Psych 355 Exam 2 UPDATED ACTUAL Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Early Memories and Recogntion Kihlstrom and Harackiewicz (1982) showed 3-4 years to be the average age of
earliest recognition among high school and college students.
Nature of events matter, with some memories being formed earlier (sibling
birth vs moving). Babies DO remember things.
Mobile task Demonstrates learning/conditioning in babies.
2-6 months
Baseline measures: baby kicks with attached ribbon to ankle
Ribbon is then connect to mobile and baby kicks more
Memory
• After two weeks, a 6 month starts kicking with gusto immediately after being
re-introduced
• More than two weeks needed to be learned again
• 3 month old could remember after one week
• 2 month old could remember after ½ week
Deferred imitation The ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present.
Is a hallmark of representational capacity and was studied by Piaget, Meltzoff,
Bauer, and others.
Bauer found long-term ordered (serial) recall improves with age.
Infantile Amnesia The inability to remember events from early childhood. May be due to
mismatches in encoding and retrieval, or neurological changes during
development. Neurological changes involve late maturation of the
hippocampus (encoding and consolidation) and its connections to the
prefrontal cortex (retrieval).
Development of memory strategies A big part of the age-related improvement in memory is due to the acquisition
and use of memory strategies. Three difficulties young children face include
mediation, production, and utilization deficiencies.
Mediation deficiency Even if instructed, the child does not use a strategy correctly, so performance
does not improve.
Production Deficiency Child can be trained to use a strategy effectively, but stops using it when not
required to.
Utilization deficiency Child spontaneously uses a strategy, but it doesn't help with recall until it
becomes automatic.
Memory strategies - Selective attention: directing attention towards to-be-remembered items.
Preschoolers can, but more skillful from 3-8 years.
- Rehearsal: Such as phone numbers, not done before 6-7 years
- Organization: Such as list memorization, improves after 6-7 years.
- Elaboration: Connects info to existing knowledge, with onset around
adolescence
- Mnemonics
, Chase and Ericsson, 1982 Digit span increased from about 7 to 80 over 20 months in undergraduates with
normal intelligence. Done through the development of strategy.
Autobiographical Memory The memory for events and facts related to one's personal life story. It is
constructive and reconstructive for adults and children, often combining or
even fabricating events. It improves with age, as adults remember more events
than children and in a detailed manner. Memory improves with language,
cognition, and social interactions.
Autobiographical memory and parenting Details and coherence in autobiographical memories are associated with
parental style of reminiscing:
- Low elaborative style: parents spend less time talking about the past and ask
fewer questions
- High elaborative style: parents frequently ask and talk about the past, with
longer and detailed discussions (better)
Child Witness Testimony Free-recall is generally accurate, with older children recalling more complete
and accurate information. Problems are due to:
- leading questions
- prior knowledge
- source misattributions
Categories Groups of things that have something in common. This could be things of the
same family (kinds of apples) or physical traits (color, shape, size)
Concpets Mental representations of categories in the world. Think of file folders, with
there being a building block of ideas.
Concepts organize our experiences.
Importance of categories - Efficiency: We don't have to keep track of each each of the different apples in
the world to know an apple
- Inferences: Once we learn that one apple is edible, we can generalize it to
others
- Communication: I can ask for an apple by using the word 'apple'.
Mental representations Mental images or symbols that helps structure concepts:
- Prototypes or category averages (sparrow as generic bird)
- List of defining features (all birds have feathers)
- Clusters of probabilistic and correlated features (most fly and have beaks)
- Theory-based representations (fly due to wings)
Infant categorization Infants can form categories based on perceptual dimensions, including color,
size, movement, and shape. Infants have concepts and categories before they
even have language.
Taxonomic vs Thematic relatedness Used to study categorical development in children.
- Taxonomic relations: same category, same kind (dog and elephant are
animals)
- Thematic (associative relations): go together in same context (dog and bone)
Consistent rule use Used to study categorical development in children. Looks at how children
group objects and whether or not they use the same rules consistently.
