🧠
GCSE Psychology: The Only Bumper
Set of Study Notes You’ll Need
Grade 8-9 Ready (A*)
- Study Saviour
Whole Course Condensed: papers 1+2
,Chapter 1 - memory:
❖ The processes of memory are: encoding (taking information into memory and
changing it into a form in which it can be stored), storage (holding information
within the memory system) and retrieval (recovering information from storage).
Memory can be encoded visually, acoustically and semantically (by what the
words mean).
❖ Psychologists believe that there are 3 types of long term memory and these are:
procedural (our memory for carrying out complex tasks), episodic (unique
memories concerned with personal experiences and events) and lastly,
semantic memory (which are memories concerned with general knowledge as
opposed to personal experience).
❖ Procedural memories are implicit and this is because they are stored using a
motor code as opposed to a verbal code, therefore they are difficult to explain
without actually doing.
❖ Capacity (how much information can be stored), duration (how long the
information can be stored for) and coding (the way in which information is
represented to be stored)
❖ The multistore model of memory - the model comprises the sensory, short term
and long term stores. The sensory memory is coded in the same manner in
which it was received from the senses (so for example if a person receives the
stimuli visually, it will also be stored visually), it has a very limited capacity and a
duration of less than a second. The short term memory is coded mainly
acoustically, its capacity is approximately 7 bits of information and its duration
is up to 30 seconds. Lastly, the long term memory is coded mainly semantically,
its capacity is unlimited and this is the same for its duration.
❖ Studies have shown that coding in the sensory store occurs in the same
manner that the information was received.
❖ We are less likely to recall items from the middle of a list and are more likely to
recall the ones from the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect). This
is known as serial position (the way in which the chances of recalling items
within a list depend on its position within the list). This is because when we
begin to hear words from the beginning of a list we start to recall them and miss
the words in the middle of the list whilst doing so, however, we are able to recall
words from the end of the list as as they are still in our short term memory.
❖ Murdock’s serial position curve study (1962) - its aim was to see how the recall of
words relates to the serial position curve) and his study design was a laboratory
study, possible extraneous variable control, standardised procedures improving
replicability, male and female psychology students comprising the sample and
part of the course requirement was to take part in the research. Method was
that 16 participants were presented with a list of 20 words at a rate of 1 word per
second and upon hearing all 20, they were asked to recall as many words from
the list as possible in any order (free - recall) and were given 90 seconds to do
so. The test was repeated with the same participants 80 times in just a few days
and a different word list used each time. Results were visible primacy and
recency effects and words in the middle of the list weren’t recalled well, results
displayed on a serial position curve). Murdock concluded that… primacy and
recency effects were evident and words from the middle of the list not being
recalled so well (suggesting that these words were neither in the short term
memory nor the long term memory). Overall, the results of the study have been
used to support the idea of separate stores of information - as described by
the multi - store of memory, comparing our brains to the likes of computers.
❖ The theory of reconstructive memory: Bartlett thought that memory was not
simply a stored copy of fact and that we manipulate our memories to fit in with
, what we already know, even though we think that we are remembering exactly
what happened - this is known as reconstructive memory. In the War of the
Ghosts study, Bartlett showed that memory is not an accurate recording of
exactly what happened and he said that memory is an active process involving
effort after meaning. This means that we try to make sense of something
unfamiliar by filling in the gaps with what we already know and understand
about the world.
❖ Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts Study (1932) - its aim was to see if people, when given
an unfamiliar story to remember, would alter the information so that it made
more sense to them. The study design was laboratory, some control of
extraneous variables, standardised procedures, replicable, undergraduate
English students at Cambridge. Method was that each participant read the
‘War of the Ghosts’ text and were told to read the passage twice through to
themselves, normal reading pace, were asked 15 minutes later to retell the story
to another person, that person had to tell the story on and so on, a record
made of each reported story. Results (after the story passed on 10 times),
passage became much shorter, lots of omissions, changes to the detail, order of
events changed., story was reduced from 330 words to 150 and mention of
ghosts disappeared despite emphasis from the first participant, canoes
became boats and by the final version, despite the story’s complex nature, it
became a simple story of a fight and death. In conclusion, Bartlett concluded
that our memory isn’t an exact copy of what we hear, it is distorted by prior
knowledge of the world, memory influenced by own beliefs and stereotypes.
