Psychology 227E – Sample Essay Questions for Midterm #1
1. Choose some high-level cognitive activity such as reading poetry, going to the theatre, dating, designing a building, or getting a resolution through the UN Security Council. (Choose a serious one – if you choose one I have not mentioned, you will be graded on the quality of your choice.) Now, discuss how (i) attention, (ii) pattern recognition, and (iii) memory retrieval are involved. Are there aspects of this activity that do not require attention? Would someone with amnesia be able to carry out this activity – if so, how well? How would this activity be different for a blind person?
2. Discuss how we might develop a cognitive psychology of the appreciation of beauty: what would a model of relevant mental processes and the representations they operate on look like? How might beauty be coded in a stimulus representation and in memory traces in long term memory? Think about where the experience of beauty comes from – to what extent is ‘beauty’ a characteristic present in the stimulus? To what extent is it a conclusion or interpretation drawn by the beholder? Does beauty draw attention? Can it be missed (present but not noticed)? Address other issues as you think appropriate.