Deck 8: Autobiographical Memory

Question 1

Traditional memory research tends to be more focused on the _____ of memory and less focused on ____,while the opposite is true of autobiographical memory research.

A)completeness;accuracy
B)accuracy;subjective experience
C)phenomenological qualities;content
D)subjective experience;completeness

Answer 1

completeness;accuracy

Question 2

Neisser's challenge to cognitive psychologists included all of the following except

A)cognitive psychology research on memory has tended to be boring and trivial
B)cognitive psychologists have demonstrated little more than a child would be able to intuit
C)cognitive psychologists do not study important or relevant aspects of memory
D)cognitive psychologists have not made any firm conclusions regarding how memory works

Answer 2

cognitive psychologists have not made any firm conclusions regarding how memory works

Question 3

One possible explanation for the reminiscence bump - that events occurring during the formation of a personal identity during adolescence are especially well-remembered - provides an analog to one of the accounts for this other memory phenomenon:

A)flashbulb memories.
B)the offset of childhood amnesia.
C)dissociations between implicit and explicit memory.
D)the distinction between autobiographical memories and facts.

Answer 3

the offset of childhood amnesia.

Question 4

Which of these autobiographical memory research techniques allows a researcher to plot the autobiographical retention function?

A)Cue-word technique
B)Targeted event recall
C)Diary technique
D)Flashbulb memories

Question 5

The reminiscence bump refers to the finding that ________ and seems to apply

A)people show a standard forgetting curve for the last several years of their autobiography;only to episodic memory.
B)people show a standard forgetting curve for the last several years of their autobiography;to both episodic and semantic memory.
C)people tend to recall a disproportionate number of events from between ages 10 to 30;only to episodic memory.
D)people tend to recall a disproportionate number of events from between ages 10 to 30;to both episodic and semantic memory.

Question 6

The neurological explanation of childhood amnesia

A)explains why children have difficulty with semantic memory,but not episodic memory.
B)cannot completely explain the existence of childhood amnesia.
C)explains why young children have so much difficulty remembering what happened even several months ago.
D)suggests that the procedural memory system is late developing in children.

Question 7

Wang (2006)compared the early recall of Taiwanese and U.S.adults in terms of the age of their early childhood recollections and the degree of autonomy reflected in the memories.She found that U.S.participants had ____ memories than Taiwanese participants,and that memories of U.S.participants were ____ likely to reflect autonomy.

A)earlier;more
B)earlier;less
C)later;more
D)later;less

Question 8

Wang (2009)investigated the role of encoding and rehearsal in forgetting,comparing the shape of the forgetting curve for Asian Americans and Euro-Americans.She found that ______ remembered more specific and unique autobiographical episodes,and that the advantage _____ as retention interval increased.

A)Asian Americans;increased
B)Asian Americans;stayed the same
C)Euro-Americans;increased
D)Euro-Americans;stayed the same

Question 9

The term "childhood amnesia" refers to the finding that ________ before the age of about

A)children are unable to form memories;2 or 3.
B)children are unable to form memories;6 or 7.
C)adults are unable to retrieve memories for events that occurred;2 or 3.
D)adults are unable to retrieve memories for events that occurred;6 or 7.

Question 10

Marian and Neisser (2000)conducted a study in which Russian immigrants to the United States were given Russian or English cue words for autobiographical memories.The results of this study provided a conceptual replication of this classic memory phenomenon in the context of autobiographical memory:

A)levels of processing effect.
B)the beneficial effect of organization on memory.
C)encoding specificity.
D)a dissociation between implicit and explicit memory.

Question 11

Which of these autobiographical memory research techniques allows for firmer conclusions about memory accuracy?

A)Targeted event recall
B)Diary technique
C)Cue-word technique
D)Public record assessment

Question 12

Research in everyday memory issues is usually higher in _______ and lower in _______ than typical laboratory memory research.

A)ecological validity;internal validity
B)internal validity;ecological validity
C)internal validity;external validity
D)ecological validity;external validity

Question 13

One research strategy for investigating childhood memories (in order to check and verify the accuracy of remembered childhood events)is to

A)investigate participants' pasts to confirm the events they remember.
B)ask about salient events that can be easily corroborated by other parties.
C)stage events that can be asked about later on.
D)not attempt to investigate;there is no way to corroborate any childhood memory.

Question 14

This has not been proposed as an explanation of childhood amnesia?

A)Development of language
B)Development of a cognitive self
C)Development of appropriate neurological structures
D)Lack of encoding and rehearsal by the child

Question 15

Autobiographical memory is to autobiographical fact as ________ is to

A)retrieved;reconstructed.
B)episodic memory;semantic memory.
C)positive;negative.
D)know;remember.

