POSSIBLE AS AQA(A) EXAM QUESTIONS – UNIT 1

Additional sample questions

COGNITIVE

1. Four of the following statements are descriptions of different components of the Working Memory Model:A. Stores acoustically coded items for a short periodB. Stores and deals with what items look like and the physical relationship between themC. Encodes data in terms of its meaningD. Acts like a form of attention and controls slave systemsE. Silently repeats words that are heard or seen

a. In the table below, write down which description matches each component part of the model (4 marks)

Components of working memory model Description of components

Phonological loop

Visuo-spatial sketch pad

Articulatory process

Central executive

b. Identify and explain ONE weakness of the working memory model (4 marks)2. Explain ONE way in which anxiety can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (4 marks)3. One strategy often used by students to try to improve their memory ability is to repeat information

that they wish to learn over and over again. In order to investigate this, an experimenter gave a group of participants a list of words with the instruction that they were to repeat the list over and over verbally. A second group of participants were given the same list f words, but they were only allowed to read them once. The number of words recalled by the two groups was compared.a. Give a directional hypothesis for this study (2 marks)b. Explain why it is important that the same list of words was used with both groups of

participants (2 marks)c. (i) State what the independent variable is in this study (1 mark)

(ii) State what the dependent variable would be in this study (1 mark)d. A volunteer sample was used in this study. Outline ONE weakness of this type of sampling for

this study (2 marks)e. The findings from this investigation are shown in the table below.

Mean number of words recalled

Participants using repetition 13.6

Participants not using repetition 8.4

Explain ONE conclusion that can be drawn from these findings (4 marks)4. Outline and evaluate the multi-store model of memory (12 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

1. Outline two behaviours characteristic of an infant witha. An insecure-resistant attachment typeb. An insecure-avoidant type (2+2 marks)

2. a. Outline key features of the evolutionary perspective explanation of attachment (6 marks)b. Explain TWO limitations of the evolutionary perspective explanation of attachment (2+2 marks)

3. Lilieth is an experienced nurse who has been put in charge of a newly-established children’s ward in a local hospital. Being placed under hospital care can cause disruption to attachments and this can have negative effects for children. Therefore it is Lilleth’s aim to use her knowledge of childcare practice to try to ensure that any such negative effects do not occur in the children’s ward.Outline TWO strategies that Lilleth could use to reduce the negative effects of disruption to attachments. (3+3 marks)

4. A psychologist conducted a research study to investigate the implications of providing caregivers with training designed to increase their sensitivity.Using an independent groups design, 20 caregivers were randomly assigned to the group receiving training to increase their sensitivity. The remaining 20, a control group, received no such training.The findings were that caregivers in receipt of sensitivity training were rated as more sensitive than caregivers in the control group. For children around the age of two, those in the care of the caregivers who received training were more secure in their attachments than those cared for by the control group.The researcher concluded that the findings were directly due to the sensitivity training.a. (i) Select from the following options which aspect of the experimental design allowed the

researcher to reach this conclusion (1 mark)A. That an independent groups design was usedB. That participants were randomly allocated to the training or control groupC. That an equal number of participants were used in both groups

(ii) Explain, using the option selected in (a)(i), why the researcher was able to reach this conclusion (2 marks)

b. Each caregiver was assessed on a sensitivity scale with a maximum possible individual score of 100. The data was placed into a table.

