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QA GCSE Psyycholg Topic Map
Paper 1 MEMORY
Outline the following types of long-term memories
Key Study – Murdock
Episodic:
Aim:
Semantic:
Method:
Procedural:
Use the prompts below to explain this key study
Results:
Conclusion:
Use the prompts to outline Bartlett’s Theory of Reconstructive Memory
Strength:
Memory is inaccurate:
Strength:
Reconstruction (using schemas):
Limitation:
Results:
Effort after meaning:
Outline ‘factors that affect the accuracy of memory’
Memory is inaccurate:
Strength:
Supported by:
Limitation:
Context:
Supported by:
Outline the ‘serial position’ effect
Primacy refers to:
Recency refers to:
Interference:
Supported by:
Explain the processes involved in memory
Outline the research by Bartlett (1932)
Encoding:
Aim:
Storage:
Method:
Retrieval:
Results:
Conclusion:
Distinguish between these types of encoding
A:
Explain the following memory stores
Sensory Store:
B:
Short Term Store:
C:
Long Term Store:
Sketch the multistore model of memory
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QA GCSE Psychology Topic Map Paper 1 MEMORY answers
Key Study – Murdock
Episodic: Time stamped memories for ‘episodes’ in your life e.g. your 10th birthday party.
Aim: to see if the Multi-Store Model is accurate in the assumption that STM and LTM
are separate stores.
Semantic: Factual memories – like having your own encyclopaedia, e.g. Paris is the
capital of France.
Procedural: Muscle memories, e.g how to ride a bike.
Use the prompts to outline Bartlett’s Theory of Reconstructive Memory
Memory is inaccurate: Our memories do not work like a video recording; we store key
fragments and reconstruct the fragments into a meaningful whole memory every time we
recall it.
Use the prompts below to explain this key study
Method: Lab experiment, 103 students, given lists of words to remember.
Results: Primacy & recency effects were evident.
Conclusion: The Serial Position Curve affects how items on a list are recalled, supporting
the idea of MSM and separate stores.
Strength: Supported by Tulving’s ‘Gold Memory Study’, which found different areas on
PET scans for short and long-term memories.
Strength: A controlled lab experiment was used, therefore there was control of external
variables, it can be replicated, and reliability can be assessed.
Reconstruction (using schemas): We use schemas of pre-existing knowledge about
the world to help when we recall our memories.
Limitation: The study is artificial because it doesn’t reflect everyday memories. In real life,
our memories are more complex than recalling lists of words.
Results: Our schema’s are heavily influenced by the culture and society we live in; these
can have a knock-on impact on how we reconstruct the memories (e.g. In ‘War of the
Ghosts’, seal hunting was reconstructed as fishing for a Western schema).
Outline ‘factors that affect the accuracy of memory’
Effort after meaning: We remember the general ‘gist’ of a memory, then work together
to piece together the details using the fragments of memory.
Strength: Supported by research – The ‘War of the Ghosts’ study demonstrated these
processes.
Limitation: The theory doesn’t explain how some memories are accurate for distinctive
phrases e.g. in The War of the Ghosts study, most participants remembered, ‘something
black came out of mouth’.
Memory is inaccurate: Can be planted deliberately (leading questions) or accidentally
(via therapy).
Supported by: Loftus & Pickrell (‘Lost In A Shopping Mall’ 1995) – 25% of the participants
incorrectly identified a false memory of being lost in the mall as true, suggesting it is
relatively easily to implant false memories experimentally.
Context: Environmental cues can trigger and ‘unlock’ memories. For example, smells or
the room you are in can act as cues.
Outline the ‘serial position’ effect
Supported by: Godden & Baddeley (Divers, 1975) – Divers learnt words under water and
on land, then retrieved in either the same or the opposite context. Results showed when
the context matched, retrieval was significantly better.
Primacy refers to: Our tendency to remember the first few words on a list because they
have entered our LTM.
Interference: Occurs when two memories compete when they are similar. Proactive (old
interferes with new) & retroactive (new interferes with the old).
Recency refers to: Our tendency to remember the last few words on a list because they
are still in our STM.
Supported by: McGeoch & McDonald (synonyms word lists) research supports –
interference is strongest when the word lists were similar.
100
Words recalled (%)
Outline the following types of long-term memories
50
00
Primary
Intermediate
Position in sequence
Recency
Explain the processes involved in memory
Outline the research by Bartlett (1932)
Encoding:
Aim:
Changing information so it can be stored in the brain.
To see if memories are reconstructed.
Storage:
Method:
Holding information in the brain.
WOTG story was read to participants, and they were asked to recall information minutes, days, weeks or years later.
Retrieval:
Results:
Locating and bringing back information.
Participants changed the story to meet their social & cultural expectations.
Conclusion:
Distinguish between these types of encoding
A:
We remember the fragments of the story and reconstruct the details.
+ Provides empirical support for Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory.
- Further studies have shown than when Ps are told in advance of recall they do better.
Visual – information you can visualise.
B:
Acoustic – information you hear.
Sketch the multistore model of memory
C:
Rehearsal
Semantic – refers to meaning. E.g. knowing what the word
‘elephant’ means and how to use it in a sentence.
Rehearsal
Explain the following memory stores
Sensory Store:
Encoding -via the 5 senses,duration – <½ second, capacity
– unlimited from the 5 senses
Sensory
memory
Attention
Short Term Store:
Encoding – acoustic, duration – up to 30s, capacity – 7
(+/-2)
Long Term Store:
Eencoding – usually semantic, duration – up to a lifetime,
capacity - unlimited
Short term
memory
Decay
Long term
memory
Retrieval
Displacement
decay
Interference
Decay retrieval
failure