Question 1

You meant to visit the campus bookstore before it closed, but you do not remember that you wanted to do that until two hours after closing time. This scenario is a failure of which type of memory?

Accepted Answer

This scenario is a failure of prospective memory, which involves remembering to do something in the future (in this case, visiting the bookstore before it closes). Implicit and explicit memory refer to different types of long-term memory, while serial position refers to the tendency to remember items at the beginning or end of a list more easily than those in the middle.

Question 2

Your professor asks you to design an implicit memory test. How will you know if you have cued implicit memories in your test subjects?

Accepted Answer

Scoring higher on items that refer to material presented earlier indicates that the subjects have implicitly remembered the information presented earlier, which is the goal of an implicit memory test. Option A and B refer to explicit memory rather than implicit memory, while option D indicates that the subjects did not remember the earlier presented material, which would not be indicative of implicit memory.

Question 3

Processing the meaning of information is known as ______.

Accepted Answer

Elaborative encoding involves processing the meaning of information by relating it to other knowledge, which helps in understanding and memory retention.

Question 4

Based on the information about comparing recall and recognition tasks, you can conclude that you will perform better on tests if you know ______ before you begin studying.

Accepted Answer

Knowing the format of the test (whether it will be a recall or recognition task) can help guide your studying and prepare you for the type of questions you will encounter, ultimately leading to better performance on the test. The other options are not relevant to improving test performance.

Question 5

You are designing a study that asks subjects, "Which of these psychological concepts have you heard of?" and then presents a list of concepts. Which type of retrieval task is this?

Accepted Answer

This is a form of recognition task, since the subjects are being asked to recognize psychological concepts that they have heard of from a list of options presented to them. It is not a recall task, since they are not being asked to generate the concepts on their own without any cues. It is also not an implicit task, since they are explicitly being asked about their knowledge of these concepts. Prospective tasks are tasks that involve planning ahead for future events or actions, and this study does not involve such planning.

Question 6

The beginning of a word list is to the ______ as the end of a word list is to the ______.

Accepted Answer

The beginning of a word list is associated with the primacy effect, as these words are likely to be remembered due to their position at the beginning of the list. The end of a word list is associated with the recency effect, as these words are also likely to be remembered due to their position at the end of the list. Therefore, the best answer is D, as it correctly matches these two effects with their respective positions in the word list.

Question 7

Suppose you want to become a memory champion like Andi Bell and Joshua Foer. You could achieve your goal by working hard to ______.

Accepted Answer

Both Andi Bell and Joshua Foer attribute their success in memory competitions to the use of mnemonics, which are memory aids or techniques that help encode and retrieve information more effectively. Developing a photographic memory or superior autobiographical memory is not a reliable or realistic goal for most people, and while prospective memory tasks can be useful in everyday life, they are not directly related to becoming a memory champion.

Question 8

You are presented with the following questions: (1) Is KITTEN in all capital letters?
(2) Does KITTEN rhyme with MOOSE?
(3) Is KITTEN a type of animal?
Which would you most likely remember?

Accepted Answer

The question that asks if KITTEN is a type of animal is the most likely to be remembered because it is providing a significant piece of information about the word. The other two questions are less meaningful and do not contribute much to understanding what KITTEN is or represents.

Question 9

Which of these factors seems to be important in aiding the consolidation process?

Accepted Answer

Sleep has been shown to be important in aiding the consolidation process, as it allows the brain to replay and strengthen memories obtained during waking hours. Multitasking and cramming, on the other hand, can actually hinder the consolidation process. Storage is important in terms of storing memories, but does not necessarily aid in the consolidation process.

Question 10

______ processing is to questions about typeface as ______ processing is to questions about sentence completion.

Accepted Answer

The processing of typeface is a simple, visual characteristic and therefore requires shallow processing, while sentence completion involves deeper processing as it requires comprehension and understanding of the context. The second part of the statement is incomplete, as it doesn't provide any context for iconic or echoic processing.

Question 11

"A natural process that occurs when information is unable to be retrieved from memory" is the definition of ______.

Accepted Answer

Forgetting refers to the inability to retrieve information from memory, which is a natural process. Cognition refers to the mental processes of acquiring and understanding knowledge, while remembering refers to the retrieval of information from memory. Storage refers to the process of retaining information in memory.

Question 12

Of the three main processes of memory--encoding, storage, and retrieval--______ and ______ are the processes most under our control.

Accepted Answer

Encoding and retrieval are the processes most under our control. Encoding involves paying attention to information and actively processing it in order to remember it later, which we can control. Retrieval involves accessing stored information, which we can also control through techniques such as self-testing and practice. Storage, on the other hand, is largely automatic and not as easily under conscious control.

Question 13

While studying for a psychology exam, you devise a poem about Piaget's stages of development to help you remember them. This is an example of ______.

Accepted Answer

Creating a poem to help remember the stages of development requires deep processing, which involves forming connections and associations between the material being studied and other information in long-term memory.

Question 14

One reason that spacing out your studying is best is that you ______.

Accepted Answer

Spacing out your studying means that you are reviewing the material multiple times over a longer period of time. This leads to an increase in the number of retrieval cues, or pieces of information that can help you remember the material later on. It also allows for more time for consolidation and processing of the information, leading to better long-term retention.

Question 15

The more ______ encoding processes are, the better we remember.

Accepted Answer

Effortful encoding processes require more mental effort and attention, leading to deeper processing and better retention of information. Time-consuming encoding processes do not necessarily ensure better retention, while simple and shallow encoding processes may result in only superficial processing and poor retention.

Question 16

A neural process by which memories are strengthened and more permanently stored in the brain is ______.

Accepted Answer

Consolidation is the process by which memories are strengthened and more permanently stored in the brain. Interference refers to the disruption of memory retention due to competing information, encoding is the process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory, and memorization refers to the act of committing something to memory.

Question 17

Your professor asks you to design a series of cued recall tasks. Which of these examples could you use?

Accepted Answer

Cued recall tasks involve providing a prompt or cue to assist in the retrieval of information. In this case, the cue is the information that the name of the artist begins with a "P" and the response required is "Pablo Picasso." Options A and D do not provide a cue, while option B provides a general cue (the category "famous artists") but not a specific one.

Question 18

A question that asks you to remember specific information is a(n) ______ task, while a question that asks you whether you have encountered a particular name, image, or fact before is a(n) ______ task.

Accepted Answer

A recall task requires you to retrieve specific information from your memory without the aid of cues, while a recognition task asks you to identify whether you have encountered a specific piece of information before, often with the aid of cues.

Question 19

Jason conducts an experiment in which his participants are asked to study a list of 30 words. He finds that participants tend to recall the beginning of the list rather than the middle or end of the list. Which effect is he showing support for?

Accepted Answer

Jason's experiment supports the primacy effect which suggests that people are more likely to remember items that are presented first in a list. This effect is thought to occur because items presented first have more time to be rehearsed and transferred to long-term memory.

Question 20

During college, you took several semesters of a foreign language. According to Ebbinghaus, you would ______ a lot of information early on, but then the rate of loss ______ as the length of time since study ______.

Accepted Answer

According to Ebbinghaus, the forgetting curve shows that we tend to forget a lot of information soon after learning it, and the rate of forgetting decreases over time. This means that we would forget a lot of the foreign language information early on (forget), but the rate of loss would slow (slows) as the length of time since study increases.

Quiz 6: Long-Term Memory: Influences on Retrieval