Deck 8: Memory

Question 1

At the end of fifth grade, Ron moved from West Virginia to Pennsylvania. A researcher now wants to know how many of the West Virginia counties Ron remembers. The researcher gives Ron a list of 30 counties, 15 from West Virginia mixed in with 15 from other states. Ron's job is to pick out the West Virginian counties. Which method does this test use?

A) rehearsal
B) recognition
C) reminiscence
D) recall

Answer 1

recognition

Question 2

You know the name of a cat your biology professor owned while she was in graduate school because of a story she told in class one day. You gained this piece of knowledge through __________.

A) procedural learning
B) intentional learning
C) incidental learning
D) explicit learning

Answer 2

incidental learning

Question 3

When answering questions such as "Who was your date to the Junior Prom?" or "What costume did you wear last Halloween?" you are relying on a memory function termed __________.

A) recognition
B) memory trace
C) recall
D) acquisition

Answer 3

recall

Question 4

The capacity of a normal person's working memory __________.

A) depends substantially on what particular type of items is in store
B) is practically unlimited
C) is limited primarily by the capacities of the long-term storage system
D) is roughly seven items

Question 5

Imagine that you begin to list all the classes you've ever taken in college. Chances are, you will recall your last few classes particularly well. What is this phenomenon called?

A) chunking
B) the primacy effect
C) the recency effect
D) memory consolidation

Question 6

The "recency effect" refers to the fact that __________.

A) the last items on a list are more likely to be remembered than the middle items
B) the first several items on a list are more likely to be remembered than the middle items
C) rehearsed items are more likely to be remembered than unrehearsed items
D) the most personally relevant items on a list are most likely to be remembered

Question 7

The capacity of working memory in chunks is about the same as the number of __________.

A) wheels on a tricycle
B) days in a week
C) months in a year
D) days in a month

Question 8

What is the so-called magic number with respect to working memory?

A) 10
B) 14
C) 7 plus or minus 2
D) 5 plus or minus 2

Question 9

Any act of remembering requires success at three different cognitive processes. What are they?

A) acquisition, storage, retrieval
B) working memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
C) rehearsal, recall, recognition
D) processing, organizing, recognizing

Question 10

Though Fez cannot name all 50 states, he insists that he knows them. Which type of test will most likely allow Fez to demonstrate that knowledge?

A) rehearsal
B) recall
C) recognition
D) reminiscence

Question 11

What is the difference between recall and recognition?

A) Recall is faster and more consciously driven.
B) Recall is slower and less consciously driven.
C) Recognition tasks provide fewer retrieval cues.
D) Recognition requires you to determine whether you've encountered something before-a name, fact, or situation.

Question 12

The "primacy effect" refers to the fact that __________.

A) the most important items in a list are more likely to be remembered than less important items
B) the first-presented items in a list are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list
C) the items presented most recently in a list are more likely to be remembered than items presented earlier
D) those items in a list that have the greatest emotional impact are those with the greatest likelihood of recall

Question 13

The capacity of working memory seems to be about __________ items.

A) 3
B) 7
C) 10
D) 15

Question 14

Recognition and recall tasks both ask participants to __________ information.

A) retrieve
B) encode
C) store
D) acquire

Question 15

Another word for short-term memory is __________.

A) working memory
B) maintenance memory
C) sensory register
D) recognition memory

Question 16

A researcher wants to know how many of the West Virginian county seats Ron remembers from when he memorized them as a fifth grader in Morgantown. The researcher says, "Tell me all of the county seats that you remember, and the county that each one goes with." Which method does this test use?

A) rehearsal
B) recall
C) recognition
D) reminiscence

Question 17

Memory acquisition is __________.

A) a process of copying an event or fact into memory
B) an automatic process requiring little attention to the material
C) a process of translating raw input into an intellectual record of the input
D) maintaining an internal trace of an event or experience

Question 18

Which of the following lists exceeds the capacity of the average person's working memory?

A) BOATLOADDOCKROPELAND
B) MNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEF
C) MQTLNRAZPCDBLQNVUDSD
D) NBCAOLMCIIBMCSIFBIUSAPHD

Question 19

Essay exams measure retention by which method?

A) savings
B) recognition
C) recall
D) latent learning

Question 20

The capacity of working memory is somewhere around 7. What does this number 7 refer to, exactly?

A) 7 chunks of information
B) 7 bits of information
C) 7 pictorial images
D) 7 seconds of storage time before forgetting kicks in

Question 21

The depth-of-processing approach __________.

