SAQ Questions

Explain one technique used to study the brain in relation to behaviour with reference to one study.

• Flashbulb memory

• fMRI

• Localization of Behavior

• Special Mechanism Hypothesis

• Importance-Driven Model

• Sharot et al

  • fMRIs can be used to examine the localization of behavior since it shows how different areas consume more or less oxygen and is accurate in detecting these differences.

  • fMRIs, are not good for ecological validity, however, as a critique of this study is that the task and setting are highly artificial.

Explain localization of behaviour, with reference to one study.

• Localization of behavior

• Distributive Processing

• Hippocampus

• Strict/weak localization, widely distribution functions

• HM: Milner

  • A good example of localization because it clarified the role of the hippocampus and medial temporal region

  • Showed that implicit memory has several stores in the brain: procedural, emotional, skills and habits are all related to different areas

Explain neuroplasticity, with reference to one study.

• Neuroplasticity

• Dendritic Branching

• Synaptic Plasticity

• Long-term Potentiation

• Neural Arborization

• Synaptic Pruning

• Draganski

  • Repetition of the task and increase in grey matter showed Long Term Potentiation and disuse showed neural pruning

  • Also relates to localization because it shows juggling relies on visual memory, not procedural memory, which might’ve shown a change in the cerebellum or basal ganglia instead

Explain the effect of one neurotransmitter on human behaviour, with reference to one study.

• Neurotransmission

• Neurotransmitters

• Excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitters

• Acetylcholine

• Scopolamine

• Antagonists/agonists

• Antonova

  • This study seems to show that acetylcholine may play a role in the encoding of spatial memory in humans, which supports the finding that Rogers & Kessner found on rats

  • The results did not find a significant difference in performance but did find a significant difference in hippocampal activity. This suggests that perhaps acetylcholine has a noticeable effect biologically but not enough to undermine performance, or that the task was not the best designed for showing performance differences

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of the brain and behaviour

• Localization of behavior

• Distributive Processing

• Hippocampus

• Strict/weak localization, widely distribution functions

• HM: Milner

  • One ethical consideration in this study was HM’s anonymity. His identity and name were protected from the public until after his death and he was protected from harm

  • Other ethical considerations: Psychologists debate over whether he had the mental capacity to consent to being studied, but legally, it was okay because his guardians consented for him.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of the brain and behaviour

• Localization of behavior

• Distributive Processing

• Hippocampus

• Strict/weak localization, widely distribution functions

• (Longitudinal) Case Studies

• HM: Milner

  • Longitudinal case study using observations, cognitive tests, iq tests, interviews

Explain the formation of neural networks with the use of one study

• Neural Networks

• Neuroplasticity

• Dendritic Branching

• Synaptic Plasticity

• Long-term Potentiation

• Neural Arborization

• Synaptic Pruning

• Draganski

  • Repetition of the task and increase in grey matter showed Long Term Potentiation and disuse showed neural pruning

  • Also relates to localization because it shows juggling relies on visual memory, not procedural memory, which might’ve shown a change in the cerebellum or basal ganglia instead

    
    

Explain neural pruning with reference to one study. 

• Neural Networks

• Neuroplasticity

• Dendritic Branching

• Synaptic Plasticity

• Long-term Potentiation

• Neural Arborization

• Synaptic Pruning

• Draganski

  • Repetition of the task and increase in grey matter showed Long Term Potentiation and disuse showed neural pruning

  • Also relates to localization because it shows juggling relies on visual memory, not procedural memory, which might’ve shown a change in the cerebellum or basal ganglia instead

    
    

Explain the role of one antagonist with reference to one study

• Neurotransmission

• Neurotransmitters

• Excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitters

• Acetylcholine

• Scopolamine

• Antagonists/agonists

• Antonova

  • This study seems to show that acetylcholine may play a role in the encoding of spatial memory in humans, which supports the finding that Rogers & Kessner found on rats

  • The results did not find a significant difference in performance but did find a significant difference in hippocampal activity. This suggests that perhaps acetylcholine has a noticeable effect biologically but not enough to undermine performance, or that the task was not the best designed for showing performance differences

Explain the role of one agonist with reference to one study.

