What the exam asks
- Scenario application (Section I): Given a short story about someone studying, driving or remembering an errand, identify the exact memory type or model component at work.
- Research & data sets (Section I & AAQ): Interpret studies comparing recall rates across structural, phonemic and semantic encoding tasks.
- Argumentation (Section II EBQ): Apply a model—such as the working memory model or levels of processing—to explain why a study procedure improved or impaired participants’ recall.
Core ideas
Types of memory
Psychologists classify long-term memories by whether they require conscious recall and what kind of information they hold, alongside memory for future actions.
| Category | Subtype | Conscious Effort? | What It Stores | Scenario Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Explicit (Declarative) | Episodic | Yes (effortful) | Personally experienced events tied to a time and place | Remembering your first day of high school |
| Explicit (Declarative) | Semantic | Yes (effortful) | General world knowledge, facts, concepts and vocabulary | Knowing that the hippocampus processes explicit memories |
| Implicit (Non-declarative) | Procedural | No (automatic) | Motor skills, habits and conditioned associations | Typing on a keyboard without looking at the keys |
| Prospective | — | Varies | Remembering to perform a planned action in the future | Remembering to stop at the pharmacy on your way home |
Biological basis: Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Long-term potentiation (LTP) is the physical basis for memory formation at the neural level. When neurons fire together repeatedly, the synaptic connections between them strengthen. The sending neuron needs less prompting to release neurotransmitters, and the receiving neuron develops more receptor sites—increasing the firing potential of that neural pathway.
The multi-store (Atkinson–Shiffrin) model
This model views memory as information flowing through three distinct stores:
- Sensory memory: Holds a vast amount of incoming sensory data for a brief moment. It includes iconic memory (fleeting visual images lasting less than a second) and echoic memory (auditory traces lasting , allowing you to repeat the last few words someone said even if you were distracted).
- Short-term memory (STM): Attention moves information from sensory memory into STM, which holds a small amount of information (roughly items) for about unless actively rehearsed.
- Long-term memory (LTM): Essentially limitless and permanent storage. Info moves from STM to LTM via effortful processing (deliberate encoding and rehearsal) and flows back to STM when retrieved.