Led by Frederic Bartlett Simulacrum
About this course
One of the seven topics of OCR GCSE Psychology, taken in Component 02. This module is about how memory works — how information is processed and stored, and why what we recall is so often not what we encountered.
Your host is the Frederic Bartlett Simulacrum, who showed that remembering is not the replay of a fixed trace but an active reconstruction shaped by what we already expect. His great lesson — that the errors people make are the evidence of how memory works — runs through the whole topic.
You will hold two models in contrast: the multi-store model, and Bartlett's reconstructive account that explains what the model cannot.
Led by Frederic Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
Is memory like a recording — information in, stored, played back? You will study the stages of information processing and the types of forgetting, the multi-store model (sensory, short-term, and long-term stores and how they differ in duration, capacity, and encoding), and how neurological damage affects memory through the hippocampus, frontal lobe, and cerebellum. You will tell the story of the Clive Wearing case (Wilson, Kopelman and Kapur, 2008) and criticise the model using the rehearsal-versus-meaning point.
Outcome
You can explain the multi-store model and the three stores, tell the story of the Clive Wearing case, and say what the model explains well and what it leaves out.
Sub-units
Led by Frederic Bartlett Simulacrum
The question
Why is memory so often, and so systematically, wrong? You will study Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory — schemas, the effect of experience and expectation, confabulation, and the distorting power of leading questions — and tell the story of the Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002) study on how advertising can rewrite our memories. You will criticise the theory using the reductionism/holism debate and study techniques for recall, then contrast reconstruction with the multi-store model.
Outcome
You can explain reconstructive memory, tell the story of Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002), apply techniques for recall, and contrast the reconstructive account with the multi-store model.
Sub-units