[AP PSY] Memory Basics, Encoding, Storing

When 90-year-old Mrs. Glass socializes at her senior activity center, she gravitates toward activities that she can still perform well, which also demonstrates that her crystallized intelligence is functioning. Which of the following activities will most likely appeal to Mrs. Glass?

A "name that song" game featuring songs from her childhood Games that feature long-remembered facts or information best utilize crystallized intelligence, which is stronger as people age.

Dr. Hermann wants to determine whether the use of distributed practice causes higher scores on a final exam. To determine whether a cause-effect relationship exists between two variables, a researcher must use which of the following?

An experimental approach

Tim can no longer create new memories as a result of an accident. Tim is experiencing which of the following types of amnesia?

Anterograde New memories are impossible to form with this kind of anterograde amnesia.

John suffered a head injury in an accident five years ago. He now has clear memories of events that occurred before the accident, but he has great difficulty remembering any of the experiences he has had since the accident. John's symptoms describe which of the following?

Anterograde amnesia

Matt finds that when he is doing chores around his home, he can listen to an audiobook and still remember what the story was about. However, when his friends texts him about their plans for the weekend, he realizes that he has to rewind his audiobook because he forgot was the story was about. Which of the following accurately describes the level of processing Matt experiencing for doing chores around his home?

Automatic

Jeremy is a doctoral student who wants to investigate the effectiveness of a new mnemonic device with third graders. His plan includes asking the children to complete an informed consent form. Which of the following reasons would cause his research project to be denied by an Institutional Review Board?

Children can express approval but only parents or legal guardians can provide consent.

Cesar is participating in a memory competition. He must memorize a long, novel string of numbers in 60 seconds, then try to recall them immediately without missing or misplacing any numbers. Which strategy should Cesar use?

Chunking The numbers in the list could be combined into meaningful sections and recalled in those groups.

Dr. Amie conducts an experiment in which participants are asked to observe a recorded lecture and either take notes as they watch in real time or take notes when they pause the lecture every minute. She then gives them a test to evaluate their knowledge about the information presented. To reduce the likelihood of confounding variables influencing the experiment, Dr. Amie should do which of the following?

Ensure that all participants watch the same recorded lecture

An individual's ability to remember the day he or she first swam the length of a swimming pool is most clearly an example of which of the following kinds of memory?

Episodic

A teenager would most probably draw on which of the following to recall her tenth birthday party?

Episodic memory

A childhood friend asked Jeffrey whether he remembered where they went on summer vacation when they were eight years old. Jeffrey's ability to recall correctly will rely on which of the following?

Episodic memory Episodic memory is memory for a specific event, such as a vacation.

In a research study on the multi-store method of memory, one group of randomly assigned high school students were given 5 minutes to rehearse details about a stimulus after being exposed to it for 15 seconds. A second group were not given time to rehearse the details of the stimulus. Which of the following research designs best represents this study?

Experiment

In a research study, participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. One group of participants received a drug once per day for four weeks. The drug increases the speed of communication between neurons. Other participants did not receive the drug. Researchers found that those who took the drug demonstrated an increased memory recall. What type of research design was conducted in this scenario?

Experiment

Which of the following research methodologies would present the most ethical problems for studying the causes of anterograde amnesia in humans?

Experiment

A group of researchers conduct a study where they tell the participants that they will be doing a memory study, but the researchers were actually measuring levels of anxiety about doing well on a task. The group of researchers should be sure to do which of the following at the conclusion of this study?

Explain the true purpose of a study immediately after the study is complete. Debriefing is when the researcher tells the true nature of the experiment after the study is complete.

Hillary glances at a graph and then turns her head away less than a second later. When she tries to immediately remember what she saw, which of the following types of memory does Hillary use?

Iconic

Researchers at a local university conduct research to find the biological bases for Alzheimer's disease. According to the ethical guidelines set by the American Psychological Association (APA), which of the following is true of psychological research in which animals are used as subjects?

It should conform to all APA ethical guidelines for animal research.

A psychology professor wants to investigate the study habits of students at her university. She cannot collect data from every student but hopes to use a subset of the students to draw accurate conclusions about the behavior of the student body. Which of the following features of research design will best address her goal?

Random sampling

Which of the following is the best operational definition of superior autobiographical memory?

Recalling information about life events with over 90% accuracy. This is operationalized and can be measured based on the criteria provided about autobiographical memories.

Which of the following is an example of semantic memory?

