Each question in this quiz is timed.
What is the definition of Cognitive Psychology?
Cognition is the collection of mental activities used in perceiving, remembering and thinking, as well as the act of using those processes. Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of these mental processes.
Cognition is the collection of mental activities used in thinking, remembering and processing, speaking and listening, as well as the act of using those processes. Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of these mental processes.
Historically, the movement known as behaviourism was encouraged by researchers concerns about
Psychotherapy
An exaggerated focus on participants responses
Biologist inferring how a behaviour is likely to behave in the future of the basis of assessment of past behaviours
Behaviourist inferring how a behaviour was learned on the basis of a deduction from well-established principles of learning
The philosopher Immanuel Kant based many of his arguments on transcendental inferences. A commonplace example of such an inference is a
Physicist inferring what the attributes of an electron must be on the basis of the visual effects that it causes
Computer scientist inferring what the attributes of a program must be on the basis of his or her long-range goes for the programs functioning
Biologist inferring how an organising is likely to behave in the future on the basis of assessment of past behaviours
Behaviourist inferring how a behaviour was learned on the basis of a deduction of well-established principles of learning
Participants in an experiment are shown a series of digits and then asked to repeat them back a moment later. While being shown the sequence, participants were required to say "TAH, TAH, TAH'" out loud, over and over again. The evidence indicates that the recitation of "TAH, TAH, TAH"will
Have no effect on performance
Provide a rhythm that helps organise participants rehearsal of digits, thereby improving their memory performance
Force participants to rely on the central executive rather than a less powerful lower-level assistant, thereby improving memory performance
Block participants from using their inner voices to rehearse the digits, thereby interfering with the memory task
Which of the following statements most accurately describes visual illusions?
The cognitive architecture that helps us in most cases causes illusions in other cases
Illusions are mostly beneficial to perception
Illusions will not occur if you know how to avoid them
Illusions can occur for shape and size, but not for colour or brightness
Imagine you are reading a puzzling email from a friend. You identify the words, but you have a hard time "reading between the lines". In this example, work identification involves __________ processing, while "reading between the lines" involves _________ processing.
top down; bottom up
top down; top down
bottom up; top down
bottom up; bottom up
Participants are shown a visual stimulus for just 30 milliseconds and are then asked "Was there an E or K in the stimulus? " We would expect the best performance if the stimulus is:
BWQK
BARK
K
GALK
According to the Recognition by Components model, geons are NOT
Simple shapes
Viewpoint Independent
Always easy to identify
Capable of identification if they are partially obstructed
Posner, Snyder and Davidson (1980) examined spatial attention using arrows as a prime. Most of the time the arrow pointed to the area where the stimulus would appear, but 20% of the time they did not. They compared reaction times (RT's) when the cue was valid, when it was invalid, and when a neutral cue was presented. Which of the following statements was NOT supported by their findings?
RTs were slower in the invalid condition than in the valid condition
Spatial attention is limited in capacity
We can attend to two different locations without a reduction in performance
RT's were faster for responses to valid cues relative to neutral cues
Patients with unilateral neglect ignore one side of their visual field. This problem illustrates the importance of
Object-based perception
Space-based perception
Memory for objects
Paying attention to objects
Participants are asked to listen to a tape-recorded message and to shadow the message as they hear it. Which of the following tasks will be easiest to combine with this shadowing task?
Viewing a series of printed words, followed by a test measuring memory of the words
Simultaneously hearing a tape-recorded message, followed by a test measuring memory for the gist of a the second message
Simultaneously hearing a tape-recorded list of words, followed by a test measuring memory of the word list
Viewing a series of pictures, followed by a test measuring memory for the pictures
Which of the following statements is NOT true of executive control?
It is used to keep current goals active
In Inhibits distracting thoughts
It seems to rely on the prefrontal cortex
It underlies habitual responding but not goal-directed behaviours
John is asked to remember the order a previously presented list of words. Compared to an immediate recall test, what effect would you expect a 20 second unfilled delay to have on memory performance?
It would have no effect on memory, compared to an immediate recall test
It would decrease memory for early words and improve memory for words presented later in the list
It would improve memory for early words
It would improve memory for recently presented words
Within working memory, "helpers" like the visuospatial buffer and articulatory rehearsal loop
Can take over some of the lower-level analyses ordinarily performed by the central executive
Can provide verbal, but not visual analysis of the memory items
Can provide short-term storage of items likely to be needed soon by the central executive
Preserve the items to be remembered in their initial sensory form (e.g. visual stimuli are preserved as visual images)
A student wishes to memorise an essay so that he will be able to recall the essays content later on. Which of the following is likely to LEAST helpful to him?
Making certain that he understands the argument contained within the essay
Thinking about why the essay is organised the way that it is
Reading the essay aloud over and over again
Trying to construct a paraphrase of the essay's content
Which is the LEAST important for memory acquisition?
