Yellow Pack 4 Flashcards
State your key question for cognitive psychology
How can psychologists’ understanding of memory help patients with dementia?
Explain why your key question for cognitive psychology is important in society.
•Dementia affects many people in society it is an illness that affects 900,000 people in the UK.
•Number of people being diagnosed is increasing. It is estimated that 1 million
people will be diagnosed by 2025.
•Dementia causes psychological and economic harm not only for the people who have it, but also for their carers and families.
•Physical, emotional and financial pressures can cause great stress to families and carers, and support is required from the health, social, financial and legal systems.
Give a brief explanation of episodic memory
Episodic memory can be regarded as a mental diary. It deals with events and experiences that happen to a person. Therefore time and context is important and retrieval depends on when it was leaned or experienced.
Give a brief recap of reconstructive memory
- Previous knowledge is used to interpret information so that it can be stored and recalled.
- Bartlett argued that we do not remember everything that we perceive so we need to draw on our schemas to fill in the gaps.
- Schemas are categories of stored knowledge that represent everything we know about something.
Give a brief explanation of the working memory model
The working memory model consist of three components: the central executive which decides what information to pay attention to and then allocates it to the slave systems. The phonological loop which stores and processes spoken and written information. And the visuospatial sketch pad that stores and processes visual and spatial information.
Give a brief explanation of the Multi-store memory model (esp. STM)
The MSM model suggests there are separate stores for memory. The sensory, STM and LTM. If information is paid attention to it will encode into STM acoustically, in STM 5-9 items can be held for up to 30 seconds. Information must then be rehearsed in order to transfer to LTM.
Apply information from episodic memory to the question of how to help people with dementia
Dementia involves loss of memory but sufferers don’t lose all their memories. More recent episodic memories are lost first, but sufferers often keep memories from their youth or childhood.
Episodic memories often include recalling emotions. Experiences that cause strong positive or negative feelings are easier to recall many years later. A person with dementia may remember how they feel about an event even if they have forgotten the details of it. Therefore creating
positive feelings may aid a person’s ability to remember that event or will at least allow them to remember the positive feeling.
Therefore some practitioners advocate listening to the dementia patient’s memories and their past and not cause distress by contradicting them, as what they are remembering is true to them and it may cause them unnecessary confusion.
Apply information from semantic memory to the question of how to help people with dementia
semantic memory seems to be lost separately, because sufferers may recognise a friend but forget their name. Steyvers & Hemmer (2012) have shown the importance of prior knowledge when trying to recall events. Therefore if prior knowledge can be explained to the patient, through displaying or explaining something, it may help those who have poor semantic memories fill the gaps. For example The use of photographs can help the person recall someone rather than just simply using their name.
Apply information from Multi-store Model memory to the question of how to help people with dementia
Patients may struggle to retrieve information from their LTM. Therefore a successful method would be to employ more specific questioning rather than general questioning to help them retrieve specific information from LTM. For example: “Has your niece Mary been to see you today?” rather than “has anyone been to see you today?”
Based on our limited capacity and duration of STM, we should give the person time to rehearse new information one bit at a time rather than overloading them with too much information.
Apply information from Working Memory Model memory to the question of how to help people with dementia
Competition between the central executive, phonological loop & visual spatial sketch pad should also be avoided as it causes confusion & problems with thinking and reasoning in patients with dementia.
It may therefore help to try to reduce background noise (such as having the T.V./radio on) when having an conversation. Also only one person talking at a time will help with more focussed attention (so one component of working memory is not overworked).
Apply information from reconstructive memory to the question of how to help people with dementia
People with dementia may have mixed schemas or trouble retrieving the correct schema.
Therefore, old songs or visiting familiar places can help trigger schemas which can help with recalling memories
Give an example of how these ideas of memory are used in the real world
Hogewey, dementia village in the Netherlands. The benefit of using all-day reminiscence therapy at Hogewey.
compared to traditional nursing homes, is that the residents with dementia are more active and
require less medication.
Reconstructive Memory can be applied to the care at the dementia village at Hogewey. Each of the different parts of the village corresponds to a different set of schemas. Someone who grew up in a wealthy home will have schemas corresponding to the high class part of Hogewey and find it easier to remember things. This makes it possible for them to be active and fit. This contrasts with normal hospitals which are strange places for most patients, who take to their beds and
decline.
Tulving’s ideas of episodic and semantic LTM also apply to Hogewey. Because recent episodic memory is lost, sufferers often “live in the past”
and find their present situation distressing. Staff do not contradict the residents but “go with” their beliefs and behaviour instead.
Validation Therapy like this is controversial. Some critics say that psychologists have an ethical duty not to deceive people. Hogewey is a giant
deception designed to put dementia sufferers at ease.
