Encoding Memories Quiz

A researcher wants to determine which studying technique would be more effective: massed practice or distributed practice. The researcher randomly assigns 30 students to two groups and gives them a list of vocabulary words to remember. One of the groups uses a massed practice technique. The other uses a distributed practice technique. The researcher gives the students a quiz four days later to see how well they remembered their list of words. He compared the scores for both groups. What is the dependent variable in this study?

• • The list of vocabulary words

• • The assigned study technique

• • The vocabulary quiz scores

• • The use of random assignment

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using which of the following memory concepts?

• • distributed learning

• • the method of loci

• • maintenance retrieval

• • echoic memory

A researcher is studying the accuracy of people’s memories when they use mnemonic devices. After studying the first 10 people, the data showed that memories using mnemonic devices were more accurate than the average’s person’s memories. Which of the following explains why the researcher should not draw any conclusions about the accuracy of memories using mnemonic devices yet?

• • The data is positively skewed, which means the data was not collected correctly.

• • The research method is an experiment, meaning she can draw cause-and-effect conclusions regardless of the sample size.

• • The researcher should expect that the more data she collects, the more likely the results will regress to the mean.

• • The research method is a correlation, so she cannot infer causation from the results.

In an experiment evaluating encoding strategies, a researcher taught participants 15 new psychological concepts. One group took notes to help learn the concepts while the other group was asked to create a mnemonic device for each concept. In this experiment, what is the independent variable?

• • The number of concepts recalled on the test.

• • The group who used mnemonics.

• • The method used to learn the concepts.

• • The style of notes that participants used.

Which of the following best describes the primacy effect?

• • When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence

• • When people have better recall of things that occur at the end of a sequence

• • When people who know very little about a subject tend to be overly confident about how much they know about that subject, while people who know a great deal about the subject tend to downplay their knowledge about that subject

• • When people tend to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they get when making decisions

A group of researchers are investigating how different studying strategies impact how much participants remember on a test. They recruit 50 participants and have half of the participants study by just reading a passage over and over for 10 minutes. The other half of the participants spend five minutes reading the passage one time and then answering a series of multiple-choice questions on the material for another five minutes. Finally, the participants write down as many facts from the reading passage as they can in three minutes. Which of the following is the dependent variable of the study?

• • Whether they re-read the passage or tested themselves on the material

• • The number of facts the participants remember during the test phase

• • The number of participants in the study

• • The content of the reading passage

Researchers recruited student volunteers for a study about memory. Each student given a long story to read about someone experiencing a “health emergency” and then given a quiz on the details of the story a week later. In Group 1, the participants had to read the study each night for a week. In Group 2, the participants were told to read the story 5 times the night before the quiz. After the study was over, the student participants were told the real reason for the study before they left. The data collected are presented in the table.

Which of the following best explains why Group 1 remembered more details of the story than Group 2?

• • Mnemonic devices

• • Serial position effect

• • Distributed practice

• • Massed practice

A high school instructor wanted to see if implementing encoding strategies would help students master concepts in AP Psychology. They conduct a double-blind study in which students are randomly assigned to either the encoding strategy group or the group that continued to study as they had before. The data for each group is presented in the table. Which of the following best represents the results of this investigation?

• • Those who studied as they did before scored better than those in the encoding strategies group.

• • The students in the encoding strategies group were likely more academically successful, which caused the higher mean score.

• • The instructor likely treated those in the encoding strategies differently.

• • The variation of scores for the encoding strategies group was smaller.

Researchers recruited student volunteers for a study about memory. Each student given a long story to read about someone experiencing a “health emergency” and then given a quiz on the details of the story a week later. In Group 1, the participants had to read the study each night for a week. In Group 2, the participants were told to read the story 5 times the night before the quiz. After the study was over, the student participants were told the real reason for the study before they left. The data collected are presented in the table.

Which of the following is the mean for Group 2?

• • 6

• 10

• 13.3

• 15

Researchers recruited student volunteers for a study about memory. Each student given a long story to read about someone experiencing a “health emergency” and then given a quiz on the details of the story a week later. In Group 1, the participants had to read the study each night for a week. In Group 2, the participants were told to read the story 5 times the night before the quiz. After the study was over, the student participants were told the real reason for the study before they left. The data collected are presented in the table.

Which of the following best describes the conclusion researchers could make if the results of this study are statistically significant?

• • The results have added significant information to the field.

• • The results are not likely due to chance.

• • A strong negative correlation exists between the number of participants and response time.

• • The reaction times were definitely the result of having or not having participants in the room.