ReadthefollowingpassageandmarktheletterA,B, C,orD onyouranswersheettoindicatethecorrectanswertoeachofthe questions.

Mostpeoplecanrememberaphonenumberforuptothirtyseconds.When thisshortamountoftimeelapses,however,thenumbersareerasedfromthe memory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makesitswaytotheshorttermmemory(STM)doessoviathesensorystorage area.Thebrainhasafilterwhichonlyallowsstimulithatisofimmediate interest topass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.

Thereismuchdebateaboutthecapacityanddurationoftheshortterm memoiy.ThemostacceptedtheorycomesfromGeorgeA.Miller,acognitive psychologistwhosuggestedthathumanscanrememberapproximatelyseven chunks ofinformation. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information suchasawordornameratherthanjustaletterornumber.Moderntheoristssuggestthatonecanincreasethecapacityoftheshorttermmemoryby chunking,orclassifyingsimilarinformationtogether.Byorganizing information,onecanoptimizetheSTM,andimprovethechancesofamemory being passed on to long term storage

Whenmakingaconsciousefforttomemorizesomething,suchasinformation foranexammanypeopleengagein"roterehearsal".Byrepeatingsomething overandoveragain,oneisabletokeepamemoryalive.Unfortunately,this typeofmemorymaintenanceonlysucceedsiftherearenointerruptions.As soonasapersonstopsrehearsingtheinformation,ithasthetendencyto disappear.Whenapenandpaperarenothandypeopleoftenattemptto rememberaphonenumberbyrepeatingitaloud.Ifthedoorbellringsorthe dogbarkstocomeinbeforeapersonhastheopportunitytomakeaphonecall, hewilllikelyforgetthenumberinstantly.Thereforeroterehearsalisnotan efficientwaytopassinformation fromtheshorttermtolongtermmemory.A betterwayistopractice"elaboraterehearsal".Thisinvolvesassigningsemantic meaningtoapieceofinformationsothatitcanbefiledalongwithotherpre-existing long term memories.

Encodinginformationsemanticallyalsomakesitmoreretrievable.Retrieving informationcanbedonebyrecognitionorrecall.Humanscaneasilyrecall memoriesthatarestoredinthelongtermmemoryandusedoften-however,if amemoryseemstobeforgotten,itmayeventuallybe retrievedbyprompting. Themorecuesapersonisgiven(suchaspictures),themorelikelyamemory canbereừieved.Thisiswhymultiplechoicetestsareoftenusedforsubjects that require a lot of memorization.

The word “fragile” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to