Deck 7: Memory

Question 1

After presenting groups of research participants words like thread, eye, pin, syringe, sewing, sharp, and thimble, a memory researcher asks the participants whether they remember seeing the word needle. The fact that many participants do is an example of ________.

A)amnesia
B)déjà vu
C)memory illusion
D)permastore

Answer 1

memory illusion

Question 2

Oscar is writing a fictional autobiography. He is combining real events with those that could have happened, as well as a few creative additions. In terms of the memory system, this approach is most similar to

A)the three systems of memory.
B)parallel distributed processing.
C)reconstructive memory.
D)implicit memory.

Answer 2

reconstructive memory.

Question 3

Dr Vargas can remember hundreds of students' names from his 25 years of university teaching, but has difficulty remembering the new three-digit area code for his home phone number. This is one illustration of ________.

A)false memories
B)iconic memory
C)meta-memory
D)the paradox of memory

Answer 3

the paradox of memory

Question 4

After you finish reading this sentence, the information will remain in your ________ as you consider each of the answers below.

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

Question 5

According to the authors, our memory is most like ________.

A)hardened metal
B)melting wax
C)an old photograph
D)a tape recorder

Question 6

Billy has just returned home from visiting his grandparents. His grandfather always had a jar of jelly beans on the table, and his mother asked Billy about the jar. "Sure," says Billy, "it was right there where it always was". Billy's mother knew that the jar was gone. The grandfather had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and had cut down on his sugar intake. Why did Billy remember seeing the jar of jelly beans?

A)He probably has a damaged hippocampus.
B)He was using the representativeness heuristic.
C)Too much time had passed between the visit and the conversation with his mother.
D)He reconstructed his memory using new and old information.

Question 7

Peter is trying to accurately remember what his wife, Lois, looked like and was wearing the first time he ever saw her. Research suggests this will involve actual details stored in his memory as well as his best guesses and hunches based on his current knowledge. This suggests that people actively ________ many of their recollections of the past.

Question 8

Emilio is seeing a sports psychologist to help improve his mental preparation and performance. The psychologist asks Emilio to see himself making his free throws. As Emilio visualises his dribbling, shooting motion, and release, he sees himself as an outside observer would. Memory researchers argue this demonstrates

A)brain stimulation that leads to the development of engrams.
B)the presence of iconic and echoic memory.
C)the reconstructive nature of memory.
D)that working memory differs from short-term memory.

Question 9

Discuss how our memories both serve us well and lead to memory errors.

Question 10

The brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short-term memory is called ________ memory.

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

Question 11

Rebecca stops after reading two or three paragraphs in her psychology text. She rehearses and thinks about the material she has just read before continuing on. The aspect of memory Rebecca is most concerned with is the limited duration of

A)sensory memory.
B)short-term memory.
C)iconic memory.
D)echoic memory.

Question 12

A key theme that has emerged from the memory research literature is that

A)we actively reconstruct our memories using the cues and information available to us.
B)all explicit and implicit memories are stored in the hippocampus.
C)memory illusions are evidence of serious memory problems such as Alzheimer's disease or amnesia.
D)the passage of time has little or no effect on the accuracy of our memories.

Question 13

Danny has been collecting comic books since he was a child. If you ask him, he can tell you the name of every comic in his collection. However, he routinely struggles to remember the names of his new employees at work. Which concept is being illustrated?

A)Retrieval failure
B)The paradox of memory
C)Encoding difficulties
D)Retrieval interference

Question 14

Which of the following best illustrates the paradox of memory?

A)Jillian can remember all of her favourite baseball player's statistics for the last seven years, but forgets where she left her car keys.
B)Amy remembers the names of most of her third-grade students from the last several years.
C)Ryan can remember almost all of the states and capitals, but is struggling to remember the names of foreign countries.
D)Nina finds it difficult to accurately recall some of her childhood memories.

Question 15

Kira is jogging down the street listening to her portable music player. Abruptly, her batteries die and the music stops. Which of the following accounts for her ability to still "hear" the last part of the song that was playing?

A)Short-term memory
B)Eidetic imagery
C)Iconic memory
D)Echoic memory

Question 16

Hideki and Thao are reviewing for an exam. Thao asks the following question: "What term refers to how people retain information over time?" Hideki would be most correct if he answered

A)elaborative rehearsal.
B)encoding.
C)memory.
D)suggestive memory.

Question 17

Lizzie is staring at the diagram of an eye that will appear on the exam she will take in the next few minutes. She thinks that by staring at the diagram for a very long time she can "burn" the image into her brain. Although this strategy won't work, she is hoping to take advantage of her ________ memory.

A)short-term
B)flashbulb
C)repetitive
D)iconic

Question 18

Discuss the three important ways in which the short-term and long-term memory systems differ.

