Deck 1: Overview and History

Question 1

What is a good definition of learning?

A) a change in the potential to alter behavior as a consequence of experience
B) putting information in the memory store
C) retaining contents of experience
D) the mental process used to acquire, store, or retrieve information

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Who was the seventeenth-century scientist/philosopher who developed a sophisticated theory of memory but never followed up on it, leaving it to fall into obscurity, further delaying the onset of a scientific study of memory?

A) Isaac Newton
B) Robert Hooke
C) Charles Darwin
D) Benjamin Franklin

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Aristotle's laws of association include all of the following EXCEPT __________.

A) similarity
B) regularity
C) contrast
D) contiguity

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Learning is __________.

A) a relatively permanent change in behavior potential
B) a process
C) the result of experience
D) all of the above

Question 5

Which metaphor of memory conveys the idea that memories are discrete collections of information?

A) hidden observer
B) computer
C) literacy
D) aviary

Question 6

Which metaphor captures the idea that there is an organization to memory?

A) cow's stomach
B) lock and key
C) video camera
D) network

Question 7

An engram is to memory as __________.

A) a keyboard is to a computer
B) a mouse is to a computer
C) a file is to a computer
D) a central processing unit is to a computer

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT an aspect of learning?

A) behavior potential
B) maturation
C) relative permanence
D) experience

Question 9

Why are there so many metaphors for memory?

A) because memory cannot be studied objectively
B) to demonstrate that all of our memories are different
C) because we cannot observe memory directly
D) because people's attitudes and opinions change so much over time

Question 10

Metaphors for memory (like a recorder or organized storage) are used because __________.

A) the uncomplicated nature of memory makes metaphors easy to find
B) memory must be observed indirectly, so metaphors are useful tools for understanding its complexities
C) you can exercise your memory like a muscle, so creating new metaphors makes your memory more efficient
D) using language as a mental representation prevents memory loss

Question 11

Memory is __________.

A) a storage facility
B) the result of experience
C) a process
D) all of the above

Question 12

Aristotle's laws of association include all of the following EXCEPT __________.

A) similarity
B) contiguity
C) contrast
D) idealized abstractions

Question 13

An important concept that is heavily used in theories of memory that developed out of the empiricist tradition is __________.

A) the association
B) adaptation to changes in the environment
C) the engram
D) separation of mind and body

Question 14

Which is NOT a way that the term memory is used?

A) an item that holds the contents of previous experiences
B) a location where information is kept
C) mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, or retrieving information
D) a perfect replication of events

Question 15

Which is not a way that the term "memory" is used by psychologists?

A) as a unit of analysis
B) as a storage mechanism
C) as a process
D) as a record

Question 16

What influence did Darwin have on theories of memory?

A) the idea that memory develops in a person through a selection process
B) the concept that memory is dependent on a complex brain
C) the idea that memory has developed over the generations to adapt to the demands of the environment
D) none

Question 17

Memory development in a person is guided by his or her DNA.

A) true
B) false
C) partially true
D) true, except for cases of brain damage

Question 18

A relatively permanent record of an experience is the essence of __________.

A) behavioral potential
B) learning
C) memory
D) performance

Question 19

Which metaphor captures the idea that information in memory can be forgotten?

A) leaky bucket
B) computer
C) junk drawer
D) library

Question 20

One contribution of Plato's philosophy to work on memory was the idea that __________.

A) different impressions vary in quality
B) memory is tied exclusively to experience
C) no man is an island
D) memories are stored in a collective subconscious

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT a principle of memory discovered by Ebbinghaus?

A) learning curve
B) schema
C) savings
D) distribution of practice

Question 22

Lashley's search for the engram resulted in __________.

A) the discovery that there is no such thing as photographic memory
B) the discovery that rats have very deficient memory systems
C) the discovery that memory resides in the hippocampus
D) the discovery that memory is not localized

Question 23

According to the gestalt psychologists, __________.

