NOT ON ALEVEL 2.1.5 individual differences in memory

Question 1

What are individual differences

Answer 1

individual differences refers to variables that make one person different from another. The cognitive theories of memory tend to ignore these individual differences, focusing instead on processes that are universal and apply to everyone

is important to have an awareness of individual differences in memory so that you do not generalise and you have to take into account the results in a sample and get rid of confounding variables

The cognitive theories of memory tend to ignore individual differences, focusing instead on processes that are universal and apply to everyone. A few unusual individuals like a HM I studied, but only to help researchers understand better how normal memory works

Cognitive theories explain how individuals may pay different levels of attention to events, may rehearse with that attend to different degrees and may employ different strategies for encoding memories. Individuals may have different schemes which caused him to sharpen or level their memories differently

individual differences are things that make people distinctive, like their age sex and education. Includes special abilities like photographic memory.

Question 2

Who researched individual differences in memory

Answer 2

loftus et al

they did research into individual differences and found that children and old people are less accurate and more suggestible than adults and a memory ability. They also showed that college students have above averagely accurate memories but are just as suggestible as anyone else.

Question 3

Strengths of individual differences in memory

Answer 3

is supported by lots of research. loftus et al natural experiment in a field setting shows differences in accuracy and suggestibility of memory between children, adults and the elderly but also people with different levels of education and different occupations. There also seems to be gender differences in memory among the over 65

Case studies of people with exceptional memories also support the idea of individual differences.

Applications: individual differences might help the police deal with eyewitnesses Loftus suggested that children and over 65 had the worst accuracy and and are very suggestible so leading questions must be avoided

It is backed up by the multi store model as it suggests that people with hyperthymesia Play rehearse their long-term memory much more than ordinary people