Question 1

The inability to form new memories is called:

Accepted Answer

Anterograde amnesia refers to the inability to form new memories after a specific event or injury. Repression refers to the unconscious blocking of an unpleasant memory. The misinformation effect refers to the distortion of a memory due to misleading information. Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with the recall of old information.

Question 2

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 to better remember information presented at the beginning of a list or sequence. In this scenario, if the individual is able to recall the first few names on the list better than the ones presented at the end, this would illustrate a primacy effect.

Question 3

Information learned while a person is ________ is best recalled when that person is ________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Information learned while a person is ________...

Question 4

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 finding that people forgot much of the vocabulary they had learned after three years indicates that the information was lost while it was in storage. If the information had been lost during encoding, they would have never learned it in the first place, and if it had been lost during rehearsal, they would have forgotten it much sooner than three years. Retrieval refers to the process of accessing information that is already in storage, so it also does not apply in this case.

Question 5

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

The answer of On the phone,Dominic rattles off a list...

Question 6

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

Anterograde amnesia affects explicit (declarative) memory, which is the conscious recall of facts and events. However, the ability to spot hard-to-find figures in Where's Waldo? series without conscious awareness suggests the retention of implicit (nondeclarative) memory, which is the non-conscious retention of skills and associations. Retention of retroactive (backward-looking) and working (short-term) memories are not directly indicated in this scenario.

Question 7

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

Nancy's poor memory is due to encoding failure, which means that the information was never properly stored in her memory due to her lack of attention during the lecture. Interference, storage decay, and source amnesia do not accurately explain Nancy's specific memory failure in this scenario.

Question 8

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

Lars is more likely to recall experiences that match his emotional state, which in this case is depression. His emotional state at the time of recall can trigger memories associated with similar emotions.

Question 9

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

Accepted Answer

When we don't notice something, it means we haven't encoded it effectively into our memory, leading to encoding failure. This is different from storage decay, which refers to forgetting due to the fading of memory traces, and repressed memories, which are memories that have been unconsciously blocked or forgotten due to emotional trauma. Proactive interference occurs when old memories interfere with the retrieval of new ones.

Question 10

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

The answer of Jimmy was a patient with anterograde amnesia...

Question 11

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 create a memory code for information to be stored in long-term memory. In this case, Austin failed to encode Jack Smith's name because he was not paying attention during the introduction, leading to his poor memory of the name.

Question 12

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 information into a form that can be stored in memory. Arturo's inability to recall whether his watch features Arabic or Roman numerals suggests that he did not properly encode this information in the first place, meaning that it was not stored in his memory for later retrieval.

Question 13

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

Accepted Answer

Retrieval failure, also known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, occurs when information stored in long-term memory cannot be accessed or retrieved at a certain time. This can happen due to interference or lack of retrieval cues. Storage decay refers to the loss of information over time, while effortful processing and the misinformation effect relate to the encoding of new information.

Question 14

Mood-congruent memory refers to the effect of emotional states on the process of:

Accepted Answer

Mood-congruent memory refers to the idea that our current emotional state can influence our ability to retrieve memories that are congruent, or match, our emotional state. It does not affect the process of encoding or storage, but rather retrieval. Memory consolidation refers to the process of transferring short-term memories into long-term storage.

Question 15

Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve most clearly indicates that

Accepted Answer

Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve shows that the memory retention of new information is highest immediately after learning it, and then rapidly declines. This indicates that the most rapid memory loss for new information occurs shortly after it is learned.

Question 16

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 remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than those in the middle. This is why the best choice is B, as it includes both the first and last items.

Question 17

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

Mood-congruent memory is the tendency to selectively recall experiences that are consistent with one's current mood. In this scenario, those who are currently depressed are more likely to recall their parents as rejecting and punitive, which reflects their current negative mood. This is not an example of implicit memory because these individuals are consciously aware of their memories. Infantile amnesia refers to the inability to recall early childhood memories. The serial position effect reflects the tendency to better remember items at the beginning and end of a list, rather than those in the middle, and is not relevant to this scenario.

Question 18

What we learn under the influence of a drug may be more easily recalled when we are once again under the influence of that same drug.This best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

State-dependent memory refers to the phenomenon of better retrieval of memories when the individual is in the same state or condition as they were during encoding. When we learn things under the influence of a drug, our memory of it gets linked to the effects of the drug, and therefore, recalling that memory in a sober state might be difficult. This is why when the individual is once again under the influence of that same drug, it becomes easier to recall those memories.

Question 19

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

Accepted Answer

Maria is able to encode and consciously recall new information, but unable to consciously recall events that happened prior to her brain damage. This is an example of retrograde amnesia, which is the inability to recall past memories. Anterograde amnesia, on the other hand, is the inability to form new memories after brain damage or injury. Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with the ability to recall new information, while retroactive interference occurs when newly learned information interferes with the ability to recall old information. None of these explanations fully fit Maria's memory difficulties as described in the question.

Question 20

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 gradual fading of memory traces over time due to disuse or interference. This is the most likely explanation for Gwenda's loss of details from her childhood memories over the decades. Anterograde amnesia would involve the inability to form new memories, while encoding failure would involve a failure to initially process information into memory. Repression refers to the unconscious blocking of painful memories, which is not necessarily the case in Gwenda's situation.

Quiz 8: Memory