Guide for Cognitive Psychology Test # 1 :

Wednesday, March 8th in regular classroom.

Two Sections :

Section 1 : Multiple Choice questions on materials from Chapters 1 through 4. Notes overlap considerably

with information in chapters.

Section 2 : You must answer one of the following three questions in essay form. The information to answer

these questions is found in chapter 5 of the Ashcraft Text.

2 Options ;

1. Prepare the essay beforehand and hand it in with the test.

2. Write the essay out during the test period

Essay should be no longer than 3 pages, typed and double spaced (font size 13 or 14).

Essay should contain the following :

A. Long Term Memory Issue being studied

What is the theoretical issue being examined ?

B. How the experiment was done (methodology)

C. What were the results of the experiment.

D. What was the theoretical interpretation of these results?

Question Choices from Chapter 5 of Ashcraft for Test # 1.

1. Discuss Paivio’s work imagery and how this developed into the dual coding hypothesis.

2. Discuss the Tulving and Thompson experiment(s) on the Encoding Specificity Principle.

3. What does the work of Bahrick tell us about autobiographical memories ?

Why is this essay question important to the course ?

This essay allows me to evaluate the appropriateness of the text for this class. By having students respond

independently to this material which I have not explicitly covered during class time, I have a sample of a)

basic level of intuitive understanding of cognitive material; b) how readable the text is; c) how much of

complex text-based information is absorbed during a ‘typical’ reading of the text . Additionally, I will be able

to ask for your opinions of the text following the spring break. The choice of a textbook is an important one,

and students input is valuable because of the increasing demands on your time.

Also, I like to require some writing in any class in which enrollment is small enough to read all students

essays carefully. In the past, I have always been favorably impressed by the writing abilities of RPI

students. I certainly expect that this group of essays will be of similarly high quality.