Exams tomorrow

Just a quick message to you all, both year 12 and year 13, to wish the success you deserve tomorrow in the exams. You will have done lots of revision now and the chance of doing anything more than refreshing your memory has passed now. Tonight you could usefully just go over your revision sumaries and then have a look at a few exam questions. If possible, it is a good idea to go to bed at your normal time and get up as usual too (assuming this isn't very late in either case).

Just a last reminder about good A02 material. You need to do 3 things in A02, each time you make a criticism:

• State the criticism (this study has low ecological validity)
• Justify the criticism (because other studies did not support its findings)
• Explain the criticism (which means that it cannot be generalised to all situations)

Make sure when you are asked to discuss or analyse or evaluate theories or studies that you give both positive and negative criticisms so that you get a balance. You also need to ensure that your 18 mark answers are about 1/3 A01 and 2/3 A02.

Finally, using the principals of retrieval failure and Beck's positive Psychology, if you feel that your mind haas gone blank in the exam, close your eyes and visualise yourself in G6 where you have your Psychology lessons. Look around mentally and imagine the room, the posters and the experiences. You will gain the confidence that you have in lessons and be in a similar state to when you are successful. Tell yourself that you will do well and then you will be in a positive mental attitude for the exam!

How's your revision going?

Less than a week to go now before the exams on the 10th January. Are you working away at your revision and doing lots of timed practice questions?

Test yourself against the following:

Memory
Can you describe and evaluate a study for STM for duration, for capacity and for encoding?
Can you describe and evaluate one study for LTM for duration and for encoding?
Can you explain and evaluate the multistore model (Atkinson and Shiffrin)?
Can you also describe and evaluate at least one other model (either working memory or levels of processing)?
Can you explain and evaluate decay and displacement as theories of forgetting in STM and decay, interference and retrieval failure in LTM?
Can you explain the role of emotion in LTM both in terms of remembering (Flashbulb memories) and forgetting (repression)
Can you explain what is meant by EWT and why it is unreliable? Do you know the work of Elizabeth Loftus and the criticisms that have been made of it? Can you describe and explain the significance of the cognitive interview?

If you can answer yes to all the above, then you have learnt memory well!

Attachment:
Can you describe and explain Bowlby's theory of attachment?
Do you know what is meant by securely attached, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant?
What is separation anxiety?
Can you describe and explain Margaret Ainsworth's research 'the strange situation'?
Can you explain what was found when this method was used all over the world?
Can you explain and evaluate 2 theories of the formation of attachment?
Do you know what is meant by deprivation, privation and separation?
Can you describe and explain Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and his research '44 Juvenile Thieves'?
Can you also describe and evaluate the study by Hodges and Tizard on instituionalised boys?
What do you know about the Czech twins and Geni?
Do you also know the work of Robertson on separation?
Can you describe the effects of daycare on social and cognitive development? What studies do you know that support daycare and what studies suggest that daycare is harmful to a child's development?

Again, if you can answer all of the above, you must be doing you revision well.

Keep working hard and practising those questions! :-)

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