Question 1

Suppose that you hear a lecture about memory improvement, and the speaker says, "We must remember the value of desirable difficulties." The speaker is likely to emphasize that

Accepted Answer

A)  academic tests must be difficult enough to differentiate between the students who deserve A's and the students who deserve lower grades. 
B)  professors who want to assess their academic programs must be sure that the courses are sufficiently difficult. 
C)  students' motivation will be higher if they are allowed to select the appropriate level of difficulty for the material in a course they are taking. 
D)  if students test themselves several minutes after learning some material, they will make more errors, which will encourage them to spend more time studying.

Question 2

Deep processing increases distinctiveness, which can be especially important in learning

Accepted Answer

A)  formulas. 
B)  complex theories. 
C)  names. 
D)  the order of discoveries.

Question 3

Suppose that you are studying for a vocabulary test, and you want to accurately predict your score in that test. Your prediction accuracy would be highest if you

Accepted Answer

A)  tested yourself immediately after learning the words. 
B)  tested yourself several minutes after learning the words. 
C)  estimate how many words you already knew before beginning to study. 
D)  figure out-in advance-whether you typically have trouble on vocabulary tests.

Question 4

Harrison knows that he will typically perform better in an exam if he reads the textbook chapters in the early afternoon and if he reviews the material by trying to explain it in his own words. Harrison is demonstrating

Accepted Answer

A)  levels of processing. 
B)  mnemonics. 
C)  metacognition. 
D)  the keyword method.

Question 5

According to the discussion of improving prospective memory,

Accepted Answer

A)  external memory aids tend to decrease the accuracy of prospective memory. 
B)  it's helpful to figure out a specific reminder that you can place in a relevant location. 
C)  the same identical factors influence the accuracy of both retrospective memory and prospective memory. 
D)  prospective memory errors are especially likely when people are using focused attention rather than divided attention.

Question 6

The narrative technique

Accepted Answer

A)  is effective only for improving working memory. 
B)  is effective only for items presented at the beginning of a list. 
C)  can produce recall that is approximately six times the recall produced in a control group. 
D)  requires you to combine the first letter of each word in a list that you need to remember.

Question 7

Part of the section on metamemory examined how students regulate their study strategies. If you are typical of the college students discussed in that section-and the task is relatively easy-you would be likely to

Accepted Answer

A)  spend somewhat more time on the more difficult material, but not as much time as it deserves. 
B)  fail to review the material you already know. 
C)  show no relationship between study time and the difficulty of the material. 
D)  spend roughly three times as long on difficult topics as on the topics you already know.

Question 8

According to research on the testing effect,

Accepted Answer

A)  although testing can improve recall, it is not as helpful as spending the same amount of time studying. 
B)  testing consistently improves recall, no matter whether the retention interval is short or long. 
C)  this effect operates only when students receive feedback on their test scores. 
D)  one explanation is that test-taking creates desirable difficulties.

Question 9

According to the discussion of prospective and retrospective memory,

Accepted Answer

A)  distinctive encoding improves performance on both kinds of memory tasks. 
B)  the research on retrospective memory is typically higher in ecological validity than is the research on prospective memory. 
C)  a delay period has a stronger effect on retrospective memory than on prospective memory. 
D)  retrospective-memory tasks typically activate the frontal lobe of the brain, but prospective-memory tasks do not.

Question 10

Research on the testing effect suggests that the beneficial effects of testing

Accepted Answer

A)  are limited by encoding specificity to testing formats that are the same as those originally used. 
B)  involve helping you to identify the material on which you need to spend more time studying, but do not actually increase your memory for the material on which you have been tested. 
C)  work only when accurate feedback is promptly given. 
D)  stretch beyond increased memory for the same information in the same testing format.

Question 11

Why should you pay attention to metamemory if you want to improve your memory?

Accepted Answer

A)  The guidelines of metamemory suggest that rote rehearsal is the most effective mnemonic device. 
B)  Metamemory can help you decide which strategies work best for you. 
C)  Metamemory allows you to process information in a parallel fashion, rather than a serial fashion. 
D)  Metamemory is the study of memory for people's names, and people report particular difficulty with memory for names.

Question 12

Suppose that you are studying for a biopsychology examination, and you decide to try asking yourself questions about why various structures in the central nervous system operate the way they do. According to the discussion of memory strategies, your technique would

Accepted Answer

A)  enhance encoding specificity. 
B)  promote simple rehearsal. 
C)  lead to divided attention. 
D)  encourage a deep level of processing.

Question 13

The concept called "feeling of knowing"

Accepted Answer

A)  describes how confident you are that you provided the right answer on a test. 
B)  is an estimate of the likelihood that you will recognize the correct answer to a question. 
C)  is more closely related to retrospective memory than to metamemory. 
D)  is not significantly correlated with the amount of partial information we can retrieve.

Question 14

According to the discussion of metacomprehension,

Accepted Answer

A)  college students do not need special training in this area, because their metacomprehension is reasonably accurate. 
B)  metacomprehension can be improved when students receive feedback about their understanding before they take a test. 
C)  good readers and poor readers do not differ in their awareness of reading strategies. 
D)  metacomprehension is basically the same as meta-analysis.

Exam 6: Memory Strategies and Metacognition