Received sensitivity training No sensitivity trainingTotal sensitivity scores 1404 1022

Measure of central tendency 70.2 51.1Standard deviation 9.88 5.02

The measure of central tendency for each group was calculated by dividing the total sensitivity score by the number of caregivers in that group.(i) What measure of central tendency was used? (1 mark)(ii) Explain one strength and one weakness of the measure of central tendency used in this

investigation (2+2 marks)c. What do the standard deviations tell us about the data in the table? (3 marks)

5. Ainsworth investigated attachment behaviour using a controlled observation called the Strange Situation. This involved testing levels of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. However, the procedure has been accused of lacking validity.

a. Explain what is meant by the term validity (2 marks)b. Explain why the Strange Situation may be lacking in validity (3 marks)

Further practice questions

COGNITIVE1. Zac is playing a computer game which involves sorting coloured shapes that appear on the

screen. He has to capture the shapes and drag them to the appropriate collection box. While he plays, he chats to Dan about a football match.When he has completed Level 1, he moves to Level 2. Here, the shapes are replaced by words that have to be sorted according to their meaning. Zac begins to make mistakes and so stops talking to Dan.

With reference to features of the Working Memory Model, explain why Zac can easily cope with Level 1 and chat to Dan but, when he gets to Level 2, he cannot do both things at the same time (6 marks)

2. Below is a table summarising the main differences between short term memory and long term memory. Complete the table (2 marks)

STM LTMCapacityDurationEncoding Mainly acoustic Mainly semantic

3. It is argued that encoding in STM is mainly acoustic. In an experiment to investigate this, a psychologist compared participants’ recall of the following two lists of letters.List 1 – BVTCDGEPList 2 – MRWLZYQA

All participants were read List 1 and then, after recalling List 1, were read List 2 and asked to recall it. The data was recorded in the table below and the number of correctly recalled letters for each list was compared.

a. Examine the letters in each of the lists and explain why the investigator selected the letters in each list (3 marks)

b. For each participant, the number of correctly recalled letters from List 1 and List 2 was entered on a table of results.

Participants Number of letters recalled from List 1

Number of words recalled from List 2

1 4 72 3 53 4 54 6 85 7 76 3 77 5 68 3 59 6 7

10 8 7

(i) Explain how you could summarise the findings of this investigation (4 marks)(ii) Explain what the data seem to show (4 marks)

c. Like many studies in cognitive psychology, this was a laboratory rxperiment involving something the participants were unlikely to do in everyday life. Using your knowledge of research methods, discuss the value of such studies in cognitive psychology (8 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

1. This is an observation record of an infant’s behaviour at a mother and toddler group. Baby G is male, 16 months old.Mother enters carrying G, sits down in low seat with child on her lap. Hands child rattle. G grasps it, shakes it. Looks at mother (eye contact), throws it on the floor. Mother puts child on floor. G crawls to rattle, picks it up. Returns to mother. Crawls off again, starts to play with toy car. Moves further away. Plays with ball and bricks, Mother gets up and goes to the other side of room to talk. G looks round (mother out of sight). Crawls up by seat. Stands up by seat. Starts to cry, looks round, cries louder, sits down next to chair, miserable look.Mother returns, G reaches out to her. Mother cuddles G. G stops crying and cuddles. Crawls a little way off then returns fast with toy. Plays, giving mother toy. Crawls further away and resumes play with bricks.

a. Identify the type of attachment displayed by G. Justify your answer by citing evidence from the observation record above. (4 marks)

b. (i) Explain one ethical problem associated with an observational study of infants such as this (3 marks)(ii) Explain one practical problem associated with an observational study of infants

such as this (3 marks)c. The researcher recorded observational data from nine other infants in the group.

Explain how the researcher would go about doing a content analysis of the data collected. Illustrate your answer by reference to the observational record above. (4 marks)

Specimen question paper

COGNITIVE

1. a. Using the list below, complete the table to distinguish between long-term memory and short-term memory. (3 marks)

Unlimited Up to a lifetime 7+/- 2 items Mainly acoustic Seconds Mainly semantic

Short-term memory (STM) Long-term memory (LTM)

Capacity

Duration

Encoding

b. Using the multi-store model of memory, outline how information is transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory. (2 marks)

2. a. Outline key features of the working memory model (6 marks)

b. Explain ONE strength of the working memory model (4 marks)

3. Kate is revising for her driving theory test. She needs to remember a variety of information such as rules relating to speed limits and stopping distances.

