CHAPTER 5: Short-Term and Working Memory

Question 1

According to your text, students often overlook functions of memory they take for granted such as
A. keeping daily appointments on their schedules.
B. learning material for exams.
C. remembering names and phone numbers.
D. labeling familiar objects.

Answer 1

D. labeling familiar objects.

Question 2

Clive Wearing, the ex-choral director, experienced what memory problem?
A. Poor short-term memory
B. Defective sensory memory
C. An inability to form new long-term memories
D. Both a and b are correct

Answer 2

C. An inability to form new long-term memories

Question 3

The three structural components of the modal model of memory are
A. receptors, occipital lobe, temporal lobe.
B. receptors, temporal lobe, frontal lobe.
C. sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory.
D. sensory memory, iconic memory, rehearsal

Answer 3

C. sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory.

Question 4

A property of control processes in the modal model of memory is that they
A. do not require attention.
B. may differ from one task to another.
C. are performed without conscious awareness.
D. are difficult to modify

Answer 4

B. may differ from one task to another.

Question 5

Information remains in sensory memory for 
A. seconds or a fraction of a second.
B. 15-30 seconds.
C. 1-3 minutes.
D. as long as it is rehearsed.

Answer 5

A. seconds or a fraction of a second.

Question 6

Imagine you are driving to a friend's new house. In your mind, you say the address repeatedly until you arrive. Once you arrive, you stop thinking about the address and start to think about buying a housewarming gift for your friend. To remember the address, you used a(n) \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ process in STM. 
A. control
B. automatic
C. coding
D. iconic

Answer 6

A. control

Question 7

When light from a flashlight is moved quickly back and forth on a wall in a darkened room, it can appear to observers that there is a trail of light moving across the wall, even though physically the light is only in one place at any given time. This experience is an effect of memory that occurs because of 
A. a visual delay effect.
B. echoic memory.
C. persistence of vision.
D. top-down processing.

Answer 7

C. persistence of vision.

Question 8

When a sparkler is twirled rapidly, people perceive a circle of light. This occurs because
A. the trail you see is caused by sparks left behind from the sparkler.
B. due to its high intensity, we see the light from the sparkler for about a second after it goes out.
C. the length of iconic memory (the persistence of vision) is about one-third of a second.
D. Gestalt principles work to complete the circle in our minds.

Answer 8

C. the length of iconic memory (the persistence of vision) is about one-third of a second.

Question 9

Compared to the whole-report technique, the partial-report procedure involves
A. a smaller stimulus set.
B. a smaller response set.
C. a smaller stimulus set and a smaller response set.
D. a shorter rehearsal period.

Answer 9

B. a smaller response set.

Question 10

Using the partial report procedure in his "letter array" experiment, Sperling was able to infer that participants initially saw \_\_\_\_ of the 12 letters in the display. 
A. 12
B. 10
C. 6
D. 3

Answer 10

B. 10

Question 11

Brief sensory memory for sound is known as
A. iconic memory.
B. primary auditory memory.
C. echoic memory.
D. pre-perceptual auditory memory.

Answer 11

C. echoic memory.

Question 12

Sperling’s delayed partial report procedure provided evidence that
A. STM and LTM are independent components of memory.
B. information in sensory memory fades within 1 or 2 seconds.
C. information in STM must be rehearsed to transfer into LTM.
D. STM has a limited capacity.

Answer 12

B. information in sensory memory fades within 1 or 2 seconds

Question 13

Sensory memory is believed by many cognitive psychologists to be responsible for all of the following EXCEPT
A. deciding which incoming sensory information will be the focus of attention.
B. filling in the blanks when the stimulation is intermittent.
C. holding incoming information briefly during initial processing.
D. collecting information to be processed.

