Psychological Models

The study questions below constitute a subset of the information that is required for the exam. Two of these questions will appear as “short answer” questions on the exam (you can use up to one full page for each answer). Many of the questions have multiple parts — make sure you read and answer all parts of each question. Be advised that advanced preparation will facilitate your performance on the exam. Feel free to work with others on your answers.

• Briefly describe the model of episodic memory developed by Tulving. Use this framework to describe why state dependent learning occurs. Also, use this framework to account for Loftus’s research on eyewitness testimony.
• Briefly describe Collins and Quillian’s model of semantic memory. What are the five basic assumptions of the model? Provide evidence supporting the model. Why do typicality effects provide problems for the model and how have researchers modified the original ideas to accommodate typicality effects?
• What are the 7 sins of memory? Provide a real-world example of each. What do they tell us about how memory works?
• What are serial position effects? How are they obtained and what do they look like? Provide a description of how have researchers interpreted the primacy and recency effects and the experimental evidence used to support this interpretation.
• Describe the role heuristics play in decision-making. What types of biases are introduced with heuristics?
• Describe four ways to improve your problem solving skills.  Provide an example of how might you use these strategies in everyday life?

• What does it mean to be skeptical? What kinds of questions and answers are consistent with a skeptical approach? Discuss how the material in this course is relevant to a skeptical approach to parapsychology. Is a skeptical approach really all that important? — justify your answer.