Psychology: An International Perspective - Assignment Example

Cognitive psychology Question There are diverse things that I recall about my recent major holiday. The most recent Christmas holiday entailed social activities that are still vivid in my memory. The details of the day have immense clarity in my cognition. My clothes during that day are still vivid in my memory. Other details in regard to the family party at home are very clear in my memory. Details such as the type of food, the theme colors, the individuals in attendance, the background music, my lengthy conversations, as well as the departure time of the guests are additional details that are apparent in my cognition. Therefore, there is maximum recall of the event’s details with immense clarity. There was a similar experience in a previous Christmas holiday. However, the memories are not as detailed and clear in my cognition. Substantial information was therefore eroded with the passing of time. In this case, only the crucial speeches, guests, and conversations are the ones that still exist in my memory. Minor details such as the theme colors and the exact number of guests were eroded in my memory. The experiences differ significantly in my cognition through various ways. The most recent event of the Christmas holiday is easier to remember than the one year’s previous Christmas holiday. Much detail about the recent Christmas holiday reflects in my cognitive structure than the details of the previous year’s holiday. In this case, remembering the recent Christmas holiday has heightened accuracy. This is observable through the clarity of the retrieved details in my cognition. Exact details about the events of the recent Christmas holiday are accessible in my cognitive structure. Question 2 Law courts have been subject to imminent errors in the delivery of reports by eye witnesses. Therefore, eye witnesses in legal cases have demonstrated inaccuracy through the contradiction of their testimonies. In this case, inconsistency has been a major hindrance in the execution of justice in law courts. Eye witness errors have attributed numerous unjust imprisonments in the penal processes. DNA evidences have proven eye witness testimonies to be erroneous and inconsistent. Therefore, DNA evidences are more recommendable than eye witness testimonies in the penal processes. Eye witness testimonies should not be used in the pursuit for justice in courts. Human beings have the vulnerability of losing accessed pieces of information. There are processes in the human cognitive structure that lead to loss of information (Eysenck, 2004). In the human structure of memory, there are three major compartments. They entail the sensory, working and long term memory (Eysenck, 2004). Information is stored permanently in the long term memory. However, upon its registration in the sensory memory, it is vulnerable to loss as it is being transmitted through the working memory (Eysenck, 2004). Less important information is lost during the transmission. In this case, an eye witness may not regard a criminal event as vital, and the details of the event may be less important to the individual. Upon the consultation by a law court, the witness may not fully supply the legal custodians with accurate information. Therefore, this human nature disqualifies eye witnesses as accurate sources of information to law courts. Recency and primacy are key psychological phenomena that disqualify eye witnesses as reliable sources of information in law courts (Eysenck, 2004). These are forms of natural error in the human cognition. Recency purely entails full remembrance of the most recent events (Eysenck, 2004). Primacy entails detailed remembrance of previous events. These are normal psychological phenomena in the human cognitive process. In reference to these psychological features, eye witnesses may not be relevant in providing information about a recent of previous event depending on their recency and primacy errors. In this case, eye witnesses cannot provide fully reliable information in law courts. Therefore, their testimonies should not be admitted as evidences in the penal institutions. Question 3 A table entails features such as rectangular, four legged, smooth, jointed, used for dining, surfaced at the top, spacious at the bottom, edged, mobile, light in weight, and solid. A television entails characteristics such as rectangular, entertains, used for visuals as well as auditory purposes, portrays images only on its front, placed in the living room, uses electricity as energy source, depends on digital signals, controlled with a remote and has operation buttons. A pillow has characteristics like spongy, soft, found in beds, used to support the head of the user, brightly colored and scented. Cushion has features such as rectangular, spongy, light in weight, for seats, for comfort, for the living room, and soft. The list of characteristics is formulated through retrieval of information from the cognition. Therefore, storage of information in the memory is vital for impending consumption. The retrieval of some characteristics was challenging and difficult. This is a dependent factor towards primacy and recency (Eysenck, 2004). Some recent information was more accessible than the previous information. In some scenarios entailed ease in previous mental representations. The retrieval of the diverse characteristics is dependent on perception. This is a cognitive feature that relates environmental stimuli and it enhances retrieval (Eysenck, 2004). The feature is evident in the resemblance of some characteristics of related objects. For instance, spongy is a characteristic that is shared by the pillow and the cushion. Question 4 Concepts mainly entail mental categories that engross events, objects, and ideologies that demonstrate similarity (Eysenck, 2004). Therefore, the individuals recognize the objects and events as an aggregate of a major category of classification. Upon the survey of asking different people to name three typical vehicles quickly, it was evident that they all used mental categories to classify events and objects. The individuals named the typical vehicles in reference to their mental categorization of the specific object. Every individual referenced their characteristics of a typical vehicle from the mental concept of the object. Therefore, there was a significant correlation in the level of concept definition amongst the diverse individuals. Every participant in this survey referenced to the mental categorization of a typical vehicle before the presentation of the response. This cognitive aspect enhances the retrieval processes of an individual during processing of information (Eysenck, 2004). During this survey, the participants mainly relied on the abstract level of conception. In this case, the participants defined the typical vehicles through the retrieval of a vehicle’s functionality. The abstract representations of the functionalities of the vehicles defined their response in a significant way. Consequently, their focus on the functions of a vehicle was evident in the responses. The abstract level of conception was virtually facilitated by packaged mental storage of a vehicle’s function. Through this survey, the results demonstrated the diversity of people’s separate constructions on the functionalities of a typical vehicle. References Eysenck, M. (2004). Psychology: An International Perspective. New York: Taylor & Francis. Read More