Question 1

Although Maria can encode and consciously recall new information,she is unable to consciously recall events that happened prior to the brain damage that she suffered as an adolescent.Maria's memory difficulty most clearly illustrates

Accepted Answer

Retrograde amnesia is the inability to remember events or information that occurred before the onset of amnesia. Maria's ability to encode and consciously recall new information suggests that her ability to form new memories is intact, while her inability to recall past events indicates that she has retrograde amnesia. Proactive interference and retroactive interference are types of memory interference, but neither explanation fits Maria's symptoms. Anterograde amnesia, on the other hand, involves the inability to form new memories, which is not the case for Maria.

Question 2

Some patients with anterograde amnesia have learned how to spot hard-to-find figures in the Where's Waldo? series without any conscious awareness that they can do so.This best illustrates their retention of ________ memories.

Accepted Answer

Implicit memories are non-declarative memories that operate without conscious awareness, such as skills and habits. The ability to spot hard-to-find figures in Where's Waldo? without conscious awareness indicates retention of implicit memories.

Question 3

Nancy was daydreaming about her college plans during a boring lecture on the history of computers.She doesn't remember that ENIAC was the first functioning digital computer because she wasn't paying attention.Nancy's poor memory is best explained in terms of

Accepted Answer

Encoding failure is the most likely explanation for Nancy's poor memory in this situation. She wasn't paying attention to the information being presented, so it wasn't effectively encoded into her memory in the first place. Interference and storage decay are less likely explanations, as she hasn't been exposed to similar information that could interfere with her memory, and the information itself hasn't had time to be forgotten through decay. Source amnesia is also unlikely, as Nancy isn't having trouble remembering where she learned about ENIAC - she simply didn't encode the information in the first place.

Question 4

On the phone,Dominic rattles off a list of 10 grocery items for Kyoko to bring home from the store.Immediately after hearing the list,Kyoko attempts to write down the items.She is most likely to forget the items

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is explained by the serial position effect, where individuals tend to remember items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list better than those in the middle.

Question 5

Although Yusef was having difficulty recalling the capital of Spain,he quickly and correctly identified it after being given a list of cities in Spain.Yusef's initial inability to recall the answer was due to a failure in

Accepted Answer

Yusef's initial inability to recall the information suggests a failure in retrieval, since he was able to successfully remember the information when given a cue (the list of cities).

Question 6

Compared with formerly depressed people,those who are currently depressed are more likely to recall their parents as rejecting and punitive.This best illustrates

Accepted Answer

The fact that currently depressed individuals are more likely to recall their parents as rejecting and punitive suggests a mood-congruent memory bias. This bias is the tendency to recall information that is consistent with one's current emotional state. In this case, the negative mood associated with depression may be causing individuals to selectively remember negative experiences with their parents.

Question 7

Harry Bahrick observed that three years after people completed a Spanish course,they had forgotten much of the vocabulary they had learned.This finding indicates that information is lost while it is

Accepted Answer

The forgetting of vocabulary over time suggests that the information was not successfully retained in long-term memory storage.

Question 8

The tip-of-the-tongue forgetting experienced by older adults can best be explained in terms of the greater difficulty older people have with

Accepted Answer

Tip-of-the-tongue forgetting refers to the experience of being unable to retrieve a word or name that a person knows is stored in memory. It is commonly experienced by older adults and can be best explained in terms of difficulty with retrieval. This means that older adults have more difficulty accessing and bringing to mind information that is stored in memory, which can result in the sensation of having the information "on the tip of their tongue." This is different from automatic processing, which refers to the ability to perform tasks without conscious effort or attention, and from repression, which is a psychoanalytic concept that suggests certain memories are unconsciously blocked from conscious awareness. Positive transfer refers to when previously learned information facilitates the learning of new information.

Question 9

The serial position effect refers to the tendency to recall best the ________ items in a list.

Accepted Answer

The serial position effect states that people tend to recall best the first and last items in a list, with the first items being better remembered due to primacy effects and the last items being better remembered due to recency effects. The middle items are more likely to be lost among the other items and not remembered as well.