A) assumes that the longer material is in working memory the more deep will be its memory traces
B) is primarily concerned with a type of memory called procedural
C) suggests that actively thinking about material leads to better memory than does maintenance rehearsal
D) holds that meaningless material produces greater depth of processing than does material that can easily be fitted into meaningful contexts

Question 22

Two groups hear a list of 20 unrelated items at the same one-item-per-second rate and are then tested for free recall. For group I, the test comes 1 second after hearing the final item in the list. For group II, the test comes 30 seconds after hearing the final item, with the 30 seconds filled with backward counting. Which of the following should we expect?

A) the same primacy effect for both groups; a greater recency effect for group I
B) the same primacy effect for both groups; a greater recency effect for group II
C) the same recency effect for both groups; a greater primacy effect for group I
D) the same recency effect for both groups; a greater primacy effect for group II

Question 23

Let's say you look at the schedule for your favorite football team. The team plays 16 games per year. Later you try recalling that schedule for a friend who really likes the same team you do. Chances are, you will recall opponents at the beginning of the schedule particularly well. What is this phenomenon called?

A) memory consolidation
B) the primacy effect
C) chunking
D) depth-of-processing

Question 24

If you tried to learn the serial list BOZ, ZIR, JEV, VID, LEQ, SAR, RAK, NUD, FUH, you would probably have the most trouble recalling:

A) BOZ
B) JEV
C) LEQ
D) FUH

Question 25

Memorizing material using the method of loci __________.

A) involves using some image to peg the position of a particular piece of information in a long list
B) generally results in a greater difficulty of retrieval
C) involves mentally locating each piece of information in a different spatial location
D) involves repeating the item over and over in working memory

Question 26

Two groups hear a list of 20 unrelated items and are tested for immediate recall a few seconds after they hear the last word. In group I, the items are presented at the rate of 1 second per item; in group II, they are presented at 2 seconds per item. Which of the following should we expect?

A) the same primacy effect for both groups; a greater recency effect for group I
B) the same primacy effect for both groups; a greater recency effect for group II
C) the same recency effect in both groups; a greater primacy effect for group I
D) the same recency effect for both groups; a greater primacy effect for group II

Question 27

A drug that prevents processing of information into long-term memory is administered to a subject prior to a memory task. Under these conditions, which effect will likely be eliminated?

A) The primacy effect will be eliminated.
B) The recency effect will be eliminated.
C) Any recall of items will be eliminated.
D) Neither the primacy nor the recency effect will be eliminated.

Question 28

On your computer desktop you can see all sorts of different files, each immediately accessible. You are actively working on some of them, and you can open them whenever you want. In terms of the three-stage model of memory, these files are similar to the kind of information held in __________.

A) long-term memory
B) short-term memory
C) the unconscious
D) sensory register

Question 29

A participant is required to report as much of a poem as he can remember after having read the poem once immediately prior to recall. In reciting the poem from memory, one expects the greatest number of errors in lines:

A) at the beginning of the poem
B) in the middle of the poem
C) at the end of the poem
D) Errors will be independent of the position of the line in the poem.

Question 30

Subject A has learned a list of letters by organizing it into four chunks, each chunk containing two letters. Subject B has learned another list of letters by organizing it into four chunks, each chunk containing four letters. Which of the following statements is true?

A) Only subject A will be able to transfer the list to long-term memory.
B) Subject B is placing a far larger load on his working memory than subject A.
C) In a recall test one hour later, subject B will be able to recall more letters than subject A.
D) In a recall test one hour later, subjects A and B will be able to recall approximately the same number of letters.

Question 31

"Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November . . ." is an example of:

A) a mnemonic device
B) serial reproduction
C) typical interference
D) an attentional process

Question 32

As you work on a complex multiplication problem in your head, the numbers you are manipulating are in your __________ memory, and the multiplication tables you are drawing on are in __________.

A) working; long-term memory
B) working; recognition memory
C) long-term; working memory
D) long-term; recognition memory

Question 33

Working memory is to long-term memory as __________ is to __________.

A) warehouse; loading dock
B) passive; active
C) loading dock; warehouse
D) passive; depth-of-processing

Question 34

Which of the following would be the least helpful thing to do in trying to remember who played the leads in your sixth-grade production of The Sound of Music?

A) Think of each of the songs in the show and try to remember who sang them.
B) Revisit your old school, especially the room where the rehearsals and performances were held.
C) Think about unrelated things, like the courtroom thriller you are reading, and wait for the names to pop into your head.
D) Try to picture your sixth-grade music class, whom you sang near, and whom you could see in the other sections.

