Deck 11: Autobiographical Memory

Question 1

Which of the following is a level of autobiographical memory characterized by memories that are grouped together according to some common theme?

A) event-specific
B) self-referential
C) general events
D) lifetime periods

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Compared to information learned in a lab, autobiographical memories are retrieved from long-term memory __________.

A) at a faster speed
B) with greater accuracy
C) at a slower speed
D) with less accuracy

Answer 2

C

Question 3

At what level of autobiographical memory would a person store a memory such as "I took World History for Dummies during the fall semester of 2011. The class was held in Magnesium Hall and had a window looking out at the stadium. The professor was a small woman with a German accent. My best friend was also taking the class, and she would often fall asleep and drool on her notes"?

A) event-specific knowledge
B) autobiographical interpretation
C) lifetime periods
D) general event knowledge

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The structure of autobiographical memories can be described as __________.

A) recursive and hierarchical
B) linear and hierarchical
C) recursive and linear
D) recursive, linear, and hierarchical

Question 5

Which of the following is a level of autobiographical memory characterized by memories that refer to distinct episodes?

A) event-specific
B) self-referential
C) general events
D) lifetime periods

Question 6

The distinction between the various levels of autobiographical memories is __________.

A) always clearly observed
B) sometimes fuzzy
C) not the least bit accurate
D) only now being understood

Question 7

What is a characteristic of autobiographical memory that distinguishes it from episodic and semantic memory?

A) Retrieval is much slower.
B) Specific information is recalled before general info.
C) always vivid
D) contains only specific information

Question 8

Autobiographical memories are more _________ than episodic memories.

A) activated (they have greater strength)
B) integrated
C) individualized
D) easily retrieved

Question 9

How are autobiographical memories like narratives or stories?

A) They both have characters that play specific roles.
B) They both occur in locations.
C) They both have plots.
D) all of the above

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of autobiographical memories?

A) episodic components
B) slow retrieval time
C) semantic components
D) relatively unorganized

Question 11

Which of the following is a type of general event?

A) repeating
B) temporal
C) spatial
D) thematic

Question 12

The distinction between the various levels of autobiographical memories is __________.

A) supported by evidence from brain-damaged individuals
B) useful almost exclusively for heuristic reasons
C) reflected in response time data
D) rejected by more recent connectionist theories

Question 13

Which of the following is not a level of autobiographical memory?

A) abstract schemas
B) lifetime periods
C) event-specific
D) general events

Question 14

It what way does autobiographical memory differ the most from episodic memory?

A) the need for semantic information
B) the constructive and interpretive nature of the memories
C) the forgetting of older information
D) the importance to immediate experience

Question 15

The difference between autobiographical memory and episodic memory is that only the first refers to __________.

A) memories from specific events
B) long-term retention
C) information that can decay rapidly
D) interpreting and integrating knowledge from disparate events

Question 16

What 2 kinds of general events are in autobiographical memory?

A) thematic classes of events and individual experiences
B) sequence of events and thematic classes of events
C) thematic classes of events and repeated events
D) sequence of events and repeated events

Question 17

What is a characteristic of autobiographical memory that distinguishes it from episodic and semantic memory?

A) retrieval is much slower
B) specific information recalled before general info
C) always vivid
D) contains only specific information
Ed: Same as #3

Question 18

Which is NOT a level of autobiographical memory?

A) location-specific
B) general event
C) event-specific
D) lifetime period

Question 19

What is an idea that suggests that autobiographical memories serve as life narratives?

A) the fact they are not influenced by scripts and schemas
B) the importance of inferred causal relations
C) a person's ability to articulate them
D) an absence of semantic information

Question 20

Autobiographical memory relates to episodic memory in that __________.

A) autobiographical memories develop earlier in life than episodic memories
B) episodic memories are better preserved in amnesia
C) these terms refer to the same thing
D) autobiographical memories are formed from several episodic memories

Question 21

As compared to observer memories, field memories are ________, ________ emotional, and demonstrate ________ self-awareness.

A) newer; more; less
B) older; less; more
C) newer; equally; more
D) more robust; less; less

Question 22

Using what you know about autobiographical memory as a life narrative, how could you help individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder?

A) Help them begin to retrieve information in a backward order instead of a forward order.
B) Help them begin to retrieve information in a forward order instead of a backward order.
C) Help them convert observer memories into field memories.
D) Help them convert field memories into observer memories.

Question 23

Which of the following is an account of infantile amnesia that does not involve a person acquiring information that can be used to structure long-term, autobiographical memories?

