Lab Exercise with Quizzing

Read the materials, click on the lab exercise links and take the quizzes. Please note these will open in a new window.

Lab Exercise 1: Word-Lists Demonstration

GoCognitive is a website with various demos exploring cognitive processes. Try the DRM procedure. What is the main purpose of this task? Why is it that we misremember or even make up information or an event? What does this indicate about human memory? Are there any other instances when human memory is not perfectly reliable?

Follow-Up Quiz

1. The DRM (Roediger & McDermott, 1995) procedure is designed to create ______.

  1. interference
  2. superior memory for list items
  3. memory errors based on meaning
  4. memory errors based on sound

Ans: C

2. Results from the DRM procedure illustrate the mechanisms of ______.

  1. working memory
  2. long-term memory
  3. short-term memory
  4. sensory memory

Ans: B

3. In the DRM procedure, the lures are the ______.

  1. list items
  2. items at the beginning of the list
  3. items at the end of the list
  4. theme words not presented in the lists

Ans: D

 

Lab Exercise 2: Memory Solitaire

The activities in this lab will help you better understand some of your memory processes, especially the often misunderstood short-term memory, memory improvement techniques and problems with eyewitness memory. Click on the link “Ready, set Go” to begin.

Afterwards, write down as many of the things as you can remember on your piece of paper. Next, after you've written down as many things as you can remember, press the Check button below and check your list. How many of the 20 things did you remember?

Next, click the “back” button, scroll down the page below the heading “How can I do better?” and click on the “continue” button and read the “Ways to get better.”

Follow-Up Quiz

1. This sort of memory is fine for, say, remembering a phone number for a few minutes.

  1. elaborative encoding
  2. long-term memory
  3. episodic memory
  4. short-term memory

Ans: D

2. One way to remember more things for a longer time is to use ______.

  1. elaborative encoding
  2. episodic memory
  3. mnemonic devices
  4. semantic techniques

Ans: A

3. This is another word for transforming something into a memory.

  1. retrieval
  2. transfer
  3. encoding
  4. storage

Ans: C

 

Lab Exercise 3: Eyewitness Test

Website of Gary Wells, an Iowa State University professor who has been the leading researcher on eyewitness testimony. Perform the eyewitness testimony task. Were you able to identify the perpetrator? What factors can bias our ability to identify perpetrators? How is this task different from an actual eyewitness-event and testimony?

Follow-Up Quiz

1. In this eyewitness test, errors are made because ______.

  1. the suspect is not in the lineup but you feel pressure to choose one
  2. the people in the lineup look a lot alike
  3. there are actually two suspects for the crime
  4. none of these

Ans: A

2. This eyewitness lineup test is a “trick” because the suspect is not in the lineup and this rarely happens in actual police lineups with a witness.

  1. True
  2. False

Ans: F

3. Police may be able to prevent this type of lineup error by ______.

  1. making sure the suspect is in the lineup every time
  2. warning witnesses that the suspect may not be in the lineup
  3. conducting lineups with photos instead of people
  4. none of these

Ans: B