Deck 9: Memory Across the Lifespan

Question 1

Habituation is defined as a ________.

A) decrement in response to a stimulus following repeated presentation of a different stimulus
B) increment in response to a stimulus following repeated presentation of a different stimulus
C) decrement in response to a stimulus following repeated presentation of the same stimulus
D) generalized loss of response to a variety of stimuli that appear to be irrelevant

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Fetuses as young as ________ can habituate to an auditory stimulus.

A) 11 weeks of gestation
B) 33 weeks of gestation
C) 22 weeks of gestation
D) 37 weeks of gestation

Answer 2

C

Question 3

One method for studying memory in fetuses is exposure learning. In this method, a fetus is exposed to a stimulus and ________.

A) then any response to this stimulus is compared to the response to an unfamiliar stimulus
B) tested immediately after birth with the same stimulus
C) tested later, after the first year, with the same stimulus
D) then any response to this stimulus is compared to the response to the same stimulus

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Peter Hepper asked a group of pregnant women to eat garlic while pregnant, while another group was asked not to eat garlic. When tested 20 hours after birth, ________.

A) infants who had been exposed to garlic avoided the garlic smell, whereas those who had not been exposed to garlic did not
B) infants who had not been exposed to garlic avoided the garlic smell, whereas those who had been exposed to garlic did not
C) all infants were attracted by the garlic
D) none of the infants was attracted by the garlic

Question 5

Using a pressure-sensitive pacifier protocol, infants sometimes had to change the pause between sucks to get the recording to switch to their own mother's voice. DeCasper and Fifer (1980) found that ________.

A) newborn infants who were three days old stopped sucking entirely in order to hear their own mother's voice
B) newborn infants who were three days old were able to alter their sucking in order to hear their own mother's voice
C) newborn infants who were at least three months old stopped sucking entirely in order to hear their own mother's voice
D) newborn infants who were at least three months old, but not earlier, were able to alter their sucking in order to hear their own mother's voice

Question 6

The work of DeCasper and Fifer (1980) and DeCasper and Spence (1986) suggests that infants ________.

A) can encode speech sounds before the birth but cannot retain that information until after they are born
B) cannot encode speech sounds before the birth
C) can encode speech sounds before the birth, but only those from their own mother
D) can encode speech sounds before the birth and retain that information until after they are born

Question 7

Most research on infant memory has involved children who are at least ________ because infants who are this age or older have ________ than younger infants.

A) six months old; better visual acuity and motor control
B) eight months old; better visual acuity and motor control
C) three months old; better visual acuity and motor control
D) three months old; better sense of smell and hearing

Question 8

In the transfer phase of a preconditioning protocol, if individuals ________ then it can be concluded that an association between S1 and S2 was ________ in the preexposure phase.

A) fail to respond to S2; learned
B) respond to S2 like they have learned to respond to S1; learned
C) fail to respond to S1; learned
D) respond to S2 like they have learned to respond to S1; suppressed

Question 9

Reynolds and Rovee-Collier (2005) predicted that the older infants would retain the association learned in the preconditioning protocol for a longer time, ________.

A) and this was confirmed by their experiments
B) but found that the 6-month-old infants showed no sign of ever developing the association
C) but found that the 9-month-old infants showed no sign of ever developing the association
D) but found that the 12-month-old infants showed no sign of ever developing the association

Question 10

In the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, infants learn to kick their legs to produce movement in a mobile. After a delay, the ribbon tied to the infant's leg ________.

A) does not affect the movement of the mobile and if the infant kicks at the same kick rate as in the previous learning phase, then memory can be inferred
B) affects the movement of the mobile and if the infant kicks at the same kick rate as in the previous learning phase, then memory can be inferred
C) and the mobile moves independently driven by an motor, inducing the infant to stop kicking
D) does not affect the movement of the mobile and if the infant kicks at higher kick rate than in the previous learning phase, then memory can be inferred

Question 11

Using the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, two-month-old infants are able to remember the connection between the ribbon and the novel stimulus for about ________.

