AS Paper 5: Memory and Attachment
Memory models, eyewitness testimony and forgetting, caregiver-infant interactions and attachment types, explanations of attachment and cultural variations, the nervous system and the brain, plus research methods and statistics.
Questions
Question 1 [2 marks]
Biopsychology: Nervous System and Brain
State two functions of the central nervous system (CNS).
Question 2 [2 marks]
Caregiver-Infant Interactions and Attachment Types
State two behavioural dimensions that Ainsworth's Strange Situation used to assess the quality of an infant's attachment.
Question 3 [2 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
State two features of long-term memory (LTM) in the multi-store model.
Question 4 [2 marks]
Eyewitness Testimony and Forgetting
Define the term 'eyewitness testimony'.
Question 5 [3 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Outline the role of maintenance rehearsal in the multi-store model of memory.
Question 6 [3 marks]
Research Methods and Statistics
In a pilot study, five participants' reaction times, in seconds, are recorded as: 0.42, 0.38, 0.51, 0.44, 0.40.
Calculate the mean reaction time.
Question 7 [3 marks]
Explanations of Attachment and Cultural Variations
Outline the 'critical period' as proposed by Bowlby's theory of attachment.
Question 8 [4 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Aisha is revising for two exams. She finds it very difficult to read a history textbook while also repeating a phone number to herself, but she can read the textbook while humming a tune.
Use the working memory model to explain Aisha's experience.
Question 9 [4 marks]
Biopsychology: Nervous System and Brain
Explain the difference between the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.
Question 10 [4 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Explain the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer in the working memory model.
Question 11 [4 marks]
Caregiver-Infant Interactions and Attachment Types
Explain two features of a securely attached infant, as identified in Ainsworth's Strange Situation.
Question 12 [4 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Explain what is meant by the capacity of short-term memory (STM), with reference to research using the digit span technique.
Question 13 [5 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
A patient with extensive damage to the hippocampus is unable to form new long-term memories of events or facts after the injury, and cannot recall what they had for breakfast an hour earlier. However, the same patient can learn and gradually improve at a new physical skill, such as tracing a shape in a mirror, without being able to say they have practised it before.
Use your knowledge of types of long-term memory to explain this pattern.
Question 14 [6 marks]
Caregiver-Infant Interactions and Attachment Types
Discuss the concept of a critical period in animal studies of attachment, including reference to Lorenz's research on imprinting.
Question 15 [6 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Discuss the working memory model as an explanation of short-term memory.
Question 16 [6 marks]
Explanations of Attachment and Cultural Variations
Discuss learning theory as an explanation of attachment, evaluating its strengths and limitations.
Model solutions
| Question 1[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that the CNS processes and integrates incoming sensory information | 1 |
| identifying that the CNS coordinates and controls the body's responses/behaviour | 1 |
| Final answer: The CNS processes incoming sensory information and coordinates the body's responses. | |
| Question 2[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying separation anxiety (distress when the caregiver leaves) as one dimension assessed | 1 |
| identifying a second dimension, e.g. stranger anxiety, reunion behaviour, or exploration/secure base behaviour | 1 |
| Final answer: Any two of: separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, reunion behaviour, exploration/secure base behaviour. | |
| Question 3[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that LTM has a potentially unlimited capacity | 1 |
| identifying that the duration of LTM can be very long, potentially a lifetime | 1 |
| Final answer: LTM has a potentially unlimited capacity and can last a very long time, potentially a lifetime. | |
| Question 4[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that eyewitness testimony is an account given by a witness to a crime or event | 1 |
| noting it is used as evidence in criminal investigations/court, but can be inaccurate | 1 |
| Final answer: Eyewitness testimony is an account given by a witness of a crime or event, used as evidence, though it can be unreliable. | |
| Question 5[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying maintenance rehearsal as repeating information over and over | 1 |
| explaining that this keeps information active in short-term memory (STM) | 1 |
| noting that with enough rehearsal, information can be transferred to long-term memory (LTM) | 1 |
| Final answer: Maintenance rehearsal is repeating information to keep it in STM; sufficient rehearsal transfers it to LTM. | |
| Question 6[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| adding the five values, 0.42 + 0.38 + 0.51 + 0.44 + 0.40 = 2.15 | M1 |
| dividing the total by the number of participants, 2.15 / 5 | M1 |
| a mean of 0.43 seconds | A1 |
| Final answer: Mean = 0.43 seconds | |
| Question 7[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying the critical period as a specific, limited window of time in early development | 1 |
| stating that attachment must form within this period, around the first two and a half years, or it may not form/be more difficult | 1 |
| noting the idea has since been softened to a 'sensitive period', where attachment is merely more likely rather than only possible in this window | 1 |
| Final answer: Bowlby proposed a critical, later softened to sensitive, period of around the first two and a half years, in which attachment must, or is most likely to, form. | |
| Question 8[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that reading and repeating a phone number both use the phonological loop, creating competition for the same component | 1 |
| explaining this competition disrupts performance on both tasks | 1 |
| identifying that humming uses a different, non-verbal process rather than the phonological loop | 1 |
| explaining that reading (phonological loop) and humming can therefore be combined with less interference | 1 |
| Final answer: Reading and repeating a number both rely on the phonological loop, causing interference; humming does not compete with the same component, so it can be combined with reading more easily. | |
| Question 9[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying the somatic nervous system as controlling conscious, voluntary movement via the skeletal muscles | 1 |
| identifying that it also carries sensory information from the body to the central nervous system | 1 |
| identifying the autonomic nervous system as controlling involuntary, automatic functions of internal organs and glands | 1 |
