It has long been suspected, and now research is supplying the evidence: delaying school start times results in students getting more sleep, and feeling better. The most recent study in Singapore investigated the impact of a 45-min delay in school start time on sleep and well-being of adolescents. They shifted the start of the school day from 7.30am (which though early … Read More
How to structure a short-answer question response on models of memory
How to structure a 9-mark SAQ on models of memory (for the new curriculum, exams May and Nov 2019): Describe one model of one cognitive process, using suitable research to support your answer. [9] 1 Introduce your model of memory – draw and label it. Say how it conceptualises memory e.g. as separate storage components; as a version of the … Read More
Emotion and memory
We all remember those special moments, don’t we? The birthday party with the huge cake, or our first day at school, or when we broke our arm playing in the snow. They seem as if they only happened yesterday, the memories are so vivid! Many years ago, some classic research was conducted by Brown and Kulik (1977) into the phenomenon of … Read More
Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases – distortions of reality Cognitive biases arise from heuristics (shortcut thinking) and systematically distort the way we think and affect our decision-making. Three of the most common cognitive biases are confirmation bias, anchoring bias and cognitive dissonance. All three arise from our tendencies to focus on part of a story, especially the part that confirms our pre-existing beliefs, … Read More