Deck 5: Working Memory: Forming and Using New Memory Traces

Question 1

You have just listened to a list of 20 words.When asked to recall these words in any order,you are LEAST LIKELY to recall the ______ word.

A)first
B)second
C)tenth
D)twentieth

Answer 1

tenth

Question 2

When information is first translated into a form that other cognitive processes can use,we say that ______ has occurred.

A)retrieval
B)storage
C)forgetting
D)encoding

Answer 2

encoding

Question 3

Encoding occurs when information is ______.

A)presented to our senses
B)translated into a form that other cognitive processes can use
C)stored over a period of time
D)called back from storage

Answer 3

translated into a form that other cognitive processes can use

Question 4

Unattended information is stored briefly in ______ memory.

A)sensory
B)short-term
C)long-term
D)working

Question 5

The primacy and recency effects in memory ______.

A)are thought to be due to the action of short-term memory
B)are thought to be due to the action of long-term memory
C)are thought to be due to the action of sensory memory
D)can be independently manipulated,indicating at least two types of memory at work

Question 6

Retrieval involves ______.

A)the activation of the senses
B)the translation of information into a form that can be stored
C)the storage of information over time
D)the calling to mind of previously stored information

Question 7

Most studies of sensory memory have focused on memory for information from which sensory modalities?

A)vision and taste
B)vision and smell
C)vision and hearing
D)smell and hearing

Question 8

The calling to mind of previously stored information is known as ______.

A)retrieval
B)encoding
C)storage
D)forgetting

Question 9

The capacity of short-term memory was thought by George Miller to be ______.

A)about 75% of a visual display
B)7 (plus or minus 2)letters or numbers
C)7 (plus or minus 2)meaningful chunks of information
D)12 (plus or minus 3)chunks of information

Question 10

Information is stored in iconic memory for ______.

A)less than 1 second
B)5-10 seconds
C)about 20 seconds
D)up to 1 year

Question 11

The recency effect is thought to result from participants' use of ______ memory.

A)sensory
B)short-term
C)long-term
D)either sensory or short-term

Question 12

When we cannot retrieve information from memory,we say that ______ has occurred.

A)forgetting
B)a memory trace
C)sensory decay
D)encoding failure

Question 13

The icon is said to be characterized by all of the following EXCEPT it ______.

A)holds information in a relatively unprocessed form
B)lasts about 20 seconds
C)can be "erased" by stimuli that are presented immediately afterward
D)can hold more information than can be reported

Question 14

Information such as the name of the person who sat in front of you in the fifth grade is stored in ______ memory.

A)sensory
B)short-term
C)working
D)long-term

Question 15

Partial reports of visually presented matrices of letters can be successfully cued by all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A)the pitch of a tone
B)the brightness of the letters
C)which letters rhyme with B
D)the color of the letters

Question 16

The suffix effect relates to which type of memory?

A)iconic
B)echoic
C)short term
D)working

Question 17

Information is held in ______ memory for 20-30 seconds.

A)sensory
B)short-term
C)long-term
D)secondary

Question 18

Which of the following seems to be true of both echoes and icons?

A)They are modality specific,holding only one type of sensory information.
B)They have relatively small capacities for information.
C)They both hold information for the same length of time.
D)They both rely heavily on the meaning of the stimulus.

Question 19

Echoic memory is thought to last ______.

A)less than 1 second
B)longer than the icon,perhaps up to 20 seconds
C)about 1 minute
D)up to 5 minutes

Question 20

Words from the beginning of a list are more likely to be recalled than words from the middle of the list.This phenomenon is known as the ______ effect.

A)recency
B)primacy
C)forgetting
D)interference

Question 21

If the search of short-term memory is self-terminating,then we would expect that ______.

A)successful searches would take longer than unsuccessful ones,on the average
B)unsuccessful searches would take longer than successful ones,on the average
C)the size of the memory set would not influence search time
D)the larger the memory set,the longer the search time

Question 22

Information in short-term memory is assumed to be coded primarily by ______.

