How day care affects children's social development

The affects:


Andersson (1089)
Found children in lower and middle class homes including 1 and 2 parent families in daycare are more sociable and outgoing and have higher IQ.
HOWEVER
-Also conducted same thing in Texas and found the opposite.
-This is because;
in Sweden, their first year is spent with carer so they form stronger attachments before they start care. Therefore the stress of going to care will have less effect as they are securely attached. Sweden also has more financial support resulting in lower child/carer ratio and highly trained staff.
In Texas they may have less time to form this close attachment first. Low standard and poor quality of care.


Campbell, Lamb and Hwang (2002)


Aim: aimed to examine the effects of day care on children.
Procedure: Studied 18mths-3.5 years of kids in Sweden.
-9 attended family based care, 30 nursery and a further 9 switching from family to nursery. They were compared with kids who didn't get into day care due to competition.
-At 18mths (before daycare) kids were observed playing with family. Researcher assessed standard of care they were receiving.
-They were then observed at day care for 30 mins, repeated at ages 2.5 and 3.5.
-Age 6.5 their social competence was measured by asking carer.
-At 8.5 teachers were asked to give their perceptions on behaviour.
-At 15 they visited their homes asking them to complete questionnaires on social development and style.
Result:
- Day care kids before 3.5 have better social abilities.
-Social competence stable between 3.5 and 15 yrs.
-Kids social skills developed by 3.5 yrs.
Conclusion: Good quality care for children up to 3.5 yrs important for development of social skills and competence persists through childhood and adolescence.
Kids who spend long at day care become tired and frustrated to share adult attentions leading to bad interactions. Those who spend more days and shorter sessions gain better social benefits.
Evaluation:
Used perspective approach following children to 15 yrs allowing us to see long term effects.
Study required sensitivity with dealing with both kids and parents.
All kids were assessed beforehand providing baseline of social skills at start


Can day care have negative effects


Borge (2004)
-Found in Canada more aggression in kids that were home reared than day care.
Clark-Stewart (1992)
-argues children simply learn to look after themselves at and early age if attend day care.
Maccoby and Lewis (2003)
-Argued more hrs spent in day care before 4.5 yrs correlated with negative social outcomes.
-These findings are a result from kids need to develop independence at early age if attend day care.


Comparing different types of day care


Melsuih (1990)


carried out a quasi experiment comparing 3 groups of kids in London who started day care before 9 months old.
-3 day care settings: relative care, childminder and private nursery.
-Assessed children at 18 months and 3 yrs for their language skills and ability to cooperate and share with others.
Result: at 18 months the relative group showed highest level of language skills.
At 3 years, the nursery childen were less advances but showed higher levels of pro social behaviour.

Difficult to assess the effects of day care because:

• Families using day care differ from those using relatives for childcare
  Those using family based care have stronger identities as mothers.
• Different temperaments of children
  Some will benefit more from day care than others.
  
• Variety of day care settings
  Arrangements differ in terms of adult-child ratios, family or nursery based
• Time spent in day care
  Children start at different ages so it is hard to compare
• Varying quality of day care settings.

Implications of research into attachment for childcare practices.

Attachment research has influences childcare by:

• Child needs to have secure attachment with adult
• Child can have multiple attachments with range of adults.
• Child needs to use attachment figure as a safe base and explore environment and seek security.

Steele (2001)
-Found children in S.S had increased levels of cortisol (stress hormone) up to half an hour after parent returned from a brief separation.

Watamura (2006)

Compares levels of cortisol in same group of infants at diff days of week at nursery or home.
Found cortisol levels increased from morning to afternoon when babies in day care but more at home.
Increased greatest at kids from 24-36 months (After critical period, shows attachment formed)

Good quality care includes:

Campbell (2000)- structural characteristics of good care

• Low adult child ratio
• Small sized group (less strangers)
• Mixed age group
• Well trained staff 

-quality relates to childs actual experiences of day care in terms of emotional environment including,

• Secure attachment
• Structured day

Cultural variations in attachment

-people bring children up differently for different abilities and qualities
Van Ijendoorn and Kroonberg (1988)
Aim: To test Ainsworth's strange situation cross culturally.
Procedure: meta analysis on 32 studies in 8 countries of strange situation to see difference between cultures.
Result:
- Secure attachments (B): Most common. 50& in China, 75% great Britain and Sweden.
- Avoidant attachment (A): common in western countries. Rare in Israel and Japan.
- Ambivalent attachments (C):Israel, China and Japan high rate. Low rate in Scandinavian countries.

