Mars bars I (Rob) am of the generation that grew up on the advertising slogan for Mars bars: ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’. Even now when I hear that slogan, I really want a Mars bar! There are several slogan generators available online (search ‘free slogan-maker’). Generate a slogan and repeat it over and over while you think about (or eat!) your favourite chocolate bar. Wait a day or two and repeat the slogan to yourself. You’ll most probably nd it conjures up a lovely image of your favourite chocolate bar. Can you explain this in terms of cues? ACTIVE GET Specification terms Cue A ‘trigger ’ that allows us to access material in memory. Cues can be meaningfully linked to the material (e.g. mnemonics) or can be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning (e.g. external context and internal state). Recall In free recall the individual generates information without a cue. In cued recall, a cue assists retrieval of information. Recognition A form of memory retrieval where you identify something based on previous experience. Remembering The activity of retrieving information from a memory store. The memory palaces of champions The World Memory Championship is held each year. Competitors have to memorise long lists of hundreds of numbers and words. You would think this is impossible but champions have a trick up their sleeve – the method of loci. It’s also called the memory palace (the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes used it). You turn words (e.g. a big shopping list) into images and mentally place them around an environment you know well – your school/college, your journey to college, your house, or simply your bedroom. The weirder the links the better. Who could forget the sight of a river of batteries rushing towards you down the stairs? You remember the items by taking a mental walkabout and retrieving them – the locations trigger your memory and you can even recall the items in order. It takes practice but if you put in the time it’s a powerful method, very useful for remembering facts in exams. You can see some demonstrations of this technique on YouTube, e.g. tinyurl.com/d4kfatj4 What is remembering? Every time we retrieve some information from a memory store, we are remembering. There are two main forms of remembering – recall and recognition. Recall Free recall We recall a piece of information when we retrieve it from a memory store (e.g. STM) without any ‘assistance’. This is known as free recall. For example, if an exam question asks you to write down a de nition of ‘remembering’, you have to generate the answer from memory. In a research study, participants might read a list of words, put the list away and then try to recall the words from memory. Cued recall Sometimes we can only recall something if we get assistance from a cue (see below). For instance, you might struggle to recall a word but nd it easier if someone says, ‘It starts with F’. The letter F is a cue that triggers recall – this is called cued recall. You still have to retrieve the rest of the material. Cued recall shows we have more in our memory than we can usually access. O¡en, when we can’t recall something, we assume we’ve forgotten it. But when the right cue appears we remember the information, which shows it must have been stored all along. Recognition We o¡en remember something because we have encountered it before. For example, we might not be able to recall the name of someone we went to school with 30 years ago but we would probably recognise it if we heard it. Another example is a multiple-choice exam question such as, ‘Which is the best de nition of remembering?’, followed by four alternative answers. You are given the entire answer (not just the rst letter), so hopefully you recognise the correct one. Like cued recall, recognition demonstrates that we store more in LTM than we can immediately retrieve. Cues Cues are important in remembering because they contribute to superior retrieval. Cues can be meaningful or not meaningful. Meaningful cues Consider a cue such as ‘STM’. You learn this cue at the same time as you learn other material about shortterm memory. The cue contains the letter ‘S’, which triggers retrieval of ‘short’. This triggers retrieval of other stored knowledge about STM, e.g. it has short duration and limited capacity. Cues without meaning Cues without meaning are also learned at the same time as you learn about or experience something. For example, when you read this page there might be a thunderstorm outside. The next time you are in a thunderstorm this may cue you to remember some things about STM, or the next time you think about STM you may recall the thunderstorm. Emotions can also act as cues. For example, when people are feeling happy they tend to recall other happy events, and when they are feeling sad they think of sad experiences – which in turn may then lower their mood further. The emotion acts as a cue to remember times when the person experienced similar emotions. Key concept 2: Remembering Content area A1: Cognitive approach 14 Unit 1: Psychological approaches and applications Copyright: Sample material
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