A) six weeks
B) two days, but the retention interval extends to as much as six weeks by the time the infant is six months old
C) two weeks, but the retention interval extends to as much as six weeks by the time the infant is six months old
D) two weeks, but the retention interval extends to as much as six months by the time the infant is six months old

Question 12

Hartshorn and Rovee-Collier developed a train task because ________.

A) it allows to study infantile amnesia
B) it tests skill development at an early stage
C) it is similar to the mobile task but appropriate across different cultures
D) it is similar to the mobile task but appropriate for older infants

Question 13

Hartshorn et al. (1998) found that the duration of memory for the conditioned task ________.

A) increased more and more steeply with age during infancy and toddlerhood
B) increased more slowly with age during infancy and toddlerhood
C) initially increased and later decreased with age during infancy and toddlerhood, producing a "U" curve
D) increased steadily with age and concluded that memory improves at a fairly constant rate during infancy and toddlerhood

Question 14

In the context of the study of memory across the lifespan, potentiation occurs when ________.

A) the duration of the memory is increased because the stimulus used is more salient
B) compared to a weak stimulus presented alone, learning of a weaker stimulus is improved when it is presented alongside a stronger (more salient) stimulus
C) the duration of the memory is increased because the stimulus used is delivered by the mother and not by an unknown operator
D) compared to a strong stimulus presented alone, learning of a stronger stimulus is improved when it is presented alongside a weaker stimulus

Question 15

The paired-comparison task is ________.

A) an experimental paradigm in which an individual is familiarized with a stimulus and then, following a delay, presented with that stimulus and a novel stimulus during a test phase
B) an experimental paradigm in which an individual is habituated to a stimulus and then, following a delay, presented with the same stimulus and a novel stimulus during a test phase
C) an experimental paradigm in which an individual is exposed to a stimulus together with a much more salient stimulus
D) a test of associative memory to study language development

Question 16

Associative-chain paradigms test to see whether an individual will form an association between two stimuli ________.

A) presented a long time before only once but whose association was reminded repeatedly with the presentation of the same context
B) that have been presented before only twice, but that have been connected in between repeatedly through a series of associations
C) that have been presented before only once, but that have been connected later repeatedly through a series of associations
D) that have never been presented before, but that are connected through a series of associations

Question 17

Fast mapping was first described by Carey and Bartlett (1978) to describe the way in which two-year-olds can learn ________.

A) to navigate a new location following a brief exposure to it
B) to interact with a new person following a single brief exposure
C) a new word following a single brief exposure to correlated words
D) to remember where something is hidden after a single exposure to the act of hiding the item

Question 18

According to Jackson (1884), ________.

A) the last system that an animal loses when the animal is injured will be last system that developed in that animal
B) human development recapitulates animal development
C) the first system that an animal loses when the animal is injured will be last system that developed in that animal
D) childhood memories are suppressed to protect development from trauma

Question 19

According to the neuroanatomical model of memory development, the early-maturing system mediates ________ .

A) complex encoding of explicit memories-the model predicts that infants younger than nine months of age will have stable memory traces rich in detail
B) memories of simple learned procedures and perceptual and motor skills but does not allow for complex encoding-the neuroanatomical model predicts that infants younger than nine months of age will have unstable memory traces
C) both memories of simple perceptual and motor skills and of complex explicit encoding
D) both memories of complex perceptual and motor skills and of simple explicit encoding

Question 20

According to the ecological model of memory development, infant memory processes ________.

A) are essentially the same as those of older individuals; however, the demands of different ecological niches lead infants to attend to and encode different information than older individuals
B) cannot be studied outside their natural environment, i.e., the family
C) are under the strong influence of the specific type of socio-economic environment in which the child is raised
D) are fundamentally different from those of older individuals

Question 21

The ecological model of memory development is ________.

A) consistent with the neurogenic hypothesis of infantile amnesia, which suggests that infants have adapted rapid neurogenesis in the hippocampus to cope with the need to encode, and then forget, large amounts of information early in life
B) consistent with the language hypothesis of infantile amnesia
C) consistent with the trauma hypothesis of infantile amnesia
D) not consistent with the neurogenic hypothesis of infantile amnesia

Question 22

The results from sensory-preconditioning (SPC), potentiation, paired-comparison, and associative-chain experiments show that ________.

