Psychology paper 1

• Sensory Memory


  • Very short DURATION
  • Sensory register
• ATTENTION


  Transfers information to STM
• STM


  • Limited DURATION (30)
  • Limited CAPACITY (5-9 items)
  • ACOUSTIC coding (sounds)
• Rehearsal


  Keeps information in STM
• LTM


  • SEMANTIC coding (Knowledge of meaning)
  • Unlimited CAPACITY
  • Stored Up to a LIFETIME
• Encoding


  Changing info from one form to another
• What is a strength of the multi store model

  supporting research Baddley Shows qualitative differences between STM & LTM
• What are weakness’s of the Multi store model

  Having one STM & LTM store is too simplistic

  lacks validity
• What is the role of rehearsal


  Keeps information in STM

  Repeats rehearsal transfers STM into LTM
• Primacy


  Words at the beginning of a list are remembered more
• Recency


  Words at the end of a list are remembered more
• MURDOCKS Key study method


  Participants listened to 20 word lists with 10-40 words, recalled words after each list
• What is the aim of Murdock a study


  To see if memory of words is affected by location in a list
• What is the results of Murdocks study


  Recall related to position of words higher recall for the first words (primacy effect) and the last words (regency effect) than in middle
• What is the conclusion for Murdocks study

  Shows serial positon effect and supports the MSM stores
• What is a primacy effect?

  words at beginning are remembered more (rehearsed, so in LTM)
• What is a recency effect?

  Words at end are remembered more (heard recently, so in STM)
• What is the aim for Barlett war of the ghost study?

  To test that his theory of reconstruction memory, by demonstrating how cultural schema/biases can alter memories of a story to match a persons own culture.
• What is the method used in Barlett’s war of the ghost study?


  Native American story told to English participants. The story was read by one participant and recalled after 15 minutes (repeated)
• What is the results for Barlett’s war of the ghost study?

  Participants changed stories to fit cultural expectations, leaving out unfamiliar information. Rationalisations were made (making sense) such as missing out the word ghost and remembering it as a war between two tribes
• what is the conclusion for Barlett’s war of the ghost study?

  We use knowledge of social situations to reconstruct memory
• What is two weaknesses of Barlett’s war the ghost study?

  Lacks control – participants are not told accurate recall was important, which could have affected results

  Results were biased – Barlett , analysed the recollections himself, so we cannot fully trust the conclusion
• what is the theory of reconstructive memory?

  People rebuild memory as an active process
• Reconstruction


  Record pieces of information recombined to tell the whole story
• Effort of the meaning

  We focus on the meaning of events and make an effort afterwards to make sense of fragments of memory
• Social and cultural influences (memory)


  Expectations come from the world/culture we live in and affect storage and recall
• Memory is inaccurate


  Memory is not a process of exact reproduction of experiences
• What are two strengths of the Barlett’s war of ghost study?

  More realistic research-reflects how we use memory in every day life, because it uses a story, not word list

  Some memories are accurate – not all recall, is reconstructed, as some memories of the story are accurate
• (Factors affecting the accuracy of memory) interference aim


  To see the effect of during interact activities on accuracy of memory
• Method interference


  Learn a list of 10 words, and then another list of varying types, e.g. synonyms and antonyms
• Results interference 


  Memory was affected by the second list. Most of all is second list has similar meaning (synonyms).
• Interference conclusion


  Shows interference, effect, accuracy of memory, and the strongest when you try remember to similar things
• Strength, interference


  Research by Schmidt supports it he found the more times an individual moved home since childhood, the fewer streets participants could recall
• Weakness, interference


  Artificial task, unusual activities
• (Factors affecting the accuracy, of memory) context, aim


  to see if context improved recall
• Context method


  18. Participants divers, listen to, and record words in the same or different settings on the beach and underwater.
• context results


  Recall was highest in the same environment for learning and recall
• Conclusion, context


  Context of learning acts as a trigger or cue improving the accuracy of memory
• Strength context


  Divers were more accurate in recall of word list, if they learn and recalled information in the same place
• Weakness context


  Artificial task, not generalisable