PSY3051 Exam 2

For most adults over age 40, the reminiscence bump describes enhanced memory for

adolescence and young adulthood.

The misinformation effect occurs when a person's memory for an event is modified by misleading information presented

after an event.

Describe the principle and process underlying the memory work conducted with people who have PTSD. Be sure to use core concepts from the chapter in your response.

Description of process of experiment should include three basic elements: participants with PTSD were either given a drug to reduce stress or a placebo [.5 pts], then stressful memories reactivated [.5 pts], and future responses to stressful memories were measured [.5 pts]. A key principle of this work was that memories are fragile while reactivated, meaning that they can be changed before they are reconsolidation. Therefore, stressful memories can be altered, and future stress responses reduced, by reducing stress while they are reactivated. [1.5 pts]

Evidence suggests the hippocampus is not involved in the retrieval of remote episodic memories, but not recent episodic memories.

False

Extreme vividness of memories generally indicates high accuracy.

False

Semantic memory is impaired if contaminated by episodic memories.

False

One of the defining characteristics of implicit memory is that

people are not consciously aware of how they acquired the memory

Procedural memories require

practicing the action

___________ is a "typical" member of a category.

prototype

This multiple-choice question is an example of a ___________ test.

recognition

The working unit is one of the types of units found within a a parallel distributed processing model.

false

The principle illustrated when most people are able to recognize a variety of examples of chairs even though no one category member may have all of the characteristic properties of "chairs" (e.g., most chairs have four legs but not all do) is

family resemblence.

The concept of reconsolidation is based on the ________ of retrieved memories.

fragility

Which of the following represents a basic level item?

guitar

Research shows that ___________ does not improve reading comprehension because it does not encourage elaborative processing of the material.

highlighting

Hebb's idea of long-term potentiation, which provides a physiological mechanism for the long-term storage of memories, includes the idea of

increased firing in the neurons.

What is the key difference between synaptic consolidation and systems consolidation?

Scale

Define the term "semanticization of remote memories." If a person learned about mathematics in elementary school, what type[s] of memories might they form shortly after the class, and how might that change over time?

1 point] Definition: loss of episodic detail for memories and events that happened a long time ago [1 point] Memory would likely start with both episodic and semantic character [1 point] Memory would likely fade to only semantic over time

Which of the following reaction time data sets illustrates the typicality effect for the bird category, given the following three trials? (NOTE: Read data sets as RTs for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3) Trial 1: An owl is a bird. Trial 2: A penguin is a bird. Trial 3: A sparrow is a bird.

583: 653: 518 ms

Which of the following terms does NOT reflect the concept of flashbulb memories?

Accurate

One of the experiments described in lecture measured people's memories of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Which of the following was the primary result of that research?

After 32 weeks, participants had a high level of confidence in their memories of the terrorist events, but lower belief in their memories of "everyday" events.

Present a hierarchical model for a living thing or artifact, moving from specific to general. Include at least three levels and be sure to include both sensory and functional properties.

Going from specific to general, a model could be Lion - Cat - Mammal. At the specific level, a sensory property is brown/yellow fur. At the mid level, a sensory property is they are fuzzy. At the general level a sensory property is they are typically warmer than their environments. 1.5 pts for model. .5 pts for each property

Experiments using fMRI and a face recognition task have demonstrated that the ____________ is involved in both ____ ________ and ______ _____.

Hippocampus; short-term memory; long-term memory

The concept of encoding specificity is grounded in which of the following?

Location

Which of the following is an example of semantic coding for long-term memory?

Recalling the general ideas from a lecture you watched last week

___________ consolidation involves the gradual reorganization of circuits within brain regions and takes place on a fairly long time scale. Group of answer choices

Systems

Define the illusory truth effect. What are some potential dangers or risks associated with this phenomenon? Give an example to support your thinking. Your Answer:

The illusory truth phenomenon is the increased probability of evaluating a statement as true after repeated presentation. A potential risk is if one hears a false statement that is not to their benefit many times, they will likely believe it to some degree even if they see evidence to the contrary. For example, if one is told in advertisements many times that soda is great for the health of their child, they may believe that regularly drinking soda instead of water is healthy, even if they later see reports that it can be dangerous for children's health.

Describe the prototype approach to categorization. Define "prototype" and give examples for the category of "musical instruments." Mention one item that is high and one that is low on prototypicality in the musical instruments category.

The prototype approach is when common characteristic features of a category are averaged to create a representative of that category, which is referred to as a prototype. An example of a highly prototypical musical instrument is a guitar, as it uses strings and rhythmic hand movements to create sound, as many instruments do. An example of an instrument low in prototypicality would be the theremin, which does not require direct contact with strings or valves to create sound - an uncommon trait in instruments. 1 pt for definition 1 pt for high prototypicality example 1 pt for low prototypicality example

A person is going on a grocery shopping trip - how might the primacy effect impact that activity?

