chapter 7: memory questions

The gradual strengthening of the connections between neurons by repetitive stimulation over time is referred to as long-term _____.

potentiation

When we have encountered a stimulus before, we are able to identify it more quickly and easily. The term for this subtype of implicit memory is __________.

priming

Our memory for how to do things is called __________.

procedural memory

Psychologists measure people's memory abilities by assessing three capacities: __________.

recall, recognition, and relearning

Which of the following is one of the three processes of memory?

retrieval

Although using __________ can sometimes lead to mistakes, they provide us with a frame of reference for interpreting new situations.

schemas

In Elizabeth Loftus's "lost in the mall" study, approximately what percentage of people distinctly remembered being lost in a shopping mall after being told that this had happened to them, even though it did not really happen?

25 percent

__________ allows you to remember auditory stimuli for up to 5 or 10 seconds.

Echoic memory

ZAK, BOL, GID, YAF, and other nonsense syllables were used in some of the earliest studies of memory, conducted by __________.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Which of the following statements is true?

It is easier to implant a false memory that is plausible than one that is implausible.

What is the general progression of memory loss for patients with Alzheimer's disease?

Memory for recent events fades first, with distant memories usually being the last to go.

That frustrating feeling of knowing you know something but cannot pull it out of your brain at the moment you want it is known as the TOT phenomenon, because __________.

TOT stands for "tip-of-the-tongue"

Gingko, or any other memory booster, presumably works by increasing the amount of _____ in the human brain.

acetylcholine

Which of the following describes the term "schema"?

an organized knowledge structure or mental model that we have stored in memory

Without even noticing that you are doing it, what memory technique do you use to remember larger quantities of information, even though your short-term memory capacity only holds about nine bits of information?

chunking

Unintentional plagiarism has been attributed to __________, which occurs when someone says they forgot having been exposed to the plagiarized material earlier and thought they had created it themselves.

cryptomnesia

The two primary reasons why short-term memories fade are __________ and __________.

decay; interference

For students to show the best performance on their exams, they are advised to engage in

distributed practice

There are various techniques available to help people improve their ability to recall material. For example, when you remember something new by connecting it mentally to something you already know, you are using __________.

elaborative rehearsal

When one attempts to recreate a retrieval environment that is as similar as possible to the initial encoding, or learning, environment as possible, he or she is making use of the principle of

encoding specificity

The order of the basic memory processes through which information enters the memory system and is later used is

encoding, storage, and retrieval

More than 300 convicted prisoners to date have been released because DNA evidence showed they were innocent, despite confident testimony from __________.

eyewitnesses

Although it is presented as the most common kind of memory loss in the popular media, with depictions of someone losing all memory of his or her past, __________ is not actually the most common kind of amnesia.

generalized amnesia

Although both Clive Wearing and a patient known as H.M. had severely damaged hippocampi or removed hippocampi, they both showed evidence of _____ memory.

implicit memory

What system of memory has the largest span and longest duration?

long-term memory

The connections among neurons gradually strengthen over time, and do so by means of repetitive stimulation. This process is known as __________.

long-term potentiation

A memory that is actually false but "feels real" and can be triggered by, for example, looking at a list of associated words, is called a(n) __________.

memory illusion

Over time, children develop greater knowledge of their own memory abilities and limitations. The term used to describe this is __________.

meta-memory

Dee Dee has to remember 4 items that he needs at the corner market, so he visualizes the path he will take to get there. He imagines a bar of soap hanging from a large tree, envisions a roll of paper towels next to a stoplight, "sees" a packet of gum on the newspaper rack, and imagines the fire hydrant spurting out soda. Which memory strategy is Dee Dee relying on?

method of loci

The memory system that contains memories for factual information about the world around us is _____ memory.

semantic memory

Zhenya remembers that St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota. Alina remembers that she lived in St. Paul when she was 12 years old. Zhenya is demonstrating __________ memory, whereas Alina is demonstrating __________ memory.

semantic; episodic

George Sperling's partial report method studies from the 1960's demonstrated that when a display of 12 letters was viewed, participants retained all of the letters in __________ but not all of them could be transferred to short-term memory.

sensory memory

The Magic Number of short-term memory is:

seven plus or minus two

When we are not sure where a memory really came from ("Did it actually happen? Or was it all a dream?") we can use cues such as how vivid and detailed the memory is to determine the answer. This process is called __________.

source monitoring

Evidence suggests that when the real criminal is NOT included in a "live" line-up, most witnesses

will be inaccurate and select the person who most closely resembles the real criminal.