A) young infants cannot form detailed memories spontaneously and that these memories cannot be maintained for long periods of time-these results can be reconciled with the neuroanatomical model
B) young infants form detailed memories spontaneously and that these memories can be maintained for long periods of time-these results cannot be reconciled with the neuroanatomical model
C) young infants form detailed memories but these are rapidly forgotten
D) young infants form inaccurate memories but these memories can be maintained for long periods of time

Question 23

In the debate about pros and cons of the different models of memory development, the neuroanatomical changes in the ________ that take place during the first year in life seem to impede infants in their ability to form long-lasting ________.

A) hippocampus; episodic memories
B) frontal cortex; episodic memories
C) hippocampus; generic memories
D) frontal cortex; generic memories

Question 24

Imitation paradigms have shown that ________.

A) infants cannot learn simply by observing
B) infants struggle to retain learned information if given verbal cues
C) practice has little impact on infants' ability to retain learned tasks
D) verbal cues facilitate the generalization of information learned through imitation beginning around 24 months

Question 25

In children between the ages of 4 and 15, the results from the nine working memory tests administered by Gathercole et al. (2004) ________.

A) show a linear increase in performance from age four through adolescence
B) show a non-linear increase in performance, first steep and then almost flat, from age four through adolescence
C) show a non-linear increase in performance, first almost flat and then steep, from age four through adolescence
D) indicate that working memory cannot be measured reliably before the age of 7

Question 26

The changes in working memory performance across childhood are likely the result of structural changes in the brain; in particular, working memory is supported by a distributed network of brain regions, including ________ in both adults and children.

A) prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices as well as primary cortical areas
B) the basal ganglia and posterior parietal cortices as well as primary cortical areas
C) the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices as well as the basal ganglia
D) the hippocampus and surrounding cortical areas

Question 27

Cowan (1992) found that older children have faster speaking rates because ________, and they have better recall because ________.

A) they speak faster; they are talking faster
B) they take shorter pauses between words; they have more time to rehearse due to needing less time to perform memory searches
C) they speak faster; they have more time to rehearse due to needing less time to perform memory searches
D) they take shorter pauses between words; they are talking faster

Question 28

The results from six tests administered by Finn et al. (2016) show that children perform worse than adults on tests of ________ but perform the same as adults on tests of ________.

A) procedural/implicit memory; declarative/explicit memory
B) declarative/explicit memory; procedural/implicit memory
C) declarative/implicit memory; procedural/explicit memory
D) procedural/explicit memory; declarative/implicit memory

Question 29

The Extended Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (ERBMT) is comprised of nine components: remembering the names of two people, remembering the location of two hidden objects, remembering an appointment, recognizing a picture, remembering a newspaper article, recognizing a face, remembering a new route with immediate and delayed recall, delivering two messages, and remembering the current date. Results showed that older adults performed significantly worse on every item on the test except for ________.

A) remembering the newspaper story
B) recognizing a face
C) remembering the current date
D) recognizing a picture

Question 30

As people get older, the structure of the brain itself changes as the brain shrinks in size and the ventricles become larger; however, different parts of the brain shrink at different rates: the ________ shrink more quickly, while the ________ shrink more slowly.

A) occipital lobes; the frontal lobes
B) frontal lobes; the temporal and occipital lobes
C) parietal lobes; the frontal lobes
D) frontal lobes; the parietal

Question 31

What have habituation, exposure learning, and high-amplitude sucking paradigms revealed about the memories of fetuses?

Question 32

What is sensory preconditioning and what do sensory preconditioning experiments reveal about memory development?

Question 33

What is potentiation in the context of memory development and why does it occur?

Question 34

What is fast mapping and what does it help us understand?

Question 35

What are the two models of memory development? Briefly describe each.

Question 36

How does the development of rehearsal strategies help an individual maintain material in short-term memory and also helps form sufficiently durable traces for recall following a delay?

Question 37

What characterizes implicit memory in children?

Question 38

What physiological changes occur in the brain as people age?

Question 39

What characterizes memory development in infancy? Explain in detail.

Question 40

What characterizes memory in childhood? Explain in detail.

Question 41

What characterizes memory as we age? Explain in detail.