Psychology Ch 6 Quiz answers and vocabulary
Short Term Memory
-temporarily maintains and processes a limited amount of information -duration (20-30 sec) -capacity "magical"number 7 +/-2
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
-the information is there, but you can't get it out at the moment
Working memory
active processingof memory in short-term memory
Flashbulb Memory
adetailed account of circumstances surrounding an emotionally significant or shocking, sometimes historic event.
Disuse
another name for decay, assuming that memories that arenot used will eventually decay and disappearmemories recalled after many years are not explained by memory trace theory
Rhonda can't remember anything about the first several minutes immediately following a car crash in which she was injured. Rhonda is experiencing _____ amnesia.
anterograde
The textbook describes the case of Henry Molaison, also known as H.M. After brain surgery, H. M suffered severe memory loss. However, H.M. experienced greater difficulty encoding new memories than in retrieving old ones. H.M.'s _____ amnesia was more profound than his _____ amnesia.
anterograde; retrograde
Source Amnesia
attributing to the wrong sourcean event that we experienced, heard about,read about, orimagined
The textbook describes the case of Henry Molaison, also known as H.M. After brain surgery, H. M suffered severe anterograde amnesia. This means that H.M. had
creating new long-term memories.
The similarity between the learning and retrieval contexts influences how well information will be remembered. This is known as the:
encoding specific principle
Which of the following sequences BEST reflects the order in which memory processes occur, from first to last?
encoding> storage> retrieval
Because she drank too much alcohol, Deanna barely remembers her 21st birthday. That is, her _____ memory of that evening is sketchy.
episodic
Long term memory
essentially unlimited capacity that stores enduring information about facts and experiences
In a study described in your text some participants were asked to learn hierarchically organized words. Other participants were asked to learn the same words arranged randomly. All participants were later required to recall the words. In this study, the group learning the organized words was the _____ group.
experimental
The spacing effect refers to the benefit of _____ practice.
distributed
Spacing study sessions over long periods with breaks in between is called:
distributed practice
Spacing Effect
distributed practice yields better long-term retention than massed practice
Maintenance rehearsal
echnique of repeating information to be remembered, increasing he length of time it can be held in short-term memory
The phenomenon of _____ imagery is fairly similar to what people commonly call "photographic memory."
eidetic
According to the textbook, organizing information hierarchically improves memory by aiding the process of:
encoding
Memories "recovered" under hypnosis or drugs are especially unreliable
hypnotizedsubjects incorporate suggestions into their memory
The amygdala is associated with _____ while the hippocampus is associated with _____.
implicit memory; explicit memory
A research participant is required to report as much of a poem as he can remember immediately after having read the poem once. The greatest number of recall errors should occur for lines:
in the middle of the poem
How do Chinese people's life memories differ from those of Americans, and why?
Chinese people's memories more often relate to social and historical events because China is a more collectivist culture.
Which statement is the BEST reason for viewing classical conditioning as a type of implicit memory?
Classical conditioning occurs outside one's awareness
Elaborative rehearsal
Connects information to knowledge in long-term memory; deep level of encoding
Compared with iconic memory, echoic memory:
lasts longer
Glenn has heard students and teachers say that students' test performance is better when students are tested in the same room in which they learned the material. This idea is supported by the results of a pioneering study conducted by:
Godden and Baddeley (1975).
Chunking
Grouping numbers, letters, or other items into meaningful subsets as a strategy for increasing the quantity of information that can be maintained in STMorganizing items into familiar, manageable units
Cissy looks up a number in the phone book, pushes the book away, and then dials the number. Why does she discourage any interruptions during this process?
Information lasts only 20-30 seconds in short-term memory
How does short-term memory differ from sensory memory?
Its duration is longer than that of sensory memory
How does short-term memory differ from sensory memory?
Its duration is longer than that of sensory memory.
Jerry is at a party. He is introduced to three different people in the span of a minute. Later, he is approached by the first person he met and cannot remember her name. Which explanation is MOST likely the source of Jerry's difficulty?
Jerry failed to encode the woman's name.
Research conducted by _____has demonstrated the reconstructive nature of memory.
Loftus
Misinformation Effect
Memories can be changed inresponse to new information.Eyewitness accounts can be altered by a variety of factorsthat may follow anevent.
Motivated Forgetting
people unknowingly revise history: "cookie" example
Memory trace theory
physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed
Nana is taking a Spanish final at the end of the spring semester. The problem is, the French vocabulary she learned the semester before keeps getting in the way, causing her to forget Spanish words. Nana is experiencing _____ interference.
proactive
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
State Dependent
Remembering things is also easier when physiological and psychological conditions, including moods and emotions, are similar at the time of encoding and retrieval.
Retrograde amnesia
Retro means "before," so retrograde amnesia is the inability retrieve memories for events that occurred before an amnesia-causing injury or loss of memory for the past
How does the brain's memory system differ from that of a computer?
The brain's neurons communicate in a more complex manner than what occurs within electrical circuits.
George Sperling conducted a study in which he varied the interval between the presentation of a letter matrix and an auditory recall cue. Sperling measured the proportion of letters participants could recall from the matrix. Which statement regarding this study is TRUE?
The interval between the matrix and the cue is a dependent variable.
In a memory experiment, Dr. Aziz shows participants a list of words. One group is then given a recognition test and one group is asked to recall the words. What would be a reasonable prediction regarding the relative performance of the two groups on the memory test?
The recognition group should outperform the recall group
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 ____ interference.
proactive; retroactive
Almost everybody has had the feeling of knowing the answer to a question, but not being quite able to say it. This is called the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon, and is a failure of:
retrieval
Bruce watches a new television program with enthusiasm. He then watches a second, similar program. Bruce later finds it difficult to remember the details of the first program; he finds that details about the second program keep intruding. What has probably occurred?
retroactive interference
Mood-congruent memory
tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current moodEmotions and/or moods serve as retrieval cues
Principle:
the amount remembered depends on the time spent learning.
The primacy effect refers to the fact that:
the first-presented items in a list are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list.
The unconscious process whereby disturbing memories are prevented from entering awareness is called:
repression
In rich false memory experiments, about _____ of participants remember events that never happened.
25%
According to the National Institute on Aging (2013), Alzheimer's disease affects as many as _____ million Americans.
5
Using the partial report technique, George Sperling estimated that sensory memory stored at least _____ of the letters in a briefly-flashed array.
75%
One in every _____ people older than 65 suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
8
Anterograde amnesia
Antero means "after," so anterograde amnesia is the inability to form memories for events that occur after an injury or the inability to form new long-term memories
The first person to quantify relearning was the psychologist named:
Ebbinghaus
One psychologist associated with the view that memory is reconstructive is:
Elizabeth Loftus
Forgetting theories
Forgetting as Encoding Failure-we can't speak to something we didn't pay attention to Forgetting as Storage Decay-if we don't use it, we lose it Forgetting as Memory Trace Theory
Implicit Memory (non-declarative memory)
Memory of something you know or know how to do, but that might be automatic or unconscious; this type of memory is often difficult to bring to awareness and express
Explicit Memory (declarative memory)
Memory you are aware of having and can consciously express in words or declare, including memories or facts and experiences
What does Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve demonstrate about the way people forget material over time?
Most forgetting happens immediately after people learn material; the rate of forgetting slows down as time goes by.
Recognition
Process of matching incoming data to information stored in long-term memory.
Recall
Process of retrieving information held in long-term memory without the help of explicit retrieval cues.Recognition-Process of matching incoming data to information stored in long-term memory.
Retrieval
Refers to the process of accessing information encoded and stored in memory
Priming
Stimulation of memories as result of retrieval cues in the environmentthe activation of particular associations in memory and does not depend on awareness and is usually automatic
Retrieval Cues
Stimuli that aid in the retrieval of information that is difficult to accessReminders of information we could not otherwise recall
Facts About Memory Loss
There is no definitive way to know whether you or a family member will suffer from a neurocognitive disorder. Studies of both animals and people have linked physical exercise to a variety of positive changes in the brain. Some research suggests that people who begin exercising in their thirties experience less cognitive decline than their sedentary peers. Intellectually engaging activities have been associated with a lower risk of memory loss. Being socially active and hooked into social networks may reduce the risk of developing dementia.
Julaine and Trystan are taking a political science midterm. The test covers five chapters. Yesterday, Julaine studied all five chapters in an 8-hour marathon session. Trystan studied the material over a 5-day period, for just over 90 minutes each day. All else being equal, which student is likely to perform best on the test, and why?
Trystan should outperform Julaine, because distributed practice is superior to massed practice.
Suppose someone asks you, "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being 'all nature' and 10 being 'all nurture,' where would you put dementia?" Based on information provided in the text, the BEST answer probably is:
a 5, I guess
Information may last for _____ seconds in sensory memory, and the capacity of sensory memory is _____.
a few; large
The term engram refers to:
a single site in the brain corresponding to a particular memory.
Memories of things happening before age 3 are unreliable
called infantile amnesia
The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease:
can be reduced with physical and intellectual activity.
Psychologists first learned about the hippocampus's involvement in memory through the detailed study of a single individual with brain damage, namely Henry Molaison (H.M.). The in-depth study of H.M. exemplifies the _____ research method in psychology.
case study
The misinformation effect highlights the:
changeability of memory
The misinformation effect highlights the:
changeability of memory.
Consolidation
changes that take place in the structure and functioning of neurons when a memory is formed
Grouping pieces of information together to expand the capacity of short-term memory is called:
chunking
Mnemonic strategies facilitate retention by encouraging:
chunking and elaborative rehearsal
When Roy tells an acquaintance his telephone number, he does not recite the digits one by one at a constant rate, as in "3, 3, 7, 2, 3, 4, 8, 3, 9, 2." Instead, Roy might say, "3, 3, 7 . . . 2, 3, 4 . . . 83, 92." This exemplifies _____, a strategy to enhance _____ memory.
chunking; short-term
Which of the following statements BEST describes the relationship between iconic and echoic memory on the one hand, and sensory memory on the other?
conic and echoic memory are different types of sensory memory.
The textbook describes the case of Henry Molaison, also known as H.M. After brain surgery, H. M suffered severe anterograde amnesia. This means that H.M. had
creating new long-term memories
Jerome cannot open his term paper on his computer because the file has become corrupt. Kaci cannot find her term paper on her computer because of all the other documents she has stored on the hard drive. Jerome's failure to retrieve his paper is analogous to the _____ theory of forgetting, whereas Kaci's failure better resembles the _____ theory.
decay; interference
Repression (from Psychoanalytic Theory)
defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
In a study described in the text some participants were asked to learn hierarchically organized words. Other participants were asked to learn the same words arranged randomly. All participants were later required to recall the words. Word recall was the _____ variable in this study.
dependent
In one study described in the textbook, participants who experienced a 15-minute period of waking rest showed better retention of newly learned material than did participants who played a game for 15 minutes (Dewar et al., 2012). In this study, the _____ variable is _____.
dependent; participants' retention of the material
Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted an experiment in which participants estimated the speed of a car described as either hitting or smashing into another. The _____ variable in this experiment was _____.
dependent; speed estimates
Decay
loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used
Psychologists use the word _____ to refer to the processes whereby the brain collects, stores, and retrieves information for later use.
memory
Retroactive (backwards-acting) Interference
memory retrieval problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information (I can't remember the old stuff)
Proactive (forward-acting) Interference
memory retrieval problem that occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of newer information (Ican't remember the new stuff)
Based on the textbook's discussion, memory competitors appear to differ from other people mainly in their:
memory strategies
Context Effects
memory works better in the context of original learningPart of the web of associations of a memory is the context. What else was going on at the time we formed the memory?
Method of loci
mnemonic device in which a person visualizes items with landmarks in some familiar place
Texting while driving increases the likelihood of an accident by a factor of:
more than 20
The text describes a study where researchers found a _____ correlation between college students' GPA and the amount of time they spend texting and using Facebook.
negative
Long-term potentiation refers to the process whereby:
neural pathways become activated more efficiently as learning occurs.
In the retrieval phase of Godden and Baddeley's (1975) "scuba diver" study of the encoding specificity principle, participants were asked to supply all the words they could remember from the encoding condition. This was a _____ measure of memory.
recall
The question on the midterm in an economics course is "Discuss several factors that contributed to the economic collapse of late 2008." This question is a _____ test of _____ memory.
recall; explicit
The serial position effect
refers to the tendency, when learning a body of information, tomore likely recall the first items (primacy effect) and the last items(recency effect).
Omar experienced a dissociative fugue state. He suddenly snapped out of it in front of a pet supplies display in a Boise, Idaho, discount store; he had no memory whatsoever of his previous life in Greensboro, North Carolina. Omar's amnesia is best described as:
retrograde
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
Aplysia is a(n):
sea slug
Which of the following sequences BEST reflects the order of stages in the information processing model of memory?
sensory memory > short-term memory > long-term memory
In the words of George Miller, the capacity of short-term memory is the "magical number _____."
seven, plus or minus two
Which of the following expressions BEST reflects the capacity of short-term memory?
seven, plus or minus two
An acronym helps recall because it is easier to remember an acronym than a long string of information. Thus, acronyms help circumvent the capacity limitations of _____ memory.
short-term
The similarity between the learning and retrieval contexts influences how well information will be remembered. This is known as the:
short-term
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; seven
Clarice presses the Ctrl and S keys on her keyboard to save a document. A file is then created on her computer's hard drive. Clarice's action is MOST analogous to the memory activity of:
storage
Long-term potentiation:
the increased efficiency of neural communication over time, resulting in learning and the formation of memories (changes in number and sensitivity of receptor sites/synapses through repeated stimulation)
The recency effect refers to the fact that:
the last items on a list are more likely to be remembered than the middle items.
One evening, Zoe examines the schedule for her favorite football team. The team plays 16 games each season. Later she tries recalling that schedule for a friend who likes the same team. It is highly likely that Zoe will recall opponents at the beginning of the schedule particularly well. What is this phenomenon called?
the primary effect
Encoding
the process through which information enters our memory system
In one study, Bowman and colleagues (2010) found that college students holding IM conversations while studying a textbook passage:
took longer to read the passage
Context-dependent
we retrieve a memory more easily whenin the same context as when we formed the memory.Did you forget a psychology concept? Just sitting down and opening your book might bring the memory back.
"She did WHAT??" Sebastian's roommate exclaims as he relates an anecdote about a mutual friend. Sebastian's roommate processes the story using _____ memory.
working