A-Level Psychology: Forgetting and Eyewitness Testimony

Forgetting and eyewitness testimony form the applied half of the memory topic — the part with real courtroom stakes, which is exactly how exam questions frame it. This quiz covers the explanations of forgetting and the full eyewitness research programme.

The forgetting questions distinguish the two compulsory explanations. Interference is tested through the proactive/retroactive contrast with scenario diagnosis — old learning disrupting new versus new disrupting old. Retrieval failure is built on the encoding specificity principle: recall improves when the cues present at encoding return at retrieval, tested through both context-dependent and state-dependent cases, with state-dependent forgetting defined precisely as an internal-state mismatch.

The eyewitness questions cover the classic research: the leading-questions finding that verb intensity shifts speed estimates upward, post-event discussion and memory conformity — with both its informational and normative routes examined — and the conclusion that memory is reconstructive, actively altered by information encountered after the event. Anxiety gets the two-sided treatment the specification requires: the weapon focus effect narrowing attention, and the inverted-U relationship between arousal and recall accuracy.

The cognitive interview closes the set: its components tested as a group (context reinstatement, report everything, changed perspective, reverse order) and the changed-perspective technique examined for its rationale — disrupting schema-driven recall.

Each explanation names the principle and its implication for real testimony, which is precisely the application skill the 16-mark questions reward. Pairs with the Memory Models quiz for full topic coverage.

• Diagnose proactive vs retroactive interference in scenarios
• Apply the encoding specificity principle to context- and state-dependent forgetting
• Explain the leading-questions and post-event-discussion findings and memory conformity
• Analyse anxiety's effects: weapon focus and the inverted-U relationship
• List and justify the four components of the cognitive interview

Covers the compulsory Memory content of A-level Psychology: interference and retrieval-failure explanations of forgetting, eyewitness testimony research on misleading information, post-event discussion and anxiety, and the cognitive interview.