A Level Psychology OCR Practice Exam

What kind of tasks did participants perform in Casey et al (2011) experiment 1?

1. Memory recall tasks

2. Go/nogo tasks with facial stimuli

3. Sound recognition tasks

4. Cognitive flexibility tasks

The correct answer is: Go/nogo tasks with facial stimuli

In the Casey et al. (2011) study, participants engaged in go/nogo tasks specifically using facial stimuli, making this option the correct choice. The primary aim of this experimental design was to assess self-control and impulse control by measuring participants' ability to respond to specific cues (go trials) while inhibiting their responses to non-target cues (nogo trials). In these tasks, participants were presented with faces, which varied in emotional expression, and had to react according to the instructions. This setup allowed researchers to explore the neural mechanisms associated with self-control by observing how participants responded to social cues, revealing insights into their cognitive control processes. The use of facial stimuli also aligns with previous findings on social cognition and the importance of facial recognition in everyday decision-making. The other options, while relevant to cognitive psychology, do not align with the specific methodology employed in this study. Memory recall and sound recognition tasks were not part of the experimental design, and cognitive flexibility tasks involve a different aspect of cognitive functioning than the inhibitory control assessed through the go/nogo framework used here.