• Neurotransmission

• Neurotransmitters

• Excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitters

• GABA

• GABA Agonists

• Antagonists/agonists

• Prevot et al

  • The agonist that activates α5-GABA receptor sites in the hippocampus increases the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA and allows humans to focus on certain information better by inhibiting specific neural activity.

Explain the role of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behaviour with reference to one study.

• Neurotransmission

• Neurotransmitters

• Excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitters

• GABA

• GABA Agonists

• Antagonists/agonists

• Prevot et al

  • The agonist that activates α5-GABA receptor sites in the hippocampus increases the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA and allows humans to focus on certain information better by inhibiting specific neural activity.

  • Shows that inhibitory synapses are important for cognitive function and memory

Explain the effect of one hormone on human behaviour with reference to one study.

• Hormones

• Hormone Cascade

• Cortisol

• HPA Axis

• Newcomer et al

  • Since this was at rue experiment, a cause-and-effect relationship was shown and seems to suggest that cortisol plays a part in verbal declarative memory

Explain one effect of one potential pheromone in human behaviour with reference to one study.

• Pheromones

• Primer Pheromones

• Signaling Pheromones

• Vomeronasal organ

• Zhou et al

  • AND seems to have an effect on human sexual behavior due to the fact that heterosexual males and lesbian women did not see a significant difference in their results while heterosexual females and gay males did. Something about this hormone seems to signal something inherently masculine to these people, who are attracted to males, but not for those who are not attracted to males.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of hormones or pheromones.

• True Experiment

• Repeated Measures (research design)

• Zhou et al

  • AND seems to have an effect on human sexual behavior since heterosexual males and lesbian women did not see a significant difference in their results while heterosexual females and gay males did. Something about this hormone seems to signal something inherently masculine to these people, who are attracted to males, but not for those who are not attracted to males.

  • Hare et al (2017) did, however, fail to replicate the study. This shows that although it was a true experiment, the results may not have been very reliable.

  • The dose of AND and EST were significantly higher than humans naturally secrete, and the use of the PLW test is not necessarily naturalistic either

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of hormones or pheromones.

• CARDUD

• Newcomer et al

  • Undue harm was minimized because participants were tested after the experiment to make sure there were no lasting effects of cortisol on their verbal declarative memory/performance

Explain the role of one gene in one behaviour with reference to one study.

• GWAS: Genome-Wide Association Studies

• 5-HTT Gene

• Serotonin

• MDD

• Diathesis Stress Model

• Caspi et al

  • While the 5-HTT gene may be correlated to depression, it is unclear whether it is the sole cause for MDD, and genes like 5-HTT, according to the diathesis stress model, are also not the sole cause for MDD because those who have the gene are less likely to develop depression if they have not experienced stressful life events.

Explain how genetic similarities help psychologists in the study of genes and behaviour with reference to one study.

• Human Genome Project

• Twin Studies

• Equal Environment Fallacy

• Concordance Rate

• MDD

• Kendler et al

  • Being able to analyze twins to see how genetic similarities correlate to behavioral similarities can help us predict the likelihood of depression in individuals and treat them earlier

  • Before being able to map the human genome, twins were the best way to analyze the relationship between genetics and human behavior because it is guaranteed that MZ twins share the same genes.

Explain one evolutionary explanation of one behaviour with reference to one study.

• Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

• MHC: The Major Histocompatibility Complex

• Wedekind

  • The preference for odor of men whose MHC was different from their own seems to show that humans have a subconscious attraction to those who have beneficial genes in our quest to procreate.

  • As natural selection suggests, we are increasing our chances of survival subconsciously by providing our offspring with a more diverse set of genes, since the MHC genes are codominant

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of genes and behaviour.

• Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

• MHC: The Major Histocompatibility Complex

• Wedekind

  • The preference for odor of men whose MHC was different from their own seems to show that humans have a subconscious attraction to those who have beneficial genes in our quest to procreate.

  • As natural selection suggests, we are increasing our chances of survival subconsciously by providing our offspring with a more diverse set of genes, since the MHC genes are codominant

  • This experiment did not use any deception – the participants were fully informed of the experiment’s purpose at the end of the experiment and their right to withdraw from it. This is a clear ethical consideration, especially given that it may be slightly uncomfortable to be smelling other people’s body odor and ranking it.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of genes and behaviour.

• Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

• MHC: The Major Histocompatibility Complex

• Quasi-Experiments

• Wedekind

  • The preference for odor of men whose MHC was different from their own seems to show that humans have a subconscious attraction to those who have beneficial genes in our quest to procreate.

  • As natural selection suggests, we are increasing our chances of survival subconsciously by providing our offspring with a more diverse set of genes, since the MHC genes are codominant

  • This being a quasi-experiment means that a cause-and-effect relationship cannot exactly be determined between MHC and mate preference, but it has been successfully replicated by Yamazaki et al (1976).

  • Since the quasi-experiment happened in a lab setting and women wouldn’t be ranking smells like this in real life nor would men be monitoring their smell like this, the experiment is unfortunately not very naturalistic.

Explain the use of kinship studies or twin studies in the study of inheritance of behaviour, making use of one study.

• Kinship Study

• Case-control studies

• Weissman et al

  • Kinship studies can help identify individuals who may be vulnerable to disorders like MDD or anxiety, but trends are not always reliable.

Explain one model of memory with reference to one study.

• WMM

• Central executive

• Phonological Loop

• Visuospatial Sketchpad

• Episodic Buffer

• Landry and Bartling

  • The WMM Is an important development to our understanding of memory that is supported not only by this study but also biologically by studies like HM.

  • The theory explains why people can perform different cognitive tasks at the same time as long as they aren’t in the same STM component

  • But, the interactions between the four components is not well explained

Explain schema theory with reference to one study.

• Schemas

• Script

• Schema Theory

• Schema Processing

• Assimilation

• Leveling

• Sharpening

  • This study showed that remembering is not a passive, but rather an active process. In terms of schema theory, this is explained by the fact that a story is changed to fit into existing schemas, not remembered precisely immediately in order to create meaning to the incoming information

Explain one model of thinking and decision making with reference to one study

• Thinking vs. Decision-making

• Dual Process Theory/Model

• System 1 thinking

• Heuristics

• System 2 thinking

• Illusory Correlations: Expectancy-Based and Distinctiveness-Based

• Hamilton and Gifford

  • Illusory correlations cause people to overestimate a link between two variables, culturally based prejudice about social groups can be classified as illusory correlations

  • Illusory correlation and attribution errors are a type of cognitive bias – our tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors

  • The Dual Process Model can help to explain stereotypes, as seen by this study

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of one cognitive process.

• Cognitive Process: Memory/MSM, transferring STM → LTM

• Localization of behavior

• Distributive Processing

• Hippocampus

• Strict/weak localization, widely distribution functions

• HM: Milner

  • One ethical consideration in this study was HM’s anonymity. His identity and name were protected from the public until after his death and he was protected from harm

  • Other ethical considerations: Psychologists debate over whether he had the mental capacity to consent to being studied, but legally, it was okay because his guardians consented for him.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of one cognitive process

• Cognitive Process: Memory/MSM, transferring STM → LTM

• Localization of behavior

• Distributive Processing

• Hippocampus

• Strict/weak localization, widely distribution functions

• HM: Milner

  • The research method used was a longitudinal case study.

  • The sheer length (50 years) meant that change could be observed over time, and method triangulation was used throughout these 50 years

  • As a case study, however, it is not able to be replicated or generalized. There are other case studies that support HM’s case, however.

