psychology

Which of the following best describes the effect of stress on working memory capacity?

Stress can reduce the effectiveness of working memory by reducing its capacity.

Which of the following is true of flashbulb memories?

The details recalled in flashbulb memories are often inaccurate.

Which of the following is NOT one of the three main memory processes?

Thinking

Motivated forgetting is usually associated with what type of memories?

Traumatic

Which of the following accurately describes the processing of information in working memory?

Working memory uses cognitive resources during its operation which makes us less aware of our surroundings.

A soap opera character who had a major head trauma cannot remember any post-injury people or events, but his memory for people and events prior to his injury is perfect. Is this fictional tale possible in the real world?

Yes; amnesia involving new events is called anterograde amnesia.

Which of the following best describes the results of Ebbinghaus's work on forgetting?

You'll forget most of it right away, and you'll keep on forgetting more of it, though at a slower rate.

According to decay theory, memories fade because

a neurochemical "memory trace" disintegrates over time.

Dr. Tranh has given so many lectures that he gives little thought to what he expects might happen: He assumes students will assemble, take notes, and occasionally ask a question. That Dr. Tranh finds the process so routine reflects the development of:

a schema

Drew is unable to recall whether Lincoln's head faces left or right on the penny. Which of the following is probably the best explanation for Drew's memory failure?

The information was not encoded, because Drew never really paid attention to Lincoln's head on the penny.

Middle-aged Mrs. Lovett is recalling her first Christmas as a young newlywed at her in-laws' Wyoming ranch. This is a(n) _____ memory.

autobiographical

Margaret fell down her basement stairs and suffered serious injury to her amygdala. What memory problems is she most likely to experience?

difficulty with emotional memories

The conscious repetition of information to ensure its survival in short-term memory is termed _____ rehearsal.

elaborative

The memory of your mom reading you The Cat in the Hat each night is called ________ memory.

episodic

Bart remembers the release date of his favorite movie director's upcoming project. Which of the following forms of memory would have helped Bart?

explicit memory

Christopher clearly remembers that he was practicing his dialogues for his school play when he heard that the governor of his state had been assassinated. This is an example of a(n) _____ memory.

flashbulb

According to Hermann Ebbinghaus,

most forgetting occurs soon after we originally learned something.

Long-term potentiation refers to the process whereby:

neural pathways become activated more easily as learning occurs.

You are taking both Spanish and French this semester. As you study the vocabulary words for your French test, you realize that the French words are disrupting the memory of the Spanish vocabulary words you studied last week. This is an example of

proactive interference

A typical multiple-choice question on a psychology test is an example of both a _____ and a(n) _____ test of memory.

recognition; explicit

With respect to the potential influence of a written language on the recall ability of a culture's members, research has:

revealed that a written language probably has little influence on people's memory ability.

A preexisting mental concept or framework that helps people organize and interpret information is referred to as a

schema

Cory knows that the capital of Vermont is Montpelier. This is an example of _____ memory.

semantic

Tommy is repeating a series of digits in the order in which he heard an experimenter read them. The experimenter is testing the capacity of Tommy's _____ memory. Tommy should be able to repeat about _____ digits correctly.

short-term; 7

_____ amnesia occurs when an individual has a memory for some material but cannot recall where he or she encountered it.

source

During a conversation, Jerry told his friend that their favorite rock band was coming to perform in their city. However, he could not remember the medium through which he got the information about the show. Jerry was experiencing:

source amnesia.

Encoding failure occurs when

the information was never entered into long-term memory.

Encoding failure occurs when:

the information was never entered into long-term memory.

"I know it! It's um... um... it starts with 'G", begins a trivia game contestant excitedly. The contestant is falling pretty to the ______ effect.

tip of the tongue

What key process is critical when moving new information from sensory memory into short-term memory?

attention

The primacy effect refers to the fact that:

items presented early in a list are remembered better than items in the middle of the list.

The recency effect refers to the fact that:

items presented late in a list are remembered better than items presented in the middle of a list.

