In day-to-day functioning, people rely on both memory and knowledge

Question

New Project RC Butler 2019  -  Practice 2 RC Passages Everyday   
Passage # 370, Date : 04-Oct-2019
 This post is a part of New Project RC Butler 2019 .  Click here for Details

In day-to-day functioning, people rely on both memory and knowledge of that memory, referred to as metamemory. For example, a person often cannot immediately recall a name upon meeting someone, but they feel that they know it. This feeling is the result of monitoring memory. Because of this feeling-of-knowing (FOK), most people will continue to search their memory for this name. Once a name is generated, people then monitor and decide if they are confident enough to use that name.

Memory monitoring involves evaluating the ongoing progress of any aspect of memory. Experiments that evaluate memory monitoring typically have individuals make subjective judgments about their memory at various stages of learning and recall. Participants are asked a series of questions. After each question that they answer, they are asked to provide a retrospective confidence (RC) judgment, rating the likelihood that their response is accurate. When participants do not answer a question, they are asked for their prospective FOK judgment, assessing whether they nonetheless feel they do know the answer (for example because they think they may be able to remember it at some point in the future).

Perhaps predictably, RC judgments are highly correlated with actual knowledge of a topic.  FOK judgments, however, correlate rather weakly—albeit positively—with actual knowledge. While there are some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall something , more often than not the FOK stems from the sense that one should know something, for example because the field is familiar.

Research has resulted in a general consensus that, when monitoring memory, individuals infer whether a particular response will be, or has been, remembered based on the inputs that are readily available. However, the particular inputs used differ depending on when memory is assessed. Prospective FOK judgments are thought to be based on familiarity of the cue, accessibility of information about the memory, or a combination of the two. In contrast, it is widely accepted that RC judgments are based on the memory-retrieval experience—that is, the  “on-line”  experience of directly retrieving some previously studied item.   1 
 1. The author uses the term “on-line” ( Highlighted )at the end of the last paragraph in order to:

A. emphasize the importance of readily available inputs for monitoring memory.
B. enhance the understanding of a major difference between RC judgments and FOK judgments.
C. show how similar RC judgments are to the experience of retrieving data from a computer online.
D. highlight the importance of when a memory is assessed in determining the reliability of an RC judgment.
E. clarify the weaknesses inherent in the process for forming FOK judgments.
 
 2 
 2. Which of the following best describes the role of the  highlighted portion  in the 3rd paragraph?

A. It is used to support the idea that RC judgments are strongly correlated with knowledge of a topic.
B. It is used to emphasize why FOK judgments, when compared to RC judgments, are also positively correlated with actual knowledge.
C. It is used to explain why the correlation with actual knowledge for FOK judgments is not as strong as the correlation with actual knowledge for RC judgments.
D. It is used to emphasize the difference between a momentary inability to recall something and actual knowledge of a topic.
E. It is used to support the notion that RC judgments should be used more often to assess recall of information than FOK judgments.

3 
 3. According to the passage, an FOK judgment is normally made by experimental subjects

A. before questions are posed to them.
B. after each question.
C. after questions they are unable to answer.
D. after providing an answer to a question.
E. after the answers to all the questions are revealed.

4 
 4. Based on the information in the passage, if a person has an FOK that proves to be an accurate assessment of actual knowledge, he or she most likely

A)will quickly give up on attempting to answer the question.
B)is familiar with the field but not the individual piece of information.
C)overestimates how much knowledge he or she really has.
D)is suffering from a temporary inability to recall information.
E)will give an unreliable RC judgment for the same topic.

5 
 5. According to the passage, which of the following is true of feeling-of-knowing?

A. It its not correlated with actual knowledge.
B. It is more strongly correlated with actual knowledge than is retrospective confidence.
C. It causes people to stop searching their memory for someone's name.
D. It is considered by researchers to be the best possible predictor of actual knowledge.
E. It is positively correlated with actual knowledge.

6 
 6. According to the passage, FOK judgments and RC judgments differ in all of the following ways EXCEPT that

A. they are elicited experimentally under different conditions.
B. one is more accurate than the other.
C. they involve inferences based on different clues.
D. one is subjective and the other is objective.
E. they assess knowledge at different points in the recall process.

7 
 7. Which of the following, if true, would support the author's claims about the inputs associated with memory monitoring?

A. Prospective FOK judgments are often associated with high levels of brain activity around the memory retrieval centers of the brain.
B. Individuals who were asked the same question on subsequent days reported higher FOK - even if they didn't know the answer - than did individuals who hadn't heard the question before.
C. Individuals report high RC if the memory accessed to answer a question had a large amount of accessible information associated with it.
D. The longer the time period between when an individual studies a topic and when he or she is asked about it, the lower the FOK judgment associated with that question.
E. Brain scans of individuals performing FOK and RC judgments show that the two processes occur in different areas of the brain.