+/-: 27 carried out in individualistic, 5 in collectivist. No ethical issues as is secondary

Conclusion: attachment types vary between cultures. Responses to S.S reflect child rearing. E.g. In West Germany where independence is encourages, babies showed little distress avoidant. Also shows that babies need to spend time with attachment figure.

Types of attachment

AINSWORTH

Aim: interested in exploring different types of attachment between babies and caregiver
Procedure: 1-18 months observes in lab playroom.
1. m+b play
2. 3 mins later, s+m talk
3. s play with b
4. m leaves, b cries, s comforts.
5. 3 mins later m returns, s leaves
6. 3 mins later, m leaves baby alone.
7. s enters to comfort
8. m teturns, s leaves
Allows to assess separation anxiety+stranger anxiety
Results: Idenitifed 3 types of behaviour

• Secure infants (B) 70%
  Mother safe base
  happy to explore room when present
  distress when alone
  welcome mum back
  wary of stranger
• Insecure avoidant attachment (A) 15%
  some distress when left by mum and didnt seek comfort on return.
  reject stranger
  keep distance and avoid closeness
• Insecure ambivalent (C) 15%
  upset on separation
  not easily comforted when mother returned as angry she left
  Alternated seeking closeness and distance

Main and Solomon (1986)
Some babies didn't fit into any of the categories so developed a Type 4 which is 'disorganised attachment'

Explanations of attachment

Learning theory - Dollard and Miller (1950)

Operant conditioning:


Skinner: LEVER FOOD
- Behaviourist, worked with rats, placed rat in cage.
- When rat pressed lever they got food.
- Repeated for food
Operant conditioning: behaviour =reward
Positive reinforcement: repeated
Negative reinforcement: not repeated due to punishment
-In reference to humans the child realises the person supplying the food becomes a source of reward and the infant becomes attached


Classical conditioning -learn through associationPavlov:
Dog associated keeper footsteps with meal

Unconditioned stimulus (reflex) =milk
Unconditioned response= satiation
Neutral stimulus= person feeding them
Conditioned response= pleasure and relief

Harlow (1959)-8 infant monkeys until 8 months.
-2 surrogate mothers, wire food and blanket.
-When frightened, monkey ran to blanket mum and formed attachment.

SLT:
modelling, observation, imitation BANDURA.

Evolutionary explanations


Attachment helps for babies survival, ensuring food and safety. Also provides template for future relationships. Similar to Lorenz' imprinting.
Bowlby- 3 important features
- infants and carers are programmed to become attached
- as attachment is a biological process, it takes place during a critical period of fevelopment or not at all.
-attachment plays a role in later development- monotropy and the continuity hypothesis.
Any inherited behaviour that increases an individuals chances of survival and reproduction will be passe don to the next generation.
-the result is infants are both programmed to become attached and adults are also programmed to form this relationship.

Support for the continuity hypothesis:
Hazan and Shaver (1987): LOVE QUIZ
Aim: to investigate the continuity hypothesis
Procedure: To complete a 'love quiz' in american paper reporting on 3 descriptions applied to feelings/experiences about romance and adjective checklist about childhood relationship with parents.
Randomly selected from paper p's and students.
Result: found strong relationship beyween childhood attachment and adulthood attachment type.
Concluded:
-secure: loveable
-anxious avoidant: depressing
-anxious ambivalent: fell in love easily


Support for monotropy:
schaffer and Emerson 60 GLASGOW BABIES
found:
65% first attachent was mother
3% babies from with father
27% joint attachment
Separation anxiety shown at 6-8 months =attachment formed.

Formation of attachment

How can we see two people have an attachment


Maccoby (1980):
Argued we see if two people have an attachment by looking at the behaviours;
- Seeking proximity: two people want to be near each other. Separation distress
- Distress on separation: Separation distress. Older child gets homesick.
- Joy on reunion: Baby welcome back carer, clinging.
- General orientation of behaviour towards other person: B+C direct attention and engage with each other with acitivities etc.

How do babies develop attachment

Lorenz
Aim: To see how quickly attachments form in geese
Procedure: Used geese.
divided goose eggs into 2 groups
- Group 1= placed under mother
- Group 2= kept in incubator
Lorenz was the first living thing group 2 saw.
Results: Gosling formed attachment with Lorenz and followed him around.
After hatch Lorenz put them in a hatch and had to seek own mother.
Group 1= went to goose.
Group 2= went to Lorenz.
Conclusion: This formation of rapid attachment is called 'imprinting' occurs between 13 and 16 hours after birth (critical period). After 31 hours, the tendency to imprint passes and attachment can't form.


