PSY 654 EXAM 2 UPDATED ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS
Question:
1. 1. What is the difference between short- and long-term memory?
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
Question:
2. 2. Describe Murdock's (1962) serial position curve.
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
Question:
3. 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?
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
Question:
4. 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?
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 short term memory
Question:
5. 5. Did patient HM have short-term memory? Long-term memory?
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
Question:
6. 6. What is the distinction between declarative and procedural memory?
Answer:
- Declarative Memory — "Knowing That": names, dates, facts
- Procedural Memory — "Knowing How": riding a bicycle, signing your name, playing an instrument
, Question:
7. 7. What is the distinction between episodic and semantic memory? Which one did patient KC retain?
How are both these kinds of memory declarative?
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
- Both episodic and semantic memories are declarative because they involve information that we are
consciously aware of and can describe. In contrast, non-declarative memory includes skills and habits (like
riding a bike) that we know but can't easily describe or consciously recall.
Question:
8. 8. What did Petrican and colleagues (2010) demonstrate regarding the functioning of episodic and
semantic memory in older adults?
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
Question:
9. 9. What did research using word-stem completion with amnesic patients demonstrate about implicit
memory?
Answer:
Implicit Memory Remains Intact: Amnesic patients, who have impaired explicit memory, were still able to
complete word stems with words they'd seen earlier, even if they couldn't consciously remember seeing
those words. This suggests that their exposure to the words influenced their responses in a way that didn't
rely on conscious recall.
- Word stem completion is acting as an unconscious primer — when given the first few letters of the word,
HM was able to recall the world he was asked to remember. It operates automatically and unconsciously,
in contrast to explicit memory, which requires conscious awareness.
-It shows that implicit memory can work independently of explicit memory
Question:
10. 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 ANSWERS
Question:
1. 1. What is the difference between short- and long-term memory?
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
Question:
2. 2. Describe Murdock's (1962) serial position curve.
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
Question:
3. 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?
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
Question:
4. 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?
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 short term memory
Question:
5. 5. Did patient HM have short-term memory? Long-term memory?
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
Question:
6. 6. What is the distinction between declarative and procedural memory?
Answer:
- Declarative Memory — "Knowing That": names, dates, facts
- Procedural Memory — "Knowing How": riding a bicycle, signing your name, playing an instrument
, Question:
7. 7. What is the distinction between episodic and semantic memory? Which one did patient KC retain?
How are both these kinds of memory declarative?
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
- Both episodic and semantic memories are declarative because they involve information that we are
consciously aware of and can describe. In contrast, non-declarative memory includes skills and habits (like
riding a bike) that we know but can't easily describe or consciously recall.
Question:
8. 8. What did Petrican and colleagues (2010) demonstrate regarding the functioning of episodic and
semantic memory in older adults?
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
Question:
9. 9. What did research using word-stem completion with amnesic patients demonstrate about implicit
memory?
Answer:
Implicit Memory Remains Intact: Amnesic patients, who have impaired explicit memory, were still able to
complete word stems with words they'd seen earlier, even if they couldn't consciously remember seeing
those words. This suggests that their exposure to the words influenced their responses in a way that didn't
rely on conscious recall.
- Word stem completion is acting as an unconscious primer — when given the first few letters of the word,
HM was able to recall the world he was asked to remember. It operates automatically and unconsciously,
in contrast to explicit memory, which requires conscious awareness.
-It shows that implicit memory can work independently of explicit memory
Question:
10. 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?
