Neuropsychology and memory

1. Neuropsychology studies how the brain is linked to behaviour, including memory.
2. It treats memory as several separate functions.
3. A person may be able to say only that their memory is bad, which does not identify which function has been affected.
4. Measuring each function on its own turns that complaint into a pattern of scores that points to a particular deficit.
5. Different tasks probe different parts of memory, from word lists to visual designs.

The development of memory testing

1. At first a memory problem could be judged only from what the person said they could remember, which was subjective and hard to compare between people.
2. Studies of people with neurological damage then showed that memory functions can fail separately, so separate scores are needed for separate functions.
3. Psychologists built batteries of tasks that are given and scored in exactly the same way for everyone, so one person's results can be set against typical results.
4. Brain imaging was later used alongside those tests, so a low score could be tied to a damaged region.
5. The measurement of memory therefore developed in three steps: from what the person reports, to standardised tests, to tests combined with brain imaging.
6. Wilson, Kopelman and Kapur (2008) used that combination with Clive Wearing, repeating standardised tests of intelligence and memory alongside brain scans over many years.

The Wechsler Memory Scale

1. The Wechsler Memory Scale is the best known of those batteries.
2. It is a standardised battery of memory tasks, given in the same order with the same wording and scored the same way each time.
3. It gives a separate score for verbal memory, tested with short stories and word lists, and for visual memory, tested with designs and faces.
4. It also separates immediate recall from delayed recall, which shows whether new information is being held over time.
5. Each score is compared with the typical scores for the person's age, so an unusually low result on one function stands out.

Using the scores in a clinic

1. The tests show which memory functions have been affected after an injury or illness.
2. That helps doctors diagnose conditions such as dementia and tell them apart from other causes of poor memory.
3. The pattern of scores also guides support, since a person whose new learning is affected may be helped by diaries, alarms and written routines.
4. Giving the same test again months later tracks whether memory is improving or declining, which is how rehabilitation is judged.
5. Because the test is standardised, that comparison is a fair one.

Interpreting the pattern of scores

1. A low score can have several causes, including tiredness, anxiety, low mood and medication.
2. The pattern across the functions therefore carries more weight than any single number.
3. A person whose immediate recall is normal for their age and whose delayed recall is close to zero shows a failure to hold new material over time.
4. Pairing that pattern with a brain scan allows a clinician to identify the region likely to be involved.

Turning this into marks

1. Name the Wechsler Memory Scale, because writing that psychologists use memory tests does not secure the knowledge mark.
2. Give two functions it scores separately, such as verbal memory and visual memory, or immediate and delayed recall, and keep them as two distinct points.
3. Say what standardisation adds, because scores are comparable only when a test is given and scored the same way every time.
4. The mark most often lost is treating memory as a single ability, so describe the separate functions the tests measure.