Psychology help.

[yourfriendlyneighbourhoodghost]

Hello everyone.
I was doing a question in the checkpoints book for VCE UNITS 3 4 psych, and came across this.

Lydia has only four hours a sleep per night and therefore suffers partial sleep deprivation. Which of the following would she perform?

C. Better on simple tasks, worst on complex.
D. Better on complex, worst on simple.


Wouldn't the answer be C since sleep deprivation impairs cognitive thinking. The answer is listed as D.

[whys]

Hi there!
So, in this case the checkpoints book is actually correct (for once).
When partially sleep deprived, you will do better on complex tasks and worse on simple ones. This is because you identify and recognise what the complex tasks are, and you put in more effort to do them. When you aren't sleep deprived, you put in very little effort into simple tasks, so when you are sleep deprived you also tend to put in very little effort and therefore you do worse on them. For example, someone who is an experienced driver may find driving to be a simple task, however when sleep deprived may do worse on it than, for example knitting, which the person might find difficult normally. This is because they put in little mental and conscious effort into driving, which causes their driving ability to decrease greatly. However, the person would recognise that knitting is a difficult task for them and will therefore put in more mental effort consciously to knit when sleep deprived.

I hope this made sense!

[yourfriendlyneighbourhoodghost]

Hi there!
So, in this case the checkpoints book is actually correct (for once).
When partially sleep deprived, you will do better on complex tasks and worse on simple ones. This is because you identify and recognise what the complex tasks are, and you put in more effort to do them. When you aren't sleep deprived, you put in very little effort into simple tasks, so when you are sleep deprived you also tend to put in very little effort and therefore you do worse on them. For example, someone who is an experienced driver may find driving to be a simple task, however when sleep deprived may do worse on it than, for example knitting, which the person might find difficult normally. This is because they put in little mental and conscious effort into driving, which causes their driving ability to decrease greatly. However, the person would recognise that knitting is a difficult task for them and will therefore put in more mental effort consciously to knit when sleep deprived.

I hope this made sense!

Oh okay, that makes a lot of sense. So in an exam, would I also apply this theory if a similar question were to appear? Thank you very much.

[whys]

Oh okay, that makes a lot of sense. So in an exam, would I also apply this theory if a similar question were to appear? Thank you very much.

Yep, definitely! However in an exam question you would explain it in a more concise way, and describe it the way the question asks you to (e.g. does it ask for an example? Do you need to refer to a scenario?) I've most commonly seen this concept come up in multiple choice questions, but be prepared for short answer as well! You never know what the examiners will throw at you.

[yourfriendlyneighbourhoodghost]

Yep, definitely! However in an exam question you would explain it in a more concise way, and describe it the way the question asks you to (e.g. does it ask for an example? Do you need to refer to a scenario?) I've most commonly seen this concept come up in multiple choice questions, but be prepared for short answer as well! You never know what the examiners will throw at you.

Yeah this was a multiple choice and there was no scenario needed for the answer. Three other questions, multiple also, asked the same type of thing and had the same answer. Thank you very much for the answer, I appreciate it