Loftus and Palmer APFCC

Loftus and Palmer aimed to investigate whether the language used when interviewing an eye witness about an event can act as a leading question and therefore distort the reconstruction of the event in the memory system. They were interested in factors that can influence the accuracy of eye witness testimony, making it unreliable. Allport and Postman demonstrated how schemas already set in the memory system can affect the reconstruction of an event. Participants were shown a slide of a white man attacking a black man with a razor, and were told to report the scene to the second person, who then had to report it to the third and so on. The scene became distorted over time, and over 50% who received the final description had the razor in the hands of the black man. It seems that participants 'prejudice' schemas (blacks more violent than whites) cause them to distort the way they constructed and stored the information in memory. The study shows that we reconstruct our memory based on schemas already stored. Eye witness testimony is important to the judicial system, as witness accounts can often influence the outcome of a jury. It is well reported that people are often inaccurate at remembering faces, weapons and numerical data such as speed and time. It is therefore evident that there are a number of variables that can affect eye witness testimony, such as the way in which a

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Two attributional biases with evidence

Discuss at least two attributional biases, refer to evidence in your answer (10) Attribution is judging the causes of behaviour, the decision is made that behaviour is caused by internal factors OR external factors. A dispositional attribution is made when we can decide that someone's behaviour is due to their personality or an internal cause. This means that the behaviour is seen as an outward manifestation of an inward quality. A situational attribution is made when we decide that someone's behaviour is the result of the situation or the circumstances which they find themselves in. This means that the cause is external or beyond the control of the person. In social psychology, the actor is the person producing the behaviour and the observer is the watcher of the behaviour. The Fundamental Attribution Error is the general tendency observers have to decide that an actor's behaviour has an internal cause. We have the general belief that a person's behaviour and actions are due to their own personality traits. It is likely that this is because of an expectation that our behaviour and personality match or fit each other. A real life example is "He dropped the jug because he is clumsy" Nisbett et al (1973) wanted to see if people tend to attribute the cause of a person's behaviour as due to an internal cause rather than external cause. Participants were asked to explain

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The cognitive perspective in psychology is often used to explain behaviour. Discuss the cognitive perspective in psychology. In your answer, refer to at least two topics that you have studied in psychology.

The cognitive perspective in psychology is often used to explain behaviour. Discuss the cognitive perspective in psychology. In your answer, refer to at least two topics that you have studied in psychology The cognitive approach focuses on the cognitive processes between the stimulus and response. It see's humans as information processors, much like computers, as information is received, processed and then used to guide behaviour. In 1973, Mischel distinguished five variables that influence the response to a stimulus. These variables are competencies, encodings, expectancies, values and plans. Together, they influence the attribution process and so affect behaviour. Unlike behaviourists, cognitive psychologists include the internal cognitive processes between stimulus and response and so when compared to the behaviourist approach, cognitive psychologists argue that humans make sense of the stimulus before responding, rather than simply responding in an unthinking way to a stimulus. However, the cognitive approach is often criticised for being too mechanistic and reductionist. This is because it reduces complex human processes and behaviour to those of a computer and ignores the fact that humans are biological organisms and are not machines. One topic that the cognitive approach applies to is anxiety disorders, and more specifically, phobias. Cognitive psychologists

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