A) biological
B) schema development
C) language development
D) development of the self

Question 24

If an old memory is less emotionally charged, it is more likely to be experienced as a(n) __________.

A) observer memory
B) type memory
C) field memory
D) token memory

Question 25

According to the schema-copy-plus-tag model, autobiographical memories __________.

A) contain tags for schema-inconsistent information
B) contain tags for schema-consistent information
C) have tags copied over from schemas in long-term memory
D) have tags for additional schemas that may be relevant

Question 26

Memories where the individual takes another person's perspective or field of view are called __________.

A) field memories
B) observer memories
C) script memories
D) alternate memories

Question 27

According to Freud, infantile amnesia is a loss of memories due to what?

A) forgetting
B) repression
C) facts of infancy
D) culturally based sexual control

Question 28

According to a neurological account, infantile amnesia occurs because __________.

A) the hippocampus is not fully developed
B) neurons do not fire rapidly enough yet
C) the basal ganglia is not fully connected
D) the frontal lobe is underdeveloped

Question 29

According to the schema-copy-plus-tag model, idiosyncratic aspects of an event are __________. Au: Okay?

A) directly associated with the script
B) represented by a tag in the memory trace
C) referred to by the pointer in the script
D) incorporated into a new memory trace that includes both all of the old information in the script that has been tagged as well as the new, novel information

Question 30

What information do students tend to remember best from their classes?

A) information from the beginning of the term
B) information from the end of the term
C) information from the middle of the term
D) jokes

Question 31

Which theory of infantile amnesia suggests that it is a result of a change in the way in which a person understands the world?

A) Freudian
B) social interaction and schema development
C) development of the self
D) language development

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT true about the schema-copy-plus-tag model?

A) It includes both schematic and unique aspects of the event.
B) Memories often contain script-inconsistent information.
C) Memories often contain script-inconsistent information.
D) First, unique aspects of the event are added; then an appropriate schema is activated. Au: identical

Question 33

What is true about the schema-copy-plus-tag model?

A) Schema retrieval makes it important to recall every detail about a memory.
B) Activated schemas form the foundation of memories, making reconstruction easier.
C) Tag information is more difficult to remember than schema-consistent information.
D) As autobiographical memories get older, information becomes less schema consistent.

Question 34

Autobiographical memories that are experienced from the perspective you originally had when you were in an event are called __________.

A) observer memories
B) episodic memories
C) field memories
D) visual images

Question 35

The Pollyanna principle can be best described as __________.

A) life gets worse all the time
B) people tend to remember happier parts of their lives longer
C) young people are more positive while old people are more negative
D) the tendency to focus on central details

Question 36

What is a tunnel memory?

A) People are more likely to remember events that match their current mood.
B) People focus more on the central events in an emotional memory than the surrounding context.
C) People have a bias to remember positive events.
D) when memories are more influenced by the emotional valence than the emotional intensity

Question 37

Autobiographical memory can best be described as __________.

A) a narrative of one's life
B) a collection of individual life events
C) a type of episodic memory
D) flashbulb memory

Question 38

The theory of infantile amnesia that places the problem on an incongruity between early and current ways of thinking about the world is __________.

A) schema development
B) biological
C) Freudian
D) development of the self

Question 39

Events are remembered better when __________.

A) they are consistent with a script and do not disrupt the expected flow of events
B) they violate a script and disrupt the expected flow of events
C) they violate a script and do not disrupt the expected flow of events
D) there is no script that would predict an expected flow of events

Question 40

The schema-copy-plus-tag model suggests that __________.

A) schema-consistent events are remembered best
B) schema-inconsistent information is given special treatment in the memory trace
C) the memory contains the schema-consistent information along with a pointer to old events
D) the memory contains a pointer which indicates the time direction in which the event unfolds

Question 41

According to the cultural schemas explanation of the reminiscence bump, the bump occurs because __________.

A) people remember more from certain periods of their life because they are culturally important
B) a person's culture modifies memory to make it work better at certain times
C) memories are distorted to conform with cultural expectations
D) this is a time when personal culture changes

Question 42

The reminiscence bump generally refers to memories for around what ages?

A) 60+
B) 30-45
C) 15-25
D) depends on the age of the person

Question 43

Which is the explanation for the reminiscence bump's ability to form and effectively store explicit, autobiographical long-term memories? Au: Okay?

A) serial position
B) cognitive
C) neurological
D) identify formation

Question 44

What is NOT true about flashbulb memories?

