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Exemplar 8 mark essays for cognitive psychology
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These are exemplar 8 mark essay evaluations (AO3) for cognitive psychology; -4 memory models -2 studies -2 strength and weaknesses per theory/study
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Cognitive psychology essays Evaluate the multi-store model of memory (8)
AO1: Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968 came up with the MSM where there was a sensory
memory/register that uses all 5 senses and recalls information precisely and immediately
and it decays if delayed as the capacity is limited and the duration lasts only a few seconds.
Then there is the STM where information has to be attended to enter it and it decays after
15-20 seconds if it is not rehearsed. For example, Peterson and Peterson 1959 found that
participants’ performance dropped after 5-18 seconds after trying to remember a trigram
and an interferences task. Therefore STM has a 7+/-2 capacity. In terms of encoding, the
STM has a phonological similarity effect as letters/word that sound the same are more
difficult to recall then dissimilar sounding words so encoding is most acoustic. To transfer
STM to LTM rehearsal is important and mnemonic so more mnemonic memory trace. LTM is
permanent memory store for material that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. It has
an unlimited capacity and encoding is semantic. The mind worlds like a computer and
processes information in terms of input, storage and retrieval.
AO3: One strength is that there is research evidence supporting that the STM and LTM is
different. Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that have similar meanings when we
use our LTM. So encoding in STM is acoustic but in LTM it is semantic. Further support comes
from the studies of capacity and duration by Miller. This shows that STM and LTM are
different in terms of encoding, capacity and duration and supports the MSM view that these
two memory stores are separate and independent. However, some researchers suggest that
STM and LTM are integrated rather than separate stores. Campitelli (2015) argues that STM
is the part of LTM that we are currently focusing our attention on.
AO3: One weakness is that the MSM states there is only type of STM store. There is
evidence from people with amnesia that show that this cannot be true. KF’s case study
showed that his STM for digits was very poor when they were read out loud to him. But his
recall was much better when he was able to read the digits himself. This shows there can be
a STM store for nonverbal sounds. This shows that the MSM is not a complete explanation of
memory because there must be separate stores for visual and auditory information. There
are also several types of LTM as implied by Tulving’s explanation. However, the MSM had
great application to ways of improving memory through chunking which is useful for
students studying for exams. An alternative would be the WMM as it explains the details of
the STM store. MSM laid groundwork for WMM to be developed and explains dual task
performance and more dynamic.
, S2: testability – based on experimental evi which has high levels of control. Peterson e.g
controlled distraction time between seeing trigrams and recall in 3x seconds. More reliably
and high internal validity
W2: over emphasis on rehearsal- STM -> LTM for revision notes doesn’t work. Less
important
Evaluate the working memory model (8)
AO1: Baddeley and Hitch (1974) introduced the WMM as an explanation of how STM is
organised and how it functions. The model consists of four main components, a central
control system assisted by 3 ‘slave’ subsystems. Each component is qualitatively different
especially in terms of capacity and encoding. The CE is an attentional process that has a
supervisory role. It focuses, divides and switches our limited attention. It monitors incoming
data and makes decisions and allocated slave subsystems to tasks. The phonological loop
deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which information arrives. It is
subdivided into the phonological store for auditory information and the articulatory process,
which allows maintenance rehearsal. The visuo-spatial sketch pad can temporality store
visual and spatial information when required. It has the visual cache which stores visual data
and inner scribe which records arrangement of objects in the visual field. The episodic buffer
integrates the acoustic, visual and spatial information. It maintains a sense of time
sequencing and records events.
AO3: One strength is that dual-task performance studies have supported the predictions of
the WMM. Baddeley et al. (1975) found that when ppt performed a visual and verbal task
together, performance on both declined considerably. This is because both visual tasks
compete for the same slave subsystem whereas when doing a verbal and visual task
together there is no competition. This supports the WMM because it shows there must be
separate slave subsystems that process visual and verbal input. However, more work is
needed to better clarify some key components such as the central executive. The
AO3: One weakness is that the central executive is an unsatisfactory component and doesn’t
really explain anything. Baddeley (2003) recognised this as it is the least understood
component of the WMM. It needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply
‘attention’. Some researchers suspect it consists of separate subcomponents for example a
conscious supervisory attentional process. This means that WMM is an incomplete
explanation and therefore makes applying it real life situations much more difficult.
However, WMM can explain KF’s amnesia as his phonological loop had been damaged but
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