Question 1

Aram volunteers at a nursing home, where he reads and writes letters for residents who can't do those things for themselves. Though he visits every week, Mr. Larue never remembers him, and he has to introduce himself each time they interact. One of the nurses explains that Mr. Larue has Alzheimer's disease (AD). The most characteristic changes in the brain associated with AD are
A)plaque and tartar.
B)threads and tangles.
C)threads and tartar.
D)plaques and tangles.
E)threads and plaques.

Accepted Answer

The most characteristic changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are plaques and tangles. Plaques refer to the buildup of beta-amyloid protein fragments between nerve cells, and tangles refer to the twisted fibers of tau protein within cells. These changes disrupt the normal functioning of neurons, leading to the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Question 2

When you try to remember your 10^th birthday party, you always picture a younger version of yourself sitting around a cake with friends. However, you've recently come across some old photos of that day which reminded you that (because of a last minute change with the day the party took place) there actually was no cake that year. You remember that one of your friends has frequently told a story about that day, which involved the (in actuality, non-existent) birthday cake. They were clearly mistaken themselves, though how could this have also affected your own memory? A)hindsight reasoning B)encoding specificity C)encoding failure D)misinformation effect E)phonological encoding

Accepted Answer

The misinformation effect occurs when an individual's memory becomes less accurate due to misleading information presented after the event, which in this case is the friend's repeated story about a non-existent birthday cake influencing your memory of the event.

Question 3

Memories are...
A)like high-resolution video recordings: They're the same every time we remember or "play" them and include most details visible to the human eye.
B)reconstructed: We have to rebuild them every time we remember something.
C)objective rather than subjective: We remember things as they really happened.
D)due to arousal theory: They have to do with needing stimulus in our lives.
E)like low-resolution video recordings: they're the same every time we remember or "play" them, however they are often lacking in details.

Accepted Answer

Memories are not static like video recordings but are reconstructed each time we recall them, meaning the process involves actively piecing together elements of the memory.

Question 4

Try as she might, Zoë cannot remember anything from the first three years of her life. Which of the following is not one of the explanations for infantile amnesia?
A)Infants do not encode early experiences deeply and fail to form rich retrieval cues for them.
B)Brain structures that encode long-term episodic memories are immature in the first years after birth.
C)The creation of new memories interferes with the retrieval of early childhood memories.
D)Infants lack a clear sense of self, so they have no personal frame of reference around which to organize rich memories.
E)There are currently no viable theories to explain infantile amnesia.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Try as she might, Zoë cannot remember...

Question 5

Which of these neurotransmitter systems was identified by your textbook as being particularly affected by Alzheimer's disease?
A)glutamate
B)GABA
C)serotonin
D)acetylcholine
E)dopamine

Accepted Answer

Alzheimer's disease is particularly associated with a decrease in acetylcholine levels, which is crucial for memory and learning.

Question 6

When you try to remember your 10^th birthday party, you always picture a younger version of yourself sitting around a cake with friends. However, you've recently come across some old photos of that day which reminded you that (because of a last minute change with the day the party took place) there actually was no cake that year. It occurs to you that you probably have had cake every year since, and those more recent memories may have affected what you thought happened on your 10^th birthday. If that was the case, what principle could it demonstrate? A)childhood amnesia B)repression C)proactive interference D)motivated forgetting E)retroactive interference

Accepted Answer

This scenario demonstrates retroactive interference, where newer memories interfere with the recall of older memories, leading to inaccuracies in remembering past events.

Question 7

People with retrograde amnesia have problems with __________________ of information, while people with anterograde amnesia have problems with ______________ of information.
A)storing; encoding
B)retrieval; encoding
C)retrieval; recognition
D)encoding; retrieval
E)encoding; storing

Accepted Answer

Retrograde amnesia affects the ability to retrieve information that was acquired before the onset of amnesia, while anterograde amnesia affects the ability to encode new information after the onset of amnesia.

Question 8

Warner learned how to program in the computer language C++ in high school. He is currently learning how to write code using Java for a university course. He finds that he frequently includes pieces in his Java code that would only work for C++. He is experiencing
A)memory decay.
B)motivated amnesia.
C)proactive interference.
D)retroactive interference.
E)anterograde interference.

Accepted Answer

Warner is experiencing proactive interference, which occurs when old information interferes with the learning or recall of new information. In this case, his prior knowledge of C++ is interfering with his ability to learn Java.

Question 9

In a classic fear conditioning paradigm, during which a neutral blue square is paired with an aversive shock to the wrist, patients with __________ damage fail to show a normal physiological fear response to the blue square, even though they are able to report that the blue square predicted the shock
A)hippocampus
B)thalamus
C)amygdala
D)frontal lobes
E)somatosensory cortex

Accepted Answer

The amygdala is crucial for the emotional learning process involved in fear conditioning. Damage to the amygdala impairs the physiological fear response (like changes in heart rate or sweating) to a conditioned stimulus (like the blue square) even if the cognitive aspect (knowing the blue square predicts a shock) remains intact.

