List Daniel Schacter's seven "sins" of memory, and give an example of each. Which memory "sin" interests you most, and why?
What will be an ideal response?
Student examples will vary. A sample answer follows.
The seven sins of memory are as follows.
• Transience is normal loss of information over time, such as forgetting what I had for breakfast five days ago.
• Absentmindedness means forgetting due to lack of attention. When I wonder where my sunglasses are, and it turns out that they are on my face, that is absentmindedness.
• Blocking is forgetting because other information is interfering with memory retrieval. I can't remember the phone password I set six passwords ago because the later passwords have blocked my access to the information.
• Source misattribution happens when a person remembers some or all of the desired information but forgets where it came from. If my trainer tells me something and I think that information has come from my coach, that is source misattribution.
• Suggestibility means memory errors that outside sources introduce, either accidentally or on purpose. Suggestibility errors sometimes happen when police mistakenly arrest the wrong person and try to convince eyewitnesses that that person matches the description.
• The term "bias" refers to memory errors that happen after the original information was encoded. If my roommate and I start out as great friends, and then we begin arguing regularly, I may not remember our early times together as fun or appealing.
• Persistence happens when it becomes difficult or impossible to forget something. This can be as minor as repeatedly thinking of a breakfast-cereal jingle or as serious as chronic sleeplessness associated with a traumatic memory.
To me, the most interesting memory "sin" is bias because it is so complex and because people often base future decisions on biased memories. I would like to learn more about how later experiences alter our memories of earlier ones.
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According to the text, social psychology is the study of how people
a. form organized social groups. b. behave in the presence of others. c. resolve their psychosocial conflicts. d. through an interaction with others develop a balance between their real and ideal selves.
Testis-determining factor
A. activates the Wolffian system. B. inhibits the Müllerian system. C. develops the primordial gonads into testes. D. prevents the development of ovaries.
With regard to the three-stage model of memory suggested by Atkinson and Shiffrin, what has recent research found?
a. There are, in fact, more than three types of memory storage. b. The model is very accurate, as supported by the fact that people with sensory impairment like blindness or deafness have memory systems that are far less reliable than those without such deficits. c. Encoding is a process whose importance was overestimated by Atkinson and Shiffrin, since only information to which we consciously attend is actually encoded. d. It is possible for information to make it into our long-term memory without going through the first two stages of the model.
Transient runaways:
A) want to leave home permanently. B) intend to return home. C) have drug problems. D) believe street life is glamorous.