CH 8: Everyday Memory & Errors

The misinformation effect occurs when a person's memory for an event is modified by misleading information presented before the event. during the event. after the event. all of the above

after the event

Your text argues that the proper procedure for measuring the accuracy of flashbulb memories is - source monitoring. - scripting. - repeated recall. - pre-cueing

repeated recall

The misinformation effect can be explained by proactive interference. retroactive interference. schematic biases. repeated familiarity effects.

retroactive interference.

Your friend has been sick for several days, so you go over to her home to make her some chicken soup. Searching for a spoon, you first reach in a top drawer beside the dishwasher. Then, you turn to the big cupboard beside the stove to search for a pan. In your search, you have relied on a kitchen source memory. script. schema. scan technique.

schema

Loftus and Palmer's "car-crash films" experiment described in the text shows how a seemingly minor word change can produce a change in a person's memory report. In this study, the MPI was (were) the word(s) "fast." "smashed." "miles per hour." "car crash."

"smashed."

Your text describes an experiment by Talarico and Rubin (2003) that measured people's memories of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Which of the following was the primary result of that research? - Participants had very little confidence in the accuracy of their memories of the events 32 weeks after they occurred. - Participants had a very high level of confidence of the terrorist events and also had high confidence in their present "everyday" memories 32 weeks later. - Participants had high confidence in the accuracy of their memories of the terrorist events 32 weeks later, but when actually tested made significant errors when asked what they were doing on the day of the attacks. - After 32 weeks, participants had a high level of confidence in their memories of the terrorist events, but lower belief in their memories of "everyday" events.

After 32 weeks, participants had a high level of confidence in their memories of the terrorist events, but lower belief in their memories of "everyday" events.

Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding post-event information and the misinformation effect? The misinformation effect does not occur when people are told explicitly that the post-event information may be incorrect Even when participants are told that the post-event information is incorrect, the misinformation effect can still occur. Misinformation effects are significantly reduced when post-event information is provided, but only if that information is given within just a few minutes of the initial event. The provision of accurate post-event information provided a paradoxical (and as of yet unexplained) increase in the misinformation effect

Even when participants are told that the post-event information is incorrect, the misinformation effect can still occur.

Extrapolating from the cultural life script hypothesis, which of the following events would be easiest to recall? - Retiring from work at age 40 - Marrying at age 60 - Graduating from college at age 22 - Having a child at age 45

Graduating from college at age 22

Flashbulb memory is best represented by which of the following statements? - It is vivid memory for emotional events. - It is vivid, highly accurate memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event. - It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not necessarily accurate over time. - It is vivid, highly accurate memory for emotional events.

It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not necessarily accurate over time.

____ occurs when more recent learning impairs memory for something that happened further back in the past. Reminiscent memory Pragmatic inference Feature integration Retroactive interference

Retroactive interference

For most adults over age 40, the reminiscence bump describes enhanced memory for - childhood and adolescence. - adolescence and young adulthood. - young adulthood and middle age. - childhood and middle age.

adolescence and young adulthood.

Wei has allergy symptoms. He has gone to his regular doctor and an allergy specialist, but he wasn't given a prescription by either doctor. Instead, he was advised to buy an over-the-counter medicine. While he was in the specialist's waiting area, he read a magazine where he saw three ads for an allergy medicine called SneezeLess. A week later, in a drug store, Wei says to his brother, "My doctor says SneezeLess works great. I'll buy that one." Wei and his doctor never discussed SneezeLess. Wei has fallen victim to which of the following errors? - MPI - Recovered memory - Schema confusion - Source monitoring

Source monitoring

WRITTEN RESPONSE Suppose a friend tells you she has such a vivid memory of a personal event that it seems like a photograph. She wonders aloud about these kinds of memories and how they work. Explain to her the nature of flashbulb memories and what is known about them.

Suppose a friend tells you she has such a vivid memory of a personal event that it seems like a photograph. She wonders aloud about these kinds of memories and how they work. Explain to her the nature of flashbulb memories and what is known about them. Flashbulb memories are memories that we have of distinctive events. They are very vivid and can last over a long period but they are not like photographs because the memory is not perfect or accurate and they tend to change over time.

Autobiographical memory research shows that a person's brain is more extensively activated when viewing photos - the person has seen before. - of familiar places. - they took themselves. - the person has never seen before.

They took themselves

Your text's discussion of false memories leads to the conclusion that false memories arise from the same constructive processes that produce true memories. occur for details but not for entire events. occur in laboratory settings but do not occur in real-world circumstances. do not occur for all people but rather are experienced by suggestible or inattentive people.

arise from the same constructive processes that produce true memories.

In Lindsay's "misinformation effect" experiment, participants saw a sequence of slides showing a maintenance man stealing money and a computer. This slide presentation included narration by a female speaker who described what was happening in the slides as they were shown. Results showed that the misinformation effect was greatest when MPI presentation was visual. auditory, regardless of the gender of the speaker. auditory from a female speaker. auditory from a male speaker.

auditory from a female speaker.

