Chapter 13 Quiz: Memory, Attention, and the Cognitive Cost of Scrolling
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. In Kahneman's dual-process framework, System 1 processing is best characterized as:
A) Slow, deliberate, and effortful, requiring conscious attention B) Fast, automatic, associative, and operating largely outside conscious awareness C) Logical, rule-governed, and requiring sustained concentration D) Analytical, critical, and capable of overriding emotional impulses
2. Social media preferentially engages System 1 processing primarily because:
A) Social media platforms are designed to prevent System 2 engagement by restricting text length B) The visual, emotional, and social content of feeds activates fast-response systems without requiring deliberate analytical effort C) System 2 processing cannot function when more than one information source is present simultaneously D) Adolescents have not yet fully developed System 2 processing capacity
3. Herbert Simon's 1971 formulation of the attention economy stated that in an information-rich world:
A) The value of information would increase as it became more plentiful B) Information abundance creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate attention efficiently C) People would develop cognitive adaptations to process information more efficiently D) Technological tools would be needed to manage the surplus of available information
4. Working memory, according to Miller's "magical number seven," can typically hold approximately how many chunks of information simultaneously?
A) Three to five B) Seven, plus or minus two C) Ten to twelve D) Fifteen to twenty
5. Cognitive load theory predicts that when information is presented faster than working memory can process it:
A) The brain shifts to long-term memory storage to compensate B) Comprehension declines, retention worsens, and the quality of cognitive work decreases C) System 1 processing is automatically suppressed in favor of System 2 D) Users experience physical discomfort that signals them to slow down their consumption
6. The Ward et al. (2017) "brain drain" experiment found that:
A) Using a smartphone during a cognitive task significantly impairs performance on that task B) The mere presence of a smartphone on one's desk, even when not being used, reduces available cognitive capacity C) Heavy smartphone users have measurably smaller working memory capacity than light users D) Smartphone notifications cause more cognitive disruption than computer notifications
7. Ward et al.'s proposed mechanism for the brain drain effect is:
A) The anxiety produced by knowing one might be missing social media updates B) The cognitive resources spent actively suppressing the urge to check the phone C) The residual activation of social comparison processes from prior phone use D) The disruption of sleep caused by phone proximity at night
8. According to Ward et al., which condition fully restored cognitive capacity in their experiments?
A) Phone on desk, face-down, notifications off B) Phone in a bag or backpack under the desk C) Phone in another room, not accessible D) Phone in hand but locked with no notifications visible
9. Gloria Mark's research at UC Irvine found that after a work interruption, it takes on average how long to fully return to the original task?
A) 4 minutes B) 9 minutes C) 23 minutes D) 45 minutes
10. The cognitive phenomenon called "context switching cost" refers to:
A) The mental effort required to learn to use a new social media platform B) The cognitive expense of clearing and reloading working memory when shifting between tasks C) The decrease in processing speed that occurs when moving from digital to analog media D) The attentional narrowing that occurs when focusing intensely on a single task
11. The concept of "attention residue," as defined by Sophie Leroy, describes:
A) The information retained from a social media session that intrudes into subsequent tasks B) The automatic cognitive continuation of processing a prior task that spills over into a subsequent task C) The neurological activation patterns left in the brain after sustained social media use D) The emotional aftereffects of exposure to negative social media content
12. The Ophir, Nass, and Wagner (2009) study at Stanford found, counterintuitively, that:
A) Heavy media multitaskers performed better on selective attention tasks due to their experience B) Light media multitaskers were more distracted than heavy multitaskers in laboratory conditions C) Heavy media multitaskers performed worse on attention and cognitive control tasks than light multitaskers D) Media multitasking had no significant effect on cognitive performance when task familiarity was controlled
13. The proposed explanation for why heavy media multitaskers perform worse on attention tasks is:
A) They are fundamentally less intelligent than light media multitaskers B) Their habitual multitasking has made them worse at filtering out irrelevant information and more susceptible to distraction C) They have developed an impulsive personality style that was present before their media multitasking behavior D) The cognitive resources they allocate to media multitasking are permanently depleted
14. The Betsy Sparrow et al. (2011) "Google effect" study found that:
A) Using Google for research produces better memory for the information found than library research B) Knowing that information is digitally retrievable reduces the likelihood of encoding it into memory C) The internet has permanently reduced human long-term memory capacity D) Frequent Google searches are associated with increased memory for general knowledge
15. The theoretical framework used to explain the Google effect is:
A) Cognitive load theory — searching for information increases cognitive load and impairs encoding B) Transactive memory — humans distribute memory storage across their social and technological environments C) The Zeigarnik effect — information that can be retrieved externally creates less cognitive unresolved tension D) Spreading activation theory — digital information is encoded through semantic network pathways
16. Nicholas Carr's argument in The Shallows (2010) claims that:
A) The internet has permanently reduced human IQ by an average of several points B) The internet, by training rapid non-linear browsing, is reducing capacity for sustained, linear deep reading C) Social media specifically (not the internet generally) is the primary cause of attention deficits D) The neurological changes produced by internet use are irreversible after approximately five years of heavy use
17. The "shallow processing" that social media feeds promote affects episodic memory because:
A) Emotional content is processed too quickly to activate the hippocampal encoding systems B) Information encountered in rapid-transition, high-load contexts is less well encoded into distinct retrievable memories C) The dopamine released during social media use blocks long-term potentiation at synapses D) Social media content is too trivial to activate the memory consolidation systems that process meaningful information
18. Research on studying with phones present (vs. phones in another room) consistently finds:
A) No significant difference in performance once students have habituated to the phone's presence B) That students perform worse with phones present, regardless of whether they actually check the phones C) That the effect depends entirely on whether the phone displays notifications D) That students perform better with phones present because they are more comfortable in familiar environments
19. The claim that social media conditions a "shallow processing mode" that transfers to non-social-media contexts rests on the assumption that:
A) Cognitive processing modes are trait-like and relatively fixed across contexts B) Repeatedly practiced cognitive modes become more automatic and may become defaults in new contexts C) The neural circuits for shallow and deep processing are separate and mutually inhibitory D) Social media users lack the metacognitive awareness to switch between processing modes
20. Social media use immediately before sleep may impair memory consolidation because:
A) The emotional content of social media directly suppresses REM sleep architecture B) Sleep is the period during which new information is consolidated, and social media use may both disrupt sleep and occupy the pre-sleep mental state C) The screen light blocks the melatonin that is required for memory consolidation to begin D) Social comparison anxiety activated by social media prevents the relaxed state required for consolidation
21. Which of the following is the most accurate summary of Maya's cognitive situation in class?
A) She cannot concentrate because she has an attention deficit disorder exacerbated by social media B) Her attention is divided between the class and the background processing of unresolved social media threads, producing attention residue effects C) She is choosing to prioritize social concerns over academic ones, reflecting a values mismatch D) She has been cognitively impaired by social media use to the point where sustained attention is no longer possible
22. According to the chapter's practical implications, the most effective individual intervention for improving cognitive performance during study or work is:
A) Turning phone notifications to silent while keeping the phone on the desk B) Using willpower to resist checking the phone when it is visible C) Placing the phone in a separate room, removing the need for active suppression D) Setting a scheduled phone-check time every thirty minutes to manage the urge to check
Answer Key
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- C
- C
- B
- B
- C
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- B
- C