An Introduction to Applied Cognitive Psychology

416 Pages·2016·38.71 MB·English

by  David Groome

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AN INTRODUCTION TO
Applied Cognitive
Psychology
Second Edition
David Groome and Michael W. Eysenck
With Kevin Baker, Ray Bull, Graham Edgar, Helen Edgar,
David Heathcote, Richard Kemp, Robin Law, Catherine Loveday,
Moira Maguire, Rebecca Milne, Ben R. Newell, David White,
Mark R. Wilson, and Jenny Yiend
Second edition published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 David Groome, Michael W. Eysenck, Kevin Baker, Ray Bull,
Graham Edgar, Helen Edgar, David Heathcote, Richard Kemp,
Robin Law, Catherine Loveday, Moira Maguire, Rebecca Milne, Ben
Newell, David White, Mark Wilson and Jenny Yiend
The right of David Groome, Michael W. Eysenck, Kevin Baker, Ray
Bull, Graham Edgar, Helen Edgar, David Heathcote, Richard Kemp,
Robin Law, Catherine Loveday, Moira Maguire, Rebecca Milne, Ben
Newell, David White, Mark Wilson and Jenny Yiend to be identified
as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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First edition published by Psychology Press 2005
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ISBN: 978-1-138-84012-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-84013-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73295-4 (ebk)
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An Introduction to
Applied Cognitive
Psychology
An Introduction to Applied Cognitive Psychology offers an accessible
review of recent research in the application of cognitive methods,
theories, and models. Using real-world scenarios and engaging everyday
examples, this book offers clear explanations of how the findings of
cognitive psychologists have been put to use. The book explores all of
the major areas of cognitive psychology, including attention, perception,
memory, thinking and decision making, as well as some of the factors
that affect cognitive processes, such as drugs and biological cycles.
Now in full colour, and with a companion website, this edition has
been thoroughly updated to include cutting-edge research and theories.
There are also new chapters on perceptual errors and accidents, the
influence of emotion, and the role of cognitive factors in music and sport.
Written by well-respected experts in the field, this textbook will appeal
to all undergraduate students of cognitive psychology, as well as
professionals working in the areas covered in the book, such as
education, police work, sport, and music.
David Groomewas formerly Principal Lecturer and Senior Academic in
Psychology at the University of Westminster, where he worked from
1970 to 2011. He retired from teaching in August 2011 but continues
to carry out research and write books. His research interests include
cognition and memory, and their relationship with clinical disorders. He
has published a number of research papers on these topics, and is the
co-author of six previous textbooks.
Michael W. Eysenckis Professorial Fellow at Roehampton University and
Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fellow at Royal Holloway, University
of London. He is especially interested in cognitive psychology and most
of his research focuses on the role of cognitive factors in anxiety within
normal and clinical populations. He has published nearly 50 books and
about 160 book chapters and journal articles.
Contents
About the authors vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY 1
David Groome
2 PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION: ERRORS AND
ACCIDENTS 9
Graham Edgar and Helen Edgar
3 FACE IDENTIFICATION 39
Richard Kemp and David White
4 AUDITORY PERCEPTION 71
Kevin Baker
5 WORKING MEMORY AND PERFORMANCE
LIMITATIONS 99
David Heathcote
6 MEMORY IMPROVEMENT 125
David Groome and Robin Law
7 EVERYDAY MEMORY 153
David Groome
8 WITNESS INTERVIEWS AND CRIME INVESTIGATION 175
Rebecca Milne and Ray Bull
9 DECISION MAKING 197
Ben R. Newell
10 THE EFFECTS OF DRUGS ON COGNITION 223
Moira Maguire
11 BIOLOGICAL CYCLES AND COGNITION 253
Robin Law and Moira Maguire
vi Contents
12 EMOTION AND COGNITION 287
Jenny Yiend
13 MUSIC AND COGNITION 307
Catherine Loveday
14 SPORTING PERFORMANCE, PRESSURE AND
COGNITION: INTRODUCING ATTENTIONAL
CONTROL THEORY: SPORT 329
Michael W. Eysenck and Mark R. Wilson
References 351
Author index 399
Subject index 407
About the authors
David Groomewas Senior Academic in Psychology at the University of
Westminster. He retired in 2011, but still retains a research connection
with the department.
Michael W. Eysenckis Professorial Fellow at Roehampton University and
Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fellow at Royal Holloway University
of London.
Kevin Bakeris a clinical psychologist in the Department of Intellectual
and Developmental Disabilities at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham.
Ray Bull is Professor of Criminal Investigation (part-time) at the
University of Derby.
Graham Edgaris Reader in Psychology at the University of Gloucester-
shire.
Helen Edgarwas Principal Research Scientist at BAE Systems, but now
works as a consultant on road traffic collisions.
David Heathcote recently retired after 25 years of teaching cognitive
psychology.
Richard Kempis Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Robin Law is in the Department of Psychology at the University of
Westminster, London, UK.
Catherine Lovedayis Principal Lecturer in the Department of Psychology
at the University of Westminster, London, UK.
Moira Maguire is Head of Learning and Teaching at Dundalk Institute
of Technology, Dundalk, Ireland.
Rebecca Milne is Professor of Forensic Psychology at the Institute of
Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK.
Ben R. Newellis Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of
New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
David White is Research Fellow at the School of Psychology, University
of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
viii About the authors
Mark R. Wilson is Associate Professor in the Dept of Sport and Health
Sciences at the University of Exeter, UK.
Jenny Yiend is Senior Lecturer and Head of Graduate Studies in the
Department of Psychosis Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology
& Neuroscience, London, UK.
Preface
The first edition of this book was published in 2005. We decided to write
it because we could not find any other books about applied cognitive
psychology, and this remains largely the case today. There are plenty
of books about cognitive psychology, but few of them deal specifically
with the application of cognitive psychology in real-life settings. This
seems rather surprising, but it probably reflects the fact that applied
cognitive psychology is a relatively new science, which has only become
a major research area over the past 20 or 30 years. However, it is now
beginning to be accepted that cognitive psychologists really do have
something useful to say about cognitive performance in real-life
situations.
One consequence of the lack of applied cognitive psychology books
is that there is no clear agreement about which topics should be included
in such a text, so we had to work it out for ourselves. In the first edition
we tried to collect together the most important examples of the
application of applied cognitive research that we could think of. There
were chapters about improving the effectiveness of learning and exam
revision, improving the accuracy of eyewitnesses, face identification and
police lineups, and optimising the performance of individuals working
under stress and multiple inputs, such as air traffic controllers. There were
also chapters about the effects of drugs and circadian rhythms on
cognitive performance, and on the factors that cause errors in our
decision making. These are all areas in which the findings of cognitive
psychologists have actually been put to use in the real world, and you
will find that we have retained all of these topics in this new edition.
However, we have added several new topics, mainly in response
to the feedback we have received from readers and reviewers over the
past few years. We have added new chapters on perceptual errors and
accidents, and on the influence of emotion on cognitive performance.
There are also new chapters on cognitive factors in music, and in
sport. Our book therefore covers all of the major areas of cognitive
psychology, including attention, perception, working memory, long-term
memory, thinking and decision making. In addition, we consider the
effects of several factors (e.g. drugs, biological cycles, emotion, music)
on all of these cognitive processes.
We made a deliberate decision not to include clinical aspects of
cognition, such as cognitive disorders and cognitive behaviour therapy,
because they each comprise a complete branch of psychology in
themselves which is already well covered in specialist clinical texts. For
the same reason, we have not included chapters on health psychology,
educational psychology or organisational psychology, all of which have
been covered elsewhere.
Being a new and developing area, applied cognitive psychology
remains somewhat incomplete and fragmented, so inevitably the chapters