Memory - AQA Psychology Unit 1 GCSE

Memory - AQA Psychology Unit 1 GCSE

1. Multi store model

   • Encoding-Storage-Retrieval
   • Encoding- Storage- Retrieval
   • Sensory- very brief memory
   • Short term - 7 chunks
   • Long term - Lots of information
   • Murdock
     • Learn lists of words with 2 secs per word. Then were told to recall the words in any order. Words from the end of the lost were recalled the best and the ones at the beginning were also quoted quite well
       • Primacy/recency effect
     • Evaluation
       • Lacks ecological validity and mundane realism - Not very realistic
       • Not everything in the world has to be recalled only remembered
     • Practical Implication
       • Helps us understand why it is so difficult top remember phone numbers as the primacy and recency effect will mostly remember the first and last numbers
   • Practical apps
     • Car registrations not being longer than 7
     • Postcodes not longer than 7

2. Reconstructive memory

   • Bartlett
     • See if people would alter the information in a story to make it seem more familiar if it seemed odd to them. Recalled the war of the ghosts several times in following weeks .
       • .Each time they told it they replaced unfamiliar elements with more familiar times. Changing it more each time they retold it
   • Evaluation
     • Very difficult to measure accuracy of retelling of story. High Mundane realism as the situation is quite real
   • Practical Applications
     • Explains why two different people may give two completely different version of the same event
       • Does not necessarily mean one of them is lying
     • Be careful with eyewitness testimonies
       • Whilst thinking they might be accurate they may be altering the information without meaning to

3. Levels of processing

   • Structural processing - Physical appearance of words
   • Phonetic processing - Sounds of the words
   • Semantic processing - Meaning of the words
   • Craik and Lockhart
     • Participants presented with a list of words one at a time. Had to answer questions about the words with yes/no answers. Required different kinds of processing for each question. 70% identified words which required semantic. 35% phonetic. 15% Structural
       • Evaluation - Doesn't explain why semantic is better only proves it is. Some say that deeper processing takes a lot more time. Low ecological validity and mundane realism
   • Practical applications
     • Improve study skills

4. Forgetting

   • Interference
     • Underwood and Postman
       • 2 groups A and B. Group A had two lists of two word pairs they had to learn. Group B only having 1 list.
         • Group B's first list more accurate then group A. New learning interfered with the learning of the first list with the group A
     • Retroactive interference - recently learnt information hinders our ability to recall other information we recently learnt
     • Proactive interference - when information we have already learnt hinders our ability to recall new information
   • Context
     • Godden and Baddeley
       • Deep sea divers in 4 groups. Group 1 underwater recall and learn words. Group 2 Learn underwater recall above water. Group 3 Learn on shore and recall on shore. Group 4 learn on shore and recall underwater.
         • Groups 1 and 3 recalled 40% more words than Groups 2 and 4.
           • Recalling will be better if it is the same place as it learnt
             • Practical application - Studying in same place as exam will help to remember information
   • Brain Damage
     • Anterograde amnesia - being unable to lean new information after suffering brain damage
     • Retrograde amnesia - Loss of memory for events that happened before the brain damage occured

5. Eyewitness testimonies

   • Factors affecting eye witness testimonies
     • Leading questions
       • Loftus and Palmer
         • Participants shown videos of car crash and asked how fast the other car 'hit' the other one or 'smashed'. Those who were asked smashed instead of hit gave a higher average speed than those who didn't
           • Leading questions can affect accuracy of recalled information
     • Unfamiliar faces
       • Bruce and Young
         • Psychology lecturers were caught on security cameras at the entrance of a building. Students were asked to identify the faces that they saw from a set of photographs. The Lecturers' students made more correct identification than that of other students and experienced police officers.
           • Familiarity helps with identifying faces
   • Evaluation
     • Watching film or video not the same as a real life experience. In a film you are expecting something to happen and are in a safe enviornment where as in real life in something happens you are not usually expecting it