Question 19

While driving her children, Adriana's car broke down. She called her husband on the mobile phone for the number of a towing company. If the children's behaviour prevents her from repeating the number to herself, most likely Adriana will need to dial the phone number within the next ________ or she will forget the number.

A)2 seconds
B)15 seconds
C)45 seconds
D)60 seconds

Question 20

You watch Leigh wave his sparkler as he runs. As you watch the light, you notice a circle of light rather than just a single point of light. This effect demonstrates the functioning of your ________.

A)echoic memory
B)flashbulb memory
C)iconic memory
D)short-term memory

Question 21

The Magic Number of short-term memory is

A)fifteen plus or minus two.
B)nine plus or minus two.
C)seven plus or minus three.
D)seven plus or minus two.

Question 22

Researchers exploring the relative influence of decay and interference on memory found that whether a list of digits was read at a slow or fast pace, items that came later in the list were more difficult to remember. This provided evidence that interference, and not decay, is the major factor in forgetting. For those who had subscribed to the decay theory of forgetting, this research points out the importance of

A)extraordinary claims.
B)ruling out rival hypotheses.
C)falsifiability.
D)replicability.

Question 23

The research by Lloyd and Margaret Peterson suggests that the duration of short-term memory is about 15 seconds, but some have proposed that it may be as short as 5 seconds. These other theorists have suggested that some of the participants in the Petersons' study were able to silently rehearse the letters they were shown, thus appearing to have a longer short-term memory duration. This alternative explanation for the Petersons' findings demonstrates which principle of critical thinking?

A)Replicability
B)Extraordinary claims
C)Falsifiability
D)Ruling out rival hypotheses

Question 24

The process of repeating a stimulus to yourself over and over again is called ________ rehearsal.

Question 25

Larry has a quiz about research methods for both his psychology and biology classes. As he studies, he is continually getting information from one class confused with information from the other. The resulting memory loss is called ________.

Question 26

Sabrina has a psychology midterm tomorrow afternoon. Before taking her test, she has to go to her sociology class in the morning. Which of the following provides the best explanation as to why Sabrina might struggle on her psychology exam?

A)Decay
B)Limited capacity of long-term memory
C)Interference
D)Retrieval inhibition

Question 27

Which of the following best illustrates retroactive interference?

A)Susie struggles to learn how to play the violin, after playing the guitar for many years.
B)Chet struggles to learn the names of the new players he added to his fantasy baseball roster.
C)Professor Jones struggles to learn the names of his new students after teaching for many years prior.
D)Coach Todd calls one of her old softball players the name of one of her new players.

Question 28

In high school, Deanna took three years of Spanish. Upon enrolling in college ten years later, she registered for a remedial French course. When required to speak in French during a class discussion with her teacher and classmates, Deanna frequently responds with Spanish words instead of French words. This is one example of

A)blocking.
B)decay.
C)proactive interference.
D)retroactive interference.

Question 29

As he studies the different structures and regions of the brain, Jeremy works to link nearby structures together to more easily remember and recall them during his test. This attempt to make the information more meaningful, and thereby easier to remember later, is one example of ________.

Question 30

The system of memory that can hold approximately seven "chunks" of information for approximately 15 seconds is called

A)long-term memory.
B)permastore memory.
C)sensory memory.
D)short-term memory.

Question 31

The Magic Number seven plus or minus two refers to the storage capacity of ________ memory.

Question 32

Describe and differentiate by duration and capacity the various systems of memory.

Question 33

When information that you learned in your high school psychology class gets in the way of learning new information from your college-level psychology class, ________ has occurred.

A)interference
B)long-term blocking
C)misinformation
D)transience

Question 34

In the text, the authors discussed the astounding memory capabilities of Rajan. He could recall the digits for the number pi starting from nearly any place in the sequence. His amazing ability is due, in part, to his use of

A)chunking.
B)flashbulb memory.
C)hypnotic regression.
D)photographic memory.

Question 35

Skip has a big test tomorrow and has studied late into the night. If Skip falls asleep and takes the test first thing in the morning, which of the following would best explain any information he forgets?

A)Retrograde amnesia
B)Decay
C)Anterograde amnesia
D)Interference

Question 36

Shanna has a quiz covering research methods for both her biology and psychology classes. As she studies, she is continually getting information confused between the classes. The resulting memory loss is explained by

A)interference.
B)retrieval failure.
C)distortion.
D)serial position effects.

Question 37

When asked to recall single-digit numbers presented in various digit span sizes, the typical adult starts to find the task a bit tricky once they get to approximately ________ digits.

A)3
B)4
C)5
D)7

Question 38

Which of the following provides the best explanation for why your history teacher can remember 14 random historic dates, while you can only recall about seven?

