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QLDPsychology

Unit 3: Individual thinking

11 dot points across 11 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do brain trauma and neurological disorders disrupt individual thinking, and how does the brain attempt to recover?

Explain how acquired brain injury and neurological disorders affect cognition and behaviour, and describe how neuroplasticity supports recovery of function
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on brain trauma. Distinguishes traumatic from non-traumatic acquired brain injury, explains how damage to specific regions disrupts cognition (aphasia, spatial neglect, amnesia, personality change), and describes how neuroplasticity and rehabilitation support recovery of function.
6 min answer →

How does a child's thinking change in stages from birth to adolescence according to Piaget?

Describe Piaget's stages of cognitive development and explain the processes of assimilation, accommodation and equilibration that drive movement between stages
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on Piaget. Explains schemas, assimilation, accommodation and equilibration, works through the four stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational) with key milestones like object permanence and conservation, and evaluates the theory.
6 min answer →

How do social interaction, culture and language shape the development of a child's thinking according to Vygotsky?

Explain Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development, including the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, the more knowledgeable other and the role of language
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on Vygotsky. Explains the sociocultural view that cognition develops through social interaction, defines the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, the more knowledgeable other, private speech and cultural tools, and contrasts the theory with Piaget.
6 min answer →

How do psychologists define what is normal and use classification systems to diagnose psychological disorders?

Explain how normality and abnormality are defined, and describe how classification systems such as the DSM are used to diagnose psychological disorders, including the issues this raises
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on diagnosis. Explains approaches to defining normality and abnormality, describes the DSM and ICD classification systems and the biopsychosocial model, and evaluates issues including reliability, validity, labelling and cultural bias using Rosenhan's study.
6 min answer →

What is emotional intelligence, how does it differ from general intelligence, and can it be measured?

Explain the concept of emotional intelligence, describe its components and models, and evaluate how it relates to and differs from cognitive intelligence
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on emotional intelligence. Defines emotional intelligence, distinguishes the Salovey and Mayer ability model from Goleman's mixed model, lists the core components, explains how it is measured, and evaluates how it differs from cognitive intelligence (IQ).
6 min answer →

How does the structure and function of the brain explain individual thinking?

Describe the localisation of function in the cerebral cortex and explain how lesion, split-brain and neuroimaging evidence links specific brain regions to cognition
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on localisation of function. Maps the four cortical lobes and their roles, explains hemispheric specialisation and the corpus callosum, and works through the lesion, split-brain and neuroimaging evidence (Broca, Wernicke, Sperry, Phineas Gage) that links regions to thinking.
6 min answer →

How do psychologists model the structures and processes that allow us to encode, store and retrieve memories?

Describe the multi-store and working memory models of memory and explain the brain structures and processes involved in encoding, storage and retrieval
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on memory. Explains the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model and Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model, the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval, and the brain structures (hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum) shown by cases such as patient HM and studies including Peterson and Peterson.
6 min answer →

How does the brain change its structure and reorganise its function in response to experience and injury?

Explain neuroplasticity, including developmental and adaptive plasticity, the mechanisms of synaptic change, and how the brain reorganises after injury
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on neuroplasticity. Distinguishes developmental from adaptive plasticity, explains the cellular mechanisms of synaptogenesis, pruning, sprouting, rerouting and long-term potentiation, and shows how the brain reorganises function after injury.
6 min answer →

How do bottom-up and top-down processes shape what we perceive and attend to?

Explain the role of bottom-up and top-down processing in perception, and describe how selective and divided attention determine which information reaches awareness
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on perception and attention. Distinguishes sensation from perception, contrasts bottom-up and top-down processing with Gestalt principles and perceptual set, and explains selective and divided attention through Cherry's cocktail party and Simons and Chabris inattentional blindness.
6 min answer →

How do competing theories define and measure intelligence, and how reliable and valid are intelligence tests?

Compare theories of intelligence including general intelligence and multiple intelligences, and evaluate how intelligence is measured and the reliability and validity of intelligence testing
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on intelligence. Compares Spearman's general intelligence, Gardner's multiple intelligences and Sternberg's triarchic theory, explains how IQ is measured (Binet, Wechsler, the normal distribution), and evaluates reliability, validity and cultural bias in testing.
6 min answer →

How do classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning explain changes in behaviour?

Describe classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning, and explain how each accounts for the acquisition of behaviours including learnt fear
A focused answer to the QCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on learning. Explains classical conditioning (Pavlov, Watson and Rayner's Little Albert), operant conditioning (Skinner, Thorndike's law of effect, reinforcement and punishment) and observational learning (Bandura's Bobo doll), and shows how fear can be a learnt response.
6 min answer →