Memory - How does your memory work?
Memory and Information Processing
How the brain receives and processes information.
How we encode information in our memory.
How we store and retrieve information.
Stages of Memory and Information Processing
Information Input:
The brain is like a computer: Information is input via a keyboard, camera, or another external device.
Humans receive information from the environment via the five senses:
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell
Encoding Information:
The brain processes sensory information, paying attention to what is important and making decisions.
Sensory information is either unconsciously or deliberately stored.
This requires encoding sensory input into an electrochemical memory trace, similar to computer coding.
Once encoded, the memory system can store the memory trace for seconds or a lifetime.
Unlike computers, humans have no conscious control over storage duration.
Meaningful personal experiences or learned skills (like riding a bike) are stored longer.
Effort is required for remembering information (e.g., revising for an exam).
Other memories are stored only as long as they are useful (e.g., a shopping list for the day).
Encoding Methods:
Acoustic encoding: Holding sound information.
Visual encoding: Holding images.
Semantic encoding: Holding the meaning of information.
Output:
Like a computer, the brain produces an output.
For humans, the output is a behavior.
Specifically for memory, the output is the stored information we retrieve, known as retrieval.
Key Terms
Processing: Operations performed on sensory information in the brain.
Input: Sensory information received from the environment.
Storage: Retention of information in the memory system.
Encoding: Turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain.
Acoustic Encoding: Storing sound in our memory system.
Visual Encoding: Storing something seen in our memory system.
Semantic Encoding: Storing the meaning of information in our memory system.
Output: Information recalled; can also refer to behavioral response.
Retrieval: The recall of stored memories.
Exam-Style Question
Define encoding and storage. (4 marks)
Exam tip: Give a clear and concise answer when asked to define a concept.
Develop a glossary of key terms and flashcards for self-testing.
Short-Term and Long-Term Memory
The concepts of duration and capacity.
The features of short-term memory.
The features of long-term memory.
Duration and Capacity
Memory stores a large amount and range of types of information that help us understand and interact with the world around us.
We have two main memory stores: short-term and long-term.
These differ in duration (length of time information is stored) and capacity (amount of information stored).
Short-Term Memory Store
Sensory information enters the short-term memory store first.
Temporary store lasting approximately 18 seconds.
Holds about seven items of information.
Encodes information acoustically through repetition.
Rehearsing information (saying it over and over) can store it for many minutes and transfer it to the long-term memory store.
Long-Term Memory Store
Long-term memory can last for minutes or up to a lifetime.
It can hold a potentially unlimited amount of information.
Encoding is largely semantic but can be visual or acoustic.
Why Do We Forget Things?
Short-Term Memory:
Information can be forgotten through displacement.
New information pushes out older information due to limited capacity.
Long-Term Memory:
Forgetting may be due to:
Decay: Memory trace is not used.
Interference: New information overwrites older information.
Retrieval Failure: Cannot find the memory due to a lost link (like a broken URL).
Key Terms
Short-Term Memory: Initial memory store that is temporary and limited.
Long-Term Memory: Memory store holding potentially limitless amounts of information for up to a lifetime.
Duration: Length of time information can be stored in short-term and long-term memory.
Capacity: Amount of information that can be stored in short-term and long-term memory.
Rehearse: Repeating information over and over to make it stick.
Displacement: Short-term memory becomes 'full,' and new information pushes out older information.
Interference: New information overwrites older information.
Figure 2.1: The Multi-store Model of Memory
Shows three separate memory stores and how memories are transferred between each store
Unattended information is lost.
Unrehearsed information is lost.
Some information may be lost.
Try it
You can test the capacity of your own short-term memory by trying to recall increasingly longer lists of digits.
For each line of digits below, read it once and then cover it up. Now try to recall the digits in the correct order. Repeat for the next line.
692
7341
95832
865712
1745398
52973184
315275948
Compare your recalled lists of digits to the correct list above. Your short-term memory capacity is the number of correctly recalled digits in a line.
