Question 1

Several months after watching a science fiction movie about spaceship travel and alien abductions,Steve began to remember that he had been abducted by aliens and personally subjected to many of the horrors portrayed in the movie.His mistaken recall best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Steve's mistaken recall of his own experience as being similar to the events portrayed in the science fiction movie is an example of source amnesia. This is a type of memory lapse where a person forgets where or how they obtained a memory or information, leading to confusion about its accuracy or truthfulness.

Question 2

An inability to form semantic memories would most likely result from damage to the:

Accepted Answer

The hippocampus is responsible for the formation of new long-term declarative (semantic and episodic) memories. Damage to the hippocampus can result in an inability to form new semantic memories. The basal ganglia are involved in motor control and learning, the hypothalamus regulates many physiological processes such as hunger and thirst, and the cerebellum is involved in motor coordination and balance but not specifically in semantic memory formation.

Question 3

Although Ron typically smokes two packs of cigarettes a day,he recalls smoking little more than a pack a day.This poor memory best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

The answer of Although Ron typically smokes two packs of...

Question 4

After absorbing the false suggestion that as children they became ill after eating spoiled egg salad,Dutch university students were less likely to eat egg salad sandwiches.Their behavior best illustrates the impact of:

Accepted Answer

The scenario describes the misinformation effect, which refers to a phenomenon in which exposure to false information can alter one's memory, perception, and behavior. The students' avoidance of egg salad sandwiches after being exposed to the false suggestion of getting sick from them reflects how misinformation can shape their subsequent decisions and actions. Option B, anterograde amnesia, refers to a condition in which an individual has difficulty forming new memories, which is not relevant to the scenario. Option C, proactive interference, pertains to the disruption of new learning due to previously learned information, which is also not applicable. Option D, repressed memories, denotes the concept of unconsciously blocking out traumatic experiences, which is not directly related to the given situation.

Question 5

After suffering a brain injury in a motorcycle accident,Arotza cannot form new memories.He can,however,remember events before the accident.Arotza's memory difficulty most clearly illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new memories after the onset of an injury or disease while the old memories remain intact. Arotza's ability to remember events before the accident but not form new memories indicates anterograde amnesia. Retroactive and proactive interference refer to the interference of memory retrieval by new or old memories, respectively. The misinformation effect occurs when misleading information is incorporated into one's memory of an event.

Question 6

Employing the single word HOMES to remember the names of North America's five Great Lakes best illustrates the use of:

Accepted Answer

Using the word HOMES as a memory aid for the names of the Great Lakes is an example of employing an acronym, where the first letter of each word represents each lake's name (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).

Question 7

After Maya told her friend the 5-digit password to a protected website,her friend was able to remember it only long enough to type it into the password box.In this instance,the password was clearly stored in her friend's ________ memory.

Accepted Answer

Short-term memory is responsible for holding information temporarily in the mind, typically for less than a minute. In this scenario, Maya's friend was able to remember the 5-digit password long enough to type it into the website, indicating that it was stored in her short-term memory. The other options (procedural, iconic, and implicit) are not as relevant in this specific scenario.

Question 8

Mentally rehearsing the glossary definitions of unfamiliar terms in order to remember them for a later test illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Effortful processing involves actively working to encode information and committing it to memory. Mentally rehearsing definitions requires effortful processing as the individual is putting in conscious effort to remember the information. The peg-word system involves associating items with a memorized list of peg-words and is not relevant to this scenario. Procedural memory is memory for how to perform tasks and is not applicable here. Echoic memory is sensory memory for auditory information and is not relevant to this scenario.

Question 9

The happier Judie is,the more readily she recalls positive life experiences.This best illustrates that emotional states can become:

Accepted Answer

Emotional states can influence memory retrieval by creating retrieval cues. In this case, Judie's positive emotional state serves as a cue for her to recall other positive memories. The other options are not applicable in this scenario as they do not explain the relationship between emotions and memory retrieval.