A)sound
B)meaning
C)visual appearance
D)both sound and meaning

Question 23

The ______ component of working memory is thought to be a temporary storage system that interacts with long-term memory and the other components of working memory to facilitate the transfer of information to long-term memory.

A)episodic buffer
B)visuospatial sketchpad
C)central executive
D)phonological loop

Question 24

The central executive in working memory is hypothesized to have the function of ______.

A)directing the flow of information
B)controlling an unlimited amount of resources and capacity
C)carrying out subvocal rehearsal to maintain verbal material in memory
D)maintaining visual material in memory through visualization

Question 25

Daydreams are a type of ______.

A)stimulus-independent thought
B)icon
C)episodic buffer
D)visuospatial sketch

Question 26

Sternberg's classic work on searching for information from short-term memory indicated that the search process is ______.

A)serial
B)self-terminating
C)exhaustive
D)both serial and exhaustive

Question 27

The main distinction between "short-term memory" and "working memory" hinges on ______.

A)the kind of storage (short vs.longer term)
B)the emphasis on static structure vs.active processing
C)the capacity (limited to 7+2 items vs.unlimited)
D)the type of forgetting (decay vs.interference)

Question 28

The production of stimulus-independent thoughts,such as daydreams,depends upon ______.

A)the phonological loop only
B)the visuospatial sketchpad only
C)the central executive
D)the episodic buffer

Question 29

Higher working memory capacity means that an individual ______.

A)is more susceptible to interference
B)has quicker reaction times in identifying target letters
C)is better able to control his/her cognitive focus
D)has lower ability to reason from premises

Question 30

Repeating a phone number to yourself to hold it in memory while you dial it would use which component of working memory?

A)the visuospatial sketchpad
B)the phonological loop
C)the episodic buffer
D)both the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop

Question 31

Studies of coding in short-term memory suggest that which of the following would be most difficult to recall correctly?

A)C - O - G - Q - D
B)big-large-huge-tall-wide
C)C - D - P - V - T
D)A - E - I - O - U

Question 32

Baddeley's research indicated that storing a string of digits in short-term memory ______.

A)improved processing in simple reasoning tasks
B)slowed down but did not destroy the ability to complete simple reasoning tasks
C)completely destroyed the ability to reason
D)slowed down reasoning only at large memory loads

Question 33

The fact that the size of the memory set does affect search time in short-term memory suggests that search is ______.

A)a serial process
B)a parallel process
C)self-terminating
D)exhaustive

Question 34

In the Brown-Peterson short-term memory task,recall performance was hurt most by ______.

A)a slow rate of presentation
B)a fast rate of presentation
C)a large number of interfering items
D)a small number of interfering items

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT a component of Baddeley's working memory model?

A)the phonological loop
B)the icon
C)the central executive
D)the visuospatial sketchpad

Question 36

In the absence of rehearsal,short-term memory tends to ______.

A)last about 20 seconds
B)last about 8 seconds
C)decay slowly over 24 hours
D)decay slowly over a week

Question 37

In Waugh and Norman's probe digit task,______.

A)faster presentation rates improved performance
B)faster presentation rates decreased performance
C)presentation rate had no effect on performance
D)only rates slower than 3-second intervals decreased performance

Question 38

Currently,cognitive psychologists are more likely to believe that ______.

A)only decay causes one to lose information from short-term memory
B)only interference causes one to lose information from short-term memory
C)some decay is essential to avoid catastrophic interference
D)all of these

Question 39

Experiments indicate that storing a string of six digits in short-term memory interferes with the ability to ______.

A)verify which of two letters precedes the other in the alphabet
B)read and comprehend passages of text
C)recall recently learned material
D)verify letter sequences,read and comprehend text,and recall recently learned material

Question 40

The results of the Brown-Peterson short-term memory task can be explained by ______.

A)decay
B)interference
C)both decay and interference
D)neither decay nor interference

Question 41

Which of the following seems to be true of both echoic and iconic sensory memory?