The conclusion to be drawn from the man named Shereshevskii whose abnormal brain functioning gave him virtually limitless word-for-word memory is that having memory like a video recorder is largely a blessing because no event would be erased. is an advantage because it eliminates "selective" recording (remembering some events and forgetting others), which provides no useful service to humans. helped him draw powerful inferences and intelligent conclusions from his vast knowledge base. can seriously disrupt functioning in one's personal life

can seriously disrupt functioning in one's personal life

The "telephone game" is often played by children. One child creates a story and whispers it to a second child, who does the same to a third child, and so on. When the last child recites the story to the group, his or her reproduction of the story is generally shorter than the original and contains many omissions and inaccuracies. This game shows how memory is a ______ process. - life-narrative - narrative-rehearsal - consequentiality based - constructive

constructive

In the "word list" false memory experiment where several students incorrectly remembered hearing the word sleep, false memory occurs because of constructive memory processes. verbatim recall. the effect of scripts. cryptomnesia

constructive memory processes.

Arkes and Freedman's "baseball game" experiment asked participants to indicate whether the following sentence was present in a passage they had previously read about events in a game: "The batter was safe at first." Their findings showed inaccurate memories involved - omissions of information that was presented. - participants who did not understand baseball and assumed more information was presented than actually was. - creations from inferences based on baseball knowledge. - confusions about presented information when it was ambiguous.

creations from inferences based on baseball knowledge.

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others is known as - narrative rehearsal. - cryptomnesia. - repeated reproduction. - repeated recall.

cryptomnesia

In the "War of the Ghosts" experiment, participants' reproductions contained inaccuracies based on - narrative rehearsal. - source misattributions. - cultural expectations. - shallow processing.

cultural expectations

Your text's discussion of eyewitness testimony illustrates that this type of memory is frequently influenced by all of the following EXCEPT failing to elaboratively rehearse these kinds of events due to fear. inattention to relevant information due to the emotional nature of these events. source-monitoring errors due to familiarity. increased confidence due to postevent questioning.

failing to elaboratively rehearse these kinds of events due to fear.

Much research has been dedicated to improving the reliability of eyewitness testimony. One finding reveals that when constructing a lineup, increasing similarity between "fillers" and a suspect leads to an increased level of erroneous identification of innocent people. increasing similarity between "fillers" and a suspect leads to an increased level of missed identification of some guilty suspects. increasing the number of fillers from 5 to 7 actually decreases the rate of false positive identifications. decreasing the number of fillers from 6 to 3 actually increases the rate of false positive identifications.

increasing similarity between "fillers" and a suspect leads to an increased level of missed identification of some guilty suspects.

"S," who had a photographic memory that was described as virtually limitless, was able to achieve many feats of memory. According to the discussion in your text, S's memory system operated _____ in a manner that bypassed normal neurological "blocks." less efficiently than normal. using more visual encoding than normal. using stronger semantic connections than normal.

less efficiently than normal.

Experiments that argue against a special flashbulb memory mechanism find that as time increases since the occurrence of the flashbulb event, participants - remember more details about the event. - make more errors in their recollections. - report less confidence about their recollections. - report less vivid recollections of the event.

make more errors in their recollections.

The observation that older adults often become nostalgic for the "good old days" reflects the self-image hypothesis, which states that - life in a society gets more complicated and difficult as generations pass. - memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life identities. - people tend to remember more of the positive events in their lives than negative ones. - our memories change as we live longer and have more "lifetime periods" to draw events from.

memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life identities.

In the experiment in which participants sat in an office and then were asked to remember what they saw in the office, participants "remembered" some things, like books, that weren't actually there. This experiment illustrates the effect of _____ on memory. schemas scripts confabulation bias

schemas

In the word list experiment that was based on work by Deese (1959) and Roediger & McDermott (1995), many students incorrectly remembered hearing the word ________ as part of the list of presented stimuli. This highlights a disadvantage of memory's constructive nature. blanket sleep tired drowsy

sleep

Research on eyewitness testimony has shown that the more confident the person giving the testimony is of their memories, the more accurate the memories are. the more convincing the testimony is to a jury. the more likely they are to be influenced by a weapons focus. the more accurate the memories are and the more convincing the testimony is to a jury.

the more convincing the testimony is to a jury.

Research on eyewitness testimony reveals that highly confident eyewitnesses are usually accurate. it is unnecessary to warn an eyewitness that a suspect may or may not be in a lineup. when viewing a lineup, an eyewitness's confidence in her choice of the suspect can be increased by an authority's confirmation of her choice, even when the choice is wrong. despite public misconception, eyewitnesses are usually very accurate when selecting a perpetrator from a lineup.

when viewing a lineup, an eyewitness's confidence in her choice of the suspect can be increased by an authority's confirmation of her choice, even when the choice is wrong.