Question 1

When old memories interfere with a new memory, _____ is said to have occurred.

Accepted Answer

A)  proactive interference
B)  retroactive interference
C)  encoding failure
D)  long-term potentiation A

Question 2

Which of the following statements about the effectiveness of retrieval cues is TRUE?

Accepted Answer

A)  Retrieval cues work better with procedural memories than with semantic long-term memories.
B)  Short-term memory is usually nondeclarative unless prompted by retrieval cues.
C)  Short-term memory is no different than long-term memory except in the types of retrieval cues.
D)  With the right retrieval cue, people can often access stored information that seemed to be inaccessible. D

Question 3

Repressed memory therapy, or recovery therapy, refers to:

Accepted Answer

A)  psychotherapy that encourages the recall of supposedly repressed memories from childhood, usually of physical or sexual abuse.
B)  a treatment for memory problems in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other diseases that cause memory loss.
C)  the use of special techniques to repress unpleasant memories to help people recover from traumatic events.
D)  a therapeutic technique that counteracts the effects of memory consolidation. A

Question 4

Which is the BEST explanation for encoding failure?

Accepted Answer

A)  The information was not processed beyond the sensory memory stage.
B)  Old information interferes with one's ability to process novel information.
C)  The information enters one's short-term memory, but it is never encoded into long-term memory.
D)  The information was stored in working memory, but it was then repressed in long-term memory.

Question 5

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

Accepted Answer

A)  localized; distributed
B)  distributed; localized
C)  episodic; semantic
D)  semantic; episodic

Question 6

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?

Accepted Answer

A)  explicit memory
B)  implicit memory
C)  procedural memory
D)  nondeclarative memory

Question 7

Guiding Karl Lashley's initial research on memory was his belief that memory:

Accepted Answer

A)  could reside outside of the brain in specific organs or tissues throughout the body, such as muscles or glands.
B)  was widely distributed throughout the brain in a variety of locations.
C)  was localized or stored in a specific brain area.
D)  was the result of long-term potentiation, a term he coined to describe a long-lasting increase in synaptic strength.

Question 8

Which stage of memory enables us to perceive the world around us as continuous, rather than as a series of disconnected visual images or disjointed sounds?

Accepted Answer

A)  working memory
B)  short-term memory
C)  long-term memory
D)  sensory memory

Question 9

The "lost-in-the-mall" technique involves:

Accepted Answer

A)  leading participants through an unfamiliar shopping center or mall, and then asking them to retrace the path back to the starting point.
B)  secretly moving the participant's car while he or she is shopping in the mall.
C)  using family members of the participant to help induce a false memory for an event that never occurred, such as being lost in a shopping mall as a child.
D)  teaching people techniques to avoid leaving personal articles, such as cell phones, wallets, or keys, in public places such as shopping malls.

Question 10

When the conditions of information retrieval are similar to the conditions of information encoding, memory retrieval is more likely to be successful. This statement reflects the basic idea of:

Accepted Answer

A)  source monitoring.
B)  prospective memory.
C)  memory consolidation.
D)  the encoding specificity principle.

Question 11

Because it was too painful to think about how his marriage had fallen apart due to his wife's infidelity, Russell decided that he was not going to remember anything about his marriage. Russell is trying to use _____, a form of motivated forgetting, to help ease his pain.

Accepted Answer

A)  suppression
B)  repression
C)  decay
D)  inattentional blindness

Question 12

Which brain region is involved in retrieving and organizing information that is associated with episodic and autobiographical memories?

Accepted Answer

A)  the amygdala
B)  the cerebellum
C)  the frontal lobes
D)  the hypothalamus

Question 13

Long-term potentiation:

Accepted Answer

A)  refers to the functional and structural changes in neurons that increase the strength of the synaptic connections involved in a particular memory.
B)  is one of the primary causes of retrograde amnesia.
C)  is a visualization technique used to recover long-term memories that are potentially repressed.
D)  is one of the most effective forms of elaborative rehearsal.

Question 14

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:

Accepted Answer

A)  four, plus or minus one.
B)  10, plus or minus two.
C)  no more than two items.
D)  12, plus or minus three.

Question 15

The famous patient known for years as H. M. suffered from a severe case of:

Accepted Answer

A)  Alzheimer's disease.
B)  anterograde amnesia.
C)  retrograde amnesia.
D)  long-term potentiation failure.

Question 16

The amount of information that can be held in long-term memory:

Accepted Answer

A)  depends on the amount of maintenance rehearsal performed on the information.
B)  seems to be limitless.
C)  is seven items or bits of information, plus or minus two.
D)  is four items or bits of information, plus or minus one.

Question 17

Which of the following statements about Karl Lashley is TRUE?

Accepted Answer

A)  Lashley's research with rats eventually led him to the conclusion that memories are localized in a small area of the cerebellum.
B)  Lashley's research with rats eventually led him to the conclusion that memories are distributed throughout the brain.
C)  Lashley's research reconfirmed the pattern of forgetting first identified by Ebbinghaus.
D)  Lashley's research with rabbits demonstrated that the memory for a classically conditioned response was localized in a specific brain area.

Question 18

Keisha is determined to ace her microbiology final. Which of the following strategies would be LEAST likely to improve her memory of the material covered in her microbiology textbook?

Accepted Answer

A)  outlining the chapter information in a way that shows how information is related
B)  going without sleep the night before the exam and studying right up until she takes the test
C)  using the photographs and diagrams in the text to help create visual memories of the material
D)  spending extra time on material in the middle of the chapter

Question 19

According to Ebbinghaus's research:

Accepted Answer

A)  encoding failure is the chief cause of most forgetting.
B)  all new information will eventually be forgotten.
C)  the most rapid forgetting of new material occurs relatively soon after the material is originally learned.
D)  memories are distributed throughout the brain.

Question 20

In an attempt to deal with his severe, untreatable epileptic seizures, H. M. had portions of his _____, including the brain structure called the _____, surgically removed.

Accepted Answer

A)  medial temporal lobes; hippocampus
B)  neurofibrillary tangle; beta-amyloid plaque
C)  beta-amyloid plague; neurofibrillary tangle
D)  medial temporal lobes; amygdale

Exam 6: Section 2: Memory