Recalling the equation to determine the volume of a cylinder

Jalil goes to a party where he meets several new people. When he tells his brother about it the next day, he can only remember the names of the last 3 people that he met. Which of the following memory concepts best describes Jalil's memory for the names of the people at the party?

Recency effect

Which of the following increases the chance that an individual will remember a telephone number that has been called several times within a short period?

Rehearsal

David was studying some important historical dates for a test. He noticed that the day and month of one of the dates was the same as his own birthday, and he tried to use that fact to help him remember the date for his test. What is David using to enhance his memory?

Self-reference This refers to the fact that information that is personally relevant is more easily remembered than personally irrelevant information.

To help himself remember the name of his new colleague, Hope, Jose thinks about the meaning of her name—the feeling of hopefulness. Which of the following concepts best corresponds to Jose's strategy?

Semantic encoding Semantic encoding refers to thinking about the meaning of a word or element to better remember it.

Asano is the expert for English literature on his school's trivia team. He knows the authors and main characters of many famous novels. Which of the following describes Asano's knowledge of these types of facts?

Semantic memory

Mary is introduced to three new people at a party. Later, however, she cannot remember the names of any of her new acquaintances, even though she remembers what she ate, her old friends who were there, and the address of the host. What may account for Mary's inability to remember these individuals' names?

She never encoded the names into long-term memory

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?

The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly. Long-term potentiation is the mechanism behind memory formation.

Dr. Larson was interested in whether classical music helps students perform better on a test. Dr. Larson randomly assigned half of the study's participants to a group that listened to classical music while taking a test. The other half of the participants did not listen to music while taking a test. The research design Dr. Larson used is

an experiment

After having a stroke resulting from a blockage of blood to the medial temporal lobe, Gerald could not remember new information, such as the books he had just read, new songs he had just heard, or the faces of new people he had just met. Gerald was experiencing

anterograde amnesia

If Juan tried to learn a long list of words, he would be most likely to forget words that

appeared in the middle of the list

Chuck recalls the day last summer when he fell off his bicycle and scraped his knee. This is an example of

episodic memory

In a memory study, the experimenter reads the same list of words to two groups. She asks group A to count the letters in each word, and she asks group B to focus on the meaning of each word for a later memory quiz. During a recall test, participants in group B recall significantly more words than participants in group A. Memory researchers attribute this effect to differences in

levels of processing

When Sophie reads her history assignments, she goes over them very carefully and tries to memorize each fact. Emma, on the other hand, studies by trying to relate the new information to things she has experienced, been told about by others, or seen in movies and on television. Emma's performance on history tests will probably be better than Sophie's due to differences in which of the following?

levels of processing

A basic assumption underlying short-term memory is that it is

limited in capacity

A teacher asks Yvonne to go to another classroom to get a student whom Yvonne has never met. As she walks, she repeats the student's name to herself over and over to help her remember. Yvonne is boosting her memory by using which of the following memory concepts?

maintenance rehearsal Simple thinking of words over and over again is a form of maintenance rehearsal.

Dr. Guarini is interested in conducting research that examines how much information people can hold in their working memory. She is unsure whether she needs to conduct an experiment or correlational research. Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research can do which of the following?

may reveal a causal relation

Short-term memory is best described in which of the following ways?

memory that can hold only a small amount of information

Memories of well-learned skills, such as riding a bicycle, are classified as

procedural

Memory for automatic activities, such as bike riding and handwriting, is known as

procedural

Dr. Roberts conducts a study in which one group of participants counts the number of syllables in each member of a list of twenty words, and the second group creates stories from the same set of words. When later asked to write down as many of the previously seen words as possible, the second group of participants recalls more words than the first group. This study shows the importance of

semantic encoding This example shows how memory can be improved when the meaning of words is considered.

Studying by focusing on the facts and not the meaning of information that has to be remembered involves

shallow processing Shallow processing is when a person focuses on facts and superficial characteristics of the information to be remembered.

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using which of the following memory concepts?

the method of loci

Uma is able to remember a list of items she must buy by creating visual images of the items in various spots in her dorm room. The technique Uma is using is called

the method of loci The scenario describes using a visualization memory strategy to remember the items.

Dr. Adedeji is trying to measure the capacity of her students' short-term memories. She shows them a long series of numbers on a display for several seconds, and then has them write down as many numbers as they can remember in order. Dr. Adedeji has the students complete a survey in which she asks them "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly effective, how well did you remember the numbers?" She concludes that her students have exceptionally good memories, as most of her students rated themselves as "highly effective." Which of the following best explains Dr. Adedeji's inaccurate conclusion?

