Think you know Memory?

Sample Memory questions

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   How long does sensory memory typically hold visual information?

   Answer: less than one second

   Why: George Sperling flashed letter grids for just 50 milliseconds in 1960 and showed the visual trace fades within about half a second.

2. 2 Medium

   What does the misinformation effect create in a person's recollection?

   Answer: false memories

   Why: In a 1974 film study, 32 percent of viewers asked how fast cars 'smashed' later recalled broken glass that was never shown, against 14 percent for 'hit'.

3. 3 Hard

   Which brain structure's removal left a famous 1953 epilepsy surgery patient unable to form new memories?

   Answer: hippocampus

   Why: The patient lived on until 2008, dying at 82; a year later his donated brain was cut into 2,401 slices over 53 hours at UC San Diego.

4. 4 Easy

   Which famous amnesia patient's surgery revealed how memory forms in the brain?

   Answer: Patient H.M.

   Why: Although Molaison could not consciously remember practicing a motor puzzle, his hand-eye skill at it improved every single day.

5. 5 Medium

   What is the temporary inability to retrieve a known word called?

   Answer: tip-of-the-tongue state

   Why: Psychologist Bennett Schwartz found that 45 of 51 languages surveyed describe this state with the tongue, mouth or throat, just like the English idiom.

6. 6 Hard

   Which phenomenon explains forgetting a name despite remembering the person's occupation?

   Answer: Baker-Baker paradox

   Why: McWeeny and colleagues showed it in 1987 with 16 unfamiliar faces, and Gillian Cohen gave the effect its name in 1990.