Psychology

• Information processing


  How information enters the brain, is transformed and stored, and then used
• Information processing


  1. Input

  2. Encoded

  3. Stored

  4. Retrieved

  5. Output
• Types of forgetting


  • Decay
  • Displacement
  • Retrieval failure
• Decay


  Forgetting information if it is not paid attention to or rehearsed
• Displacement


  Forgetting information when memory stores are full and new memories take the place of old ones
• Retrieval failure


  Forgetting information that is still in the brain but the necessary cues to retrieve it are lacking
• Context cues


  External cues that help retrieve a memory, like the location where it was encoded
• State cues


  Internal cues that help retrieve a memory, like the emotional state when it was encoded
• Key brain areas for memory


  • Hippocampus
  • Frontal lobe
  • Cerebellum
• Hippocampus


  Combines sensory information into single experiences, important for semantic and autobiographical memory
• Anterograde amnesia


  Inability to form new memories due to hippocampus damage
• Retrograde amnesia


  Inability to recall old existing memories due to frontal lobe damage
• Procedural memory


  Memory of motor skills and how to do things, associated with the cerebellum
• Multi-store model of memory


  Theory proposing three separate memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term
• Multi-store model


  • Proposes how information is transferred between memory stores and how forgetting occurs in each store
• Criticisms of the multi-store model:
• Reconstructive memory


  Theory that memories are not retrieved exactly as stored, but are reconstructed based on prior experiences and expectations
• Schemas


  Organized knowledge that allows us to interpret the world, flexible mental shortcuts
• Confabulation


  Unconsciously filling in gaps in memory using schemas
• Distortion


  Altering memories to fit existing schemas
• Criticisms of reconstructive memory theory:
• Reconstructive memory


  Theory that memories are actively reconstructed based on expectations, sensory information, and schemas, rather than being passively recorded
• Bartlett's reconstructive memory theory has several criticisms:
• Autobiographical advertising


  Advertising that attempts to immerse the participant/consumer in an experience and evoke nostalgia and recall of childhood experiences
• This video is revision for the AQA GCSE psychology course on the topic of developmental psychology
• Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) study procedure


  1. Week 1: Participants complete life events inventory questionnaire

  2. Week 2: Participants shown Disney advert or control advert, asked to visualize and write about it, then completed distraction tasks and life events inventory again

  3. Participants asked about memories of Disney World and whether they thought the advert affected their memories
• Early brain development


  • Brain stem (motor, sensory, autonomic functions)
  • Cerebellum (sensory, motor, language, emotion)
  • Thalamus (information hub)
  • Cortex (thinking, cognition, processing)
• Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) study found:
• Nature


  What we're born with, our genetic code
• Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) study also found:
• Nurture


  The impact of the environment
• Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) study concluded that autobiographical advertising can influence memory recall and implant false memories
• Criticisms of Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002) study


  • Age bias - all participants were undergraduate students
  • Cultural bias - all participants were from Midwestern US
  • Unethical - manipulating memories without full consent
  • Low ecological validity - artificial lab setting unlike real-life advertising
• Piaget's theory


  • Schemas (packets of information)
  • Assimilation (adapting old schemas)
  • Accommodation (creating new schemas)
  • Stages of development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational)
• Applications of memory research


  • Autobiographical advertising: Using cues, repetition, and avoiding overload
  • Wechsler Memory Test: Evaluating extent of brain damage based on different aspects of memory
• Piaget's theory has been supported and criticized by research
• McGarrigle and Donaldson study


  1. Aim: Test whether children react differently to accidental vs purposeful changes

  2. Method: 80 children, nursery and primary school, 'Naughty Teddy' task

  3. Results: More children correctly identified same amount when change was accidental

  4. Conclusion: Piaget may have underestimated children's conservation abilities, older children performed better
• Evaluation of McGarrigle and Donaldson study


  • Strength: Challenges Piaget's theory, follows scientific method
  • Weakness: Small sample, potential issues with method
  • Conclusion: Provides useful insights but has limitations
• Hughes study


  1. Aim: Criticize Piaget's 3 mountains task for assessing egocentrism

  2. Method: Adapted 3 mountains task, used dolls and toys

  3. Results: Children performed better than in Piaget's study

  4. Conclusion: Piaget may have underestimated children's ability to take others' perspectives
• The studies on Piaget's theory provide a mix of support and criticism, suggesting it has some validity but also limitations