A) the whole is more than a sum of its parts
B) the whole is different than the sum of its parts
C) latent learning is the most dominant form of memory
D) memory is best understood using a reductionistic approach

Question 24

What is one of the most important contributions of research in the behaviorist tradition to modern research on memory?

A) methodological rigor
B) a distain for physical sciences
C) a lack of neurologically based theories
D) advanced statistical methods

Question 25

Something discovered by Ebbinghaus that describes a process that can reduce the effects of forgetting is __________.

A) forgetting curve
B) overlearning
C) learning curve
D) savings

Question 26

Which verbal learning method involved recombinations of A and B items on a second list of paired associates?

A) A-B C-D
B) A-B A-D
C) A-B A-B'
D) A-B A-Br

Question 27

Which researcher or group of researchers is matched with the correct concept below?

A) Lashley: paired associative learning
B) Bartlett: rationalism
C) behavriorism: the whole is different than the sum of its parts
D) Ebbinghaus: learning curve

Question 28

A line of memory research that followed from Ebbinghaus's work with nonsense syllables is __________.

A) verbal learning
B) rationalism
C) empiricism
D) behaviorism

Question 29

Which of the following important figures in the history of memory research is known for his research on the search for the engram?

A) Ebbinghaus
B) Barlett
C) Lashley
D) Tolman

Question 30

Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables to study memory because __________.

A) he wanted to study memory in its pure form
B) he did not have other people to test
C) they are easy to create in German
D) he wanted an experimentally clean way to assess prior knowledge

Question 31

Which of the following describes what Lashley found about how removing portions of the cortex of rats affected later memory for a maze that had been learned?

A) Performance was based on what parts were removed.
B) The amount of cortex removed was critical, not the location from which it was removed.
C) There was great inter-individual variation.
D) The brain did not regenerate neurons that had died.

Question 32

Which of the following important figures in the history of memory research was interested in how prior knowledge influences memory?

A) Ebbinghaus
B) Barlett
C) Thorndike
D) Tolman

Question 33

What was a primary stimulus used in the verbal learning tradition of studying memory?

A) nonsense syllable
B) educational texts
C) spoken words
D) paired associates

Question 34

An important contribution of the gestalt movement to modern memory psychology is __________.

A) isomorphism of representation and process
B) reductionistic methods
C) the emphasis on observable behaviors
D) segregation of different memory stores

Question 35

Historically, most of the research by behaviorists involved nonhuman animals because __________.

A) compared with humans, there were more ethical concerns
B) of concerns about the lack of interrelations among various species
C) animals might permit the study of learning in a purer form
D) of all of the above

Question 36

An important idea for memory research taken from the rationalist tradition in philosophy is that __________.

A) the mind is rational
B) everything is explainable with empirical testing
C) genetics is the guide to understanding memory at its basic level
D) the mind actively constructs our interpretation of reality

Question 37

The behaviorists did not study memory because __________.

A) it was too hard
B) it could not be directly observed
C) they were concerned with developing therapies
D) they were focusing on the Law of Effect

Question 38

Empiricists such as Aristotle believed that memory operates as __________.

A) associations between experiences or stimuli
B) a bridge between perceptions and rational abstractions (since empirical observations are often distorted)
C) an abstract, perfect realm without need for additional inquiry
D) the rational link between the mind and the body

Question 39

What is an important concept in memory developed by Bartlett?

A) learning curve
B) schema
C) savings
D) distribution of practice

Question 40

What is an important distinction in types of memory made by William James?

A) memory store hegemony Au: Okay?
B) hierarchical rotations
C) the difference between primary and secondary memory
D) the difference between procedural and declarative memory

Question 41

Nondeclarative memory __________.

A) refers to memories that are easy to articulate
B) resides in the sensory register
C) includes procedural memory
D) includes semantic memory

Question 42

The cognitive revolution __________.

A) ignored the methodological rigor put in place by behaviorists
B) asserted that memory was like a computer
C) considered thought an invalid topic of study
D) felt memory was unimportant because it was not observable

Question 43

Declarative memories __________.

