Memory

Memory is a core topic in AQA GCSE Psychology, exploring how we encode, store, and retrieve information. It covers the multi-store model (Atkinson & Shiffrin), including sensory register, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM), as well as the types of LTM (episodic, semantic, procedural). Understanding memory is crucial because it explains everyday phenomena like forgetting and eyewitness testimony reliability.

This topic also examines factors affecting memory accuracy, such as interference, context, and false memories. Students will evaluate key studies (e.g., Peterson & Peterson, Bahrick et al.) and theories (e.g., Tulving's types of LTM). Memory links to research methods, as students must understand how experiments test memory, and to issues like the cognitive interview for improving eyewitness recall.

Mastering memory helps students appreciate how their own learning works—using strategies like chunking and rehearsal—and prepares them for debates about memory in legal and educational settings. It's a foundational topic for understanding cognition and behaviour.

• →Multi-store model: sensory register (unlimited capacity, 0.5s duration), STM (7±2 items, 18-30s duration), LTM (unlimited capacity, lifetime duration).
• →Types of LTM: episodic (personal events), semantic (facts/knowledge), procedural (skills/habits).
• →Encoding: acoustic (STM), semantic (LTM); visual (sensory register).
• →Forgetting: interference (proactive/retroactive), retrieval failure (lack of cues), decay (STM).
• →Eyewitness testimony: misleading information (Loftus & Palmer), anxiety effects, cognitive interview techniques.

• Processes of memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval
• Types of memory: episodic, semantic, and procedural
• Multi-store model of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term stores
• Features of memory stores: coding, capacity, and duration
• Primacy and recency effects in recall (serial position)
• Murdock’s serial position curve study
• Theory of Reconstructive Memory and 'effort after meaning'
• Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study
• Factors affecting memory accuracy: interference, context, and false memories

• 💡Always define key terms (e.g., 'encoding' means changing info into a usable form) before describing studies—this shows precise knowledge.
• 💡For evaluation, use the 'PEEL' structure: Point, Evidence, Explain, Link. For example, 'The multi-store model is oversimplified (point) because the case of HM shows STM intact but LTM impaired, suggesting more than one LTM store (evidence).'
• 💡When discussing eyewitness testimony, explicitly link to real-world applications like police interviews—examiners reward contextual understanding.

• Misconception: STM and LTM are separate stores with no interaction. Correction: Information transfers between them via rehearsal, and LTM can influence STM (e.g., chunking uses LTM knowledge).
• Misconception: Forgetting is always due to decay. Correction: Interference and retrieval failure are major causes; decay is hard to prove in LTM.
• Misconception: Eyewitness memory is like a video recording. Correction: Memory is reconstructive and easily distorted by post-event information.