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A Level Edexcel Cognitive Psychology Notes (with Essay Plans)
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Full notes on everything you need to know for Cognitive Psychology for Psychology Paper 1, Edexcel. Includes colour coded points for AO1, AO2, AO3 and full and complete essay plans!

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  • May 6, 2024
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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY NOTES


(2.1.1) The Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch 1974)

AO1 - Model was developed after the MSM to challenge the idea that the STM is a unitary
store (that holds all short term memories)

AO1 - The Central Executive:
 Viewed as the attentional controller with the capacity to focus, divide and switch
attention between tasks
 Controls the mental resources available to ‘slave systems’ (VSS and Phonological
Loop)
 Modality Free (able to work across all your senses)
AO3 - Measuring the different components can be very difficult. There is little
research evidence for the existence of the central executive. The problem is that it cannot be
measured directly, and instead its function has to be inferred from performance at verbal
and visual tasks. This is a weakness because it limits the credibility of the model as we don't
know if other more detailed components are involved
The central executive function is to monitor the overall memory systems (1) rather than acting as an
information storage system (1). This means it allocates the cognitive memory tasks to the
appropriate subsystems (1) such as the phonological loop.
AO1 – THE TWO SLAVE SYSTEMS:
Visuo-spatial sketch Pad (VSS):
 Visual short-term memory, or ‘inner eye’, Manipulates images into 2D (faces) or 3D
(physical actions)
The Phonological Loop: Auditory short-term memory, Can store and repeat sound for
limited period of 20-30 seconds

 Two subcomponents

o Phonological Store (inner ear which contains snippets of sound)- can be more
difficult to remember similar sounding words as confuses PL, which relies on
acoustic coding

o Articulatory Control Processes (inner voice which is our own voice e.g.,
mental maths)- monosyllabic words are easier to remember as longer words
fill limited capacity of articulatory rehearsal system

AO3 - Evidence from patients with brain damage e.g. KF suffered short-term
memory impairment following a motorbike accident. KF had a digit span of one, suggesting a
gross impairment in his phonological store, but his visual memory was intact. This case
supports the idea of the WMM which states that there must be two distinct areas of the brain
which are separate for phonological and visual memory. However, the uniqueness of brain
damage means we cannot assume memory difficulties would be exactly the same for others.

AND The model only explains memory in the short term (1) so the model is not a complete
explanation of how memory works as it does not explain long term memory (1).

AO1 - The Episodic Buffer: Added by Baddeley in 2000, Enables individuals to integrate
and combine info from other stores (e.g., verbal and visual) as well as retrieving information
from LTM)

Baddeley and Hitch thought that people can perform two tasks at the same time in dual-task
experiments as long as the tasks use different components of the working memory system

,(phonological loop or visuo-spatial sketchpad). However, if they are using the same parts of
the same component, processing will slow down or become inaccurate
AO3 - Support from lab studies which look at dual task performance - For
example, the findings from Baddeley show better retention when doing tasks which are
different (visual-auditory) compared to tasks (visual-visual) which require the same store.
This evidence means that it supports the idea we have multiple STM so different modality
tasks do not interfere with each other


(2.1.2) The Multi-Store Memory Model (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968)
AO1 - Envisages memory as a flow of information through an information processing
system. Information passes from one store to another in a fixed sequence.
There are 3 stores, sensory memory, short term memory and long-term memory.
AO1 - Sensory Memory- From environment
 Has an unlimited capacity, Short duration of two seconds before it decays, Encoded
and stored in the same form it is received in through senses (e.g., iconic for sight and
echoic for hearing, haplite for touch), Acts as a filter if we don’t pay attention to it, it
decays very rapidly. If it is relevant to us and we pay attention to it, it enters our STM.
 Attention mechanism selects what info we encode

AO1 - Short Term Memory The STM has a limited duration of up to 30 seconds:
•Capacity of 7(+/- 2) items and chunking which can help increase capacity
A03 - Peterson and Peterson (1959): Participants shown trigrams and then distracted
were able to recall about 90% after 3 seconds and only 5% after 18 seconds
AO1 – the short term memory Encodes acoustically
AO3 - Baddeley (1966):
o Participants asked to recall words that were acoustically similar, dissimilar,
and semantically similar, dissimilar.
o When asked to recall immediately, participants found it difficult to recall
acoustically similar words- so must have been using acoustic encoding

AO1 - If information in STM is rehearsed, it can be passed to LTM (elaborative rehearsal). It
can also be maintained in STM through maintenance rehearsal i.e., repeating it to yourself. If
information is not rehearsed, it is forgotten by decay or displacement.

AO3 - Does not account for the memories which do not require rehearsal e.g. Flashbulb
memory. Individuals can recall vivid snapshots of moments where they learn news. This
contradicts the idea that information must be rehearsed in order to be transferred to the
LTM.
AO1 - Long Term Memory
 The LTM has an unlimited capacity
 Can last up to a lifetime
 Encodes semantically (through meaning)
 Information can be forgotten by interference or decay.

AO3 - Clive Wearing- who suffered brain damage as a result of a brain infection. Found
that some of his long-term memories were intact (for example, the ability to play the piano)
while others were lost (for example, his time studying at university). This goes against the
multi-store model, which argues that there is just one unitary store of long-term memory.

, (2.1.3) Tulving 1972
AO1 - Tulving developed his understanding of Long-Term memory in response to the Multi-
Store Model, suggesting that this model did not represent the full complexity of the LTM. He
proposed that declarative LTM could be divided into semantic memory (facts) and episodic
memory (experiences). It is believed that episodic and semantic memory is processed
differently
AO3 - Case study support (HOWEVER CASE STUDIES CANNOT BE GENERALISED!)
To support distinction between episodic and semantic memories. E.g., KC suffered brain
damage after a motorcycle accident, and this left him unable to form or recall memories of
personal events in his life (episodic). However, he was able to recall factual information
(semantic). This supports Tulving’s idea of separate LTM stores, where one can be affected
without disrupting the other and also gives avenues for further research on memory
improvement e.g., developing brain training
AO1 - Semantic memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for storing
information about the world. This includes knowledge about the meaning of words, as well
as general knowledge.
o For example, London is the capital of England
o It is like a mental encyclopaedia
o It is independent of time referencing, and it’s input can be fragmentary
o Retrieval possible without learning
o Not cued retrieval
o Memory trace is more robust and less susceptible to transformation


AO3 - Belleville et al (2006) worked with people suffering with memory impairment on a
brain training programme to improve episodic memory. These participants performed better
on episodic memory tasks compared to controls. By identifying the different types of LTM it
can be used to help people with those specific memory problems
AO1 - Episodic memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for storing
information about events (i.e. episodes) that we have experienced in our lives. It involves
conscious thought and is declarative.
o An example would be a memory of our 1st day at school.
o It is like a mental diary
o It requires time references and context, and has a continuous input
o Retrieval using cues which are encoded at the point of learning
o Forgetting due to retrieval cue failure
o Memory trace can be transformed/changed

AO3 - The two systems clearly work together most of the time; we learn a list of words as
factual or semantic information, but it is linked to an episodic reference, when and where the
list was learned. Problematic, as it means that the two types of memories cannot be studied
in isolation from each other, making the theory hard to support empirically

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