AO3 Evaluation A psychologist is training Lena and other junior doctors in how to improve their memories to better retain handover information (see previous spread). The doctors role-play a handover in pairs. Lena is given some information and 2 minutes later she correctly remembers the patient’s blood pressure. She cannot remember the patient’s heart rate, but when her partner tells her, Lena says, ‘Oh yes, I remember that now.’ The psychologist says that memory can be improved by using cues. 1. Identify one example of recognition and one example of recall from the scenario. (2 marks) 2. Explain one reason why Lena was able to recognise some information but not recall it. (2 marks) 3. Describe two ways Lena could use cues to improve her memory. (4 marks) 4. Discuss the importance of cues in Lena’s remembering of handover information. (3 marks) Apply it Vash (see Apply it on facing page) is definitely onto something. Cues are your gateway to memory improvement. Use cue words to trigger your memory of other words. There are lots of ways to do this. Here’s one suggestion (more later): • Actively read a page of notes – that is, highlight or circle the key terms, concepts, theories, etc. as you go. • Write each of these (just one or two words) on the back of a post-it note (or card). • On the front of the post-it/card, write a question to which the answer is the word or two on the back. • Stick the post-it notes up, choose one and have a go at answering the question. REVISION BOOSTER A mnemonic for guitar strings: Every Adult Dog Growls Barks Eats. Well, they do when I’m playing. Key concept 2: Remembering A1: Cognitive approach One strength is practical applications of retrieval cues. Mnemonics are memory aids based on psychological knowledge that use cues to trigger retrieval of information from long-term memory. E.g. BIDMAS (where each letter stands for one maths operator) reminds you of the order of operations, ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’ helps retrieve the colours of the rainbow. This shows how understanding the role of cues can help us to improve memory. Another strength is support for cues from many research studies. Participants learned and remembered lists of words from categories (animals, clothing, etc.). Some participants were given headings as cues, others not (Tulving and Pearlstone). When they had to recall the lists, participants who were given cues remembered significantly more words than participants without cues. This finding shows that cues are important in retrieving memories that would otherwise be ‘forgotten’, and also that cued recall is superior to free recall. One weakness is some cues are not important in everyday remembering. The environment in which you learn (e.g. classroom) provides some context-related cues to retrieve information later (e.g. physical layout, background noises, smells). But context-related cues are not as powerful in everyday life as meaningful cues (e.g. BIDMAS), because environments at learning and retrieval are usually different (e.g. classroom and exam room). Therefore, not all cues are equally important and some are relatively useless in everyday situations. 15 Copyright: Sample material
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