Cognitive Psychology and Memory Flashcards
7 cards from real Psychology Degree practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Cognitive Psychology and Memory flashcards as text
George Miller's famous '7 ± 2' finding refers to the capacity limit of which memory system?
Answer: Short-term (working) memory
Miller (1956) showed that short-term memory can hold approximately 7 (±2) chunks of information at one time.
Which term describes the cognitive process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units to expand effective working memory capacity?
Answer: Chunking
Chunking recodes multiple items into a single meaningful unit, effectively increasing the amount of information held in working memory.
A witness to a crime later incorporates inaccurate details from post-event news coverage into their memory of the event. This best illustrates:
Answer: Source monitoring error
A source monitoring error occurs when information from one source (news) is misattributed to another source (personal experience), distorting the original memory.
What is 'spaced practice' (distributed practice), and why does it improve long-term retention compared to massed practice?
Answer: Repeating material at increasing intervals; each retrieval attempt strengthens the memory trace
Spaced practice with expanding retrieval intervals strengthens memory traces because each successful retrieval is an active reconstruction that re-encodes the memory.
Which concept describes the tendency to remember information presented at the beginning of a list better than information in the middle?
Answer: Primacy effect
The primacy effect occurs because early list items receive more rehearsal and are more likely to be transferred into long-term memory.
Which cognitive psychology concept best explains why reading the definition of a word aloud leads to better memory than silently reading it?
Answer: Generation effect
The generation effect shows that self-generated information (reading aloud, creating an example) is remembered better than passively received information.
In the context of eyewitness testimony research, what did Elizabeth Loftus's 'leading question' studies primarily demonstrate?
Answer: Post-event information can alter the content of an original memory
Loftus showed that asking 'How fast were the cars going when they smashed?' vs. 'hit' led participants to later report broken glass that was never present, demonstrating memory's reconstructive and malleable nature.