AQA Psychology Unit 1 Memory Notes

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha



PSYCHOLOGY ­ MEMORY
The Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM)




Encoding= Way of processing information into our store and the form in
which the memory is retained
Capacity= Amount of information that can be retained in the store, so
how much it can hold…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

Shriffin believed it would not be possible to store and retrieve new
memories

Description
Atkinson and Shriffin's multi-store model of memory makes a distinction
between the separate stores of sensory, short-term and long-term
memory. Each store has its own characteristics in terms of…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

A weakness of the MSM is that it suggests we transfer information from
STM to LTM via rehearsal, however there are examples of information
that can be transferred into LTM without the need to rehearse, for
example an episodic memory- a significant event,…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha


Role of the central executive= unclear
Limited capacity- impossible to measure this separately from the other 2 slave
systems, however it cannot be experimented scientifically= Reducing
validity+relibility

Capacity is limited in Visuo-spatial sketchpad
-BADDELEY
Conducted 2 visual tasks (identifying the letter F at…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

Broken Glass? Group 1- Group 2- `Hit' Group 3-
`Smashed' CONTROL
Yes 16 7 6
No 34 43 44

Asking participants a misleading question can distort their memory of an event-
reducing the accuracy of their testimony

Evaluation
Lacks ecological validity
Lab experiment…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

Children were more likely to wrongly identify the individual
=Children make poorer witnesses than college students
AO2
Criticism(s):
It is a mock crime so lacks ecological validity, and findings are made less
generalisable to real life crimes and witness testimony

Yarney
AO1
Stopped…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

People fixate their gaze for longer, faster>> more often on unusual or
highly informative objects

Aim:
To provide support for the `weapon focus' effect when witnessing a
crime
Methodology/Participants:
A field experiment, using students from Washington University. Half
were recruited via an advertisement,…

PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1: MEMORY Chapter 2/3Jemini Barchha

>>Witness/Victim will be asked specific questions (by the interviewer) - to
enhance the information

What happens in a cognitive interview (CI)?
>>4 Mnemonics
Reinstating the context:
-Mentally reconstructing
E.g. Imagine being back at the scene of the crime or incident
-Put yourself back…