1. Cognitive Psychology

1. Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Definition

• Cognitive psychology: The study of how cognitive processes influence human behaviour.

• Studies mental processes, including:

  • Perception

  • Memory

  • Attention

  • Language

  • Problem-solving

Purpose: To understand how we view, interpret and respond to the world around us.

The Computer Analogy

• The development of computers helped establish the cognitive approach.

• Cognitivists use the computer analogy to explain how the human brain processes information.

• The brain is compared to a computer:

  • Input: Receives information from the environment.

  • Processing: Processes and stores information.

  • Output: Produces a response or behaviour.

• Hardware: Comparable to the physical structures of the brain.

• Software: Comparable to the information and experiences processed by the brain.

Branches of Cognitive Psychology

Note: Cognitive neuropsychology has been particularly important in understanding memory.

2. The Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM) - (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed a theoretical model explaining how human memory works.

The model distinguishes between two components:

1. Structural features (memory stores)

• Permanent features of memory that cannot be changed.

• Comparable to a computer's hardware.

• Consist of three memory stores:

  • sensory register

  • short-term memory (STM)

  • long-term memory (LTM)

2. Control processes

• Processes that determine how information is handled within memory.

• Comparable to a computer's software.

• Include:

  • Encoding: Converting information into a form that can be stored.

  • Rehearsal: Repeating information to maintain it or transfer it into LTM.

  • Retrieval: Accessing stored information when needed.

Key distinction: Structural features are the memory stores themselves, whereas control processes determine how information is encoded, rehearsed and retrieved.

3. Wider Issues and Debates: Reductionism

• Reductionism: Explaining a complex behaviour or process by breaking it down into simpler components.

• The Multi-Store Model is criticised for being reductionist because it divides memory into three separate stores:

  • Sensory register

  • Short-term memory (STM)

  • Long-term memory (LTM)

• This oversimplifies memory by potentially ignoring the interconnections and interactions between the different memory systems.

• However, separating memory into distinct stores makes it easier to study memory scientifically through experiments.

Exam takeaway: The MSM is reductionist because it simplifies a complex, interconnected memory system into three separate stores.

4. The Three Memory Stores

I. Sensory Register (SR)

• Receives information through the five senses; each sensory modality has its own register.

• Capacity: Limited.

• Duration: A few hundred milliseconds.

• Attended information transfers to STM; unattended information is lost.

Sperling (1960, 1963)

• Presented participants with an array of letters using a tachistoscope.

• Participants recalled an average of 4.2 letters.

• Supports the brief duration and limited accessible capacity of sensory memory.

II. Short-Term Store (STS)

Duration – Peterson & Peterson (1959)

• Participants remembered three-consonant trigrams while counting backwards in threes to prevent rehearsal.

• Recall decreased rapidly after 15–18 seconds.

• Conclusion: STM duration is approximately 20 seconds without rehearsal.

Capacity – Miller (1956)

- Proposed the magical number 7 ± 2: STM holds approximately 5–9 items.

Forgetting

• Decay: Memory traces fade over time without rehearsal.

• Displacement: New information replaces older information when capacity is full.

Encoding – Conrad & Hull (1964)

• Similar-sounding letters were harder to recall than dissimilar-sounding letters.

• Phonological similarity effect: Supports acoustic encoding in STM.

Rehearsal

• Maintenance rehearsal: Repeating information to maintain it in STM and transfer it to LTM.

• Elaborative rehearsal: Processing the meaning of information to support transfer into LTM.

III. Long-Term Store (LTS)

Baddeley (1966b)

• Participants recalled fewer semantically similar words than unrelated words.

• Supports semantic encoding in LTM because similar meanings cause confusion.

Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model

Strength: Evidence from brain-damaged patients

• Henry Molaison (HM): Severe LTM impairment following brain surgery for epilepsy, but STM remained largely intact.

• Clive Wearing: Severe LTM impairment following encephalitis, but STM remained largely intact.

• Conclusion: Supports separate STM and LTM stores because they can be affected independently.

• Limitation: Case studies involve unique individuals, limiting generalisability.

Weakness: Oversimplifies LTM

• The model presents LTM as one single store.

• Clive Wearing could not recall autobiographical events but retained procedural skills, such as playing the piano.

• Suggests LTM contains different systems:

  • Episodic – personal experiences.

  • Semantic – facts and knowledge.

  • Procedural – skills and abilities.

Wider Issues and Debates

I. Application to education – Butler & Roediger (2007)

• Participants watched three lectures; some completed recall tests after each lecture.

• One month later, the tested group remembered more.

• Application: Retrieval practice and regular testing can improve long-term learning.

II. Alternative theory – Craik & Lockhart (1972)

• Levels of Processing approach: Memory depends on how deeply information is processed.

• Processing meaning (deep processing) produces stronger memories than simply repeating information (shallow processing).

III. Ethical issues – Brain-damaged patients

• Privacy: Anonymisation protects identities (e.g. HM), but public cases such as Clive Wearing are harder to anonymise.

• Consent: Brain damage may affect a patient's ability to remember giving consent.

• Right to withdraw: Raises questions about whether patients can meaningfully withdraw consent if they cannot remember agreeing to participate.

5. Serial Position Effect

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

Investigated whether the position of a word in a list affects recall.

• Participants recalled more words from the:

  • Beginning (primacy effect): Words are rehearsed and transferred to LTM.

  • End (recency effect): Words remain in STM.

• Fewer words from the middle were recalled because STM capacity becomes full and newer words displace older ones.

Conclusion: Supports the existence of separate STM and LTM stores.

Alternative Explanations of the Multi Store Model

Weakness: Oversimplifies STM

The model assumes STM is a single store with a fixed capacity.

• Dual-task experiments: People perform poorly when completing two similar tasks (e.g. two verbal tasks), but better when completing different tasks (e.g. one verbal and one visual task).

• Baddeley & Hitch (1974): Proposed the Working Memory Model, which explains how STM can process different types of information simultaneously.

• Evaluation: Suggests STM is more complex and dynamic than the MSM proposes.

Weakness: Overemphasises Rehearsal

The model suggests rehearsal is essential for transferring information into LTM.

• However, people can form long-term memories without conscious rehearsal.

  • For example, imagery can create strong memory traces.

• Evaluation: Rehearsal is not the only way information enters LTM.

Weakness: Oversimplifies LTM

Tulving (1972) proposed three types of LTM:

• Evidence from brain-damaged patients suggests these memory types can be affected differently.

• Evaluation: LTM is not one single store, as suggested by the MSM.

Strength: Contribution to Psychological Research

• Despite its limitations, the MSM provided an important framework for understanding memory.

• It stimulated further research and the development of more detailed memory theories.

• Evaluation: Its influence helped advance psychological understanding of memory.

6. Wider Issues and Debates

Development of Psychological Knowledge

• The MSM (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968) provided an important framework for understanding memory.

• Despite its limitations, it stimulated further research and the development of more detailed theories, such as the Working Memory Model and Levels of Processing approach.

Exam technique: Evaluating the MSM

When using research evidence, always explain how it supports or challenges the model.

For example:

• Point: Clive Wearing suffered severe LTM impairment, while his STM remained largely intact.

• Link: This supports the MSM because it suggests STM and LTM are separate stores that can be independently affected.

Important: When comparing memory stores, use both qualitative and quantitative differences.

• Quantitative: Differences in capacity and duration.

• Qualitative: Differences in encoding (acoustic in STM vs semantic in LTM).