Compilation of IB Psychology SL Paper 1, short answer and extended response questions, and Paper 2.
Session May 2023 IB Psychology SL grade received: 6
Topic include
Cognitive approach SAQ
Sociocultural approach ERQ
Biological Approach SAQ
Human relationship (Paper 2) ERQ
Table of contents
Cognitive Approach SAQ 2
Discuss One model of Memory (Multi Store memory) 2
Discuss Reconstructive memory 3
Discuss Schema Theory 4
Discuss one theory of thinking and decision making + rational or intuitive thinking +
one or more biases in thinking and decision making 5
Discuss working memory model 6
Discuss the influence of emotion on one cognitive process (1977) → Flashbulb
memory 7
Sociocultural Approach ERQ 8
Discuss Social Identity Theory 8
Discuss social cognitive theory 12
Discuss Formation of Stereotypes on behaviour 16
Discuss one or more effects of stereotyping on behaviour 18
Discuss one example of a potential influence of culture on one behaviour or
cognition + cultural dimensions 20
Discuss one or more studies of enculturation of one behaviour 22
Discuss acculturation 23
Biological Approach SAQ 27
Discuss one or more techniques used to study the brain in relation to behaviour +
localization of behaviour 27
Neuroplasticity + formation of neural network + neural pruning 28
Neurotransmitter and effect on behaviour + role of antagonist + role of agonist + role
of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behaviour 29
Discuss one or more hormones and their effect on human behaviour 31
Discuss the potential role of pheromones in human behaviour + evolutionary
argument for one behaviour 32
Discuss the role of one or more genes in one behaviour + genetic similarities help
psychologist in the study of genes and behaviour + Explain the use of kinship studies
or twin studies of the inheritance of one behaviour, making use of one study. 33
Paper 2 35
Human Relationship (Social responsibility) 35
Discuss bystanderism 35
Discuss prosocial behaviour 38
Discuss research on promoting prosocial behaviour 40
Discuss/Evaluate a biological approach to social responsibility 43
Discuss a cognitive approach to social responsibility 43
Discuss a sociocultural approach to social responsibility 44
, IB Psychology
Cognitive Approach SAQ
Discuss One model of Memory (Multi Store memory)
Glanzer and Cunitz
Theory - Presented by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
- Assume that memory consists of different locations in which information is stored, and each
has a uniform way of storing
- Memory refers to a process by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved
- Sensory Memory
- Detect information from the environment, it encodes information by five senses
- Most important are visual store and auditory store
- It holds until it either gets transferred to short term memory or lost if attention is not
given
- Duration is 2-5 seconds
- If attention is given, information will then be transferred to STM
- Short-term memory
- Gateway by which information can gain access to long-term memory
- Capacity of STM assumed to be limited
- Its duration is about 6-18 seconds
- With rehearsal, information may stay in STM up to 30 seconds
- Information in STM can quickly lost if not rehearsed
- Information can be displaced by new information
- With rehearsal and attention given, information then be stored in long-term memory
- Long-term memory (LTM)
- Vast storehouse of information
- Believed to be indefinite duration and potentially unlimited capacity
- This theory is supported by Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
- Primary effect: tendency to recall the word earlier
- Recency effect: recall most recent information
Aim To examine whether the position of words influences recall (primary and recency effects) and see if
there are two separate stores of memory (STM and LTM)
Procedure - Participants: psychology students in introductory class
- Glanzer and Cunitz presented two groups of participants with the same list of words
- One group recalled the words immediately after the presentation, while the other group
recalled the words after waiting 30 seconds
- These participants had to count backward in threes which prevented rehearsal and caused the
recency effect to disappear.