Answer 13

A. deciding which incoming sensory information will be the focus of attention.

Question 14

Peterson and Peterson studied how well participants can remember groups of three letters (like BRT, QSD) after various delays. They found that participants remembered an average of 80 percent of the groups after 3 seconds but only 10 percent after 18 seconds. They hypothesized that this decrease in performance was due to \_\_\_\_\_, but later research showed that it was actually due to \_\_\_\_\_. 
A. interference; decay
B. priming; interference
C. decay; interference
D. decay; lack of rehearsal

Answer 14

C. decay; interference

Question 15

Jill's friends tell her they think she has a really good memory. She finds this interesting so she decides to purposefully test her memory. Jill receives a list of to-do tasks each day at work. Usually, she checks off each item as the day progresses, but this week, she is determined to memorize the to-do lists. On Monday, Jill is proud to find that she remembers 95 percent of the tasks without referring to the list. On Tuesday, her memory drops to 80 percent, and by Thursday, she is dismayed to see her performance has declined to 20 percent. Jill does not realize that she is demonstrating a natural mechanism of memory known as 
A. short-term memory.
B. episodic buffering.
C. chunking.
D. proactive interference.

Answer 15

D. proactive interference.

Question 16

If basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal wanted to remember his 16-digit credit card number, which of the following memory techniques would you recommend?
A. He should think of the numbers as a sequence of basketball statistics.
B. He should picture each of the numbers in his head printed in a bright color.
C. He should first memorize a few other sequences of 16 digits to gain some practice.
D. He should visualize the front of his credit card showing a picture of him dribbling a basketball.

Answer 16

A. He should think of the numbers as a sequence of basketball statistics.

Question 17

The effective duration of short-term memory, when rehearsal is prevented, is 
A. a fraction of a second.
B. 15-20 seconds.
C. 1-3 minutes.
D. 5-7 minutes.

Answer 17

B. 15-20 seconds.

Question 18

A person with a reduced digit span would most likely have a problem with 
A. STM
B. LTM
C. Sensory
D. autobiographical

Answer 18

A. STM

Question 19

If a person has a digit span of two, this indicates that he has \_\_\_\_\_ memory. 
A. poor sensory
B. poor short-term
C. normal sensory
D. normal short-term

Answer 19

B. poor short-term

Question 20

The "magic number," according to Miller, is
A. 7 and 11.
B. 5 plus 2.
C. 7 plus or minus 2.
D. lucky 13.

Answer 20

C. 7 plus or minus 2.

Question 21

STM's capacity is best estimated as seven (plus or minus two) 
A. meaningful units.
B. digits.
C. words.
D. sentences.

Answer 21

A. meaningful units.

Question 22

Which of the following represents the most effective chunking of the digit sequence 14929111776? 
A. 14 929 111 776
B. 149 29111 776
C. 14 92 91 117 76
D. 1492 911 1776

Answer 22

D. 1492 911 1776

Question 23

The primary effect of chunking is to
A. maximize the recency effect.
B. increase memory for items by grouping them together based on sound.
C. develop a visual code to supplement a phonological code for the information.
D. increase the efficiency of STM

Answer 23

D. increase the efficiency of STM

Question 24

Chase and Simon’s research compared memory of chess masters and beginners for the position of game pieces on sample chess boards. They found that the chess master remembered positions better when the arrangement of the pieces was consistent with a real game but not when the pieces were randomly placed. The significance of this finding was that
A. experts show larger primacy and recency effects than beginners.
B. knowledge in an area of expertise increases a person’s digit span.
C. expertise with some material reduces susceptibility to proactive interference with that material.
D. chunking requires knowledge of familiar patterns or concepts.

Answer 24

D. chunking requires knowledge of familiar patterns or concepts.

Question 25

The conclusion from the experiment in which a chess master and a chess novice were asked to remember the positions of chess pieces on a chess board was that
A. chess masters outperform novices in all conditions.
B. chess masters have developed better memory skills than novices.
C. novices do better because they are not distracted by irrelevant knowledge about previous chess games.
D. chess masters use chunking to help them remember actual game arrangements.

Answer 25

D. chess masters use chunking to help them remember actual game arrangements.

Question 26

Coding refers to the way information is 
A. processed.
B. activated.
C. presented.
D. represented.

Answer 26

D. represented.

Question 27

Funahashi et al.’s work on monkeys doing a delayed response task is an example of the
A. physiological approach to coding.
B. mental approach to coding.
C. physiological and mental approach to coding.
D. study of articulatory suppression.

