Cognitive Level of Analysis
By: Charlie Hanzel, Shannon Leung, and Lina Antonson
What is Cognition?
• This is how people think
– Refers to mental activities that occur when people processes, organize,
understand and communicate.
– Verbal and nonverbal processes.
• Represents:
– Cognitive psychology, cognitive science, cognitive neuropsychology,
and cognitive neuroscience (from the packet)
– Memory, perception, artificial intelligence, amnesia, social cognition
General Learning Outcomes
• Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis:
• Answer: Cognitive analysis is a culmination of a variety of human abilities
relating to perception, memory, and other mental processes. These
processes are known as cognitions which involve problem solving, memory,
language, attention, and perception of events. Cognitive Psychologists
analyze subjects as they are given information and monitor how the brain
handles the information since a brain may have distorting effects on the
information given where these distortions can be monitored. These
distortions are conducted in experiments based on models of memory and
schema theory. Schema theory is the perceptions a person has about an
object or idea based on experience of that object or idea. Researchers
analyze a person’s schemas to understand their cognitive ability of the
subject’s brain to short cut information or predict events given little
information. Memory model looks into how much information a person can
handle in a given time which looks to identify the strengths of their cognitive
ability. Researchers test subjects on their ability to memorize and recall a
given material with close examination of the differences between the
recalled information and the real information.
General Learning Outcomes
• Explain how principles that define the cognitive level of analysis
may be demonstrated in research.
• Answer: The first researcher given conducted a study to test how mental schemas can
form in a person based on the relevancy of those schemas to a persons real life. Wynn
& Logie (1998) did an experiment where students were told a story and tested their
ability to remember that story at different intervals over a 6 month period. They found
high recall ability for those told real life stories where schemas and memory were easy
to form but low recall for those given a fantasy story where they had difficulty forming a
memory. They proved that similar experiences allow a person to have a clearer
memory of what happened which can relate to a car crash where people have no prior
schemas of this event often causing their recollections of the event to be worse than the
actual event. Next is the Lazarus appraisal theory (1982) which stated that when a
person is presented with a stimulus their mind must first think about, or appraise, the
situation. After this has occurred the proper emotional response can be generated and
presented in a physical form. The brain analyzes the stimulus based on if it is harmful
then it calculates how to cope with the stimulus by presenting a specific emotion to best
protect the body. The experiment was where scenes of a genital surgery were
presented with one containing no sound, one containing a dramatic dialogue describing
how painful it was, and another containing the benefits of the surgery. The study found
that the dramatic dialogue caused males to have elevated heart rates and to be
generally more fearful than compared to those hearing the other two videos.
General Learning Outcomes
• Discuss how and why particular research methods are used
at the cognitive level for analysis.
• Answer: The main research method used for cognitive analysis is
experiments where subjects are tested mentally to identify how their brain
conducts cognitive processes. Experiments are valuable since variables can
be carefully monitored so as to provide the most direct information coming
from the mind of the subject. A problem with experiments is that many
mental processes are connected making it very difficult to isolate one to
study thus increasing variables and possibly corruption results. The other
form of research conducted is observations where it may be either covert or
over observation. The differences are the subject’s awareness of the fact
that they are being tested. The benefit is that in covert observation many key
actions committed by the subject’s can be noticed and recorded then
analyzed to discover their cognitive link. This can be said for overt
observation as well where the subjects are analyzed to see how they
perform under observation. The problem is that many cognitive behaviors
are limited to the brain and so observation only gives a small glimpse into
the cognitions occurring.
General Learning Outcomes
• Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies
at the cognitive level of analysis.
• Answer: Ethically one has to be careful because cognition involves the mind
and experiments need to be created so as to not leaving a debilitating
impact upon the mind. Any experiment has to insure that it does not cause
the person to become fearful of an object or event since some studies
submit a person to a frightening event to test their emotional response.
Another consideration is that when the person is being observed they must
understand that they are not being judged on a personal level based on the
results since the analysis should be unbiased so as to provide the greatest
data. Overall researchers must provide safeguards in cognitive research
since there is a great risk of mental issues because it is tied to mental
processes.
Cognitive Processes
• Evaluate Schema Theory with reference to research studies
• Answer: The schema theory states that individuals organize their knowledge
into units or categories. This organization can take the form of generalization
about things such as objects, places, and people or it can take the form of
scripts (scripts are a order/sequence of activities). One kind of schema is
social categorization which is when one makes a generalized assumption on
an individual one does not really know. The categories people place others
into are based off of the implicit personality theory (Dweck et al.) which
states that implicit personality theories are a set of assumptions on how
people, their personality, and actions are related. Levy et al found that
schemas can become stereotypes when people do not have a lot of
interaction with people that are different from them and what they find
normal (especially in reference to physical characteristics and skin color).
Cognitive Processes
• Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process
(for example memory, perception, language, decision-
making) with reference to research studies.
• Answer: There is an ongoing debate on whether language influences
thought or thought influences language. Two different theories have
developed – the linguistic relativity hypothesis and cognitive universalism.
