Memory-Booklet - GCSE
Memory-Booklet - GCSE
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TOPIC 2 – MEMORY
Lesson 1- Introduction to memory and information processing.
Task 1- can you name all of Father Christmas’s reindeer? List them below:
Memory is any indication that learning has persisted over time. It is our ability to store and retrieve
information. Psychologists compare the brain to a computer.
Stages of Memory
Encoding: Turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain
Task 2- watch the video clip and answer the following questions:
1. On average how much information can our short term memory hold?
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2. What does encoding mean?
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3. What is retrieval?
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Lesson 2- Short term and long term memory.
– Duration
– Capacity
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The Multi Store Model of Memory – Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) developed the Multi-Store Model of memory (MSM), which describes
flow between three permanent storage systems of memory: the sensory register (SR), short-term
memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).
The SR is where information from the senses is stored, but only for a duration of approximately half a
second before it is forgotten. It is modality-specific, i.e. whichever sense is registered will match the
way it is consequently held (for instance, a taste held as a taste).
However, if attended to, sensory information moves into the STM for temporary storage, which will
be encoded visually (as an image), acoustically (as a sound) or, less often, semantically (through its
meaning). STM is thought to have a capacity of 5-9 items and duration of approximately 30 seconds.
This capacity can be increased through ‘chunking’ (converting a string of items into a number of
larger ‘chunks’, e.g. number 343565787 to 343 565 787).
Rehearsing information via the rehearsal loop helps to retain information in the STM, and
consolidate it to LTM, which is predominantly encoded semantically. Information can be stored and
retrieved for up to any duration, and equally has a seemingly unlimited capacity.
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Decay- this is the process of information being forgotten from the long term memory. This is because
the information has not been used in a while.
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Self Feedback
Mark awarded: /4
What went well:
Lesson
Even better if:
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Student reflection:
How did you feel the question went?
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Task 1: Memory experiment. Write down as many words as you can remember:
Question- How do you think the results from our experiment show that there is a short term and a
long term memory store?
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Ben Murdock (1972) conducted an experiment to provide evidence for the MSM. He discovered
something called the serial position effect, which is the tendency to recall more words at the
beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a word list. Murdock explained that the primacy effect
occurs because words at the beginning of the list had been rehearsed and transferred into the long
term memory.
The recency effect is the result of the words still being held in short term memory. Words in the
middle of the list were recalled less because there had not been enough time to rehearse them into
long-term memory before they were displaced from short term memory.
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Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model of Memory.
It assumes that each person’s memory system has the same __________. It does not easily __________ why
some people have a much better __________ than others. Critics argue that some people must have a
__________ capacity for memory than others. They also argue that some people have good memories for
certain _________ of information, while others have better memories for other types.
Critics argue that the _______ is not a passive store where information just passes __________. They say that
the STM is more __________ than this, and can actually deal with different types of inputs at the same time.
Critics also say that there are different types of _______________ stores: one for storing ___________
knowledge, one for storing autobiographical events, and one for __________ procedures.
The point is that not all _____________ stored in LTM has to be rehearsed. For example, we may __________
something like a telephone number or a person’s name to help us __________ it. However, do we really
rehearse smells and __________ to store them in LTM? In addition, there is a lot of information which is in
LTM not because it has been rehearsed but because it has _____________.
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information tastes greater STM through
Task 4- Plenary.
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Lesson 4- case studies and understanding amnesia.
Starter- social influence recap.
Progress tracker.
Beginning of lesson:
Middle of lesson:
End of lesson:
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What is a case study?
Case studies are very detailed investigations of an individual or small group of people,
usually regarding an unusual phenomenon or biographical event of interest to a research
field. Due to a small sample, the case study can conduct an in-depth analysis of the
individual/group.
- Case studies create opportunities for a rich data, and the depth of analysis can in turn
bring high levels of validity.
- Studying abnormal psychology can give insight into how something works when it is
functioning correctly, such as brain damage on memory. Case studies may be the only way of
obtaining data about a specific topic or situation. Especially if it would be unethical to
conduct a piece of research into that topic.
- The detail collected on a single case may lead to interesting findings that conflict with
current theories, and stimulate new paths for research.
- There is little control over a number of variables involved in a case study, so it is difficult to
confidently establish any causal relationships between variables.
- Case studies are unusual by nature, so will have poor reliability as replicating them exactly
will be unlikely.
