OCR A-Level Psychology: The 20 Core Studies Explained
OCR A-Level Psychology: The 20 Core Studies Explained
The beating heart of OCR A-Level Psychology (H567) is its set of 20 prescribed core studies. Unlike other boards, which illustrate topics with whatever research a textbook chooses, OCR builds Component 02 -- "Psychological themes through core studies", worth 35% of the whole A-Level -- directly out of these 20 named studies. Ten are classic (older, foundational, frequently famous); ten are contemporary (more recent, often updating or challenging the classic they are paired with). This article walks through all twenty, grouped by the five areas and ten themes, with a concise summary of each and a clear explanation of how the classic-contemporary pairing is examined.
Everything here references the OCR H567 specification descriptively. Study names, authors, dates and findings are drawn from the real published papers -- these are public bibliographic facts, and knowing them accurately is exactly what the exam rewards. Where a precise figure is uncertain or not worth memorising, we describe the finding qualitatively rather than inventing a number, which is the safest habit for you to copy in your own revision notes.
For the wider map of the qualification -- components, weightings, assessment objectives -- start with our complete guide to OCR A-Level Psychology H567. To study the studies in depth, the five area courses are linked in each section below, and the whole sequence sits on the OCR A-Level Psychology learning path.
How the Core Studies Are Structured
Before the studies themselves, hold the architecture in mind, because the exam is built on it:
- 5 areas of psychology (Social, Cognitive, Developmental, Biological, Individual differences).
- Each area contains 2 key themes.
- Each theme is illustrated by 1 classic and 1 contemporary study.
That gives 5 x 2 x 2 = 20 studies. The full map:
| Area | Theme | Classic | Contemporary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social | Responses to authority | Milgram (1963) | Bocchiaro et al. (2012) |
| Social | Responses to people in need | Piliavin et al. (1969) | Levine et al. (2001) |
| Cognitive | Memory | Loftus & Palmer (1974) | Grant et al. (1998) |
| Cognitive | Attention | Moray (1959) | Simons & Chabris (1999) |
| Developmental | External influences on behaviour | Bandura et al. (1961) | Chaney et al. (2004) |
| Developmental | Moral development | Kohlberg (1968) | Lee et al. (1997) |
| Biological | Regions of the brain | Sperry (1968) | Casey et al. (2011) |
| Biological | Brain plasticity | Blakemore & Cooper (1970) | Maguire et al. (2000) |
| Individual differences | Understanding disorders | Freud (1909) | Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) |
| Individual differences | Measuring differences | Gould (1982) | Hancock et al. (2011) |
For each study, OCR expects you to "tell the story": the background (why the study was done), the method (design, sample, materials, procedure), the results, the conclusions, a rounded evaluation (methodology, data types, ethics, validity, reliability, sampling, cultural bias), and the links to the theme, area, perspective(s) and debate(s) the study illustrates. Learn each study at the level of detail you would need to describe how to repeat it.
Social Area
The social area examines how the presence, actions and expectations of other people shape behaviour. Its two themes are responses to authority and responses to people in need. Study both pairs in depth in the social area core studies course.
Theme 1: Responses to People in Authority
Milgram (1963) -- Behavioral study of obedience (classic). Milgram set out to test how far ordinary people would obey an authority figure who instructed them to harm another person. Male participants, recruited by advertisement, were told they were in a study of learning and memory. In the role of "teacher", each was instructed to deliver what they believed were increasingly severe electric shocks to a "learner" (a confederate) whenever he made an error. Despite the learner's protests, a striking proportion of participants continued to the maximum shock level under the experimenter's prompting. Milgram concluded that obedience to authority can override personal conscience, and that situational pressures are powerful determinants of behaviour. The study is a lightning rod for ethical debate (deception, distress, the right to withdraw) and for the individual versus situational explanation debate.
Bocchiaro et al. (2012) -- To defy or not to defy (contemporary). Bocchiaro and colleagues extended the obedience question to its mirror image: disobedience and whistle-blowing. Participants were asked by an authority figure to write a statement encouraging others to take part in a sensory-deprivation study described as harmful, and were given the opportunity instead to blow the whistle by objecting to an ethics committee. Most participants obeyed; genuine whistle-blowers were rare, and participants systematically over-estimated how likely they and others would be to disobey. The study updates Milgram by focusing on the conditions under which people resist authority, and it introduces a cleaner, less ethically fraught procedure.
