Unit VI – Cognition
FRQ – Scoring Rubric
Kate, a high school student, has a big psychology final exam coming up tomorrow morning first block. She
and several classmates get together to do some final studying. Discuss how each of the following concepts
may help or hinder Kate and/or her classmates during their study session and subsequent testing experience.
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Short-term memory capacity
misinformation effect
forgetting curve
semantic versus visual encoding
circadian rhythm
stimulant
proactive interference
General Issues:
1. Answers must be presented in sentences, and sentences must be cogent enough for student’s meaning to be apparent.
Spelling and grammatical mistakes do not reduce a student’s score, but the spelling must be close enough so that the
reader is convinced of the word intended. No stand-alone pictures or outlines.
2. Within a point, students will not be penalized for misinformation unless it directly contradicts correct information that
would otherwise have scored a point.
3. Students can score points only if information is presented in context. This means that they must clearly convey which
part of the question is being addressed.
4. Definitions without application are not sufficient to score points. A definition may contribute to the answer, but
students must also provide a specific example related to some aspect of the situation above independent of the
definition.
 Example: “The forgetting curve illustrates that we lose most of the new information we learn after one day.
Therefore Kate would have been smart to study (or rehearse) the same psychology concepts over many days
before the final.” (A specific example is provided)
 Do not score: “The forgetting curve illustrates that we lose most of the new information we learn after one day.”
(No specific example related to the given situation is provided).
5. Because definitions alone do not score points, if a student provides an incorrect definition but a correct application,
score the point based on application. However, if a definition is not provided, the example must illustrate that the
student knows what the concept means.
6. Examples provided for each point are not exhaustive.
POINT 1: Short-term memory capacity
 Kate knows that the most she can hold in her short-term memory is 5-9 (7 + or – 2) concepts. So if she studies more
than nine psychology concepts at a time without rehearsing them, it is likely that some of those will not get encoded
and she will miss those items on the exam.
Don’t Score:
o Examples that do not deal mention the specific capacity of short-term memory.
POINT 2: Misinformation effect
 While studying for her psychology exam, Kate falsely remembers her teacher saying that the hypothalamus process
memory. Her teacher never said anything like that at all. Therefore she missed the question on the concept on the exam
due to the misinformation effect. (Kate had a false memory. Memory construction would also apply here).
Don’t Score:
o Kate’s friend gave her inaccurate information about a concept. Kate remembered the inaccurate information so she
missed it on the test. (This is not the misinformation effect.)
POINT 3: Forgetting curve
 “The forgetting curve illustrates that we lose most of the new information we learn after one day. Therefore Kate would
have been smart to study (or rehearse) the same psychology concepts over many days before the final.”
 The forgetting curve dictates we forget a lot of what we encode as time passes so it is good that Kate is studying the
night before the exam.
Don’t Score:
o An answer that does not include the passage of time.
POINT 4: Semantic vs. visual encoding
 Kate knows that attaching meaning to a concept (semantic encoding) will help her remember it better than just
visualizing (visual encoding) that concept. So when Kate comes up with examples while studying for her exam, she
makes sure they involve her, her family or her friends.
Don’t Score:
o An answer that does not illustrate both semantic and visual encoding.
POINT 5: Circadian Rhythm
 Kate is well aware that her circadian rhythm, her biological clock, dictates that she is tired in the early morning (like
most teenagers). Wanting to avoid being tired for her early morning psych exam, Kate goes to bed a few hours earlier
the night before the exam.
POINT 6: Stimulant
 Kate wants to be as alert as possible for the exam. She knows that a stimulant will increase her level of alertness.
Therefore, she drinks a Red Bull, a drink with a lot of caffeine, before she leaves for school.
Don’t Score:
o An answer that does not include a specific example of a stimulant.
POINT 7: Proactive interference
 Kate suffered from proactive interference during the exam. She was studying for a biology exam the night before the
psychology study session. Unfortunately for her, when Kate took the psych exam, she had a hard time remembering
some of the psych concepts because she kept confusing them with similar biology concepts.
Don’t Score:
o Previously learned (old) information will get in the way of Kate learning new information. (Interference is not an
encoding issue. It is a retrieval issue.)
Scoring scale:
7 of 7 = 30 points
6 of 7 = 28 points
5 of 7 = 26 points
4 of 7 = 24 points
3 of 7 = 22 points
2 of 7 = 20 points
1 of 7 = 18 points
0 of 7 = 15 points (for trying)