Deck 5: Memory Structures and Processes

Question 1

You arrive at the local shopping mall to pick up a few things. The parking lot is crowded, but you find a spot toward the back. While in the mall, you do not think about your parking spot, but you have no trouble remembering where you parked when it is time to leave. This scenario illustrates your brain's ability to ______ information.

A) forget
B) store
C) change
D) encode

Answer 1

store

Question 2

You are about to take an exam, and you spend a few minutes going over your notes. You understand certain topics well, but you are not so sure about others. As soon as the professor hands out the test, you scribble down those few terms you are not very confident about before you forget them. You likely stored these terms in ______.

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

Answer 2

short-term memory

Question 3

Encoding the color of a stimulus is to the ______ as encoding the sound of that stimulus is to the ______.

A) temporal cortex; visual cortex
B) visual cortex; temporal cortex
C) visual cortex; frontal lobe
D) parietal lobe; temporal cortex

Answer 3

visual cortex; temporal cortex

Question 4

According to what you have read in this chapter, which of these is the most accurate way to describe memory?

A) a storage unit full of books and furniture
B) an empty box waiting to be filled
C) a lake that is rippling in the breeze
D) a series of postcards from a far-off destination

Question 5

When you were young, your teachers likely had you write your name, phone number, and address repeatedly to help you remember them. This rehearsal helped get the information from ______ to ______.

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

Question 6

The capacity of short-term memory is ______.

A) five plus or minus two bits of information
B) seven plus or minus two bits of information
C) five plus or minus two words
D) seven plus or minus two words

Question 7

You are at a professional football game. You look across from your seat and notice the other side of the stadium and all of the people in their seats. You close your eyes, and for a brief second, you see an accurate afterimage of that view in your mind. This is an example of ______.

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

Question 8

Imagine that you are sitting in class, listening to your professor lecture, and viewing slides on the projector that she is flipping through. Your brain understands these slides as varying forms of light. This translation is an example of ______.

A) storage
B) encoding
C) retrieval
D) a translator

Question 9

After Wearing's brain injury, he could still play the piano, but he could no longer remember his surroundings for more than a minute or so. How would a scientist describe this situation?

A) Wearing's injury affected his prospective memory, but his semantic memory remained intact.
B) Wearing's injury affected his semantic memory, but his prospective memory remained intact.
C) The injury affected his procedural memory, but his episodic memory remained intact.
D) The injury affected his episodic memory, but his procedural memory remained intact.

Question 10

You are participating in a study in which you are presented with an array of letters. However, you are asked to report only the top line of five rows (much like an eye exam). This process best illustrates a ______ method.

A) full-report
B) delayed-report
C) varied-report
D) partial-report

Question 11

Which of these is a component of the memory formation process?

A) inspiration
B) modality
C) retrieval
D) interference

Question 12

Which of these words would have the smallest span in short-term memory?

A) cathedral
B) apples
C) strength
D) persuasiveness

Question 13

Very brief memories are to ______ as fairly brief memories are to ______ and as longer-held memories are to ______.

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

Question 14

Visual sensory memories last for approximately ______.

A) one second
B) three seconds
C) five seconds
D) one minute

Question 15

Which of the following is the correct order of memory formation?

A) encoding, storage, retrieval
B) interference, retrieval, encoding
C) storage, interference, retrieval
D) encoding, retrieval, storage

Question 16

You spent several days studying for your psychology final exam and are confident you are going to perform well. However, in the middle of taking the exam, you are stuck on a question and find yourself struggling to remember a topic that you are being questioned on. This is most likely a problem with ______.

A) encoding
B) your studying habits
C) short-term storage
D) retrieval

Question 17

Some experts describe memory as a ______, while others believe it is a ______.

A) secret; journey
B) checklist; blueprint
C) structure; process
D) ball of string; pool of water

Question 18

Clive Wearing lost his ability to form new memories when encephalitis damaged his ______.

A) hippocampus
B) parietal cortex
C) frontal lobe
D) insular cortex

Question 19

The briefest form of memory is ______ memory.

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

Question 20

Remembering your phone number in sequences such as xxx-xxx-xxxx and your Social Security number in sequences such as xxx-xx-xxxx are examples of ______.

A) encoding
B) sensory memory
C) chunking
D) short-term memory

Question 21

Remembering your fifth birthday party is an example of ______.

A) semantic memory
B) procedural memory
C) episodic memory
D) working memory

Question 22

The phonological loop is to ______ as the visuospatial sketchpad is to ______.

A) sounds; images
B) images; sounds
C) short-term memory; long-term memory
D) long-term memory; short-term memory

Question 23

What is the difference between working memory and short-term memory?

A) Working memory is part of long-term memory.
B) Short-term memory is limited to a few items within working memory.
C) Working memory controls the memories in short-term memory.
D) Short-term memory is a subset of procedural memory.

Question 24

Being able to recall what you had for breakfast yesterday is an example of ______.

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

Question 25

Clive Wearing's brain injury helped researchers understand the differences between episodic memories and procedural memories.