Formation of bons between parents and babies


Klaus and Kennell (1976)
Aim: find out whether early skins to skin contact lead to closer bond formation between mother and baby.
Procedure: Babies usually taken from mothers and kept in nurser.
K+K took 2 groups of mothers in American hospital and followed them from birth til baby was 1.
-Group 1 (control): Had routine contact, saw baby after delivery and brought back for feed.
-Group 2 (experimental): Had extended contact. Extra hrs.
Results: Group 2 showed soothing behaviours and maintained close proximity to babies to baby in contrast to group 1.
Conclusion: The study indicates there may be a sensitive period immediately after birth.
Evaluation: Findings changed hospital practice in westernised child birth so mum and babies were together.
Evidence for Maccoby's behaviours i.e. 'seeking proximity' and 'general orientation of behaviour towards eachother'.
Mothers were unnamed.
Low ecological validity and demand characteristics. 


Formation of attachments


Schaffer and Emerson (1964):
Aim: To see the gradual developments of attachments
Procedure: 60 glasgow babies, visit monthly for a year and returning at 18 months.
Collected data by observation and interviews on separation anxiety and stranger distress.
They approached babies to see if they had stranger fear and interviewed mother on babies responses to situations on a scale of 1-4 e.g. being left alone.
Results: 65% first attachent was mother
3% babies from with father
27% joint attachment
Separation anxiety shown at 6-8 months =attachment formed.
Conclusion:
Asocial stage (0-6 wks):
-Similar response to objects and people
-No favour of people.
-Look at face and eyes
-Discriminate unfamiliar people by smell and voice
Indiscriminate attachments (6 wks -6 month):
-Sociable
-Recognise people
-Like human company
-No favour
-No stranger fear
Specific attachments (7 months +)
-Separation anxiety
Multiple attachments (10 months +)
-e.g. grandparents.

Strategies for memory improvement

1. The role of organisation


Mnemonics based on visual imagery:
-Peg word system and Method of Loci.
Paivio 1965: (DUAL CODING HYPOTHESIS)
Found p's recall concrete nouns better than abstract words. Explained findings in terms of dual coding hypothesis where concrete words are encoded once as a verbal code and then as a visual image. In terms of the WMM, verbally presented items and visual images would be held in different loops so would be easy to do.
Organisation and understanding
If we understand context, we're more likely to remember.
Bransford and Johnson (1972): (LAUNDRY)
read a passage to 2 groups, only one knew the title. This helped them understand it and made them able to recall it.
Chunking:
-Increases STM capacity, reduces load on memory and is more understandable.
Katona: (REDUCE LOAD ON MEMORY)
found chunking involves organising material to make it more understandable and reduces load on memory in her digit span task.
Encoding and retrieval strategies:
- Encoding specificity principle: 'recall better when retrieval context like encoding context'
Ucros (1989): (MOOD STATE DEPEDANCY)reviewed study on mood state dependent memory. Found a better recall if mood matched when learned.
Active processing:
Craik and Lockhart (1975): (ENGAGEMENT WITH STIMULUS= GOOD MEMORY)
carried out a memory test in four conditions. Found meaningful engagement with the stimulus leads to better recall and p's don't have to make a deliberate effort to remember. 
They believed semantic processing is effective as it activates numbers associated with LTM, retrieval easier as more retrieval routes set up.
The role of attention and practice:
People won't remember anything if no attention is paid
Erricson and Chase (1981): (REVISING)
studied an individual who practiced memorising a list of digits an hour a day for two years showing the importance of practice.

The working memory model

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)


Components:
 -Central executive: Control, limited capacity, process info from any sensory modality. Sets goals, corrects errors  starts rehearsal process, retrieves info from LTM.
SLAVE SYSTEMS WORK INDEPENDENTLY.
-Phonological loop: 'inner voice', limited capacity, temporary system holding verbal info in speech based form.
-Visuo spatial skectchpad: 'inner eye' limited capacity, temp memory system holds visuo/spatial info.
BOTH HAVE PASSIVE STORES.
-Articulatory loop: words maintained by subvocal repetition.
-Visuo Cache: Linked to 'active inner scribe' +acts as a rehearsal mechanism.

Evidence for phonological loop:


Baddeley, Thomson+Buchanan (WORD LENGTH EFFECT)
Aim: to find evidence of the existence of the phonological loop.
Procedure: visaual presentations of words listed briefly and p's wrote them down in serial order.
Condition 1- lists consisted of 5 words taken from familiar, one syllable words.
Condition 2- 5 words were polysyllabic.
Results: Average correct recall over several trials showed superiority for the short words, called the 'word length effect'.
Conclusion: They concluded that the capacity of the loop is determined by the length of time it takes to say words rather than by the number of items. This time is 1.5 secs.


