BAPSY Cognitive Psychology and Processes 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which phenomenon describes the finding that memory for an event can be altered by post-event information, such as misleading questions?
- Source monitoring error
- Misinformation effect (Correct answer)
- Cryptomnesia
- Flashbulb memory
Correct answer: Misinformation effect
The misinformation effect, studied extensively by Elizabeth Loftus, shows that exposure to misleading post-event information can distort eyewitness memories.
Question 2: Feature integration theory (Treisman) proposes that focused attention is required to:
- Detect individual features like color or orientation
- Bind separate features into unified objects (Correct answer)
- Initiate any form of visual search
- Process stimuli in peripheral vision
Correct answer: Bind separate features into unified objects
According to feature integration theory, basic features are registered pre-attentively, but attention is necessary to correctly bind features into coherent object representations.
Question 3: In language production, which stage involves selecting the appropriate words to express an intended meaning?
- Conceptual preparation
- Lexical selection (Correct answer)
- Phonological encoding
- Articulation
Correct answer: Lexical selection
Lexical selection is the process of retrieving the appropriate word (lemma) from the mental lexicon to express the intended concept during speech production.
Question 4: Which concept describes the finding that people are better at recognizing words they generated themselves compared to words they read passively?
- The spacing effect
- The generation effect (Correct answer)
- The testing effect
- The self-reference effect
Correct answer: The generation effect
The generation effect demonstrates that actively generating a target (e.g., filling in a missing letter) leads to better memory than passively reading the complete item.
Question 5: According to the levels-of-processing framework (Craik & Lockhart), which type of encoding produces the deepest and most durable memory traces?
- Structural encoding (appearance)
- Phonological encoding (sound)
- Semantic encoding (meaning) (Correct answer)
- Orthographic encoding (spelling)
Correct answer: Semantic encoding (meaning)
Semantic encoding, which involves processing the meaning of information, produces the deepest level of processing and results in the strongest, most durable memory traces.
Question 6: In mental imagery research, the 'mental rotation' paradigm (Shepard & Metzler) demonstrated that:
- Mental images are propositional, not pictorial
- Rotation time increases linearly with the angle of rotation, suggesting analog processing (Correct answer)
- Imagined objects are stored as verbal descriptions
- Mental rotation is equally fast regardless of angle
Correct answer: Rotation time increases linearly with the angle of rotation, suggesting analog processing
Shepard and Metzler found that reaction time to judge whether two 3D shapes matched increased linearly with the angular difference, supporting the analog nature of mental imagery.
Question 7: Which type of long-term memory stores knowledge about how to perform skills and is largely implicit?
- Episodic memory
- Semantic memory
- Procedural memory (Correct answer)
- Prospective memory
Correct answer: Procedural memory
Procedural memory stores motor skills and cognitive routines (e.g., riding a bike, typing) and operates largely outside conscious awareness.
BAPSY Cognitive Psychology and Processes 5
Which phenomenon describes the finding that memory for an event can be altered by post-event information, such as misleading questions?