A) they last for long durations of time
B) they are more prone to forgetting
C) they are influenced by incorrect information
D) they are affected by the novelty of, importance of, and emotional reaction to an event

Question 45

Which of the following is a characteristic of flashbulb memories?

A) immune to intrusions
B) rapidly forgotten
C) highly detailed
D) relatively vague

Question 46

Which type of memory is thought to be most highly resistant to forgetting?

A) short-term memories
B) autobiographical memories
C) verbatim information
D) flashbulb memories

Question 47

Infantile amnesia refers to __________.

A) an inability to acquire any memories prior to the age of 2-3 ½
B) better memory for events that occurred earlier in life, but amnesia thereafter
C) the absence of autobiographical memories prior to the age of 2-3 ½
D) the loss of very early memories brought about by damage to memory structures as a result of neural reorganization around the age of 2-3 ½

Question 48

Which account of the reminiscence bump focuses on the role of novel (first time) events?

A) genetic fitness
B) mental abilities
C) cognitive
D) identity formation

Question 49

The reminiscence bump is a(n) ___________ in memories that is observed ________.

A) increase; for memories of the previous 20 years
B) increase; around the age of 20
C) decrease; for memories of the previous 20 years
D) decrease; around the age of 20

Question 50

According to the multicomponent model of development, why do people experience infantile amnesia?

A) Language development does not occur until after infancy.
B) Memories simply decay faster during infancy.
C) Infants often fall down and hit their heads.
D) Infant memories are repressed to protect the Ego.

Question 51

Which of the following is not needed for the formation of flashbulb memories?

A) surprise in the event's occurrence
B) personal involvement in the event
C) interest in the topic of an event
D) rehearsal of the memory

Question 52

Flashbulb memories __________.

A) preserve information completely accurately
B) show no evidence of forgetting
C) are highly detailed and enduring memories for special events
D) are fictional

Question 53

What is the cognitive explanation for the existence of the reminiscence bump?

A) Young adults are at their neurological peak.
B) The bump corresponds to identity formation.
C) During this time, many novel events occur.
D) The bump follows cultural schemas for life events.

Question 54

Infantile amnesia is __________.

A) the inverse of the onset of autobiographical memory
B) a massive forgetting of early childhood knowledge
C) a myth
D) the only true amnesia that everyone experiences

Question 55

According to a cognitive account of the reminiscence bump, there is better memory for this time period because __________.

A) neurological functioning is at its peak
B) there are a lot of firsts during this time
C) a person's identity is formed at this time
D) a person is involved in more events at this time

Question 56

Which of the following is NOT a major cause of flashbulb memories?

A) surprise
B) overlap
C) rehearsal
D) novelty

Question 57

According to an identity formation account of the reminiscence bump, there is better memory for this time period because __________.

A) neurological functioning is at its peak
B) there are a lot of firsts during this time
C) a person's social and ideological roles are formed at this time
D) a person is more socially involved

Question 58

Which of the following factors is NOT involved in flashbulb memory creation?

A) interest
B) rehearsal
C) predictability
D) intensity

Question 59

Autobiographical memory is improved when people recall life events in what type of order?

A) backward
B) segmented or chunked
C) forward
D) least important to most important

Question 60

According to an emergent-self account, infantile amnesia occurs because __________.

A) of a desire to avoid threatening early memories
B) people are acquiring language at this time
C) autobiographical memory has not yet had its onset
D) a person is emerging from infancy

Question 61

How is autobiographical memory affected by emotional aspects of an event?

Question 62

Some autobiographical memory information is easier to recall in a backwards order than a forward order.

A) true
B) false
C) This is not known.
D) none of the above
Short Answers

Question 63

What is the name of the version of schema/script theory that has been proposed to account for how many autobiographical memories are stored?

Question 64

What is the age range for which most people can accurately recall their first memory?

Question 65

What is infantile amnesia?

Question 66

Based on your understanding of autobiographical memory and the reminiscence bump, what is one set of circumstances that would be more likely to create a reminiscence bump in a person that is outside the normal age range in which this bump is found?

Question 67

How is event information remembered according to the schema-copy-plus-tag model?

Question 68

What are two factors that influence the likelihood that a person will form a flashbulb memory?

Question 69

What is the reminiscence bump?

Question 70

What are the two perspectives a person can experience when remembering an autobiographical event?

Question 71

What are the levels of autobiographical memory?

Question 72

What does it mean to say that autobiographical memories are recursively structured?