Whilst behaviorists attribute behavior to automatic stimuli and responses, cognitive psychologists focus on mental processes like attention and thinking.

Subject Content	Need to Know
Case Study	H.M brain-damaged patients – Use of qualitative data (ie. including strengths/ weaknesses of the case study) https://easyrevising.com/biological-approach-ib-psychology-hippocampus-hm-taxi/
Classic Study	Baddeley (1966b) Working Memory Model
Contemporary Studies	Schmolck et al. (2002) Semantic knowledge in patient HM and other patients with bilateral medial and lateral temporal lobe lesions Steyvers and Hemmer (2012) Reconstruction from memory in naturalistic environments Sebastián and Hernández-Gil (2012) Developmental pattern of digit span in Spanish population
Key questions	– How can psychologists’ understanding of memory help patients with dementia? – How can knowledge of working memory be used to inform the treatment of dyslexia?
IDA	● Ethics (ie. Henry Molaison (HM) and confidentiality) ● Practical issues in the design and implementation of research (ie. validity of experimental design) ● Reductionism (ie. under-emphasis on the interconnections between parts of the brain in favour of individual parts responsible for memory; artificially breaking memory up into parts like STM and LTM for the purposes of study) ● Psychology as a science (ie. lab experiments and controls) ● Culture and gender (ie. how memory is reconstructed based on cultural differences or gender stereotypes; or differences in digit span cross-culturally if studied Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil contemporary study). ● Nature-nurture (ie. Henry Molaison (HM) and brain function = nature, reconstructive memory emphasises experiences = nurture) ● How has psychological understanding has developed over time (ie. if studying the development of the working memory model over time; or how the multi-store model informed later memory models) ● Issues of social control (ie. perhaps using understanding of memory in court situations) ● Issues related to socially sensitive research (ie. memory loss related to dementia is socially sensitive for the individual)