VICPsychology

Unit 3: How does experience affect behaviour and mental processes?

12 dot points across 12 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples used memory techniques and Western mnemonics to retain large amounts of information?

the use of mnemonics by written cultures, including acronyms, acrostics and the method of loci, and the use of mnemonics by oral cultures, including songlines used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to improve the encoding, storage and retrieval of memory
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on improving memory. Covers Western written-culture mnemonics (acronyms, acrostics and the method of loci) and oral-culture techniques used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (songlines and sung narratives tied to Country), explaining how each aids encoding, storage and retrieval.
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What do Alzheimer's disease and aphantasia reveal about how memory and mental imagery normally work?

the contribution that brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and aphantasia can make to the understanding of memory, with reference to the role of brain structures and the absence of mental imagery
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on memory conditions. Covers Alzheimer's disease as a neurodegenerative condition affecting memory and brain structures, aphantasia as the inability to generate mental imagery, and what each reveals about how normal memory and imagination work.
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How does the brain take in, hold and store information so it can be retrieved later?

the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model of memory, including the function, capacity and duration of sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory, and the role of the hippocampus, amygdala, neocortex and cerebellum in storing and retrieving explicit and implicit memories
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on memory. Covers the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model (sensory, short-term and long-term memory, with capacity and duration), the distinction between explicit and implicit memory, and the roles of the hippocampus, amygdala, neocortex and cerebellum in storing and retrieving memories.
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How do consequences and associations shape the behaviours a person learns over time?

classical conditioning as a three-phase process (before, during and after conditioning) involving an unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response, and operant conditioning as a three-phase model involving antecedent, behaviour and consequence, including positive and negative reinforcement and response cost
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on behaviourist learning. Covers classical conditioning as a three-phase process (Pavlov's dogs, the unconditioned and conditioned stimulus and response) and operant conditioning as a three-phase model (Skinner, antecedent-behaviour-consequence, positive and negative reinforcement, punishment and response cost), with the key differences.
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What makes one coping strategy effective in a situation, and why does matching the strategy to the context matter?

the use of strategies (approach and avoidance) for coping with stress and improving mental wellbeing, including context-specific effectiveness and coping flexibility
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on coping. Covers approach and avoidance strategies, context-specific effectiveness, coping flexibility, and how matching a strategy to the demands of a situation determines whether it reduces stress and supports mental wellbeing.
6 min answer →

How do episodic and semantic memory let us relive the past and picture possible futures?

the roles of episodic and semantic memory in retrieving autobiographical events and in constructing possible imagined futures, including evidence from brain imaging and post-traumatic and developmental amnesia
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on episodic and semantic memory. Covers the distinction between the two, their roles in retrieving autobiographical events, how the same systems are used to construct imagined futures, and supporting evidence from brain imaging and amnesia.
6 min answer →

How do the gut and the brain communicate, and why does this matter for stress and psychological functioning?

the gut-brain axis (GBA) as an area of emerging research, with reference to the interaction of gut microbiota with stress and the nervous system in the control of psychological processes and behaviour
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on the gut-brain axis. Covers the two-way communication between the gut and the brain via the vagus nerve, the role of gut microbiota, the link to the enteric nervous system, and how stress and the GBA influence each other in an area of emerging research.
6 min answer →

How does the nervous system enable a person to interact with the external world?

the roles of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the autonomic and somatic nervous systems in responding to sensory stimuli and coordinating voluntary and involuntary movement, including the role of neurons in conscious and unconscious responses
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on the nervous system. Covers the central and peripheral divisions, the autonomic and somatic systems, the structure and role of sensory, motor and interneurons, and how conscious and unconscious (spinal reflex) responses are coordinated.
6 min answer →

How do neurons signal to one another at the synapse, and what do glutamate and GABA each do to the receiving neuron?

the role of neurotransmitters in the transmission of neural information between neurons (lock-and-key process) for the coordination of mental processes and behaviour, including the role of glutamate in learning and memory and GABA in regulating postsynaptic activation
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on neurotransmitters. Covers synaptic transmission and the lock-and-key process, the difference between excitatory and inhibitory effects, the role of glutamate as the main excitatory neurotransmitter in learning and memory, and the role of GABA as the main inhibitory neurotransmitter regulating postsynaptic activation.
6 min answer →

How can a person learn a new behaviour simply by watching someone else perform it?

observational learning as a social-cognitive approach to learning involving attention, retention, reproduction, motivation and reinforcement, as demonstrated by Bandura's research, and its application to the acquisition of behaviour
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on observational learning. Covers the social-cognitive approach, the five stages of observational learning (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation, reinforcement), Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, vicarious reinforcement, and how the model differs from classical and operant conditioning.
6 min answer →

How does the body respond to a stressor at both a biological and psychological level?

the fight-flight-freeze response to acute stress, the role of cortisol in chronic stress, Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome as a biological model, and Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of stress and coping as a psychological model
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology dot point on stress. Covers the fight-flight-freeze response and the role of cortisol, Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion) as a biological model, and Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model (primary and secondary appraisal) as a psychological model, with strengths and limitations.
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How do connections between neurons physically change so that learning and memory can be stored in the brain?

synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation and long-term depression, resulting from the changing of connections between neurons (sprouting, rerouting and pruning) as the fundamental mechanism of memory formation that leads to learning
A focused answer to the VCE Psychology Unit 3 dot point on synaptic plasticity. Covers long-term potentiation and long-term depression, the structural changes of sprouting, rerouting and pruning, and how these processes form the biological basis of memory and learning.
6 min answer →