Pearson BTEC National Applied Psychology: Book 1 Revised Edition

Evaluation Practical applications One strength is practical applications of retrieval cues. Mnemonics are a method of improving memory based on cues. For instance, you might be familiar with the mnemonic BIDMAS (each letter stands for one maths operation and reminds you of the order of maths operations) and ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’ (each initial letter represents a colour of the rainbow). These are cues that trigger retrieval of information stored in LTM. This shows how understanding the role of cues can help us to improve memory. Research support Another strength is support for cues from many studies. For example, participants in one study had to learn and remember lists of words (Tulving and Pearlstone 1966). The words came from distinct categories, such as animals and clothing. When they recalled the lists, some participants were given the category headings as cues whereas other participants were not given the cues. The cued-recall participants remembered signi cantly more words than the non-cued participants. This nding shows that cues are important in retrieving memories that would otherwise be ‘forgotten’, and also that cued recall is superior to free recall. Cues are not always useful One weakness is that some cues are not very important in everyday remembering. For instance, the idea of a context-related cue is that the environment in which you learn acts as a cue to retrieve information. However, context-related cues are not as powerful as meaningful cues (e.g. BIDMAS) because it is rare that two contexts are very similar. If you learn material in your classroom and then take an exam in that classroom, then there may be some context effects. But usually you sit an exam in a different room. Therefore, not all cues are equally important and some are relatively useless in everyday situations. A1 Cognitive approach Learners must be able to understand and apply knowledge of key concepts to explain aspects of human behaviour, including: ● Remembering (recognition, recall and the importance of cues). Specification content TV ads often plant cues in the minds of viewers which later remind the viewer to use the advertised product. Can you think of an example of this? Do you think this is unethical? An issue to consider Torrey is taking her driving theory test. She ›nds the multiple-choice questions quite easy compared with the questions she had to answer when she was doing her BTEC exams. 1. State what is meant by ‘recognition’ and give one example of recognition from this scenario. (2 marks) 2. With reference to the scenario, explain one difference between recall and recognition. (2 marks) 3. Torrey is a stand-up comedian. She has to remember jokes, funny stories, observations and the order in which to tell them. In her early days, Torrey could not remember much. But now she learns her material by imagining a room, which she mentally goes round putting jokes in various places. During the gig, she takes a mental tour of the room and ‘ nds’ the material. Explain Torrey’s success in remembering her material. Use one concept from the cognitive approach in your answer. (3 marks) 4. Bish is a big fan of Torrey and has been to several of her gigs. Bish can never remember any of Torrey’s jokes, but he always notices when Torrey reuses some of her older material. Explain the reason for this in terms of recognition and recall. (3 marks) 5. Bish tells his children to use cues to help them in their exam revision. Brie«y evaluate Bish’s advice in terms of how people remember. (3 marks) Exam-style questions Throughout this book, we have used the names of researchers and the dates of their studies because this is the correct academic convention. But don’t worry – you don’t need to memorise researchers’ names (and de nitely not the dates). The important thing is to understand why a research study supports (or sometimes doesn’t support) a concept or theory. Making links to the key assumptions Assumption: The brain can be compared to a computer When we remember something, it rst has to be inputted (learned or registered) and then processed in some way before we get the output (retrieval of the memory). This is also how a computer works. But note that the analogy is very limited, e.g. a computer ’s retrieval doesn’t depend on whether or not a cue is present. Assumption: Behaviour is a product of information processing Explain how the concept of remembering relates to this assumption (see page 10). Not that kind of cue. Except, if you think about it, it IS that kind of cue. Mnemonics can be useful in everyday life. The one above helps you to identify the signs of a stroke. 15 Copyright: Sample material

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