Question
People with certain kinds of brain damage have no lasting recall of new information following the damage although stored memories prior to the injury remain intact. From this information what can be infer? a. Short-term memory is unlimited in its capacity. b. Sensory memory is more important than long -term memory. c. Short-term and long -term memories are distinctly different. d. Long-term memory is limited in capacity.
Solution
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(289 Votes)
Jordan
Master ยท Tutor for 5 years
Answer
The correct answer is **c. Short-term and long-term memories are distinctly different.**Here's why:The scenario describes a situation where new information cannot be transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory, while existing long-term memories remain unaffected. This strongly suggests that these two types of memory operate independently and rely on different brain mechanisms. If they were the same system, damage impacting new memories would likely also affect old ones.Let's look at why the other options are incorrect:* **a. Short-term memory is unlimited in its capacity:** Short-term memory is actually very limited in capacity. We can only hold a small amount of information in our short-term memory at any given time.* **b. Sensory memory is more important than long-term memory:** Sensory memory is the very brief initial recording of sensory information. While important for processing information, it's not relevant to the scenario described.* **d. Long-term memory is limited in capacity:** While we don't know the exact capacity of long-term memory, it's generally considered to be vast and not easily filled, unlike short-term memory. The scenario describes a problem with transferring information *to* long-term memory, not a capacity issue within long-term memory itself.