Memory

What Memory covers

Memory is examined in Paper 1, every student. It covers information processing, duration and capacity, retrograde and anterograde amnesia, Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory, the multi-store model, reductionism and holism and War of the Ghosts and the Peterson and Peterson study.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Information processing, duration and capacityInput, processing and output, encoding, storage and retrieval, and the capacity and duration of short-term and long-term memory.Open →
• Retrograde and anterograde amnesiaThe symptoms and causes of retrograde and anterograde amnesia, why older memories survive, and the cases of HM and Clive Wearing.Open →
• Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memoryReproductive and reconstructive memory, schemas, effort after meaning, rationalisation, omission and confabulation, and the theory's strengths and limits.Open →
• The multi-store model, reductionism and holismAtkinson and Shiffrin's sensory register, short-term and long-term stores, attention and rehearsal, the evidence from amnesia and serial position, and reductionist and holistic explanations.Open →
• War of the Ghosts and the Peterson and Peterson studyBartlett's repeated and serial reproduction of the War of the Ghosts, and Peterson and Peterson's counting-backwards study of forgetting from short-term memory.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.

• Retrograde amnesia vs Anterograde amnesia

  Retrograde amnesia: loss of memories that were formed before a brain injury. Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new lasting memories after a brain injury.

• Encoding vs Retrieval

  Encoding: converting information into a form that can be stored. Retrieval: recovering stored information when it is needed.

• Capacity vs Duration

  Capacity: the amount of information a store can hold at once. Duration: the length of time information can be held in a store.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the information processing approach to memory?

   Model answer

   The information processing approach compares the mind to a computer. Information passes through the stages of input, processing and output.

2. 2

   What is input in the information processing approach?

   Model answer

   Input is information from the environment entering the memory system through the senses.

3. 3

   What happens at the processing stage of memory?

   Model answer

   Processing is the stage where incoming information is organised and changed into a form that can be stored.

4. 4

   What is output in the information processing approach?

   Model answer

   Output is information retrieved from memory and used, such as an answer or an action.

5. 5

   Define encoding.

   Model answer

   Encoding is converting information into a form that memory can store. Information can be encoded visually, acoustically or by meaning.

6. 6

   Define storage in memory.

   Model answer

   Storage is holding information in the memory system over time.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Memory revision questions

What does Memory cover in Edexcel GCSE Psychology?

5 subtopics: information processing, duration and capacity, retrograde and anterograde amnesia, bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory, the multi-store model, reductionism and holism and war of the ghosts and the peterson and peterson study. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Memory organised?

By the Edexcel 1PS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.