Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.3.1 Understand the reductionism and holism debate, including: a) The terms 'reductionism' and 'reductionist' - Reductionism is the practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents, especially when it is said to provide a sufficient explanation. You can reduce it down to a biological level (the lowest level), psychological and social (highest level). A reductionist is someone who believes in and practices reductionism. b) The terms 'holism' and 'holistic' - This is the theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they can not exist indipendantly of the whole. Or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as greater than the sum of its parts. c) the use of content, theories and research drawn from human memory to explain the reductionism and holism debate - Gestalt psychology l...
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Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.2.2 - Peterson and Peterson (1959) Short-term retention of individual verbal items: Aims - To investigate the duration of short term memory. To test if information that is not rehearsed is lost quickly from short term memory. Procedure - A lab experiment in which 24 participants had to recall meaningless three consonant syllables. They were presented one at a time and had to be recalled after intervals of 3,6,9,12 or 18 seconds. They were also asked to count backwards in three or fours to prevent rehearsal. Results - There was a rapid increase in forgetting as the time delay increased. Conclusions - Short-term memory has a limited duration of about 18 seconds when rehersal is prevented. If a person is not allowed to rehearse the information will not transfer to their long term memory store. Strengths - It supports the multistore model of memory ( Atkinson and Shiffrin 1969 ). Results are easily proven t...
Pychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.2.1 - Barlett (1932) war of the ghosts: Aims - To test the theory of reconstructive memory . Procedures - To do this Bartlett played a game of “Chinese whispers” and asked students to pass on a story they are told to the next student. The story they were told was a Native American story which was culturally very different to what western students would be use to. It involved Native Americans travelling in canoes and fighting another group which turned out to be ghosts. Findings - That the war of the ghosts story had dramatically changed by the time it reached the final student. Students were found to have altered the story so it fit into their own experiences and culture. For example instead of canoes, students recalled the mode of transport being cars and weapons as guns instead of bow and arrows. Conclusions - That memory was not accurate recordings of events but constructed and reconstructed to fit in with the i...
Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.1.5 Understand the structure and process of memory through the Multi-store Model of Memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968), including strengths and weaknesses of the theory: Multistore-model of memory - a) Sensory register - Duration is 1/4 to 1/2 a second. Capacity is all sensory experience. Encoding is sense specific. This is where you register the environmental input. b) The capacity of short term memory - STM (short term memory) - 7 plus or minus 2 items can be stored in short term memory at one time. c) The Duration of short-term memory - STM (short term memory) - Duration of information held in short term memory seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, but the duration you can hold it here depends on the type of information it is. STM holds primarily acoustic encoded memories (sound). d) The capacity of long term memory - LTM (long term memory) - Capacity for long term memory, as ...
Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.1.4 - Understand the active process of memory through the Theory of Reconstructive Memory (Bartlett, 1932), including strengths and weaknesses of the theory: a) How schemas are formed - Barlett believed schemas were formed by our experiences and how we interpret them, these give us a set out frame and point of view on things. b) How schemas influence memory - As memory is reconstructive, parts of your memory can changed if it is influenced to by your schema, and if not changed then you often add on details you didn't necessarily sense or know because it's what makes sense with your schema.
Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.1.3 - Understand retrograde and anterograde amnesia, including: a) The term 'retrograde amnesia' - Also known as psychogenic amnesia, refers to the loss of memory surrounding a physically or emotionally traumatic event and can be global (loss of all memories) or limited to memories specific to the events that the victim might psychologically want to stop remembering. This type of memory loss can be short term and does not always include physical damage to the brain. This type generally includes not only the event itself but also events shortly before or after the event. People with this usually have no difficulty learning new information. b) The term 'anterograde amnesia' - An individuals inability to form new memories following a traumatic event. Leading to partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long term memories from before the event remain intact. It is thought the damage to sites in the temporal cor...
Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.1.2 - Understand the features of short-term and long-term memory, including: a) Duration - STM (short term memory) - Duration of information held in short term memory seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, but the duration you can hold it here depends on the type of information it is. STM holds primarily acoustic encoded memories (sound). LTM (long term memory) - Duration of information held in long term memory is thought to be infinite, but you can often only keep accessing it if you frequently retrieve it, this will strengthen the connection to it. Long term memory holds primarily semantic memories (memory based on meaning). b) Capacity - STM (short term memory) - 7 plus or minus 2 items can be stored in short term memory at one time. LTM (long term memory) - Capacity for long term memory, as well as duration, is thought to be infinite.
Psychology 9-1 GCSE - 2.1.1 - Know the structure and process of memory and information processing: a) Input - This is sensory information being inputted, e.g smell, sight, sound and touch. b) Processing - Processing is how we interpret the information initially from the input. c) Output - Our output can mean reactions to our senses or output to our memories. d) Encoding - When information comes into our memory from sensory input, it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with so that it can be stored. e) Storage - This concerns the nature of the memories. e.g where the information is stored, how long the memory lasts for, how much can be stored at any time and what kind of information. f) Retrieval - Getting information out of storage. STM (short term memory) is stored and received sequentially. LTM (long term memory) is stored and received by association.