(a) How do basic and applied research differ? Explain how knowledge from basic research helps solve practical problems. (20…

(a) Basic versus applied research Basic research is curiosity-driven. It aims to build theory and explain processes (for example, how memories are consolidated), without a specific practical goal, and its findings are general. Applied research is problem-driven. It uses existing principles to solve a defined problem (for example, reducing workplace burnout) in a particular setting, and is judged by usefulness.

Basic findings reach practice through translation. Basic work establishes mechanisms, and applied researchers turn them into interventions:

• Pavlov's classical conditioning in the laboratory led to systematic desensitisation for phobias.
• Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve led to spaced-repetition methods in education.
• Sleep research showed that slow-wave sleep helps consolidate memory, which led to sleep-hygiene programmes for students and shift workers.
• Loftus's work on reconstructive memory led to reforms in how witnesses are questioned.

The two are complementary. Applied problems also raise new questions that feed back into basic research.

(b) Factors in cognitive decline in the elderly Decline is multifactorial.

• Biological: hippocampal and prefrontal atrophy, reduced neuroplasticity, loss of dopamine and acetylcholine, and vascular disease (hypertension, diabetes, small strokes) that restricts cerebral blood flow.
• Sensory: untreated hearing and vision loss increase cognitive load and isolate the person.
• Psychosocial: social isolation, depression, bereavement and loss of role after retirement. Chronic stress raises glucocorticoids, which impair the hippocampus.
• Lifestyle: physical inactivity, poor sleep, smoking, alcohol and cognitive disengagement. The 2024 Lancet Commission attributes about 45% of dementia to 14 modifiable risk factors.
• Reserve: low education and little mental stimulation reduce cognitive reserve.

Normal ageing differs from pathology. Fluid abilities (speed, working memory, executive control) decline, while crystallised knowledge and vocabulary remain stable. Dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease with amyloid plaques or vascular dementia, causes loss of independence beyond normal slowing.

(c) Bottom-up and top-down processing Bottom-up processing is data-driven. It starts at the receptors and builds upward, with features such as lines, colour and pitch analysed and combined into a percept (Gibson's direct perception and feature-detection models). It dominates when the stimulus is novel, for example an unfamiliar script or an unknown pattern.

Top-down processing is concept-driven. Prior knowledge, expectation, context and schemas shape interpretation (Gregory's view of perception as hypothesis testing). A familiar-language sentence with a blurred or misspelled word is read easily because context fills the gap.

In practice both operate together (interactive models). In noisy speech, the acoustic signal combines with linguistic context to restore a masked sound (the phonemic restoration effect). Illusions exploit top-down assumptions that override the input. In associative visual agnosia, the sensory analysis is intact but the person cannot attach meaning to the object, showing that the two processes can be separated.