Question 26

Which of these do experts believe to be a bridge between working memory and long-term memory?

A) sensory memory
B) Baddeley's model
C) episodic buffer
D) modal model

Question 27

How does Cowan's memory model differ from Baddeley's?

A) Cowan believes that working memory and long-term memory are separate systems.
B) Cowan believes that working memory is a subset of long-term memory.
C) Cowan focuses on neural activity, while Baddeley focuses on self-reporting by research subjects.
D) Baddeley focuses on neural activity, while Cowan focuses on self-reporting by research subjects.

Question 28

Which of these have researchers begun using to help them understand working memory?

A) applying the Sperling study to the senses of sound and touch
B) monitoring how and when semantic memories become implanted
C) studying when brain cells become more or less active
D) interviewing research subjects about procedural memories

Question 29

Remembering how to drive a car is an example of ______ memory.

A) semantic
B) procedural
C) episodic
D) working

Question 30

Your professor has asked you to create a study in which people remember as many random letters as possible. Based on your knowledge of the phonological loop, which of these actions should you take to help ensure success?

A) Make sure that as many letters as possible sound alike (B, D, P, and so on).
B) Make sure that as many letters as possible have distinct sounds (A, L, Q, and so on).
C) Have subjects recite a sentence aloud as they learn the list.
D) Invite children to take part in the study because they have faster recall than adults do.

Question 31

Long-term memory storage appears to be ______.

A) smaller than short-term memory storage
B) unlimited for visual memories only
C) limited to five to nine items
D) unlimited

Question 32

What happens to verbal information that is in the phonological loop when new verbal information comes in?

A) The old information binds with visual information.
B) The brain fails to receive the new information.
C) The old information moves to the visuospatial sketchpad.
D) The new information replaces the old.

Question 33

How many types of memory are there?

A) There are two types: explicit and implicit.
B) There are four types: working, short-term, long-term, and unretrievable.
C) Three types exist: episodic, short-term, and long-term.
D) More study is needed before researchers can answer this question.

Question 34

You are at home cooking dinner when your phone rings, the doorbell rings, and the smoke alarm goes off. Which type of memory will you use to take care of these tasks in order of urgency?

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

Question 35

Which of these is the best comparison to how the visuospatial sketchpad works?

A) a clay tablet that people inscribed and then baked solid
B) a program in a computer language that nobody uses anymore
C) a handwritten document that has lasted for decades
D) a chalkboard that can be erased and reused

Question 36

Your memory for cognitive psychology terms is an example of ______ memory.

A) semantic
B) procedural
C) episodic
D) working

Question 37

You have been working at a bank for the last four years, but they recently changed systems, and you had to relearn how to perform every task. After a while, you notice that you cannot remember how you used to perform these tasks using the old system. This is an example of ______.

A) retroactive interference
B) proactive interference
C) executive retrieval
D) overactive retrieval

Question 38

Old information interfering with the storage or retrieval of new information is to ______ as new information interfering with the storage of retrieval of old information is to ______.

A) retroactive interference; proactive interference
B) proactive interference; retroactive interference
C) executive retrieval; overactive retrieval
D) overactive retrieval; executive retrieval

Question 39

You recently bought a new phone and had to change your number. However, your old phone number keeps interfering with your ability to remember your new one. This is an example of ______.

A) retroactive interference
B) proactive interference
C) executive retrieval
D) overactive retrieval

Question 40

The ______ controls the flow of information between the ______, the ______, and the ______.

A) central executive; episodic buffer; phonological loop; visuospatial sketchpad
B) central executive; short-term memory; phonological loop; visuospatial sketchpad
C) episodic buffer; central executive; phonological loop; visuospatial sketchpad
D) phonological loop; central executive; episodic buffer; visuospatial sketchpad

Question 41

Short-term memory has a limited capacity and unlimited duration.

Question 42

Chunking is a method used to increase the number of pieces of information one can remember.

Question 43

The correct order of memory processing is as follows: storage, encoding, and retrieval.

Question 44

Discuss the three types of long-term memories, and give an example of each from your everyday life.

Question 45

Based on what you have learned in this chapter, how would you redesign the course material to make it easier to remember? Give at least two examples of ways to improve the memory-making process, and explain how each applies to the material in this class.

Question 46

Retroactive interference occurs when old information interferes with the storage or retrieval of new information.

Question 47

The modal model of memory classifies memories based on how long the subject's brain has held each memory.

Question 48

Remembering your phone number from childhood is an example of sensory memory.

Question 49

Trace the process that a memory goes through during formation. Include the brain areas involved in each step.

Question 50

Define working memory and discuss Baddeley's model of working memory. Give an example of how your brain processed an event in your life, according to Baddeley's model.

Question 51

Proactive interference occurs when new information interferes with the storage or retrieval of old information.

Question 52

An example of a procedural memory would be how to ride a bicycle.

Question 53

The briefest form of memory is short-term memory.

Question 54

Many questions about memory structures and processes remain. Choose one unanswered question that interests you, and then define, describe, and give an example of it.