AP Psychology Practice Test: Memory

The correct answer is (C). Elaborative rehearsal would be most effective in remembering the name of someone you just met because of its effectiveness in transferring newly acquired information into long term memory. Elaborative rehearsal connects newly acquired information with information already stored in long term memory. The connections formed enable easier access of the newly stored information.

The correct answer is (B). Procedural memory is a part of the long-term memory that is responsible for developing motor skills and knowing how to perform actions. Procedural memory stores information on how to perform certain procedures, such as walking, talking, and riding a bike without the need for explicit storage or recall.

The correct answer is (D). The interfering effect of old information, in this case French, on new information, in this case Spanish, is called proactive interference.

The correct answer is (D). In retrograde amnesia, a person loses memory of events immediately prior to the injury.

The correct answer is (D). The Ebbinghaus curve’s steep initial drop followed by a gradual decline is evidence that most forgetting occurs shortly after learning. The gradual decline following the initial drop shows that information is forgotten more slowly as time progresses compared to the initial learning of new information.

The correct answer is (B). Decay is the memory loss that occurs solely as a result of the passage of time.

The correct answer is (C). Damage to the hippocampus can result in an inability to learn new information, which is also known as anterograde amnesia.

The correct answer is (C). Encoding is the first stage of memory and entails the translation of a stimulus (visual, acoustic, or semantic) into a memory.

The correct answer is (B). Working memory, or short-term memory, is quantified in Miller’s magic number as 7, plus or minus 2, chunks of information.

The correct answer is (A). Remembering a personal unique specific event is an example of episodic memory.

The correct answer is (E). Semantic memory is memory encoded based on meaning. Semantic memory is the encoding of general knowledge, in this case common breakfast foods.

The correct answer is (B). The misinformation effect holds the reporting of episodic memories becomes less accurate as a result of information acquired after the event itself. In this case, Gwendolyn’s perception of the difficulty of the exam after taking it leads her to believe that the exam was more difficult than it actually was.

The correct answer is (C). These four sentences begin a ten-line rhyme used in a mnemonic device called the pegword method. This method is used to memorize information by associating the numbers with objects and then creating a story including those objects.

The correct answer is (E). Prospective memory is “remembering to remember.” It is memory for future events.