How the pairing is examined: you can be asked to compare the two studies directly -- both investigate responses to authority, but Milgram focuses on obedience and Bocchiaro on disobedience/whistle-blowing; both use a form of deception, but Bocchiaro's is generally regarded as less harmful. A common exam move is to ask how far Bocchiaro changes our understanding of the theme, and what the pair reveals about situational versus dispositional explanations of behaviour.
Theme 2: Responses to People in Need
Piliavin et al. (1969) -- Good Samaritanism, the subway study (classic). Conducted as a field experiment on the New York subway, this study examined bystander helping in a real setting. A confederate collapsed in a train carriage, appearing either ill (carrying a cane) or drunk (smelling of alcohol, carrying a bottle). Researchers recorded whether, how quickly, and by whom help was given. The "ill" victim was helped more readily and more often than the "drunk" victim, and help was frequently spontaneous. The findings challenged the "diffusion of responsibility" account from earlier laboratory work and led to a cost-reward model of bystander behaviour. The field setting gives it high ecological validity but reduces control.
Levine et al. (2001) -- Cross-cultural helping (contemporary). Levine and colleagues took the helping question global, measuring spontaneous helping of strangers across 23 cities in different countries using standardised scenarios (for example, a dropped pen, or a person with a leg brace struggling to pick up magazines). Helping rates varied considerably between cities and were related to cultural and economic characteristics of the location. The study introduces cross-cultural comparison and the concept that helpfulness is patterned by community and culture, updating Piliavin's situational account with a cultural dimension.
How the pairing is examined: the studies share a theme (helping) and a naturalistic approach, but differ in scope -- one city versus 23, one situation versus several standardised measures. Expect questions on similarities and differences in method and findings, and on what the contemporary study adds about cultural diversity in helping behaviour.
Cognitive Area
The cognitive area studies internal mental processes -- how we take in, store, retrieve and attend to information. Its themes are memory and attention. Both pairs are covered in the cognitive area core studies course.
Theme 3: Memory
Loftus & Palmer (1974) -- Reconstruction of automobile destruction (classic). In two laboratory experiments, Loftus and Palmer showed how leading questions distort eyewitness memory. Participants watched film of car crashes and were asked to estimate the speed of the vehicles; the verb used in the question ("smashed", "collided", "bumped", "hit", "contacted") systematically affected the speed estimate. In a follow-up, participants who had heard "smashed" were more likely later to report (falsely) having seen broken glass. The studies support a reconstructive view of memory and have major implications for the reliability of eyewitness testimony.
Grant et al. (1998) -- Context-dependent memory (contemporary). Grant and colleagues investigated context-dependent memory for meaningful material. Participants read an article either in a quiet condition or with background noise, and were later tested (on recall and recognition) either in the same or a different condition. Performance was better when the study and test conditions matched, supporting the idea that retrieval is aided by reinstating the learning context. The study has a clear practical application: students should try to revise and be tested in similar conditions.
How the pairing is examined: both are laboratory experiments on memory, but Loftus and Palmer concern the distortion of memory by post-event information, while Grant concerns the facilitation of retrieval by context. You may be asked to compare their methods (both controlled, both quantitative) and to weigh what each contributes to our understanding of how memory works.
Theme 4: Attention
Moray (1959) -- Attention in dichotic listening (classic). Moray used dichotic listening tasks -- different messages played to each ear -- to probe selective attention. Participants shadowing (repeating aloud) the message in one ear noticed very little of the content in the unattended ear, but their own name in the unattended ear did break through. The findings refined models of attention, suggesting that unattended information is largely filtered out but that personally significant material can be detected.
Simons & Chabris (1999) -- Gorillas in our midst (contemporary). This is the famous "invisible gorilla" study of inattentional blindness. Participants counting basketball passes frequently failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene. The study dramatically demonstrates that we can miss salient, unexpected events when attention is engaged elsewhere -- a vivid, visual counterpart to Moray's auditory work.
How the pairing is examined: both investigate the limits of attention, but in different modalities (auditory versus visual) and with different phenomena (the breakthrough of significant stimuli versus the failure to notice unexpected ones). Comparison questions often turn on method (dichotic listening versus a video task) and on what each reveals about how attention is allocated.
Developmental Area
The developmental area examines change across the lifespan, especially in childhood. Its themes are external influences on children's behaviour and moral development. Study both pairs in the developmental area core studies course.
