Memory and Information Processing

"Dog food, coffee, paper towels." Michelle's roommate begins reciting items into the phone as she gets into her car. Michelle is supposed to stop by the store on the way home. The roommate continues to list a few more items. Finally, he wraps with, "Coffee creamer, spaghetti sauce, dish soap, and iced tea mix." Michelle forgets a few things, but the spaghetti sauce, dish soap, and iced tea mix are in the bag. Her memory for these items reflects the _____ effect.

• elaboration

• primacy

• recency

• chunking

_____ is grouping pieces of information together into meaningful subsets to expand the capacity of short-term memory.

• chunking

• hierarchy

• clumping

• consolidating

Classical conditioning often occurs outside one's awareness as a type of _____ memory.

• explicit

• sensory

• implicit

• semantic

The active processing that occurs in short-term memory is called _____ memory.

• long-term

• echoic

• working

• sensory

Diana is trying to learn the different branches of the nervous system. One mnemonic device that could help her memory of these terms would be to sketch a diagram showing the relationships among the concepts. This is called:

•  

  hierarchical structures

• the method of loci

• elaborative rehearsal

• distributed practice

When disturbing memories are unconsciously prevented from entering awareness, it is said that the memories have been:

• decayed

• falsely encoded

• denied

• repressed

Andrew is unable to recall whether Alexander Hamilton's head faces left or right on the $10 bill because he never really paid attention to it. In this scenario, Andrew's failure to recall the information can be explained by _____ failure.

• retrieval

• encoding

• storage

• long term memory

Louis is trying to remember a list of about 12 items for the grocery store. To remember the items, he just pictures them in predetermined spots throughout his apartment. Louis is using:

• the method of loci

• hierarchical structures

• distributed practice

• elaborative rehearsal

The increased efficiency of neural communication over time that results in learning and forming memories is called:

• the memory trace

• long-term potentiation

• retroactive interference

• the misinformation effect

One benefit of _____ is that a person can remember things easier when their emotions are similar at the time of encoding and retrieval.

• state-dependent

•  

  recency

• primacy

• relearning