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saurabh_1922@yahoo.co.in · Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:43 am

The term "episodic memory" was
introduced by Tulving to refer to what he
considered a uniquely human capacity-
Line the ability to recollect specific past events,
(5) to travel back into the past in one's own
mind-as distinct from the capacity simply
to use information acquired through past
experiences. Subsequently, Clayton et al.
developed criteria to test for episodic
(10) memory in animals. According to these
criteria, episodic memories are not of
individual bits of information; they involve
multiple components of a single event
"bound" together. Clayton sought to
(15) examine evidence of scrub jays' accurate
memory of "what," "where," and "when"
information and their binding of this infor-
mation. In the wild, these birds store food
for retrieval later during periods of food
(20) scarcity. Clayton's experiment required
jays to remember the type, location, and
freshness of stored food based on a unique
learning event. Crickets were stored in one
location and peanuts in another. Jays
(25) prefer crickets, but crickets degrade
more quickly. Clayton's birds switched
their preference from crickets to peanuts
once the food had been stored for a certain
length of time, showing that they retain
(30) information about the what, the where,
and the when. Such experiments cannot,
however, reveal whether the birds were
reexperiencing the past when retrieving the
information. Clayton acknowledged this by
using the term "episodic-like" memory.
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Q5:
According to the passage, Clayton's experiment depended on the fact that scrub jays
A. recall "when" and "where" information more distinctly than "what" information
B. are not able to retain information about a single past event for an indefinitely long period of time
C. choose peanuts over crickets when the crickets have been stored for a long period of time
D. choose crickets over peanuts whenever both are available
E. prefer peanuts that have been stored for a short period to crickets that have been stored for a short period
Answer:
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saurabh_1922@yahoo.co.in · Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:11 pm

Any response please

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Guest · Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:16 pm

i'm guessing 'C' only because it seems to be the only answer choice consistent with the evidence of the passage. the other answer choice seem like misinterpretations...

this is a hard one, and i selected the 'most true' one. what's the OA?

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mayonnai5e · Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:28 pm

I think it's B:

"the ability to recollect specific past events,
(5) to travel back into the past in one's own
mind-as distinct from the capacity simply
to use information acquired through past
experiences."

to show the birds have episodic memory, they can't have long-term memory that allows them to just think back.

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saurabh_1922@yahoo.co.in · Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:32 pm

The OA is indeed C
But if you see the sentence "Jays
(25) prefer crickets, but crickets degrade
more quickly. Clayton's birds switched
their preference from crickets to peanuts
once the food had been stored for a certain
length of time, showing that they retain
(30) information about the what, the where,
and the when"
It never implies that crickets were kept for a longer time but for a certain length of time.But as crickets degrade more quickly hence birds choose peanuts.Hence my confusion regarding the answer C

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Guest · Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:47 pm

i see this as a "strengthen the argument" type of question. choice 'c' only makes the argument more convincing.

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saurabh_1922@yahoo.co.in · Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:07 pm

I agree with your point.
However Whenver we encounter "according to passage",this implies answer can be directly obtained from teh passage and we do not have to infer or deduce anything.
Anyways the better answer seems to be C

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Guest · Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:16 pm

did this come from OG?

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guest · Guest

No .
I have put the source of the Q in my subject line.Its from SETS
Question bank

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