MBB Part II

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MBB (Part II) Cognitive Psychology
Revision exam strategy. 2006-7
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Not a seen paper!
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Exam (2 hours).
Answer THREE questions.
Two sections Section A. Choice of 3 essays -
choose ONE. Section B. Choice of 6 short
answer questions - choose TWO
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Rough Guide.
Essay 3 - 4 pages. Remember criteria for good
essays!!! 1. Answer
the question!
2. Argue! (tutors impressed with
strong arguments defended by use of research
evidence!!) 3. Evaluation!
(descriptive essays poor marks)
SAQs 2 - 3 pages. Be concise. Dont waste
words in being overly descriptive this isnt
necessary! Answer the question directly.
Plan wisely! Essay 1 hour saqs 30 mins.
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Fools Guide
Especially for saqs Before evaluating the
importance of the phonological loop in the
development of reading skills, it is first
important to say what working memory is . NO IT
ISNT!!!
Do not churn out everything you know about a
topic.
Do not reproduce lectures especially in their
entirety (this has been known!).
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Writing!
Tutors are looking to give you marks, not deduct
them. So write clearly and legibly. If we
cant read or understand what you have written, we
cant give you marks.
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Areas in exam.

• Face Recognition
• Writing.
• Long Term Memory
• Cognition Emotion
• Semantic Memory
• History of Psychology
• Reading
• Working Memory
• Forgetting

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1. Face Recognition.
Different from other processes of object
recognition. Template versus Feature
theories. Bruce Youngs (1986) 8-stage
model. Serial processing (familiar unfamiliar
faces). Burton Bruce (1993) Interactive
Activation Competition (IAC) model. Based on
connectionist networks.
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2. Writing.
Models of Writing Hayes and Flower (1986) Hayes
(1996) Bereiter, Burtis and Scardamalia
(1988) Underlying mechanisms Language Working
memory Long-term memory Cognitive overload and
challenges Visual memory Phonological memory
and CE Slowness of writing Automated
transcription
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3. LTM.
Different memory stores. Explicit - Semantic
Episodic Implicit - Procedural Amnesias Research
(experimental and neuropsychological) evidence
used to explain and understand memory. Theoretical
debates
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4. Cognition Emotion
Key theorists in the area. What were their key
contentions? Primacy Debate. Their stance and
the evidence (experimental as well as
neuropsychological)
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5. Semantic Memory
Semantic knowledge meaningful to
individuals. How is it organised? Main
approaches which tried to explain how people
represent concepts Classical
Prototype. Scripts Schemas Research and
neuropsychological evidence.
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6. History of Cognitive Psychology
Early Greeks (e.g. Aristotle). Descartes
(1596-1650). Rationalism v empiricism science
needs observable and testable subject
matter. Psychophysics (e.g. Fechner (1801
1887). Consciousness. Helmholtz (1821 1894)
Visual Perception. Behaviourist paradigm
challenges. Ebbinghaus (1913) Bartlett (1932)
Chomsky (1959) Growth of technology in 20th C.
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7. Reading
Stages of Reading Models of Reading Dual Route
Model for Reading Speech (phonological) recoding
route Visual route Evidence for
speech recoding route Electomyographic
recoding Lexical decision times Proof reading
and letter search errors Evidence for visual
access Deaf readers Dyslexia Support for
dual-route model
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8. Working Memory
Models of Working Memory Baddeley
(2000) Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Engle, Kane
and Tuholski (1999) Baddeley Tripartite
model Phonological working memory Visual
spatial working memory Central
Executive Evidence for each aspect of the
model Applications of working memory
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9. Forgetting.
Why do we forget? When do we forget? Different
memory stores Sensory STM LTM Theories-
Availability Accessibility Encoding Failure
Retrieval Failure Interference Theories Context
State dependent effects Source Monitoring. and
real-life implications!