  • Some aspects of the case study were retrospective because researchers did not have a good idea of his cognitive abilities before the accident

  • As a case study, this study is very ecologically valid.  

Explain the Working Memory Model with reference to one study.

• Models of Memory

• WMM

• Central executive

• Phonological Loop

• Visuospatial Sketchpad

• Episodic Buffer

• Landry and Bartling

  • The WMM Is an important development to our understanding of memory that is supported not only by this study but also biologically by studies like HM.

  • The theory explains why people can perform different cognitive tasks at the same time as long as they aren’t in the same STM component

  • But, the interactions between the four components is not well explained

Explain the Multi Store Model with reference to one study.

• Models of Memory

• MSM

• STM store

• LTM store

• Sensory memory

• Serial Position Effect

• Glanzer and Cunitz

  • This study shows that having time for rehearsal makes it so that primacy effect remains, but that when they are given a period of time, the words that were most recent have not had enough time to be rehearsed and are lost from STM.

  • This explains the aspects of rehearsal and retrieval in the MSM and supports its explanation of the basic memory process mechanisms like encoding, storage, and retrieval.

  • This study in particular does not necessarily show separate STM and LTM, but HM Milner does biologically.

  • Doesn’t explain how memory distortion occurs or how some things require less rehearsal to learn/won’t transfer to LTM regardless of rehearsal

Explain reconstructive memory with reference to one study.

• Misinformation Effect (Loftus and Palmer, based on Bartlett)

• Schemas

• Script

• Schema Theory

• Schema Processing

• Assimilation

• Leveling

• Sharpening

• Bartlett

  • This study showed that remembering is not a passive, but rather an active process. In terms of schema theory, this is explained by the fact that a story is changed to fit into existing schemas, not remembered precisely immediately in order to create meaning to the incoming information.

  • Although this study is not necessarily too unnaturalistic because it does reflect how we remember things for school or work, our memory under stressful events like car accidents has been debated: Loftus and Palmer say that is it inaccurate when exposed to leading questions in  a s, but Yuille and Cutshall found that in an IRL scenario, most bystanders recalled information accurately.

Explain one bias in thinking and decision making with reference to one study.

• System 1 Thinking

• Heuristics

• System 2 thinking

• Cognitive Biases

• Anchoring Bias

• Englich and Mussweiler

  • The anchoring bias is quite applicable to real life scenarios and cognitive biases themselves are important to look out for in scenarios like court cases and trials to ensure fairness and logical decision making

Explain one study of the influence of emotion on one cognitive process.

• Flashbulb Memory

• Special Mechanism Hypothesis

• Importance-Driven Model

• Sharot et al

  • The amygdala seems to be responsible for emotional/traumatic memories

  • Neisser refutes parts of the Flashbulb memory theory, however, in saying that perhaps greater emotional intensity brings greater memory confidence but not accuracy.

  • There also seem to be cultural differences in what people remember as flashbulb memories.

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of the reliability of cognitive processes.

• Factors that affect the reliability of memory

• Freud’s theory of traumatic memories

• Loftus and Pickrell (argues against Freud)

  • The deception and aim to manipulate other peoples’ memories does not necessarily respect the value of not causing undue harm. Especially seeing as they are memories, they could have long term effects as well, but they were not tested afterwards to see how it affected them.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of the reliability of cognitive processes.

• Factors that affect the reliability of memory

• Freud’s theory of traumatic memories

• Loftus and Pickrell (argues against Freud)

  • The deception and aim to manipulate other peoples’ memories does not necessarily respect the value of not causing undue harm. Especially seeing as they are memories, they could have long term effects as well, but they were not tested afterwards to see how it affected them.

  • This study used multiple methods to gather data from the participants: interviews and questionnaires.

  • The use of two different methods helps to ensure they have as much detail as possible from the participants, this also has increased ecological validity because they were detailing personal events

  • They were able to double check what the participants described with their relatives

  • This use of relatives and descriptive data is prone to demand characteristics like the social desirability effect, we may not be sure that their relatives’ memories are entirely correct either.

