Posts archived in Exam updates
I have received a few questions recently about the synoptic aspect of the A2 papers and thought I would pass on my views!
SYNOPTICITY
The synoptic criteria has been dropped from the mark scheme. It is essentially equivalent to IDA.
ISSUES, DEBATES AND APPROACHES (IDA)
In page 293 of the A2 book, the Mann-Whitney U test. Half way down it should say N1=10 instead of N1=0. Thanks to Ruth Bailey of Akeley Wood School for pointing this out.
A student recently pointed out an error in the AS Book on page 119 – in the Do it yourself feature we have suggested that one way to help yourself to remember the terms related to the body’s response to stress is to use more familiar ideas to represent the different words. For example, you might try to remember those Spanish cousins ‘Adrena Cortez’ (the adrenaline junkie) ‘Adrena Medulla’ (with her cortisol habit). However that is the wrong way round – Adrena Cortez has the cortisol habit. Sorry! Thanks to Jasmine Nelson for pointing this out (and telling us how much she liked this blog).
You can see more spreads on the sample chapter tab or go to bookshop to order your copy.
May 18, 2010 The death of Richard Gregory was announced on Monday of this week
. He was an extremely well-known figure in Psychology, most notably for his work on visual illusions and his classic book Eye and Brain. His website has examples of some of his illusions. He also researched artificial intelligence, was an inventor with many patents to his name and founded the At-Bristol hands-on Science Museum, as well as appearing frequently on radio and TV.
I had the privilege of hearing him speak on several occasions and felt he had quite a magical ability to communicate enthusiasm and ideas.
Interesting footnote – Gregory was taught by Frederic Bartlett as an undergraduate and claimed Bartlett inspired him to take up psychology.
In the AQA A AS Complete Companion we have subdivided conformity into majority and minority influence. There was a reason for this – when the new specification was first published minority influence was a named topic so we wrote material on it. However, in a very late revision, minority influence was removed from the specification. However we (as well as other textbooks) left it in because it is an important part of the social change topic – social change is due to minority rather than majority influence.
It is arguable as to whether ‘conformity’ refers only to majority influence or can include minority influence – for example, the Scottish higher exam talks about conformity to majority and minority influence. We elected to include minority influence under the heading ‘conformity’. However, AQA’s ruling is that conformity is solely concerned with majority influence. This means that, in the exam, students will get no marks for material or research studies on minority influence in a question on conformity.
However material on minority influence can be made creditworthy when asked about the implications of social influence research for social change, so it remains an important topic of study.
Thanks to Emma Marsh for raising this issue.
The book is out now! You can buy copies here.
We have posted some sample pages on this site (see ‘Sample Chapters’) and there are also suggested answers to the Mock Exam (see ‘Book Resources’).
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We are currently working on the AS Visual Companion which promises to be quite a sensation – have a peek at some sample pages (see ‘Sample Chapters’). The book is due out in May.
AQA have announced a new look answer booklet (see example here). It is essentially similar to the older-style ones, just with lines, though there are special spaces to insert the number of the question being answered. This is just for the A2 papers.
AQA have recently clarified the way that AO1 and AO2 will be represented on the Unit 4 exam paper. It says on the website:
Questions that assess a combination of AO1 and AO2/AO3 skills will have the breakdown of assessment objectives indicated on the exam paper.For example:
Not sure what will happen on Unit 3??
I am again grateful to an enquiry from a teacher about an apparent contradiction – this time between our AS Complete Companion and another AS book. Logie (1995) proposed that the visuo-spatial sketchpad (a component of the working memory model) could be further divided into a visual cache and inner scribe. In the Complete Companion we have said that the cache is a store and the scribe deals with spatial relations, whereas another AS book says that the cache is a store and the scribe is a rehearsal mechanism. Both versions are correct and both lack detail.The visual cache is a passive store. It holds information about form and colour. However some research evidence (e.g. Coleman and LeFevre, 2002) has found that information is actively rehearsed.The inner scribe is an active rehearsal component. It is proposed to deal with spatial and movement information. There also may be some storage component.Any further comments welcome!
