CHAPTER 8 MCQ

Question 1

Autobiographical memory research shows that a person’s brain is more extensively activated when viewing photos

a. the person has seen before.
b. of familiar places.
c. they took themselves.
d. the person has never seen before.

Answer 1

c. they took themselves.

Question 2

For most adults over age 40, the reminiscence bump describes enhanced memory for

a. childhood and adolescence.
b. adolescence and early adulthood.
c. early adulthood and middle age.
d. childhood and middle age.

Answer 2

b. adolescence and early adulthood

Question 3

Asking people to recall the most influential events that happened during their college careers shows that in people’s lives ____________appear to be particularly memorable.

a. trauma-based experiences
b. family-centered challenges
c. the freshman year
d. transition points

Answer 3

d. transition points

Question 4

The observation that older adults often become nostalgic for the “good old days” reflects the self-image hypothesis, which states that

a. life in a society gets more complicated and difficult as generations pass.
b. memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life identities.
c. people tend to remember more of the positive events in their lives than negative ones.
d. our memories change as we live longer and have more “lifetime periods” to draw events from.

Answer 4

b. memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life identities.

Question 5

Schrauf and Rubin’s “two groups of immigrants” study found that the reminiscence bump coincided with periods of rapid change, occurring at a normal age for people emigrating early in life but shifting to 15 years later for those who emigrated later. These results support the

a. cognitive hypothesis.
b. self-image hypothesis.
c. narrative rehearsal hypothesis.
d. autobiographical hypothesis.

Answer 5

a. cognitive hypothesis.

Question 6

Extrapolating from the cultural life script hypothesis, which of the following events would be easiest to recall?

a. Retiring from work at age 40
b. Marrying at age 60
c. Graduating from college at age 22
d. Having a child at age 45

Answer 6

c. Graduating from college at age 22

Question 7

Stanny and Johnson’s “weapons focus” experiment, investigating memory for crime scenes, found that

a. the presence of a weapon enhances memory for all parts of the event.
b. the presence of a weapon has no effect on memory for the event.
c. the threat of a weapon causes people to focus their attention away from the weapon itself.
d. the presence of a weapon hinders memory for other parts of the event.

Answer 7

d. the presence of a weapon hinders memory for other parts of the event.

Question 8

Flashbulb memory is best represented by which of the following statements?

a. It is vivid memory for emotional events.
b. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event.
c. It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not necessarily accurate over time.
d. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for emotional events.

Answer 8

c. It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not necessarily accurate over time.

Question 9

Your text argues that the proper procedure for measuring the accuracy of flashbulb memories is

a. source monitoring.
b. scripting.
c. repeated recall.
d. pre-cueing.

Answer 9

c. repeated recall.

Question 10

A lesson to be learned from the research on flashbulb memories is that

a. rehearsal cannot account for them.
b. people’s confidence in a memory predicts its accuracy (high confidence = high accuracy).
c. extreme vividness of a memory does not mean it is accurate.
d. they are permanent and resist forgetting.

Answer 10

c. extreme vividness of a memory does not mean it is accurate.

Question 11

Experiments that argue against a special flashbulb memory mechanism find that as time increases since the occurrence of the flashbulb event, participants

a. remember more details about the event.
b. make more errors in their recollections.
c. report less confidence about their recollections.
d. report less vivid recollections of the event.

Answer 11

b. make more errors in their recollections.

Question 12

Your text describes an experiment by Talarico and Rubin (2003) that measured people’s memories of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Which of the following was the primary result of that research?

a. Participants had very little confidence in the accuracy of their memories of the events 32 weeks after they occurred.
b. Participants had a very high level of confidence of the terrorist events and also had high confidence in their
present “everyday” memories 32 weeks later.
c. Participants had high confidence in the accuracy of their memories of the terrorist events 32 weeks later, but when actually tested made significant errors when asked what they were doing on the day of the attacks.
d. After 32 weeks, participants had a high level of confidence in their memories of the terrorist events, but
lower belief in their memories of “everyday” events.

Answer 12

d. After 32 weeks, participants had a high level of confidence in their memories of the terrorist events, but
lower belief in their memories of “everyday” events.

Question 13

The idea that we remember life events better because we encounter the information over and over in what we read, see on TV, and talk about with other people is called the

a. narrative rehearsal hypothesis.
b. cognitive hypothesis.
c. life-narrative hypothesis.
d. reminiscence hypothesis.