Table 2.1: Summary of the features of short-term and long-term memory
Capacity | Duration | Encoding | Forgetting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Short-term | Around seven bits of information | Around 18 seconds | Acoustic | Displacement |
without rehearsal | ||||
Long-term | Potentially limitless | A few minutes to a lifetime | Semantic | Decay |
Interference | ||||
Retrieval failure |
Apply it
Imogen's father gives her a shopping list and asks her to go to the local shop to buy these items:
bread
crisps
milk
biscuits
beans
tomatoes
cheese
cucumber
cereal
newspaper
squash
soup.
Imogen reads the list and rushes to the shop. At the shop, Imogen realises she has forgotten the list but is confident that she can remember it. She continues shopping. When she returns home, she has bought tomatoes, cheese, cucumber, cereal, newspaper, squash and soup.
Using your knowledge of memory, explain why Imogen might have failed to buy all of the items on the shopping list.
Understanding Amnesia
The meaning of the terms 'retrograde amnesia' and 'anterograde amnesia'.
The symptoms of these two types of amnesia.
Understanding Amnesia
Although long-term memory has a potentially limitless capacity and can last up to a lifetime, we still forget things.
Amnesia is a condition characterized by forgetting or memory loss, particularly after a brain trauma.
There are two types of amnesia that affect long-term memory: anterograde and retrograde.
Anterograde Amnesia
Anterograde amnesia is the inability to store any new long-term memories following a brain injury.
A patient with anterograde amnesia has an intact short-term memory, so can process sensory information in that moment of time.
But they are unable to lay down any new memories that last beyond a few minutes.
It seems their ability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory is damaged.
As anterograde amnesia affects memory following a brain injury, it is typical for a patient to retain their long-term memories from before the incident.
Retrograde Amnesia
Retrograde amnesia is where a patient who has suffered a brain injury cannot remember information from before the injury.
This type of amnesia can be specific to one memory, such as the traumatic incident that caused the injury, or it can be limited to a specific time frame.
In severe cases, patients can forget who they are and where they come from.
It is possible for people with retrograde amnesia to regain some or all of their lost memory.
Develop it
Henry Molaison (often referred to as H.M.) is a famous case of anterograde and retrograde amnesia in psychology. Henry Molaison underwent brain surgery to relieve him from seizures associated with epilepsy. Unfortunately a brain structure called the hippocampus was damaged during the operation. This resulted in him suffering from anterograde amnesia, so he could not lay down new memories. The surgery also caused retrograde amnesia as he was able to recall childhood events, but lost the ability to recall experiences a few years before his surgery. He was studied over a long period of time. Since his death Henry's brain has been used to further research memory and understand the causes of amnesia. His case is widely documented on the internet for you to read about.
Apply it
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.
Explain Mataius's memory loss.
Key Terms
Amnesia: Memory loss, often through accident, disease, or injury.
Anterograde Amnesia: A memory condition that means new long-term memories cannot be made; this is typically caused by injury to the brain.
Retrograde Amnesia: A memory condition that affects the recall of memories prior to an injury to the brain.
Bartlett's (1932) Theory of Reconstructive Memory
The concept of 'schemas' in psychology and how they are formed.
How schemas influence memory.
The strengths and weaknesses of Bartlett's (1932) Theory of Reconstructive Memory.
Theory of Reconstructive Memory
Psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett developed the Theory of Reconstructive Memory.
Memories are not stored as an exact form as in a computer.
Instead, our memories are notes about what we experience, like jotting down a brief outline on a notepad.
When we come to recall these memories, we simply retrieve the notes and elaborate on them using our general knowledge about similar events.
Memories are not exact copies of an event but an interpretation - an active reconstruction.
Bartlett referred to this general knowledge as schemas.
Schemas are unique to us and develop over time through our own experiences.
Schemas are packets of information, a bit like scripts, about events or situations.
Schemas are formed throughout our lives through experiences.
Although some schemas are shared within a particular culture, other schemas are unique and personal to us.
How Schemas Influence Memory
People recalled the pictures and stories differently because they were influenced by their schemas.
Schemas influence our memory and cause us to ignore or change details when we recall them.
Recall displayed:
Omissions: Leaving out unfamiliar, irrelevant, or unpleasant details.
Transformations: Changing details to make them more familiar and rational.
