GCSE Psychology: Cognition and Behaviour — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Cognition and Behaviour revision notes

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Section A

1. Name the three stores of the multi-store model and state the capacity and duration of each. [6]

2. Define encoding, storage and retrieval. [3]

Section B

3. Explain two limitations of the multi-store model of memory. [4]

4. Explain the difference between the following types of long-term memory, giving an example of each: episodic, semantic, procedural. [6]

5. A researcher investigates whether people remember more words from the start or end of a list.

(a) Name the effect being investigated and describe the expected pattern. [3] (b) Explain the primacy and recency effects in terms of memory stores. [4] (c) State the independent and dependent variables. [2]

6. Explain two explanations of forgetting, giving evidence or an example for each. [6]

7. Explain the difference between a laboratory experiment and a field experiment, giving one advantage of each. [4]

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Section C

8. Visual illusions reveal how perception can differ from sensation.

(a) Distinguish between sensation and perception. [2]

(b) Explain how Gibson’s and Gregory’s theories differ in explaining why visual illusions deceive us. [4]

9. A researcher finds a correlation of +0.8 between hours of sleep and test scores.

(a) State what can and cannot be concluded from this correlation. [3]

(b) Suggest one third variable that might explain the relationship without sleep causing higher scores. [2]

(c) State three ethical requirements a researcher must follow when conducting this kind of study. [3]

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Answers

1. Sensory register — capacity is very large, duration under 2 seconds [1] [1]. Short-term memory — capacity about 7 ± 2 items, duration about 18–30 seconds [1] [1]. Long-term memory — capacity potentially unlimited, duration potentially a lifetime [1] [1].

2. Encoding — converting information into a form that can be stored [1]. Storage — holding the information over time [1]. Retrieval — recovering the stored information when it is needed [1].

3. Any two, 2 marks each: it treats short-term and long-term memory as single, unitary stores, whereas evidence from brain-damaged patients shows separate types of long-term memory that can be damaged independently [1] [1]. It overstates the role of rehearsal — people remember flashbulb events vividly without rehearsing them, and rehearsed material is often forgotten [1] [1]. It is largely based on artificial laboratory tasks such as recalling word lists, which lack ecological validity compared with everyday remembering [1] [1].

4. Episodic — memory for personal events and experiences, including where and when, e.g. remembering your first day at school [1] [1]. Semantic — memory for facts and general knowledge about the world, without a personal context, e.g. knowing that Paris is the capital of France [1] [1]. Procedural — memory for how to perform actions and skills, often difficult to put into words, e.g. riding a bicycle [1] [1].

5. (a) The serial position effect [1]; recall is best for words at the beginning and at the end of the list, and poorest for words in the middle [1] [1]. (b) The primacy effect occurs because early words have been rehearsed most and transferred into long-term memory [1] [1]. The recency effect occurs because the last words are still held in short-term memory at the moment of recall [1]; words in the middle have been displaced from short-term memory but not rehearsed enough to reach long-term memory [1]. (c) Independent variable: the position of the word in the list [1]. Dependent variable: the number of words correctly recalled [1].

6. Any two, 3 marks each: Interference — other memories disrupt recall [1]; proactive interference is when older learning disrupts new, retroactive is when new learning disrupts old [1]; e.g. learning Spanish makes it harder to recall the French learned earlier [1]. Retrieval failure (cue-dependent forgetting) — the memory is stored but cannot be accessed without the right cue [1]; recall is better when the context or emotional state at recall matches that at encoding [1]; e.g. remembering something on returning to the room where you learned it [1]. (Also accept decay or displacement.)

7. A laboratory experiment is conducted in a controlled artificial setting; a field experiment takes place in the participants’ natural environment [1] [1]. Laboratory advantage: extraneous variables are tightly controlled, so cause and effect can be established confidently and the study is easily replicated [1]. Field advantage: higher ecological validity — behaviour is more natural, so findings generalise better to real life [1].

8. (a) Sensation is the raw data received by the senses [1]; perception is the brain’s interpretation of that data [1].

(b) Gibson’s direct theory argues perception is bottom-up — the visual array contains enough information, through cues such as motion parallax and texture gradient, to perceive accurately without inference [2]. Gregory’s constructivist theory argues perception is top-down — the brain makes inferences from prior knowledge and expectation, which is why illusions such as the Müller-Lyer figure deceive us, as the brain misapplies depth cues [2].

9. (a) A strong positive relationship exists — more sleep is associated with higher test scores [1]; this cannot show that sleep causes the higher scores [2].

(b) A plausible third variable, such as general health or motivation, could independently drive both more sleep and higher test scores [2].

(c) Any three: informed consent; right to withdraw; protection from harm; confidentiality; debriefing [3].

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Where marks are usually lost

• Giving the duration of short-term memory as “a few minutes”.
• Confusing episodic with semantic memory.
• Explaining the recency effect using long-term memory.
• Naming variables without stating how they were measured.
• Saying “correlation does not equal causation” without naming a plausible third variable.
• Confusing Gibson’s bottom-up theory with Gregory’s top-down theory.