Answer 13

a. narrative rehearsal hypothesis.

Question 14

According to the _________ approach to memory, what people report as memories is based on what actually happened plus additional factors such as other knowledge, experiences, and expectations.

a. event-specific
b. source
c. constructive
d. misinformation

Answer 14

c. constructive

Question 15

The “telephone game” is often played by children. One child creates a story and whispers it to a second child, who does the same to a third child, and so on. When the last child recites the story to the group, his or her reproduction of the story is generally shorter than the original and contains many omissions and inaccuracies. This game shows how memory is a _______process.

a. life-narrative
b. narrative-rehearsal
c. consequentiality based
d. constructive

Answer 15

d. constructive

Question 16

In the “War of the Ghosts” experiment, participants’ reproductions contained inaccuracies based on

a. narrative rehearsal.
b. source misattributions.
c. cultural expectations.
d. shallow processing.

Answer 16

d. shallow processing

Question 17

Bartlett’s experiment in which English participants were asked to recall the “War of the Ghosts” story that was taken from the French Indian culture illustrated the

a. misinformation effect.
b. familiarity effect.
c. constructive nature of memory.
d. reminiscence bump.

Answer 17

c. constructive nature of memory.

Question 18

The repeated reproduction technique used in memory studies involves

a. the same participants remembering some information at longer and longer intervals after learning the information.
b. different groups of participants remembering some information across different periods of time after learning the information.
c. the same participants remembering some information for as many trials as it takes to recall all of the information correctly.
d. the same participants recalling some information many times but, each time, receiving different retrieval cues to assist their recall.

Answer 18

a. the same participants remembering some information at longer and longer intervals after learning the information.

Question 19

Wei has allergy symptoms. He has gone to his regular doctor and an allergy specialist, but he wasn’t given a prescription by either doctor. Instead, he was advised to buy an over-the-counter medicine. While he was in the specialist’s waiting area, he read a magazine where he saw three ads for an allergy medicine called SneezeLess. A week later, in a drug store, Wei says to his brother, “My doctor says SneezeLess works great. I’ll buy that one.” Wei and his doctor never discussed SneezeLess. Wei has fallen victim to which of the following errors?

a. MPI
b. Recovered memory
c. Schema confusion
d. Source monitoring

Answer 19

d. Source monitoring

Question 20

Unconscious plagiarism of the work of others is known as

a. narrative rehearsal.
b. cryptomnesia.
c. repeated reproduction.
d. repeated recall.

Answer 20

b. cryptomnesia.

Question 21

Jacoby’s experiment, in which participants made judgments about whether they had previously seen the names of famous and non-famous people, found that inaccurate memories based on source misattributions occurred after a delay of

a. one week.
b. 24 hours.
c. one hour.
d. one month.

Answer 21

b. 24 hours.

Question 22

The experiment for which people were asked to make fame judgments for both famous and non-famous names (and for which Sebastian Weissdorf was one of the names to be remembered) illustrated the effect of ________on memory.

a. repeated rehearsal of distinctive names
b. source misattributions
c. encoding specificity
d. schemas

Answer 22

b. source misattributions

Question 23

________occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the sentence.

a. Observer perspective
b. Pragmatic inference
c. Prospective memory
d. Automatic narrative

Answer 23

b. Pragmatic inference

Question 24

The experiment in which participants first read sentences about a baseball game and were then asked to identify sentences they had seen before, illustrated that memory

a. is better for vivid descriptions.
b. is like a tape recording.
c. depends on the participant’s mood.
d. involves making inferences.

Answer 24

d. involves making inferences.

Question 25

Arkes and Freedman’s “baseball game” experiment asked participants to indicate whether the following sentence was present in a passage they had previously read about events in a game: “The batter was safe at first.” Their findings showed inaccurate memories involved

a. omissions of information that was presented.
b. participants who did not understand baseball and assumed more information was presented than actually was.
c. creations from inferences based on baseball knowledge.
d. confusions about presented information when it was ambiguous.

Answer 25

c. creations from inferences based on baseball knowledge.

Question 26

Your friend has been sick for several days, so you go over to her home to make her some chicken soup. Searching for a spoon, you first reach in a top drawer beside the dishwasher. Then, you turn to the big cupboard beside the stove to search for a pan. In your search, you have relied on a kitchen________

a. source memory.
b. script.
c. schema.
d. scan technique.