Familiarisation: Changing unfamiliar details to align with our own schema.
Rationalisation: Adding details to give a reason for something that did not originally fit with a schema.
How schemas are formed
According to Bartlett, our schemas are formed throughout our lives through experiences. Just as we build language through an increasing vocabulary, we build schemas through personal experiences. This means that although some schemas are shared within a particular culture, such as what is meant by going to school, other schemas are unique and personal to us.
Try it
Test reconstructive memory yourself. Using a familiar place, such as a
classroom, place a few unusual objects in the room, such as a hairbrush
or teddy (do not place objects that are too obvious). Ask participants to
look around the room and, afterwards, list what objects they remember.
According to the theory of reconstructive memory, they will use their
schema to remember what they saw, so they should remember objects that
are typically found in a classroom and not the unusual objects you placed.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Theory
Strength: Real-world practical application and helps us understand why memory can become distorted.
Weakness: An eyewitness to a crime, for example, can misremember certain events, which may lead to the wrong person being prosecuted for an offence.
To avoid this, the police now use an interviewing technique called the cognitive interview. This technique encourages an eyewitness to avoid omissions and transformations in their testimony.
Apply it
Ali was loading his shopping into the boot of his car when he heard shouting
and a loud bang. The next day he tried to describe the event to his friend.
Explain what Ali might have remembered about the event. Use your
knowledge of reconstructive memory in your answer.
Key Terms
Active Reconstruction: Memory is an interpretation or reconstruction of events influenced by our schema.
Schema (memory): A packet of knowledge about an event, person, or place that influences how we perceive and remember.
Omission: Leaving out unfamiliar, irrelevant, or unpleasant details.
Transformation: Details are changed to make them more familiar and rational.
Familiarisation: Unfamiliar details are changed to align with our own schema.
Rationalisation: Adding details to give a reason for something that may not have originally fitted with a schema.
Cognitive Interview: A police interview designed to ensure a witness to a crime does not actively reconstruct their memory.
Strengths and weaknesses of the study
Bartlett conducted his research using folk stories and images, often
asking participants to remember them hours, days or even years later.His methods can be viewed as a test of memory in the real world because
remembering stories is a realistic use of memory. In this way, the findings
of his research, and therefore his Theory of Reconstructive Memory, can be
seen to be ecologically valid.
Link it up
For more information on ecological validity and subjectivity, see Topic 11
Research methods.
Bartlett developed his theory by reading through and interpreting the
pictures and stories reproduced by participants. He analysed each story
and picture himself and gave his own interpretation of the material the
participants recalled. Some would argue that Bartlett's own interpretation
may differ from another person's. This would mean that Bartlett's findings
could be subjective, which is considered unscientific. If the findings of
his research are seen as unscientific, it would undermine his Theory of
Reconstructive Memory.
Key Terms
Ecological validity: The extent to which the findings still explain the behaviour in different situations.
Subjective: Based on personal opinion or feelings.
Reliable: When the outcomes of study are consistent.
Statistical analysis: Mathematical calculations performed on data to see whether the findings could be due to chance.
Standardized procedure: Where the procedure of a study is the same across all conditions.
Exam-Style Question
Explain why two people who experienced the same event may recall the
event differently. You should refer to reconstructive memory (Bartlett,
1932) in your answer. (2 marks)
Exam tip
When asked to 'refer to your knowledge of' a theory or research in your
answer, it is important to use key terms described in the theory or study.
For example, if you are asked to refer to your knowledge of reconstructive
memory, enhance your explanation where you can by incorporating key
terms, such as schema, active reconstruction, omission, rationalisation
and familiarisation.
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Multi-store Model of Memory
The sensory register.
The capacity and duration of short-term and long-term memory.
The role of attention and rehearsal in memory.
The strengths and weaknesses of the theory of separate memory stores.
Multi-Store Model of Memory
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin developed the Multi-store Model of Memory (1968) by drawing conclusions from memory experiments conducted by other researchers.
They were able to identify three distinctly different stores in our memory system:
the sensory register (or sensory memory)
short-term memory
long-term memory.
Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed that memory stores differ from each other in the way information is encoded, their capacity and duration, and how information is retrieved (see Figure 2.1).
The Sensory Register and the Role of Attention
The sensory register is the store that receives all of the sensory information around us and holds it very briefly.
If we pay attention to some of this sensory information, it is transferred into our short-term memory where we can process it further.
If we do not pay attention to the information, it quickly decays.
It is believed that we have a separate sensory register for each of our principle senses.
The sensory registers for vision have been researched the most.
*Iconic memory: the sensory register for visual information.
*Echoic memory: the sensory register for auditory (sound) information.The other sensory registers are:
the gustatory (taste) sensory register
the olfactory (smell) sensory register
the tactile (touch) sensory register.
Key Terms
Sensory Register: Our immediate memory of sensory information.
Attention: Focus on certain sensory information.
Trigram: A set of three letters such as GPX that makes a meaningless string of letters rather than a word.
Iconic Memory: The sensory register for visual information.
Echoic Memory: The sensory register for auditory (sound) information.
Modality Free: Not linked to a specific type of sensory information.
Short-Term Memory: Capacity and Duration
Atkinson and Shiffrin describe how information that we pay attention to gets transferred into short-term memory where it can be stored for around 15-30 seconds (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1971).
If we rehearse this information, we are able to maintain it in short-term memory for much longer.
They describe short-term memory as modality free.
In 1956, psychologist George Miller found that the average short-term memory can hold between five and nine chunks of information.
A chunk of information tends to be a grouping, such as the way we group the numbers of a phone number.
The Role of Rehearsal
The Multi-store Model of Memory suggests that repeating information over and over helps to hold it in short-term memory for longer.
If the information is rehearsed for long enough, it gets transferred into the long-term memory store.
Rehearsal refers to repeating things out loud or in our heads in order to remember them, such as saying a phone number over and over again.
Long-Term Memory: Capacity and Duration
Long-term memory can hold information indefinitely, and it has potentially limitless capacity.
Long-term memories are thought to be mainly organized semantically, that is, according to their meaning.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Theory
There is a lot of evidence to support the theory of separate memory stores.
Cases of amnesia show how brain injury can damage long-term memory, while short-term memory remains intact.
Other evidence from memory experiments have also shown the distinction between short-term and long-term memory.
Ben Murdock (1962) conducted an experiment to provide evidence for the Multi-store Model of Memory.
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 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.The Multi-store Model of Memory (1968) has been criticized for overstating the role of rehearsal as a means of transferring information into long-term storage.
Sometimes we remember things just because they are more meaningful to us.
It is also unlikely that we have only one type of long-term memory.
Cases of amnesia patients demonstrate that while some long-term memories are damaged, other types remain intact.
One such patient, Clive Wearing, suffered damage to the part of his memory that stored personal events, such as going to university.
However, other parts of his memory were intact, such as his memory of how to play the piano. This demonstrates that we do not have one long-term memory store, but perhaps several different types.
Key Terms
Primacy: The tendency to recall words at the beginning of a list when asked to remember it.
Recency: The tendency to recall words at the end of a list when asked to remember it.
*
Exam-Style Question
Explain two differences between short-term and long-term memory. You
should refer to the Multi-store Model of Memory in your answer. (4 marks)
Exam tip
It is important to remember the key differences in the memory stores
suggested by the Multi-store Model of Memory. You might find that you
can remember these better by referring to differences in:
capacity
duration
encoding
forgetting.
Studies
Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts
What you will learn
Background to the studies.
Aims, procedures, results, and conclusions.
Strengths and weaknesses of the studies.
Background
Bartlett conducted experiments using pictures and folk stories.
He chose 'The War of the Ghosts' because it would be unfamiliar to his Cambridge University students and colleagues.
He hoped the unfamiliarity of the story would shed light on the reconstructive nature of memory because his participants would be more likely to draw on their schemas to recall it.
Aims
To test the nature of reconstructive memory using an unfamiliar story, looking at whether or not personal schemas influence what is remembered from the story.
Procedure
Participants read 'The War of the Ghosts' twice and then recalled it.
Bartlett used both serial reproduction and repeated reproduction to test the recall of the story.
