Model Answer for Question 6 Paper 1: AS Psychology, June 2016 (AQA)

Section B - Memory

06 Annie can still skateboard even though she hasn’t skated for many years. Germaine can still recall what happened on his first day at university even though it was ages ago. Billy remembers the names of the tools he needs to repair the broken tap.

Identify three types of long-term memory and explain how each type is shown in one of the examples above. [6 marks]

Suggested Answer: Episodic – Germaine ‘can still recall what happened on his first day at university’ which is an episodic personal memory (of an event) because it contains details of the time and place.  Semantic – Billy ‘remembers the names of the tools he needs to repair the broken tap’ which is memory for shared facts and knowledge otherwise known as semantic memory. Procedural – Annie ‘can still skateboard even though she hasn’t skated for many years’ which is a skill-based memory which typically becomes more automatic because of practice.

Exam Hint: Some students try to define the key term (e.g. procedural) by using the word procedure. For example: Annie is demonstrating procedure memory because she is remembering a procedure. Naturally this does not gain credit and students are required to explain/define the key words using other terminology. Furthermore, defining procedural as ‘how to’ is vague and students should refer to procedural memory as an ‘action’ or ‘skilled-based memory’.