❖ Interference: retroactive and proactive. Interference refers to the difficulty in
recalling information when other memories get in the way of us doing so.
❖ Context refers to the general setting or environment in which activities occur.
Studies suggest that content improves recall and makes recall higher in the
same context / environment.
❖ False memories: remembering something that in reality has never happened.
Can be implanted e.g. childhood memories, 25% of people believed they had
been lost in a shopping mall when told so by a researcher who gathered
information from parents. But this isn’t really how our memory is used in day to
day life and means it lacks ecological validity.
❖ False memory studies may be criticised for their lack of standardised
procedures.
❖ The mini - sensory stores used by our memory are: gustatory, olfactory, echoic,
iconic and haptic.
❖ Long term memory may be divided into: explicit and declarative (it requires a
conscious effort to retrieve and can be described in words) and implicit non -
declarative (which require little conscious awareness to retrieve but are difficult
to describe in words).
❖ Episodic and semantic memories are declarative and procedural is non -
declarative).
❖ Evaluating different types of memory: 1. A strength of the idea of different types
of long term memory is that they are each located in different regions within the
brain - suggesting their localised functions for different types of memories. For
example, brain scans show that episodic memory is in the prefrontal cortex of
the right hemisphere , but that procedural memory is in the motor cortex. This
suggests that there is a biological reality to the different types of memory. 2.
Another strength is that there is research evidence to suggest that people with
amnesia commonly only lose one part of their memory due to injury and not all
three. For example patient HM (or Henry Molaison)’s episodic memory was badly
damaged upon the removal of his hippocampus, however his procedural
memory remained intact. Once again, this suggests that there are different
GCSE Psychology: The Only Bumper
Set of Study Notes You’ll Need
Grade 8-9 Ready (A*)
- Study Saviour
Whole Course Condensed: papers 1+2
,Chapter 1 - memory:
❖ The processes of memory are: encoding (taking information into memory and
changing it into a form in which it can be stored), storage (holding information
within the memory system) and retrieval (recovering information from storage).
Memory can be encoded visually, acoustically and semantically (by what the
words mean).
❖ Psychologists believe that there are 3 types of long term memory and these are:
procedural (our memory for carrying out complex tasks), episodic (unique
memories concerned with personal experiences and events) and lastly,
semantic memory (which are memories concerned with general knowledge as
opposed to personal experience).
❖ Procedural memories are implicit and this is because they are stored using a
motor code as opposed to a verbal code, therefore they are difficult to explain
without actually doing.
❖ Capacity (how much information can be stored), duration (how long the
information can be stored for) and coding (the way in which information is
represented to be stored)
❖ The multistore model of memory - the model comprises the sensory, short term
and long term stores. The sensory memory is coded in the same manner in
which it was received from the senses (so for example if a person receives the
stimuli visually, it will also be stored visually), it has a very limited capacity and a
duration of less than a second. The short term memory is coded mainly
acoustically, its capacity is approximately 7 bits of information and its duration
is up to 30 seconds. Lastly, the long term memory is coded mainly semantically,
its capacity is unlimited and this is the same for its duration.
❖ Studies have shown that coding in the sensory store occurs in the same
manner that the information was received.
❖ We are less likely to recall items from the middle of a list and are more likely to
recall the ones from the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect). This
is known as serial position (the way in which the chances of recalling items
within a list depend on its position within the list). This is because when we
begin to hear words from the beginning of a list we start to recall them and miss
the words in the middle of the list whilst doing so, however, we are able to recall
words from the end of the list as as they are still in our short term memory.
