Individual Differences

Question 1

Personality Differences

Answer 1

• Cox Fuenzalisa (2006)
• cognitive explanation
• Freuds psychodynamic theory

Question 2

Cox Fuenzalisa (2006)

Answer 2

• introverts have better LTM as they experience more cortical arousal (activation of the brain) when stressed
• extroverts have lower cortical arousal and have better STM

Question 3

cognitive explanation of personality differences

Answer 3

• introverts spend more time thinking about the past so they rehearse memories more so better LTM
• extroverts are more focussed on the present so they have more attention to sensory experiences

Question 4

Freuds psychodynamic theory as a personality differences

Answer 4

• people’s personality firm when they repress painful childhood memories and create defensive mechanisms to deal with unresolved issues in their past
• childhood amnesia is why we don’t remember anything before the age of 5

Question 5

Gender differences

Answer 5

• Loftus
• Wang (2013)

Question 6

Loftus as a gender difference

Answer 6

• schemas may be different between man and woman and this may affect what they remember and how they remember it
• males and females scored similarly except in the elderly group where females were much more accurate than males

Question 7

Wang (2013) as gender differences

Answer 7

• women were better than men at recognising photographs of faces they had seen before (but only female faces) when it comes to male faces they scored the same

Question 8

cultural differences

Answer 8

• mullen (1994)
• nelson (2004)
• Hayne (2000)
• wimber (2015)

Question 9

Mullen (1994)

Answer 9

• asked 700 Caucasian and Asian students of their first memory
• Asian students first memory was 6 months later than Caucasian students

Question 10

Nelson (2004)

Answer 10

• as children we encode memories by taking about them
• the more parents encourage us to spin an elaborate narrative spin, the more likely we are to remember details about that event

Question 11

Hayne (2000)

Answer 11

Māoris from nz have the best autobiographical memory (one year before Caucasians) due to their culture of emphasis on personals and familial past

Question 12

Wimber (2015)

Answer 12

We outsource our LTM to mobile phones and the internet so our brains ability to make long term memories decreases

Question 13

Other differences

Answer 13

• Kim Peek
• James McGaugh (2006)
• Stephen Wiltshire

Question 14

Kim Peek

Answer 14

• born with brain damage
• ability to make mental calculations at speed
• read 12000 books in his life and can remember all of them

Question 15

James McGaugh (2006)

Answer 15

• Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)
• Case study of A.J
• a woman who could recall everyday of her life since she was 14

Question 16

Stephen Wiltshire

Answer 16

A man with autism who could draw a detailed picture of a view he had only seen once

Question 17

Hodgeway Village

Answer 17

• A village for people with Alzheimer’s
• familiar settings triggers schemas
• helps trigger episodic and semantic memory

Question 18

Goswami (2003)

Answer 18

• people with dyslexia muddled up similar letter sounds
• shorter digit span and phonological loop span

Question 19

Case study of HM

Answer 19

• had brain surgery (bilateral medical temporal lobe resection) for epilepsy in 1953
• afterwards, personality and intellect remains but lost the memory of 10 years prior to operation (retrograde amnesia)
• lost ability to encode new long term memories (anterograde amnesia)
• studied for 50 years by 100 researchers
• brain was sliced up and preserved to study further
• some of his hippocampus hadn’t been damaged hence why he could encode new episodic and semantic memories