How do we store, hold and retrieve information in memory?
Memory: the structure and processes of memory, models and explanations of memory, theories of forgetting, and the research evidence and methods used to study memory.
The SQA Higher Psychology Individual Behaviour optional topic on memory: encoding, storage and retrieval, the multi-store and working memory models, the levels-of-processing approach, theories of forgetting, and the key research evidence and methods used to study memory.
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What this dot point is asking
Memory is one of the optional topics in the Individual Behaviour area, so it can appear as a -mark question in the additional-topic section of the paper. The SQA wants you to describe the processes of memory, explain at least one model or theory of how memory works, explain theories of forgetting, and use research evidence and methods to support and evaluate these explanations.
The answer
The processes of memory
The multi-store model
The working memory model
The levels-of-processing approach
Theories of forgetting
Examples in context
The case of HM, who had his hippocampus removed and could form no new long-term memories while keeping a normal short-term memory and old long-term memories, is the strongest evidence that short-term and long-term stores are separate, supporting the multi-store model. The case of KF, whose short-term verbal memory was impaired but whose visual short-term memory was intact, is used against the multi-store model and for the working memory model, because a single short-term store could not be selectively damaged like that. The serial-position effect, where people recall the first items (primacy, from long-term memory) and last items (recency, from short-term memory) best, is laboratory evidence for separate stores. Cue-dependent studies, such as divers recalling word lists better in the environment where they learned them, support retrieval-failure theory. Pairing a model with two or three of these studies and judging the fit reaches the top band.
Try this
Q1. Describe the three processes of memory. [3 marks]
- Cue. Encoding (getting information in), storage (holding it over time), retrieval (getting it back).
Q2. Explain how interference causes forgetting. [6 marks]
- Cue. Similar memories disrupt each other; proactive interference is old learning blocking new, retroactive is new learning blocking old, and similarity makes both worse.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
SQA Higher (optional topic)20 marksDescribe and evaluate the multi-store model of memory.Show worked answer →
A -mark question split between KU and analysis or evaluation. Around to marks reward an accurate account of the multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin): information passes from a brief sensory register into a limited short-term store (about items, held for seconds, lost without rehearsal) and, through rehearsal, into a large, durable long-term store.
The remaining marks reward evaluation. Strengths include support from serial-position effects and from the case of HM, who could form no new long-term memories yet had a working short-term memory, showing the stores are separate. Weaknesses include the model being too simple: it treats short-term memory as one store, which the working memory model challenges, and it overstates rehearsal as the route to long-term memory. A clear judgement is the discriminator.
SQA Higher (optional topic)12 marksExplain two theories of forgetting.Show worked answer →
A -mark question, roughly half KU and half analysis. Markers reward developed explanation of cause rather than a list of terms.
Two strong choices are interference (similar memories disrupt each other, with proactive interference where old learning blocks new, and retroactive where new blocks old) and retrieval failure (the memory is stored but the right cue is missing, supported by context- and state-dependent forgetting). Analysis marks come from explaining how each causes forgetting and from contrasting them, for example noting that retrieval-failure evidence shows the memory was never truly lost, only inaccessible.
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