Answer 26

c. schema

Question 27

In the experiment in which participants sat in an office and then were asked to remember what they saw in the office, participants “remembered” some things, like books, that weren’t actually there. This experiment illustrates the effect of __________on memory.

a. schemas
b. scripts
c. confabulation
d. bias

Answer 27

a. schemas

Question 28

Jackie went to the grocery store to pick up yogurt, bread, and apples. First, she picked up a hand basket for carrying her groceries, and then she searched the store. After finding what she needed, she stood in a check-out line. Then, the cashier put her items in a plastic bag, and soon after, Jackie left the store. As readers of this event, we understand that Jackie paid for the groceries, even though it wasn’t mentioned, because we are relying on a grocery store _____.

a. misattribution
b. script
c. narrative
d. schema

Answer 28

b. script

Question 29

In the “word list” false memory experiment where several students incorrectly remembered hearing the word sleep, false memory occurs because of

a. constructive memory processes.
b. verbatim recall.
c. the effect of scripts.
d. cryptomnesia

Answer 29

a. constructive memory processes.

Question 30

In the word list experiment that was based on work by Deese (1959) and Roediger & McDermott (1995), many students incorrectly remembered hearing the word _________as part of the list of presented stimuli. This highlights a disadvantage of memory’s constructive nature.

a. blanket
b. sleep
c. tired
d. drowsy

Answer 30

b. sleep

Question 31

Your text’s discussion of false memories leads to the conclusion that false memories

a. arise from the same constructive processes that produce true memories.
b. occur for details but not for entire events.
c. occur in laboratory settings but do not occur in real-world circumstances.
d. do not occur for all people but rather are experienced by suggestible or inattentive people.

Answer 31

a. arise from the same constructive processes that produce true memories.

Question 32

The conclusion to be drawn from the man named Shereshevskii whose abnormal brain functioning gave him virtually limitless word-for-word memory is that having memory like a video recorder

a. is largely a blessing because no event would be erased.
b. is an advantage because it eliminates “selective” recording (remembering some events and forgetting others), which provides no useful service to humans.
c. helped him draw powerful inferences and intelligent conclusions from his vast knowledge base.
d. can seriously disrupt functioning in one’s personal life

Answer 32

d. can seriously disrupt functioning in one’s personal life

Question 33

“S,” who had a photographic memory that was described as virtually limitless, was able to achieve many feats of memory. According to the discussion in your text, S’s memory system operated

a. in a manner that bypassed normal neurological “blocks.”
b. less efficiently than normal.
c. using more visual encoding than normal.
d. using stronger semantic connections than normal.

Answer 33

b. less efficiently than normal.

Question 34

The misinformation effect occurs when a person’s memory for an event is modified by misleading information presented

a. before the event.
b. during the event.
c. after the event.
d. all of the above

Answer 34

c. after the event.

Question 35

Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding post-event information and the misinformation effect?

a. The misinformation effect does not occur when people are told explicitly that the post-event information may be incorrect
b. Even when participants are told that the post-event information is incorrect, the misinformation effect can still occur.
c. Misinformation effects are significantly reduced when post-event information is provided, but only if that information is given within just a few minutes of the initial event.
d. The provision of accurate post-event information provided a paradoxical (and as of yet unexplained) increase in the misinformation effect

Answer 35

b. Even when participants are told that the post-event information is incorrect, the misinformation effect can still occur.

Question 36

The retroactive interference hypothesis states that the misinformation effect occurs because

a. MPI obstructs or distorts memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.
b. MPI cues the rememberer that an error in memory is occurring.
c. MPI fills in the gaps in the original memory where it lacked detail.
d. the original memory for an event decays over time, leaving room for MPI to infiltrate the memory later.

Answer 36

a. MPI obstructs or distorts memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.

Question 37

The misinformation effect can be explained by

a. proactive interference.
b. retroactive interference.
c. schematic biases.
d. repeated familiarity effects.

Answer 37

b. retroactive interference.

Question 38

________occurs when more recent learning impairs memory for something that happened further back in the past.

a. Reminiscent memory
b. Pragmatic inference
c. Feature integration
d. Retroactive interference

Answer 38

d. Retroactive interference

Question 39

Loftus and Palmer’s “car-crash films” experiment described in the text shows how a seemingly minor word change can produce a change in a person’s memory report. In this study, the MPI was (were) the word(s)

a. “fast.”
b. “smashed.”
c. “miles per hour.”
d. “car crash.”

Answer 39

b. “smashed.”