Answer 27

A. physiological approach to coding.

Question 28

If you remember something in terms of its meaning, the type of encoding you are using is 
A. semantic.
B. acoustic.
C. visual.
D. iconic.

Answer 28

A. semantic.

Question 29

Recalling the sound of a song you heard on the radio yesterday would be an example of 
A. auditory coding in STM.
B. semantic coding in STM.
C. auditory coding in LTM.
D. semantic coding in LTM.

Answer 29

C. auditory coding in LTM.

Question 30

Information is coded in STM exclusively through an auditory code.
A. True
B. False

Answer 30

B. False

Question 31

Conduct an experiment where participants see a number of target letters flashed briefly on a screen and are told to immediately write down the letters in the order they were presented. It is most likely that the target letter "P" will be misidentified as 
A. L.
B. I.
C. R.
D. C.

Answer 31

D. C.

Question 32

The code for short-term memory is most commonly based on the \_\_\_\_\_ of the stimulus. 
A. sound
B. appearance
C. meaning
D. modality

Answer 32

A. sound

Question 33

Consider an experiment in which participants were asked to remember Chinese symbols called radicals (which have no sound) and symbols called characters (which consist of a radical plus another symbol). The fact that the participants were able to remember some of the radicals provides evidence for the operation of \_\_\_\_\_ coding. 
A. semantic
B. auditory
C. abstract
D. visual

Answer 33

D. visual

Question 34

Which of the following sets of results shows evidence of proactive interference with a three-trial recall task? (Note: Read the selections as percent correct for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3) 
A. 20% : 50 % : 70% correct
B. 80% : 40% : 30% correct
C. 30 % : 30% : 30% correct
D. 70% : 40% : 60% correct

Answer 34

B. 80% : 40% : 30% correct

Question 35

Lamar has just gotten a new job and is attending a company party where he will meet his colleagues for the first time. His boss escorts him around to small groups to introduce him. At the first group, Lamar meets four people and is told only their first names. The same thing happens with a second group and a third group. At the fourth group, Lamar is told their names and that one of the women in the group is the company accountant. A little while later, Lamar realizes that he only remembers the names of the people in the first group, though he also remembers the profession of the last woman he met (the accountant). Lamar’s experience demonstrates
A. The phonological similarity effect
B. A build-up and release of proactive interference
C. The cocktail party phenomenon
D. A partial-report procedure

Answer 35

B. A build-up and release of proactive interference

Question 36

Wickens et al.’s “fruit, meat, and professions” experiment failed to show a release from proactive interference in the “fruit” group because
A. the stimulus category changed.
B. the stimulus category remained the same.
C. the response task changed.
D. the response task remained the same.

Answer 36

B. the stimulus category remained the same.

Question 37

Suppose you (a student) are asked by a teacher to learn a poem you will recite in front of your class. Soon after, both you and a classmate, J.P., are asked by another teacher to learn the lyrics to an unfamiliar song. When you and J.P. are later asked to remember the song lyrics, you have a much more difficult time recalling them than J.P. does. This impairment of your performance is most likely attributable to
A. proactive interference.
B. your overloading the phonological loop.
C. a release from proactive interference.
D. a recency effect.

Answer 37

A. proactive interference

Question 38

Suppose you have been studying your French vocabulary words for several hours and are making many mistakes. You switch to reviewing the new terms for your upcoming biology test, and your performance is noticeably better. You are experiencing
A. the self-reference effect.
B. retroactive inhibition.
C. release from proactive interference.
D. disinhibition.

Answer 38

C. release from proactive interference.

Question 39

Observations that participants could do two tasks at once, such as focusing on a digit-span task while comprehending a paragraph, challenged the conceptualization of 
A. the phonological similarity effect.
B. short-term memory.
C. the persistence of vision.
D. the physiological approach to coding.

Answer 39

B. short-term memory.

Question 40

Working memory differs from short-term memory in that
A. short-term memory consists of a number of components.
B. short-term memory has unlimited capacity.
C. working memory is concerned with the manipulation of information.
D. working memory has unlimited capacity.