Outline TWO strategies that Kate might use to improve her recall and explain why EACH of the strategies that you suggest should improve recall. (6 marks)

4. a. One of the questions below is a leading question. Identify which is a leading question, A or B, and explain why it is a leading question (3 marks)

A “Did you see a man crossing the road?”

B “Did you see the man crossing the road?”

b. Explain why studies of eyewitness testimony have been criticised as lacking validity (5 marks)

5. In order to investigate encoding in memory, an experimenter gave participants two lists of words. List A contained 10 acoustically similar words and List B contained 10 semantically similar words.Each participant read aloud List A and then recalled the words in the list.Then each participant read aloud List B and recalled the words in this list.The number of words correctly recalled in each condition was recorded and compared to see whether participants remembered more words from List A or from List B.

a. What factors, other than the acoustic and semantic encoding, would the experimenter have to consider when selecting words for the list? (3 marks)

b. Which type of design was used in this investigation? (1 mark)

Repeated measures Independent groups

Matched pairsc. Identify ONE flaw in the design of this investigation and explain how the experimenter could have

overcome this flaw (3 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

6. Outline two behaviours that are characteristic of a securely attached infant (2 marks)

7.

a. Outline the behavioural explanation of attachment formation (4 marks)

b. Explain how the behavioural explanation of attachment differs from the evolutionary explanation of attachment (4 marks)

8. A psychologist wished to investigate early child development. She decided to interview some mothers and ask them questions about their infants’ social behaviour.

a. Explain ONE disadvantage of using an interview to collect these data (2 marks)

b. Write ONE question that the psychologist could ask the mothers about their child’s social behaviour that would generate QUALITATIVE data (2 marks)

c. explain ONE strength of qualitative data (2 marks)

d. The researcher decided to undertake an observational study of aggression in toddlers. Explain how variations in aggressive behaviour of toddlers could be categorised for this observation. (4 marks)

e. (i) Explain ONE ethical issue relevant to observational studies of young children (2 marks)

(ii) Explain how the researcher could deal with this ethical issue (2 marks)

9. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of day care on social development (eg aggression, peer relations). (12 marks)

Unit 1 January 2009

COGNITIVE

1) The following are all concepts relating to memory:

A. DurationB. CapacityC. Encoding D. Retrieval

a. In the table below, write which ONE of the concepts listed above matches each definition (2 marks)DEFINITION CONCEPT

The length of time the memory store holdsinformation

Transforming incoming information into a formthat can be stored in memory

b. Outline the main features of the multi-store model of memory (6 marks)

c. The multi-store model of memory has been criticised in many ways. The following example illustrates a possible criticism. Some students read through their revision notes lots of times before an examination, but still find it difficult to remember the information. However, the same students can remember the information in a celebrity magazine, even though they read it only once.

Explain why this can be used as a criticism of the multi-store model of memory (4 marks)

2) Outline how ONE research study investigated the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (4 marks)

3) A psychologist showed participants 100 different cards, one at a time.Each card had two unrelated words on it, eg DOG, HAT.Participants in one group were instructed to form a mental image to link the words.Participants in the other group were instructed simply to memorise the words.After all the word pairs had been presented, each participant was shown a card with the firstword of each pair printed on it. Participants were asked to recall the second word.The following results were found:

Number of words correctly recalledMental Image Group Memorising Group

Mean score 80 45

a. What is the independent variable (IV) in this study? (2 marks)b. What is the dependent variable (DV) in this study? (2 marks)c. What experimental design was used in this study? (1 mark)d. Explain ONE strength of this experimental design in the context of this study (2 marks)e. Explain how a psychologist could find out whether these results are reliable (2 marks)

4) A student teacher finds it very difficult to remember pupils' names. She decides to look in a psychology book to find some useful strategies for improving her memory. Outline one strategy the student teacher could use, and explain why this might improve her memory for pupils' names. (4 marks)

5) Traditionally, police have questioned eye witnesses using the standard interview procedure.

