Activity for the book My Psychology

Instructions

Listen to the following podcast and then answer the questions that follow.

Question 1

If you make a new friend named Tessy on the first day of class and really want to remember her name, which of the following approaches is most likely to help you?

Choice A, Repeat her name over and over until you remember it.

Choice B, Think about the fact that her name rhymes with the wordy “messy.”

Choice C, Write her name down and count the number of letters.

Choice D, Attaching meaning to her name, by mentally noting that she has the same name as your all-time favorite singer.

Question 1 SUBMIT

Question 2

What example does Dr. Tam use in her class to explain the value of deep processing for memory?

Choice A, Students are most likely to remember psychology terms they write on index cards and read over and over.

Choice B, The cars that students remember passing them as they drove to school were processed at a deeper, meaningful level.

Choice C, Anytime she meets someone new, she relates their name to the name of someone she already knows to increase chances of remembering it.

Choice D, Adults have excellent memory for very emotional events.

Question 2 SUBMIT

Question 3

Which of the following statements most accurately describes human memory?

Choice A, Memories are like puzzle-piece reconstructions of actual experiences (and some pieces could be missing).

Choice B, Memory tends to improve as we get much older.

Choice C, Memory is like a playback button, because it provides an exact recording of an experience.

Choice D, We tend to remember things better when we process them at the surface level rather than a deeper level.

Question 3 SUBMIT

Question 4

What did Elizabeth Loftus learn when she used different words to ask participants how fast two cars were going upon getting into an accident?

Choice A, The framing of a question seems to have little effect on memory.

Choice B, How a question is posed impacts memory for women, but not for men.

Choice C, Memory for detail is highly accurate across the board.

Choice D, The type of language used in questioning impacts how memories are recreated.

Question 4 SUBMIT

Question 5

What personal example did Dr. Szeli give of the misinformation effect?

Choice A, Her friend recalled Dr. Szeli’s memory of a cruise she went on as her own memory.

Choice B, Dr. Szeli recalled her best friend’s childhood story as her own memory.

Choice C, Her boyfriend recounted a memory and mistakenly wove Dr. Szeli into it.

Choice D, Her brother lied to her and said she was lost in a mall as a child. Years later, Dr. Szeli mistakenly remembered this actually happening.

Question 5 SUBMIT

Question 6

Dr. Tam describes an activity in which she has someone she knows come into the classroom wielding a cap gun. She then asks her students to describe the person and pick them from a lineup. What does she find when doing this activity?

Choice A, At least 10% of students pick the correct person from the lineup.

Choice B, Students have excellent recollection of details from the event, due to how emotional it feels at the time.

Choice C, Students give vastly different and often incorrect descriptions, despite being very confident in their memories.

Choice D, Students often remember very different details, but a majority of the details they recall are correct.

Question 6 SUBMIT

Question 7

Your two roommates are out at a party when a serious fight breaks out. Upon arriving home, they are describing the situation and begin arguing about the details of the people who were involved. One of them is extremely confident in their description, while the other seems a bit less certain. Who should you believe?

Choice A, The one who is more confident, because confidence is usually a good indicator of memory accuracy.

Choice B, Neither of them, because eyewitness memory can be fallible.

Choice C, The one who is able to provide more specific detail

Choice D, The younger of the two, because younger individuals tend to remember eyewitness details better.

Question 7 SUBMIT

Question 8

You have a biology final in 3 weeks and it counts as 30% of your grade in the course. What is the best approach to take in studying for the exam?

Choice A, You should pull an all-nighter, cramming for the test the night before you take it.

Choice B, You should audio-record the notes and play them while you are sleeping at night.

Choice C, You should make flashcards and work to memorize them in 1-hour periods for 2 days before the exam.

Choice D, You should space your study sessions out over the weeks before the exam.

Question 8 SUBMIT

Question 9

When you were in high school, you learned all of the important math formulas, such as the Pythagorean theorem. You assumed that you didn’t need to study these for the GRE, because you learned them previously, but when you take the test you can’t seem to remember any of them. What type of retrieval error discussed in this text does this most reflect?

Choice A, decay

Choice B, the spacing effect

Choice C, the recency effect

Choice D, proactive interference

Question 9 SUBMIT

Question 10

Two months ago, Justin moved into an apartment where the light to the bathroom is behind the bathroom door, rather than on the wall as soon as he enters the bathroom (where it has been in previous bathrooms where he has lived). Despite this, he continually puts his hand on the wall when he enters the bathroom to look for the light switch. This can best be described as:

Choice A, decay.

Choice B, proactive interference.

Choice C, a learning disorder.

Choice D, retroactive interference.

Question 10 SUBMIT