Answer 40

C. working memory is concerned with the manipulation of information.

Question 41

The emphasis of the concept of working memory is on how information is 
A. permanently stored.
B. manipulated.
C. forgotten.
D. perceived.

Answer 41

B. manipulated.

Question 42

Imagine yourself walking from your car, bus stop, or dorm to your first class. Your ability to form such a picture in your mind depends on 
A. the STM recency effect.
B. delayed response coding.
C. the phonological loop.
D. the visuospatial sketch pad.

Answer 42

D. the visuospatial sketch pad.

Question 43

Given what we know about the operation of the phonological loop, which of the following word lists would be most difficult for people to retain for 15 seconds?
A. BIP, TEK, LIN, MOD, REY
B. SAY, BET, PIN, COW, RUG
C. MAC, CAN, CAP, MAN, MAP
D. PIG, DOG, RAT, FOX, HEN

Answer 43

C. MAC, CAN, CAP, MAN, MAP

Question 44

The word-length effect reveals that
A. STM digit span remains constant across native speakers of different languages.
B. longer words are typically more distinctive and easier to retrieve from LTM than shorter words.
C. working memory’s central executive processes verbal information differently than visual/image information.
D. the phonological loop of the working memory model has a limited capacity.

Answer 44

D. the phonological loop of the working memory model has a limited capacity.

Question 45

The word-length effect shows that it is more difficult to remember
A. a long list of words than a short list of words.
B. a list of long words than a list of short words.
C. a list of words that are all the same length than a list of words that are of different lengths.
D. a list of words that are of different lengths than a list of words that are all the same length.

Answer 45

B. a list of long words than a list of short words.

Question 46

A task with the instructions "Read the following words while repeating 'the, the, the' out loud, look away, and then write down the words you remember" would most likely be studying 
A. articulatory suppression
B. the visuospatial sketch pad.
C. echoic memory.
D. the central executive.

Answer 46

A. articulatory suppression

Question 47

Have you ever tried to think of the words and hum the melody of one song while the radio is playing a different song? People have often noted that this is very difficult to do. This difficulty can be understood as 
A. articulatory suppression.
B. an overload of sensory memory.
C. rehearsal interference.
D. an LTM recency effect.

Answer 47

A. articulatory suppression.

Question 48

Articulatory suppression causes a decrease in the word-length effect because
A. saying “the, the, the” fills up the phonological loop.
B. saying “la, la, la” forces participants to use visual encoding.
C. talking makes the longer words seem even longer.
D. elaborative rehearsal helps transfer information into LTM.

Answer 48

A. saying “the, the, the” fills up the phonological loop.

Question 49

Articulatory suppression does all of the following EXCEPT it
A. reduces memory span.
B. interferes with semantic coding.
C. reduces the phonological similarity effect for reading words.
D. eliminates the word-length effect.

Answer 49

B. interferes with semantic coding.

Question 50

Which task should be easier: keeping a sentence like “John went to the store to buy some oranges” in your mind AND
A. saying “yes” for each word that is a noun and “no” for each word that is not a noun?
B. pointing to the word “yes” for each word that is a noun and “no” for each word that is not a noun?

Answer 50

B. pointing to the word “yes” for each word that is a noun and “no” for each word that is not a noun?

Question 51

Which task should be easier? Keeping an image of a block letter “F” in your mind AND
A. saying “yes” for each corner that is an inside corner and “no” for each corner that is an outside corner?
B. pointing to the letter “Y” for each inside corner and “N” for each outside corner?