Shepard and Feng (1972) (WORD CUBE 3D SHAPE)
Aim: investigate whether visual images work in a similar way to real life perception.
Procedure: p's imagined folding flat shapes to form 3D shapes and had to decide with the finished shape if the arrows would meet head on.
Result: found time taken to make the decisions was related to number of folds that were required if the p's were doing the folding.
Conclusion: visual images work in similar ways to real life perceptions. It is thought that the visuo spatial sketchpad is used in tasks like these for temp storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial moment. In this case people are likely to find it hard to simultaneously do tasks both requiring the visuo spatial sketchpad. This was tested below.

Evidence for the visuo spatial sketchpad

Baddeley, Grant, Wight and Thomson (1973) (TRACKING AND VISUAL TASK)
Aim: to see if p's could carry out a tracking task at same time as performing verbal task (evidence of limited resources of visuo spatial sketchpad)
Procedure: Carried out tracking task of following a spot of light, and a visual task of imagining the shapes of letters in which they had to say 'yes' or 'no' to angles being said to them of the shape.
Result: hard to do both as both needed visuo spatial sketchpad.
Evaluation: lab. low ecological validity. used repeated measures design to eliminate effects of individual differences. Distress. (ethical)

Evidence for central executive


Baddeley (1966) (KEYBOARD, ALPHABET)
Aim: to investigate functions attributed to central executive of selective attention and switching retrieval plans.
Procedure: p's generated random strings of digits by pressing keys on a keyboard while simultaneously either; reciting alphabet, counting from 1, or switching between letters and numbers.
Result: generated digit string became less random in condition 3 when p's had to switch from alphabet to numbers at same time.
Conclusion: random number generation task and alternation task competed for central executive resources.

+/- OF WORKING MEMORY MODEL


-More plausible than multi store as explains STM in terms of temp storage and active processing.
-incorperated verbal rehearsal as on process within the articulatory loop instead of just transferring info.
-can apply model to previous research e.g. digit span
-can account for findings difficult for multi store to explain e.g. selective memory.
-There's and attempt to explain how memory functions.
- Baddeley (1998) presented evidence of the phonological loop and how it plays key role in development of reading and the phonological loop is not operative in kids with dyslexia. Can be applied for real life settings. ACCOUNTS FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES.
- Doesn't offer a complete understanding of how memory works.

Eyewitness Testimony

1. Effects of misleading info on accuracy of EWT

Loftus (1975) (CAR ACCIDENT. BARN)
Aim: EWT affected by what happens after event as memories are subject to distortion by post even info. This is called misinformation acceptance. She tested this.
Procedure:  shows p's films of events leading up to a car accident. They were divided into 2 groups.
Control group- asked questions that actually happened.
Experimental group- asked question with misleading info (barn)
Results: 17% of exp group reported seeing barn, 3% control group made this error.
Conclusion: p's given misleading post event info absorbed this as actual event.

Loftus (1978)
Aim: there is no real change to original memory, but p's alter what they say as a result of demand c's.
Procedure: offered reward money if they could correctly recall details from film of accident.
group1- was pedestrian knocked over by a car, stopped at stop sign.
group 2- stopped at yield sign.
2 days later, p's given q's about accident including misleading info of reference to 'stop and yield sign (vise versa)
p's then looked at slides pointing out what was the real film. They were divided into 4 groups.
1. no reward
2. $1 each correct answer
3. $5 each correct answer
4. $25 person in group scoring most points.
Results: 70% p's made error on misleading info despite the offer of reward showing their original memory had been altered as a result of misleading post event info.
Loftus and Palmer (1974):

Aim: memories can become distorted by info after event.

Procedure: Independent measures design. Independent variable used is the verb. The dependent variable in p's first exp is speed estimate. In second its whether they believed they saw glass or not.
45 students from Washington uni.
Watched a car crash and had 5 conditions of which the verb changed.
Results: The verb effected speed estimates. The mean average of smashed was 40mph in contrast to the 'contacted' of 31mph.
Evaluation: results could be due to response bias factors, the p could have been unsure therefore adjusts their estimation to fit with the expectations of the questioner.
2nd experiment
Procedure: 150 students viewed 4 second car accident on film. The independent variable was manipulated by the wording of the question.
3 conditions of changing the verb e.g. smashed
One week later the p's answered qs about it and were asked if they saw any broken glass (there was none)
Results: the majority reported seeing glass.
Conclusion: the verb had an effect on the mis-perception of glass.
Two kinds of info go into memory of event. First is the info obtained from actual event, second is info supplied  after event.