You most likely store the seven-digit phone number from your previous address in ________ memory.

long-term

The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information is known as _____.

memory

Eyewitness accounts of crimes are

prone to errors

Talking to people about what you have learned is a form of

rehearsal

Rehearsal refers to the:

repetition of information that has entered short-term memory.

Both of Suzie's parents suffered from Alzheimer's disease before they died. Although still in her early 40s, Suzie is very concerned about her own cognitive functioning. What advice can you give her based what you know about the science of memory?

"Engage in challenging cognitive tasks as frequently as you can."

Which of the following is true of the neuroscience of memory?

The amygdala is especially involved with memories involving emotion.

When asked to memorize these 15 letters—C I A C B S A B C F B I I R S—Mary reorganized them into CIA, CBS, ABC, FBI, and IRS. Mary used the tactic of

chunking

When you tell an acquaintance your telephone number, you do not recite the digits one by one at a constant rate, as in "3, 3, 7, 2, 3, 4, 8, 3, 9, 2." Rather, you might say, "3, 3, 7 . . . 2, 3, 4 . . . 83, 92." This exemplifies _____, a strategy to enhance _____ memory.

chunking; short-term

According to the serial position effect, if you are a waiter trying to remember all the orders for a table of seven, you should pay particular attention to the ________ orders.

3rd, 4th, and 5th

Which of the following expressions best reflects the capacity of short-term memory?

About seven +/- two chunks

_____, an illness characterized in part by severe memory problems, is the fourth leading cause of death among adults in the United States.

Alzheimer's disease

Which of the following best encapsulates autobiographical memory?

Autobiographical memory is just as inaccurate as other types of memory are. Some periods of one's life are recalled more easily than are others.

Grouping pieces of information together to expand the effective capacity of short-term memory is termed _____.

Chunking

Some psychologists consider classical conditioning to be a form of implicit memory. Which of the following is probably the best reason for suggesting that classical conditioning is a type of implicit memory?

Classical conditioning occurs outside awareness.

Which theory of forgetting is correctly matched with its description?

Decay—Information is lost over time as a result of nonuse.

Chunking involves

packing together information that exceeds the seven plus or minus two rule.

On your computer desktop, you can see all sorts of different files, each immediately accessible. Because you are actively working on them, and because you can open them whenever you want, these files are in fact very similar to the kind of information held in:

working memory

Which of the following refers to declarative memory?

Memory for names

According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin theory of memory, memory storage involves which of the following three systems?

Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

George just graduated from college and is going on his first job interview. He has learned that there are two other candidates. Because of the information he has learned about the serial position effect, George asks to be either the first or the last candidate interviewed. Why?

Either the first or the last candidate will be best remembered

Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted an experiment in which participants estimated the speed of a car described as either contacting or smashing into another. To which of the following conclusions regarding eyewitness memory is this study most relevant?

Eyewitnesses confidence is only weakly related to eyewitness memory.

The idea that disturbing memories may be repressed derives from:

Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

The first attempts to study forgetting scientifically were made by the German psychologist:

Hermann Ebbinghaus.

We look up a number in the phone book, push the book away, and then begin to dial the number. Why do we discourage an interruption during this process?

Information lasts only 15-25 seconds in short-term memory.

Which of the following is TRUE of short-term memory?

It is a limited-capacity memory system.

Which of the following statements best describes the fate of the decay theory of forgetting in psychology?

It is an incomplete theory of forgetting

Pierre has been an alcoholic for several decades. Now in his 50s, his intellectual abilities are intact, but he suffers from memory deficits and hallucinations. Based on this information, you suspect that Pierre may be afflicted with:

Korsakoff's syndrome.

Ralph is preparing a report on his academic field trip to a manufacturing plant. He is trying to remember each event of the trip in the order in which it occurred to prepare an accurate report in a presentable form. Which of the following memory tasks is Ralph using?

Recall

Which of the following alternatives best expresses psychologist Elizabeth Loftus' position on the validity of repressed memories?

Repressed memories are often false. They reflect confusion regarding the source of a memory.

