How do our past and present experiences shape how we see and hear the world? Drawing on Weeks 11 and 20, critically evaluate research and theory relating to this topic.
One of the key themes of this module is working across sub-disciplinary boundaries. As you have seen, there are many different psychological approaches that can be taken to investigate everyday questions. TMA 03 draws on this theme by asking you to consider how different understandings of a topic (described across two blocks) can be used to investigate and explain it. This assignment offers you an opportunity to consolidate your understanding of topics from across the module and to critically consider the materials you have encountered.
You must also refer to and discuss material drawn from outside the module to support your argument.
The question asks you to critically evaluate research and theory relating to a topic. The word ‘critically’ indicates that you should make a judgement backed by a reasoned discussion of the evidence involved and describe role of past and present experiences in perceiving visual and auditory information. The word ‘evaluate’ indicates that you need to consider strengths and weakness of psychological evidence on this claim. Do remember that you are not being asked to offer your personal opinion; you will need to provide evidence from psychological theories and research to support your position.
The content words for Option A are ’past and present experiences shape how we see and hear the world’. This means that you need to consider relevant research evidence and theory, focusing on how perception of visual and auditory information is influenced by past and present experiences. You are told to focus your essay on materials from Weeks 11 and 20.
Option A asks you to critically evaluate research and theory relating to how past and present experiences can influence visual and auditory perception. You should draw on Book 2, Chapter 1, and Book 3, Chapter 1, in order to critically evaluate relevant research and theory on this topic.
In Week 11, Book 2, Chapter 1 (’Do you see what I see? The fundamentals of visual perception’) explores a range of studies, concepts and theoretical perspectives that are focused on how we perceive the world. These include work on the perception-action model, visual illusions, perception as hypotheses, and perceiving multisensory information. Overall, Week 11 highlights how we see, why we see what we see and what multisensory perception is. In addressing this question, Section 3 will be particularly beneficial.
In Week 20, Book 3, Chapter 1 (‘Do you hear what I hear? Music cognition, preference and identity’) introduces how we understand musical sounds. The chapter also considers the relationship between music and feelings and emotion, and why we like the music we like.
External sources of information for Option A
In addition to the module materials, you should draw on and discuss at least two peer-reviewed academic journal articles from outside the module materials. If you do not include and discuss two journal articles in your essay, you will lose five marks from your overall score. To find relevant journal articles, you will need to complete a literature search, entering relevant search terms for your area of interest. You may find it helpful to revisit the activity you completed in Week 2 on ‘Literature searching in psychology’ as well as the Week 20 activity on ‘Advanced search and evaluation techniques’ to refresh your memory of how to go about sourcing relevant literature for your assignment.
When sourcing independent material, you may find it useful to consider your essay plan and then search for some studies that provide additional support for your discussion. For example, if you perceive there to be less information in the module on how past experience shapes visual perception, you could search for articles that may give you more information on that topic.
Ensure that you include references for the journal articles you use in your essay