AP Classroom questions - psych memory

Semantic Encoding

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?

The method of loci

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?

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?

The method used to learn the concepts

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 vocabulary quiz scores

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 number of facts the participants remember during the test phase

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?

Random Assignment

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?

The variation of scores for the encoding strategies group was smaller. (Standard deviation represents the average distance from the mean for a data set. The standard deviation in the encoding strategies groups was 3.4 versus 12.6 in the comparison group. )

A high school instructor wanted to see if implementing encoding strategies would help students master concepts in AP Psychology. They conduct a double-blind study in which students are randomly assigned to either the encoding strategy group or the group that continued to study as they had before. The data for each group is presented in the table. Which of the following best represents the results of this investigation? Encoding: m=84.6, sd=3.4 Continued: m=72.9, sd=12.6

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)

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?

Experiment

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?

The results are not likely due to chance. (The results are likely due to the manipulation of the independent variable.)

Researchers recruited student volunteers for a study about memory. Each student given a long story to read about someone experiencing a "health emergency" and then given a quiz on the details of the story a week later. In Group 1, the participants had to read the study each night for a week. In Group 2, the participants were told to read the story 5 times the night before the quiz. After the study was over, the student participants were told the real reason for the study before they left. The data collected are presented in the table. Which of the following best describes the conclusion researchers could make if the results of this study are statistically significant?

Distributed Practice

Researchers recruited student volunteers for a study about memory. Each student given a long story to read about someone experiencing a "health emergency" and then given a quiz on the details of the story a week later. In Group 1, the participants had to read the study each night for a week. In Group 2, the participants were told to read the story 5 times the night before the quiz. After the study was over, the student participants were told the real reason for the study before they left. The data collected are presented in the table. Which of the following best explains why Group 1 remembered more details of the story than Group 2?

Correlational Study

Researchers repeatedly presented a picture of a goat along with other animals and asked participants to rank how closely the picture of the goat matched their prototype of a "mammal." Participants used a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "not at all like my prototype of a mammal" to 5 meaning "exactly like my prototype of a mammal." The graph depicts the rankings of each participant based on the number of exposures. What type of research has been conducted?

Long-term memory, because Catherine failed to encode the word; therefore, the word did not become a part of her long-term memory.

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?

A.

Which of the following best describes the primacy effect? A. When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence. B. When people have better recall of things that occur at the end of a sequence. C. When people who know very little about a subject tend to be overly confident about how much they know about that subject, while people who know a great deal about the subject tend to downplay their knowledge about that subject. D. When people tend to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they get when making decisions.

D. Colleen and Leo

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation? A. Erik and Harry don't like each other when they are first assigned to the same a room during a class trip, but after spending a great deal of time together, they begin to like each other more. B. When Sruthi first enters a dark room after coming in from outside, she can't see anything, but her eyes adjust after a few minutes. C. At first, Benjamin needs to drink only a small amount of a caffeinated beverage to feel its effects, but after drinking it regularly for a while, he needs more to feel the same effects. D. The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly.