Deck 7: Interconnections Between Acquisition and Retrieval

Question 1

A researcher hypothesizes that high doses of caffeine can produce context-dependent learning. To confirm this hypothesis, the researcher would need to show that

A) participants learn more effectively if they drink several cups of coffee before studying the material to be learned.
B) participants' recall performance is improved if they are tested soon after drinking several cups of coffee.
C) participants who drink a lot of coffee are, in general, likely to do better on memory tests.
D) if participants study the material while drinking a great deal of coffee, they will remember the material better if they drink a great deal of coffee while taking the memory test.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Evidence for context-dependent learning has been found in all of the following situations EXCEPT

A) underwater and out of water for scuba divers learning words.
B) odors present or absent during learning.
C) reading an article in a noisy or quiet environment.
D) a class lecture in a very cold or hot room.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following statements seems to be the best illustration of encoding specificity?

A) Susan is terrible at learning general arguments, although she is excellent at learning more specific claims.
B) Susan has learned the principles covered in her psychology class, but she has difficulty remembering the principles in the context of her day-to-day life.
C) Susan easily learns material that is meaningful but cannot learn material that is abstract.
D) Susan quickly masters new material if she knows some related information, but she has trouble learning new material if the domain is new to her.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Participants are asked to memorize a list of words. In addition to the words themselves, participants will remember some aspects of the context in which the words appeared. This tendency to remember a stimulus within its context is referred to as

A) background learning.
B) multiple encoding.
C) implicit memory.
D) encoding specificity.

Question 5

Two groups of participants were asked to learn a series of word pairs and were then given a memory test. Both groups were told to remember the second word in each pair and use the first word as an aid to remember the targets. For Group A, the first word was semantically associated with the target word (e.g., dark-light). For Group B, the first word rhymed with the target word (e.g., sight-light). Each group was given hints during the memory test. These hints could be related to meaning (e.g., "Was there a word associated with 'dark'?") or sound (e.g., "Was there a word associated with 'sight'?"). Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A) Overall, participants in Group A recalled more words than those in Group B.
B) Participants in Group A performed better when given a meaning hint than when given a sound hint.
C) Participants in Group B performed better when given a sound hint than when given a meaning hint.
D) Participants in Group B performed better when given a meaning hint than when given a sound hint.

Question 6

What is the level at which a node in a spreading activation model will fire?

A) subthreshold level
B) superthreshold
C) response threshold
D) activation level

Question 7

A participant is asked to memorize a series of word pairs, including the pair "heavy-light." The participant is asked later if any of the following words had been included in the list memorized earlier: "lamp," "candle," "spark," and "light." The participant denies having seen any of these words recently. This is probably because

A) the learning context does not provide adequate support for perceptual encoding.
B) the learning context does relatively little to encourage deep processing.
C) what was memorized was the idea of "light" as a description of weight, not "light" as illumination.
D) the learning context led the participant to think in terms of opposites, while the test context led the participant to think in terms of semantic associates.

Question 8

Which of the following observations is most likely an illustration of context-dependent learning?

A) "I haven't been to Athens in years, but I still remember all the great times I had there!"
B) "Mike has told me his phone number over and over again, but somehow I can't get it into my head."
C) "Last month I went to my 20th high school reunion. I saw people I hadn't thought about for years, but the moment I saw them, I was reminded of the things we'd done together 20 years earlier."
D) "I spent hours studying in the library last night preparing for my history midterm. And it really paid off; I did a great job on the exam."

Question 9

Steve is shown a list of words, which includes "baby." He is then asked to list all the words he can remember from the list, but he does not include "baby." Steve is later asked to identify words and nonwords, and "baby" is presented along with other items. Which of the following patterns is most likely to reflect Steve's performance on this identification task?

A) Steve will say "baby" is a nonword.
B) Steve will respond more quickly to "baby" than he would to other words.
C) Steve will respond more slowly to "baby" relative to nonwords.
D) Steve's response time will be about the same to "baby" as to all other items on the test.

Question 10

A participant is asked, "In the list of words I showed you earlier, was there a word that rhymed with 'lake'?" The participant is likely to be well prepared for this sort of memory test if he or she

A) used maintenance rehearsal when trying to memorize the words.
B) paid attention to the sounds of the words when trying to memorize them.
C) paid attention to the appearance of the words when trying to memorize them.
D) relied on perceptual fluency when studying the words.

Question 11

Establishing a memory connection

A) allows you to access Memory X from Memory Y if they are connected but will not help you access Memory Z if it is not connected to Memory X or Y.
B) primes all memory connections so that all memories are quicker to retrieve.
C) can occur only for emotional memories.
D) is better for emotional memories than for other types of memories.

Question 12

If a memory is like a city you want to travel to and the retrieval paths you use to find the memory are like highways that lead to that city, which is the best strategy for memorizing?

A) build one really big highway, so you are more likely to find the answer later
B) build many highways that travel in many directions, so you have multiple ways to remember it later
C) build toll roads (premium highways) so you can get to the memories as fast as possible with little traffic
D) invest very little in building highways because you never know which highway will be the best road in the future

Question 13

In an experiment, participants learned materials in Room A and were tested in Room B. If they were asked to think about Room A just before taking the test, participants

A) performed as well as they would have done had there been no room change.
B) performed worse on the test due to dual-task memory disruption.
C) performed the same as those participants who were not asked to think about Room A.
D) performed better than participants who were tested in Room B and were not asked to think about Room A, but worse than participants tested in Room A.

Question 14

Theories of spreading activation assume that activating one node will lead to

A) "downstream" nodes also being activated.
B) all connected nodes being activated.
C) a subset of connected nodes being activated.
D) unconnected nodes being suppressed.

Question 15

Because of the effects of context-dependent learning, students might find it wise to

A) use mnemonic devices as a study aid.
B) study only when they are entirely sober.
C) focus on their instructor's intended meaning rather than the exact words.
D) prepare for their examinations under conditions similar to the test conditions.

Question 16

Spreading activation models behave much like which biological system?

A) neural networks
B) the parallel processing components of the visual system
C) the cells of the retina
D) the corpus callosum, connecting the two hemispheres

Question 17

"Context reinstatement" refers to

A) improved memory if the materials to be remembered were thought about in a novel context.
B) improved memory if we re-create the context that was in place during learning.
C) improved memory if the mnemonics used have a similar context to the materials to be remembered.
D) impaired memory performance if participants recall the context where the material was learned.

Question 18

Context has an effect on memory

A) because it interferes with the retrieval paths.
B) only if the information is recalled in the same physical environment where it was learned.
C) because it influences how the person thinks of the material to be remembered.
D) but not on the way a person perceives a memory.

Question 19

Participants are asked to memorize a list of words. The eighth word on the list is "inches," the ninth word is "meters," and the tenth word is "feet." In which of the following situations would the participants be most likely to remember the previous exposure to "feet"?

A) In the memory test, the fourth word tested is "yards," and the fifth is "feet."
B) In the memory test, the fourth word tested is "heat," and the fifth is "feet."
C) In the memory test, the fourth word tested is "hands," and the fifth is "feet."
D) In the memory test, the fourth word tested is "fight," and the fifth is "feet."

Question 20

When you are trying to access something in long-term memory, you use a

A) parallel search.
B) retrieval path.
C) random search strategy.
D) serial, exhaustive search.

Question 21

In the brain, familiarity is associated with activity of the ________, while recall is associated with activity of the ________.

A) hippocampus; amygdala
B) hippocampus; rhinal cortex
C) rhinal cortex; hippocampus
D) frontal lobe; parietal lobe

Question 22

Familiarity (as opposed to source memory)

A) is essential for adequate performance on a recall test.
B) is established by "relational" or "elaborative" rehearsal.
C) is promoted by deep processing.
D) provides one of the important sources for recognition.

Question 23

Like patients with Korsakoff 's syndrome, H.M. has difficulty with

A) implicit memory tasks.
B) unconscious memory.
C) familiarity.
D) recall.

Question 24

When a person experiences familiarity but no accompanying source memory, the effect can be far-reaching but is unlikely to include

A) the person believing that a familiar statement is true, even though he or she cannot remember where he or she heard it.
B) the person inaccurately accusing someone of a crime, merely because that person seems familiar.
C) the person's preferences changing in favor of the familiar information.
D) explicit recollection of a person's name or profession.

Question 25

Which of the following is most like an example of the influence of implicit memory?

A) Alexander was taking a true-false test. He didn't know the answer to Question 12, so he skipped it.
B) Bill could not remember the answer for the question, but he did his best to reconstruct what the answer might be.
C) Not only did Dave remember the answer, he also remembered where the answer appeared on the textbook page.
D) Marcus was taking a multiple-choice test. He was having a hard time with Question 17, but Option D for that question seemed familiar, so he decided that D must be the correct answer.

Question 26

Because of the influence of implicit memory, participants judge

A) unfamiliar sentences to be more believable.
B) familiar sentences to be more believable.
C) familiar sentences to be more believable, but only if they heard the sentence from a trustworthy source.
D) unfamiliar sentences to be more believable, but only if they have forgotten the source of the familiar sentences.

