Psychology Degree Cognitive Psychology and Memory 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student studies chemistry using the same background music she plans to listen to during the exam. This strategy exploits which memory principle?
- State-dependent memory
- Encoding specificity principle (Correct answer)
- Transfer-appropriate processing
- Spaced practice effect
Correct answer: Encoding specificity principle
The encoding specificity principle holds that retrieval is best when the cues present at encoding match those present at retrieval.
Question 2: Which experimental paradigm is most commonly used to study false memory formation, where participants 'remember' words never actually presented?
- Brown-Peterson task
- Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Correct answer)
- Sternberg memory scanning task
- Paired-associate learning
Correct answer: Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm
The DRM paradigm presents lists of semantically related words, reliably inducing false memories for a non-presented 'critical lure' word.
Question 3: In Atkinson and Shiffrin's multi-store model, information moves from sensory memory to short-term memory through:
- Automatic processing
- Selective attention (Correct answer)
- Consolidation
- Elaborative rehearsal
Correct answer: Selective attention
Selective attention determines which information from the large-capacity but brief sensory store is transferred into the limited-capacity short-term store.
Question 4: The mnemonic technique of the 'method of loci' primarily relies on which cognitive ability?
- Phonological rehearsal
- Visuospatial imagery and familiar locations (Correct answer)
- Chunking numerical information
- Semantic elaboration through rhyme
Correct answer: Visuospatial imagery and familiar locations
The method of loci requires mentally placing items to be remembered at specific locations along a familiar route, leveraging visuospatial memory.
Question 5: Which finding provides the strongest evidence that long-term memory has virtually unlimited capacity?
- People can recognize thousands of previously seen photographs with high accuracy (Correct answer)
- Working memory holds 7±2 chunks of information
- Mnemonists can memorize entire decks of cards in minutes
- The hippocampus continues to grow new neurons into adulthood
Correct answer: People can recognize thousands of previously seen photographs with high accuracy
Standing's (1973) recognition memory study demonstrated that participants could accurately recognize tens of thousands of images, suggesting LTM capacity is practically limitless.
Question 6: Retrograde amnesia following brain trauma typically disrupts memories from:
- The distant past more than the recent past
- The recent past more than the distant past (Correct answer)
- Only procedural memories
- Only semantic memories
Correct answer: The recent past more than the distant past
Retrograde amnesia usually follows a temporal gradient: recent memories are more vulnerable than remote ones because older memories are more thoroughly consolidated.
Question 7: Which research methodology would best test whether sleep enhances memory consolidation?
- Case study of a patient with insomnia
- Between-subjects design comparing post-learning sleep vs. wakefulness recall groups (Correct answer)
- Correlational survey of sleep habits and GPA
- Single-subject naturalistic observation during REM sleep
Correct answer: Between-subjects design comparing post-learning sleep vs. wakefulness recall groups
A controlled experiment with participants randomly assigned to sleep or wake conditions after learning allows causal inference about sleep's role in consolidation.
Psychology Degree Cognitive Psychology and Memory 3
A student studies chemistry using the same background music she plans to listen to during the exam.
This strategy exploits which memory principle?