Using PET to scan the brains of healthy adults, we find that more oxygen is used up in the right dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex when they are instructed not to laugh at a funny video compared to controls who are allowed to laugh if they want to. We conclude that the neural bases of impulse control resides in the right dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex. Critique the conclusion providing alternative conclusions.

PSY307 Cognition Assessment Item 1
Short Answer Assignment

Please provide written answers (include diagrams if you wish) to the following questions. This assignment is worth 20% of your overall mark in this subject. All questions are worth equal marks.

1. Using PET to scan the brains of healthy adults, we find that more oxygen is used up in the right dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex when they are instructed not to laugh at a funny video compared to controls who are allowed to laugh if they want to. We conclude that the neural bases of impulse control resides in the right dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex. Critique the conclusion providing alternative conclusions.
2. What phenomenon can the Opponent Process theory explain, that the Young-Hemholtz theory cannot? Justify your answer.
3. What is the experimental evidence that the brain processes faces differently to the way it processes other objects?

4. Briefly explain how visual illusions have been used to investigate visually guided action (you should consider the dorsal/ventral stream distinction and the planning-control model).
5. Is attention object, or location based?  How do we know?

Word limit Please adhere to a word limit of approximately 250 words per question (with no more than1500 words in total). You may include diagrams in your answers if you wish – these will not contribute to the word count. Please adhere to this word count. It has been chosen to reflect the maximum length of answers that would be expected for such questions in an exam scenario. While there will be no explicit penalty for exceeding this word limit, marks will be deducted for including irrelevant information and excessively long submissions may suffer from marker fatigue.

Marking criteria Marks will be awarded based on the correctness and completeness of your answer. Marks will be deducted for including incorrect and/or irrelevant information and for grammatically incorrect or incoherent answers.

Formatting Your assignment should be presented in size 12 font, with 1.5 line spacing

Submission must occur via EASTS. Please note that once marked assignments have been returned no further assignment submissions can be accepted. Also, I am not able to grant extensions after the assignment due date. If it becomes apparent to you that due to circumstances beyond your control you will not be able to submit the assignment on time, please contact me in writing (e-mail) BEFORE the due date, not on or after it.

Collusion and plagiarism Assignment will be screened for plagiarism and any student whose answers show an unreasonable level of similarity to any source (including but not limited to your textbook, a published article, or a webpage) will be investigated for plagiarism.

Referencing You are expected to answer these questions based on your reading of the relevant chapters in the text and the material presented in lectures. As such it is not expected that formal referencing of sources will be necessary (just as you would not be expected to include formal references in an exam answer). If you do wish to cite references (it is not necessary to cite the textbook for this assignment) please put them in APA format. They will not count toward your word limit.

Late penalties These will be deducted as indicated in the subject outline – 5% of the available mark for the first day and 2% per day thereafter.

Assessment item 1

Short Answer Assignment

Value: 20%

This task involves providing written short answers (approx. 250 words each) to five questions, (each one based one of the lectures from Weeks 1-4).

Rationale

There are three rationales for this assessment task:

Firstly, it provides you with an opportunity to answer questions of the type you will encounter in the final exam and receive feedback from me as to the appropriateness and completeness of your answer. This feedback should provide you with an excellent idea as to the type of answers that will earn high marks in the exam.

Secondly, having to answer questions part of the way through the subject about all the material covered so far forces students to keep up to date with the material and not leave all their study for the second half of semester.

Successful completion of this assessment task will achieve the following learning outcomes:

• be able to demonstrate an understanding of the dominant paradigm in cognitve psychology
• be able to demonstrate an understanding of the range and complexity of mental processes

Marking criteria

Criteria:

1. Describe and explain key principles and theories about human cognitive psychology.
2. Identify and describe key findings in the field of cognitive psychology.

Standards:

The grade awarded for this assignment will be based on the aggregate score achieved across all questions, with each question marked according to the criteria and standards listed in the below table. In order to achieve a particular grade, your answer must meet all criteria listed for that grade band. If an answer provided is essentially incorrect, is expressed sufficiently poorly that the intended meaning is not clear OR is mostly not relevant to the question asked, a FAIL grade will be awarded for that question.

Presentation

This assignment should be presented in size 12 font, with 1.5 line spacing.  Please clearly number each of your answers and include the question at the beginning of the answer (the question text does not contribute toward your word count).

You will not be required to include formal references for this assignment, just as formal references would not be expected in an exam.

I am expecting your answers to come directly from the subject resources, and not expecting you to go and read the primary literature for this assignment. It would however be appropriate to refer to an author by name if talking about their work (for example, “Baddeley’s model of working memory…”) you would not need to formally cite a particular work by that author (such as Baddeley, 1992) in that instance.

Requirements

The word count for this assignment is approximately 250 words per question. As such, please try to limit your total assignment length to approximately 1500 words (it’s quite alright to have one 200 word answer and another 300 word answer). This length has been chosen to reflect the maximum length of answers that would be expected for such questions in an exam scenario. While there will be no explicit penalty for exceeding the overall word limit, marks will be deducted for including irrelevant information. In addition, individual answers longer than 400 words will not be read by the marker beyond the 400-word point. So please be concise.