Question 27

In the "remember/know" paradigm, "know" responses are NOT

A) given when the participant knows he or she saw the stimulus before, because he or she can recall details about the context in which it was encountered.
B) given when a participant thinks the stimulus was previously encountered, but he or she cannot remember any contextual details.
C) associated with activity in the parahippocampal area.
D) associated with familiarity.

Question 28

An investigator asks, "Can you remember what happened last Tuesday at noon while you were sitting in the back room of Jane's Restaurant?" This is an example of a question relying on

A) recognition.
B) implicit memory.
C) procedural memory.
D) recall.

Question 29

Abigail saw the stimulus "all________" and was asked to think of a word that began with these letters. This task is called

A) a lexical decision.
B) word-stem completion.
C) semantic priming.
D) explicit memory.

Question 30

In a lexical decision task, a researcher finds no effect of priming. Which of the following statements is a plausible explanation for this?

A) The researcher neglected to tell the participants that some of the test words had been recently encountered.
B) Some of the test words were high in frequency, but others were quite low in frequency.
C) When the priming words were first presented, participants failed to pay attention to the meaning of the words.
D) Participants initially heard the words via a tape-recorded list but were tested under conditions where the list was visually presented.

Question 31

Lexical decision tasks require participants to

A) remember previously shown items.
B) quickly respond "old" or "new" to pictures of items.
C) provide the meaning of target words.
D) make "word" or "nonword" decisions when presented with letter strings.

Question 32

Which of the following methods is NOT considered evidence of an implicit memory?

A) declaring that George Washington was the first president of the United States
B) successfully riding a bike
C) believing something is true because you have previously heard it
D) classical conditioning

Question 33

Group 1 is shown a series of words ("down," "right," and "sad") and is then asked to read the words aloud. Group 2 is shown a series of words ("up," "left," and "happy") and is then asked to say aloud their antonyms (opposites). If we later test participants' memories for the words, we will expect better performance for Group 1 if the test involves

A) identification of the words.
B) recall of the words.
C) cued recall of the words.
D) a standard recognition test for the words.

Question 34

Herbert says, "I can't figure out where I've seen that person before, but I know that I have seen her before!" Herbert

A) has an episodic memory for the face but no generic memory for the face.
B) has a sense of familiarity but no source memory.
C) would perform well on a recall test but not on a recognition test.
D) seems to have formed interim associations when he last encountered the face.

Question 35

Which of the following statements is an example of a recognition test?

A) "Which one of these individuals is the person you saw at the party?"
B) "Describe how you spent New Year's Eve in 1994."
C) "What is the formula needed for computing the area of a circle?"
D) "What political event does this song remind you of ?"

Question 36

Which of the following tasks is LEAST appropriate as a means of testing implicit memory?

A) lexical decision
B) word-stem completion
C) direct memory testing
D) repetition priming in tachistoscopic recognition

Question 37

The fMRI results using a "remember/know" testing procedure suggest that

A) "remember" responses are associated with activity in the rhinal cortex at learning.
B) "know" responses are associated with activity in the hippocampus during learning.
C) "remember" responses are associated with activity in the hippocampal region during learning.
D) "know" responses are associated with anterior parahippocampus activity at learning.

Question 38

Which of the following statements is NOT likely to be an influence of implicit memory?

A) Participants know they have encountered the stimulus recently but cannot recall the details of the encounter.
B) Participants have a preference for a familiar stimulus in comparison to other, new stimuli.
C) Participants think a false, made-up phrase that they have heard recently is true.
D) Participants remember the circumstances in which they first encountered a stimulus.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is FALSE for explicit memory?

A) Explicit memory is typically revealed as a priming effect.
B) Explicit memory is usually assessed by direct, rather than indirect, testing.
C) Explicit memory is usually revealed by specifically urging someone to remember the past.
D) Explicit memory is often tested by recall testing or by a standard recognition test.

Question 40

Participants listen to a series of sentences played against a background of noise. Some of the sentences are identical to sentences heard earlier (without the noise), but other sentences heard in the noise are new. In this setting, participants will perceive

A) the unfamiliar sentences heard as louder than the familiar sentences.
B) the unfamiliar sentences as being clearer than the familiar sentences.
C) the noise as being less loud when it accompanies the familiar sentences.
D) no difference between the unfamiliar and the familiar sentences.

Question 41

Double dissociations in memory are important because they

A) provide strong evidence for separate memory systems.
B) remain unchallenged by contemporary standards.
C) provided early evidence of the extent of H.M.'s amnesia.
D) suggest that damage to any area of the brain will impact all memory functioning.

Question 42

Which of the following statements is true about the role the hippocampus plays in memory?

A) Hippocampus damage is associated with retrograde amnesia.
B) The hippocampus is important only for old memories from months and years back.
C) The hippocampus plays an important role in memory consolidation.
D) Korsakoff patients have little to no damage in hippocampal areas.

Question 43

H.M. had part of his hippocampus removed, which left him with

A) anterograde amnesia.
B) retrograde amnesia.
C) both retro and anterograde amnesia.
D) language disabilities.

Question 44

A friend of yours has recently grown a beard. When you encounter him, you realize at once that something about his face has changed but you are not certain what has changed. We can conclude from this that

A) you detected the decrease in fluency in your recognition of your friend's face.
B) your memory of your friend's face is influenced by context-dependent learning.
C) you are displaying an instance of source amnesia.
D) you are being influenced by the fact that there are fewer men with beards than men without beards.

Question 45

Theodore has suffered from Korsakoff's amnesia for the last decade. Theodore is LEAST likely to do which of the following actions?

A) accurately recall events from early childhood
B) hold a coherent conversation lasting many minutes
C) recall events that occurred last month
D) recognize people he met 18 years ago

Question 46

Cindy and Linda are both eyewitnesses to a bank robbery. At the police station, they each select Mike from a police lineup and say, "He's the thief!" It turns out, though, that Mike has been a customer at the store at which Cindy works while Linda has never before seen Mike. With this background

A) Cindy's identification is more valuable to the police because she has an advantage of familiarity and context.
B) both identifications are likely to be accurate because face recognition draws on specialized mechanisms that work effectively with both familiar and unfamiliar faces.
C) Cindy's identification is more valuable to the police because her recognition of Mike will be more fluent than Linda's, thanks to the previous encounters.
D) Linda's identification is more valuable to the police because Cindy may have been misled by the fact that Mike seemed familiar because of her other encounters with him.

Question 47

Mark suffered a blow to the head many weeks ago, causing retrograde amnesia. Which of the following incidences is Mark LEAST likely to remember?

A) facts that he learned in the month after his injury, including the layout of the hospital in which he received care
B) any explicit memory for an event that took place just after his injury
C) specific episodes in the 2 weeks following his injury
D) events that took place just prior to his injury

Question 48

In a classic demonstration, Claparède showed that

A) the behavior of a Korsakoff 's amnesia patient can be changed by a recent event even though the patient shows no signs of remembering that event.
B) Korsakoff 's amnesiacs show more severe retrograde amnesia than anterograde amnesia.
C) Korsakoff 's amnesiacs show an extraordinary ability to recall their plans for the future even though they cannot remember their own pasts.
D) the behavior of a Korsakoff 's amnesia patient is less well organized than clinicians have theorized.

Question 49

Participants are asked to read a series of unrelated words out loud. According to the implicit memory hypothesis described in the text, this experience will help the participants

A) if they later try to perceive words synonymous with the words contained on the list.
B) the next time they try to perceive these same words.
C) the next time they try to remember the concepts associated with the words on the list.
D) if they try to recall a series of words related to the words on the list.

Question 50

You are reading The Onion (a satirical news magazine) and see a headline that states "FDA Approves Napalm as Medication," which you find interesting. Later on you are talking to several friends. One suggests that napalm is very dangerous and the other says it is not all that bad. You have a feeling that you read something about napalm lately and decide to chime in. Given what you know about familiarity, how would you likely respond to your friend's debate?

A) You would say, "Napalm is definitely dangerous."
B) You would be more likely to agree with the friend who says napalm is dangerous.
C) You are more likely to think your pro-napalm friend is correct but are unsure as to why you agree with him.
D) You would say, "I read an article in The Onion that says napalm is going to be used for medication. It was a hilarious spoof."

Question 51

The famous patient H.M. was unable to remember events he experienced after his brain surgery. The surgery apparently produced

A) repression.
B) anterograde amnesia.
C) retrograde amnesia.
D) infantile amnesia.

Question 52

If you organized a game of Trivial Pursuit® with a group of Korsakoff patients, which of the following actions is LEAST likely to occur?

A) The patients do very poorly at the beginning.
B) The patients get better if questions are recycled.
C) The patients make up excuses about the source of their knowledge.
D) The patients do well on current events.

Question 53

What would be the most accurate way to describe familiarity?

