Cupboard Love

Just had lots of presents? Did it make you nicer to your friends and family in the weeks leading up to Christmas in the hope of getting more presents? This is the principle of cupboard love.

Learning theory suggests that we develop attachments to our caregivers because of the food they give us - the Cupboard Love theory. A good criticism of this is the study by Harlow and Harlow on baby Rhesus monkeys. They became attached to the model mothers that were soft and cuddly, not the wire 'mummies' with food. How might you criticise the model and the study by Harlow and Harlow?

To revise the development of and types of attachment go to:

http://www.s-cool.co.uk/topic_quicklearn.asp?loc=ql&topic_id=12&quicklearn_id=1&subject_id=14&ebt=356&ebn=&ebs=&ebl=&elc=13

And just like the end of Stictly Come Dancing when Tess and Brucie tell us to 'Keeeeeep dancing!' , remember that I need you to 'Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep Revising'!

Research into STM

You will need to know one study for capacity, one for encoding and one for duration on STM. This means you must learn Brown and Peterson (duration), Miller (capacity) and Conrad (encoding). If you need information about these studies, go to:

http://www.s-cool.co.uk/topic_quicklearn.asp?loc=ql&topic_id=9&quicklearn_id=2&subject_id=14&ebt=260&ebn=&ebs=&ebl=&elc=13

What criticisms might you make of these studies? You need at least one positive and one negative for each one. Post them on the blog so everyone can use them. Remeber to do good criticism you need to explain, justify and then give an example. Have a go and I will give you feedback!

Remember - you need to keep revising throughout the two week break so that you are ready for the exam on the 10th January.

Preparing for those module exams

Hi Guys
If your aren't in a habit of revising, this is just a reminder to get underway as soon as possible. Remember that, according to Atkinson & Shriffrin, regular rehearsal transfers information into your long term memory.
What do you think of that? What are you revising at the moment and which bits are you finding difficult? Be the first to post a comment on the blog.

Freudian Concepts

Siegmund Freud, the father of modern Psychology, is a very importance theorist. You may not agree with his work, but you need to know about it. He is one of the most written about and quoted scientists of his generation.

Freud was born in Austria and did most of his work there, although he later lived and died in London. His home in London (in Hampstead) is now a museum to his work and life.

Freud is so important because he came up with a number of key theories:

• The human mind can be separated into conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious.
• Humans are driven by the 'pleasure principle'
• Personality is made up of 3 parts - id, ego and superego
• Ego defence mechanisms are created to protect the ego
• We all go through a series of psychosexual stages of development - the oral, anal, genital, latent and puberty. What happens to us in these stages determines the kind of personality we develop.
• If we are frustrated or over-indulged (spoilt) during any stage of development, this can affect our personalities.

So what have I missed out and what do you think of Freud's theories? How plausible are they and just how useful are they more than one hundred years after Freud was working?

What do you think of Freud? What do you find complicated or confusing?

Chimps have better memories than humans

Brand new research published today shows that on simple memory tests, chimps perform better than humans. Not only that, but young chimps are better at the test than adult chimps.
The chimp and human participants were shown a screen with numbers on it. They were then asked to point to the position where a particular number had been and recall the correct sequence of numbers. The chimps consistently outperformed the humans, suggesting that chimps are cleverer than we may have thought. A further conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that the evolution of chimps and humans diverged when humans began to acquire symbollic language. The need for the memory skill in this test reduced when humans were able to give names to items rather than remember their location and description.

To read more and to see an film of the research, go to

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7124156.stm