people to make sense of the world, make predictions about it and
provide guidance on how to behave.
Schema Theory was devised by Bartlett [1932] after his seminal study named ‘War of the Ghosts’,
which aimed to investigate whether peoples’ memory of a story is affected by cultural schemas
and to what extent memory is reconstructive. Bartlett gathered British students and asked them to
listen to an story called ‘The War of the Ghosts’, which originated from a North American Legend,
and used vocabulary and sentence structure unfamiliar to British language. As the content and
development of the story was unfamiliar, this meant that the participants were more likely to rely
on schema processing to understand it, by relating it to their own experiences. He then asked the
participants to reproduce the story after a short time, and then over a period of months or years
(serial reproduction). Bartlett found that the participants changed the story as they tried to
remember it in a process called distortion; there were three patterns of distortion that took place.
The story was assimilated, meaning that the content and development of it became more
consistent with the participants’ own British cultural expectations. The story was levelled, meaning
that with each subsequent reproduction the story omitted more information that was seen as less
important. Finally, the story was sharpened in response to it’s unfamiliar structure and
development, meaning that the order of events was rearranged in order to make sense of it from
the participant’s own cultural perspective. The participants retained the main themes of the story
but changed the unfamiliar elements to match their own cultural expectations so that the story
remained coherent.
From these results, Bartlett concluded that memory is an active process, where information is
retrieved using existing schemas to fill in gaps or uncertainties within memory, in order to make
sense of unfamiliarity. Therefore, memories are not replications of information, but rather they are
reconstructions, combining original information with information retrieved from schemas to create
an overall impression of an event or concept. Bartlett argued that this process of schematic
processing is a way for humans to add meaning and understanding to the world in the absence of
it.
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