Chapter 6 Questions for Discussion

1. One might argue that echoic memory has been keeping friendships and marriages together for years. Case in point: Have you ever half-listened to someone else’s chatter, only to have that person complain that you weren’t even listening? How does echoic memory “save” you? Dramatize this concept for the class, then explain the role of echoic memory. [Apply]

2. Researchers Randolph-Seng and Nielsen (2007) found that individuals who had been primed with religious words (e.g., baptism, commandments) were less likely to cheat on a visuospatial task than were those who had been primed with sports-related or neutral words. That is, subtly exposing individuals to some versus other words influenced their moral behavior. Look around your classroom. Are there objects or words now present that could be priming your thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors? Explain. [Comprehend]

3. In the section on embodied cognition, there was a discussion about two metaphors that involve the physical body: “height of her career” and “depths of depression.” Can you think of other metaphors that include these up/down directions? [Comprehend]

4. Below are several examples of metaphors that involve the physical body. Are they each examples of embodied cognition? That is, when we use them, are we referring to our physical bodies to help us think about our experiences? What do you think is the origin of these metaphors? [Analyze]

   • a big mouth

   • to cost an arm and a leg

   • to have a sweet tooth

   • a pain in the neck

   • to pull someone’s leg

   • to put one’s foot in one’s mouth

   • to see eye to eye

5. Recall Loftus’s (1975) study in which she showed individuals a film depicting eight demonstrators and was able to influence individuals’ recall of how many individuals were in the movie by asking different types of leading questions. What does this study suggest about the role of post-movie conversation in forming a memory of that movie? When does our memory for a film stop changing? [Analyze]

6. Given the fallibility of memory demonstrated by Loftus and her colleagues, what is your stance concerning whether we should rely on eyewitness memory in trials? [Evaluate]

7. Describe, in writing, as many details as you can of a personal flashbulb memory. Now check the accuracy of the details by comparing your notes to those of several reliable sources (think carefully about what is considered a reliable source!). How much correspondence was there between your version and that of your reliable source(s)? Why do you suppose we are so confident in the accuracy of our flashbulb memories? [Apply, Analyze]

8. How does chunking as an aid to memory relate to the semantic network model of memory? [Analyze]

9. Page 256

   You learned that a mnemonic is a technique for adding a small amount of information to material you need to remember. Adding this information enables you to better organize the information (e.g., the method of loci, whereby you organize to-be-remembered items by associating them with a walk through several different rooms). What is it about organizing the information that helps you retain it better? What would the alternative be? [Analyze]

10. Given what you have learned in this chapter, what are three pieces of advice you would give to a friend who wanted to do well on an upcoming exam and why? [Synthesize]