Memory (AO2)

Question 1

Elaborate on the point that the ‘MSM is too simple’

Answer 1

P: The MSM suggests that both STM and LTM are single ‘unitary’ stores. However research does not support this.

E: STM + LTM is actually divided into number of different stores and research shows there are a number of qualitatively different kinds of LTM, and each acts differently.

I: Reduces internal validity

Question 2

Elaborate on the point that ‘there is research support’ for MSM

Answer 2

P: Maintenance rehearsal can explain long-term storage

E: Craik and Lockhart (1972) suggested that enduring memories are created by the processing that you do, rather than through maintenance rehearsal; things that are processed more deeply are more memorable just because of the way they are processed.

I: Increased reliability

Question 3

Elaborate on the point that ‘there is research support’ for ESP

Answer 3

• P: There is research to support the ESP
• E: Tulving and Thomson found that ppts were able to recall a much larger amount of words if they were provided cues in the form of categories, when compared to a simple list.
• I: Increases relaibility

Question 4

Comment on the type of research used to look at coding

Answer 4

• P: An issue with the research on coding is that it utilises artificial tasks.
• E: Testing someone’s ability to remember word lists is not reflective of actions we perform in wider society and our daily lives that use or memory.
• I: This decreases its external validity as it means that it may be difficult to generalise the findings and make it hard to apply elsewhere

Question 5

Comment on Miller’s conclusion on capacity

Answer 5

• P: A problem with Millers’ conclusion is that it may have overestimated the capacity STM actually has.
• E: Further work done on the area such as Cowan (2001) actually suggested that STM can roughly contain 4 chunks of information.
• I: This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s scale may be more accurate, whilst therefore decreasing the finding’s reliability

Question 6

Comment on the claim that ‘there is clinical evidence to support the idea of LTM types’

Answer 6

• P: A strength is that the idea of LTM types is that there is clinical evidence to support it.
• E: HM was amnesiac and struggled to recall past events, yet it seemed his semantic memory was almost intact. For example, he would not be able to tell you what it’s like to stroke a dog or whether he used to own a dog, but did know what a dog was and didn’t need to have the concept of it explained to him. His procedural memory almost seemed to be intact.
• I: This improves the reliability.

Question 7

Discuss memory research’s use of lists

Answer 7

• P: An issue with much of this work is that it uses artificial material.
• E: Many of these studies involve participants learning lists and this is arguably not very representative of how we use our memory in the real life.
• I: This may cause such experiments to have a lack of generalisability and also decrease the external validity.