Assignment Task 1: In this Assignment, you will take a closer look at how memories are encoded, stored, and retrieved - often with surprising gaps or distortions. By connecting real-life experiences to key cognitive psychology concepts, you will deepen your understanding of how memory works. Through this lens, the assignment highlights the fallibility of memory and the formation of false memories, which are essential for understanding how cognitive processes shape our daily life.
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Readings:
Review the following readings from this week's Discussion:
Klein, C. (2023). Chapter 5: Long-term memory. In Essentials of cognitive psychology. University of North Alabama Digital Press at Collier Library.
Time Estimate: 19 minutes
McDermott, K.B. & Roediger, H.L. (2025). Memory (encoding, storage, retrieval). In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers.
Submit a 500- to 900-word paper in which you:
1. Describe a personal memory that you have, either from childhood or more recently, and reflect on how this memory was encoded, stored, and retrieved. Need Assignment Help?
2. Explain how encoding specificity and levels of processing relate to your memory. Be sure to provide specific details of how these processes occurred based on the processes noted in the Learning Resources this week.
3. Explain how this assignment has changed your understanding of memory and introduced you to its limitations.
To demonstrate what you learned this week, be sure to support your work by referring to specific information from the learning resources. Cite and reference the sources you used.
Assignment task 2:
Perceptions Of Social CLA
In Week 1, you considered the way that people perceive themselves in terms of social class. This week, you are examining how people perceive others in terms of social class. As a reminder, social class ranks people according to their importance in society. People may perceive different ranks of social class based on race, power, wealth, and other characteristics. Ranking people as low class, middle class, and high class is called stratification.
Some of the authors of the Readings in the course text suggest that the United States is developing a triracial stratification system which ties social class to race. According to these authors, a preliminary map of the tri-racial system identifies "whites" as high, "honorary whites" in the middle, and "collective black" as low. This stratification is based primarily on skin tone. Therefore, if you look white you will be perceived as high in the stratification. The darker your skin tone, the lower your rank in the stratification system.
In other Readings, the authors tie social class to power and wealth. People who are perceived as having a great deal of authority in their jobs are considered to be powerful. Powerful people hold a high rank in social class. Additionally, people who are financially well off are considered to be in a high rank because of their wealth. Perceptions of social class can be complex since they can be based on race, power, and wealth.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review this week's Learning Resources. Pay particular attention to the definitions of wealth, power, and the tri-racial stratification system in the article, "From Bi-racial to Tri-racial: Towards a New System of Racial Stratification in the USA."
Consider the impact of the tri-racial stratification system on perceptions of race and ethnicity.
Think about how race, power, and wealth might influence people's perception of social class
Reflect on whether race, power, or wealth might have the most influence and why.
The Assignment (3-4 pages):
Explain the impact of a tri-racial system on societal perceptions of race and ethnicity. Provide specific examples.
Separately analyze the impact of race, power, and wealth on people's perceptions of social class.
Provide specific examples for each.
Explain which you believe has the greatest influence on people's perceptions of social class and justify your response.
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation.