PSYC 1 CH 6

How are flashbulb memories different from ordinary memories?

Although people have about the same degree of confidence in the accuracy of flashbulb and ordinary memories, flashbulb memories are much more accurate and reliable than ordinary memories.

Researchers William Marmie and Alice Healy (2004) asked participants to study an unfamiliar coin for short periods of time, ranging from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. What did the study find?

Even after studying the unfamiliar coin for only 15 seconds, participants were much better at remembering the details of the unfamiliar coin than they were at remembering the details of a U.S. penny.

From studies of other human patients with similar kinds of brain damage, it is clear that the memory impairments experienced by H.M. are highly unusual.

False

chunking

Increasing the amount of information that can be held in short-term memory by grouping related items together into a single unit, or chunk, is one way of increasing the storage capacity and duration of short-term memory.

Concluded memories are distributed rather than localized as a memory trace in the brain

Karl S. Lashley (1890-1958)

Which of the following statements about long-term memory is FALSE? One effective strategy for encoding information into long-term memory is maintenance rehearsal. The amount of information that can be held in long-term memory is limitless. Information stored in long-term memory can potentially last a lifetime. One category of long-term memory is semantic memory.

One effective strategy for encoding information into long-term memory is maintenance rehearsal.

_____ is the process of retaining information in memory so that it can be used at a later time.

Storage

As described in the Culture and Human Behavior box, developmental psychologist Qi Wang investigated the earliest memories of European American and Chinese and Taiwanese college students. Which of the following statements best summarizes Wang's findings?

The first memories of the Chinese and Taiwanese college students tended to be brief and focused on routine group activities, while the first memories of the European American college students tended to be about a specific event and more self-focused.

Amber walked in her front door and put her textbook in the kitchen instead of on her desk as she normally did. Ten minutes later she was unable to find her textbook. Absentmindedness is the most likely explanation for Amber's memory lapse.

True

One of the key factors that contributes to "imagination inflation" is that repeatedly imagining an event makes the event seem increasingly familiar.

True

Unique, different, or unusual events are easier to retrieve from memory because they are characterized by a high degree of distinctiveness.

True

Stage Model of Memory

a model describing memory as consisting of three distinct stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

Janette was absolutely certain that she knew the name of the fundamentalist religious group that was involved in the standoff with the FBI in Waco, Texas, almost two decades ago, but she could not think of the name of the group. This is an example of:

a tip-of-the-tongue experience.

Much of your sense of self is derived from memories of your unique life experiences. These particular kinds of memories are referred to as _____ memories.

autobiographical

As part of a memory experiment Ralph watched an emotionally arousing video of an automobile accident. At a later time he was tested on his ability to recall details from the video. If he is like most participants who release stress hormones during emotional arousal, his memory consolidation will:

be enhanced

Research with the sea snail Aplysia has demonstrated that:

both the function and structure of neurons change in response to the formation of a new memory.

Explicit memory:

can be defined as memory with awareness

The _____ is involved in memories involving movement.

cerebellum

Which of the following is NOT a possible cause of forgetting described in your textbook?

consolidation

The process of converting new long-term memories into stable, enduring memory codes is called:

consolidation.

Exactly three years ago today, Denise was eating lunch with two friends at a restaurant when a very confused man came into the restaurant and began firing a gun at the pictures hanging on the walls. Denise remembers many details of that day, including the clothes she was wearing and what she ate for lunch. Denise has such clear memories of that day partly because those memories are characterized by a high degree of:

distinctiveness.

We transform information into a form that can be entered and retained by the memory system. This process is known as:

encoding

As you are taking this exam, you are actively retrieving information that you have learned and stored in your long-term memory. The information that you are able to consciously recall is an example of which subsystem of long-term memory?

explicit memory

Henry Molaison (H. M.) was not able to form new episodic or semantic memories, which reflects the _____, but he could form new procedural memories, which reflects the _____.

explicit memory system; implicit memory system

The critical factor in the context effect is the influence of:

external environmental cues.

Clustering is one way of increasing the storage capacity and duration of short-term memory.

false

If information in short-term memory is not actively rehearsed, the information is transferred to long-term memory.

false

Long-term memory functions much like a tape recorder or camera; it captures, stores, and maintains a perfect record of everything that a person experiences.

false

The standard stage model of memory has three distinct memory components: the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the central executive.

false

The inability to recall information that was previously available to memory is called:

forgetting

Not every researcher accepts that short-term memory is limited to exactly seven items, plus or minus two. Recent research suggests that the true "magical number" is more likely to be:

four, plus or minus one.

Essay tests are to _____ as matching tests are to _____.

free recall; cued recall

According to the working memory model developed by British psychologist Alan Baddeley, the "phonological loop":

is specialized for verbal material.

In the brain, simple memories may be _____ and complex memories may be _____.

localized; distributed

Conner vividly remembers details from earlier in the day when he was mistakenly pulled over by a highway patrolman and briefly arrested for armed robbery. Conner's memory of this event is stored in his _____ memory.

long-term

Which of the following is an example of the encoding specificity principle?

mood congruence

Compared to European American students, earliest autobiographical memories for Chinese and Taiwanese college students were more likely to include:

other people

Whenever Yvonne tried to recall her new cell phone number, she kept getting it mixed up with an old phone number. Yvonne's failure to remember her new phone number is probably due to:

proactive interference.

Justin was involved in an automobile accident and sustained a serious injury to his head. When asked about the accident, Justin could not remember what happened or how the accident occurred. Justin seems to be suffering from:

retrograde amnesia

The idea of repression is key in Sigmund Freud's theory of personality and psychotherapy, which is called psychoanalysis. According to Freud, what gets repressed? Group of answer choices

psychologically threatening feelings, emotions, and memories, especially those from early childhood

Repressed memory therapy, or recovery therapy, refers to:

psychotherapy that encourages the recall of supposedly repressed memories from childhood, usually of physical or sexual abuse.

Working memory:

refers to the active, conscious manipulation of temporarily stored information.

During the short-answer essay part of the examination, Ethan was absolutely certain that he knew the definition of "long-term potentiation" but he could not think of it. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for Ethan's inability to retrieve the information from his long-term memory? Group of answer choices

retrieval cue failure

The tip-of-the-tongue experience is a common example of: Group of answer choices

retrieval failure.

In relation to amnesia, "backward moving" is to _____ as "forward moving" is to _____.

retrograde amnesia; anterograde amnesia

Mentally add 37 + 65, then subtract 11. To perform this task, the information must be held and processed in your _____ memory.

short-term

Working Memory

short-term memory system involved in the temporary storage and active manipulation of information; in Baddley's model, includes the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive components

When you combine the research findings of Karl Lashley and Richard Thompson, the findings suggest that:

simple memories may be localized in specific areas, but complex memories seem to be distributed throughout the brain.

Which of the following is NOT a common strategy used to test for recall of information from long-term memory? Group of answer choices

source monitoring

Which of the following studies clearly contradicts the decay theory of forgetting?

the Ebbinghaus studies on forgetting

Studies with the patient known for years as H. M. and with amnesia patients who have sustained similar brain damage seem to suggest that:

the hippocampus does NOT play a critical role in the formation of new procedural memories.

Memory is formally defined as:

the mental processes that enable us to acquire, retain, and retrieve information.

For his Eastern history class, Hamilton had to memorize a lengthy list of Chinese emperors. To do so, he imagined each of them sitting in a chair in a different room of his family home. Hamilton was using a technique called:

the method of loci.

When studying for a test in his Lifespan Development class, Mario tries to apply the information to his own life in order to better retain the material. Mario is demonstrating:

the self-reference effect.

An abundance of abnormal structures called beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are present in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

true

Cued recall is a memory measurement that involves identifying an item of information in response to a retrieval cue.

true

In a cross-cultural study comparing the earliest memories of college students, researchers found that the average age for earliest memory was much earlier for the U.S.-born students than for the Taiwanese or Chinese students.

true

Much of what we learn is forgotten very quickly but eventually the rate of forgetting levels off.

true

To help remember the key terms used to describe Pavlov's conditioning a dog to salivate to the sound of a bell, Joshua vividly imagined that he was an experimental subject in Pavlov's laboratory, and that Dr. Pavlov was conditioning him to salivate. Joshua was using _____ to help encode the information into long-term memory.

visual imagery

Imagination inflation is a memory phenomenon in which:

vividly imagining an event markedly increases a person's confidence that the event actually did occur.