Question 10

Conscious memories of emotionally stressful events are especially likely to be facilitated by activation of the:

Accepted Answer

The amygdala is a key brain structure involved in emotional processing and is particularly associated with fear conditioning and the formation of emotional memories, especially those related to stressful or traumatic events. Activation of the amygdala has been shown to enhance memory consolidation of emotionally arousing events.

Question 11

At a block party,Cyndi is introduced to eight new neighbors.Moments later,she remembers only the names of the first three and last two neighbors.Her experience best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

The answer of At a block party,Cyndi is introduced to...

Question 12

Many students review course material at various times during a semester so they will be prepared for the final exam.These students are especially likely to retain the information far into the future.This best illustrates the value of:

Accepted Answer

Distributed practice refers to spacing out study sessions over time, rather than cramming all at once. Research has consistently shown that this method of studying helps with long-term retention of information, making it a valuable strategy for students looking to retain knowledge beyond the final exam.

Question 13

Mr.Nydam is unable to remember playing golf several times each week on a particular course.Yet the more he plays the course,the more his game improves.His experience illustrates the need to distinguish between:

Accepted Answer

Mr. Nydam's experience indicates that even though he doesn't consciously remember playing golf on the course, his skills are improving with practice. This suggests that his improvement is due to implicit memory - the type of memory responsible for skills and habits - rather than explicit memory, which is responsible for conscious recollection. The other answer choices do not fully capture this distinction.

Question 14

Another term for implicit memory is ________ memory.

Accepted Answer

Implicit memory is also known as nondeclarative memory, which refers to a type of long-term memory that is not consciously retrieved. It includes skills, habits, and even priming effects that influence behavior without the individual being aware of it. Iconic memory is a type of sensory memory that holds visual information for a very brief period, usually less than half a second, while short-term memory refers to the temporary storage of information that is actively processed and used. Working memory is a more specific type of short-term memory that involves the active manipulation of information in the mind for a brief period of time.

Question 15

Which of the following is believed to be the synaptic basis for learning and memory?

Accepted Answer

Long-term potentiation is a persistent strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons that is believed to be the synaptic basis for learning and memory. Priming, the primacy effect, and serial positioning are all related to memory formation, but they do not directly involve synaptic changes.

Question 16

During her evening Spanish language exam,Janica so easily remembers the French vocabulary she studied that morning that she finds it difficult to recall the Spanish vocabulary she rehearsed that afternoon.Her difficulty best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with the ability to recall newly learned information. In this case, Janica's recall of French vocabulary (previously learned information) is interfering with her ability to recall Spanish vocabulary (newly learned information).

Question 17

Mentally visualizing yourself sitting at the same desk in the same room in which you initially learned course material can be an effective way to recall what you previously learned because this mental visualization activates:

Accepted Answer

Retrieval cues are stimuli or pieces of information that can trigger the retrieval of a memory. Mental visualization of the same context in which information was learned can serve as a retrieval cue, making it easier to recall what was previously learned. Source misattribution refers to mistakenly attributing a memory to the wrong source, while implicit memory refers to memory that is unconsciously stored and retrieved. Proactive interference occurs when old information interferes with the ability to recall new information.

Question 18

Which of the following is central to the processing of procedural memories?

Accepted Answer

The basal ganglia is central to the processing of procedural memories. It is responsible for the formation, retrieval, and execution of motor programs that underlie many of our well-learned skills and habits.

Question 19

The semantic processing of the words in a short poem illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Deep processing refers to the mental processing of information that involves the semantic meaning of the information. In the case of processing the words in a poem, one must engage with the meaning of the words and how they relate to each other in order to understand the overall message of the poem. Therefore, the semantic processing of words in a poem would illustrate deep processing.

Question 20

The encoding of information directly into long-term storage without the aid of working memory best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Automatic processing refers to the encoding of information that occurs unconsciously and without effort, bypassing the working memory system. This type of encoding leads to long-term storage without the need for conscious retrieval strategies, such as rehearsal or chunking.

Quiz 8: Memory