Pearson BTEC National Applied Psychology Book 1

Content areas A and B Revision guidance You will sit an exam on the topics in this unit. Exams mean revising – but the secret is that revising should happen now. Start revising as you go along. We have divided this book into spreads. Each spread represents one chunk of the specification as indicated at the bottom right of the spread. Preparing for the exam Revision card On the facing page is a list of all the topics you need to cover for content areas A and B. Below is an example of a revision card for one of these topics. This revision card is especially important for writing 9-mark answers (essays). Description Topic Reconstructive memory Key point (a cue) Description Reconstructive Bartlett: active process, store fragments, recall builds it up into meaningful whole. Not accurate Bits missing and distorted, e.g. War of the Ghosts. Schemas Mental structures, package of knowledge of world (objects, events). Innate Born with some basic schemas but acquire more through experience. Experience When a person has a new experience, relevant schema activated, helps process info, make guesses. Shortening Left out if doesn’t t schema (unexpected). Rationalisation Distorted to t schema because strange or unfamiliar, more sense. Confabulation Invented to ll gaps, guided by schemas. Evaluation Lacks control No standardised instructions so differences may be due to this. Accurate Personally important or distinctive memories less affected by schemas. Eyewitness testimony Example of reconstruction leading to inaccurate recall, so convictions not based on this alone. The beauty of this is: • You reduce what you have to memorise (just memorise the cues). The rest is just engraved in your memory through practice. • If you do this for every spread as you study it, then you will have all your revision materials ready at the end of the year when you have to prepare for the exam. For each topic you should produce a revision card. For some spreads you might decide to have more than one revision card. A cue There are snooker cues and there are other cues – a cue is a thing that serves as a reminder of something else. An actor knows she must come in on cue – a reminder or signal. Psychologists have investigated the value of cues in remembering. They act as a reminder of what else you know. In the revision card on the right the rst column is labelled ‘Key point’ which can serve as a cue to remember the contents in the second column, labelled ‘Description’. Step 1 See if your cues work If you just memorise the cues you should be able to produce the information in the second column: • Once you have produced the revision card, cover the second column and for each cue write down what you can recall. • Check how much you remembered. Maybe you need to add a word or date to your cue to help you. • Try again and see if you remember more this time. Psychological research shows that people o en have much more in their heads than they can recall – they just need the right cue. Step 2 Test your recall Psychological research has also shown that recall improves dramatically if you TEST your memory. That doesn’t mean rereading your notes but CLOSING YOUR BOOK and writing down everything you remember, then checking to see what you le out and testing it again. Speci cation terms are important We have highlighted ‘speci cation terms’ on each spread in a de nition box but there are others too. These are examples of specialist psychological knowledge. Make sure you include these on your revision cards. The specialist terms turn an impressionist answer … … into a detailed one. This picture is described as a man ‘revising’ an excavation tyre. Revise = reconsider or alter. Revise = reread work previously done. Which means you need to read your notes rst and then reread them. Practice No athlete would dream of running a race without doing many practice runs of the right distance and within a set time. Always write exam answers in the allotted time – allow yourself about 12–15 minutes for a 9-mark essay (it is precisely 11¼ minutes but it pays to spend a bit of extra time on the essays). You should plan for the essay beforehand and maybe even write a few notes but then write the answer with the clock ticking. A erwards, check your revision card and textbook and note any really important things you forgot to mention. Revision checklist for content areas A and B Below are the key topics for content areas A and B. For each topic you should: 1. Construct a revision card and/or use our summaries (pages 38–39 and 72–73). 2. Test your recall using your cues. Check a erwards to see what you have forgotten. 3. Test your recall again using the cues. 4. Now test your memory of the cue words. 1. Construct revision card 2. First test of recall 3. Second test of recall 4. Test memory using cues Cognitive Cognitive assumptions Reconstructive memory Bartlett (1932) Cognitive priming Harris et al . (2009) Cognitive biases Lo us and Palmer (1974) Social Social assumptions Conformity Asch (1951) Types of conformity Haney et al . (1973) Social categorisation Chatard et al . (2007) Learning Learning assumptions Classical conditioning Watson and Rayner (1920) Operant conditioning Skinner (1932) Social learning theory (SLT) Bandura et al . (1961) Biological Biological assumptions In uence of biology on behaviour Genes Neuroanatomy Harlow (1868) Neurochemistry Deady et al . (2006) Evolutionary psychology Buss et al . (1992) Believe in the power of psychology 44 45 Unit 1: Psychological approaches and applications