Dr. Don S. Christensen Shoreline Community College

Psych 100 Psychology

Exam 3

Potential Short Answer Questions

Memory (Modules 20, 21, & Lecture)

  1. What are the three fundamental memory processes?
  2. List the stages of the Atkinson-Shiffrin three stage model of memory.
  3. What is the difference between automatic and effortful processing? Be able to give an example of each.
  4. What is the spacing effect?
  5. What is the serial position effect?
  6. What is the primacy effect? What stage of memory is most related to it? Explain your choice.
  7. What is the recency effect? What stage of memory is most related to it? Explain your choice.
  8. What are mnemonics? Give an example of one.
  9. What are two types of sensory memory?
  10. Describe the limitations (e.g., capacity and duration) of working-term memory and how they can be overcome (2 different ways of extending short-term memory were mentioned in lecture).
  11. When referring to the second stage of memory, why is “working” memory now considered a more appropriate term than “short-term” memory?
  12. Define long-term potentiation (LTP). What does LTP appear to provide the neural basis for?
  13. What are flashbulb memories and what does research (discussed in lecture) suggest about their accuracy?
  14. Describe the two different types of amnesias (presented in lecture).
  15. What is the difference between an explicit memory and an implicit memory?
  16. ______memory consists of facts and general knowledge while ______memory is comprised of personally experienced events. Both of these types of memories are examples of the broader ______memory.
  17. List and briefly describe the functions of four brain structures that are involved in memory (two additional structures were discussed in lecture).
  18. Differentiate between context-dependent memory (or “Context Effects”) and state dependent memory.
  19. What is mood congruent recall?
  20. Explain how encoding failure, storage decay, and retrieval failure can contribute to forgetting.
  21. What is the difference between retroactive interference and proactive interference?
  22. What is the misinformation effect?
  23. What is source amnesia?
  24. Explain the concept of depth of processing. In your answer, be sure to explain exactly what this term means by “deep processing.” How this concept illustrated in the results of the Craik and Tulving (1975) study presented in lecture?
  25. According to the text, what are 7 things you could do to study more effectively?

Thinking, Language, and Intelligence (Modules 22, 24, & Lecture)

  1. Describe the five stages of problem solving. (discussed in lecture)
  2. What is an algorithm? Discuss its strengths and weaknesses as a problem-solving tool.
  3. What is a heuristic? Discuss its strengths and weaknesses as a problem-solving tool.
  4. What is confirmation bias and how can it interfere with problem solving?
  5. What is fixation and how does it interfere with problem solving? How do a mental set and functional fixedness demonstrate specific examples of this general problem solving challenge?
  6. Describe the representativeness heuristic.
  7. How does the availability heuristic influence judgments of likelihood or probability?
  8. What is “framing?” Give an example of how framing can impact decisions or judgments.
  9. What is a belief bias? (discussed in lecture)
  10. What is belief perseverance?
  11. How is intelligence typically defined?
  12. Contrast the theories for intelligence offered by Spearman (text) and Thurstone (lecture).
  13. Charles Spearman helped to develop the technique known as ______, which is a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items.
  14. Name Gardner’s eight intelligences.
  15. List and briefly describe the three different kinds of intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory.
  16. According to the text, what are Sternberg’s five components of creativity?
  17. How is emotional intelligence different from the traditional view of intelligence? Give two examples of skills thought to reflect emotional intelligence.
  18. Discuss the significance of the following individuals with regard to the history of intelligence testing: Galton, Binet, Stern, Terman, & Wechsler.
  19. What is meant by the term “mental age?”
  20. What was originally meant by the term “Intelligence Quotient” or IQ (explain how the ratio was calculated)? In comparison, how is modern day IQ score on a test such as the WAIS interpreted?
  21. What is the distinction between achievement and aptitude tests?
  22. Differentiate between the terms validity and reliability.
  23. To what two things does the term “standardization” refer?
  24. Define what is meant by the term heritability? What type of differences (between group or within group) can be explained by this concept? (presented in lecture)
  25. What is stereotype threat? How has it been shown to affect performance on intelligence and academic tests? (presented in lecture)

Revised: 10/21/2011