Question 1

Patients who are treated with electroconvulsive shock therapy often suffer memory losses for events that occurred up to three hours before the treatment. These memory problems are most likely due to disruption of the ________.

A) hippocampus
B) temporal lobe
C) parietal lobe
D) cerebellum

hippocampus

Accepted Answer

The hippocampus is a brain structure that plays a key role in the formation and consolidation of memories. Electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) involves passing an electrical current through the brain to induce a seizure. The electrical current can disrupt neural activity in the hippocampus, leading to memory loss. Specifically, patients treated with ECT often experience anterograde amnesia, which involves difficulty forming new memories, and retrograde amnesia, which involves difficulty recalling memories from the past. The retrograde amnesia caused by ECT typically affects events that occurred within a few hours before the treatment.

Question 2

In the famous case of H. M., after having part of his brain removed, he could no longer ________.&#10;A) form new explicit memories&#10;B) pay attention to specific stimuli&#10;C) make sense of old memories&#10;D) retrieve old memories

Accepted Answer

H. M. had part of his hippocampus removed, which is important for forming new explicit memories. He was still able to retrieve some old memories, indicating that his implicit memory system was still intact.

Question 3

The portion of long-term memory that stores specific information of personally experienced events is called ________ memory.&#10;A) semantic&#10;B) emotional&#10;C) procedural&#10;D) episodic

Accepted Answer

Episodic memory is the portion of long-term memory that stores specific information of personally experienced events, including the time and place of occurrence. Semantic memory stores general knowledge of facts and concepts, procedural memory stores how-to knowledge of skills, and emotional memory stores memories of emotional experiences.

Question 4

The most important determinant of interference is ________.&#10;A) decay&#10;B) rehearsal time&#10;C) similarity&#10;D) complexity

Accepted Answer

Similarity between the old and new information is the most important determinant of interference. When the new information is similar to old information, it is more likely to cause interference and disrupt the recall of the old information. This is because the similarity between the items can cause confusion and competition for retrieval, making it difficult to distinguish between them.

Question 5

The finding that when asked to recall a list of unrelated items memory is better for the items at the beginning and at the end of the list is known as the ________.&#10;A) implicit memory effect&#10;B) sequestering effect&#10;C) serial position effect&#10;D) phi phenomenon

Accepted Answer

The serial position effect refers to the tendency for individuals to have better memory recall for items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list, while middle items tend to be forgotten more easily. This effect is often observed in studies of verbal learning and memory. Option A is incorrect because implicit memory refers to the memory of past events or experiences without consciously bringing them to mind. Option B is not a valid term. Option D describes the illusion of movement produced by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession, which is unrelated to memory recall.

Question 6

Students in a psychology experiment were exposed to three notes of music for a very short period of time and then asked to recall them. If the instructions to recall the notes came immediately, the students usually succeeded. If the instructions came more than three seconds after the notes were played, the students were much less successful. The most plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that in the latter case the echo ________.

A) faded after being stored in short-term memory
B) was already stored in long-term memory
C) never made it to the sensory registers
D) faded before being stored in short-term memory

Accepted Answer

The phenomenon described in the scenario is known as the decay of information in short-term memory. Short-term memory has limited capacity and duration, and if information is not rehearsed or encoded into long-term memory, it will decay or fade away within a few seconds. Therefore, if the instructions to recall the notes came more than three seconds after the notes were played, the information would have already faded or decayed from short-term memory. Choice A (faded after being stored in short-term memory) is the closest alternative, but it implies that the information was successfully stored in short-term memory before fading, which is not necessarily the case. Choice B (already stored in long-term memory) and Choice C (never made it to the sensory registers) are both unlikely explanations, as the experiment specifically involved presenting the notes for a very short period of time, and the recall task only required short-term memory to be utilized.

Question 7

The first truly scientific memory experiments were conducted by ________, who used himself as a subject.&#10;A) Phillipe Charcot&#10;B) Hermann Ebbinghaus&#10;C) Hermann Helmholtz&#10;D) Sigmund Freud

Accepted Answer

Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted the first truly scientific memory experiments in the late 19th century, using himself as a subject to study the nature of human memory.

Question 8

Chunking is ________.&#10;A) most useful for storing information in long-term memory&#10;B) most useful for storing information in short-term memory&#10;C) equally useful for storing information in the sensory registers, short-term memory, and long-term memory&#10;D) most useful for storing information in the sensory registers

Accepted Answer

Chunking is most useful for storing information in short-term memory, as it involves grouping together smaller pieces of information into larger, more meaningful chunks. This can increase the capacity of short-term memory and improve retention of the information. While chunking can also aid in the encoding of information into long-term memory, its primary use is for short-term memory.

Question 9

Which of the following people is most likely to recall events from early in life?&#10;A) a 56-year-old female&#10;B) a 24-year-old female&#10;C) a 40-year-old male&#10;D) an 18-year-old male

Accepted Answer

Research suggests that women tend to have better autobiographical memory than men, and as people age, their ability to recall events from early in life declines. Therefore, a 56-year-old female is most likely to recall events from early in life.

Question 10

The fact that people recognize that M and M are the same letter faster than they recognize that M and m are the same letter is evidence that ________.&#10;A) most verbal material in short-term memory is stored phonologically&#10;B) rote rehearsal helps to store information in short-term memory&#10;C) some verbal material in short-term memory is stored in visual form&#10;D) only through elaborative rehearsal can material be committed to long-term memory

Accepted Answer

The faster recognition of M and M (compared to M and m) suggests that some verbal material in short-term memory is stored in visual form, indicating a connection between visual processing and short-term memory.

Deck 6: Extension: Memory