← Psychology syllabus

EnglandPsychology

Component 2: Core studies - Cognitive area (attention)

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How much of an unattended message do we process when we focus our attention on something else?

Classic study: Moray (1959), Attention in dichotic listening. Aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluation, and links to the cognitive area and theories of attention.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the classic cognitive study, Moray (1959) on attention in dichotic listening. Covers the aim, the three dichotic-listening experiments, the shadowing and own-name findings, the link to Broadbent's filter model, evaluation, and links to Simons and Chabris and the cognitive area.
14 min answer →

Do we remember information better when we are tested in the same environment in which we learned it?

Contemporary study: Grant et al. (1998), Context-dependent memory in the learning and retrieval of meaningful material. Aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluation, and links to the cognitive area and Loftus and Palmer.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the contemporary cognitive study, Grant et al. (1998) on context-dependent memory. Covers the aim, laboratory-experiment method with matching and mismatching noise conditions, the context-dependency findings, evaluation, real-world application, and links to Loftus and Palmer and the cognitive area.
14 min answer →

Can focusing our attention make us completely miss an obvious, unexpected event right in front of us?

Contemporary study: Simons and Chabris (1999), Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness. Aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluation, and links to the cognitive area and Moray.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the contemporary cognitive study, Simons and Chabris (1999) on sustained inattentional blindness (the invisible gorilla). Covers the aim, the basketball-counting method, the gorilla and umbrella-woman conditions, the noticing rates, evaluation, and links to Moray and the cognitive area.
14 min answer →

Can the way a question is worded distort what people remember about an event?

Classic study: Loftus and Palmer (1974), Reconstruction of automobile destruction. Aim, method, results and conclusions, evaluation, and links to the cognitive area and eyewitness memory.
An OCR A-Level Psychology answer to the classic cognitive study, Loftus and Palmer (1974) on the reconstruction of automobile destruction. Covers the aim, two laboratory experiments, the leading-question and broken-glass findings, reconstructive memory, evaluation, and links to the cognitive area and eyewitness testimony.
15 min answer →