Key Question

Question 1

What is the key question in cognitive psychology

Answer 1

How does our understanding of memory help people with Alzheimer’s

Question 2

Structure for key question

Answer 2

Outline - why is it an issue

Explain - how does it effect STM and how can our knowledge help

Explain - how does it effect LTM and how can our knowledge help

Question 3

What is Alzheimer’s

Answer 3

A progressive, degenerative, neurological disorder associated with ageing

Question 4

Why is Alzheimer’s an issue

Answer 4

Effects both STM and LTM function

Alzheimer’s is fatal, impacts more than 5 million Americans and 850,000 people in the U.K.

It is estimated 225,000 will develop it each year, roughly one every three minutes

This will dramatically reduce someone’s quality of life

Question 5

Explain - how does it effect STM

How can psychological knowledge help

Answer 5

Impairs central executive function a component outlined in the WMM that plays a supervisory role and so impairment to this could make complex tasks more difficult to co-ordinate

Baddeleys findings can help this issue though
E.g. List A acoustically similar - shows STM is acoustic, so use this information to help people with Alzheimer’s store information in STM

Question 6

Explain - how does it effect LTM

How can psychological knowledge help

Answer 6

Key processes identified in LTM by MSMM are encoding and retrieval, people with Alzheimer lack this ability and so cannot access their LTM effectively

Baddeleys findings can help this,
E.g. In the second stage of learning List C was recalled best, this means that LTM is largely semantic, this information can be used to help those with Alzheimer’s