For serial reproduction, participants read the story and then retold the story to another participant 15 to 30 minutes later. The second participant then told the story to a third participant, and so on.
For repeated reproduction, the same participant was asked to write out the story after 15 minutes. They were then asked to recall the story several minutes, hours, days, months, and years later.
Key Terms
Serial reproduction: a technique where participants retell something to another participant
to form a chain; this is how folk stories are passed down through cultures.Repeated reproduction: a technique where participants are asked to recall something again and again.
Results
Bartlett used qualitative analysis to look for and interpret changes to the stories that were recalled.
He found that repeated reproductions tended to follow a similar form, which means that the theme or outline of the first reproduction tended to remain in later reproductions.
For both types of recall, participants tried to make sense of the 'odd' story by giving it meaning. This resulted in additions or changes such as making connections or giving reasons for events. This is known as rationalization.
For example, participants often recalled the original sentence of
'Something black came out of his mouth' as 'a man's dying breath' or
'foaming at the mouth'.Participants also tended to leave out unfamiliar or unpleasant parts of
the story, particularly the unfamiliar place names. Lots of details became
familiarised and simplified. For example, 'canoe' became 'boat' and
'hunting' was recalled as 'fishing'
Conclusion
Bartlett interpreted the results as evidence for the active and constructive nature of memory.
Participants did not recall the story fully or accurately.
Instead, they omitted details that did not fit with their schema, and some details were altered by the influence of their schema.
The themes or outlines of the first reproduction tended to remain in later reproductions.
*Additions or changes: known as rationalization. For example, participants often recalled the original sentence of 'Something black came out of his mouth' as 'a man's dying breath' or 'foaming at the mouth'.
*Parts of the story, particularly the unfamiliar place names, were occasionally left out.
*Details became familiarized and simplified. For example, 'canoe' became 'boat' and 'hunting' was recalled as 'fishing'
Exam-Style Question
Explain one way that Bartlett found that 'The War of the Ghosts' story
changed when it was remembered. (2 marks)
Link it up
Find out more about qualitative analysis in Topic 11 Research methods.
Exam tip
You may be asked specific information about key studies mentioned
in the specification. You should be prepared to learn these studies
in depth.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strength: The use of a story as recall material can be considered to be both a strength because It is more naturalistic as a test of everyday memory than nonsense trigrams or lists of digits used by other memory researchers, giving the study ecological validity.
Weakness: the story was not familiar, it was illogical and contained strange words and concepts and Remembering the story was not an everyday task or a realistic use of memory after all.
Bartlett replicated his procedure using various stories and pictures and found participants had the same tendency to omit and transform the material when remembering giving the study reliable evidence.
This demonstrates that
the findings of the study are reliable.
The results of the study were gathered using qualitative analysis so Bartlett could have interpreted the participants' recalled stories in light of his own theory and ideas on reconstructive memory.
Qualitative analysis as unscientific means that
Bartlett could have interpreted the participants' recalled stories in light of
his own theory and ideas on reconstructive memory.Bartlett did not always get participants to recall the story at the same time
intervals, and he allowed each participant to read the story at their own normal
reading pace, so this study can be criticized for lacking good controls so Usually an experiment follows strict timings and a standardized procedure.This
means that Bartlett's (1932) study is not as scientific as it could have been.
Key Terms
Reliable: When the outcomes of study are consistent.
Statistical analysis: Mathematical calculations performed on data to see whether the findings could be due to chance.
Standardized procedure: Where the procedure of a study is the same across all conditions.
Sum it up
Bartlett's (1932) pioneering research has paved the way for modern-day thinking about the reconstructive nature of memory.
Peterson and Peterson (1959) Short-term Retention of Individual Verbal Items
What you will learn
Background to the study.
Aims, procedures, results and conclusions.
Strengths and weaknesses of the study.
Procedure
Twenty-four students were tested individually.
Each student was asked to repeat out loud a set of letters that they heard. The letters were three consonants (a trigram).
Immediately afterward, they were asked to say out loud a three-digit number read to them by the experimenter and then count backward in threes or fours from that number. For example, the trigram BFP would be repeated, and then 709, 706, 703, and so on.