- Due to the small sample size, it is unlikely that findings from a case study alone can be
generalised to a whole population.
- The case study’s researcher may become so involved with the study that they exhibit bias
in their interpretation and presentation of the data, making it challenging to distinguish
what is truly objective/factual
What is Amnesia?
• Amnesia is a type of serious memory loss, usually as a result of an accident, disease or injury
• This can happen for many reasons but often happens after a trauma to the brain
• There are two types of memory loss or ‘amnesia’ – these are called anterograde and
retrograde amnesia. (We will look at these In more detail later)
• When looking at amnesia in Psychology, we tend to focus on evidence from case studies.
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Video questions:
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Lesson 5- Understanding Amnesia continued….
Amnesia
Retrograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia
• Intact STM
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A similar case was H.M., a young man who had brain surgery in 1953 to cure
his severe epilepsy. When the hippocampus was damaged, H.M. was left
unable to make new memories. However, he still had a lot of memories from
before his surgery, which suggests he still possessed LTM, but could no longer
add to it. He died in 2008 and his real name was revealed to be Henry
Molaison. H.M. is studied in more detail in the Contemporary Study
by Schmolck et al. (2002).
Both of these men suffered from both anterograde amnesia (they could not
lay down any new memories, and retrograde amnesia (some aspects of their
lives prior to the brain injury were also lost)
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Challenge question: How is the case of Clive Wearing different to that of HM?
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Apply it task- Mataius fell off his bike and bumped his head. He lost consciousness for several
minutes. When he came round, he could not remember what had happened to him or that he had
been out on his bicycle.
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Lesson 6- Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Short-term retention of individual verbal terms.
Bingo starter:
Practice go:
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Aim:
To see if retention of items was affected by interference during recall intervals. In the second part of
their study, they investigated whether silent or vocal rehearsal would affect recall of items.
Experiment part 1:
Procedure:
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Sample- 24 students from an introductory psychology course at Indiana University, USA were
selected. As part of this course, students were required to take part in research experiments.
Each participant was given a standardised set of instructions which explained the process of the
experiment. This included explaining the ‘black box’ in front of them and what to do at each of the
light signals:
Participants had two practice trials in order to ensure the instructions had been fully understood.
At the beginning of each trial, the experimenter would spell out a trigram followed by a number from
which the participant had to count backwards in either 3s or 4s, e.g. CHJ506. In half the trials,
participants counted backwards in 3s (e.g. 506, 503, 500 and so on) and in the other half they
counted backwards in 4s.
Participants counted backwards in time with the ticking of a metronome. The was a task that would
minimise rehearsal behaviour between presentation and recall. Once the red light came on, the
participant had to immediately verbally recall the trigram, e.g. CHJ. The next trial would then begin
15 seconds later, signalled by the green light. The responses given by the participant during their 15
second interval were recorded.
Each participant was tested eight times at each of the following six recall intervals: 3 seconds, 6
seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds and 18 seconds.
Results:
Conclusion:
Information held on STM fades rapidly with less recall after 18 seconds. Very little accuracy shown in
recall in 15 second and 18 second trials. Therefore, STM has limited duration.
Experiment part 2:
Procedure:
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In this procedure, half of the participants were instructed to repeat the stimulus of a three-letter
trigram aloud in time with a metronome. This group was the ‘vocal’ condition. They were then
stopped by the experimenter and instructed to count backwards from a number.
The other half of the participants were not instructed to repeat the stimulus trigram aloud, but they
were given interval time before being asked to count backwards from a number. This group was the
‘silent’ group.
Both groups were tested on various rehearsal interval periods of immediate recall, 1 second and 3
seconds. This was completed for three interference conditions of counting backwards for 3 seconds,
9 seconds and 18 seconds.
Results:
Participant recall in the ‘vocal’ group improved with repetition, with longer repetition leading to
more accurate recall. Participant recall in the ‘silent’ group did not improve with longer repetition.
Conclusion:
Only in conditions where the repetition was vocal and controlled did accuracy of recall improve.
Overall conclusion:
The rate of forgetting from short-term memory depends on the amount of rehearsal undertaken.
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Lesson 7- Bartlett’s theory of Reconstructive Memory (1932).
Bartlett’s main idea is that our memory is grouped into categories called
“schemas”. We have schemas for all sorts of thing – for what a “criminal” is like,
for what counts as “food” and how to behave at the service counter in a fast
food restaurant.