A)Retroactive interference
B)Magic Number
C)Chunking
D)Limited short-term memory capacity

Question 39

During lecture each day, a psychology professor may explain four main points he or she wishes the class to retain. However, most students do not think about the material again until the following class period two days later. The forgetting that occurs between classes is most likely the result of

A)bias.
B)decay.
C)interference.
D)suggestibility.

Question 40

Which of the following is the best example of chunking?

A)Cedric is able to remember all of the names of the kids in his class.
B)Caroline uses the first letter of each of her vocabulary words and spells out the word "butterfly" to help her remember.
C)Katie writes down an example for each of her vocabulary words.
D)Andrea creates a sentence using all of her vocabulary words.

Question 41

The tendency to remember the items that came at the end of a presented list is called the ________ effect.

A)recency
B)primacy
C)locus
D)semantic

Question 42

An important criticism of the levels-of-processing model is that it is

A)an extraordinary claim that is unsupported by research.
B)an incomplete explanation of the working of memory.
C)unfalsifiable.
D)unsupported by research data.

Question 43

Lori is reading over the teams that have won the Australian Football League (AFL)premiership since 1980. His recall of the first nine and last nine premiers at significantly higher rates than the ten premiers in the middle would clearly demonstrate the ________.

Question 44

The levels-of-processing model proposed by Craik and Lockhart (1972)has been criticised because it is really impossible to determine how deeply a memory has been processed, so there is no way to truly and scientifically prove or disprove the theory. This should remind you of which principle of critical thinking noted in your text?

A)Falsifiability
B)Extraordinary claims
C)Ruling out rival hypotheses
D)Correlation versus causation

Question 45

All night, Pedro has been staring at Samantha from across the dance floor. At the end of the night, he finally gets the courage to ask her for her telephone number. His mental repetition of her number on the drive home is one example of

A)chunking.
B)the power of suggestion.
C)rehearsal.
D)transference of memory.

Question 46

Which of the following is likely to be stored in long-term memory?

A)The phone number of a new girl in town that your friend just gave you
B)The phone number from your last home address
C)The phone number of a moving company that you just saw advertised on their truck
D)The phone number on the billboard that you just passed while driving at 65 miles per hour on the highway

Question 47

When calling for directory assistance, operators used to tell their customers to "Have a nice day" after providing them with a phone number. As a consequence, many people forgot the number they were just given. What is the most likely explanation?

A)The customers were not paying attention to the number they were given.
B)The customers were prevented from engaging in immediate rehearsal.
C)The customers failed to engage in elaborative rehearsal.
D)The phone number exceeded the capacity of their short-term memory.

Question 48

The memory system with the largest storage capacity is ________.

Question 49

In his research on long-term memory, psychologist Harry Bahrick found that memory declined

A)consistently the longer ago the information was learned and used.
B)markedly for about two years, but only gradually thereafter.
C)significantly for about one year, but then reverses and long-term memory increases.
D)slowly, if at all.

Question 50

According to the levels-of-processing model, which pair of words should be the easiest to remember?

A)Football-Baseball
B)Plain-Train
C)Rake-Snake
D)Gillard-Abbott

Question 51

Just before taking your French I exam, you were reviewing five terms that you had missed on the last vocabulary test. When you get to your exam, you find that you have an easy time answering several questions because they are related terms you just studied. This is an example of the

A)primacy effect.
B)recency effect.
C)serial position effect.
D)von Restorff effect.

Question 52

When a student is attempting to bring an answer to an exam question from their memory, they are attempting to access their ________-term memory storage.

Question 53

Who is most likely to obtain the top score on the vocabulary test?

A)James, who made flash cards of all his words and is going over and over them.
B)Cynthia, who has written down each word and definition five times in her notebook.
C)Ryan, who has drawn a picture to illustrate each word.
D)Harriet, who says the words and definitions over and over to herself all day long.

Question 54

Elaborative rehearsal involves

A)synthesising the information to be remembered in a meaningful way.
B)decreasing the complexity of the information to be remembered.
C)increasing the complexity of the information to be remembered.
D)linking the information to be remembered to other information.

Question 55

Liv has just seen a commercial advertising a fancy kind of make-up that she would like to buy. She does not have a pen or a piece of paper to write down the telephone number, so she repeats to herself over and over again while she runs into the kitchen to find the telephone. Liv is currently using the process of ________ rehearsal to keep the telephone number active in her short-term memory.

A)distributed
B)elaborative
C)maintenance
D)semantic

Question 56

On the first day of class, Sheila asked her lecturer the best way to learn and remember the material for the course. The professor responded, "Focus on identifying and understanding the meaning of the important terms and concepts". The instructor is advocating a ________ level of processing.

A)phonological
B)semantic
C)verbal
D)visual

Question 57

According to the research on the primacy effect, if your father read you a list of 10 items to pick up at the hardware store, you would most easily recall those items

A)from early in the list.
B)in the middle of the list.
C)from the end of the list.
D)that are most distinctive.