This involves a period of free recall about an event, followed by specific questions.However, an increasing number of police forces are now using the cognitive interview technique.a. Explain how a cognitive interview differs from a standard interview. (4 marks)b. Psychologists have carried out research into the use of cognitive interviews. One possible

ethical issue which might arise during this research is protection of participants from harm. Explain how psychologists could deal with this ethical issue. (3 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

6) Ainsworth and Bell observed infants in an unfamiliar room to assess the quality of their attachment to their mother. Observations during this 'Strange Situation' related to the following categories of behaviour:

Exploration - how much the infant explored the unfamiliar room;Separation behaviour - how the infant reacted when the mother left;Stranger anxiety - the response of the infant to a stranger;Reunion behaviour - how the infant reacted when the mother returned.

a. Select two of these categories and explain how the behaviour of securely attached infants and insecurely attached infants would be different in the 'Strange Situation'. (2+2 marks)

b. Briefly explain why some children show characteristics of secure attachment and some characteristics of insecure attachment. (2 marks)

7) One situation in which disruption of attachment can occur is when a mother of a young child is admitted into hospital. A researcher decided to study the behaviour of a two-year-old boy who experienced this disruption of attachment.She decided to use naturalistic observation of the boy both before his mother was admitted into hospital and after she returned home. Each period of observation lasted for one hour.

a. Suggest two suitable behavioural categories the researcher could use to record the boy's behaviour. (2 marks)

b. How might the researcher record the boy’s behaviour during the one-hour observation? (2 marks)c. Explain why the psychologist might want to carry out a pilot study before the main observation.

(2 marks)

8) Outline what research has shown about the effects of day care on children's aggressivebehaviour. (6 marks)

9) A psychologist analysed the results of 'Strange Situation' studies from different countries.Some of the results are shown below.

Country (and number of studies)

% of each type of attachment

Secure Insecure-Avoidant Insecure-ResistantCountry One (2) 64 7 29

Country Two (18) 65 21 14Country Three (4) 67 26 7

a. Outline what the table above shows about cultural variations in attachment (3 marks)b. Explain one criticism of investigating cultural variations in attachment using the 'Strange

Situation.' (3 marks)

10) Psychologists have put forward different explanations of attachment, such as learning theory and Bowlby's theory.Outline and evaluate ONE OR MORE explanations of attachment (12 marks)

Unit 1 May 2009

COGNITIVE

1. Cognitive interviews have been developed to improve witness recall. Identify and explain TWO techniques used in the cognitive interview (6 marks)

2. A brain scan shows that one area of the brain is more active when a person is doing a verbal task. However, when this person is doing a visual task, a different area of the brain is more active.(a) Explain how this could relate to the working memory model. Refer to different parts of the

working memory model in your answer. (4 marks)(b) Give an example of an appropriate verbal task and an appropriate visual task which could be

used during the brain scan (2 marks)3. Some psychology students read about an experiment which suggested that organisation is a useful

strategy for improving memory. The students carried out an experiment to investigate the effects of organisation on word recall. They made up a list of 50 items that could be bought in a supermarket. The participants were teachers at their school. One group of participants saw the words organised into categories such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products and cleaning materials. The other group saw the same words presented randomly.The results are given in table 1 below.

Table 1: the number of words correctly recalled by participants who saw the organised list and the random list

Organised list Random list20 1515 1318 1945 1424 2023 1028 2121 625 2230 25

Measure of central tendencyMeasure of dispersion

(a) Identify a suitable measure of central tendency that could be used with these data. Justify your answer (2 marks)

(b) The psychology students decided to use a volunteer sample. Suggest ONE way in which this sample could be obtained (2 marks)

(c) Suggest one possible extraneous variable in this study (1 mark)(d) Suggest ONE way in which the students could control for this extraneous variable (2marks)(e) The psychology students wanted to carry out an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of

a different strategy for memory improvement. For this further experiment, suggest the following:

i. An appropriate strategy for memory improvement (2 marks)ii. An appropriate experimental design (1 mark)

iii. Operationalised independent and dependent variables (2 marks)

4. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (12 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

5. A recent study recorded the amount of time that children spent in day care from birth to four years, and asked each child’s mother to rate her child for aggression and disobedience. The study found that, as the time spent in day care went up, the mothers’ rating of aggression and disobedience went up. (a) What kind of correlation is this research showing? (1 mark)(b) Outline ONE strengths and ONE weakness of using correlational research to investigate the

effects of day care (4 marks)The researcher also found that children who experienced better quality day care had fewer behavioural problems than children who experience lower quality day care.(c) Outline TWO characteristics of high quality day care (4 marks)(d) What have studies shown us about the effects of day care on peer relations? (4 marks)

6. (a) What is meant by the term attachment? (2 marks)(b)Tick TWO of the boxes below to indicate which of the following statements relate to Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment. (2 marks)

A. attachment takes place during a critical period or not at all B. Infants become attached to the person who feeds them C. Infants are innately programmed to form an attachment D. Attachments are based on the principles of classical and operant conditioning

7. Research has suggested that institutionalisation can have negative effects on children. In the 1990s, many children were found living in poor quality orphanages in Romania. Luca had lived in one of these orphanages since birth. When he was four years old, he was adopted and left the orphanage to live in Canada. His development was then studied for a number of years. (a) Outline possible negative effects of the institutionalisation of Luca. (4 marks)(b) The scenario above is an example of a case study. Outline ONE strength and ONE limitation of

this research method (4 marks)(c) Disruption of attachment can occur when children experience separation from their

attachment figure during their early childhood. Outline ONE study of the effects of the disruption of attachment (4 marks)

8. By observing interactions between infants and their mothers in the Strange Situation, Mary Ainsworth was able to identify different types of attachment.(a) Describe possible demand characteristics in this research (3 marks)(b) How does the behaviour of securely attached infants differ from that of insecurely attached

infants? (4 marks)

Unit 1 January 2010

COGNITIVE

1. a) Tick TWO of the boxes below to indicate which of the following are features of the working memory model:

serial position curve

Incidental learning store

Central executive

Phonological loop

b) Explain ONE strength and ONE weakness of the working memory model (4 marks)

2. A case study was carried out on Peter whose brain was damaged in a motorcycle accident. Psychologists tested how many numbers he could hold in his short-term memory. They did this by reading him lists of numbers and asking him to recall the numbers immediately in the right order. He could recall a maximum of two items. The psychologists found that his long-term memory was normal.

a) How was Peter’s short-term memory after the accident different from most adults’ short-term memory? (2 marks)

b) Does this case study support the multi-store model of memory? Explain your answer. (4 marks)

c) Identify ONE ethical issue associated with this case study of Peter. Suggest how psychologists could deal with this ethical issue. (1+3 marks)

3. A psychologist carried out a field experiment to investigate the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. The participants were pupils and parents attending a school concert. Just before the concert began, two professional actors had an argument on the stage. During the argument, one actor pushed the other actor. Both actors then left the stage. Some of the audience were approached as they left the concert and were asked to take part in an experiment. Those who agreed were taken to a quiet room and were asked some questions about the argument. For some participants, the questions included, ‘Did you see the man in glasses push the other man?’ In fact, neither man was wearing glasses.

