PSYCHOLOGY 1 AQA GCSE

Process of encoding, storage, retrieval 

Encoding: Getting the information and changing it so it can be put into your memory
Storage: Keeping the information in your memory
Retrieval: Recovering the information from storage

 Multistore model:
When information passes through a series of memory stores
Short term store: holds up to 7 chunks of information at a time for less than 1 min
Long term store: holds vast amount of information for up to a life time
Sensory store: holds information received from the sense organs for less than 1 second. 

PETERSON & PETERSON

The aim of the study was to see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the short term memory 
To investigate this participants were shown trigrams one at a time and were asked to recall backwards (to avoid rehearsal) while looking at the cards, then asked to recall the trigrams.
Results show that after 18seconds the trigrams were forgotten
This study concluded that rehearsal is necessary when trying to hold information in the short term store.  

Evaluation: 
This study lacks ecological validity since this situation would not happen in real life, however is a lab conducted experiment which means less participant variables. Other factors could affect the accuracy of recall such as the difficulty of trigrams showed which is considered an extraneous variable.  

Reconstructive memory:
When we alter information to fit our understanding 

 Study by Bartlett: war of the ghosts

His aim was to see if people would alter information when give unfamiliar information.
His method was to tell the story "war of the ghosts" to participants and asked them to recall throughout the weeks. 
Results show that participants altered part about ghosts, and each time they recalled , the story became less accurate.
This study concluded that when given unfamiliar information we tend to alter it to fit our belief and understanding.

Evaluation: This study can't be generalized since only university students were used as participants. This has practical applications such as the accuracy of eye witness testimonies. 

Levels of processing: 
The depth at which information is thought about when trying to encode into memory. There are 3 levels:

Structural processing: Thinking about the appearance of the words when learning
Phonetic processing: Thinking about the sound of the words when learning
Semantic processing: Thinking about the meaning of the words when learning

A study about the levels of processing:

Craik & Lockhart

The aim was to see if the type of question of words affected the accuracy of recall of words.
Method used was to asked questions that required the semantic phonetic and structural processing. For example "is the word DOG in lower case?"(Structural) or "Does Fame rhyme with cane?"(Phonetic) "Is the word PANCAKE a form of transport?" (Semantic)
Results show that 70% recalled semantic words
This study concludes that semantic processing (deeply processing information) means it will be more likely that it will be remembered.

Evaluation: This study has practical application such as effective revision by understanding information as to memorizing how it looks.  Some might argue that deeper processed information means more time and effect, thus the reason why it is remembered. This study lacks ecological validity since people in real life don't answer these type of questions in everyday life.