IB Psychology 2.2 Cognitive Approach Questionbank

Context: Learning and cognition

At a secondary school, a class learned a list of vocabulary words in their usual classroom. The next day, half of the class was tested in that same classroom and the other half was tested in the school hall. Students tested in the classroom where they had learned the words recalled more of them than students tested in the hall.

With reference to this scenario, explain how environmental context can affect recall.

Context: Learning and cognition

In a Year 10 class, several students stop working as soon as a problem becomes difficult, saying they will never be able to do it. At present they receive praise only when they reach the right final answer, and they rarely see how much progress they have made over the term. As a teacher, you have been asked to motivate students to persist with difficult work.

Explain how operant conditioning could be used to achieve this goal.

Describe anchoring bias with reference to one example of human behaviour.

Context: Learning and cognition

Several years after a sudden, shocking public event, a group of adults are asked to describe the moment they first heard the news. Each of them gives a vivid, detailed account, including where they were and who they were with, and each feels very confident that their memory is accurate.

With reference to this scenario, explain how emotion can affect memory.