When signaled by a red light, each student had to recall the trigram. Each student had to recall the trigram eight times. They did this with time delays of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 seconds.
In total, the procedure was repeated 48 times using different trigrams.
A second experiment asked participants to do the same tasks, but some were given time to repeat the trigram before counting backward (silently or vocally).
Results
Their results showed that the longer each student had to count backward, the less able they were to accurately recall the trigram.
When asked to count backward after 3 seconds, they remembered over 80 percent of trigrams correctly, but after 18 seconds the percentage of correct recall was less than 10 percent.
In the second experiment, they found that this extra time increased the frequency of recall because they were able to consolidate the information a little more. It did, however, show a similar decline over time.
Conclusion
With the participants unable to rehearse the trigrams, the Petersons concluded that information held in our short-term memory fades rapidly, and only 10 percent could be recalled after 18 seconds.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Fixed timings for counting backward, elimination of noise.
Good controls: standardized procedures ensured consistent experience across participants making the study more scientific.
Replicated experiments: check reliability of findings.
Demonstrates how verbal distractions affect retention, can be used to avoid distractions.
Nonsense trigrams: control extraneous variables (relevance of real words).
Mundane realism criticized since it may not represent real-world memory use, but necessary for measuring uncontaminated short-term memory.
*
Key Terms
Extraneous variables: variables that could affect the results of a study.
Mundane realism: a realistic, everyday task.
Summary
A useful study that informs us about the actual duration of our short-term
memory, which can be used to help us remember things. Although the research can be criticized for not using a procedure that represents everyday memory use, it is often necessary to do this to measure uncontaminated short-term memory.
Reductionism and Holism Debate
What you will learn
*The reductionism and holism debate, including key terms.
*Research, theories, and concepts drawn from the study of human memory to explain the debate.
Reductionism
Reductionism is the scientific theory of describing something using its basic parts or the simplest explanation.
Based on the belief that any human behavior or cognitive (thought) process can be best explained by looking at the parts that make up that behavior or process to understand how it works.
Scientists often reduce complex behavior into basic parts because it means that we can be more certain that one thing causes another. This helps us investigate what causes a behavior.
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.
Associated with scientific methods such as laboratory experiments, where factors that may explain behavior can be isolated and tested under controlled conditions.
A theory or study that describes a behavior by a single, simple explanation can be said to be reductionist.
Reductionism is a desirable scientific practice and can be appropriate in circumstances where there is a clear, single explanation.
However, reductionism can result in an explanation that is overly simplistic.
For example, in explaining aggression according to a single gene, we may miss other social factors that might contribute to aggression.
Key Terms
Reductionism: the theory of explaining something according to its basic constituent parts.
Reductionist: the practice of reductionism.
Holism
Holism is the theory of trying to understand the whole behavior rather than its parts.
To be holistic is to try to understand the whole person.
Takes into account the fact that many different factors work together to cause a behavior and therefore dividing up these factors is not useful in understanding the behavior as a whole.
Holistic psychologists believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Holistic psychologists tend to use qualitative methods to gain greater insight into the causes of behavior and try to understand the whole person and their beliefs.
In practice, holism can be difficult to achieve because understanding the whole individual means investigating many variables at the same time.
*It is regarded as unscientific because the findings can only apply to a particular individual; the resulting theories cannot apply to everyone else.
Key Terms
Holism: The theory of explaining something as a whole.
Holistic: The practice of holism.
How the Reductionism/Holism Debate Applies to Human Memory Research
Reductionist | Holistic |
|---|---|
The information processing approach | Reconstructive memory |
The Multi-store Model Qualitative analysis of MemoryExperiments |
Allkinson and Shiffrin(1968) 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.
Exam-Style Question
Cornelius conducted laboratory experiments to investigate how short-term memory is affected by interference. He played loud music to his participants while they were trying to remember a list of digits.
Assess to what extent memory research is reductionist.(9 marks)
Exam tip
Your knowledge of issues and debates in psychology will be tested in an essay that uses the command word assess. This means you will need to give an answer that describes and applies tour knowledge and forms