MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on memory, covering encoding, storage, retrieval, the multi-store model of memory, working memory and types of long-term memory in cognitive psychology.

This MRCPsych revision episode explores the fundamental processes of memory, including encoding, storage and retrieval, and explains how information is converted, maintained and later accessed from memory. The episode introduces the multi-store model of memory proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin, including the primacy and recency effects.

The episode also examines the capacity of short-term memory, including research by George A. Miller and the role of chunking in improving memory performance. It then explores the working memory model.

Finally, the episode discusses different types of long-term memory including episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory.

These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A examination questions involving memory systems, cognitive psychology and memory disorders in psychiatry.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.4 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on information processing and attention in cognitive psychology.

This MRCPsych revision episode explores the information processing model of cognition and the mechanisms that allow the brain to select and prioritise sensory information.

The episode examines major theories of attention including Broadbent’s filter theory, Treisman’s attenuation model, and late selection theories.

It also explains how abnormalities of attention and information processing contribute to psychiatric conditions, particularly schizophrenia.

These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A examination questions involving cognitive psychology and psychopathology.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.3 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on visual perception, covering perceptual development, the visual cliff experiment, illusions, hallucinations and pareidolia in cognitive psychology.

This MRCPsych revision episode explores how visual perception develops through the interaction between biological maturation and environmental experience. The episode explains the classic visual cliff experiment conducted by Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk.

The episode also examines perceptual errors, including illusions and hallucinations, and introduces the constructivist theory of perception proposed by Richard Gregory. 

These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A examination questions involving perceptual development, perceptual errors and cognitive psychology in psychiatry.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.2 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on perception as an active process, covering bottom up and top down processing, auditory perception, and perceptual disturbances in psychiatry.

This MRCPsych revision episode explores how perception depends on interpretation by the brain rather than direct sensory input alone, and explains how bottom up sensory signals interact with top down expectations, memory and context to shape perceptual experience.

It also examines auditory perception and auditory scene analysis, first described by Albert Bregman,  the cocktail party phenomenon, how disturbances in perceptual processes may contribute to auditory hallucinations in psychiatric disorders, and introduces the self-monitoring theory of hallucinations.

These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A examination questions involving perception, cognitive psychology and psychopathology.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.2 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on visual perception, covering Gestalt principles, figure–ground differentiation and perceptual organisation in cognitive psychology.

This MRCPsych revision episode explores the principles of Gestalt psychology, including Prägnanz, figure-ground differentiation, proximity, similarity, symmetry, continuity and closure, and explains how the brain organises visual information into meaningful patterns.

The episode illustrates how perception depends on interpretation rather than direct sensory input.

These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A examination questions involving perception, cognitive psychology and perceptual disturbances in psychiatry.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.2 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on learning theory, covering punishment, observational learning and social learning theory in behavioural psychology. 

This MRCPsych revision episode explores positive and negative punishment, their limitations in behaviour change, and the principles of observational learning within social learning theory.

It explains how punishment can reduce behaviour through consequences, why punishment often fails to produce lasting behavioural change, and how new behaviour can be acquired through modelling and vicarious reinforcement.

The episode also introduces observational learning within social learning theory, first described by Albert Bandura. These concepts frequently appear in MRCPsych Part A clinical vignette questions involving behavioural psychology and learning theory.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.1 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on behavioural therapy principles and learning theory, covering reciprocal inhibition, habituation, shaping, chaining and cueing. 

This MRCPsych revision episode explores key behavioural therapy principles in learning theory that are commonly tested in the MRCPsych Part A examination. The episode focuses on reciprocal inhibition, habituation, shaping, chaining and cueing, and explains how these behavioural learning principles are applied in real clinical practice.

Clinical examples illustrate how these behavioural techniques are used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, including specific phobias, panic disorder and behavioural activation approaches. These principles form an important bridge between learning theory and behavioural therapy interventions frequently examined in MRCPsych Part A questions.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.1 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPsych Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on learning theory, covering escape conditioning, avoidance conditioning and the role of negative reinforcement in maintaining anxiety disorders. 

This MRCPsych revision episode explores escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning, two core operant learning processes in learning theory that maintain anxiety disorders and are frequently tested in the MRCPYsch examination, especially Part A.

The episode distinguishes escape behaviour from avoidance behaviour, explains how negative reinforcement maintains both patterns, and demonstrates how avoidance prevents the extinction of fear. It also applies these principles to common MRCPsych Part A exam scenarios involving panic disorder, phobias, agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive disorder.

These mechanisms are central to behavioural models of anxiety and are highly examinable in the psychiatry membership examination.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.1 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPysch Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on learning theory, covering stimulus generalisation, reinforcement and fear in anxiety disorders. 

This MRCPsych revision episode explores how fear spreads and persists within learning theory, a core topic for psychiatry trainees preparing for the membership examination. 

Topics include generalisation and discrimination, primary and secondary reinforcement, incubation of fear, and stimulus preparedness as described in behavioural psychology.

These mechanisms are central to understanding phobias, anxiety disorders, and maintenance of symptoms, and are frequently examined.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.1 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPysch Part A, syllabus.

MRCPsych Part A revision podcast on learning theory, covering classical conditioning, operant conditioning and reinforcement schedules.

This MRCPsych revision episode covers classical conditioning, operant conditioning and reinforcement schedules for MRCPsych Part A examination revision. 

You will review Pavlov’s experiments of classical conditioning, understand Skinner’s model of operant learning and conditioning, and master reinforcement, punishment, and reinforcement schedules, including variable ratio and fixed interval patterns.

These core behavioural psychology principles underpin anxiety disorders, behavioural therapy, and many single best answer questions in the MRCPsych Part A examination.

This episode maps directly to paragraph 1.1.1 of the Royal College of Psychiatrists membership examination, MRCPysch Part A, syllabus.