Answer 51

A. saying “yes” for each corner that is an inside corner and “no” for each corner that is an outside corner?

Question 52

According to the model of working memory, which of the following mental tasks should LEAST adversely affect people’s driving performance while operating a car along an unfamiliar, winding road?
A. Trying to imagine how many cabinets are in their kitchen
B. Trying to remember a map of the area
C. Trying to remember the definition of a word they just learned
D. Trying to imagine a portrait from a recent museum exhibit

Answer 52

C. Trying to remember the definition of a word they just learned

Question 53

It is easier to perform two tasks at the same time if
A. one is handled by the sketch pad and one is handled by the phonological loop.
B. both are handled by the sketch pad.
C. both are handled by the phonological loop.
D. both b and c are correct

Answer 53

A. one is handled by the sketch pad and one is handled by the phonological loop.

Question 54

One function of \_\_\_\_ is controlling the suppression of irrelevant information.
A. sensory memory
B. the phonological loop
C. articulatory suppression
D. the central executive

Answer 54

D. the central executive

Question 55

Shanta has frontal lobe damage. She is doing a problem solving task in which she has to choose the red object out of many choices. She can easily complete this repeatedly, but when the experimenter asks her to choose the blue object on a new trial of the task, she continues to choose the red one, even when the experimenter gives her feedback that she is incorrect. Shanta is displaying 
A. sensory memory.
B. decay.
C. perseveration.
D. the central executive.

Answer 55

C. perseveration.

Question 56

The episodic buffer directly connects to which two components in Baddley’s model of memory?
A. The phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad
B. The central executive and long-term memory
C. The central executive and the phonological loop
D. The phonological loop and long-term memory

Answer 56

B. The central executive and long-term memory

Question 57

Models designed to explain mental functioning are constantly refined and modified to explain new results. Which of the following exemplifies this concept based on the results presented in your text?
A. Replacing the STM component of the modal model with working memory
B. Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with the episodic buffer
C. Replacing the STM component of the modal model with iconic memory
D. Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with working memory

Answer 57

A. Replacing the STM component of the modal model with working memory

Question 58

Physiological studies indicate that damage to the area of the brain known as the \_\_\_\_\_ can disrupt behaviors that depend on working memory. 
A. prefrontal cortex
B. amygdala
C. hippocampus
D. occipital lobe

Answer 58

A. prefrontal cortex

Question 59

Research on monkeys has shown that the part of the brain most closely associated with working memory is the 
A. hippocampus.
B. amygdala.
C. occipital cortex.
D. prefrontal cortex.

Answer 59

D. prefrontal cortex.

Question 60

Funahashi and coworkers recorded neurons in the PF cortex of monkeys during a delayed response task. These neurons showed the most intense firing during 
A. stimulus presentation.
B. delay.
C. response.
D. All of these.

Answer 60

B. delay.

Question 61

Joey is participating in an experiment on memory. He is asked to read a sentence and then hold the last word in his memory while he reads the next sentence. The experimenter measures the maximum number of sentences Joey can read while doing this memory task. Joey is doing the task. 
A. reading span
B. digit span
C. delayed response
D. mental rotation

Answer 61

A. reading span

Question 62

Lamar has just gotten a new job and is attending a company party where he will meet his colleagues for the first time. His boss escorts him around to small groups to introduce him. At the first group, Lamar meets four people and is told only their first names. The same thing happens with a second group and a third group. At the fourth group, Lamar is told their names and that one of the women in the group is the company accountant. A little while later, Lamar realises that while he remembers that names of the people in the fourth group, he can no longer recall the names of anyone he met earlier in the part. Lamar’s experience demonstrates…

A. the phonological similarity effect.
B. the cocktail party phenomenon.
C. retroactive interference.
D. a partial-report procedure

Answer 62

C. retroactive interference.

Question 63

Working memory differs from short-term memory in that
A. short-term memory consists of a number of components.
B. short-term memory has unlimited capacity.
C. working memory is concerned with both holding and processing information
D. working memory has unlimited capacity

Answer 63

C. working memory is concerned with both holding and processing information

Question 64

Bianca has been parking in the second row of the parking lot A outside of Wynn academic building for 2 weeks. She arrives to campus late and finds the entire lot full and has to park in lot D near the student union. She attends class and afterwards heads to parking lot A, after wandering the lot for seven min, she realizes that she actually parked in lot D and not lot A. Bianca suffered from a moment of…

A. implicit memory
B. Dichotic Listening
C. Proactive interference.
D. Short-term memory

Answer 64

proactive interference