A)They are modality specific,holding only one type of sensory information.
B)They have relatively small capacities for information.
C)They both rely heavily on the meaning of the stimulus.
D)They are both very resistant to erasing by stimuli that are presented afterward

Question 42

Which of Atkinson and Shiffrin's different memory storage components would be most closely associated with our day to day,moment to moment conscious experience?

A)sensory memory
B)short-term memory
C)long-term memory
D)episodic buffer

Question 43

What would be considered the main difference between conceptualizations of working memory (as described by Baddeley and Hitch)and short-term memory (as described by Atkinson & Shiffrin)?

A)One has a longer duration.
B)One is not limited in capacity.
C)One does not require attention.
D)One has separate pathways for different information.

Question 44

Of Atkinson and Shiffrin's different memory storage components,which is considered to have the greatest duration?

A)sensory memory
B)working memory
C)short-term memory
D)long-term memory

Question 45

Of the following,which is NOT part of Atkinson and Shiffrin's modal model of memory?

A)sensory memory
B)short-term memory
C)working memory
D)long-term memory

Question 46

PET scan studies ______.

A)show that short-term memory function is contained within the frontal lobes
B)show that long-term memories are stored in the frontal lobe
C)demonstrate that massive brain damage in several regions is necessary to cause amnesia
D)support Baddeley's notion that verbal and spatial working memory are different systems

Question 47

A process in which a stimulus is shown for a very short period of time and immediately replaced by another stimulus is known as ______.

A)replacement
B)hiding
C)masking
D)closing

Question 48

One basic physiological mechanism for learning is the ______ rule,which states that if a synapse between two neurons is repeatedly activated at about the same time the postsynaptic neuron fires,the chemistry of the synapse changes.

A)Carlson
B)Hebb
C)Baddeley
D)Tulving

Question 49

Disrupting the process of long-term potentiation leads to ______.

A)disruption of learning and remembering
B)recovery from anterograde amnesia
C)recovery from retrograde amnesia
D)language deficits

Question 50

Damage to the frontal lobe of the brain often disrupts processing by ______.

A)the visuospatial sketchpad
B)the central executive
C)the phonological loop
D)iconic memory

Question 51

Which of the following is NOT a component of working memory as described by Baddeley and Hitch?

A)visuo-spatial sketchpad
B)sensory recorder
C)phonological loop
D)central executive

Question 52

The term "retrograde amnesia" refers to the loss of ______.

A)the ability to form new memories
B)the ability to recall old events
C)short-term memory
D)sensory memory

Question 53

The term "anterograde amnesia" refers to the loss of ______.

A)the ability to form new memories
B)the ability to recall old events
C)short-term memory
D)sensory memory

Question 54

The surgery performed on patient "H.M." involved removal of most of the ______.

A)cerebellum
B)hippocampus
C)frontal lobe
D)corpus callosum
E)occipital lobe

Question 55

Brain surgery patient "H.M." suffered after surgery from ______.

A)an inability to form new memories of new events
B)a severe decrease in intelligence
C)an inability to remember events in his distant past,several years or more before the operation
D)an inability to remember faces

Question 56

PET scans show that verbal working memory tasks tend to activate areas in the ______ lobe.

A)left frontal
B)right frontal
C)left temporal
D)right temporal

Question 57

Rehearsal ______ the likelihood information moves into ______ memory.

A)decreases;long-term
B)increases;long-term
C)decreases;sensory
D)increases;sensory

Question 58

The effect of masking is usually that participants ______.

A)report better memory for items that have been masked
B)completely ignore the masking stimuli
C)have strong memories for the masking stimuli and items that are masked
D)tend to have difficulty remembering items that are masked

Question 59

The concept of fluid intelligence is highly related to ______.

A)iconic memory capacity
B)echoic memory capacity
C)working memory capacity
D)interference

Question 60

Based on research of sensory memory by Neisser (1967),it was determined that in trying to recall an iconic memory,participants did best if they were cued to recall ______.

A)information from a particular location
B)only vowels
C)only consonants
D)all of the information from a display

Question 61

Written words that you are trying to commit to memory would most likely be processed by which part of Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model?

A)visuospatial sketchpad
B)episodic buffer
C)phonological loop
D)sensory recorder

Question 62

Which of the following would be a good example of a successful self-terminating search?