- Both groups could freely recall the words in any order
Results - Delaying recall by 30 seconds destroys the recency effect, participants only remembered the
first few words = words earlier are rehearsed and moved to LTM due to primary effect but
displaced information in STM, no more recency
, - No delay condition= participants can remember first few words and last few words
- Words earlier are moved to LTM as primary effect
- Words at the last are still in STM as recency effect
Conclusion - MSM is correct
- Showing that LTM and ST are in different stores
- STM can be replaced
- The distractor task reduces recency effects as it interferes with STM
Discuss Reconstructive memory
Loftus and Palmer
Reconstructive - Psychologists argue that episodic memory is not just a photographic snapshot in the brain,
memory Theory but instead it is reconstructed
- Schema theory suggest that memory is based on schema
- When we encode and retrieve episodic memories, we are influenced by our perceptions, past
knowledge and personal beliefs
- Loftus supports Bartlett’s idea of memory as reconstructive
- Loftus claims that the nature of questions asked by police or in a courtroom can influence
witnesses’ memory
- Leading question are suggestive in some way and post-event information facilitate schema
processing which may influence the accuracy of recall → misinformation effect
Aim Investigate whether the use of leading question would affect the estimation of speed
Procedure - Researchers predicted that using the word ‘smashed’ would result in a higher estimation of
speed than using the word ‘hit’
- IV: intensity of the verb used in the critical question
- DV: estimation of speed
- Participants: 45 students
- Divide into 5 groups of nine students
- 7 films of traffic accidents were shown and the length of the films ranged from 5-30 seconds
- These films were taken from driver’s education films
- The study was an independent sample designs
- Each participant watched all 7 films
- When the participants had watched a film they were asked to give an account of the accident
they seen and answered a questionnaire with different questions on the accident
- One question is the critical question where they were asked to estimate the speed of the cars
involved in the accident
- The participants were asked to estimate the speed of the cars involved in the accident
- They were asked the same question but with different words
- Such as the critical words “hit” “collide” “bumped” “smashed” or “contacted”
Results - Mean estimates of speed were highest in “smashed” condition (40.8 mph)
- Lowest in the “contacted” group (31.8 mph)
- The result indicated that the critical word in the question consistently affected the
participants’ answers to the question
- The researcher argued that it may be that the different speed estimates are the result of
, response-biassed saan
- The distortion of memory is based on reconstruction so that it is not the actual details of the
accident that are remembered but rather what is in line with a cognitive schema of a severe
accident
Conclusion Participants memory of accident could be changed by using suggestive questions
Discuss Schema Theory
Bartlett
Schema Theory - Schemas are mental representations that are derived from prior experience and knowledge
- Schemas help us to predict what to expect based on what has happened before
- They are used to organise our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our behaviour and to help
us to make sense of current experiences
- Schema help our minds to simplify the world around us
- It is the way we organise categories of info and relationship among them
- Schemas can influence cognition is that they can affect our ability to comprehend new
information
- When we’re exposed to new information we relate it to our existing knowledge
- Learning is a combination of accommodation (change schema based on new info) and
assimilation (add changed info to fit the existing schema)
- We tend to notice things that are in line with our schema
- There is possibility that we forget or distort memories of things that are not in line with our
schema
- Assimilation: cognitive process of making new information fit in with one’s understanding of
schema
- Accommodation: changing schema based on new information
Aim Investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge.
- He wanted to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion
of memory
Procedure - Participants were British
- The participants were told a Native American legend “The War of the Ghosts”.
- Since the participants were British, the story was filled with unknown names and unfamiliar
concepts, and manner. Hence the story was foreign to them.
- Therefore, the story is ideal to study how memory was reconstructed based on schema
processing
- Participants were allocated in one of the two condition
- Repeated reproduction: participants heard the story and were told to reproduce it
after a short time and again repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months, or years
- Serial reproduction: recall the story and repeat it to another person
Results - No significant difference between the way that the groups recalled the story.
- Both conditions changed the story as the participants tried to remember through a process
called distortion.
- There are three patterns of distortions:
- Assimilation: the story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural
expectations. Details are changed to fit the norms of British culture.
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