Question 1

Brittany is daydreaming in class when her instructor asks her a question.Brittany finds that,even though she was not paying attention,she can replay in her "mind's ear" the instructor's last words,taking advantage of a process called:

Accepted Answer

Echoic memory refers to the sensory memory register specific to auditory information, allowing a temporary recall of sounds or words that have just been perceived, even if attention was not fully focused on them. This is what allows Brittany to answer the question even though she was daydreaming.

Question 2

Sensory storage holds information for a maximum of:

Accepted Answer

Sensory storage holds information for a maximum of a few seconds, as it is the brief initial stage of memory processing which holds incoming sensory information in its raw form for a very brief time period. It allows the brain to perceive information that is just occurring in the environment.

Question 3

Jessica Li held up three rows of four letters on a poster board to her high school class for a fraction of a second.She then removed it and immediately asked the class to name the 12 letters they had just been shown.Based on previous research,about how many letters would you expect individual students to recall?

Accepted Answer

Research in psychology suggests that the average person can hold about 7 items (plus or minus 2) in their short-term memory. Given the brief exposure and immediate recall required, it's reasonable to expect students to recall around 5 letters, aligning with the lower end of the short-term memory capacity.

Question 4

The store of auditory information that decays very rapidly is called _____ memory.

Accepted Answer

Echoic memory is the store of auditory information that lasts for a very short period of time (around 3-4 seconds) before it decays or is replaced by new information. This type of memory allows individuals to hold onto auditory information long enough to process it and decide whether to disregard it or transfer it to long-term memory. Iconic memory, on the other hand, is the store of visual information that lasts for a very short period of time, while short-term memory and working memory refer to the temporary storage of information in the brain for immediate use.

Question 5

Echoic memories usually decay in about _____ second(s).

Accepted Answer

Echoic memories usually decay in about 5 seconds.

Question 6

Sperling flashed a matrix of letters for 1/20th of a second to participants.Sperling found that the participants:

Accepted Answer

Sperling's experiment demonstrated iconic memory, or the automatic and brief storage of sensory information. Participants were unable to encode all of the letters in their short-term memory, indicating that the entire matrix of letters was stored briefly but not for an extended period of time. There is no evidence to suggest that participants attempted to encode the letters in a specific order or that the entire matrix of letters was stored for up to a minute after the presentation.

Question 7

Iconic memories usually decay in about _____ or less.

Accepted Answer

Iconic memories, which are part of the visual memory system, typically decay in about 1 second or less, making them very brief and fleeting.

Question 8

A son is not paying attention to his father.His father asks sternly,"What did I just say?" and the son can only meekly respond,"You just asked me,'What did I just say?'" What memory store was encoding this information,despite the son not paying attention?

Accepted Answer

Echoic memory is the sensory memory register specific to auditory information (sounds). It holds auditory information for a brief period of time (around 3-4 seconds) before either disregarding it or passing it to the working memory. In this scenario, the son was not paying attention to his father's words initially, but the echoic memory registered his father's question and allowed him to recall a few words from it when prompted.

Question 9

Scenarios that involve planning to effectively encode information lead to superior recall in:

Accepted Answer

Planning to effectively encode information using a combination of semantic, survival-related, and organizational encoding leads to superior recall. Each of these encoding strategies reinforces the memory in different ways, increasing the likelihood of successful retrieval. Therefore, using all three strategies together will lead to the best recall.

Question 10

Jessica Li held up three rows of four letters on a poster board to her high school class for a fraction of a second.She then removed it and immediately asked the class to name the 12 letters they had just been shown.Which memory store is being tested?

Accepted Answer

The sensory memory store being tested is iconic, which is responsible for holding visual information very briefly (for up to a few tenths of a second).

Question 11

The fast-decaying store of visual information that is forgotten in seconds if not attended to is known as _____ memory.

Accepted Answer

The fast-decaying store of visual information that is forgotten in seconds if not attended to is referred to as iconic memory.

Question 12

Jessica Li held up three rows of four letters on a poster board to her high school class for a fraction of a second.She then removed it and immediately asked the class to name the letters in the top,middle,or bottom row.Based on previous research,about how many letters in the row would you expect individual students to recall?

Accepted Answer

Previous research suggests that people can typically recall up to four items, so it is reasonable to expect that some students may be able to recall all four letters in a row, while others may only remember two or three. Therefore, the best choice is D, which includes the possibility for recall of three or four letters in a row.

Question 13

Superior recall of a scenario is often observed when the scenario:

Accepted Answer

Involving planning requires the brain to engage in cognitive processes like problem-solving and decision-making, which helps consolidate the memory of the scenario. This leads to better recall. The other options (A, B, and D) do not necessarily have a significant impact on memory recall.

Question 14

In a classic memory study by Peterson and Peterson (1959),participants were given consonant strings to remember-such as DBX and HLM-and then instructed to count backwards from 100 by 3.After a variable amount of time,the participants were asked to recall the consonant strings.Asking participants to count backwards effectively prevents:

Accepted Answer

Counting backwards prevents rehearsal, which is the process of actively maintaining information in short-term memory by repeating it.

Question 15

Sperling flashed a matrix of 12 letters for 1/20th of a second to participants.When asked to recall the letters immediately after,Sperling found that MOST participants recalled:

Accepted Answer

Sperling's experiment demonstrated that participants could recall fewer than half of the letters immediately after they were flashed, indicating that while people briefly hold a large amount of visual information in sensory memory, they can only report a fraction of it before it fades.

Question 16

Echoic memories last _____ iconic memories.

Accepted Answer

Echoic memories typically last slightly longer than iconic memories. Iconic memories are visual memories that last only about a second, while echoic memories are auditory memories that can last up to several seconds.

Question 17

Iconic memory is a fast-decaying store of:

Accepted Answer

Iconic memory is a type of sensory memory that is specific to visual information, allowing a brief storage of visual stimuli for a very short period of time (about 0.5 seconds) after the stimulus disappears. This enables the brain to process information in a continuous stream, creating the perception of a seamless visual experience. Therefore, the correct answer is B, visual memory.

Question 18

You look up a friend's address for the envelope of a letter you're writing.Suddenly,the phone rings.You abandon your address research to answer the phone,but it is a wrong number.When you get back to writing down the address,you have forgotten it because _____ memory has failed you.

Accepted Answer

Short-term memory is responsible for holding and manipulating information in the mind for a short period of time. In this scenario, the individual was in the process of looking up their friend's address when they were interrupted by a phone call. This interruption caused the information in their short-term memory to be displaced, resulting in their inability to recall the address.

Question 19

Charlotte looks up a phone number on the Internet and says the number three times to herself.As she reaches for her phone to dial the number,she is distracted by noise coming from outside her office.When the noise ceases after about 30 seconds,she picks up her phone but finds that she cannot remember the number.This is due to the limits of _____ memory.

Accepted Answer

Charlotte was in the process of transferring the phone number from her working memory (short-term memory) to her phone to be stored in her long-term memory. However, the distraction affected her short-term memory, causing her to forget the number. Sensory memory refers to the brief retention of sensory information and iconic memory specifically refers to the brief retention of visual information.

Question 20

Sensory information is kept for a few seconds or less in:

Accepted Answer

Sensory information is initially held in the sensory memory store for a very brief period of time (usually a few seconds or less) before it is either forgotten or transferred to the short-term memory store for further processing. Therefore, the best choice is C, as it specifically references the sensory memory store.

Quiz 6: Memory