The first refers to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that thought processes and
concepts are controlled by language. Overall this means that the words one
uses determine what one thinks. Sapir and Whorf provided no scientific
research to back up their hypothesis but others have. One research was
carried out by Lucy and Shweder. In their research they assumed that the
language’s terms for colors would influence the person’s ability to perceive a
color in that language. They found that the basic color terms did influence
the ability of the individual to perceive the color. However, more recent
studies contradict this theory and test and support the cognitive universalism
theory. This theory states that concepts are universal and impact the
development of language. A scientific experiment which supports this theory
was carried out by Rosch-Heider and Olivier in 1972. Their results were the
opposite of Lucy and Schweder’s. They found that members of the Dani
tribe (who had only two names for colors) had no significant difference in
their ability to perceive colors when compared to English speakers.
Cognitive Processes
• Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive
process (for example Alzheimer’s disease, brain damage,
sleep deprivation).
• Answer: Alzheimer’s affects memory. Alzheimer’s disease targets a part of
the brain called the hippocampus, which is the seat of memory and intellect.
The neurons in the hippocampus become entangled and results in the loss
of brain cells, especially those that make new memories and retrieve old
ones. At first this disease will result in the loss of mild memory problems
(such as planning a party). However more memory loss sets in as the
disease progresses because more and more brain cells are lost. Eventually
the individual will find it difficult to remember recent events and eventually
people may not recognize close friends or family members. At its worst
stage functional memories disappear and the individual can forget how to
brush their teeth or go to the restroom and also personal memories will
disappear.
Cognitive Processes
• Discuss how social or cultural factors affect one cognitive
process (for example, education, carpentered-world
hypothesis, effect of video games on attention)
• Answer: The carpentered-world hypothesis states the individuals in highly
industrialized environments (with rectangular buildings and objects
everywhere) will perceive angles and straight edges differently from
individuals that are not constantly surrounded by rectangular objects.
Studies have been conducted using geometrical illusions. For example in
1972 Leibowitz and Pick found that individuals in the United States saw the
ponzo illusion whereas individuals in Uganda saw no illusion at all. This
supports the fact that individuals from to different social and cultural
environments perceive some things (such as illusion and geometric objects)
differently.
With reference to relevant research studies, to what extent is
one cognitive process reliable?
PERCEPTION:
• Vision is one of the most important senses.
• Can be easily deceived.
• We see something and translate that
information into our own via the brain.
– Therefore, it is different for everyone.
• Must look at things as a whole rather than its
individual parts.
– Gestalt: The sum of the whole is greater than
the sum of its parts.
Perception cont’d…
• First Impression: (of an
individual/concept)
– Approach
– Avoid
– Cooperate
(Fight vs. Flight)
Perception and Visual Illusions
• Visual illusions will distort perception, often deceiving and
making perception less reliable.
• Müller-Lyer: Which line segment appears longer?
Did you say a) was longer?
WRONG!
Müller-Lyer Illusion
• Actually equal lengths!
• Richard Gregory
suggested that the
“outward” and “inward”
arrowheads influences our
perception.
– “inward” arrowheads
make the line appear
longer
How does the use of technology help in
investigating cognitive processes?
• MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging):
– head is put into a strong magnetic field,
which aligns the spinning atoms.
– brief pulse of radio waves disorients the
atoms momentarily
– Atoms return to normal and release signals
– These signals provide images of the atom
concentrations, resulting in an MRI scan
MRI
• According to a
study by Schlaug,
MRI scans show
that the left brain of
musicians have
larger neural area
than those of non-
musicians.
To what extent do cognitive and biological
factors interact in emotion?
AROUSAL THEORY
• Individuals perform better
at different levels of
arousal.
• Individuals seek to find this
optimum level.
• Depends on the individual
and his/her preferences.
• A quiet evening vs. a rock
concert to achieve the
optimum level of emotional
arousal.
Yerkes-Dodson Law
• Explains the
arousal theory.
• Different tasks
require different
levels of arousal.
– Depends on the
difficulty of the task
Cognitive and biological factors in emotion
cont’d…
TWO FACTOR THEORY Stimulus:
Sight of an oncoming car
• Created by Stanley
Schachter and Jerome
Singer
• Emotions have 2
ingredients: physical
arousal and cognitive Physical Arousal: Cognitive Label:
label. Pounding heart “I’m scared.”
• Our experience of emotion
grows from our awareness
or our body’s arousal.
• An emotional experience
requires conscious Emotion:
interpretation of the fear
arousal in response to a
stimulus.
Evaluate one theory of how emotion may affect
one cognitive process.
FLASHBULB MEMORY How does it work?
• A highly detailed and vivid
• Hormone cortisol,
“snapshots” of a certain
occurrence of an released in stressful
emotionally significant situations, cooperates
event. with epinephrine
• Our own emotions play a (adrenaline) to form
big role in helping us flashbulb memories in
remember such memories.
the brain.
• Different than ordinary
memories - a certain level
of emotion is attached to it.
THE END