Theme 5: External Influences on Children's Behaviour
Bandura et al. (1961) -- Transmission of aggression (classic). In the celebrated Bobo doll study, Bandura, Ross and Ross tested whether children imitate aggression they observe. Nursery-aged children watched an adult model behave either aggressively or non-aggressively towards an inflatable Bobo doll, and were then observed for imitative aggression. Children who had seen aggressive modelling reproduced more aggressive acts -- often the specific acts they had witnessed -- than controls. The study is the foundational demonstration of observational learning and is a key behaviourist exemplar for OCR.
Chaney et al. (2004) -- The Funhaler study (contemporary). Chaney and colleagues applied learning principles to a real health problem: children's poor compliance with asthma inhalers. The "Funhaler" spacer device incorporated toys and reinforcement (whistles and spinners that reward correct breathing technique). Parents reported improved adherence and better technique when children used the Funhaler compared with a conventional device. It illustrates operant reinforcement applied to behaviour change, pairing neatly with Bandura as a behaviourist study.
How the pairing is examined: both draw on the behaviourist perspective and on how children's behaviour is shaped by external influences, but Bandura concerns imitation of a model (social learning) and Chaney concerns reinforcement of a target behaviour (operant conditioning), applied in a medical context. Expect comparison on methods (a controlled observation versus an applied pilot study) and on their real-world usefulness.
Theme 6: Moral Development
Kohlberg (1968) -- Stages of moral development (classic). Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral reasoning, developed by presenting boys and young men with moral dilemmas (most famously the "Heinz dilemma", about whether a man should steal a drug to save his wife) and analysing the reasoning behind their answers. He described moral development as progressing through pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional levels. The study is examined as an exemplar of the psychodynamic-adjacent, stage-based approach to development and raises debates about cultural and gender bias in the sample.
Lee et al. (1997) -- Evaluations of lying and truth-telling (contemporary). Lee and colleagues compared Chinese and Canadian children's moral evaluations of lying and truth-telling in different social contexts -- for example, lying modestly about a good deed versus lying to conceal a misdeed. The cultural background of the children influenced how they rated the same behaviours, particularly around modesty. The study introduces a cross-cultural dimension to moral development, showing that moral evaluation is shaped by cultural norms.
How the pairing is examined: both concern how moral reasoning develops, but Kohlberg proposes universal stages while Lee highlights cultural variation in moral evaluation -- a productive tension for a nature/nurture or culture essay. Comparison questions often focus on sample diversity and on what Lee adds about cultural influences on morality.
Biological Area
The biological area examines the physiological basis of behaviour -- brain regions, plasticity, neural correlates. Its themes are regions of the brain and brain plasticity. Both pairs are covered in the biological area core studies course.
Theme 7: Regions of the Brain
Sperry (1968) -- Hemisphere deconnection, the split-brain study (classic). Sperry studied patients whose corpus callosum had been severed (a treatment for severe epilepsy), isolating the two cerebral hemispheres. Using carefully controlled presentation of stimuli to one visual field or one hand at a time, he demonstrated hemispheric specialisation -- for example, that language is typically lateralised to the left hemisphere, so an object presented to the left hand (right hemisphere) could not be named but could be identified by touch. The study is foundational evidence for lateralisation of brain function and is examined for its quasi-experimental design and small, unusual sample.
Casey et al. (2011) -- Neural correlates of delay of gratification (contemporary). In a remarkable longitudinal follow-up, Casey and colleagues re-tested adults who, as pre-schoolers decades earlier, had taken part in the classic "marshmallow test" of delayed gratification. Using behavioural tasks and fMRI, they found that individuals who had shown better self-control in childhood showed different patterns of brain activity (notably in prefrontal and ventral-striatal regions) as adults when resisting tempting cues. The study links a brain region to a stable behavioural trait across the lifespan.
How the pairing is examined: both localise behaviour to brain regions, but Sperry uses split-brain patients to map hemispheric function while Casey uses fMRI to link self-control to specific regions across time. Comparison often turns on methods (careful behavioural testing versus modern neuroimaging) and on the reductionism/holism debate.
Theme 8: Brain Plasticity
Blakemore & Cooper (1970) -- Impact of early visual experience (classic). Blakemore and Cooper reared kittens in environments containing only vertical or only horizontal stripes, then assessed their later visual behaviour and cortical responses. Kittens raised seeing only one orientation were behaviourally "blind" to the other and showed correspondingly altered cortical organisation. The study demonstrates that early visual experience shapes the developing brain -- a striking case of experience-dependent plasticity (with obvious ethical questions about animal welfare).