❖ Murdock’s serial position curve study (1962) - its aim was to see how the recall of
words relates to the serial position curve) and his study design was a laboratory
study, possible extraneous variable control, standardised procedures improving
replicability, male and female psychology students comprising the sample and
part of the course requirement was to take part in the research. Method was
that 16 participants were presented with a list of 20 words at a rate of 1 word per
second and upon hearing all 20, they were asked to recall as many words from
the list as possible in any order (free - recall) and were given 90 seconds to do
so. The test was repeated with the same participants 80 times in just a few days
and a different word list used each time. Results were visible primacy and
recency effects and words in the middle of the list weren’t recalled well, results
displayed on a serial position curve). Murdock concluded that… primacy and
recency effects were evident and words from the middle of the list not being
recalled so well (suggesting that these words were neither in the short term
memory nor the long term memory). Overall, the results of the study have been
used to support the idea of separate stores of information - as described by
the multi - store of memory, comparing our brains to the likes of computers.
❖ The theory of reconstructive memory: Bartlett thought that memory was not
simply a stored copy of fact and that we manipulate our memories to fit in with
, what we already know, even though we think that we are remembering exactly
what happened - this is known as reconstructive memory. In the War of the
Ghosts study, Bartlett showed that memory is not an accurate recording of
exactly what happened and he said that memory is an active process involving
effort after meaning. This means that we try to make sense of something
unfamiliar by filling in the gaps with what we already know and understand
about the world.
❖ Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts Study (1932) - its aim was to see if people, when given
an unfamiliar story to remember, would alter the information so that it made
more sense to them. The study design was laboratory, some control of
extraneous variables, standardised procedures, replicable, undergraduate
English students at Cambridge. Method was that each participant read the
‘War of the Ghosts’ text and were told to read the passage twice through to
themselves, normal reading pace, were asked 15 minutes later to retell the story
to another person, that person had to tell the story on and so on, a record
made of each reported story. Results (after the story passed on 10 times),
passage became much shorter, lots of omissions, changes to the detail, order of
events changed., story was reduced from 330 words to 150 and mention of
ghosts disappeared despite emphasis from the first participant, canoes
became boats and by the final version, despite the story’s complex nature, it
became a simple story of a fight and death. In conclusion, Bartlett concluded
that our memory isn’t an exact copy of what we hear, it is distorted by prior
knowledge of the world, memory influenced by own beliefs and stereotypes.
❖ Interference: retroactive and proactive. Interference refers to the difficulty in
recalling information when other memories get in the way of us doing so.
❖ Context refers to the general setting or environment in which activities occur.
Studies suggest that content improves recall and makes recall higher in the
same context / environment.
❖ False memories: remembering something that in reality has never happened.
Can be implanted e.g. childhood memories, 25% of people believed they had
been lost in a shopping mall when told so by a researcher who gathered
information from parents. But this isn’t really how our memory is used in day to
day life and means it lacks ecological validity.
❖ False memory studies may be criticised for their lack of standardised
procedures.
❖ The mini - sensory stores used by our memory are: gustatory, olfactory, echoic,
iconic and haptic.
❖ Long term memory may be divided into: explicit and declarative (it requires a
conscious effort to retrieve and can be described in words) and implicit non -
declarative (which require little conscious awareness to retrieve but are difficult
to describe in words).
❖ Episodic and semantic memories are declarative and procedural is non -
declarative).
❖ Evaluating different types of memory: 1. A strength of the idea of different types
of long term memory is that they are each located in different regions within the
brain - suggesting their localised functions for different types of memories. For
example, brain scans show that episodic memory is in the prefrontal cortex of
the right hemisphere , but that procedural memory is in the motor cortex. This
suggests that there is a biological reality to the different types of memory. 2.
Another strength is that there is research evidence to suggest that people with
amnesia commonly only lose one part of their memory due to injury and not all
three. For example patient HM (or Henry Molaison)’s episodic memory was badly
damaged upon the removal of his hippocampus, however his procedural
memory remained intact. Once again, this suggests that there are different