Dr. Adedeji's survey led to self-report bias.

Devi spent time developing a set of note cards for an upcoming test that used word associations based on what the words meant in relation to each other. Which of the following did Devi use with this study method?

Effortful processing

Which of the following demonstrates semantic memory?

Elizabeth knows the formula to calculate the area of a square.

Barclay is excited about all they will learn in AP Psychology when school starts next week. According to the multi-store model of memory, the first stage in memory processing involves which of the following?

Encoding

When studying for a vocabulary test, Catherine read one of her vocabulary words and its definition aloud several times. About twenty seconds later, she still remembered the word's meaning, but then she moved on to the next word in the list without engaging in any further strategies to enhance her memory. The next day, she tested herself on the same vocabulary word at the same time, in the same mood, and in the same location as when she had first studied the word, but she could not remember its definition. It is most likely that Catherine could not remember the word because she failed to engage which of the following memory functions?

Long-term memory, because Catherine failed to encode the word; therefore, the word did not become a part of her long-term memory. Catherine encoded the word in her short-term memory but did not appear to encode it in her long-term memory for storage; therefore, she could not recall it upon attempting to retrieve the word from her long-term memory.

Which of the following occurs during long-term potentiation?

Memory improves because neural pathways are strengthened.

Professor González is a researcher who studies memory encoding. They are interested in evaluating the ability of a new method of note-taking to improve student grades. Group A is trained in the new method and group B uses the traditional outline method of taking notes. What is Professor González' independent variable?

Method of note-taking

Josie was given a password by her teacher. To remember the password, she repeated it in her mind multiple times until she typed it into her login screen a few moments later. Which of the following concepts was at work?

Phonological loop This system allows individuals to rehearse verbal information so that it is more easily remembered later.

Elena is presented with a list of 20 numbers. When asked to recall this list, she remembers more numbers from the beginning than from the end of the list. This phenomenon demonstrates which of the following types of effect?

Primacy

A sudden inability to remember how to tie a certain kind of knot indicates a deficit in which kind of memory?

Procedural

Matthew learned to play the violin at a very early age. He is able to play several songs from memory, but he does not remember learning to play them. Matthew's ability to play the violin depends on which of the following types of memory?

Procedural

Kay's ability to ride a bicycle reflects which of the following types of memory?

Procedural Procedural memory is long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things.

A man sustains a head injury. After the injury, he is able to tie his shoes, but he does not recall where he lives. Which aspect of the man's memory is intact and which aspect is dysfunctional, respectively?

Procedural and semantic Procedural memory is the implicit ability to perform an action (such as tying one's shoes), and semantic memory is the memory for factual information (such as where one lives).

While he is at soccer practice, Erwin reminds himself that he has to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up milk and cereal for tomorrow's breakfast. What sort of memory is Erwin using?

Prospective Prospective memory is used to remember to perform a task in the future.

Researchers want to examine if there is a difference between the retention of implicit versus explicit memories. To conduct this research as an experiment, which of the following would be necessary?

Random Assignment

A list of the presidents of the United States in chronological order up through the year 2000 is presented in the exact same manner to two classes of students, and they are then asked to recall them. A fourth-grade class is tested in the morning and a sixth-grade class is tested in the afternoon. The percent recall for both classes was combined and is presented in the figure above. The teacher noticed that the afternoon class recalled more presidents than the morning class did and concluded that this was caused by time of day. Which of the following is a confounding variable? Responses

The grade level of the students The grade level as well as the time of day were different for the two groups. Therefore, the teacher cannot conclude that the time of day caused the difference because the difference could be due to grade level.

In an experiment evaluating encoding strategies, a researcher taught participants 15 new psychological concepts. One group took notes to help learn the concepts while the other group was asked to create a mnemonic device for each concept. In this experiment, what is the independent variable?

The method used to learn the concepts. This is the independent variable or the variable that is being manipulated in the research design.

Amehd, a fifth grader, is passing a note to his friend in class while his teacher is teaching a new type of math problem. When he is later tested on the material, he is unable to recall how to solve a similar problem. Which of the following theories best explains Amehd's difficulty in recalling how to do this type of problem?

The multi-store model, because it focuses on encoding and retrieving information The multi-store model would explain this type of memory problem as being due to Amehd's lack of encoding the new information because he was not paying attention.