A) a feeling triggered by a stimulus
B) a conclusion one draws about a stimulus
C) an effortful and erroneous process
D) a retrieval strategy

Question 54

Amnesia can provide insight into the role of memory in our everyday lives. For example, if H.M. was having a conversation with a friend and noticed the friend looking off in the distance and smiling, he was most likely to

A) attribute the smile to the funny joke he made a few minutes ago.
B) not know why his friend was smiling.
C) smile back because H.M. had learned to smile when others smiled.
D) forget the conversation immediately, because his attention had been turned to his friend's smile.

Question 55

Which of the following statements about processing fluency is NOT accurate?

A) Processing fluency is associated with improved source memory.
B) Exposure to an item can cause it to be processed more fluently in the future.
C) Fluency can lead people to correctly identify an object as familiar.
D) Fluency can lead people to incorrectly identify an object as familiar.

Question 56

Jerry, a lawyer, has read about a case (Jones v. Arizona) that he thinks will help one of his clients. Jerry wants to make sure that he remembers to discuss the case with his client and that he brings up the case in his opening statement in court. His best approach is likely to be to

A) repeat to himself, over and over again, "Don't forget Jones v. Arizona."
B) use a mnemonic device, like the peg-word system, and hope that his client and the judge do not think him odd for saying "One is a bun . . ." in court.
C) build multiple retrieval paths between the new case and the situations in which he wishes to use it.
D) put the case book containing Jones v. Arizona on his desk with all of the other books and hope he finds it when his client arrives and when he writes his opening statement.

Question 57

If you perceive a stimulus and then later perceive the same stimulus again, you are likely to perceive the stimulus more quickly and more easily the second time. This benefit can be described as a(n)

A) context-dependent memory.
B) explicit memory.
C) increase in processing fluency.
D) recognition memory.

Question 58

H.M. had much of his hippocampus removed to alleviate seizures. An unfortunate side effect was impaired explicit memory, even though later testing revealed his implicit memory was spared. In order to establish a double dissociation, which of the following patients would need to be found?

A) a patient with intact implicit memory and intact explicit memory
B) a patient with an intact hippocampus and explicit memory deficits
C) a patient with intact explicit memory and impaired implicit memory
D) a patient with explicit memory intact and a damaged hippocampus

Question 59

Current evidence indicates that patients suffering from Korsakoff's amnesia

A) show greater disruption in implicit memory than in explicit memory.
B) suffer from disruption in both implicit and explicit memory.
C) show intact implicit memory with perceptual cues but disrupted implicit memory with conceptual cues.
D) have preserved implicit memory despite severe disruption in explicit memory.

Question 60

In many circumstances, participants correctly recognize that a stimulus is familiar but they are mistaken in their beliefs about where and when they encountered the stimulus. This error is referred to as

A) source confusion.
B) origin error.
C) amnesia.
D) false identification.

Question 61

Imagine that you are hired at a public relations firm to spread the message that Sour Patch Kids ® are a healthy alternative to vegetables. Using your knowledge of the principles of familiarity, how might you go about convincing people that this is true?

Question 62

Describe the case of H.M. Describe two memory tests that H.M. would not be able to complete and two tasks that he might successfully complete. Based on your knowledge of memory and neuroscience, explain why he would show this pattern of results.

Question 63

Imagine you are on a jury and subjected to conflicting eyewitness testimonies. One individual, Paul, says, "The defendant told me he took the money." The defendant claims that he is innocent, that Paul is misremembering, and that, in fact, their mutual friend Jake is the one who took the money. Given your knowledge of source memory, describe how this mix-up could occur. As a juror, what would you do in this case?

Question 64

Describe the "remember/know" paradigm by answering the following questions:
a. What is the primary task in this paradigm?
b. On what mnemonic process does "remembering" depend? What about "knowing"?
c. What does this paradigm tell us about the nature of memory?

Question 65

Explain the steps that lead to a judgment of familiarity. How might you manipulate those steps to create an illusion of familiarity?

Question 66

Considering the influence of encoding specificity and context dependence on learning and memory, provide three tips for students (or yourself!) who are studying for an upcoming exam.

Question 67

Your friend asks you what you ate for breakfast yesterday morning. Describe how you might search and retrieve that information by considering a spreading activation network of long-term memories.

Question 68

Compare and contrast implicit and explicit memory. Include in your discussion a description of the various testing methods that are used to assess each type of memory.

Question 69

Argue in favor of or against the statement "Familiarity might be best classified as a conclusion you draw, rather than a feeling." Back up your thesis by including relevant empirical evidence.

Question 70

If given a lexical decision task, would you respond faster to the pair "iPod: Music" or "Dog: Rug"? Explain your answer by including
1) a description of the lexical decision procedure.
2) an explanation of semantic priming.
3) a reference to the spreading activation network.