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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES AND DEBATES (ETHICS (Largely based on…
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES AND DEBATES
ISSUES OF SOCIAL CONTROL
Memory research has been very influential in directing legal practice; criminology is the application of memory research, used by police interviews and courts
One theory that has dominated legal practise for many years is the belief that eyewitnesses may not be reliable because their memory is reconstructive and prone to distortion
This has driven legal policy and police practise in an attempt to improve the reliability of testimony or ensure that eyewitnesses are not the only form of evidence used in court
ETHICS
Largely based on experimental research into ‘normal’ participants with average memory ability; the full nature of experimental aims are withheld from the participants to avoid the possibility of demand characteristics but most research gains participant consent and rarely involves deliberately violating the protection of participants by causing distress or anxiety
Some research may use deception by misguiding participants as to the true nature of the experiment, but will offer participants the right to withdraw from the research at any stage
In case studies of brain damaged patients, participant confidentiality is maintained by ensuring that they are given pseudonyms to anonymise their identities
Research using individuals with brain damage is often criticised for violating a right to privacy, they are rare and unique which can result in them being over studied and their normal life impinged on by rigorous and intensive experimentation - HM was reported to have enjoyed being tested and saw memory experiments as fun and challenging activities, but this is perhaps because he had no recollection of any prior testing
PRACTICAL ISSUES
Lab experiments lack mundane realism; the ecological validity of this research has often been debated, especially when the findings are used to explain everyday memory but lab experiments are often necessary to study memory in a vacuum that is devoid of variables that could affect the findings of the research, for example, the use of trigrams may not reflect ordinary information that we need to remember but trigrams are necessary to study memory without the interference of meaning that we associate with words or images
Ecological validity is often lost at the expense of internal validity
SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
Memory loss is a sensitive area for both the amnesia patient and their families concerned because it is a life altering impairment that can cause an individual extreme distress because their intelligence remains virtually intact, leading to confusion and frustration about their loss of memory
However, this research is important for both psychological understanding and to benefit amnesia patients in recovery
REDUCTIONISM
The cognitive approach tends to separate different cognitive functions, such as perception and memory to make these cognitive processes easier to research and understand
Reconstructive theory is less reductionist as Bartlett recognised that what we remember is based on what we perceive in the first place, and that perception is affected by previously stored knowledge
The multi store model is reductionist because it artificially fragments the short term and long term memory stored without discussing the interconnections between each store
Research using brain imaging has helped us to appreciate the inter-relatedness of different parts of he brain when we perform cognitive functions, and amnesia patients have helped us to understand that loss of brain functionality may not be a direct consequence of damage to a particular region of the brain, but an interaction between different regions
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Lab experiments are used which means that controls are used to establish causality between the independent and dependent variables, and research has replicability
Studies within this approach employ the hypothetico-deductive experimental method which investigates predictions in an objective way and ensures that hypothesis can be refuted or supported
The use of case studies of brain damaged patients can be very scientific because they use highly controlled experiments and brain imaging techniques, but these cases are rare and often the damage is unique to the individual, resulting in a lack of generalisability
The cognitive approach can study concepts that are largely theoretical with no empirical evidence to support them, such as the working memory’s central executive
COMPARING EXPLANATIONS
The emphasis of memory can be compared in terms of whether they emphasise the nature of memory as a series of structures of the way that memory is processed
This can be done on many levels: the type of research used to support the explanation, whether it had practical application, the role of nature or nurture within the explanation, whether its emphasis is on structure or function
NATURE - NURTURE
Assumes that we are born with the hardware to have the capacity to perform certain functions, such as remembering and that the experiences we have during our lives change what we remember and how we process information
Reconstructive memory describes how we all represent knowledge as schemas: these are universal mental construct hardwired into our memory, but the contents of which are affected by how we are raised and what we experience as we develop
USE OF KNOWLEDGE
A general understanding of how memory works can be used in everyday contexts such as using mnemonics to aid revision or chunking bits of information together
It can also help in the treatment of learning impairments such as dyslexia because teachers can simplify and shorten instructions and information so that working memory is not overloaded
There is no cure for memory less so cognitive therapies, such as cognitive stimulation, have been used with dementia patients to practice memory tasks and reduce their confusion
One of the most significant contributions of memory has been to our understanding of whether eyewitness testimony can be relied on and there has been considerable research examining the factors affecting reliability of memory, such as whether age, anxiety, or post event information can affect our ability to accurately recall an incident and identify a perpetrator