Other factors affecting accuracy of EWT

-reconstructive memory which is storing replica of events. We blend in elements of our knowledge and experience to make it memorable= a schema.
List (1986) (SHOPLIFTING)
Aim: to investigate the above schema idea.
Procedure: drew list of elements that may occur in shoplifting scenario. P's had to rate in order how likely these were to occur in a shoplifting accident. She then compiled a video of 8 shoplifting incidents that included  elements that people rated as high probability and low and showed them to new p's. A week later they had to recall them.
Result: p's more likely to recall high probability than low and reported seeing high elements that weren't in the video.
Conclusion: due to the gap between seeing the videos and being asked questions about it, p's lost some info of the exact replica therefore blended in elements of their own knowledge and experience to make it more memorable.
Tuckey and Brewer (2003)
Aim: Further investigated reconstructive memory and schema. 
Procedure: found people think schema of robbers = dark clothes, male etc. They showed video of a bank robbery
Result: found p's had better recall for elements of film that conformed to their schema than to elements that didn't.
Conclusion: schema affects memory and recall of an event as this idea has already stored itself in the individuals memory.

3. How to improve accuracy of EWT

The cognitive interview technique
Fisher (1987)
-studied real interviews by detectives in Florida over 4 months. Found witnesses were bombarded with brief, direct, close ended questions, were interrupted and not allowed to talk freely, broke concentration and encourage short answers with less detail.
-On the basis of this,
Geiselman (1985) 
developed the cognitive interview technique as a more effective tool for police investigations.
1. Context reinstatement
2. report everything
3. recall from changed perspective
4. recall in reverse order
-this provided cues, open ended qs etc.
Fisher (1990)
-demonstrated effects of CIT in police in Miami.
Trained detectives to use enhances CIT with genuine crime witness and found it increased recall.

Factors which effect eye witness testimony

1. Consequentiality:

Studies are too controlled therefore p's are usually aware that they are in an artificial situation and their responses will not have any consequences. 

Foster (1994)- (BANK ROBBERY)

Aim: to see if witnesses more likely to be accurate if they believed their evidence would influence a conviction.

Procedure: p's watched a video of a robbery and had to pick out the robbers from an identity parade. They were told it was genuine whereas the others knew it was a simulation.

Result: p's more accurate in condition where testimony had consequences. 

Evaluation: artificial. 

It is an indication that factors operating in real life situations are different than those in experimental situations. 

2. Previous experience:

the witness may combine what they had seen in the past and what they had recently seen together and create a whole new scene.

3. Individual differences:

Some people more susceptible to misinformation than others.
Tomes and Katz (1997) 'share the following characteristics'
- Poor recall for event
-score high on measures of imagery vividness
-score high on scores on measures of empathy
People also resist misleading information if it is blatently incorrect.
Loftus (1979) (RED PURSE)
Aim: To test misleading information
Procedure: gave p's set of slides of a red purse being stolen. They were then given an account of event including errors e.g. 'the purse was brown'
Result: In a recall test all but two of p's resisted the misinfo.
Conclusion: memory for info particularly striking at the time is less susceptible to effects of misinfo than memory for peripheral details.

4. Age of witness:

Children are susceptible than adults to absorbing post event info into original memory.
Poole and Lindsay (2001) (SCIENCE DEMONSTRATION)
Aim: To find out if the same factors that affect accuracy in adults also operate in children and to investigate whether children are more susceptible to absorbing post event info.
Procedure: engaged 3-8 yr old into science demonstration. The parents read them a story which contained elements from the demonstration.  They were then questioned about the demonstration. In a second phase of the exp the children were asked to recall where they got the info from.
Result: they incorporated new info from story in original memory.
Phase 2 the older kids revised their account of the demonstration however younger children couldn't do it.

Gordon (2001): (KIDS ACCURATE BUT SUSCEPTIBLE TO SUGGESTION)
'children provide detailed and accurate witness statements but susceptible to suggestion and account should be reviewed with caution.'
Davies (1994): (KIDS VALUABLE TESTIMONY)
'differences between kids and adults show kids provide valuable testimony provided care is taken in interviewing process.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f41JjnYkruk

The Multi Store model

Memory has 3 basic processes:

- Encoding is the creation of knowledge to be stored.
- Storage is integrating and organizing the existing knowledge.
- Retrieval is re acessing the previously learned material and being able to apply it to present activity.


Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) multi store model of memory

They saw memory as a series of processing systems which followed in a sequence. External stimuli comes in from the environment and is registered in the sensory memory where it stays for a split second before decaying. This component has a small capacity and is fragile. Info can be lost if not rehearsed.
Items in STM are usually sounds although other kinds of encoding are positive if the material is sufficiently rehearsed it gets passed to LTM.
+/-:
- Doesn't state how memory works or why some things are easier to remember than others.
- It's simplistic for psychology as a science.
- Deterministic as no account for individual differences e.g. people with brain abnormalities.
- Reductionistic as doesn't explain complex processes such as forgetting.
- This would be hard to test.
+ It does show there's distinctions between STM and LTM. Milner (1966)'s case study of 'HM' who had brain damage reported he was able to recall early life but unable to remember ten years beforehand or retain any new information.

Sensory memory

- Stimuli going into memroy system from external environment registered firstly in sensory store.
Atkinson & Shiffrin proposed 3 different memory stores.
- iconic (see) duration - 0.2-0.4 secs.
- Echoic (hear) duration - 3-4 secs.
- Haptic (touch)
They all overlap to perceive continuation.

Sperling (1960)
aim- to find out evidence of sensory memory.
procedure- 3 rows of letter stimulus in whole report technique. In this condition they could only recall 4 or 5. p's said they knew the letters but couldn't recall so he tested this.
He changed the procedure (partial report technique) where p's distinguished between 3 tones with the row of letters.
P's could only recall 3 letters from each line. They didnt know what would be asked so all rows were available in iconic memory but image fades. They performed better on second procedure as they had the echoic information available too.


Short and Long term memory


evidence for a distinction between stm and ltm is to conduct a 'free recall task'. The researcher would then plot a graph to show the relationship between where a word appeared in comparison to how often it would be recalled.
This produces 'characteristic serial curve':
- recency = last few words= easily retrieved
- primary= words at beginning passed onto LTM.
- asymptote= words at middle = displaced.


Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) 
Aim: Investigate how distractions effect free recall. 
procedure:
- used free recall task
- condition 1: recall immediately
  Condition 2: distracter task, 30 secs, recall.
Results:
- Condition 1: found expected serial curve
- Condition 2: distrater disrupted recency effect.
Conclusion:
- last few words couldn't be retrieved. (primary) first words were displaced to LTM.
Evaluation:
- lab. Controlled. Low ecological validity.
- Repeated trials to avoid unrepresentative results, and get the average score.
-  informed consent.


Neuropsychological evidence of STM and LTM.

Milner (1966) 
Studies people with seveer memory loss.
Case study on HM. He had epilepsy and an operation to alleviate it left him with severe memory loss. He could only recall early memories, but not the most recent 10 years and he couldn't recall or retain new info. His STM was intact, but LTM was not effective.
Shallice and Warrington (1970) 
Case study on KF. After motorcycle accident, he suffererd brain injuries. Appeared to have an intact LTM as he was able to learn new info. However STM was affected, so that he had a recency effect of only one item

Capacity:


LTM: Unlimited, lost (decay, interference).
STM: Limited storage space.
Use 'digit span technique' (repeat back a string of digits in order of presentation) to work out the capacity of STM.
Jacobs:
Found on average 7 digits could be recalled immediately.
Miller (1956):
Proposed we could hold 7 items in STM
Immediate memory span determined by number of chunks of info rather than individual letters/ numbers. The chunks have to be meaningful to be remembered efficiently.
- Chunking increases memory span, we recall 7+/-1 of chunks at  any one time.


Factors effecting capacity of STM
- Pronunciation time
- Individual differences
- reading aloud: digit span increases if p's read the digits aloud instead of subconsciously.  Baddeley suggests this is because digits are stored in echoic store which strengthens memory.
Cowan (2000)
Believes performance on span tasks is affected by rehearsal and LTM doesn't reflect the capacity of STM. He estimated that the capacity of STM is actually 4 chunks when such factors are controlled.
Barner
found digit strings that were repeated within a series of immediate memory span trials become easier for p's to recall.
This suggests that the strings have been gradually rehearsed and stored in LTM, which temporarily increases the capacity of LTM.


Duration:
LTM can hold unlimited info. 
Bahrick (1975) attempted to explore the length of time memories can be retained.
He used 392 American graduates and tested them on their memory of cues such as matching former classmates pictures to names.
p's performed well until 34 years.
The performance was better on recognition task than recall.
Factors effecting LTM duration:
-Experiments like Bahrick's show that we recall better when cued.
-Depth of learning= people likely to remember things for longer if they have learnt it very well in the first place.
-Pattern of learning= Bahrick 91987) said people who had learned spanish over a period of spaced sessions retained vocab longer than when learned in intensive sessions.
-The nature of material to be learned- It's meaning.


