Psychology Degree Cognitive Psychology and Memory 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which memory phenomenon occurs when previously learned information interferes with the recall of newly learned information?
- Proactive interference (Correct answer)
- Retroactive interference
- Motivated forgetting
- Encoding failure
Correct answer: Proactive interference
Proactive interference occurs when older memories disrupt the retrieval of newer memories.
Question 2: The 'levels of processing' framework proposed by Craik and Lockhart (1972) suggests that memory retention depends on:
- The number of repetitions during study
- The depth at which information is encoded (Correct answer)
- The capacity of working memory
- The emotional valence of the material
Correct answer: The depth at which information is encoded
Craik and Lockhart argued that deeper, more meaningful processing (semantic) produces stronger, more durable memory traces than shallow processing (structural or phonological).
Question 3: Which brain structure is most critical for the consolidation of new explicit (declarative) memories?
- Amygdala
- Cerebellum
- Hippocampus (Correct answer)
- Basal ganglia
Correct answer: Hippocampus
The hippocampus is essential for consolidating new explicit memories from short-term to long-term storage.
Question 4: What does the 'serial position effect' demonstrate about free recall?
- Middle items are remembered best due to rehearsal
- First and last items are remembered better than middle items (Correct answer)
- Emotional items are always recalled first
- Longer words are recalled more accurately than shorter words
Correct answer: First and last items are remembered better than middle items
The serial position effect shows a primacy advantage (first items rehearsed into LTM) and a recency advantage (last items still in working memory).
Question 5: Which type of long-term memory is tested when a person identifies a previously seen word in a word-stem completion task without consciously trying to recall it?
- Episodic memory
- Semantic memory
- Implicit memory (Correct answer)
- Prospective memory
Correct answer: Implicit memory
Implicit memory (priming) is demonstrated when prior exposure facilitates performance without conscious recollection.
Question 6: The 'tip-of-the-tongue' (TOT) phenomenon best illustrates a failure at which stage of memory retrieval?
- Encoding specificity
- Storage decay
- Retrieval despite partial access (Correct answer)
- Proactive interference
Correct answer: Retrieval despite partial access
TOT states occur when a memory is partially accessible (phonological features available) but full retrieval is temporarily blocked.
Question 7: According to Baddeley's model of working memory, which component is responsible for integrating information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory?
- Central executive
- Episodic buffer (Correct answer)
- Phonological store
- Inner scribe
Correct answer: Episodic buffer
The episodic buffer, added in 2000, serves as a temporary multidimensional store that integrates information across subsystems and links to long-term memory.
Psychology Degree Cognitive Psychology and Memory 2
Which memory phenomenon occurs when previously learned information interferes with the recall of newly learned information?