Question 40

In Lindsay’s “misinformation effect” experiment, participants saw a sequence of slides showing a maintenance man stealing money and a computer. This slide presentation included narration by a female speaker who described what was happening in the slides as they were shown. Results showed that the misinformation effect was greatest when MPI presentation was

a. visual.
b. auditory, regardless of the gender of the speaker.
c. auditory from a female speaker.
d. auditory from a male speaker.

Answer 40

c. auditory from a female speaker.

Question 41

Lindsay’s misinformation effect experiment, in which participants were given a memory test about a sequence of slides showing a maintenance man stealing money and a computer, showed that participants are influenced by MPI

a. if they believe the postevent information is correct.
b. only if the MPI is presented immediately after viewing the event.
c. even if they are told to ignore the postevent information.
d. if the MPI is consistent with social stereotypes.

Answer 41

c. even if they are told to ignore the postevent information.

Question 42

Kieran found that studying for his Spanish exam made it more difficult to remember some of the vocabulary words he had just studied for his French exam earlier in the day. This is an example of

a. retroactive interference.
b. a life-narrative confusion.
c. memory-trace replacement.
d. a simultaneous presentation effect.

Answer 42

a. retroactive interference.

Question 43

Research on eyewitness testimony has shown that the more confident the person giving the testimony is of their memories,

a. the more accurate the memories are.
b. the more convincing the testimony is to a jury.
c. the more likely they are to be influenced by a weapons focus.
d. the more accurate the memories are and the more convincing the testimony is to a jury.

Answer 43

b. the more convincing the testimony is to a jury.

Question 44

Which statement below is NOT true, based on the results of memory research?

a. Suggestion can create false memories for events that occurred when a person was a young child.
b. Suggestion can create false memories for an event that a person has experienced just recently.
c. Although eyewitness testimony is often faulty, people who have just viewed a videotape of a crime are quite accurate at picking the “perpetrator” from a lineup.
d. Many miscarriages of justice have occurred based on faulty eyewitness testimony.

Answer 44

c. Although eyewitness testimony is often faulty, people who have just viewed a videotape of a crime are quite accurate at picking the “perpetrator” from a lineup.

Question 45

Your text’s discussion of eyewitness testimony illustrates that this type of memory is frequently influenced by all of the following EXCEPT

a. failing to elaboratively rehearse these kinds of events due to fear.
b. inattention to relevant information due to the emotional nature of these events.
c. source-monitoring errors due to familiarity.
d. increased confidence due to postevent questioning.

Answer 45

a. failing to elaboratively rehearse these kinds of events due to fear.

Question 46

Research on eyewitness testimony reveals that

a. highly confident eyewitnesses are usually accurate.
b. it is unnecessary to warn an eyewitness that a suspect may or may not be in a lineup.
c. when viewing a lineup, an eyewitness’s confidence in her choice of the suspect can be increased by an authority’s confirmation of her choice, even when the choice is wrong.
d. despite public misconception, eyewitnesses are usually very accurate when selecting a perpetrator from a lineup.

Answer 46

c. when viewing a lineup, an eyewitness’s confidence in her choice of the suspect can be increased by an authority’s confirmation of her choice, even when the choice is wrong.

Question 47

Much research has been dedicated to improving the reliability of eyewitness testimony. One finding reveals that when constructing a lineup,
a. increasing similarity between “fillers” and a suspect leads to an increased level of erroneous identification of
innocent people.
b. increasing similarity between “fillers” and a suspect leads to an increased level of missed identification of some guilty suspects.
c. increasing the number of fillers from 5 to 7 actually decreases the rate of false positive identifications.
d. decreasing the number of fillers from 6 to 3 actually increases the rate of false positive identifications.

Answer 47

b. increasing similarity between “fillers” and a suspect leads to an increased level of missed identification of some guilty suspects.

Question 48

When presenting lineups to eyewitnesses, it has been found that a(n) ______lineup is much more likely to result in an innocent person being falsely identified.

a. sequential
b. simultaneous
c. immediate
d. precued

Answer 48

b. simultaneous

Question 49

When presenting lineups to eyewitnesses, it has been found that a(n) ______lineup is much more likely to result in an innocent person being falsely identified.

a. sequential
b. simultaneous
c. immediate
d. precued

Answer 49

b. simultaneous

Question 50

Which of the following statements is true of police lineups?

a. A sequential lineup increases the chance that the witness compares people in the lineup to each other.
b. A simultaneous lineup decreases the chance of falsely identifying an innocent person as the perpetrator.
c. A sequential lineup increases the chance that the witness will make a relative judgment about all the suspects they saw.
d. A sequential lineup increases the chance that the witness compares each person in the lineup to his or her memory of the event.

