Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis.

The cognitive level of analysis (CLA) is based on how mental processes such as perception, attention, language, memory and thinking behave. There are three underlying principles that define the CLA: one of them is that the mind can be studied scientifically. This was demonstrated in an experiment by Loftus and Palmer (1974). The aim of the experiment was to investigate whether memories can change due to information given after the event has passed. This was studied by letting 45 participants watch a short video clip about a car accident, they were then asked immediately to answer a series of questions, an example of these questions was: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” however the verb, which in this case was hit varied between participants with the words: “Smashed, collided, bumped, and hit”. The results of this experiment where that the participants who had received the word “smashed” in the first group would rate the speed of the cars the greatest. The following verbs followed then: “Collided”, “Bumped”, “Hit”, and “Contacted.” This led the researchers to conclude that the memory, and thus opinions are affected by how someone is asked to present the information that they are being asked to recall. The use of an experiment showed that the mind can indeed be studied scientifically.

The second principle states that cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors. This can be understood by studying the study conducted by Bartlett et al. (1932). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of culture on the participants’ ability to recall a story. 20 English participants read a traditional Native American tale called “The War of the Ghosts”. Since all the participants originated from a Western culture, they struggled to understand the meaning and the significance of some of the aspects. One participant heard the story and then after a short period of time had passed they were asked to reproduce it to another participant. This action was repeated 6 times (until 7 people had heard the story). The results were that the length had reduced from 330 words to 180 works. (This phenomenon is referred to as leveling). The participants had not only made the story shorter but had also added their own interpretations to situations that would seem incomplete or incoherent. This means that the participants had made the story more consistent with the cultural expectations that they held. (This is referred to as assimilation). Finally the participants replaced terms with ones that were more to their own cultural background (This is referred to as sharpening). An example of this would be that the word “canoe” was changed to “boat” and the term “hunting seals” was change to “fishing”. This led the researchers to conclude that our ability to recall memory is influenced by our pre- existing knowledge and our schema which is affected by our cultural background.