Feedback on Memory Mini-Mock September 2017

Some students dropped a mark for putting ‘unlimited’ for long-term memory duration. The correct response is ‘up to a lifetime. I was lenient with those who put ‘lifetime’ or ‘forever’. Please be aware that the examiner may not allow this Question 1

Some people described retroactive interference, rather than proactive interference and therefore scored zero. If you did this you will have a code ‘1’ Some of the examples were not clearly explained and therefore did not pick up the second mark. These got a code ‘3’ In some cases it wasn’t made clear enough whether it was the old info that was causing the forgetting of the new info, or the other way round. For example, some students said things like ‘you learn Spanish and French’ without saying which one was learned first. This would have got a code ‘3’ Question 2

Some of the descriptions of the components of the WMM were muddled, or vague, suggesting the student did not really have a good grasp of the model. You would have been given a code ‘3’ if that was the case and dropped a mark In some answers, there was a lack of technical terminology which led to poor answers being given, for example, ‘the central executive tells the other components what to do’ rather than ‘ the central executive is in control of the system and allocates resources to the slave systems’ A lot of students wrote about ‘the brain’, particularly when describing the central executive (e.g. ‘the central executive allocates the brain’s resources’). This is inaccurate. It is not the brain’s resources, it is information that is being received through the senses The central executive does not connect the slave systems. This is why the episodic buffer was introduced later on Question 3

Question 3 From the mark scheme Central executive – oversees the activity of the subsystems, an attentional system, retrieves information from LTM. Articulatory loop / articulatory control process / articulatory rehearsal process – is a verbal rehearsal system / inner voice. Primary acoustic store / phonological store – is a sound-based system / inner ear. (these may be subsumed under Phonological loop – the sound system) Visuospatial scratch / sketch pad – where visual and spatial information is imaged and manipulated / inner eye. Episodic buffer – where information from each subsystem can inter-connect. Allow broader features of the model including parallel processing, limited capacity, active processing in STM. Question 3 From the mark scheme

A lot of students were able to identify that they needed to talk about Sperling’s study, but not many were able to give sufficient accurate detail Some students chose other studies which were irrelevant to the question. For example, some wrote about research that had tested the duration of sensory memory, not the capacity Even students who had given a reasonable account of Sperling’s study didn’t tend to explain the relevance of the participants being able to recall a given row, or missed that part out completely, which meant they had not explained how it supported the view that capacity in the sensory register is large I gave some marks for evaluation, if they were relevant to Sperling’s research, even if the student used the wrong study In a lot of cases, evaluation was scarce and often very generic. Three marks were allocated for evaluation, so if you only wrote one sentence on ecological validity, you were unlikely to get more than two of them Question 4

Question 4 Possible content Sperling (1960) used a tachistoscope to flash a matrix of letters made up of 3 lines of four for 50 milliseconds and asked for immediate recall. When asked to recall all the letters, only 4 letters on average were recalled, but when asked to recall just one of the lines, top middle or bottom by way of a tone at differing frequencies, most could recall at least 3 of the four letters from that row. Since the participant was unable to foretell what line he would be asked for, the information necessary to recall the letters had to be available somewhere. Critics suggest that the highly artificial situation that Sperling created means we know very little accurate detail about sensory memory capacity in real life. Given that we experience an ever changing perception of the world around us, the focus on 12 letters cannot reflect the true way in which we perceive. Thus we can argue his study lacks mundane realism. Question 4 Possible content

Some students were describing the techniques, but were unable to name them, or named them incorrectly Some students wrote that the interviewee is asked to recall the events ‘from the end to the beginning’. Not necessarily. They will be asked to recall the events in a different order, but not necessarily starting from the end Question 5

The way this essay should be structured is through giving clear and precise details of a relevant research study (could be linked to anxiety, leading questions or post-event discussion), then applying that concept to the scenario, then giving one clear and structured (PES) evaluation of the research. The marks were split: 3,2,3 for the respective parts Some students drifted into anecdotal statements that were backed up by research, speculating about the effect the police officer would have on the woman’s testimony without directly referring to the evidence. You are likely to have a code ‘4’ if this applies to you The question asks for a discussion of one factor that affects EWT, therefore all your points must relate to the same factor. If your study and application/evaluation don’t match up you will only receive marks for one part Some students are writing too much. In an 8 mark essay where you are required to give an application point, one, well structured evaluation is sufficient. Question 6

Question 6 Don’t use the word ‘proved’ say ‘supported’ Some students made reference to the fact that the officer asked a leading question, but didn’t explain why it was leading Question 6