A)You are trying to track down all embarrassing family photos of yourself before your significant other comes for dinner and double check every photo just to be sure.
B)You have a leaky pipe and find it under the faucet,but you still check all other pipes in the house to be sure no others are leaking.
C)You are trying to locate your wallet,but after searching your entire house,you fail to find it.
D)You have been searching for your cell phone,and once you find it,you no longer continue searching other parts of the house.

Question 63

Given our understanding of working memory,it would be possible to try to remember a list of words while completing a maze because ______.

A)phonological and spatial information are processed independently
B)the capacity of working memory is infinite
C)spatial information is handled by processes not associated with working memory
D)it is in fact NOT possible to remember a list of words while completing a maze

Question 64

Of the following,which memory storage unit would be described as having the largest information processing capacity?

A)working memory
B)short-term memory
C)long-term memory
D)sensory memory

Question 65

If you are unable to find your keys and begin searching every single drawer in the house,you are undergoing a ______ search.

A)deep
B)parallel
C)serial
D)unitary

Question 66

Of the following,which would most likely be characterized as a difficulty to encode new memories?

A)retrograde amnesia
B)anterograde amnesia
C)encoding amnesia
D)modality amnesia

Question 67

A process in which neurons or hippocampal cells become more sensitive to stimuli that repeatedly activate them is called ______.

A)hippocampal training
B)neuronal flexibility
C)long-term potentiation
D)neuronal potential

Question 68

Damage to the hippocampus would most likely result in ______.

A)blindness
B)loss of the ability to form new memories
C)deafness
D)loss of balance

Question 69

If rehearsal of information is disrupted,you'd likely see ______,but not ______.

A)receny effect;primacy effect
B)primacy effect;receny effect
C)encoding;retrieval
D)retrieval;encoding

Question 70

The string of letters OMGTTYLLOL would usually exceed our short-term memory capacity.If we break it into three smaller units of OMG,TTYL,and LOL,though,we can more easily handle all of the same information.This is referred to as ______.

A)buffering
B)chunking
C)retaining
D)tracing

Question 71

Comparing all items in a stimulus set simultaneously would be classified as a ______ search.

A)serial
B)parallel
C)structural
D)unitary

Question 72

According to the primacy effect,which of the following should show the best memory recall?

A)any prime number from a larger list of numbers
B)the first word from a larger list of words
C)the last word from a larger list of words
D)any word starting with the letter "A"

Question 73

Of the following,which would most likely be characterized as a difficulty to retrieve old memories?

A)anterograde amnesia
B)encoding amnesia
C)modality amnesia
D)retrograde amnesia

Question 74

What technique can be used to lengthen the time that information stays in short-term memory?

A)encoding
B)retrieving
C)buffering
D)rehearsing

Question 75

You meet someone new when you go out,and they give you their phone number.Unfortunately,you've forgotten your phone at home and desperately try to repeat the number to yourself over and over again until you can get home and put the number into your phone.You're engaging in what memory technique?

A)retrieving
B)rehearsing
C)buffering
D)monitoring

Question 76

Which of Atkinson and Shiffrin's different memory storage components is most closely linked to perception?

A)sensory memory
B)short-term memory
C)working memory
D)long-term memory

Question 77

As classically conceived,long-term memory is held to have all of the following properties EXCEPT ______.

A)it comprises a permanent or at least semipermanent store
B)it has virtually unlimited capacity
C)it primarily uses acoustic coding
D)information stored within it is not always easily accessible

Question 78

"Forgetting""as described by most memory models involves ______.

A)being unable to access information in long-term memory
B)losing information out of your long-term memory
C)having one memory replaced with another
D)an inability to rehearse information

Question 79

Of the following,which allows us to increase the amount of information that we process in short-term memory while still adhering to its limited capacity?

A)chunking
B)rehearsal
C)retrieval
D)buffering

Question 80

Information stored in long-term memory is assumed to be coded primarily by ______.

A)sound
B)meaning
C)appearance
D)initial sensory state