7.7: Chapter Exercises

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Chapter Exercises

1. The way we word questions can affect the way people remember things. Give two examples of different ways of wording the same question that might elicit different memories. How could you test whether your questions really did this?

2. Rhea was walking home late last night after a few too many drinks. They see someone who may just have broken into their neighbor’s house but can’t remember much about the burglar. Under what conditions might they be more likely to remember?

3. Most of us have trouble with the penny identification exercise. This is nothing to be worried about; people who spent much time memorizing the details of such things need to get a life. Typically, we only need to know enough to recognize pennies when we see them in the real world. But when the situation changes, things that were unimportant may become important. For example, no one cared much about the appearance of quarters until the Susan B. Anthony $1 coin was introduced. It quickly fell out of favor because it was easily confused with a quarter. Give another example where remembering the details about something didn’t matter until the situation changed. What is the moral of such examples?

Answer: 1. There is typically little reason to remember much about how someone we see at a glance really looks. But if we learn they are the kidnapper, it becomes relevant. But think up an example of your own. One important moral of such cases is that what is important and relevant often depends on context.