Answer 50

d. A sequential lineup increases the chance that the witness compares each person in the lineup to his or her memory of the event.

Question 51

Which of the following statements is true of the cognitive interview technique?

a. Police ask witnesses questions and have them rate their confidence level in their recollections.
b. Police offer positive reinforcement to witnesses (e.g., “Good, that makes sense.”) when the witnesses give information consistent with what is in the police file.
c. Police allow witnesses to talk with a minimum of interruption from the officer.
d. Police start their interview with simple filler questions to make the witnesses feel comfortable.

Answer 51

c. Police allow witnesses to talk with a minimum of interruption from the officer.

Question 52

The “wedding reception” false memory experiment shows that false memories can be explained as a product of familiarity and

a. retroactive interference.
b. consequentiality.
c. source misattribution.
d. confabulation.

Answer 52

c. source misattribution.

Question 53

Lindsay and coworkers “slime in the first-grade teacher’s desk” experiment showed that presenting

a. accounts of actual childhood events supplied by a participant’s parent increased the likelihood of false memories.
b. accounts of actual childhood events supplied by a participant’s parent decreased the likelihood of false memories.
c. a photograph of the participant’s first-grade class increased the likelihood of false memories.
d. a photograph of the participant’s first-grade class decreased the likelihood of false memories.

Answer 53

c. a photograph of the participant’s first-grade class increased the likelihood of false memories.

Question 54

Your text describes two experiments that measured people’s memory for what they were doing when they heard about the terrorist attack on 9/11. Results of these experiments show that participants

a. believed that their memories for the attack remained accurate over a 52-week period.
b. displayed memory for this flashbulb event that declined with time.
c. reported less vivid memories of 9/11 as time passed.
d. both believed their memories for the attack were accurate over a 52-week period and displayed memory for the flashbulb event that declined with time.

Answer 54

d. both believed their memories for the attack were accurate over a 52-week period and displayed memory for the flashbulb event that declined with time.

Question 55

In the “sleep list” false memory experiment, false memory occurs because of

a. constructive memory processes.
b. verbatim recall.
c. the effect of scripts.
d. none of these

Answer 55

a. constructive memory processes.

Question 56

The sleep list experiment, in which many people misremember the word “sleep” as being part of a list of words, is an example of

a. a repeated recall error.
b. a disadvantage of memory’s constructive nature.
c. misleading postevent information’s influence on memory.
d. retroactive interference.

Answer 56

b. a disadvantage of memory’s constructive nature.

Question 57

In discussing the survival value of the memory system, your text highlights the undesirability of

a. weapons focus.
b. shallow processing.
c. the reminiscence bump.
d. photographic memory.

Answer 57

d. photographic memory.

Question 58

Your text’s discussion of false memories leads to the conclusion that false memories

a. are a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system.
b. occur for details but not for entire events.
c. occur in laboratory settings but do not occur in real-world circumstances.
d. do not occur for all people but rather are experienced by suggestible or inattentive people.

Answer 58

a. are a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system.

Question 59

The memory-trace replacement hypothesis states that the misinformation effect occurs because

a. MPI impairs or replaces memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.
b. MPI cues the rememberer that an error in memory is occurring.
c. MPI fills in the gaps in the original memory where it lacked detail.
d. the original memory for an event decays over time, leaving room for MPI to infiltrate the memory later.

Answer 59

a. MPI impairs or replaces memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.

Question 60

The misinformation effect can be explained by

a. the memory-trace replacement hypothesis.
b. retroactive interference.
c. source monitoring.
d. all of these

Answer 60

d. all of these

Question 61

Critics of eyewitness testimony could point to the ______ hypothesis to highlight the dangers of repeated questioning of eyewitnesses.

a. narrative-rehearsal
b. cognitive
c. memory-trace replacement
d. confabulation

Answer 61

c. memory-trace replacement

Question 62

Your text’s discussion of instances when people report a memory of being abused or witness abuse after years of having no memory for these events highlights the importance of considering

a. how visualization exercises during therapy may lead to false memories.
b. that there is no test that can accurately discriminate between true and false memories.
c. the specific situation under which a person recalls the past.
d. all of these

Answer 62

d. all of these