CORRECT Answers
Early Memories and Recogntion Kihlstrom and Harackiewicz (1982) showed 3-4 years to be the average age of
earliest recognition among high school and college students.
Nature of events matter, with some memories being formed earlier (sibling
birth vs moving). Babies DO remember things.
Mobile task Demonstrates learning/conditioning in babies.
2-6 months
Baseline measures: baby kicks with attached ribbon to ankle
Ribbon is then connect to mobile and baby kicks more
Memory
• After two weeks, a 6 month starts kicking with gusto immediately after being
re-introduced
• More than two weeks needed to be learned again
• 3 month old could remember after one week
• 2 month old could remember after ½ week
Deferred imitation The ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present.
Is a hallmark of representational capacity and was studied by Piaget, Meltzoff,
Bauer, and others.
Bauer found long-term ordered (serial) recall improves with age.
Infantile Amnesia The inability to remember events from early childhood. May be due to
mismatches in encoding and retrieval, or neurological changes during
development. Neurological changes involve late maturation of the
hippocampus (encoding and consolidation) and its connections to the
prefrontal cortex (retrieval).
Development of memory strategies A big part of the age-related improvement in memory is due to the acquisition
and use of memory strategies. Three difficulties young children face include
mediation, production, and utilization deficiencies.
Mediation deficiency Even if instructed, the child does not use a strategy correctly, so performance
does not improve.
Production Deficiency Child can be trained to use a strategy effectively, but stops using it when not
required to.
Utilization deficiency Child spontaneously uses a strategy, but it doesn't help with recall until it
becomes automatic.
Memory strategies - Selective attention: directing attention towards to-be-remembered items.
Preschoolers can, but more skillful from 3-8 years.
- Rehearsal: Such as phone numbers, not done before 6-7 years
- Organization: Such as list memorization, improves after 6-7 years.
- Elaboration: Connects info to existing knowledge, with onset around
adolescence
- Mnemonics
, Chase and Ericsson, 1982 Digit span increased from about 7 to 80 over 20 months in undergraduates with
normal intelligence. Done through the development of strategy.
Autobiographical Memory The memory for events and facts related to one's personal life story. It is
constructive and reconstructive for adults and children, often combining or
even fabricating events. It improves with age, as adults remember more events
than children and in a detailed manner. Memory improves with language,
cognition, and social interactions.
Autobiographical memory and parenting Details and coherence in autobiographical memories are associated with
parental style of reminiscing:
- Low elaborative style: parents spend less time talking about the past and ask
fewer questions
- High elaborative style: parents frequently ask and talk about the past, with
longer and detailed discussions (better)
Child Witness Testimony Free-recall is generally accurate, with older children recalling more complete
and accurate information. Problems are due to:
- leading questions
- prior knowledge
- source misattributions
Categories Groups of things that have something in common. This could be things of the
same family (kinds of apples) or physical traits (color, shape, size)
Concpets Mental representations of categories in the world. Think of file folders, with
there being a building block of ideas.
Concepts organize our experiences.
Importance of categories - Efficiency: We don't have to keep track of each each of the different apples in
the world to know an apple
- Inferences: Once we learn that one apple is edible, we can generalize it to
others
- Communication: I can ask for an apple by using the word 'apple'.
Mental representations Mental images or symbols that helps structure concepts:
- Prototypes or category averages (sparrow as generic bird)
- List of defining features (all birds have feathers)
- Clusters of probabilistic and correlated features (most fly and have beaks)
- Theory-based representations (fly due to wings)
Infant categorization Infants can form categories based on perceptual dimensions, including color,
size, movement, and shape. Infants have concepts and categories before they
even have language.
Taxonomic vs Thematic relatedness Used to study categorical development in children.
- Taxonomic relations: same category, same kind (dog and elephant are
animals)
- Thematic (associative relations): go together in same context (dog and bone)
Consistent rule use Used to study categorical development in children. Looks at how children
group objects and whether or not they use the same rules consistently.
