AQA A Level Psychology Memory (Latest 2025/ 2026 Update) Questions and 100% Correct Verified Answers [Grade A] – University of California, Berkeley

AQA A Level Psychology Memory (Latest 2025/ 2026 Update) Questions and 100% Correct Verified Answers [Grade A] – University of California, Berkeley Outline context dependent forgetting -correct answer The context you are in when learning something can act as a cue and if that context dependant cue is not there then retrieving information can be difficult. Godden and Baddeley investigated this by having participants either learn a set of words on land or underwater (scuba divers), half of each groups had to go to the opposite condition and now all participant had to recall as many words as they could. They found that participants who were in the same context as where they learnt the information were able to recall much more than if in a different context. Outline state dependent forgetting -correct answer The mental state you are in at the time of learning information can also act as a cue. Goodwin conducted a study where he asked male volunteers to learn a list of words whilst they were either drunk or sober. The participants then were asked to recall the words 24 hours later where some were sober but others had to get drunk again. The recall scores were much higher when they were in the same state as when they learnt the information. The accuracy of EWT is affected by... -correct answer age, anxiety, leading questions, post event discussion Study of leading questions and EWT -correct answer Loftus and Palmer (traffic accident videos) Forty five participants were shown 7 films of different traffic accidents. Each participant was then given a questionnaire with a list of questions about the crash, with one critical question 'How fast were the cars going when they *verb* each other'. The verb was replaced with either smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted. This was a leading question based on the verb used. The results showed an average of 10mph mean difference between contacted and smashed. Another experiment was done but this time only two verbs were used smashed, hit and a control group. One week later they were asked whether they had seen any glass and found that while most said no, more people in the smashed condition did say yes. Outline post event discussion with evidence -correct answer The memory of an event may be incorrect or altered after discussing it with others/being questioned about it multiple times. Gabbert investigated this by putting partners in pairs where each watched a different video of the same event. Pairs in one condition were encouraged to discuss the event before they individually recalled what occurred. A high amount of witnesses that discussed the event went on to make mistakes when recalling the event. Study of anxiety and EWT -correct answer Johnson & Scott (Weapon Focus Effect) Participants were told to sit in a waiting room where in an adjacent room confederates were having an argument and then saw a man run through the room with either a pen covered in grease (low anxiety) or a knife covered in blood (high anxiety). Afterwards they asked the participants to identify the man from a set of photos. They found that those in the knife condition had an accuracy of 15% lower of those in the pen condition. Explain evidence for anxiety having a positive effect on accuracy -correct answer There is an alternate explanation that says high anxiety leads to more accurate memories. There is an evolutionary explanation behind this that it would be adaptive to remember events that are emotionally important so that in the future you could recall what you did and do it again in the same situation. A study was done where they questioned 58 witnesses to bank robberies. The witnesses were either victims (bankers) or bystanders (customers), these can link to high and low anxiety, relatively of course. They found that those who would have experience the most anxiety were able to recall much more than the people with lower anxiety. How was the anxiety effect on EWT resolved -correct answer A psychologist reviewed 21 studies of the effects of anxiety on EWT and found contradicting evidence throughout. This can be explained via the Yerks-Dodson effect.