Edexcel AS-level Psychology Unit 1: Social and Cognitive.

• 1. Information goes in through the five senses, this is know as Sensory Input.
• 2. Information is then registerd in the brain for a fraction of a second, this is know as Sensory Register.
• 3. Information is then filterd, important information becomes Short-Term Memory (STM), other information is forgotten as it's useless.
• 4. STM can store 5+-2 items (range from 5 to 9) for around 30 seconds.
• 5. If information is not rehearsed it is forgotten, information must be rehearsed to become Long-Term Memory (LTM).
• 6. LTM has an unlimited capacity and duration.

We Process information on different levels.

1. Stuructural Processing is when information is processed by how informatin looks like, i.e. capital letters in a word etc. This type of processing is the shallowest type because information isn't retained for a lengthy period.

2. Phonetic Processing is when information is processed by how information sounds like, it it rhymes with ....

3. Semantic Processing is when information is processed by it's meaning and if it makes sense, e.g. Is London the capital of France? This type of processing is the deepest because information is retained the most if processed semantically.

Going over the information over and over again until it becomes LTM.

Going over information and making sure you understand it, then the information becomes rememberd.

• (+) There is evidence that shows that STM and LTM are seperate systems
• (+) HM sustained severe damage to LTM but STM was normal. If one memory system is damaged and the other isn't, this shows that they are seperate systems.

• (-) This isn't the only explanation on how memory works, Levels of processing says that we remember something depending on how it is processed.
• (-) MSM suggests that LTM is one store, but there is evidence that there are several stores within LTM, these are procedural, semantic, episodic and declaritive.

• (+) Craik and Tulving's study supports the theory, in that the best type of processing is semantic and the least is structural.
• (+) Brain scanning show that there is high activity in the brain when information is processed semantically in contrast to structural and phonetic which showed lower activity in the brain.

• (-) Craik and Tulving's study was in a lab setting, this probably didn't procude valid results and there probably was demand characteristics.
• (-) Other factors could affect recall. Reber et al. found that emotional content of words affected recall and depth of words.

Aim- To see if semantic processing is better than structural and phonetic processing.

Procedure- sample of 20 students, list of 40 1 to 2 syllable words. Ps were given questions after each word. "is the word in capital letters" (structural processing), if a word rhymed with another word (phonetic processing) and if the given word would fit into a sentence and make sense (semantic processing). At the end, the Ps then had to recall the words they rememberd or if they could recognise some words from a long list of words.

Results- 96% of words that were processed semantically were recognised, in contrast to 18% of words that were processed structurally.

Conclusion- Depth of processing affects how well words are rememberd. Semantic processing leads to remembering information the best.

Sample was too low, not generalisable to the whole student population, but could be generalisable to the student population of the school the students were from.

Study is reliable, set in a controled enironment (lab setting) with high control over variables such as what surrounds them, their given task etc. This makes it easy to replicate and get results that will back up the original results.

Can be applied to real life as it indicates that students would be better off revising semantically rather than structurally or phonetically.

Lacking ecological validity as it was carried out in an artificial, controlled setting, prbably intemidating the participants, resulting in artificial behaviour.

Followed all of the ethical guidelines apart from Deception, participants didn't know they were participating in a memory test.

We forget information due to lack of cues at time of recall. There are two types of cues:

1. State Cues - also know as internal cues, these are how your state of mind is when in taking information and recalling. E.g. if you're scared when learning something, you must be scared to recall sucessfully.

2. Context Cues - also know as external cues, these are cues within your surrounding that influence your recall. E.g. if you revise for your exam in the exam hall, you should be able to recall of the information correctly during your exam.

We forget information due to interference, there are two types:

1. Proactive interference - this is when old learning interferes with new learning, causeing you to forget the newly learnt material. E.g. you learn French then German, you will forget the French learnt.

2. Retroactive Interference - this is when new learning interferes with old learning, causing you to forget the old learning. E.g. you learn French then German, you will forget the German learnt.

• (+) Godden and Baddley back up the theory as the results confirmed that a change in cues increases the chance of forgetting, therefore if trying to get high recall, you should have the same cues when recalling and when learning.
• (+) This theory can be applied to real life, especially for students who are revising for their exams. The theory tells people that when it comes to revision, it's best to have the same cues when revising for the exam and when taking the exam, i.e revise in the exam hall.

• (-) This is not the only theory for forgetting, repression states that people make themselves forget, they force themselves to forget. Interference theory says that we forget due to interference between new and old learning.
• (-) Godden and Baddley can be criticised as the study lacks reliability due to low amount of control and confounding variables affecting the DV, making it less replicable.