IGCSE Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Cognition and Behaviour revision notes

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Section A

1. Define perception and state the difference between sensation and perception. [3]

2. Name two visual illusions and explain what each demonstrates. [4]

Section B

3. Explain the difference between the following, giving an example of each: bottom-up and top-down processing. [4]

4. Explain three factors that affect perception, giving evidence or an example for each. [6]

5. A psychologist tests recall of a word list under two conditions: with background music and in silence.

(a) Write a suitable directional hypothesis. [2] (b) Identify the independent and dependent variables. [2] (c) Explain two variables that must be controlled and why. [4] (d) Explain why a repeated measures design might be a problem here, and how it could be addressed. [4]

6. Explain the difference between reconstructive memory and accurate recall, and explain one implication for eyewitness testimony. [6]

Section C

7. Describe the multi-store model of memory, stating the capacity and duration of each store. [6]

8. Explain the difference between proactive and retroactive interference as explanations for forgetting. [4]

9. Distinguish between Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories of perception, and explain how visual illusions support Gregory’s theory. [6]

10. Distinguish between monocular and binocular depth cues, giving one example of each. [4]

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Answers

1. Perception is the interpretation of sensory information to make sense of the world [1]. Sensation is the raw detection of a stimulus by the sense organs [1], whereas perception is what the brain does with that information, adding meaning based on expectation and experience [1].

2. Any two, 2 marks each: the Müller-Lyer illusion — two lines of equal length appear different because of the arrowheads, demonstrating that perception uses depth cues learned from a carpentered environment [1] [1]. The Ponzo illusion — converging lines make the upper bar appear longer, showing the influence of linear perspective as a depth cue [1] [1]. The Necker cube — a stable image that flips between two interpretations, showing perception is an active hypothesis rather than a passive reading [1] [1]. The rubin vase — figure–ground ambiguity [1] [1].

3. Bottom-up processing starts with the raw sensory data and builds up to a perception, driven entirely by the stimulus, e.g. reading an unfamiliar word letter by letter [1] [1]. Top-down processing starts with expectations, context and prior knowledge and applies them to interpret the data, e.g. reading a familiar sentence with a misprint in it and not noticing the error [1] [1].

4. Any three, 2 marks each: expectation and perceptual set — what we expect to see influences what we perceive; participants told an ambiguous figure is an animal report a rat, told it is a face report a man [1] [1]. Motivation and emotion — hungry participants are quicker to identify food-related words [1] [1]. Culture — people from non-carpentered environments are less susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion, indicating depth cues are learned [1] [1]. Context — the same ambiguous symbol is read as a letter among letters and a number among numbers [1] [1].

5. (a) “Participants will recall fewer words when tested with background music than when tested in silence.” [1] [1] (b) Independent variable: whether background music is played or not [1]. Dependent variable: the number of words correctly recalled [1]. (c) Any two, 2 marks each: the word lists must be of equal length and difficulty, since an easier list would produce higher recall regardless of the music [1] [1]. The time allowed for learning and for recall must be the same, since more time would improve recall independently of the condition [1] [1]. The volume and type of music, and the level of background noise in the silent condition, must be standardised [1] [1]. (d) In a repeated measures design the same participants do both conditions, so order effects arise — they may improve through practice at the task or become fatigued or bored [1] [1]. They may also guess the aim more easily, producing demand characteristics [1]. This is addressed by counterbalancing — half the participants do the music condition first and half do silence first — and by using different but equivalent word lists [1].

6. Reconstructive memory means that recall is not a faithful playback but an active rebuilding of an event [1], in which gaps are filled using schemas, expectations and information encountered afterwards [1]. Accurate recall would reproduce the original event unchanged [1]. Implication for eyewitness testimony: a witness’s account can be altered by leading questions and by post-event information without the witness being aware of it [1] [1] — which is why police interviews should use open, non-leading questions and why witnesses should be interviewed separately and promptly [1].

7. The sensory store encodes information in a modality-specific form, has a very large capacity, and holds it for under 2 seconds [1] [1]. The short-term store encodes mainly acoustically, has a capacity of around 5–9 items, and holds information for 18–30 seconds [1] [1]. The long-term store encodes mainly semantically, has an unlimited capacity, and can hold information for up to a lifetime [1] [1].

8. Proactive interference occurs when older, previously learned information disrupts the recall of newer information [1] [1]. Retroactive interference occurs when newly learned information disrupts the recall of older information [1] [1].

9. Gibson’s theory is bottom-up: perception is direct, since the visual information available — motion parallax, texture gradient, optic flow — is rich enough on its own for accurate perception without needing inference from past experience [1] [1]. Gregory’s theory is top-down: perception is constructed, a hypothesis built from prior knowledge and expectation rather than read directly from the senses [1] [1]. Illusions such as the Müller-Lyer figure support Gregory’s theory because the brain misapplies depth cues learned from a carpentered environment, producing an inaccurate perception that a purely direct theory could not explain [1] [1].

10. Monocular depth cues require only one eye, e.g. linear perspective, relative size, height in the visual plane, or occlusion (accept any one) [1] [1]. Binocular depth cues require both eyes working together, e.g. retinal disparity or convergence [1] [1].

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Where marks are usually lost

• Using “perception” and “sensation” interchangeably.
• Writing a non-directional hypothesis when a directional one is asked for.
• Naming control variables without saying why they matter.
• Describing reconstructive memory without applying it to eyewitness testimony.