Credibility of theories in cognitive psychology

Question 1

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Credibility

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Answer 1

Peterson & Peterson (1959) provide supporting evidence for the importance of rehearsal as critical to keeping information in the long term, as the longer the interference task of counting backwards in threes, the more trigrams were forgotten, giving the theory credibility.

Question 2

Multi-Store Model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) - Credibility

Case Study of HM - separate stores

Answer 2

The case of HM supports the idea of separate stores as he had a functioning STM and LTM but could not make new LTM memories.

Question 3

Multi-Store Model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)

Strength - Supporting evidence of separate stores.

Answer 3

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) provide supporting evidence that short-term memory and long-term memory stores are separate stores as in their serial position effect experiment, participants recalled more words from the beginning and end of the word list suggesting two distinct memory stores.

Question 4

Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)

Supporting case study to show separate STM components.

Answer 4

The working memory model is supported by the case study of KF which shows there are separate STM components for visual and
verbal information as KF’s impairment was mainly for verbal information whilst his memory for visual information was largely
intact.

Question 5

Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974) - Strength

Supporting evidence of there being two distinct memory stores.

Answer 5

Evidence from Williams Syndrome highlights impairments in short term visuospatial ability but not language, supporting the idea that there are distinct short term memory stores.

Question 6

Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974) - Strength

Application - Direct Interventions

Answer 6

Successful application of the model to society in providing direct interventions that help people with Dyslexia improve their reading skills increases the plausibility of the explanation.

Question 7

Bartlett’s Reconstructive Memory - Credibility

War of the ghosts supports the theory

Answer 7

Bartlett (1932) found that participants rationalised The War of the
Ghosts story so supporting the theory, which may explain why Gus
thought there were weapons used giving it credibility, as they changed seal hunting to fishing in the Native American story so that
it made sense to them based on their culture and this could have also happened with Gus.

Change the names etc according the information in the scenario.

Question 8

Reconstructive Memory - Strength

Credibility from supporting studies for evidence of memory not being like a tape recorder

Answer 8

Loftus and Pickrell (1995) found that 25% of participants remembered a false memory of being lost in a shopping mall and some elaborated on their pseudomemories in great detail.

Question 9

Reconstructive Memory - Strength

Supporting study to show people ‘fill in the gaps’.

Answer 9

In the ‘war of the ghosts’ study, Bartlett (1932), found that participants changed parts of the North American folk tale to help
it make sense.

Question 10

Tulving’s (1972) Long Term Memory

Strength - Supporting evidence that LTM works semantically

Answer 10

Baddeley (1966b) gives supporting evidence that part of long-term memory (LTM) works semantically as he found that sematic similarity was confused in LTM as participants found difficulty with word lists that were linked by a common theme.

Question 11

Tulving’s (1972) Long Term memory

Strength - Supporting evidence of episodic memory being a separate store

Answer 11

Greenberg and Verfaellie (2010) support the fact episodic memory is a separate memory store through neuropsychological investigations, using brain imaging techniques they found that patients with damage to medial temporal lobes have episodic memory impairment.

Question 12

Tulving’s (1972) Long Term Memory - Strength

Credibility from case study of KC to support separate memory stores.

Answer 12

Case studies of brain damaged patients such as KC by Rosenbaumet al. (2005) found that KC could not make or recall episodic memories, but could recall semantic facts and information supporting the existence of two separate memory stores.

Question 13

Tulving’s (1972) Long Term Memory - Strength

Credibility from supporting study about a separate semantic store.

Answer 13

Ostergaard (1987) supports Tulving’s idea that there is a separate semantic store as a 10 year old boy who suffered damage to both his episodic and semantic memory was able to make academic
progress.