Question 1

Russell has played checkers at a local park for years.Compared to his 10-year-old grandson,Felix,when is Russell most likely to display greater recall for random checkers' positions on a board?

Accepted Answer

Russell is likely to display greater recall for checkers' positions when they are placed in meaningful patterns because his experience allows him to recognize and remember these patterns better than random ones.

Question 2

__________ interference occurs when learning something new hampers earlier learning,and __________ interference occurs when earlier learning gets in the way of new learning.

Accepted Answer

Retroactive interference occurs when newly acquired information interferes with the ability to recall older information. Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn and remember new information. Therefore, choice C is the correct option as it matches the description provided.

Question 3

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

Accepted Answer

The forgetting that occurs between classes is most likely the result of decay, which refers to the idea that memories weaken and fade over time if they are not rehearsed or used frequently. Interference, which refers to the competition between new and old memories, may also play a role in forgetting, but decay is a more likely explanation in this specific situation. Bias and suggestibility are not relevant to explaining forgetting in this context.

Question 4

Loni is asked to memorize the letters I K T E A L N in no particular order.She memorizes them by reorganizing them into the words INK and LATE.This tactic is called

Accepted Answer

The tactic of reorganizing the letters into the words INK and LATE is a form of chunking, which is a mnemonic strategy where information is broken down into smaller units or chunks that are easier to remember. Flashbulb memory refers to vivid memories of emotionally significant events, hypnotic regression is a controversial technique used to recover repressed memories, and photographic memory is a rare and debatable ability to remember visual information in great detail.

Question 5

Results from a variety of different studies have found that __________ is the prime culprit in forgetting information from short-term memory.

Accepted Answer

Interference is considered the main reason for forgetting in short-term memory, as new information can disrupt the retention of previously learned information.

Question 6

Telephone numbers are exactly seven digits long,likely due to recognition of

Accepted Answer

Our short-term memory capacity is generally limited to about seven items, which is often referred to as the "magic number" or "Miller's Law." To make telephone numbers easier to remember, they were likely shortened to exactly seven digits.

Question 7

Bits of information are combined into meaningful units so that more information can be held in short-term memory through the process of

Accepted Answer

Chunking is the process of grouping individual pieces of information into meaningful units or chunks. This helps to increase the capacity of short-term memory, allowing us to remember more information at once. For example, instead of trying to remember the digits "1 9 7 2 0 1 8 4 5," we can group them into two chunks, such as "1972" and "201845."

Question 8

Leslie is working as a dispatcher for the police and is trying to learn the codes used to indicate various crimes in progress (e.g. ,10-71 indicates shooting in progress).However,Leslie used to be a member of the RCMP and previously learned a different set of 10-codes for the same crimes (e.g. ,10-53 indicates shooting in progress).Leslie finds that he is having trouble remembering the new codes for dispatching and sometimes mixes them up with his RCMP codes.Which one of the following sources of interference is most likely in this example?

Accepted Answer

Leslie is experiencing proactive interference, where old information (RCMP codes) interferes with the ability to learn and remember new information (police dispatch codes).

Question 9

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

Accepted Answer

Chunking is a memory strategy that involves grouping information into larger, more manageable units, which can help in recalling large sequences like the digits of pi.

Question 10

Jamal is trying to buy something over the phone.He asks his partner to read him his credit card number.However,when he tries to repeat it to the sales clerk on the other end of the line,he can't remember all the numbers.Jamal is coming up against

Accepted Answer

George Miller's theory suggests that the average person can hold about 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory, which explains Jamal's difficulty in remembering the entire credit card number.

Question 11

Greg is a chess master and has an amazing memory for chess plays and positions on the board.If Greg also was in your psychology class and was taking this test,how would you expect him to perform?

Accepted Answer

Greg's exceptional memory for chess plays and positions on the board does not necessarily translate to an exceptional memory for psychology concepts. Memory is specific to the type of information being learned and remembered, and it is unlikely that chess memory would have a significant impact on his performance in a psychology test.

Question 12

When asked to recall single-digit numbers presented in various digit span sizes,the typical adult starts to encounter difficulty once they get past approximately __________ digits.

Accepted Answer

The typical adult can comfortably recall about seven digits, which aligns with Miller's Law, suggesting the average limit of working memory is around seven items.

Question 13

If one wants to increase the capacity of short-term memory,more items can be held through the process of

Accepted Answer

Chunking involves grouping individual elements of information into larger, meaningful units, which can be easier to remember and store in short-term memory. By using chunking strategies, individuals can increase their capacity for holding information in short-term memory. Flashbulb memory, photographic memory, and hypnotic regression do not directly increase the capacity of short-term memory.

Question 14

In high school,Deanna took three years of Spanish.Upon enrolling in college 10 years later,she registered for a remedial French course.When required to speak in French during class discussion with her teacher and classmates,Deanna frequently responds with Spanish words instead of French words.This is one example of

Accepted Answer

Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn new information. In this case, Deanna's previously learned Spanish is interfering with her ability to speak French, causing her to use Spanish words instead of French words. Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with the ability to remember previously learned information, blocking occurs when information cannot be retrieved from memory, and decay refers to forgetting over time due to lack of use. None of these options accurately describe Deanna's situation.

Question 15

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

Accepted Answer

The system of memory that can hold approximately seven "chunks" of information for approximately 15 seconds is called short-term memory. This type of memory is limited in capacity and duration and is also sometimes known as working memory.

Question 16

In the 1950s,George Miller estimated the number of items that could be stored in short-term memory to be the magic number

Accepted Answer

George Miller estimated that the number of items that can be stored in short-term memory is seven, plus or minus two. This means that on average people can remember between five to nine individual pieces of information in short-term memory.

Question 17

Chunking is a means of

Accepted Answer

Chunking involves grouping information into meaningful units, which can help with memory retention and recall. It does not involve immediately forgetting irrelevant details, arranging details into a hierarchy, or storing long-term memories.

Question 18

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

Accepted Answer

Interference occurs when previously learned information (in this case, from high school psychology class) disrupts the learning or retrieval of new information (in this case, from university-level psychology class). Transience refers to the decay of memory over time, misinformation refers to incorrect information that is learned, and long-term blocking refers to the inability to retrieve stored information.

Question 19

Tiffany is involved in a memory study and is given the following list of letters to remember: APANHLNFLDCBCAB.The researcher notices that she can remember the whole series of letters,contrary to the standard seven pieces of information expected.Which of the following processes most likely explains Tiffany's ability to remember all the letters?

Accepted Answer

Tiffany's ability to remember all the letters can most likely be attributed to chunking. Chunking is the process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger units or chunks, which allows for more effective storage and recall of information. In this case, Tiffany may have grouped the letters together based on certain patterns or associations, allowing her to remember them as fewer, larger units rather than individual letters.

Question 20

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 the number on the drive home is one example of

Accepted Answer

Pedro's mental repetition of Samantha's phone number is an example of rehearsal, which is the conscious repetition of information in order to transfer it from short-term to long-term memory.

Quiz 7: D: Memory