Free Cognitive Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. automatically
• B. visually
• C. proactively
• D. implicitly

Explanation: Concrete words such as typewriter, cigarette, and fire are easier to imagine, so they are more likely to receive visual encoding than…

• A. recall
• B. recognition
• C. relearning
• D. retrieval

Explanation: Recall, recognition, and relearning are the standard measures of retention.

• A. recognition
• B. recall
• C. relearning
• D. rehearsal

Explanation: Recall requires producing information with few or no externally supplied alternatives, so it provides fewer retrieval cues than…

• A. short-term memory
• B. iconic memory
• C. explicit memory
• D. implicit memory

Explanation: Semantic memory for facts and episodic memory for personal events are both forms of explicit, or declarative, memory because they can be…

• A. learned through disturbed practice
• B. each learned on separate days
• C. automatically processed
• D. similar to each other

Explanation: Interference is strongest when old and new information are similar because their memory traces and retrieval cues overlap.

• A. recall
• B. recognition
• C. rehearsal
• D. reconstruction

Explanation: Describing the accident without being given answer choices requires recall, the retrieval of stored information through generation.

• A. encoding failure
• B. memory decay
• C. motivated forgetting
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Repression refers to keeping distressing or threatening material out of conscious awareness, making it an example of motivated forgetting.

• A. next-in-line
• B. misinformation
• C. serial position
• D. spacing

Explanation: The serial-position effect is the tendency to remember the beginning and end of a list better than its middle.

• A. episodic
• B. implicit
• C. procedural
• D. None of these

Explanation: Childhood birthdays are personally experienced events tied to particular times and contexts, so they are episodic memories.

• A. encoding
• B. storage
• C. retrieval
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Decay describes the weakening of a memory trace over time, so it is traditionally treated as a storage failure.

• A. a proposition
• B. a control process in long-term memory
• C. the mental representation of a concept
• D. None of these

Explanation: A schema is an organized mental framework used to represent and interpret a concept, object, event, or situation.

• A. encoding failure
• B. the misinformation effect
• C. retroactive interference
• D. motivated forgetting

Explanation: Information presented just before sleep is often never adequately registered because attention and alertness are declining, producing…

• A. input, processing, output
• B. input, storage, output
• C. input, storage, retrieval
• D. encoding, storage, retrieval

Explanation: Memory processing is commonly described in three stages: encoding information, storing it over time, and retrieving it when needed.

• A. encoded
• B. repressed
• C. rehearsed
• D. retrieved

Explanation: Encoding, rehearsal and retrieval can all contribute to remembering abuse, whereas repression refers to an alleged unconscious blocking of…

• A. explicit
• B. flashbulb
• C. sensory
• D. implicit

Explanation: Implicit memory influences performance without conscious recollection, as when someone can solve a puzzle but cannot deliberately remember…

• A. the method of loci
• B. automatic processing
• C. chunking
• D. rehearsal

Explanation: Over-learning means continuing to rehearse material after it has already been learned, strengthening later retention.

• A. echoic memory
• B. short-term memory
• C. state-dependent memory
• D. long-term memory

Explanation: Long-term memory is regarded as having a virtually unlimited capacity and duration.

• A. chunking
• B. rehearsal
• C. encoding
• D. retrieval

Explanation: Chunking combines smaller items into meaningful units, allowing each unit to carry more information while reducing the number of units to…

• A. encoding failure
• B. repression
• C. implicit memory loss
• D. interference

Explanation: Sleep reduces the opportunity for new experiences to compete with recently learned material, so the result supports interference as a…

• A. maintenance
• B. repetition
• C. elaboration
• D. chunking

Explanation: Elaboration improves retention by connecting new information with personal meaning, examples or existing knowledge.