The participants were then asked to describe the argument in their own words.

a) What is afield experiment?(2 marks)

b) Other than ethical issues, outline ONE weakness of using a field experiment in this investigation (2 marks)

c) Suggest why the psychologist included the question about the man in glasses (2 marks)

d) The psychologist applied content analysis to each participant’s description of the argument. One behavioural category the psychologist selected was “pushing”. Suggest ONE OTHER relevant behavioural category the psychologist could select. Explain how the content analysis could be carried out (1+3 marks)

e) Describe what research has shown about the effect of age of witness on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (6 marks)

4. Psychologists have suggested various strategies for memory improvement. Outline ONE OR MORE ways to improve memory (4 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

5. a) What is meant by the term attachment? (2 marks)

b) Tick TWO of the boxes below to indicate which statements best describe the behaviour of a securely attached child in the Strange Situation (2 marks)

Exploration of the environment is limited because the infant has difficulty moving away from the caregiver

The infant explores a strange environment, plays happily with toys and uses the caregiver as a safe base

The infant goes to the caregiver when she returns and is easily soothed

The infant goes to the caregiver when she returns but is difficult to comfort

c) Outline how Ainsworth studied types of attachment (3 marks)

6. A psychologist investigated the effect of different forms of day care on children’s later social development. She selected two different types of day care:

Child minders

Day nurseries

The children had been in one of these types of day care full-time for at least a year before they started primary school.

Each child’s mother was asked to complete a questionnaire.

a) Identify ONE sampling technique and explain how it could be used to select the children (1+2 marks)

b) The questionnaire given to the mothers included questions about the way their children’s social behaviour changed over time. Explain what is meant by children’s social behaviour. (2 marks)

c) Write ONE suitable question which could be used in the questionnaire to produce QUANTITATIVE data (2 marks)

d) Write ONE suitable question which could be used in the questionnaire to produce QUALITATIVE data (2 marks)

e) Give ONE weakness of using questionnaires in this research (2 marks)

7. Simon, a two-year-old boy, was left by his parents in a residential nursery for 9 days. His mother did not see him during this time because she was in hospital. He was looked after by many different carers who gave him good physical care.

a) Explain how Simon’s behaviour might change as a result of disruption of attachment. (4 marks)

b) Suggest ONE way in which Simon’s experience when his mother went into hospital could have been improved (2 marks)

8. Failure to form attachment is known as privation. Outline and evaluate research into privation. (12 marks)

Unit 1 June 2010

COGNITIVE

1.

2. Describe strategies for memory improvement (5 marks)

3.

a) Write an appropriate non-directional hypothesis for this experiment (2 marks)

b) Explain why the researcher used an independent groups design for this experiment (2 marks)

c)

d) What does the frequency distribution show about the results? (3 marks)

e) Do the results of this experiment support the findings of other research into the capacity of short-term memory? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

4. Describe one way in which psychologists have investigated the duration of short-term memory. In your answer, you should include details of stimulus materials used, what participants were asked to do and how duration was measured. (4 marks)

5.

a) Outline how the students could have used cognitive interview to investigate this event. Include AT LEAST ONE example of what participants would be asked to do (4 marks)

b) Explain how anxiety might have affected eyewitness testimony of this event. Refer to psychological research in your answer. (6 marks)

c) Explain why it might be better to carry out research into eyewitness testimony in the real world, rather than in a laboratory (3 marks)

DEVELOPMENTAL

6. Ainsworth identified different types of attachment in children, including secure and insecure attachment.

a) Identify TWO characteristics of an insecurely attached child (2 marks)

b) Identify the sampling technique used in this study. Outline ONE weakness of using this sampling method. (3 marks)

c) Identify ONE ethical issue the researcher would need to consider in this research. Suggest how the researcher could deal with this ethical issue. (3 marks)

d) Questionnaires and interviews are both self-report techniques. Explain ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage of using a questionnaire rather than an interview (4 marks)

7. Observation in a Strange Situation has been used to investigate cultural variations in attachment.

a) Give ONE advantage of using observation in psychological research (2 marks)

b) Outline what research has shown about cultural variations in attachment (4 marks)

8.

a) Name TWO different forms of day care which might be suitable for Ali (2 marks)

b) What advice would you give Ali’s parents to help them choose the most suitable day care for Ali? (4 marks)

9. Psychologists have studied children who have lived in institutions such as orphanages. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalisation (12 marks)