8 
 8. Based on the information in the passage, in which of the following situations would a RC judgment occur?

A. A shopper considers whether the PIN he is about to enter is the correct one.
B. An individual studying for an exam reviews his notes to see what he needs to review.
C. A shopper tries to remember the price at which a particular item was advertised.
D. A test taker reviews her test for potential calculation mistakes before turning it in.
E. An individual tries to remember a password for an online application.

nkmungila · Answer

For Question Number 3 answer reside in the below line in paragraph 2
 When participants do not answer a question, they are asked for their prospective FOK judgment,  assessing whether they nonetheless feel they do know the answer (for example because they think they may be able to remember it at some point in the future).

sidd13 · Answer

It also takes into consideration the definition given from paragraph 1, good or tricky part about this RC is the facts need to be kept in mind together

NandishSS · Answer

Based on the information in the passage, if a person has an FOK that proves to be an accurate assessment of actual knowledge, he or she most likely

A)will quickly give up on attempting to answer the question.
 B)is familiar with the field but not the individual piece of information.
 C)overestimates how much knowledge he or she really has.
 D)is suffering from a temporary inability to recall information.
 E)will give an unreliable RC judgment for the same topic.

OA: D

Official Solution:

This problem requires you to draw an inference based on the information in the third paragraph. While the phrase "most likely" in the question stem seems like it should tie directly back to "more often than not" in the third paragraph (which would lead you to choice B), you must fully understand what the question is asking about. The question wants to know about times when the FOK did reflect actual knowledge. That's where the whole paragraph comes into play. The meaning here:

FOK judgments, however, correlate rather weakly—albeit positively—with actual knowledge. While there are some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall something, more often than not the FOK stems from the sense that one should know something...

Says that FOK judgments rarely mean that there is actual knowledge. Those cases, which are the ones the question asks about, are the rare ones, the "some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall." The "more often than not" cases are the ones in which FOK does not reflect actual knowledge, and those are not the cases that the question is asking about.

So from this you can infer that the cases that reflect actual knowledge are the ones for which there is a momentary inability to recall. That matches answer choice D, the correct answer.

saishivapriya · Answer

Can someone provide official explainations for this passage

thangvietnam · Answer

the passage is hard. but if you read slowly, it is understandable. the questions are easy because they do not have close answers. this case is not typical of gmat rc.

for typical gmat rc, questions contain close answer and we have to re-read the relevant sentences to eliminate 4 choice and confirm 1 choice. we can be stuck at two close answer choices. the ability to differentiate 2 close answer choices is key to success on gmat rc.

SSandy066 · Answer

Can someone explain the question 5..

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Welcome to GMAT Club!

Official Explanation

5. According to the passage, which of the following is true of feeling-of-knowing?

Difficulty Level:   600

Explanation

In the beginning of the  third paragraph , the author talks about how feeling-of-knowledge (FOK) and retrospective confidence (RC) relate to actual knowledge: Perhaps predictably, RC judgments are highly correlated with actual knowledge of a topic. FOK judgments, however, correlate rather weakly—albeit positively—with actual knowledge. Note the portion between the dashes: FOK judgments are positively correlated with actual knowledge (even though it's a weak correlation), proving answer  choice (E)  correct.

Among the other choices:

(A)  is directly contradicted by the sentence that proves  (E) , so  (A)  is incorrect.

(B)  is also incorrect, as the sentence prior to the proof for (E) says that RC is highly correlated with actual knowledge, meaning that the weakly-correlated FOK is a lower correlation.

(C)  is disproven in paragraph one, where it is mentioned that because of FOK people will continue searching for someone's name even if they do not know it.

And  (D)  is never mentioned directly but is contradicted by the notion that RC is more highly correlated with actual knowledge than is FOK.

Answer: E

adkor95 · Answer

Can someone please explain Question (1)?

Although it is clear in hindsight, for future reference I'd like to fully understand the underlying approach.

My understanding is that the use of the words in bold "...memory-retrieval experience— that is , the “on-line” experience of..." modifies the term memory-retrieval experience through use of 'that is'. Therefore isn't "on-line" used to expand on this term (i.e. Answer C)?

Thanks

rainingrelics · Answer

Hello. Could you provide the explanation for Question 4

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

4. Based on the information in the passage, if a person has an FOK that proves to be an accurate assessment of actual knowledge, he or she most likely

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Explanation

This problem requires you to draw an inference based on the information in the third paragraph. While the phrase  "most likely"  in the question stem seems like it should tie directly back to  "more often than not"  in the  third paragraph  (which would lead you to choice B), you must fully understand what the question is asking about. The question wants to know about times when the FOK did reflect actual knowledge. That's where the whole paragraph comes into play. The meaning here:

FOK judgments, however, correlate rather weakly—albeit positively—with actual knowledge. While there are some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall something, more often than not the FOK stems from the sense that one should know something...

