Long term and short term memory
The results from the first case study can be explained using the aspect of cognitive psychology, whereby the brain of the subjects acted in the same cognitive processes that made them be appealed by candidates that had similar views with them. The subjects’ mental processes can be linked to their sensory memory storage, short term memory storage as well as long term memory storage; where they hold their information regarding specific elements (Larson, 1994). This attribute can be associated with the fact that when subjects were made to think conservatively, they associated themselves with conservative political ideologies and vice versa. It can also be related to procedural memory when the memory affects the enactment of specific types of action. Dr. Luccas triggered both the long term and short term memory of the subjects by making the subjects identify their political ideologies before the commencement of the task. This action affects the subjects’ behaviors by making them act based on their working and long term memory.
The mental concepts interact with the environment based on the long term memory only and not on the short term ones. Research indicates that procedural memory has an impact on particular actions (Bryan, Dweck, Ross, Kay & Mislavsky, 2009). The subjects used their procedural memories to choose their beliefs on a subconscious level because of the stimulus-response. As in this case, the primary cognitive perceptive is memory since the subject act according to their past experiences. The difference between the first and the second study is that the first research involved the use of short term memory and long-term memory while the latter perspective suggested the use of working memory only. The behaviors in the second study were triggered by the long term memory cognitive perspective, whereby the subjects acted based on the influence to act on an activity in a specific way (Lodge & Hamill, 1986). The knowledge can be related to the way people have differences in opinion based on different types of memories.
References
Bryan, C. J., Dweck, C. S., Ross, L., Kay, A. C., & Mislavsky, N. O. (2009). Political mindset: Effects of schema priming on liberal-conservative political positions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 890 – 895.
Larson, D. W. (1994). The role of belief systems and schemas in foreign policy decision-making. Political Psychology, 15 (1), 17 – 33.
Lodge, M. & Hamill, R. (1986). A partisan schema for political information processing. The American Political Science Review, 80 (2), 505 – 520.