Question 10

You're watching one movie with a friend (Toy Story 4) and start thinking about another (The Matrix). You reference something from The Matrix and your friend tells you they were just thinking about that same movie. Your friend asks if you think it was just a coincidence that you were both thinking about the Matrix while watching another movie or whether there might be a logical explanation. After discussing some ideas, you realize that the connection may have had something to do with the fact one actor (Keanu Reeves) is in both movies. Several months later you are reminded of Toy Story 4. Despite being a relatively minor character, you remember the character played by Keanu Reeves more clearly than many of the other (more major) characters. What concept could potentially explain why you would have remembered that character better than other more major characters?
A)decay of memory traces
B)levels of processing
C)overlearning
D)iconic memory
E)shadowing

Accepted Answer

The concept of levels of processing explains why you would remember the character played by Keanu Reeves better than other more major characters. This concept suggests that the depth at which information is thought about affects how well it is remembered. In this case, discussing the connection between "Toy Story 4" and "The Matrix" because of Keanu Reeves would have led to deeper cognitive processing about his character, making it more memorable.

Question 11

You're watching one movie with a friend (Toy Story 4) and start thinking about another (The Matrix). You reference something from The Matrix and your friend tells you they were just thinking about that same movie. Your friend asks if you think it was just a coincidence that you were both thinking about the Matrix while watching another movie or whether there might be a logical explanation. After discussing some ideas, you realize that the connection may have had something to do with the fact one actor (Keanu Reeves) is in both movies. Although you hadn't thought about it since watching it with them, the next time you hang out with that same friend you find yourself thinking about the plot of Toy Story 4. What could potentially explain memories related to that movie coming to mind more easily in this example?
A)none of these response options are relevant for this example
B)schemas
C)encoding specificity principle
D)reinforcement
E)echoic memory

Accepted Answer

The encoding specificity principle suggests that recall is improved when information available at the time of encoding is also present at the time of retrieval. In this case, being with the same friend with whom you watched Toy Story 4 could serve as a cue that makes memories of the movie more accessible.

Question 12

Jacobsen (1935) demonstrated that damage to the ___________ of nonhuman primates resulted in an inability to remember the location of hidden food after a brief delay.
A)hippocampus
B)thalamus
C)amygdala
D)frontal lobes
E)hypothalamus

Accepted Answer

Jacobsen's experiments in 1935 showed that damage to the frontal lobes of nonhuman primates impaired their ability to remember the location of hidden food after a brief delay, highlighting the role of the frontal lobes in memory processes.

Question 13

Domoic acid was identified as the toxin responsible for an outbreak of human poisoning that occurred in Canada in 1987 following consumption of contaminated blue mussels. The poisoning was characterized by a constellation of clinical symptoms and signs. Among the most prominent features described was memory impairment, which led to the name Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning [ASP]. From what you have learned, which brain areas are most likely damaged?
A)Hippcampus and amygdala
B)Frontal lobes and associative areas
C)thalamus and frontal lobes
D)Cerebellum and thalamus
E)reticular formation and pons

Accepted Answer

The hippocampus is crucial for memory formation, and damage to it can lead to severe memory impairment, which is a hallmark of Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP). The amygdala is involved in emotion and memory, which can also be affected in ASP.

Question 14

You're watching one movie with a friend (Toy Story 4) and start thinking about another (The Matrix). You reference something from The Matrix and your friend tells you they were just thinking about that same movie. Your friend asks if you think it was just a coincidence that you were both thinking about the Matrix while watching another movie or whether there might be a logical explanation. After discussing some ideas, you realize that the connection may have had something to do with the fact one actor (Keanu Reeves) is in both movies. What concept could potentially explain why you were both thinking about the Matrix while watching Toy Story 4?
A)mood-congruent recall
B)episodic memory
C)spreading activation
D)explicit memory
E)flashbulb memory

Accepted Answer

The concept of spreading activation explains how thoughts about one subject, such as an actor in Toy Story 4, can trigger related thoughts or memories, such as another movie the actor is in (The Matrix). This cognitive process allows for the association between different ideas and memories in the brain, leading to the simultaneous thought of The Matrix by both individuals.

Question 15

When you try to remember your 10^th birthday party, you always picture a younger version of yourself sitting around a cake with friends. However, you've recently come across some old photos of that day which reminded you that (because of a last-minute change with the day the party took place) there actually was no cake that year. What could help account for this mistake? A)echoic error B)schemas C)anterograde amnesia D)retrograde amnesia E)autobiographical dissonance

Accepted Answer

Schemas are cognitive structures that help us organize and interpret information. They can cause us to remember events in a way that fits our expectations or typical experiences, such as expecting a cake at a birthday party, even if it didn't happen that way.

Quiz 8: Memory

Memories are...

Try as she might, Zoë cannot remember anything from the first three years of her life. Which of the following is not one of the explanations for infantile amnesia?

Which of these neurotransmitter systems was identified by your textbook as being particularly affected by Alzheimer's disease?

People with retrograde amnesia have problems with ____ of information, while people with anterograde amnesia have problems with of information.

Warner learned how to program in the computer language C++ in high school. He is currently learning how to write code using Java for a university course. He finds that he frequently includes pieces in his Java code that would only work for C++. He is experiencing

Jacobsen (1935) demonstrated that damage to the ___________ of nonhuman primates resulted in an inability to remember the location of hidden food after a brief delay.