Long-term potentiation is a concept that explains

how memory functions at the neuronal level.

A research participant is required to report as much of a poem as he can remember immediately after having read the poem once. We would expect the greatest number of recall errors in lines:

in the middle of the poem

Repression is:

motivated forgetting

An individual's autobiographical memory forms the core of the individual's

personal identity

Shauna is an excellent student. She rewrites her class notes after each class. Rewriting her notes is a form of memory

rehearsal

The unconscious process whereby disturbing memories are prevented from entering awareness is called:

repression

A stimulus that facilitates the recall of information from long-term memory is called a:

retrieval cue

_____ memory refers to the initial, momentary storage of information that lasts only an instant.

sensory

George Miller's classic paper on the seven plus or minus two phenomenon refers to a person's ________ memory.

short-term

The hippocampus is located in the _____ lobe.

temporal

One's culture is most likely to influence:

the strategies one uses to recall information from long-term memory.

Which of the following is likely to create a flashbulb memory?

All of these

_____ is a process in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.

Constructive process

According to the levels-of-processing theory, which of the following students should retrieve information more successfully on classroom tests?

Irene, who pays close attention to what is taught in class

Which of the following sequences best reflects the order of stages in the three-stage model of memory?

Sensory memory → short-term memory → long-term memory

Jerry is at a party. He is introduced to three different people in the span of a moment. Later, he is approached by the first person he met and cannot remember her name. Which of the following is most likely the source of Jerry's difficulty?

Jerry failed to encode the woman's name.

The term engram is generally discouraged by psychologists studying memory. Why might this be?

There is probably no single site or process in the brain corresponding to a particular memory.

Why is it so difficult to retrieve information from long-term memory?

There is so much information being stored in long-term memory.

Which of the following searches explicit memory?

Trying to remember a name encountered or learned about previously

Which of the following statements is true of working memory?

Working memory permits us to keep information in an active state briefly so that we can do something with the information.

In H. M.'s surgery, the part of his brain responsible for laying down new memories was damaged beyond repair. The result was

amnesia

Middle-aged Mrs. Lovett is recalling her first Christmas as a young newlywed at her in-laws' Wyoming ranch. This is a _____ memory.

autobiographical

_____ is a process in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.

constructive process

Being able to consciously recall information from the past and recite it, involves what type of memory?

declarative

You are amazed at how the server in the fancy restaurant accurately remembered all of the orders from you and your 11 friends without writing them down. It is likely that while the server was taking your orders, he

did not notice the woman at the next table who was putting food in her handbag.

You are engrossed in your favorite TV show in the living room. Your roommate yells for you to bring a flyswatter to the kitchen. Vaguely aware that a request is being made of you, you ask your roommate to repeat herself. Before she can reply, however, the sound of the words "bring a flyswatter to the kitchen" play through your mind. This is an example of ________ memory.

echoic

Steve is studying with his friend Mike for their biology test. Mike asks Steve about a particular concept, and Steve replies, "I know I was in class that day, but I don't even have that in my notes. Are you sure the professor mentioned it?" Steve is demonstrating a(n) ________ failure.

encoding

You are relaxing beside a water display in the park. The quiet, scenic environment reminds you of a poem you read in English class last week. This is an example of ________ memory.

episodic

You decide to go to a hypnotist to try to stop smoking. The hypnotist asks you to remember what it was like before you started smoking. Which memory system will you use to comply with this request?

episodic

If you remember dancing at your high school prom, it is an example of ________ memory; if you showed me the dance steps you used, it is an example of ________ memory.

episodic; procedural

"I know it! It's um . . . um . . . ," begins a trivia game contestant excitedly. The contestant is engaged in a test of her _____ memory.

explicit

Memories of which we are not consciously aware are called _____ memories.

implicit

Repression is

motivated forgetting.

"Cat food, cola, toothpaste." Your roommate begins reciting items as you get to ready to leave to the store. He continues to list a few more items. Finally, he wraps up: "Coffee creamer, spaghetti sauce, dish liquid, and ice tea mix." You forget a couple of things, but you do manage to get the cat food, cola, and toothpaste. Your memory for these items reflects the _____ effect.

primacy

The activation of information that a person already has in storage is referred to as

priming

_____ is a phenomenon in which exposure to a word or concept later makes it easier to recall related information, even when there is no conscious memory of the word or concept.

priming

A few years ago, you had a boyfriend named Phil. Now, you have a new boyfriend named Stephen. Because of ________, you sometimes call Stephen by the wrong name.

proactive interference

In _____ interference, information learned earlier disrupts the recall of information learned more recently; in _____ interference, recently learned information disrupts the recall of information learned earlier.

proactive; retroactive

Owen has trouble remembering a friend's new phone number; he keeps recalling the old number instead. Completing a rental application, Pippa finds she can't recall one of her previous addresses, as she's had several addresses since. Owen is experiencing _____ interference; Pippa is experiencing _____.

proactive; retroactive interference

Your roommate, Rhiana, asks your advice on how to best study for her final exams. Because of your knowledge of context dependent memory, you recommend that she study

quietly in the class room in which she is to take the exam

"Discuss several factors that contributed to the economic collapse of late 2008," asks a question on the midterm in an Economics course. Such a question is a test of _____ memory.

recall

"Milk, cereal, candy." Your roommate begins reciting items as you get ready to leave to the store. He continues to list a few more items. Finally, he wraps up: "Spaghetti sauce, dish liquid, and ice tea mix." You forget a few things, but the spaghetti sauce, dish liquid, and ice tea mix are in the bag. Your memory for these items reflects the _____ effect.

recency

Juanita is an administrative assistant in the human resources department of a local business. She has noticed that in nearly every case, the last person interviewed for a job gets hired. What effect of memory may be influencing the hiring practice?

recency

_____ is a memory task in which individuals are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it in the past or to identify it from a list of alternatives.

recognition

Akira Haraguchi demonstrated amazing memory ability when he recited all 80,000 digits of pi. What process in the human memory system did he utilize?

retrieval

Material in memory storage has to be located and brought into awareness to be useful. This process is known as _____.

retrieval

In _____ amnesia, memory is lost for events preceding an injury or accident; in _____ amnesia, memory is lost for events following an injury or accident.

retrograde; anterograde

Jacob is a server in a fancy restaurant. He takes orders without writing anything down. Which memory process does he use first?

selective attention

Remembering the name of the author who wrote The Cat in the Hat is referred to as ________ memory.

semantic

_____ memory is memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that are used to deduce other facts.

semantic

You tell your friends about the great time you had at a famous amusement park. Most of the visual and auditory sensations that you experienced and have now forgotten were initially processed in your ________ memory.

sensory

The concept of working memory represents a contemporary conceptualization of _____ memory.

short-term

In John's favorite picture, he is riding with his father on a lawn mower. John also likes the smell of freshly mowed grass. Which of the following cues do you predict will elicit the strongest emotional memory in John?

smell of freshly cut grass

The levels-of-processing approach suggests:

specific information will be retained for longer when the level of information processing is deeper.

Activating one memory triggers the activation of related memories in a process known as:

spreading activation

The levels-of-processing approach:

suggests that thinking about material leads to better memory than does maintenance rehearsal.

Detectives take advantage of context-dependent memory by

taking witnesses back to the scene of the crime.

Which of the following is NOT included in the encoding process?

testing yourself

Kim was telling her friend about her most recent trip to her grandmother's house, but was having trouble remembering certain details. Later that month she visited her grandmother again and the details came flooding back. This is an example of

the effects of context on retrieval.

Mickey is about to take his psychology final. Just before the exam, the person sitting next to Mickey asks him the name of the physiologist who worked on classical conditioning. Mickey suddenly realizes that he cannot quite remember the name, but he knows that it starts with a P and is two syllables long. Mickey is experiencing:

the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

Flashbulb memories:

typically concern major, unexpected public or personal events.