Question 16

Which of these is an example of autobiographical memory?

A)Dan remembers his first date.
B)Susan plans for the two papers she has to write this week.
C)Zoe recalls that her mom hates it when she bites her nails.
D)Brant tells someone he has season tickets to his college's games.

Question 17

You interview your 74-year-old grandmother about the events in her life.Based on what you know about the autobiographical retention function,which of these would surprise you?

A)She remembers very little from when she was a toddler.
B)She remembers a great deal from the last few years.
C)She doesn't remember much from her early adulthood.
D)Her infant years are a complete blank.

Question 18

The third component of the autobiographical memory retention function is the forgetting portion.All of the following are a possible explanation for this component of the function except

A)lack of rehearsal.
B)interference.
C)neurological aging processes.
D)transitioning from autobiographical memories to autobiographical facts.

Question 19

Which of these autobiographical memory research techniques was introduced by the same individual who came up with the statistical technique of correlation?

A)Cue-word technique
B)Targeted event recall
C)Diary technique
D)Flashbulb memories

Question 20

What are the two neurological structures that seem to be involved with childhood amnesia?

A)The hippocampus and the amygdala
B)The prefrontal cortex and the amygdala
C)The hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex
D)The thalamus and the hypothalamus

Question 21

Marian and Neisser (2000)conducted a study in which Russian immigrants to the United States were given autobiographical memory interviews.They found language-dependent recall;that is,when prompted in Russian,they recalled more Russian than English memories.When prompted in English,they recalled more U.S.memories.In a second study,the researchers looked for the source of this effect.They were interested in whether this language-dependent recall was more dependent on the language of the cue word or on the language of the interview itself.They found that

A)language of the cue words played a larger role in language-dependent recall than did interview language.
B)language of the interview played a larger role in language-dependent recall than did cue-word language.
C)cue-word language and interview language were equally important in language-dependent recall.
D)cue words were more important in producing early memories while interview language was more important in producing later memories.

Question 22

Which of these is not one of the levels of knowledge in the self-memory system model of autobiographical memory proposed by Conway?

A)Lifetime periods
B)General events
C)Event-specific
D)Months of the year

Question 23

The Proust phenomenon is

A)the power of odors to elicit memories that are especially old and vivid.
B)the ability of odors to generate more detailed memories.
C)using olfactory odors to generate autobiographical facts.
D)the ability of odors to generate very early memories in life.

Question 24

According to Rubin and his basic systems view of autobiographical memory,the episodic memories that are typically tested in laboratory studies ______ qualitatively different from autobiographical recollections;the theoretical accounts of these two types of memories need to be

A)are;similar.
B)are;different.
C)are not;similar.
D)are not;different.

Question 25

What conclusions can be drawn about the accuracy of flashbulb memories?

A)Flashbulb memories are significantly more accurate than normal memories.
B)Subjects consistently misremember the source of the flashbulb memory,but not the emotion they were feeling.
C)The longer the retention interval,the more distortions there appear to be.
D)Flashbulb memories show exactly the same kind of distortions that normal memories do.

Question 26

If a friend of yours is trying to get you to remember some funny event that happened when you were out together,which of these questions will be most effective in helping you retrieve the memory?

A)Do you remember August 7?
B)Do you remember that time we were with Emily?
C)Do you remember that time at the coffee shop?
D)Do you remember that time we went antiquing in Stillwater?

Question 27

Which of these is true about the relationship between mood and remembered life episodes?

A)Depressed individuals show preferential recall of negative events.
B)Depressed individuals tend to be overly specific in their recall of events.
C)Mood state-dependency does not apply to autobiographical memory.
D)People,in general,tend to recall more negative life events than positive life events.

Question 28

All of these are characteristics of flashbulb memories except for

A)crystal-clear vividness.
B)crystal-clear accuracy.
C)a high level of confidence in recall.
D)emotion and/or surprise.

Question 29

Currently,flashbulb memories seem to be explained by

A)encoding specificity.
B)special memory mechanisms due to the emotion involved.
C)the "Now Print!" theory.
D)the intensification of basic memory mechanisms by emotion.

Question 30

The "general events" level of representation in autobiographical memory bears a strong resemblance to

A)the subordinate level of category representation.
B)the superordinate level of category representation.
C)the basic level of category representation.
D)the notion of an exemplar in category representation.

Question 31

Casasanto and Dijkstra (2010)had participants recall autobiographical memories while moving marbles in an upward or downward direction.They found that

A)when moving marbles upward,participants were more likely to recall relatively positive memories;when moving them downward,they were more likely to recall relatively negative memories.
B)when moving marbles upward,participants were more likely to recall relatively negative memories;when moving them downward,they were more likely to recall relatively positive memories.
C)when moving marbles upward,participants were more likely to recall relatively recent memories;when moving them downward,they were more likely to recall relatively remote memories.
D)when moving marbles upward,participants were more likely to recall relatively remote memories;when moving them downward,they were more likely to recall relatively recent memories.

