Sensory memory holds incoming sensory information for no more than a few seconds.
Correct Answer
True
True. Sensory memory briefly holds what the senses take in, lasting no more than a few seconds. Information that is not attended to is lost, while attended information moves on to short-term memory.
Category: Memory Stages and Models
Question 2
Information in short-term memory can be held for hours without any rehearsal.
Correct Answer
False
False. Without rehearsal, information in short-term memory fades within seconds, usually well under a minute. Rehearsal keeps it active and helps move it into long-term memory.
Category: Memory Stages and Models
Question 3
Long-term memory is thought to have an essentially unlimited capacity.
Correct Answer
True
True. Unlike short-term memory, long-term memory has no known capacity limit. It can hold information for days, years or a lifetime.
Category: Memory Stages and Models
Question 4
The central executive in Baddeley's working memory model is a storage area for visual images.
Correct Answer
False
False. The central executive controls attention and coordinates the flow of information among the other components. Visual and spatial images are held by the visuospatial sketchpad.
Category: Memory Stages and Models
Question 5
Elaborative rehearsal involves repeating information over and over without thinking about its meaning.
Correct Answer
False
False. Elaborative rehearsal involves thinking about the meaning of new information and linking it to what you already know. Simple repetition without attention to meaning is a shallower form of rehearsal.
Category: Encoding
Question 6
People tend to remember information better when they relate it to themselves.
Correct Answer
True
True. This is the self-reference effect. Connecting material to your own life creates richer, more meaningful encoding, which improves later recall.
Category: Encoding
Question 7
Semantic memory holds general knowledge, such as facts, concepts and word meanings.
Correct Answer
True
True. Semantic memory is a type of explicit memory for knowledge about the world. Unlike episodic memory, it is not tied to the time and place where it was learned.
Category: Types of Long-Term Memory
Question 8
Hyperthymesia is a condition in which a person forgets most of their personal past.
Correct Answer
False
False. Hyperthymesia is an extraordinarily detailed autobiographical memory that lets a person recall the events of nearly every day of their life. It is very rare.
Category: Types of Long-Term Memory
Question 9
Relearning material that was learned before usually takes less time than learning it the first time.
Correct Answer
True
True. Relearning shows that some memory remains even when material cannot be recalled or recognized. The time saved in relearning is evidence of that lasting trace.
Category: Retrieval
Question 10
Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve shows that forgetting happens slowly at first and then speeds up.
Correct Answer
False
False. The forgetting curve shows that most forgetting happens soon after learning. The rate of forgetting then slows and levels off.
Category: Retrieval
Question 11
The amygdala helps strengthen memories of emotionally arousing events, such as frightening experiences.
Correct Answer
True
True. The amygdala regulates emotions such as fear and helps consolidate emotional memories. This is one reason emotionally charged events are often remembered more strongly.
Category: Memory and the Brain
Question 12
Flashbulb memories can form only for national or public events, not for personal ones.
Correct Answer
False
False. Flashbulb memories can also form for personal events, including positive ones such as a wedding or the birth of a child. Despite their vividness, they can become inaccurate over time.
Category: Memory and the Brain
Question 13
Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories formed before an injury or illness.
Correct Answer
True
True. Retrograde amnesia affects memories from before the event, often episodic memories. It contrasts with anterograde amnesia, the inability to form new memories afterward.
Category: Forgetting and Distortion
Question 14
In Loftus and Palmer's car crash study, participants who heard the word "smashed" gave lower speed estimates than those who heard a milder verb.
Correct Answer
False
False. Participants who heard "smashed" gave higher speed estimates. A week later they were also more likely to report seeing broken glass that was never shown, showing how question wording can alter memory.
Category: Forgetting and Distortion
Question 15
Eyewitness misidentification is a leading factor in wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA evidence.
Correct Answer
True
True. Studies of DNA exonerations find that mistaken eyewitness identification played a role in a large share of the cases. Suggestive lineups and feedback can make witnesses more confident without making them more accurate.
Category: Forgetting and Distortion
Question 16
In Schacter's seven sins of memory, persistence is the involuntary recall of unwanted memories, such as those of a traumatic event.
Correct Answer
True
True. Persistence is memory that intrudes when a person would rather forget, as in repeated recall of a traumatic experience. Schacter classifies it separately from the sins of forgetting and distortion.
Category: Forgetting and Distortion
Question 17
The word HOMES, used to recall the names of the Great Lakes, is an example of an acronym.
Correct Answer
True
True. An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of the items to remember: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Acronyms are one kind of mnemonic device.
Category: Improving Memory
Question 18
Cramming all study into one long session leads to better long-term retention than spreading study across several shorter sessions.
Correct Answer
False
False. Distributed practice, spreading study over time, produces better long-term retention than cramming. This benefit is called the spacing effect.
Category: Improving Memory
Question 19
Sleep after learning disrupts the consolidation of new memories.
Correct Answer
False
False. Sleep helps the brain organize and consolidate new information into long-term memory. Getting enough sleep is a recommended memory strategy.
Category: Improving Memory
Question 20
In a semantic network, activating one concept makes linked concepts harder to retrieve.
Correct Answer
False
False. Through spreading activation, activating one concept partially activates related concepts, making them easier to retrieve. This helps explain why one memory often brings related memories to mind.
Category: Types of Long-Term Memory