They are likely to remember the first item they wrote down on their shopping list

Which of the following learning techniques is LEAST likely to lead to deep processing of the information?

Thuy has just bought a new car and is trying to learn her new license plate sequence. Every morning, for three weeks, she repeats the sequence out loud when she wakes up.

All the brain regions active while thinking about the past are also active while thinking about the future.

True

False memories can be explained as a product of familiarity and source misattribution.

True

The prototype approach to categorization states that a standard representation of a category is based on

category members that have been encountered in the past.

The "two groups of immigrants" study found that the reminiscence bump coincided with periods of rapid change, occurring at a normal age for people emigrating early in life but shifting to 15 years later for those who emigrated later. These results support the

cognitive hypothesis.

Two definitions of ___________ include (a) "the mental representation of a class or individual," and (b) "categories of objects, events, and abstract ideas."

concepts

According to the ______ approach to memory, what people report as memories is based on what actually happened plus additional factors such as other knowledge, experiences, and expectations.

constructive

When the methods used to encode and retrieve information are the same, this is called ________ processing.

transfer-appropriate

Retrieving episodic and semantic memories activates the same areas of the brain.

true

Research on eyewitness testimony reveals that

when viewing a lineup, an eyewitness's confidence in his or her choice of the suspect can be increased by an authority's confirmation of his or her choice, even when the choice is wrong.

An important application of memory research has been in understanding the nature of eyewitness testimony. Citing the research from lecture, explain why people make errors in eyewitness testimony.

Answer would receive full credit for identifying and explaining the main question and results of any of the following studies: -Wells and Brafield, wherein people viewed security and falsely identified someone as a gunman -Stanny and Johnson's focus on weapons focus, wherein memory for details of a crime were worse when a weapon was fired -Ross et al., wherein familiarity with a person resulted in false accusations -Wells and Bradfield, wherein feedback affected confidence in memories -Shaw and Porter, wherein participants were made to believe they had committed a crime Note: answer would not need to include the author names to receive full credit

Why is classical conditioning considered a form of implicit memory?

Because it involves learning an association without being aware of the reasons behind it.

The semantic network model predicts that the time it takes for a person to retrieve information about a concept should be determined by the amount of information contained in each concept.

False

Explain the concepts of state-dependent learning and transfer-appropriate processing. Give an example of each to support your thinking.

State dependent learning means retrieval can be improved by having the same internal state (mood, feelings, etc) during both encoding and retrieval. For example, one might perform better if they watch a happy movie (which puts them in a good mood) before studying, and then watches a happy movie before a test, than if they watched a happy movie before studying and a sad movie before a test. Transfer dependent processing means retrieval can be improved by doing the same task during encoding and retrieval. For example, if a test is comprised of only multiple choice questions, answering multiple choice questions as a study method would improve retrieval more than answering essay style questions.

Eyewitness testimony can be influenced by increased confidence due to post-event questioning.

True

What form of memory did H.M. lose when his hippocampus was removed, and what form of memory did he retain? How did the mirror drawing task help show the distinction between these forms of memory in H.M.?

[.5 points] he lost episodic long-term memory [.5 points] he retained implicit memory or procedural memory [1 point] The mirror task showed that H.M. could improve his procedural memory over time with practice, getting better at the task, [1 point] but his episodic long-term memory did not improve, as he could not remember having practiced it

A script is a type of schema that also includes knowledge of

a sequence of actions.

A key difference between episodic memory and semantic memory is that

episodic memory involves mentally traveling back in time to re-experience events

Not all of the members of everyday categories have the same features. Most fish have gills, fins, and scales. Sharks lack the feature of scales, yet they are still categorized as fish. This poses a problem for the exemplar approach to categorization.

false

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others is known as

cryptoamnesia.

In the "War of the Ghosts" experiment, participants' reproductions contained inaccuracies based on

cultural expectations

When investigating the serial position curve, delaying the memory test for 30 seconds

decreases the recency effect.

You have been studying for weeks for a nursing school entrance exam. You love the idea of becoming a nurse, and you have been enjoying learning about the material for your exam. Each night, you put on comfortable clothes and study in the quiet of your lovely home. Memory research suggests you should take your test with a(n) ________ mindset.

relaxed

The propaganda effect demonstrates that we evaluate familiar statements as being true

simply because we have been exposed to them before.

The standard model of consolidation proposes that the hippocampus is

strongly active when memories are first formed and being consolidated but becomes less active when retrieving older memories that are already consolidated.