A) are open to conscious awareness and are easy to articulate
B) are open to conscious awareness and are difficult to articulate
C) are not open to conscious awareness and are easy to articulate
D) are not open to conscious awareness and are difficult to articulate

Question 44

In Tulving's triarchic theory of memory systems, the anoetic consciousness means that __________.

A) memory does not require the firing of neurons
B) memory is not consciously organized into memory systems
C) memory does not include subconscious behavior
D) memory does not require knowledge (conscious awareness)

Question 45

The components of the modal model of memory are __________.

A) short-term memory, long-term memory, episodic memory, and semantic memory
B) episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory
C) declarative and nondeclarative memory
D) short-term memory, long-term memory, sensory register, and control processes

Question 46

Which if the following is NOT a part of the standard (modal) model of memory?

A) control processes
B) sensory registers
D) long-term memory

Question 47

In Tulving's triarchic theory, which type of memory requires autonoetic knowledge?

A) semantic
B) implicit
C) episodic
D) noetic

Question 48

Which memory system is NOT part of Tulving's triarchic theory?

A) procedural
C) episodic
D) semantic

Question 49

Which portion of long-term memory involves explicit memory?

A) priming
B) procedural
C) classical conditioning
D) semantic

Question 50

An example of a task that would rely on procedural memory would be __________.

A) learning to ice skate
B) remembering your home address
C) learning the parts of a bicycle
D) remembering how your first date went

Question 51

Who is credited with the creation of the modal model of memory?

A) Atkinson & Shiffrin
B) Tulving & Ebbinghaus
C) Skinner & Tolman
D) Miller & Smith

Question 52

Which portion of long-term memory can best be described as noetic?

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

Question 53

Which approach to human learning and memory made an analogy between the human mind and a computer?

A) cognitive
B) behaviorist
C) neurological
D) Ebbinghaus tradition

Question 54

Semantic memory stores information based on __________.

A) its meaning
B) a person's neurological state
C) the time it was encountered
D) life narrative

Question 55

Episodic memories often __________.

A) are organized by meaning
B) have only an implicit influence
D) are implicated in conditioned reflexes

Question 56

According to the modal model, what is needed to transfer information from iconic memory to short-term memory?

A) attention
B) conscious strategies
C) semantic encoding
D) It cannot be done.

Question 57

The modal model of memory contains __________.

A) implicit memory and explicit memory
B) deep and shallow levels of processing
C) learning and forgetting curves
D) sensory registers and control processes

Question 58

What is an important influence of the cognitive revolution on the study of memory?

A) the computer metaphor
B) an appreciation of holistic processing
C) rejection of subjective introspection
D) an application of associative structure

Question 59

Which of the following is NOT a component of the modal model of memory?

A) sensory registers
B) control processes
C) levels of processing
D) long-term memory

Question 60

In Tulving's triarchic theory, semantic memory corresponds to what type of knowledge?

A) innoetic
C) autonoetic
D) anoetic

Question 61

How has the literacy metaphor been influential in theories of memory?

Question 62

What is one major division of memory, and what aspects of memory does it capture?

Question 63

What are the components of the modal model of memory?

Question 64

Semantic memory refers to __________.

A) language skills
C) cross-cultural memories
D) relatively new memories
Short Answers

Question 65

According to the modal model of human memory, which two memory stores have more or less direct contact with the external world?

Question 66

What is the definition of learning?

Question 67

What are Aristotle's laws of association?

Question 68

Describe the cognitive view of human learning and memory.

Question 69

What are three ways that the term "memory" can be used by psychologists?

Question 70

What is one metaphor for memory, and what aspects of memory does it capture?

Question 71

What is the definition of memory?

Question 72

What are some of the major findings about memory to come out of the early work by Ebbinghaus?

Question 73

Episodic memories often __________.

A) are forgotten quickly
B) are exclusively implicit
C) lose identity
D) develop over time