Memory

What Memory covers

Memory is examined in Paper 1, Cognition and behaviour. It covers processes and types of memory, the multi-store model of memory, primacy, recency and Murdock's serial position curve and reconstructive memory, Bartlett and factors affecting accuracy.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Processes and types of memoryEncoding, storage and retrieval, acoustic, visual and semantic coding, and episodic, semantic and procedural memory, with recall and recognition.Open →
• The multi-store model of memoryAtkinson and Shiffrin's sensory, short-term and long-term stores, their coding, capacity and duration, the part attention and rehearsal play, and the model's strengths and weaknesses.Open →
• Primacy, recency and Murdock's serial position curveThe serial position effect, primacy and recency and how the multi-store model explains them, and Murdock's free recall study with its aim, method, findings and evaluation.Open →
• Reconstructive memory, Bartlett and factors affecting accuracyBartlett's War of the Ghosts study, effort after meaning, schemas and rationalisation, proactive and retroactive interference, context-dependent recall and false memories.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Memory further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Episodic memory vs Semantic memory

  Episodic memory: a store of personal experiences linked to a particular time and place. Semantic memory: a store of general facts and knowledge about the world.

• Encoding vs Retrieval

  Encoding: changing incoming information into a form that can be kept. Retrieval: bringing kept information back into awareness when it is needed.

• Primacy effect vs Recency effect

  Primacy effect: better recall of the first items in a list. Recency effect: better recall of the last items in a list.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by encoding in memory?

   Model answer

   Encoding is the input stage of memory. Incoming information from the senses is changed into a form that can be stored.

2. 2

   What is storage in memory?

   Model answer

   Storage is the process of holding information in the memory system over time. Stored information can be kept for seconds or for a lifetime.

3. 3

   Define retrieval.

   Model answer

   Retrieval is the output stage of memory. Stored information is located and brought back into conscious awareness when it is needed.

4. 4

   Name the three main forms in which information can be encoded.

   Model answer

   Information can be encoded acoustically (by sound), visually (as an image) or semantically (by meaning).

5. 5

   A student repeats a new phone number aloud to herself until she can dial it. Which type of encoding is she using?

   Model answer

   The student is using acoustic encoding, because she is holding the number by its sound.

6. 6

   Why does thinking about the meaning of new information help it to be remembered?

   Model answer

   Semantic encoding links new information to knowledge already stored. The links give more routes back to the information when it needs to be retrieved.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Memory revision questions

What does Memory cover in AQA GCSE Psychology?

4 subtopics: processes and types of memory, the multi-store model of memory, primacy, recency and murdock's serial position curve and reconstructive memory, bartlett and factors affecting accuracy. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Memory organised?

By the AQA 8182 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.