Chapter 5: Short-Term and Working Memory

Peterson and Peterson studied how well participants can remember groups of three letters (like BRT, QSD) after various delays. They found that participants remembered an average of 80 percent of the groups after 3 seconds but only 10 percent after 18 seconds. They hypothesized that this decrease in performance was due to ___________, but later research showed that it was actually due to ___________. a. Decay; Lack of rehearsal b. Interference; Decay c. Decay; Interference d. Priming; Interference

c. Decay; Interference

Brief sensory memory for sound is known as a. Pre-perceptual auditory memory b. Iconic memory c. Echoic memory d. Primary auditory memory

c. Echoic memory

Physiological studies indicate that damage to the brain's ___________can disrupt behaviors that depend on working memory. a. Amygdala b. Hippocampus c. Prefrontal cortex d. Occipital lobe

c. Prefrontal cortex

Imagine yourself walking from your car, bus stop, or dorm to your first class. Your ability to form such a picture in your mind depends on which of the following components of working memory? a. The phonological loop b. Delayed response coding c. The visuospatial sketch pad d. The STM recency effect

c. The visuospatial sketch pad

The effective duration of short-term memory, when rehearsal is prevented, is a. One to three minutes or more b. Indefinite c. Just under a fraction of a second d. 15-20 seconds or less

d. 15-20 seconds or less

The three structural components of the modal model of memory are a. Sensory memory, iconic memory, rehearsal b. Receptors, temporal lobe, frontal lobe c. Receptors, occipital lobe, temporal lobe d. Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

d. Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

Funahashi and coworkers recorded neurons in the PF cortex of monkeys during a delayed response task. These neurons showed the most intense firing during a. Delay b. Encoding c. Response d. Stimulus presentation

a. Delay

Which of the following is not a stage in the information processing model of memory? a. Episodic memory b. Sensory memory c. Short-term memory d. Long-term memory

a. Episodic memory

Given what we know about the operation of the phonological loop, which of the following word lists would be most difficult for people to retain for 15 seconds? a. MAC, CAN, CAP, MAN, MAP b. SAY, BET, PIN, COW, RUG c. PIG, DOG, RAT, FOX, HEN d. BIP, TEK, LIN, MOD, REY

a. MAC, CAN, CAP, MAN, MAP

It is easier to perform two tasks at the same time if a. One is handled by the visuospatial sketch pad and one is handled by the phonological loop b. The central executive is deactivated during the dual task time period c. Both are handled by the phonological loop d. Both are handled by the visuospatial sketch pad

a. One is handled by the visuospatial sketch pad and one is handled by the phonological loop

A person with a reduced digit span would most likely have a problem with ___________ memory. a. Short-term b. Autobiographical c. Long-term d. Sensory

a. Short-term

Observations that people may actually process and manipulate information rather than simply store it for brief periods of time challenged the conceptualization of a. Short-term memory b. The persistence of vision c. The physiological approach to coding d. The phonological similarity effect

a. Short-term memory

Research suggests that the capacity of short-term memory is a. Somewhat small, holding only about seven items at one time b. Larger than the capacity of long-term memory among young people c. Quite large, holding a large number of items simultaneously d. Equivalent to sensory memory, holding about a hundred items at one time

a. Somewhat small, holding only about seven items at one time

The research by Ericsson and colleagues (1980) examined the ability of a college student to achieve amazing feats of memory by having him remember strings of random digits that were recited to him. They found that this student used his experience with running times to help him retain these strings of numbers. The significance of this finding was that a. Expertise with some material reduces susceptibility to proactive interference with that material b. Chunking requires knowledge of familiar patterns or concepts c. Experts show larger primacy and recency effects than beginners d. Knowledge in an area of expertise increases a person's digit span

b. Chunking requires knowledge of familiar patterns or concepts

Sperling's delayed partial report procedure provided evidence that a. Information in short-term memory must be rehearsed to transfer into long-term memory b. Information in sensory memory fades within one or two seconds c. Short-term memory has a limited capacity d. Short-term and long-term memory are the independent components of memory

b. Information in sensory memory fades within one or two seconds