STM: temporary store
According to A+S we need to rehearse the info to recall it.
Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Aim: To find out how long items would remain in STM without rehearsal
Procedure: Trigram. Count back in 3's (stop rehearsal) Stop counting. Recall trigram. 
Results: P's able to recall 80% of trigrams after 3 sec interval without rehearsal bu it became progressively worse after. At 18 secs they could recall fewer than 10%.
Conclusion: information decays rapidly from the STM when rehearsal or repetition is prevented.
Evaluation: Lab. however used repeated measures design to avoid individual differences. However trigrams are artificial. Low ecological validity. 
- Loww of info was more to do with capacity limitations than duration. Subsequent counting task might have displaced the trigram.
- Also possible trigrams presented on earlier trials caused confusion for p's resulting in trigrams being incorrectly cued. 

Factors effecting duration of STM:
-rehearsal
-intention to recall: making conscious effort to recall increases retrieval.
- Amount of info to recall.

Encoding: Length of time held
A+S said stimulus is encoded, visually, acoustically and semantically. 
Baddeley (1966) -show that encoding in LTM is semantic.
Aim: investigate the encoding for the sub systems, STM and LTM.
Procedure:  1. pool of short, familiar words in 4 categories; acoustically similar, acoustically dissimlar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar.
P's had to write down the random sequence of  5words from each categort after presentation in serial order. 
2. he then modified experiment  to test LTM. He extended the length of the word lists to 10 and prevented rehearsal. Recall was tested after 20 min interval. 
Results: acoustically similar words harder to remember than in other categories. STM codes acoustically.
Under second condition, the psychologist found acoustic similarity had no effect but semantically similar words were poorly recalled.
Conclusion:LTM codes semantically.
Evaluation: Lab. Low ecological and population validity. 

Conrad (1964):
Aim: to find it people are likely to confuse items that are acoustically similar.
Procedure: Sequence of 6 consonants.
- Condition 1: letters acoustically similar
- Condition 2: letters acoustically dissimilar
P's immediately asked to write down in serial order.
Result: Hard to recall similar letters as would substitute. 
Conclusion: We must convet visually presented material to an acoustic code in STM that we then find it hard to distinguish between similar sounding words. Acoustic confusion.


+/- OF MULTI STORE MODEL


+ Evidence the encoding is different in both memory stores. In STM, memory is encoded acoustically, in LTM, memory is encoded semantically.
+ Model supports the differences between STM and LTM.
+ Important contribution to memory research.
+ There's a difference in the duration of info in both memory stores. Duration in STM can last up to 30 secs whilst the duration in LTM can last a life time.
+Evidence the capacity of both memory stores is different. In STM only 7+/-2 chunks/items can be stored. Whereas in LTM, the capacity is different.
-A+S believed info flows through a one way system however sometimes LTM has to be activated first for STM to work.
-They focused on rehearsal a lot however sometimes rehearsal isn't needed to retain info. Craik +Lockhart found things are remembered better if they are processed semantically.
-It is over simplified and fails to reflect the complexity of the human brain.
-Takes no account of the different types of things we remember and emphasises on the amount of info we can handle and disregards the nature of the info.
-Most of the evidence comes from lab experiments.

Unit 2 (AQA)

Biological Psychology - Stress

Stress as a bodily response:

• The body’s response to stress, including the pituitary-adrenal system and the 

sympathomedullary pathway in outline

• Stress-related illness and the immune system

Stress in everyday life • Life changes and daily hassles as sources of stress

• Workplace stress including the effects of workload and control

• Personality factors, including Type A and Type B behaviour, hardiness

• Psychological and biological methods of stress management, including stress inoculation therapy and drug therapy

Social Psychology - Social Influence:

Social influence • Conformity (majority influence) and explanations of why people conform, 

including informational social influence and normative social influence

• Types of conformity, including internalisation and compliance

• Obedience to authority, including Milgram’s work and explanations of why 

people obey

Social influence in everyday life:

• Explanations of independent behaviour, including locus of control, how people 

resist pressures to conform and resist pressures to obey authority

• How social influence research helps us to understand social change; the role of minority influence in social change

Individual Differences – Psychopathology (Abnormality):

Defining and explaining psychological abnormality:

• Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to 

function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health, and limitations of 

these definitions of psychological abnormality

• The biological approach to psychopathology

• Psychological approaches to psychopathology including the psychodynamic, 

behavioural and cognitive approaches

Treating abnormality: • Biological therapies, including drugs and ECT

• Psychological therapies, including psychoanalysis, systematic de-sensitisation 

and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

1 HOUR 30 MINUTES
80 - 100 = A
70 - 79 = B
60 - 69 = C
50 - 59 = D
40 - 49 = E
How to achieve a level 4

AO1: Knowledge and understanding

(a) recognise, recall and show understanding of 

scientific knowledge

(b) select, organise and communicate

AO2: Application of knowledge

(a) analyse and evaluate scientific knowledge and 

processes

(b) apply scientific knowledge and processes to 

unfamiliar situations including those related to 

issues

(c) assess the validity, reliability and credibility of 

scientific information.