Question 35

Participants in a memory experiment read a list of words. They are then asked to count backwards by threes for a brief interval. Finally, they have to recall as many of the list words as they can. What is most likely the point of the backwards-counting task?

A) The task helps subjects to concentrate.
B) The task keeps the subjects interested.
C) The task prevents interference by other materials.
D) The task displaces the contents of working memory.

Question 36

Al remembers the first letter of each cranial nerve in correct order by remembering the phrase "On old Olympus' towering top a Finn and German." This is an example of __________.

A) a mnemonic device
B) proactive interference
C) serial reproduction
D) incidental learning

Question 37

A group of subjects hears a list of 15 words, after which there is a delay of 30 seconds before they are asked to recall the words. During this delay period, rehearsal is prevented. When asked for free recall of the words, which of the following will be affected the most?

A) recency effect
B) primacy effect
C) memory span
D) long-term memory

Question 38

There are lots of books on your bookshelves, but you aren't making use of them right now; those you are making use of are out on your desk. Because books on your bookshelves contain information you are not accessing right now, but may need later, those books are in fact very similar to the kind of information held in __________.

A) long-term memory
B) short-term memory
C) the unconscious
D) sensory register

Question 39

Research has shown that if you want to remember a picture, you should __________.

A) focus on its color
B) situate it within some sort of frame
C) visualize the parts of the picture that interact
D) imagine people inside the picture, since we are best at recalling anything with people in it

Question 40

What does the formation of "chunks" involve?

A) recoding of the stimulus input
B) restricting the capacity of working memory
C) restricting the capacity of long-term memory
D) increasing working memory capacity from about 7 chunks to about 12 chunks

Question 41

According to depth-of-processing models of memory, which of the following study techniques would enhance memory best?

A) highlighting important passages in the text
B) reading aloud important passages in the text
C) focusing on the meaning of important passages in the text
D) visualizing pages from the text, then "reading" the material they contain

Question 42

Which of the following is the best reason that we have trouble remembering the license plate number of a car that we just passed 10 minutes ago?

A) Working memory lasts only a minute or so.
B) Seven-digit numbers are too difficult to remember easily.
C) We probably never actively encoded the number in the first place.
D) The memory, though present, is too difficult to retrieve except under special circumstances, such as hypnosis or substantial amounts of stress.

Question 43

A mental device for improving memory is called __________.

A) a mnemonic
B) incidental learning
C) latent learning
D) anterograde amnesia

Question 44

Mr. Jones hits his head on the windshield in an auto accident and cannot recall any of the events that led up to the accident. What is this memory problem called?

A) traumatic amnesia
B) repression
C) anterograde amnesia
D) retrograde amnesia

Question 45

Jerry is at a party. He is introduced to three different people in the span of a moment. Later, he is approached by the first person he met and cannot remember her name. Which of the following has Jerry experienced?

A) a memory trace
B) a failure of acquisition
C) memory encoding
D) motivated forgetting

Question 46

Which of the following statements best expresses Ribot's Law?

A) Memory for faces exceeds memory for words.
B) Memory for words exceeds memory for faces.
C) The older the memory, the less likely it is to be affected by amnesia.
D) The only memories that achieve permanent status in the brain are those including some sort of emotional response.

Question 47

Which of the following is the best explanation for our difficulty in remembering new telephone numbers?

A) Items quickly decay or are displaced from working memory.
B) Information received visually is difficult to process.
C) Long-term memory is unrelated to short-term memory.
D) Seven-digit numbers are too difficult to remember.

Question 48

A researcher presents participants with a list of words. She asks the participants to count the letters in the words in group 1, to come up with rhymes for the words in group 2, and to produce synonyms for the words in group 3. Later, she tests the participants' memory for all of the words. Going from best to worst, which pattern correctly indicates how well words in each group will be remembered?

A) 1, 2, 3
B) 3, 2, 1
C) 3, 1, 2
D) There is no basis for predicting differences among the groups.

Question 49

In one study, research participants were asked to recall whether Abraham Lincoln's profile, shown on the heads side of a penny, faces to the right or the left. Only half of the participants got the question right, a result providing striking confirmation of the fact that __________.

A) words are remembered better than pictures
B) things we can't chunk are impossible to remember
C) names interfere with memory
D) memory requires engagement, not just exposure

Question 50

Suppose you learn to associate pairs of words by using visual chunking. You would then have the easiest time recalling which of the following?

A) creation-consolidation
B) impeach-imagine
C) alligator-apple
D) loci-lacquer

Question 51

Rambo was hit across the head with a rifle. What is the most plausible explanation for his amnesia of what led up to the hit?

A) His semantic memory was disrupted.
B) There was a disruption of trace consolidation.
C) Neither his right nor his left hippocampus now functions properly, so that he is similar to the neurological patient H. M.
D) There has been massive proactive interference.

Question 52

When does mental imagery result in the best facilitation of recall?

A) when the subject can mentally place each of the items in a different spatial location
B) in paired associate learning
C) when the image acts to unify the individual component items
D) when the image degrades a chunk into its component parts

Question 53

Somewhere between Her blue eyes and jeans
There's a heart that's been broken
Along with her dreams.
These lines from a Conway Twitty song are far easier to remember than a string of eight of Ebbinghaus's three-letter syllables. Why?

A) There are 24 letters in the Ebbinghaus string but only 17 words in this part of the song.
B) The song is written down as 4 lines rather than as a complete sentence, with all words in a row; Ebbinghaus's syllables are not.
C) The song is meaningful, it rhymes, and it has a meter to it; Ebbinghaus's syllables are not meaningful, do not rhyme, and do not have meter.
D) Many Americans are quite familiar with Conway Twitty's songs; not many are familiar with Ebbinghaus's syllables.

Question 54

In general, we know very little about how the information content of a memory-its trace-is translated into a pattern of neural connections. But one thing that does seem to be true is that __________.

A) single episodes from the past are recorded in single locations in the brain
B) permanent storage of memory traces requires processing by the amygdala
C) memory traces are created instantly
D) different aspects of an event get stored in different brain locations

Question 55

If you are serious about learning the names and positions of China's 15 most populous cities, which of the following should you avoid?

A) maintenance rehearsal
B) mnemonics
C) chunking
D) declarative knowledge

Question 56

Which of the following is the principal distinction between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?

A) Retrograde is inherited; anterograde is learned.
B) Anterograde is temporary; retrograde is permanent.
C) Anterograde involves forgetting things after a certain time; retrograde involves forgetting things prior to a certain time.
D) Anterograde affects long-term memory; retrograde affects working memory.

Question 57

Techniques used to improve one's memory are collectively called __________.

A) image productions
B) verbal organizations
C) peg methods
D) mnemonics

Question 58

Which of the following facts about memory has the most relevance for a student who is currently in the process of cramming for an exam?

A) The capacity of working memory is severely limited.
B) Maintenance rehearsal confers little or no benefit in aiding recall.
C) Items are easily displaced from working memory.
D) The video-recorder theory of memory is almost certainly false.

Question 59

An investigator asks some participants to count the number of letters in each of the names on a long list of Russian rivers. She asks other participants to pronounce each river's name and asks, for instance, "Does it rhyme with Vienna?" (for Lenna). She asks still other participants to place the river on a map and to observe into which larger body of water it flows. Which approach to memory and forgetting is this investigator most likely interested in?

A) interference theory
B) stage theory
C) script theory
D) the depth-of-processing approach

Question 60

A character who is hit on the head and can no longer remember who he is or what is going on is a cartoon staple. This most closely resembles which condition?

A) anterograde amnesia
B) retrograde amnesia
C) typical interference
D) simple decay

Question 61

Which of the following facts most directly supports the notion that the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a failure of retrieval rather than of acquisition or storage?

A) It occurs when one is trying to recall not only unusual words, but also specific names.
B) An individual experiencing the phenomenon can recall material related to the word.
C) An individual experiencing the phenomenon can recognize the word he or she is trying to recall if it is presented in a list of alternatives.
D) The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon occurs fairly rarely, considering how often one tries to recall words from memory.

Question 62

Mickey is about to take his psychology final, for which he has studied very hard. Just before the exam, the person sitting next to Mickey asks him the name of the physiologist who worked on classical conditioning. Mickey suddenly realizes that he cannot quite remember the name, but he knows that it starts with a P and is two syllables long. Mickey is experiencing __________.

A) repression (motivated forgetting)
B) fatigue from information overload
C) simple decay
D) the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Question 63

If you "can't think of it now" but do remember it later, there was an initial failure of __________.

A) retrieval
B) retention
C) acquisition
D) recognition

Question 64

You need to locate a particular file on your computer's hard drive to complete an assignment. Which of the following situations is most nearly analogous to the concept of retrieval failure as it is defined in your textbook?

A) The file is no longer on your computer's hard drive.
B) You locate the file, but it will not open.
C) You open the file, but the text has been replaced by strange symbols and punctuation marks.
D) The file is somewhere on your computer's hard drive, but you cannot find it.