Question 32

You and your friend Dani go on some adventure vacation every summer.She is trying to get you to remember an episode when you went to Maine.What of the following will serve as the best cue for memory retrieval?

A)Do you remember what happened on July 11,2007?
B)Do you remember what happened when we went rock climbing?
C)Do you remember the vacation we took at Acadia National Park?
D)Do you remember when we went on vacation together?

Question 33

Involuntary memories tend to be _____ and

A)general;retrieved slowly.
B)general;retrieved quickly.
C)specific;retrieved slowly.
D)specific;retrieved quickly.

Question 34

The relative inability of depressed individuals to be specific in remembering past events leads to other problems,such as

A)an inability to have general autobiographical recall.
B)excessive rumination about current problems.
C)an inability to imagine future events.
D)suicide.

Question 35

All of these are typically a component of a flashbulb memory except for

A)what you were doing at the time.
B)what you were wearing that day.
C)what you did next.
D)how you felt when you heard.

Question 36

When recalling an autobiographical memory,Conway's self-memory systems says that

A)we access sensory-perceptual details at the level of lifetime periods.
B)we reconstruct the event starting from event-specific knowledge,then general events,and finally lifetime periods.
C)we reconstruct the event starting from lifetime periods,then general events,and finally access event-specific knowledge.
D)retrieval of autobiographical memories is fast and accurate.

Question 37

People often tout the power of smells as cues for autobiographical memories.How does empirical research stack up on this issue?

A)Olfactory cues produce more detailed memories than do nonolfactory cues.
B)Olfactory cues produce more recent memories than do nonolfactory cues.
C)Olfactory cues produce more vivid memories than do nonolfactory cues.
D)Olfactory cues tend to produce flashbulb memories.

Question 38

Schlagman and Kvavilashvili (2008)investigated retrieval speed for involuntary and voluntary memories.Based on their findings,they propose that _______ are sometimes retrieved after a process of spreading activation.

A)both voluntary and involuntary memories
B)voluntary,but not involuntary memories
C)involuntary,but not voluntary
D)neither involuntary nor voluntary.

Question 39

In a study investigation flashbulb memories for the 9/11 terrorist attacks,Hirst and his colleagues found that

A)almost nothing was forgotten in participants' reports of how they had heard about the event.
B)most of the forgetting that occurred came between years 2 and 3 of the three-year period.
C)confidence decreased over the three year interval as much as memory did.
D)the factors influencing forgetting were different for event memories and flashbulb memories.

Question 40

Neisser and Harsch (1992)introduced the notion of TV priority in their research on flashbulb memories.TV priority refers to ________ and may help explain

A)people's tendency to watch too much TV;the vividness of flashbulbs.
B)people's tendency to watch too much TV;the distortions that occur in flashbulbs.
C)people's schema for hearing disaster news;the vividness of flashbulbs.
D)people's schema for hearing disaster news;the distortions that occur in flashbulbs.

Question 41

Angela's favorite music is from the 1980s.Which of the following is mostly likely how old Angela was in 1985?

A)15
B)8
C)32
D)2

Question 42

Childhood amnesia is limited to what type of memory?

A)Episodic
B)Semantic
C)Procedural
D)Informational

Question 43

Autobiographical memory helps us to organize,reflect on,and think through important life events.This assertion relates to which function of autobiographical memory?

A)Informational
B)Social
C)Directive
D)Self

Question 44

Which is not a characteristic of autobiographical memory?

A)Rarely forgotten
B)A sense of reliving
C)Represented temporally
D)Visual forms

Question 45

According to the complementary process model,autobiographical memories are rapidly forgotten until the age of

A)10.
B)6.
C)21.
D)16.

Question 46

Which of these is not one of the functions of autobiographical memory?

A)Directive
B)Social
C)Self
D)Informational

Question 47

Relating details of personally experienced events makes us seem more believable and truthful,and tends to make us more persuasive.This assertion relates to which function of autobiographical memory?

A)Self
B)Informational
C)Social
D)Directive

Question 48

To help someone remember standing in line,what would be most effective?

A)Standing up
B)Talking about lines
C)Sitting down
D)Talking about other topics

Question 49

According to the self-memory system view,what characterizes lifetime periods?

A)Specific goals
B)General events
C)Complex memories
D)Events grouped thematically

Question 50

What is considered to be the major source of memory distortions for all episodic memories?

A)Source confusion
B)TV priority
C)False flashbulbs
D)Emotion