9 Science - Memory and Science Inquiry Skills

John learned French at school. When on holiday recently, he saw the famous bridge at Avignon and immediately began singing a French nursery rhyme “Sur la pont d’Avignon”.

In order for him to sing this song, the tune and lyrics had been retrieved from _________________ memory and used in ____________________ memory.

• short-term; working

• working; short-term

• long-term; working

• working; long-term

Because he does not have his phone with him, when Fraser learns a new mobile number he repeats the number to himself until he can find his phone and enter the number.

The best description of this scenario is that Fraser:

• kept the phone number in his sensory memory until he was able to find his phone.

• has used elaborative rehearsal which involves grouping many smaller bits of information together.

• has used maintenance rehearsal, and it is unlikely the phone number will be permanently stored in his long term memory.

• has used maintenance rehearsal which involves semantically linking the information to information already stored in long term memory.

Because he does not have his phone with him, when Fraser learns a new mobile number he repeats the number to himself until he can find his phone and enter the number.

Fraser realises that he is likely to forget the number soon, so he decides to chunk the digits of the phone number into three parts. This would be effective because:

• chunking helps to increase the amount of information stored in short-term memory.

• mentally giving greater meaning to each of the digits in the phone number means that maintenance rehearsal would be more effective.

• chunking helps to increase the capacity of long term memory.

• chunking is a form of maintenance rehearsal.

During a Unit 3 VCE Psychology class, a list of 25 words was read to students. When asked immediately to recall as many of the words as possible, the following shape was plotted from the results (no delay). In a different class, the same list of 25 words was read to students who were then asked to recite the first verse of Waltzing Matilda before writing out the words from the list. The results were shown on the same graph (30-s delay).

In the graph, words from the beginning and end of the list are recalled better than those in the middle of the list. This is because words in the middle of the list

• are not in short-term memory

• are not showing the recency effect

• have not been rehearsed into long-term memory

• are neither in long-term memory nor in short-term memory

During a Unit 3 VCE Psychology class, a list of 25 words was read to students. When asked immediately to recall as many of the words as possible, the following shape was plotted from the results (no delay). In a different class, the same list of 25 words was read to students who were then asked to recite the first verse of Waltzing Matilda before writing out the words from the list. The results were shown on the same graph (30-s delay).

In the 'no delay' condition' words from the end of the are recalled better than those in the middle of the list. This is because words at the end of the list

• are subject to the recency effect

• are subject to the primacy effect

• are part of the asymptote

• are subject to pro-active interference

During a Unit 3 VCE Psychology class, a list of 25 words was read to students. When asked immediately to recall as many of the words as possible, the following shape was plotted from the results (no delay). In a different class, the same list of 25 words was read to students who were then asked to recite the first verse of Waltzing Matilda before writing out the words from the list. The results were shown on the same graph (30-s delay).

In the '30-s delay' condition, the reason that words from the beginning of the list are well recalled is because the time taken to recite “Waltzing Matilda” means that

• the primacy effect does not occur but the recency effect does occur

• the recency effect does not occur but the primacy effect does occur

• pro-active interference has occurred and retro-active interference has not occurred

• retro-active interference has occurred and pro-active interference has not occurred

Decay theory states that memory is lost when

• memories are forgotten from sensory memory

• the traces of memories are not re-visited

• they were not stored efficiently in the first place

• long-term memory has a limited capacity

Incoming sensory information must first enter this storage system before moving into working memory:

• sensory memory

• short-term memory

• long-term memory

• perceptual memory

Three-year old Ned was at the supermarket and he saw a picture of Santa Claus on an advertisement. Ned immediately began singing ‘Jingle Bells’.

In order for him to sing this song, the tune and lyrics had been retrieved from _________________ memory and used in ____________________ memory.

• short-term; working

• long-term; working

• working; short-term

• long-term; sensory

The three components of the multi-store model differ in terms of _____________ and _____________.

• duration, capacity

• rehearsal, retrieval

• iconic, echoic

• attention, rehearsal