AO3:

(a) describe ethical, safe and skilful practical 

techniques and processes, selecting appropriate 

qualitative and quantitative methods

(b) know how to make, record and communicate 

reliable and valid observations and measurements 

with appropriate precision and accuracy, through 

using primary and secondary sources

(c) analyse, interpret, explain and evaluate the 

methodology, results and impact of their own and 

others’ experiment

Unit 1 (AQA)

Cognitive Psychology - Memory

Models of memory: • The multi-store model, including the concepts of encoding, capacity and 

duration.  Strengths and limitations of the model

• The working memory model, including its strengths and limitations

Memory in everyday life: • Eyewitness testimony (EWT). Factors affecting the accuracy of EWT, including 

misleading information, anxiety, age of witness

• Improving accuracy of EWT, including the use of the cognitive interview

• Strategies for memory improvement

Developmental Psychology – Early Social Development

Attachment: • Explanations of attachment, including learning theory and Bowlby’s theory

• Types of attachment: secure attachment, insecure-avoidant and insecureresistant 

• Use of the “Strange Situation” in attachment research

• Cultural variations in attachment

• The effects of disruption of attachment, failure to form attachment (privation) 

and institutional care

Attachment in everyday life

• The impact of different forms of day care on children’s social development, 

including the effects on aggression and peer relations

• How research into attachment and day care has influenced child care 

practices

Research Methods

Methods and techniques

Candidates will be expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the 

following research methods, their advantages and weaknesses: 

• Experimental method, including laboratory, field and natural experiments

• Studies using a correlational analysis

• Observational techniques

• Self-report techniques including questionnaire and interview

• Case studies

Investigation design: Candidates should be familiar with the following features of investigation design:

• Aims

• Hypotheses, including directional and non-directional

• Experimental design (independent groups, repeated measures and matched 

pairs)

• Design of naturalistic observations, including the development and use of 

behavioural categories

• Design of questionnaires and interviews

• Operationalisation of variables, including independent and dependent variables

• Pilot studies

• Control of extraneous variables

• Reliability and validity

• Awareness of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Code of Ethics

• Ethical issues and ways in which psychologists deal with them

• Selection of participants and sampling techniques, including random, 

opportunity and volunteer sampling

• Demand characteristics and investigator effects

Data analysis and presentation:

Candidates should be familiar with the following features of data analysis, 

presentation and interpretation:

• Presentation and interpretation of quantitative data including graphs, 

scattergrams and tables

• Analysis and interpretation of quantitative data.  Measures of central tendency 

including median, mean, mode. Measures of dispersion including ranges and 

standard deviation

• Analysis and interpretation of correlational data.  Positive and negative 

correlations and the interpretation of correlation coefficients

• Presentation of qualitative data

• Processes involved in content analysis

-1 Hour 30 minutes.
80 - 100 = A
70 - 79 = B
60 - 69 = C
50 - 59 = D
40 - 49 = E
How to achieve a level 4

AO1: Knowledge and understanding

(a) recognise, recall and show understanding of 

scientific knowledge

(b) select, organise and communicate

AO2: Application of knowledge

(a) analyse and evaluate scientific knowledge and 

processes

(b) apply scientific knowledge and processes to 

unfamiliar situations including those related to 

issues

(c) assess the validity, reliability and credibility of 

scientific information.

AO3:

(a) describe ethical, safe and skilful practical 

techniques and processes, selecting appropriate 

qualitative and quantitative methods

(b) know how to make, record and communicate 

reliable and valid observations and measurements 

with appropriate precision and accuracy, through 

using primary and secondary sources

(c) analyse, interpret, explain and evaluate the 

methodology, results and impact of their own and 

others’ experiment

Purpose of the blog

This blog will be designed to help me further prepare for my Psychology AS resit in January 2012. The two units that I will be resitting:
Unit 1: Cognitive Psychology, developmental psychology and research methods.
Unit 2: Biological Psychology, social psychology and individual differences.