For example, in a Japanese sushi bar you might not know what
behaviour is expected of you and it would be hard to make sense of
what the other customers were doing and eating.
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But if you paid attention, you would figure it out: you would start to develop a new schema.
Define and illustrate (draw a picture) the terms Active Reconstruction and Schema
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How are schemas formed?
● Through our experiences, some experiences are shared due to our cultural experience. And
some experiences are personal.
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The theory has real world applications and helps us There is evidence to support the idea that memory is
understand why memory can be distorted. reconstructed. Likewise, the theory of reconstructive
memory can be seen as ecologically valid.
For example,
For example,
The supporting evidence can be criticised for being Bartlett was not very scientific in his procedures.
subjective
For example,
For example,
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Qualitative data are data in the form of words, pictures or some other format where a story
is being told and where the data give detail. Qualitative data is descriptive and gives
information that cannot be measured so effectively quantitatively, such as someone’s
feelings about their friends. Qualitative data can be gathered through focus groups,
observations or case studies. Sigmund Freud’s 91909) study of little Hans and Michel Siffre’s
(1975) cave study both used qualitative data to explain a situation in detail.
Quantitative data is data in the form of numbers, such as the percentage of people
conforming when someone wrongly identifies what line matched another line (Asch, 1951).
Studies in psychology often use quantitative data because measurements can be subjected
to descriptive statistics and testing. Methods can include experiments or questionnaires.
Studies using quantitative data often use large samples and look for patterns in behaviour.
Peterson & Peterson (1959) collected quantitative data in their study to test the duration of
short-term memory.
Similarities: Differences:
• Qualitative and quantitative data can • Qualitative data tends to come from
come from the same method at the small samples because of depth required.
same time. for example, using a Quantitative data can have larger
questionnaire with open and closed samples.
questions. • Qualitative data tends to come from
• Both qualitative and quantitative data individuals or small groups and focus on
must be gathered with care to avoid bias exploring a topic. Quantitative data look
and misinterpretation. for patterns and focus more on
• Usually qualitative data is said to be less differences between individuals rather
scientific and quantitative data are than sticking to exploration.
considered scientific. However, both • Qualitative data can be turned into
have to be justified such as someone quantitative data. However, quantitative
gathering qualitative data by keeping a data can not be turned into qualitative
reflective journal. data as the detail is missing.
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Background to the study:
Aims:
Procedure:
Sample: 20 British participants (7 women, 13 men). The participants were not told the aim of the
study, they believed they were being tested on the accuracy of recall.
Bartlett used repeated reproduction, which is where participants hear a story or see a drawing and
are asked to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again over a period of days, weeks,
months or years.
The story used was a Native American story called The War of the Ghosts which was unfamiliar to
participants and contained unknown names and concepts. The story content was also unfamiliar. The
story was selected because it would test how memory may be reconstructed based on cultural
schema.
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Each participant read the story to themselves twice. The first reproduction happened 15 minutes
later. There was no set interval beyond this and participants recalled the story at further intervals
from 20 hours to almost 10 years.
Results:
Bartlett found that participants changed the story as they tried to remember it. This happened in the
early stages (15 minutes) and throughout the further reproductions. Overall, the participants
preserved the order of events and main themes in the story.
The reproduction of style was often changed, with reproduction of the story often being
transformed.
Seven of the 20 participants omitted the title and 10 of the participants transformed the title, for
example; ‘War-Ghost story’. Other transformations included changing ‘canoes’ to ‘boats’ and
changing the name of the characters. Much of the content was rationalised by the participants, who
changed material so that it was more acceptable to them (Bartlett called this ‘effort after meaning’),
such as ‘the young man did not feel sick but nevertheless they proceeded home’.
Conclusions:
Accuracy in reproduction of the story is an exception rather than a norm of memory. Style, rhythm
and precise story construction is very rarely reproduced. After repeated reconstructions, the form of,
and items within, the story becomes stereotyped and do not change much after this occurs.
However, with infrequent reproduction, omission of detail, simplification and transformation
continues indefinitely.
There is a significant amount of interference with the story from reconstructing it. The details are
altered to fit the participants own tendencies and interests. In all recollections of the story,
rationalisation reduced material to a form that was more accessible or common to the participant.
This could be because the material was initially connected to something else in memory and treated
as a representation of this. It reflected the character and individuality of the person recalling the
story, and names, places and events were changed to fit with the social group that the participant
belonged to.
