Cognitive Psychology Book Questions Chapter 5

Models designed to explain mental functioning are constantly refined and modified to explain new results. Which of the following exemplifies this concept based on the results presented in your text? a) Replacing the STM component of the modal model with working memory b) Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with the episodic buffer c) Replacing the STM component of the modal model with iconic memory d) Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with working memory

a) Replacing the STM component of the modal model with working memory

Imagine you are driving to a friend's new house. In your mind, you say the address repeatedly until you arrive. Once you arrive, you stop thinking about the address and start to think about buying a housewarming gift for your friend. To remember the address, you used a(n) ____ process in STM. a) control b) automatic c) coding d) iconic

a) control

11) STM's capacity is best estimated as seven (plus or minus two) a) meaningful units. b) letters. c) words. d) sentences.

a) meaningful units.

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

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

Physiological studies indicate that damage to the area of the brain known as the ____ can disrupt behaviors that depend on working memory. a) prefrontal cortex b) amygdala c) hippocampus d) occipital lobe

a) prefrontal cortex

Suppose you (a student) are asked by a teacher to learn a poem you will recite in front of your class. Soon after, both you and a classmate, J.P., are asked by another teacher to learn the lyrics to an unfamiliar song. When you and J.P. are later asked to remember the song lyrics, you have a much more difficult time recalling them than J.P. does. This impairment of your performance is most likely attributable to a) proactive interference. b) your overloading the phonological loop. c) a release from proactive interference. d) a recency effect.

a) proactive interference.

20) Articulatory suppression causes a decrease in the word-length effect because a) saying "the, the, the" fills up the phonological loop. b) saying "la, la, la" forces participants to use visual encoding. c) talking makes the longer words seem even longer. d) elaborative rehearsal helps transfer information into LTM.

a) saying "the, the, the" fills up the phonological loop.

Given the different theoretical components of working memory, the code for these memories is most likely based on the ____ of the stimulus. a) sound b) appearance c) meaning d) modality

a) sound

The effective duration of short-term memory, when rehearsal is prevented, is a) just under a fraction of a second. b) 15-20 seconds or less. c) 1-3 minutes or more. d) indefinite.

b) 15-20 seconds or less.

13) Which of the following sets of results shows evidence of proactive interference with a three-trial recall task? (Note: Read the selections as percent correct for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3) a) 20% : 50 % : 70% correct b) 80% : 40% : 30% correct c) 30 % : 30% : 30% correct d) 70% : 40% : 60% correct

b) 80% : 40% : 30% correct

The episodic buffer directly connects to which two components in Baddeley's model of memory? a) The phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad b) The central executive and long-term memory c) The central executive and the phonological loop d) The phonological loop and long-term memory

b) The central executive and 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) stimulus presentation. b) delay. c) response. d) encoding.

b) delay.

Sperling's delayed partial report procedure provided evidence that a) STM and LTM are independent components of memory. b) information in sensory memory fades within 1 or 2 seconds. c) information in STM must be rehearsed to transfer into LTM. d) STM has a limited capacity.

b) information in sensory memory fades within 1 or 2 seconds.

A property of control processes in the modal model of memory is that they a) do not require attention. b) may differ from one task to another. c) are performed without conscious awareness. d) are difficult to modify.

b) may differ from one task to another.

Neural ____ refers to a neural response, usually brain activation measured by fMRI, to determine what a person is perceiving or thinking. a) potentiation b) mind reading c) perseveration d) interference

b) mind reading

Which task should be easier: keeping a sentence like "John went to the store to buy some oranges" in your mind AND a) saying "yes" for each word that is a noun and "no" for each word that is not a noun? b) pointing to the word "yes" for each word that is a noun and "no" for each word that is not a noun? c) pointing to the word "no" for each word that is a noun and "yes" for each word that is not a noun? d) saying "no" for each word that is a noun and "yes" for each word that is not a noun?

b) pointing to the word "yes" for each word that is a noun and "no" for each word that is not a noun?

10) If a person has a digit span of two, this indicates that he has ____ memory. a) an absence of sensory b) poor short-term c) exceptional short-term d) normal short-term

b) poor short-term

Funahashi et al.'s work on monkeys doing a delayed response task examined the role of neurons in the a) nucleus acumbens. b) prefrontal cortex. c) diencephalon. d) cingulate gyrus.

b) prefrontal cortex.

Shanta has frontal lobe damage. She is doing a problem solving task in which she has to choose the red object out of many choices. She can easily complete this repeatedly, but when the experimenter asks her to choose the blue object on a new trial of the task, she continues to choose the red one, even when the experimenter gives her feedback that she is incorrect. Shanta is displaying a) sensory memory. b) decay. c) preservation d) agnosia.

c) preservation

When a sparkler is twirled rapidly, people perceive a circle of light. This occurs because a) the trail you see is caused by sparks left behind from the sparkler. b) due to its differing wavelengths, the light from the sparkler continues to radiate for about a second after it goes out. c) the length of iconic memory (the persistence of vision) is about a fraction of a second. d) Gestalt principles work to complete the circle in our minds.

c) the length of iconic memory (the persistence of vision) is about a fraction of a second.

Working memory differs from short-term memory in that a) short-term memory consists of a number of components. b) short-term memory has unlimited capacity. c) working memory is concerned with both holding and processing information. d) working memory has unlimited capacity.

c) working memory is concerned with both holding and processing information.

Using the partial report procedure in his "letter array" experiment, Sperling was able to infer that participants initially saw about ____ percent of the 12 letters in the display. a) 12 b) 36 c) 65 d) 82

d) 82

12) The primary effect of chunking is to a) maximize the recency effect. b) increase memory for items by grouping them together based on sound. c) develop a visual code to supplement a phonological code for the information. d) increase the efficiency of short-term memory.

d) increase the efficiency of short-term memory.

According to your text, when students are asked the top functions for which they use their memories, all but which of the following are commonly identified? a) their daily schedule b) learning material for exams c) remembering names and phone numbers d) labeling familiar objects

d) labeling familiar objects

Research on monkeys has shown that the part of the brain most closely associated with working memory is the a) hippocampus. b) amygdala. c) occipital cortex. d) prefrontal cortex.

d) prefrontal cortex.

8) Jill's friends tell her they think she has a really good memory. She finds this interesting so she decides to purposefully test her memory. Jill receives a list of to-do tasks each day at work. Usually, she checks off each item as the day progresses, but this week, she is determined to memorize the to-do lists. On Monday, Jill is proud to find that she remembers 95 percent of the tasks without referring to the list. On Tuesday, her memory drops to 80 percent, and by Thursday, she is dismayed to see her performance has declined to 20 percent. Jill's memory is declining over the course of the week because other information she encounters is "competing" with that which she memorized on Monday. This process is called a) anterograde amnesia. b) episodic buffering. c) chunking. d) proactive interference.

d) proactive interference.

One function of ____ is to pull information out of long-term memory. a) sensory memory b) the phonological loop c) articulatory suppression d) the central executive

d) the central executive

The word-length effect reveals that a) STM digit span remains constant across native speakers of different languages. b) longer words are typically more distinctive and easier to retrieve from LTM than shorter words. c) working memory's central executive processes verbal information differently than visual/image information. d) the phonological loop of the working memory model has a limited capacity.

d) the phonological loop of the working memory model has a limited capacity.

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 STM recency effect b) delayed response coding c) the phonological loop d) the visuospatial sketch pad

d) the visuospatial sketch pad