Maguire et al. (2000) -- Taxi drivers (contemporary). Maguire and colleagues used structural MRI to compare the brains of licensed London taxi drivers -- who must master "The Knowledge" of the city's streets -- with controls. Taxi drivers had greater grey-matter volume in the posterior hippocampus, and the effect was related to time spent driving. The study provides human evidence for experience-dependent structural plasticity in the adult brain, updating the animal work of Blakemore and Cooper.
How the pairing is examined: both show that the brain is shaped by experience, but Blakemore and Cooper use controlled animal rearing while Maguire uses a natural (quasi-experimental) human comparison with neuroimaging. Expect questions on the strengths and limits of animal versus human evidence, and on the nature/nurture debate.
Individual Differences Area
The individual differences area examines how and why people differ from one another. Its themes are understanding disorders and measuring differences. Study both pairs in the individual differences core studies course.
Theme 9: Understanding Disorders
Freud (1909) -- Little Hans (classic). Freud's case study of a five-year-old boy ("Little Hans") with a phobia of horses is the flagship psychodynamic study on OCR's list. Working largely through the boy's father's reports, Freud interpreted the phobia in terms of unconscious conflict, the Oedipus complex and displacement. As a single, richly detailed case it offers depth but raises acute questions about interpretation, subjectivity and generalisability -- making it a superb vehicle for evaluating the psychodynamic perspective and the debate about psychology as a science.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) -- Reading the mind in the eyes (contemporary). Baron-Cohen and colleagues developed an "advanced test of theory of mind" -- inferring mental states from photographs of the eye region -- and compared adults with autism or Asperger syndrome to control groups. The clinical group scored lower on the eyes task, supporting the idea of a specific difficulty in attributing mental states. The study exemplifies a cognitive approach to understanding a disorder and contrasts sharply with Freud's method.
How the pairing is examined: both concern understanding a disorder, but through radically different lenses -- an in-depth psychodynamic case study versus a controlled cognitive experiment with standardised measures. This pairing is ideal for essays on research methods, on psychology as a science, and on the psychodynamic versus cognitive explanations of atypical behaviour.
Theme 10: Measuring Differences
Gould (1982) -- A nation of morons (classic). Gould's article is a critical historical analysis of early twentieth-century intelligence testing, focusing on the mass army testing programme in the United States. He argued that the tests were culturally biased, poorly administered, and misused to support discriminatory conclusions about the intelligence of different immigrant and ethnic groups. The study is examined as a critique of the validity of psychological measurement and as a case study in socially-sensitive research and the misuse of science.
Hancock et al. (2011) -- Language of psychopaths (contemporary). Hancock and colleagues analysed the language used by convicted psychopathic and non-psychopathic murderers when describing their crimes, using word-pattern analysis. Psychopaths' narratives showed distinctive features -- for example, more references to basic physiological needs and more use of past-tense, causal and instrumental language -- consistent with a detached, means-to-an-end view of their actions. The study illustrates a modern, computational approach to measuring differences between individuals.
How the pairing is examined: both concern the measurement of individual differences, but Gould critiques the misuse of measurement while Hancock demonstrates a contemporary technique for detecting differences. Comparison questions often centre on validity, ethics and socially-sensitive research, and on how far measurement in psychology can be objective.
Studying the Pairs Well
If there is one habit that separates strong OCR candidates from the rest, it is treating each classic-contemporary pair as a unit rather than as two isolated facts. For every theme, be ready to answer three recurring question types:
- Similarities and differences. In method, sample, findings and implications. Be specific -- "both are experiments" is weaker than "both are laboratory experiments, but Loftus and Palmer manipulate question wording whereas Grant manipulates the match between learning and test context".
- How far the contemporary study changes our understanding. Does it confirm, extend, refine or challenge the classic? What does it add about individual, social or cultural diversity?
- Links to area, perspective and debates. Every study is evidence you can deploy in a Section B essay about an area, the behaviourist or psychodynamic perspective, or one of the eight debates.
A practical revision tool is a comparison grid for each pair, with rows for background, method, results, conclusions, evaluation and links, and a column for each study, plus a final row summarising the similarities and differences. Build one per theme and you will have ten grids that cover the whole of Component 02.
Where to Go Next
The 20 core studies are the foundation of OCR A-Level Psychology, but they are only foundations -- the marks come from the evaluation and argument you build on top. To turn study knowledge into exam performance, work through the five area courses linked above, then consolidate with our companion guides on areas, perspectives and debates and exam technique. The complete two-year sequence is on the OCR A-Level Psychology learning path.