Task – read the detailed explanation of Bartlett’s study and answer the following questions:
3. Does this study produce quantitative or qualitative data? Why is this the best type of data to
use in this study?
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4. The findings of this study are reliable. Explain why this is.
Challenge- Outline and explain one other evaluation point of Bartlett’s study.
Summary:
● Remembering a story is fairly naturalistic as a test of memory, giving the study ecological
validity. However, the story was not familiar, it contained strange words. Therefore,
remembering the story was not an everyday task.
● Bartlett replicated his procedure using various stories and pictures, finding that participants
had the same tendency to omit and transform the material when remembering it.
● The results of the study were gathered using qualitative data. This is good because the real
nature of memory can be understood through its meaning.
● However, qualitative data can be seen as unscientific.
● Bartlett did not always get the participants to recall the story at the same time intervals and
they were allowed to read the story at their own pace. The study can be considered for being
unscientific as it did not follow a standardised procedure.
Generalisability
Applicability
Validity Remembering a story is more naturalistic as a test of everyday memory than nonsense
trigrams used by other memory researchers. This means that………..
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Ethics
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Lesson 9: Issues and debates- Reductionism and Holism.
Reductionism.
Reductionism is a
_____________ theory of describing something using its _________ parts or the simplest
explanation. Reductionism is based on the belief that human _____________ or thought processes
can be explained through _____________ at the parts that make up that behaviour or __________
to understand how it works. A theory or study that describes a behaviour by a single,
__________explanation can be said to be reductionist.
Scientists often reduce complex behaviour into basic parts because it means that we can be more
certain that one thing causes another. This helps us to investigate what causes a behaviour. For
example, if we explain aggression as a result of a certain gene, we can test for the gene and see if it is
associated with someone being more aggressive than a person without that gene. Reductionism is
associated with scientific methods such as laboratory experiments, where factors that may explain a
behaviour can be isolated and tested under controlled conditions.
Strengths: Weaknesses:
- Reductionism is a desirable scientific - Reductionism can result in an explanation
practice and can be appropriate in that is overly simplistic.
circumstances where there is a clear, single - Does not take into consideration other
explanation. factors affecting behaviour.
- Allows you to look in detail at components
that effect behaviour.
- Open for testing.
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Holism.
Holism is the opposite of reductionism, so can be explained as the theory of trying to understand the
whole behaviour rather than its parts. To be holistic is to try to understand the whole person. This
approach takes into account the fact that many different factors work together to cause a behaviour,
and therefore dividing up these factors is not useful in understanding the behaviour as a whole.
Holistic psychologists tend to use qualitative methods to gain greater insight into the causes of
behaviour and try to understand the whole person and their beliefs.
Strengths: Weaknesses:
- Looks at everything that may impact - In practice, holism can be difficult to
behaviour. achieve because understanding the whole
- Considers that there may be more that one individual means investigating lots of
cause of behaviour. variables at the same time.
- It is unscientific because the findings can
only apply to a particular individual.
- Overcomplicates behaviours which may
have a simple explanation.
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How the reductionism/holism debate applies to human memory research:
The multi-store model of memory can be seen as reductionist as it describes our memory as a series
of component memory stores with specific functions, such as rehearsal. Research using experiments
that investigate how memory works can also be regarded as reductionist as experiments tend to
isolate variables to investigate, without considering other factors that could also explain the
behaviour.
Bartlett’s work cannot be considered reductionist because of the way he conducted his research.
Bartlett used qualitative analysis to explore the reconstructive nature of memory by understanding
how each individual’s schemas influenced their recall of stories and pictures. He spent a lot of time
establishing the character and backgrounds of his participants in order to understand how their
schemas were formed. For example, he found out what jobs they had to see whether their training
and employment might have influenced how they remembered things.
Reductionist: Holistic:
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Assessed question – 9 marks.
Adelyn is researching the role of interference in short-term memory recall. She conducts a
laboratory experiment where participants recall words from a word list. Participants count
backwards from 100 for 30 seconds before they recall the words.
The number of words recalled are counted. Adelyn then compares her results to a group of
participants who recalled the words immediately.
Those who counted backwards recalled fewer words than those who recalled the words
immediately. Adelyn uses her results to conclude that interference prevents words from remaining
in short-term memory and prevents transfer to long-term memory.
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Lesson 10- Revision and end of unit test.
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Task 3- Put the statement under the correct study.
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