Question 65

Melissa is going on a sea cruise for the first time in seven years. She cannot remember much about her first Caribbean voyage before setting sail on her new trip, but as soon as she feels the ship roll and she smells the salty air, she recalls several details about her original trip. The rolls and smells have acted as __________.

A) mnemonic devices
B) autonomic nervous system stimulants
C) retrieval cues
D) episodic memories

Question 66

Memory consolidation, the process through which memories get transformed from a transient to a more permanent state, can be disrupted by __________.

A) blocking protein synthesis
B) antidepressant usage
C) sleep deprivation
D) exercise

Question 67

Paula received a severe blow to the head in a car accident. What is the most reasonable explanation for her amnesia of what led up to the accident?

A) The information was not yet consolidated in long-term memory.
B) Working memory interfered with the long-term memory storage.
C) Semantic memory has been disrupted.
D) She has lost the use of her hippocampus; that is, she is like H. M. but not as severely impaired.

Question 68

Dr. Deblanc is conducting an experiment. Two groups of participants study a word list in a psychology laboratory. Some time later, one group attempts to recall the words in the same laboratory; the other group tries to recall the words in a very different environment, a nearby city park. Dr. Deblanc is probably investigating the influence of __________ on memory.

A) maintenance rehearsal
B) retrieval cues
C) source confusion
D) schema intrusions

Question 69

When a piece of information is "on the tip of your tongue," which of the following is true?

A) You are unable to recall anything about that piece of information.
B) That piece of information is irretrievably lost in long-term memory.
C) Some of the aspects of that information are accessible.
D) It has not been rehearsed effectively.

Question 70

"I know it! It's um . . . um . . . It starts with 'G'," begins a trivia game contestant excitedly. The contestant is falling prey to the __________ effect.

A) tip-of-the-tongue
B) levels of processing
C) encoding specificity
D) flashbulb memory

Question 71

Chad is puzzling over a difficult question on a multiple-choice sociology test. He re-reads the question, scans the options beneath the question, and glances at other questions on the test. Most likely, Chad is looking for __________.

A) retrieval cues
B) flashbulb memories
C) mnemonics
D) a miracle

Question 72

An "oldie" playing on the radio may remind you of events that occurred when the song was current. The song is acting as a(n) __________.

A) retrieval cue
B) mnemonic
C) flashbulb
D) schema

Question 73

Phil cannot remember much about his camping trip to Vermont in the summer of 1989, but as soon as he smells the aroma of bacon and pine smoke, he recalls many details about the trip. The smells of the bacon and smoke acted as __________.

A) loci
B) mnemonics
C) primacy effects
D) retrieval cues

Question 74

When a memory is presently inaccessible, it may sometimes be recalled by using an appropriate __________.

A) chunk
B) nonsense syllable
C) retrieval cue
D) mnemonic device

Question 75

A sudden blow to the head often causes forgetting of the events in the few seconds or minutes that preceded the blow. This finding is most consistent with which of the following ideas about memory?

A) New memory traces require consolidation.
B) Temporal contiguity is impressed upon the mind.
C) Memory often depends on organizational factors.
D) There is a limit of about seven items that can be held in working memory at one time.

Question 76

Returning home after many years causes memories to resurface. In this case, home serves as a(n) __________.

A) icon
B) retrieval cue
C) mnemonic device
D) memory chunk

Question 77

Which of the following is an effective way to get access to a forgotten memory?

A) a chunk
B) a retrieval cue
C) rehearsal
D) hypnosis

Question 78

Almost everybody has had the feeling of knowing the answer to a question, but not being quite able to say it. This is known as the "tip-of the-tongue" phenomenon and is a failure of __________.

A) retention
B) storage
C) retrieval
D) trace consolidation

Question 79

The physical setting can be crucial for memory. If you learn something in a noisy environment, it is best to recall it in a noisy environment. What is another research finding concerning context and memory?

A) If you simply think about the setting in which you learned something, your recall will be enhanced.
B) Context is more important for recall than is depth of processing.
C) Some contexts-especially those that are associated with strong emotional reactions from the past-actually interfere with recall.
D) Merely thinking about the learning context does little to enhance recall.

Question 80

Attempting to recall an unusual word, Arturo experiences the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Which of the following statements is most likely FALSE regarding Arturo's experience?

A) He is able to recall information related to the word.
B) He knows what the word sounds like.
C) He would recognize the word if he saw it in a list of possibilities.
D) He does not know how many syllables the word contains.