Memory and Cognition
Chapter 7
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Answers: Chapter 8 (Everyday Memory and Memory Errors)
This is a set of questions to help you check your understanding of the material. It is
recommended that you do them right after doing the lecture and the readings for
that section, and then check your answers.
1. The observation that older adults often become nostalgic for the “good old
days” reflects the self-image hypothesis, which states that
a. Life in a society gets more complicated and difficult as generations
pass
b. Memory for life events is enhanced during the time we assume our life
identities
c. People tend to remember more of the positive events in their lives
than the negative ones
d. Our memories change as we live longer and have more “lifetime
periods” to draw events from
The correct answer is B. You should know the different hypotheses about
what causes the “reminisence bump”. The self-image hypothesis is one of
these, and it is accurately described by option B. Answer C was tempting
because it offers an explanation for why they’re the “good” old days an not
the “bad” old days. However this was not discussed in your text and has
nothing to do with the self-image hypothesis.
2. Flashbulb memory is best represented by which of the following statements:
a. It is vivid memory for emotional events
b. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for the circumstances surrounding
how a person heard about an emotional event
c. It is memory for the circumstances surrounding how a person heard
about an emotional event that remains especially vivid but not
necessarily accurate over time
d. It is vivid, highly accurate memory for emotional events
The correct answer is C. There are two parts to this: 1) flashbulb memories
are memories for the event of hearing about an emotional event (not the
event itself) and 2) that it is vivid, but NOT accurate. You should remember
both. This is tough because people are very confident about the flashbulb
memories because of their vividness, but this confidence is not the same as
accuracy.
3. Experiments that argue against a special flashbulb memory mechanism find
that as time increases since the occurrence of the flashbulb event,
participants
a.
b.
c.
d.
Remember more details about the event
Make more errors in their memories for the event
Report having less confidence about their memories for the event
Report having less vivid memories for the event
The correct answer is B. This continues on the theme of question 2. The
memory remains vivid and people continue to be confident in it (so C and D
are incorrect). However, it becomes LESS accurate, even though they feel like
they’re simply remembering more details. That’s why B is right. A was
tempting because it fits with what most people think is happening, but it’s
actually wrong.
4. The “telephone game” is often played by children. One child creates a story
and whispers it to a second child, who does the same to a third child, and so
on. When the last child recites the story to the group, his or her reproduction
of the story is generally shorter than the original and contains many
omissions and inaccuracies. This game shows how memory is a ____________
process.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Life-narrative
Narrative-rehearsal
Consequentiality based
Constructive
The correct answer is D. Construction involves using schemas / scripts to “fill
in” the details of something that is complicated, like a story. When different
children use their own schemas / scripts, the story gets changed on each retelling. You should know what it means for memory to be constructive.
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5. Wei has allergy symptoms. He has gone to his regular doctor and an allergy
specialist, but he wasn’t given a prescription by either doctor. Instead, he was
advised to buy over-the-counter medicine. While he was in the specialist’s
waiting room, he read a magazine where he saw three ads for an allergy
medicine called SneezeLess. A week later, in a drug store, Wei says to his
brother, “My doctor says SneezeLess works great. I’ll buy that one.” Wei and
his doctor never discussed SneezeLess. Wei has fallen victim to which of the
following errors:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Source monitoring
MPI
The propaganda effect
Schema confusion
The best answer is A but B is a very close second and C might have been
involved as well (this question is actually too “tricky” for a real exam, but it
makes you think….). Source monitoring is the best answer because we know
for sure from the question that Wei remembered the statement that
“SneezeLess works great” but mistakenly attributed it to his doctor. In reality
the information must have come from the ads in the specialist’s waiting area.
B is a close second because the doctor did actually discuss “over the counter
medicine” of which SneezeLess might be one. If he visited the specialist after
the doctor it could have been MPI, but we don’t know for sure that that’s the
order so it’s not as good of a choice as A. C might have been involved too if
the ads actually didn’t say “SneezeLess works great” but they actually said
“Joe’s doctor says ‘sneezeless works great’“ or something like that.
6. The experiment for which people were asked to make fame judgements for
both famous and non-famous names (and for which Sebastian Weissdorf was
one of the names to be remembered) illustrated the effect of __________ on
memory.
a.
b.
c.
d.
repeated rehearsal of distinctive names
source misattributions
encoding specificity
schemas
The correct answer is B. This is the becoming famous overnight study. People
know that the name is familiar, but they don’t know why, so they just rate it
as famous. It actually seems familiar because they read it during the study on
a previous day.
7. Your text’s discussion of false memories leads to the conclusion that false
memories
a. Are a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system
b. Occur for detail but not for entire events
c. Occur in laboratory settings but do not occur in real-world
circumstances
d. Do not occur for all people but rather are experienced by suggestible
or inattentive people.
The correct answer is A. You can find specific counter examples in the text
that rule out all of the answers except A. This is a good thing to try as you
prepare for the exam. You should also go over reasons why it’s actually
“adaptive” or “good” for the memory to be the way it is, even though it leads
to false memories [hint: these are related to the constructive nature of
memory]
8. The misinformation effect occurs when a person’s memory for an event is
modified by misleading information presented
a.
b.
c.
d.
Before the event
During the event
After the event
All of the above
The correct answer is C. This is called MPI for misleading POSTevent
information. Post means after. This is what happens with leading questions
in eyewitness testimony. You should know about this – experiments and realworld examples.
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9. Your text’s discussion of instances when people report a memory of being
abused or witness to abuse after years of having no memory for these events
highlights the importance of considering:
a. How visualization exercises during therapy may lead to false
memories
b. That there is no test that can accurately discriminate between true
and false memories
c. The specific situation under which a person recalls the past
d. All of the above
The correct answer is D. This is too awkward for a real test question but all of
them are important to consider when thinking about these “recovered”
memories. Cognitive psychologists believe that recovered memories are
usually false (though some social workers and clinical psychologists
disagree).
10. Explain how familiarity can lead to memory errors. Describe experimental
evidence to show how familiarity can lead to memory errors. Also, describe
an eyewitness testimony example of this. Finally, explain how familiarity can
lead students to commit errors on a multiple choice exam.
When you are familiar with something you might connect it up with a
different source when you recall it. This causes a memory error (source
misattribution).
There was one woman who thought a certain man raped her. Really someone
else raped her but the man she thought raped her was on the TV at the time
(which she was watching). Her eyewitness testimony was an error.
Sometimes familiarity can mess you up on multiple choice exams. When
there’s an answer you are familiar with because it has been mentioned a lot
in class you might pick it just because it’s familiar, thinking that it’s right
because you don’t remember when you heard it or what it was connected to.