Question 10

Although Arturo has looked at his watch thousands of times,he is unable to recall whether the watch features Arabic or Roman numerals.This is most likely because of a failure in

Accepted Answer

Encoding is the process of converting perceptions into memories. If Arturo cannot recall whether his watch has Arabic or Roman numerals, it suggests that he never fully encoded this detail into his memory, despite looking at his watch thousands of times.

Question 11

Many interesting details of Gwenda's once vivid childhood memories have been lost because her memory trace has faded over the decades of her adult life.Her memory loss most clearly illustrates

Accepted Answer

Storage decay refers to the loss of memory due to the passage of time, which is most likely the reason for the details of Gwenda's childhood memories fading over the decades. Anterograde amnesia would involve difficulty forming new memories, while encoding failure would refer to memories that were never properly formed in the first place. Repression is a controversial concept in psychology and is not necessarily applicable in this scenario.

Question 12

When Jake applied for a driver's license,he was embarrassed by a momentary inability to remember his address.Jake's memory difficulty most likely resulted from a(n)________ failure.

Accepted Answer

Jake was trying to retrieve information that was previously stored in his memory, but he was briefly unable to access it. Therefore, his memory difficulty was likely due to a retrieval failure. The other options, encoding, storage, and rehearsal, refer to processes related to the initial learning and retention of memories, rather than their retrieval.

Question 13

Lars was feeling depressed at the time of his high school graduation.Lars is especially likely to recall his high school graduation when he is

Accepted Answer

Emotions and mood can have a strong impact on our memory recall. Lars felt depressed during his high school graduation, making that memory more salient and likely to be recalled when he feels depressed again in the future.

Question 14

Jimmy was a patient with anterograde amnesia triggered by brain damage in 1945.Jimmy lost his ability to form new ________ memories but his ability for ________ remained intact.

Accepted Answer

Jimmy's condition, anterograde amnesia, typically affects the ability to form new explicit (or declarative) memories, which are memories of facts and events that can be consciously recalled. However, his ability for automatic processing, which includes implicit memory tasks such as skills and conditioned responses, remained intact.

Question 15

An inability to access information in long-term memory is known as

Accepted Answer

Retrieval failure occurs when information is stored in long-term memory, but cannot be accessed or retrieved at the time it is needed. This can happen due to a variety of reasons such as interference, lack of cues, or encoding failure. Storage decay refers to the gradual fading of information from memory over time, while effortful processing refers to the deliberate and conscious encoding of information into long-term memory. The misinformation effect occurs when misleading information presented after an event can affect one's memory of that event.

Question 16

Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve most clearly indicates that

Accepted Answer

Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve shows that the greatest amount of forgetting occurs soon after learning, with a gradual decline in forgetting over time. This indicates that the most rapid memory loss for new information occurs shortly after it is learned. Therefore, option D is the correct choice.

Question 17

The inability to form new memories is called

Accepted Answer

Anterograde amnesia is the loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia. Repression refers to the unconscious blocking of memories due to their emotionally disturbing content. The misinformation effect is the phenomenon where memory recall is influenced by incorrect information presented after an event, and retroactive interference is the interference of new information with the retrieval of old information.

Question 18

Much of what we sense we never notice.This most clearly leads to

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as encoding failure, where information never enters our long-term memory due to a failure to encode it effectively. It is not related to proactive interference, storage decay, or repressed memories.

Question 19

Your relative success in recalling a dozen different names a week after you heard them listed in order is likely to illustrate

Accepted Answer

The primacy effect refers to the tendency for people to remember items at the beginning of a list better than those in the middle or at the end. In this case, the fact that the individual is able to recall the first twelve names in order suggests that they are experiencing a primacy effect.

Question 20

Austin can't remember Jack Smith's name because he wasn't paying attention when Jack was formally introduced.Austin's poor memory is best explained in terms of

Accepted Answer

Encoding failure refers to the brain's failure to process information into memory. In this case, Austin's poor memory of Jack Smith's name is likely because he did not pay attention when Jack was introduced, which prevented his brain from encoding the information properly.

Quiz 9: Memory