A group of researchers are investigating how different studying strategies impact how much participants remember on a test. They recruit 50 participants and have half of the participants study by just reading a passage over and over for 10 minutes. The other half of the participants spend five minutes reading the passage one time and then answering a series of multiple-choice questions on the material for another five minutes. Finally, the participants write down as many facts from the reading passage as they can in three minutes. Which of the following is the dependent variable of the study?

The number of facts the participants remember during the test phase

Cassidy can only remember the titles of the first few books her teacher told her to get from the library. Which of the following concepts would best explain Cassidy's experience?

The primacy effect

A researcher is studying the accuracy of people's memories when they use mnemonic devices. After studying the first 10 people, the data showed that memories using mnemonic devices were more accurate than the average's person's memories. Which of the following explains why the researcher should not draw any conclusions about the accuracy of memories using mnemonic devices yet?

The researcher should expect that the more data she collects, the more likely the results will regress to the mean. Regression to the mean occurs as more data are collected. Small sample sizes may yield a mean that is skewed, but the more data that is collected, the mean of the data set typically move closer to the mean.

A person assembling a tool one week after reading the instructions can remember the first and last steps of the procedure but not the middle ones. This best illustrates which of the following?

The serial position effect

A researcher wants to determine which studying technique would be more effective: massed practice or distributed practice. The researcher randomly assigns 30 students to two groups and gives them a list of vocabulary words to remember. One of the groups uses a massed practice technique. The other uses a distributed practice technique. The researcher gives the students a quiz four days later to see how well they remembered their list of words. He compared the scores for both groups. What is the dependent variable in this study?

The vocabulary quiz scores The dependent variable in this study was the quiz scores of the students as it demonstrates the participant's memory of the list of words.

An instructor conducted an experiment to determine the effects of two different methods of encoding on the amount students learned in introductory psychology. The results showed that the average amount learned by the group using one encoding method was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other encoding method. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Which of the following is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn?

There is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occurred by chance.

When rehearsal of incoming information is prevented, which of the following will most likely occur?

There will be no transfer of the information to long-term memory.

If mice lack an enzyme essential to the process of long-term potentiation, which of the following will be the most likely consequence?

They will be unable to learn a maze.

Which of the following is the most useful study strategy to help a student retain the words in a vocabulary list?

Using each word in a sentence

Clive Wearing is an individual involved in a well-known case study examining anterograde amnesia. Clive experienced a high fever which led to damage to the hippocampus nearly 40 years ago. Since that time, Clive has not been able to encode new memories and, by some estimations, can only hold a thought for 7 to 9 seconds. Which of the following is an ethical consideration regarding the case of Clive Wearing?

We should not know Clive's identity, especially while he is still living.

Which of the following best describes the primacy effect?

When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence The primacy effect refers to the fact that people tend to remember things they learned earliest better (i.e., things at the beginning of a sequence).

Dr. Trenton conducted a study to determine whether massed practice or distributed practice produced better academic outcomes. He recruited volunteers from a high school Spanish class and randomly assigned students to learn a list of 100 new vocabulary words for which they were later given a word recall test. Students prepared for the word recall test using either distributed practice by studying for 30 minutes a day the week before the test, or massed practice by intensively studying the night before the test. What was the dependent variable in this research project?

Word recall Academic success was operationalized as recall of the list of newly learned Spanish words on a test.

Robyn finds a computer repair service online. She silently repeats the phone number in her mind until she locates her phone to call the repair service. Which memory system is most useful for Robyn in this scenario?

Working memory

Ricardo can remember the phone numbers of all of his childhood friends correctly. Ricardo probably has which of the following?

highly superior autobiographical memory This scenario is an example of an eidetic memory because Ricardo recalled all of the numbers after a quick glance.

The brain scans of people with amnesia are most likely to show damage to the

hippocampus

When Judy is asked how many windows are in her home, she figures out the exact answer by mentally walking through her house and taking a count. This retrieval technique relies most heavily on

imagery Using imagery involves the formation of mental pictures, such as visualizing one's house.

When Amy was seven years of age, she had a babysitter from France. During this time Amy learned to speak a little French. Years later, when Amy got to college, she signed up for a beginning French class. Amy learned the material in her French class much more quickly than her classmates did. Amy's rapid learning was most likely due to

implicit memory

When a list of words is learned in order, the words most likely to be forgotten are those that represent which of the following?

in the middle of the list

Although she has not sustained any injuries, Riley cannot remember anything before the age of three. She is most likely experiencing

infantile amnesia Infantile amnesia is the inability to recall events from very early in life, likely due to immature brain development.