| noting the autonomic system is not under conscious control, unlike the somatic system | 1 |
| Final answer: The somatic system controls conscious, voluntary movement and carries sensory information to the CNS; the autonomic system controls involuntary organ/gland function outside conscious control. | |
| Question 10[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying the visuo-spatial sketchpad as a component that processes visual and spatial information | 1 |
| a suitable example, e.g. picturing a route around a familiar building | 1 |
| identifying the episodic buffer as a later-added component that integrates information from the other components | 1 |
| elaborating that the episodic buffer also links working memory to long-term memory | 1 |
| Final answer: The visuo-spatial sketchpad processes visual/spatial information, e.g. picturing a route; the episodic buffer, added later to the model, integrates information from the other components and links working memory to long-term memory. | |
| Question 11[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying moderate stranger anxiety as a feature of secure attachment | 1 |
| elaborating that the infant is wary of the stranger but not extremely distressed | 1 |
| identifying that securely attached infants are easily comforted at reunion | 1 |
| elaborating that they seek proximity to the caregiver on return and settle quickly | 1 |
| Final answer: Secure attachment shows moderate stranger anxiety and is easily comforted at reunion, quickly settling once the caregiver returns. | |
| Question 12[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying capacity as the amount of information that can be held in STM at one time | 1 |
| identifying Miller's estimate of STM capacity as around 7 (plus or minus 2) items/chunks | 1 |
| describing the digit span technique, in which increasingly long strings of digits are recalled in order until errors occur | 1 |
| identifying chunking as a way capacity can be increased, by grouping items into meaningful units | 1 |
| Final answer: STM capacity is the amount that can be held at once, estimated by Miller at around 7 (plus or minus 2) items using the digit span technique; chunking information into meaningful units can increase this capacity. | |
| Question 13[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that the patient's inability to form new memories of events/facts reflects severely impaired episodic (and semantic) memory | 1 |
| identifying that the ability to improve at the mirror-tracing skill reflects intact procedural memory | 1 |
| explaining that procedural memory is for skills and is recalled without conscious, deliberate effort, unlike episodic memory | 1 |
| noting that this pattern is a double dissociation, since one type of LTM is severely impaired while another remains intact in the same patient | 1 |
| concluding this supports the view that episodic and procedural memory are distinct, separate systems within LTM | 1 |
| Final answer: The patient's impaired memory for events reflects damaged episodic memory, while the improving mirror-tracing skill reflects intact procedural memory, which does not require conscious recall; this double dissociation, seen in real amnesia cases such as patient HM, supports the view that procedural and episodic memory are distinct systems within LTM. | |
| Question 14[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining imprinting as a young animal following and attaching to the first large moving object it sees soon after hatching/birth | 1 |
| outlining Lorenz's finding that this only occurs within a brief, early critical period | 1 |
| outlining sexual imprinting, where misdirected early imprinting can affect adult mate choice | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the concept of an early critical or sensitive period has since been applied to human development, e.g. informing thinking about the timing of adoption | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. generalising findings on imprinting in birds to attachment in mammals or humans is questionable, given clear physiological and behavioural differences | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. later research has suggested imprinting may be less fixed than first thought, since with the right later experience some animals can partly redirect a misdirected imprinting response | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline imprinting, Lorenz's critical period finding and sexual imprinting; evaluate with the concept's later application to human development, against the problem of generalising from birds and evidence that imprinting may be partly reversible. | |
| Question 15[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining the central executive as directing attention and coordinating the other components | 1 |
| outlining the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad as slave systems handling verbal and visual/spatial information respectively | 1 |
| outlining the episodic buffer as integrating information across components and with LTM | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. case study evidence, such as a patient with a selectively impaired phonological loop but a normal visuo-spatial sketchpad, supports separate components | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the central executive is vaguely specified and difficult to test directly, which is a weakness of the model | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. dual-task studies provide good support for the model, since two tasks using the same component are harder to do together than two using different components | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline the central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer; evaluate with case study support for separate components and dual-task evidence, while noting the central executive's vague specification as a weakness. | |
| Question 16[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining classical conditioning, the caregiver becoming associated with the pleasure of being fed | 1 |
| outlining operant conditioning, the infant's attachment behaviours and the caregiver's responsiveness both being reinforced | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. Harlow's monkeys preferring a comforting cloth surrogate over a food-providing wire one challenges the central role given to feeding | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the theory largely ignores research showing the quality of interaction, such as sensitive responsiveness, matters more than the quantity of feeding | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the theory is reductionist, reducing a complex emotional bond to simple stimulus-response associations | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the conditioning principles it relies on are well evidenced in other areas of learning, giving it some scientific grounding even if incomplete here | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline classical and operant conditioning; evaluate with Harlow's challenge to the role of feeding, the theory's neglect of interaction quality, its reductionism, and the general scientific grounding of conditioning principles. | |