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of the effect of emotion on cognition

• Flashbulb Memory

• Special Mechanism Hypothesis

• Importance-Driven Model

• Sharot et al

  • The amygdala seems to be responsible for emotional/traumatic memories

  • Neisser refutes parts of the Flashbulb memory theory, however, in saying that perhaps greater emotional intensity brings greater memory confidence but not accuracy.

  • There also seem to be cultural differences in what people remember as flashbulb memories.

  • Recalling traumatic events could cause undue stress or harm to the participants, as well as the noisy and unfamiliar environment of the fMRI machine. This was made clear to the participants, however, since there was not much deception used and the participants were volunteers of their own accord with the right to withdraw.  

Explain the use of one research method in one study of the effect of emotion on cognition.

• Flashbulb Memory

• Special Mechanism Hypothesis

• Importance-Driven Model

• Sharot et al

  • fMRIs can be used to examine the localization of behavior since it shows how different areas consume more or less oxygen and is accurate in detecting these differences

  • fMRIs, are not good for ecological validity, however, as a critique of this study is that the task and setting are highly artificial.

Explain Social Identity Theory with reference to one study.

• Social Identity Theory

• Salient

• In-groups and out-groups

• In-group favoritism

• Positive distinctiveness

• Minimal Group

• Conformity

• Social Comparison

• Informational Social Influence

• Normative Social Influence

• Tajfel et al

  • Showed the existence of minimal groups and disproved that conflict/competition is required for discrimination. Proves that social identity theory has an affect on behavior, particularly in favoring our in-groups.

Explain Social Cognitive Theory with reference to one study.

• Social Cognitive Theory

• Vicarious Reinforcement

• Cognitive Factors involved in SCT: Attention, Retention, Motivation, Potential, Self-efficacy

• Bandura et al

  • Bandura’s study is key towards the development of SCT, showing especially the attention part because they paid more attention and were more willing to follow models of the same sex

Explain one theory of the formation of stereotypes with reference to one study

• Stereotype

• Grain of Truth Hypothesis

• Illusory Correlations: Expectancy-Based, Distinctiveness-Based

• Prejudice

• Hamilton and Gifford

  • The researchers say that because the minority group was smaller, their negative behaviors appeared more distinct and representative, which demonstrates why negative stereotypes may be more common for minority groups due to distinctiveness based illusory correlations

  • Illusory correlations cause people to overestimate a link between two variables, culturally based prejudice about social groups can be classified as illusory correlations

  • Illusory correlation and attribution errors are a type of cognitive bias that often contributes to the formation of stereotypes

Explain one study of the effects of stereotyping on behaviour.

• Stereotype Threat

• Spotlight Anxiety

• Memory Distortion

• Steele & Aronson

  • Shows that stereotypes can have negative impacts on one’s performance due to the saliency of the stereotypes attributed to one’s abilities

Explain one ethical consideration in one study of the individual and the group

• CARDUD

• Social Cognitive Theory

• Vicarious Reinforcement

• Cognitive Factors involved in SCT: Attention, Retention, Motivation, Potential, Self-efficacy

• Bandura et al

  • Bandura’s study is key towards the development of SCT, showing especially the attention part because they paid more attention and were more willing to follow models of the same sex

  • Children were too young to understand their right to withdraw or to give their own informed consent

  • Children may have experienced undue stress due to being purposefully agitated by having toys taken away, this behavior they learned from the models may have also had long-lasting effects that were not monitored afterwards

Explain the use of one research method in one study of the individual and the group.

• Individual and the group = quasi-experiments or lab experiments (pre-existing or artificial groups)

• Social Cognitive Theory (lab experiments)

• Bandura et al

  • Lab experiments involving Social Cognitive Theory have allowed programs to be developed to help children learn positive behaviors despite their artificiality: the Sabido Method (against violence, teen pregnancy, literacy, women empowerment)

  • Lab experiments may cause ethical concerns on one’s perception of self and behavior, however, especially in studying SCT and in Bandura’s study

Explain one cultural dimension with reference to one study.

• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: Power Distance Index, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance index, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Long-term vs. Short-term orientation, indulgence vs. Restraint

• Factor Analysis

• Ecological Fallacy

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Conformity

• Berry

Explain one study of the enculturation of one behaviour.

• Enculturation

• Direct Tuition

• Social Cognitive Theory

• Participatory Learning

• Fagot

  • Likely due to their own experiences with enculturation, parents may begin to enculturate their own kids subconsciously.

  • Due to enculturation, children’s playing behavior and predisposition towards certain subjects may change to fit what gender role they have been taught.

Explain one study of acculturation.

• Acculturation

• Berry’s Acculturation Model: Assimilation, integration, separation, marginalization

• Acculturative Stress

• Acculturation Gaps

• Reactive Identification

• Lueck & Wilson

  • Evaluation: Interviewer effects, acculturative stress and level of acculturation is subjective, economic satisfaction is subjective, sample is large and representative but assumes things about Asians

Explain one ethical consideration in the study of cultural origins of behaviour and cognition, with reference to one study.

• Acculturation

• Berry’s Acculturation Model: Assimilation, integration, separation, marginalization

• Acculturative Stress

• Acculturation Gaps

• Reactive Identification

• CARDUD: Undue stress/harm?

• Lueck & Wilson

  • Ethical Consideration: Cultural Sensitivity, Sample Representation, Stereotypes

  • Sample is large and representative but assumes things about Asians from an etic approach

  • While the sample is representative, not all of their experiences may be, it may be an oversimplification of the Asian immigrant experience and lumping together ethnicities like Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese may be reductionist.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of cultural influences on behaviour and cognition.

• Semi-structured interviews

• Acculturation

• Berry’s Acculturation Model: Assimilation, integration, separation, marginalization

• Acculturative Stress

• Acculturation Gaps

• Reactive Identification

• Lueck & Wilson

  • Semi structured interviews allow for qualitative data like this to be collected and are often more appropriate for cultural studies like these because they allow for more elaboration than structured interviews and allows the flexibility of interviewers like so.

  • Harder to analyze because of this extra detail and potentially less time efficient, and although the sample was nationally representative, the interviews tended to use certain preconceptions about Asians.

Explain one example of a potential influence of culture on behaviour or cognition

• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: Power Distance Index, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance index, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Long-term vs. Short-term orientation, indulgence vs. Restraint

• Factor Analysis

• Ecological Fallacy

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Conformity

• Berry

  • Culture has an impact on conformity, collectivistic cultures may be more likely to conform to the thoughts/actions of their cultural members while individualistic societies may be less likely to do so

  • Even though there were “transitional” members tested as well, they showed similar behavior to those who were fully “traditional” from their culture. This shows that roots play an important part in behavior, regardless of current relationship to one’s culture.

Explain one study of cultural (or social) groups

• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: Power Distance Index, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance index, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Long-term vs. Short-term orientation, indulgence vs. Restraint

• Factor Analysis

• Ecological Fallacy

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Conformity

• Berry

  • Culture has an impact on conformity, collectivistic cultures may be more likely to conform to the thoughts/actions of their cultural members while individualistic societies may be less likely to do so

  • Even though there were “transitional” members tested as well, they showed similar behavior to those who were fully “traditional” from their culture. This shows that roots play an important part in behavior, regardless of current relationship to one’s culture.

Explain one study of assimilation.

• Acculturation

• Berry’s Acculturation Model: Assimilation, integration, separation, marginalization

• Acculturative Stress

• Acculturation Gaps

• Reactive Identification

• Lueck & Wilson

  • First generation children who have assimilated to the majority culture and have less connection to their family’s ethnic culture may experience more acculturative stress, as this study shows.

  • Assimilation may be due to things like prejudice, which causes reactive identification.