These are Essay Plans for the Memory Topic of AQA A-Level Psychology. They were written by me using a combination of the textbook and class notes. I will also be uploading the other topics and creating bundles.
Topics Included:
- Coding, Capacity and Duration of Memory
- The Multi-Store Model o...
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Memory Essay Plan
Outline and Evaluate Research Related to the Features of Short-Term memory (Coding, Capacity and Duration)
AO1:
- Jacobs (1887) tested digit span and found that the capacity of STM is 7∓2 items.
- The capacity for LTM is hard to measure but it seems to be infinite.
- Peterson & Peterson (1959) gave participants a consonant syllable to remember and a 3-digit number to count
backwards for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds and found that the duration of STM is 18-30 seconds.
- Bahrick et al (1975) tested the duration of LTM by using recognition and free recall tests from a high school yearbook
and the duration for LTM is unlimited however this is hard to test, as just because you can’t remember something one
time doesn’t mean that the memory is gone.
- This was researched by Baddeley (1966a and 1966b) gave participants 4 different lists to remember acoustically similar,
acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. He found that immediate recall was worse with
acoustically similar words and recall after 20 mins was worse with semantically similar words. Therefore, STM is coded
acoustically and LTM is coded semantically.
Baddeley (1966a, 1966b) The words used in Baddeley’s (1966a, 1966b) experiment had no personal meaning to participants.
researched coding in When processing more meaningful memories people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks In
STM and LTM and Peterson & Peterson (1959) participants had to memorise syllables which does not reflect real life
Peterson & Peterson where what you try to remember is meaningful. This means the results of this study have limited
(1959) used artificial application and so we should be careful about generalising the findings to a different memory task.
stimuli. These studies therefore lack external validity.
Lack of control of No extraneous variables were control during Jacobs (1877) experiment. Some patients may have
extraneous variables in been distracted while they were being tested so they didn’t perform as well as they might. This would
research by Jacobs mean the findings would not be valid, as there is no way of knowing whether it was actually
(1877) and Bahrick et al. extraneous variables that created the results rather than STM capacity. Bahrick et al’s (1975) study
(1975) did not control confounding variables such as the fact that participants may have looked at their
yearbooks and rehearsed their memories over the years, reducing the validity of the study
Research has higher This study used real memories (participants yearbook photos); this means that it is a better estimate
validity when using real- of the duration of LTM. When lab studies were done with meaningless pictures the recall rates were
life meaningful memories lower such as Shepard (1967).
Another strength is that Jacobs (1887) study into capacity of STM has been replicated and confirmed by better controlled
research has been studies such as Bopp & Verhaeghen (2005). This supports the validity of the study.
replicated.
Outline and Evaluate the Multi Store Model of Memory
AO1:
- Proposed by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
- The MSM says that information is picked up by the sense organs and enter the sensory registers. If we don’t attend
to information, then it is immediately lost. If we do rehearse it then it enters LTM. Information in LTM is infinite in
time and space, it can only be accessed by retrieval from the STM.
- Iconic memory – visual, echoic memory - auditory
- The MSM assumes that there are separate stores for memory, with each store having different limits including
capacity, duration and encoding.
- It also assumes that STM is a single store and is not broken up into different sections.
- Another assumption is that there is only one kind of rehearsal and if we repeat it enough times, they will enter our
LTM ~ maintenance rehearsal.
- Additionally, it assumes that all info must pass through STM first before reaching LTM to process items in STM.
- Finally, it assumes that all memories are processed in the same way.
Brain scanning support This is a strength because Beardsley (1997) found that the prefrontal cortex is active during STM
the assumption of but not LTM tasks. Squire et al. (1992) also found that the hippocampus is active when LTM is
separate memory stores. engaged. This suggests different parts are activated and so they must be separate stores.
Brain scanning is an effective method of investigation which result in highly reliable and valid results.
Therefore, data can be accurately measured and easily replicated.
, Scoville & Milner (1957) The brain was damaged in an operation leaving the patient unable to form LTMs however he could
to support the still form STMs. He could still remember events from before the surgery but not after. If the stores
assumption of separate were not separate, all his memory would have been affected. Links to Baddeley’s study
memory stores. This is a one-off event and so is very difficult to replicate and so we do not know if it is
generalisable or just specific to that one patient.
Craik & Watkins (1973) Discovered that there are 2 types of rehearsal, maintenance rehearsal as described in the MSM (but
to disprove only one this does not transfer information to the LTM it just remains in STM). The other type is elaborative
time of rehearsal rehearsal, which is needed for long term storage, which occurs when you link the information to your
existing knowledge, or you think about what it means. Serious limitation as this research cannot be
shown by the MSM
Shallice & Warrington Studying patient KF with amnesia showed that STM for digits was very poor when they read them
(1970) to disprove that out loud to him, but the recall was much better when he was able to read them himself. This
there is more than one suggests that STM is made of several stores for example visual and verbal rather than just one. This
type of STM means that the MSM is too simplistic and the working memory model may better explain short term
memory processing.
Outline and Evaluate Types of Long-Term Memory
AO1:
- Tulving (1985) proposed that there were 3 types of LTM.
- Episodic memory stores events from our lives, they are time stamped and have specific details of the event, the
context and the emotion, you have to make a conscious effort to recall them.
- Semantic memory stores knowledge of the world, this is knowledge that is shared by everyone and is not time stamped.
- Procedural memory stores memories for actions and skills, recall occurs without awareness or effort, memories are
acquired through repetition and practice.
Case studies of HM Had amnesia and their episodic memory was severely impaired but their semantic memories were
and Clive Wearing unaffected, and this supports different stores for LTM. For example, Clive Wearing could still
remember how to play the piano, read music and sing as this is procedural memory, however he could
not remember when he had played as this is episodic memory.
Tulving et al. (1994) Had participants perform memory tasks while brain scanned in a PET scanner. Episodic and semantic
brain scans memories were in the prefrontal cortex, semantic in the right and episodic in the left. This also
supports different stores for LTM.
Belleville et al. (2006) Found episodic memories can be improved in older people with mild cognitive impairments training led to
improvements compared to a control group. This highlights the benefit of distinguishing between
different types of LTM and allows specific treatments to be developed.
Cohen & Squire (1980) Argued that semantic and episodic memories are stored together in a store called declarative memory.
It is important to get distinction between semantic and episodic memories right because it influences
how memory studies are conducted.
Conflicting research Buckner & Peterson (1996) concluded semantic memory is located in the left prefrontal cortex and
episodic on the right, however Tulving et al. (1994) found it the opposite way.
Outline and Evaluate the Working Memory Model
AO1:
- Proposed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
- The Working Model Memory has 4 key areas: Central executive, phonological loop, Visio spatial sketchpad and episodic
buffer.
- Central executive ~ an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to
tasks. Data arrives from the senses or from long-term memory. The CE has a very limited storage capacity.
- Phonological loop ~ codes speech sounds is subdivided into phonological store (the words you hear) and articulately
process (used for words that are heard or seen, allows for maintenance rehearsal).
- Visuospatial sketchpad ~ temporarily stores visual or spatial information, has limited capacity. Split into visual cache
(stores visual data) and the inner scribe (deals with spatial relations and record the arrangement of objects in the visual
field), limited capacity
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