Exam Two Questions

Question 1

what is the purpose of sensory memory?

Answer 1

too keep a record of what each sense has just experienced for a brief period of time

Question 2

describe George Sperling’s WHOLE report technique

Answer 2

12 letters flash on a screen and the participant must try to recall as many letters as they can

Question 3

describe George Sperling’s partial report technique

Answer 3

12 letters flash on a screen, a tone is played while or right after they are flashed indicating which line needs to be recalled

Question 4

what is echoic memory?

Answer 4

persistence of auditory impressions and brief availability for further processing

Question 5

what is an echo?

Answer 5

representation of an auditory stimulus that is no longer present

Question 6

is working memory dynamic or static?

Answer 6

dynamic, we work with the information and process it in our memory

Question 7

what are the four functional components of working memory?

Answer 7

• phonological loop
• visuospatial sketch pad
• central executive
• episodic buffer

Question 8

what is the evolutionary reason we would have a better echoic memory than iconic memory

Answer 8

we can generally look at threats multiple times, but you usually only have the opportunity to hear something once

Question 9

what is the rule for how much we can hold in working memory?

Answer 9

7 +/- 2

so 5 is the lower end and 9 is the higher end

Question 10

what is proactive inhibition (interference)

Answer 10

what you heard from a prior trial may still be rattling around and causing your performance to decrease on future trials

Question 11

what is the best way to chunk?

Answer 11

by making the chunks into something meaningful (FBI vs. IBF)

Question 12

can you stretch working memory past the normal limits?

Answer 12

yes, through practice

this is how people memorize hundreds of digits of pi

Question 13

why can native English speakers remember higher amounts of numbers/letters?

Answer 13

english has very few syllables so you can rehearse them more

Question 14

in a list, what are we best at recalling:

the first, middle, or last items

Answer 14

first and last are best

(primacy and recency effects)

Question 15

when searching for an item in a list in our working memories, why does the position of where that item is not matter for reaction time?

Answer 15

we search our working memories serially, meaning that we will still search the whole list item by item even after we’ve seen the item were looking for

Question 16

what is the most widely accepted theory of working memory?
(describe it)

Answer 16

the multicomponent model (Baddeley)

contains the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and central executive

Question 17

if you are having trouble learning new material because previously learned material is getting in the way, what are you experiencing?

Answer 17

proactive interference

Question 18

teasdale and colleagues (1995) demonstrated that the ability to generate a list of numbers that appears random is hindered by

a. concurrently using phonological loop
b. poor math ability
c. engaging in verbal expression (la la la)
d. engaging in daydreaming

Answer 18

d. engaging in daydreaming

Question 19

describe declarative memory and give examples

Answer 19

type of memory that is easy to put into words

episodic and semantic

Question 20

describe non-declarative memory and give examples

Answer 20

type of memory that is not easy to put into words

procedural

Question 21

what is the permastore theory

Answer 21

everything you have learned well stays in your memory, you might not remember it outright but you can if cued

the idea of even if you haven’t spoken a language in 10 years you still remember it

Question 22

what is the decay theory of forgetting?

Answer 22

“use it or lose it”

memory is a shiv and if you are not actively using information it gets lost

Question 23

what is the interference theory of forgetting?

Answer 23

information you have learned stays in there even if you cannot remember it

cues and context might bring those memories back

Question 24

what is deep processing

Answer 24

you are extracting some kind of meaning from a stimulus which helps you remember it better

Question 25

give an example of deep vs. shallow processing

Answer 25

deep:
1. does the word presume mean the same as suppose
2. is a clutch a type of purse

shallow:
1. is the word presume in capital letters
2. does the word clutch start with the letter C

Question 26

why does maintenance rehearsal not work as well as elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 26

maintenance requires minimal thinking, such as repeating a word over and over or re-reading definitions

elaborative requires more meaningful thinking, such as connecting material from different classes together, re-writing definitions in your own words, or making connections to yourself

Question 27

why does the self-reference effect work?

Answer 27

1. the “self” provides richer cues so it is easier to link to and remember new info
2. connecting ideas to yourself requires elaboration which in turn leads to better recall

Question 28

forgetting what you wanted from the fridge until you walk back into the room you were originally sitting in is an example of what?

Answer 28

encoding-specificity principle

Question 29

considering the pleasantness of information, what is recalled best and worst?

Answer 29

pleasant > unpleasant > neutral

Question 30

considering mood congruence, what group of people are most likely to have better memory for unpleasant information?

Answer 30

depressed individuals

Question 31

memory for your plans for spring break would fall under what type of memory?

Answer 31

episodic, even plans still count as a future episode

Question 32

patients with anxiety/PTSD remember more ______ concepts when tested implicitly, but this is not true when tested explicitly

Answer 32

negative

Question 33

give an example of dissociation in amnesiacs

Answer 33

an amnesiac patient may do better at a game they learned yesterday even though they do not remember learning it

Question 34

are flashbulb memories generally accurate?

Answer 34

they can be but not really, usually the finer details people think they remember have gotten twisted and changed over the years

Question 35

describe framing as used in autobiographical memory

Answer 35

the phrasing of a question may manipulate what a person thinks that they remember/saw

Question 36

what percentage of the participants in the Loftus and Pickrell study falsely remembered being lost in a shopping mall as a child?

a. 0-30%
b. 31-60%
c. 91-99%
d. 100%

Answer 36

a. 0-30%

Question 37

which structure of semantic memory is historically important but not used much today?

Answer 37

feature comparison
(organizing info based on defining and characteristic attributes)

Question 38

which of the following would be considered a defining feature of the concept “school”

a. a building where students go to learn
b. a hard copy or paperback textbook
c. both a and b
d. neither a nor b

Answer 38

d. neither a nor b

Question 39

which level of categorization is most commonly used to describe objects?

Answer 39

basic level
(like knife not kitchen utensil or paring knife)

Question 40

how is the exemplar approach different than prototypes?

Answer 40

your concept of “dog” would be based on numerous examples of dogs you have know

prototypes aren’t necessarily based off of things you have seen, they are more conceptual