Says that FOK judgments rarely mean that there is actual knowledge. Those cases, which are the ones the question asks about, are the rare ones, the  "some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall."  The  "more often than not"  cases are the ones in which FOK does not reflect actual knowledge, and those are not the cases that the question is asking about.

So from this you can infer that the cases that reflect actual knowledge are the ones for which there is a momentary inability to recall. That matches answer choice D, the correct answer.

Answer: D

gloomybison · Answer

VeritasKarishma 
In Question 4, B and D are both likely to be correct answers. According to official explanation it gives the following "while there are some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall" as the reason to choose D. But to support B paragraph literally says " more often than not  the FOK stems from the sense that one should know something, for example because the field is familiar." .You may say that it gives the familiarity to field as an example, so it not quite often true, however note that for D it also says "there are some instances" meaning that these instances are not absolute and eternal

KarishmaB · Answer

4. Based on the information in the passage, if a person has an FOK that proves to be an accurate assessment of actual knowledge, he or she most likely

A)will quickly give up on attempting to answer the question.
B)is familiar with the field but not the individual piece of information.
C)overestimates how much knowledge he or she really has.
D)is suffering from a temporary inability to recall information.
E)will give an unreliable RC judgment for the same topic.

FOK is the feeling of knowing something but not actually giving the answer. 
Say if someone plays a tune for me and asks for the name of the song, I could have FOK - I could feel that I know the name but I may not actually be able to give the name.
 
What does the following in the passage mean?

FOK judgments, however, correlate rather weakly—albeit positively—with actual knowledge. While there are some instances where the FOK is the result of a momentary inability to recall something, more often than not the FOK stems from the sense that one should know something, for example because the field is familiar.

FOK judgements correlate weakly with actual knowledge i.e. the person doesn't actually know the answer in many cases. He just feels that he knows or should know. 
There are some instances where the person does actually know and is unable to recall in that moment (say the name of a song he has heard many times before but doesn't recall in that instant)
But usually, the fact is that the person doesn't know but feels that he should because he knows the field (say if someone listens to a lot of music and hears a piece that seems familiar but doesn't the name of it)

Now, if a person has FOK and it turns out that he actually knows the answer (he is able to recall later, say) what can we say? Can we say that likely it was a case of the person not recalling it in that moment? Yes. 
Can it be a case of "familiarity with the field but not the individual piece of information"? No. If he was actually able to recall, he did know that piece of information.

So (D) is correct and (B) is wrong.

infowarf · Answer

Question 8 asks about an example of an RC judgement. We know that the RC occurs when someone has already provided an answer, and considers whether the given answer is accurate. Only if the person fails to provide an answer, the FOK occurs. Hence, the example should include a judgement to the given answer. The only choices that have such pattern are A and D.

A lot of people chose D over A, but maybe they did not observe that D is talking about mathematical calculations. Those are not directly retrieved from the memory. The mathematical calculations are not inputs that are readily available, but are retrieved through several actions, which are not included in the explanation of RC. The passage says that an answer to a question, before the accuracy test, is remembered based on a readily available input, while in reaching the answer to a math problem one may rely on several inputs. The accuracy of the PIN though is exactly what the RC is committed for. The PIN is one piece of an information that is readily available, and after remembering, the person tries to figure out is it accurate or not.

I hope this helps. Thank you for your attention.

notshynotme · Answer

Sajjad1994 Could you provide the answer explanation for Q8? Thank you

Sajjad1994 · Answer

The official explanation is not available, and I do not agree with OA (A). I recommend letting it go for good.

Thank you!

RiyaJ0032 · Answer

can somebody please provide explanation for Q6 and Q7?

for Q6, we can infer that RC judgements are subjective while FOK judgements are objective (because they are based on a feeling of knowing?)

It's given that (B) is the answer for Q6, but where can we infer this?

doesn't the RC state that both judgements correlate positively with actual knowledge
just that one correlates strongly while the other is not as strong

does that mean RC is more accurate than FOK?

and for Q7, wouldn't (D) imply less familiarity with the cue and hence be the ans, because "Familiarity with cue" is given to be one of the inputs influencing FOK judgements,
do not know why is (B) given to be the ans, which characteristic of the input given is it reflect

if someone could please provide some inputs

Sajjad1994 
 MartyMurray 
 GMATNinjaTwo 
 GMATGuruNY 
 KarishmaB

In day-to-day functioning, people rely on both memory and knowledge

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