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Core Studies: Cognitive Area

  • 13 subtopics
  • 38 things to know
  • Component 02

What Core Studies: Cognitive Area covers

Core Studies: Cognitive Area is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies. 144 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Component 02

Psychological themes through core studies, the synoptic paper.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Give the mean speed estimates produced by the five verbs in the first experiment.

Key term

What did the films of staged crashes reveal about people's ability to judge speed?

Key term

What happened when participants returned a week later?

Study

Who took part in the study?

Key term

What earlier finding was Moray building on?

Study

What did the recognition test consist of?

Who and when

What did Moray conclude overall?

Key term

Who took part, and how many were included in the analysis?

Evaluation

What was the aim of Grant et al.'s study?

Key term

Were there any ethical concerns with this study?

Key term

How do the two studies differ in the aspect of memory they investigate?

Evaluation

To what extent do the two studies improve our understanding of individual diversity?

Study

What were the results of the second experiment?

Evaluation

What ethical points arise from this study?

Process

Explain the difference between the transparent and opaque videos.

Evaluation

Give one criticism of the task's ecological validity.

Study

How do the main findings of the two studies differ?

Study

Which study has the greater relevance to everyday life, and why?

Key term

What film was used in the second experiment?

Who and when

Did studying in noise itself damage learning?

Who and when

How did the independent variable differ between the two studies?

Key term

What different practical message does each study deliver?

Key term

What was the aim of Moray's research?

Numbers

What proportion of observers noticed the unexpected event?

Key term

What is the most obvious difference between the two studies?

Key term

Contrast the variables manipulated in each study.

Who and when

Why did Loftus and Palmer think the wording of questions mattered outside the laboratory?

Who and when

How did the three groups in the second experiment differ?

Key term

What were the independent and dependent variables?

Key term

Give the approximate short-answer results.

Key term

Contrast the materials used in the two studies.

Key term

Do the findings of the two studies contradict each other?

Key term

What were the results of the first experiment?

Evaluation

Give one strength of the study relating to reliability.

Key term

What was the aim of Simons and Chabris's study?

Key term

Which unexpected event was noticed more often?

Who and when

How did the unattended material differ between the two studies?

Key term

To what extent do Moray's and Simons and Chabris's studies improve our understanding of individual diversity?

Take Core Studies: Cognitive Area further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Context-dependent memory vs Inattentional blindness

    Context-dependent memory: better recall when the conditions at retrieval match those at learning. Inattentional blindness: failing to notice an unexpected object because attention is engaged elsewhere.

  • Dichotic listening vs Shadowing

    Dichotic listening: a task in which a different message is played to each ear. Shadowing: repeating one message aloud as it is heard, so that attention stays on it.

  • Loftus and Palmer (1974) vs Grant et al. (1998)

    Loftus and Palmer (1974): the study showing that the verb in a question changes speed estimates and later memory. Grant et al. (1998): the study showing that matching noise conditions at study and test improves recall.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the overall aim of Loftus and Palmer's research into eyewitness testimony?

    Model answer

    To investigate whether the wording of a question asked after an event distorts a witness's memory of it, in particular their estimate of how fast a car was travelling.

  2. 2

    Which account of how memory works does this research support?

    Model answer

    It supports the reconstructive account, in which recall is rebuilt from stored fragments combined with later information rather than replayed intact.

  3. 3

    Why did Loftus and Palmer think the wording of questions mattered outside the laboratory?

    Model answer

    Police and courtroom questioning routinely uses questions that contain implied information, so any distortion caused by wording would affect real testimony and possibly verdicts.

  4. 4

    What method and design were used in the first experiment?

    Model answer

    It was a laboratory experiment using an independent measures design, with each participant placed in only one verb condition.

  5. 5

    Who took part in the first experiment?

    Model answer

    Forty-five students at an American university, who were tested in groups.

  6. 6

    What materials were shown to participants in the first experiment?

    Model answer

    Seven short film clips of traffic accidents taken from driver-safety training films, each lasting between 5 and 30 seconds.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The tests are a old.
centurydecadeyear

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

APunishment requires deprivation, loss of autonomy and stigma.
BReform requires trust, responsibility and self-respect.
CThe regime that achieves one tends to undermine the other.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Range means the highest score minus the lowest score.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

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Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Core Studies: Cognitive Area revision questions

What does Core Studies: Cognitive Area cover in OCR A-Level Psychology?
13 subtopics: loftus and palmer (1974) eyewitness testimony: background and the first experiment, loftus and palmer (1974) eyewitness testimony: the second experiment, conclusions and evaluation, grant et al. (1998) context-dependent memory: background, method and procedure, grant et al. (1998) context-dependent memory: results, conclusions and evaluation, memory: similarities and differences between loftus and palmer and grant et al., memory: what grant et al. add to loftus and palmer, moray (1959) auditory attention: background, method and sample, moray (1959) auditory attention: procedure, results and findings, moray (1959) auditory attention: conclusions and evaluation, simons and chabris (1999) visual inattention: background and procedure, simons and chabris (1999) visual inattention: results, conclusions and evaluation, attention: similarities and differences between moray and simons and chabris and attention: what simons and chabris add to moray. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Core Studies: Cognitive Area organised?
By the OCR H567 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Core Studies: Cognitive Area, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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