PSY 654 Exam 2 UPDATED ACTUAL
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
1. What is the difference between short- and long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER -
STM — the capacity to recall a small amount of information from a recent time period
- LTM — the capacity to recall memories from a longer time ago
2. Describe Murdock's (1962) serial position curve. - CORRECT ANSWER - Had a list of
words (barricade, children, diet, baseball etc)
- Asked to recall words in any order
- Primacy Effect — remembering what you interacted with first the best
- Recency Effect — remembering what you interacted with last the best
3. What accounts for the primacy portion of the serial position curve? Is this part of the curve
typically associated with short- or long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - Primacy
Effect — people were using rehearsal to help remember: the ones at the beginning are the ones they
rehearsed the most
- As we are learning, we rehearsed information to get it into LTM
4. What accounts for the recent portion of the serial position curve? Is this part of the curve typically
associated with short- or long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - Recency Effect —
people remembered the words well but didn't rehearse them as much
- Things towards the end of the curve were still fresh in the minds sitting in long term memory
5. Did patient HM have short-term memory? Long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER -
Patient HM's short-term memory was still intact but his long-term memory was not
- He can recall things with cued recall or constant rehearsal
6. What is the distinction between declarative and procedural memory? - CORRECT ANSWER
- Declarative Memory — "Knowing That": names, dates, facts
- Procedural Memory — "Knowing How": riding a bicycle, signing your name, playing an instrument
, 7. What is the distinction between episodic and semantic memory? Which one did patient KC retain?
How are both these kinds of memory declarative? - CORRECT ANSWER - Semantic Memory
— your general knowledge about things and the world
- Episodic Memory — your ability to bring back memories to mind and vividly re-experience events
that you have gone through in your past
- KC had good semantic memory but very poor episodic memory
- These are both kinds of declarative memory because they both involve knowing things and being
able to express them in a way others can understand
- Require conscious awareness to retrieve the memory
8. What did Petrican and colleagues (2010) demonstrate regarding the functioning of episodic and
semantic memory in older adults? - CORRECT ANSWER - showed older adults pictures of
historical events in the past 10-50 years and asked them what event is taking place and if they
remember anything they learned about the event
- People generally knew of the events, but had difficulty remembering the details of what they learned
about the events (especially so for events 40-50 years ago)
- Episodic memories deteriorate with age
9. What did research using word-stem completion with amnesic patients demonstrate about implicit
memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - demonstrated that implicit memory has the ability to
impact behaviour in ways where we are not even consciously aware of it
- Word stem completion is acting as a primer — when given the first few letters of the word, HM was
able to recall the world he was asked to remember
10. What types of processing during encoding did you learn can improve memory (Hint: you learned
about 6 examples). Why do each of these help? - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Levels of
Processing (meaningful),
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
1. What is the difference between short- and long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER -
STM — the capacity to recall a small amount of information from a recent time period
- LTM — the capacity to recall memories from a longer time ago
2. Describe Murdock's (1962) serial position curve. - CORRECT ANSWER - Had a list of
words (barricade, children, diet, baseball etc)
- Asked to recall words in any order
- Primacy Effect — remembering what you interacted with first the best
- Recency Effect — remembering what you interacted with last the best
3. What accounts for the primacy portion of the serial position curve? Is this part of the curve
typically associated with short- or long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - Primacy
Effect — people were using rehearsal to help remember: the ones at the beginning are the ones they
rehearsed the most
- As we are learning, we rehearsed information to get it into LTM
4. What accounts for the recent portion of the serial position curve? Is this part of the curve typically
associated with short- or long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - Recency Effect —
people remembered the words well but didn't rehearse them as much
- Things towards the end of the curve were still fresh in the minds sitting in long term memory
5. Did patient HM have short-term memory? Long-term memory? - CORRECT ANSWER -
Patient HM's short-term memory was still intact but his long-term memory was not
- He can recall things with cued recall or constant rehearsal
6. What is the distinction between declarative and procedural memory? - CORRECT ANSWER
- Declarative Memory — "Knowing That": names, dates, facts
- Procedural Memory — "Knowing How": riding a bicycle, signing your name, playing an instrument
, 7. What is the distinction between episodic and semantic memory? Which one did patient KC retain?
How are both these kinds of memory declarative? - CORRECT ANSWER - Semantic Memory
— your general knowledge about things and the world
- Episodic Memory — your ability to bring back memories to mind and vividly re-experience events
that you have gone through in your past
- KC had good semantic memory but very poor episodic memory
- These are both kinds of declarative memory because they both involve knowing things and being
able to express them in a way others can understand
- Require conscious awareness to retrieve the memory
8. What did Petrican and colleagues (2010) demonstrate regarding the functioning of episodic and
semantic memory in older adults? - CORRECT ANSWER - showed older adults pictures of
historical events in the past 10-50 years and asked them what event is taking place and if they
remember anything they learned about the event
- People generally knew of the events, but had difficulty remembering the details of what they learned
about the events (especially so for events 40-50 years ago)
- Episodic memories deteriorate with age
9. What did research using word-stem completion with amnesic patients demonstrate about implicit
memory? - CORRECT ANSWER - demonstrated that implicit memory has the ability to
impact behaviour in ways where we are not even consciously aware of it
- Word stem completion is acting as a primer — when given the first few letters of the word, HM was
able to recall the world he was asked to remember
10. What types of processing during encoding did you learn can improve memory (Hint: you learned
about 6 examples). Why do each of these help? - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Levels of
Processing (meaningful),