Question 58

To aid students in their retention of information, which subsequently enables them to earn higher exam scores, memory researchers would be most likely to highlight the use of

A)eidetic memory.
B)elaborative rehearsal.
C)maintenance rehearsal.
D)rote memorisation.

Question 59

What system of memory has the largest span and longest duration?

A)Flashbulb memory
B)Long-term memory
C)Sensory memory
D)Short-term memory

Question 60

Which of the following comparisons between long-term and short-term memory is TRUE?

A)The duration of long-term memory is significantly shorter than that of short-term memory.
B)The mistakes made in long-term memory are different from those made in short-term memory.
C)The mistakes made in long-term memory are the same as those made in short-term memory.
D)The storage capacity of long-term memory is significantly smaller than that of short-term memory.

Question 61

It is believed that the ________ memory system may handle automatic remembering, while the ________ memory system requires conscious effort.

A)depth; elaborative
B)prospective; retrospective
C)primacy; recency
D)implicit; explicit

Question 62

An individual's knowledge about the world-such as Wilhelm Wundt being considered the father of psychology, or Sigmund Freud's claims that the id, ego, and superego are three different structures of everyone's personality-is called ________ memory.

Question 63

________ is the first process of getting information into memory.

A)Acquisition
B)Memorisation
C)Elaboration
D)Encoding

Question 64

This research study clearly is examining the role that ________ can play in memory.

Question 65

During new-worker orientation, you wish to make a good impression by being able to recall everyone's name. Research on encoding would suggest that you are most likely to forget the name of

A)the first few people who introduced themselves.
B)the last few people who introduced themselves.
C)the person immediately after you.
D)the person immediately before you.

Question 66

Remembering that your father used to read The Cat in the Hat to you every night best illustrates which type of memory?

A)Semantic
B)Implicit
C)Procedural
D)Episodic

Question 67

Which of the following forms of memory requires conscious attention for encoding, storage, and retrieval?

A)Episodic memory
B)Implicit memory
C)Priming memory
D)Procedural memory

Question 68

Although many students attend every class and take notes, they struggle to remember everything they need to know for an exam. Where does this breakdown in memory most likely occur?

A)Encoding
B)Storage
C)Retrieval
D)Blocking

Question 69

Which two types of memories are both considered to be part of explicit memory?

A)Semantic and episodic
B)Semantic and procedural
C)Conceptual and schematic
D)Reconstructive and recalled

Question 70

Jeff is studying with a fellow classmate and is frustrated that he is missing several important concepts from his notes.Jeff claims that the professor "never said that in class", and yet his friend has the information recorded in his notes. What kind of failure of memory might Jeff have experienced?

A)Retrieval
B)Storage
C)Encoding
D)Rehearsal

Question 71

According to the authors, most of the events we experience

A)are encoded and lost in long-term memory.
B)are implicitly encoded and thus lost within our long-term memory.
C)are never encoded and thus never stored in long-term memory.
D)are encoded and easily retrieved from long-term memory.

Question 72

Shona cannot remember where she parked her car. Specifically, which type of memory could currently be causing Shona a problem?

A)Implicit
B)Episodic
C)Semantic
D)Procedural

Question 73

Unlike explicit memory, implicit memory

A)involves no deliberate attention or effort.
B)keeps track of important events from our lives.
C)refers to our factual knowledge.
D)requires conscious awareness.

Question 74

Charlie is completing a "word search" puzzle. He first finds the word SOLDIER after looking for some time, but then is able to find the word MILITARY much more rapidly. This ability to find a stimulus more easily after encountering a similar stimulus demonstrates the process of

A)pegwording.
B)rehearsal.
C)chunking.
D)priming.

Question 75

Exposing people to stereotype-consistent information before meeting with an individual from the stereotyped group is often sufficient to produce stereotypic interpretations of that person's actions and thoughts. This is an example of

A)encoding failure.
B)misinformation.
C)priming.
D)transference.

Question 76

The order of the basic memory processes in which information enters the memory system and is later used is

A)encoding, retrieval, and storage.
B)encoding, storage, and retrieval.
C)acquisition, elaboration, and storage.
D)acquisition, encoding, and retrieval.

Question 77

In long-term memory, the ________ memory division does not require much effort or attention to recall information.

A)procedural
B)episodic
C)visual-spatial
D)prospective

Question 78

The process of retaining information in memory is called ________.

Question 79

Steve just joined a fraternity. He was introduced to 55 new "brothers". If asked to recall all of their names, which ones would he be most likely to struggle with?

A)The names of brothers in the middle of the group
B)The names of brothers at the beginning of the group
C)The names of brothers at the end of the group
D)Any names that were strange or peculiar

Question 80

The memory system that contains memories for factual information about the world around us is ________ memory.

A)elaborative
B)maintained
C)procedural
D)semantic