Memory connections
Shallow processing
Organisation
Understanding
In an experiment, participants learned materials in Room A and were tested in Room B. If they were asked to think about Room A just before taking the test, participants
Performed as well as they would have done had there been no room change
Performed worse on the test due to dual-task memory distribution
Performed the same as those participants in who were not asked to think about Room A
Performed better than participants who were tested in Room B and were not asked to think about Room A, but worse than participants tested in Room A
Donna says "I can't figure out where I've seen that person before but I know that I have" Donna
Has episodic memory for the face but no generic memory for the face
Has a sense of familiarity but no source memory
Would perform well on a recall test but not on a recognition test
Seems to have formed interim associates when she last encountered the face
Which of the following examples is NOT considered evidence of an implicit memory?
Declaring that George Washington was the first president of the United States
Successfully riding a bike
Believing something is true because you have previously heard it
Classical conditioning
Current evidence indicates that patients suffering from Korkakoff's Amnesia
Show greater disruption in implicit memory than in explicit memory
Suffer from disruption in both implicit and explicit memory
Show intact implicit memory with perceptual cues but disrupted implicit memory with conceptual cues
Have preserved implicit memory despite severe disruption in explicit memory
Which of the following is LEAST likely to be included within a kitchen schema?
Kitchens almost always contain a refrigerator
Kitchens sometimes contain a coffeemaker
A kitchen usually contains a sink
My Mother's kitchen contains a microwave oven
The misinformation effect is an example of
Selective amnesia
Source confusion
Retrieval failure
Memory decay
Emotion has multiple effects on the encoding and retrieval of memories. Which of the following is most likely to occur during the recall of every day emotional stress?
Amnesia
Repression
Decreased accuracy in recall
Accurate recall of events gist (e.g. the emotional events centre) but relatively poor recall of events background details ("periphery)
The memory that contains the full recollection of our lives is referred to as __________ memory
Self-recollective
Autobiographical
Emotional perspective
Personal experience
When we say "There is a family resemblance among all the members of the Jones family" We mean
There is at least one feature shared by all the members of the family
There is at least one identifying trait such that if you have that trait, you are certain to be a member of the family
Any pair of family members will have certain traits in common even though there may be no traits shared by all of the family members
There are several features that all members of the family have in common
Exemplar and prototype theories are similar in the following ways EXCEPT that
Both theories require the triggering of a memory
Both theories require previous memories to be averaged, or combined
Both theories require a judgement of resemblance
Conclusions for both processes are based on resemblance
The use of theories plays an important role in our conceptual knowledge. Which of these is FALSE about the theories involved in conceptual knowledge?
They provide a knowledge base on which we can rely when thinking about an object. event or category
They play a large part in determining how easily and quickly we learn new concepts
They are often as precise and accurate as most scientific theories
They often allow us to understand any new facts that we encounter about an object or category
Which of the following benefits does a hierarchical network provide?
Information can be searched for equally quickly across all levels of the network
It is efficient because information is stored only once
Information is stored repeatedly to ensure accuracy
Information is organised according to use, so that more common representations can be accessed more quickly
Which of the following claims is true for depiction of a cat but NOT for a description of a cat?
Properties strongly associated with the cat (e.g. the whiskers) will be particularly prominent
The distinctive features of the cat (e.g. claws) will be particularly prominent
Aspects of the cat that are obvious (e.g. the fact the cat has a body) are likely not to be prominent
The cats head will probably be prominent, but the cats claws are likely not to be
A researcher asks a participant to memorise a city map. On the map, the library and the school are 4cm apart; the school and the hospital are 8cm apart. The researcher now instructs the participant to form an image of the map and to scan the from the library to the school. The researcher then asks participant to scan from the school to the hospital. It is more likely true that the scanning time from the school to the hospital is ___________ the scanning time between the library and the school.
Half
The same as
Triple
Double
Image files in long-term memory
Are distinctive because special processes (like scanning and zooming) operate on them
Hold large scale "templates" indicating how the image form looks
Contain the instructions needed to create a mental image
Usually contain a picture-like representation of an image
Homer, Lisa and Moe are asked to remember pairs of words. Homer tries to accomplish this task by rehearsing the words over and over again. Lisa decides to create a narrative combining the words together and finally, Moe decides to imagine the objects interacting in some way. Who is likely to remember the items?
Homer
Lisa
Moe
They will remember them equally well
In one experiment, participants were asked to list either 6 or 12 instances in their lives when they were assertive. Which of the following statements is FALSE about the participants who were asked to list only 6 instances?
Overall, they rated themselves as less assertive
They had an easier time fulfilling the task
They were given an easier task than the 12-instance participants
They relied on the availability heuristic when making their decision
Reasoning from "man who" arguments is usually inappropriate. In fact, generalising from a single case is justified only
For heterogeneous categories
When the sample size is adequate
When the base rates are unknown
For truly homogeneous categories
Research into whether personality traits can be diagnosed by descriptions of ink blots has shown that
Novices sometimes detect illusory co-variations but experts do not
Both novices and experts are successful in finding true co-variations
Novices are often better than experts at detecting true co-variations as they are less likely to be affected by confirmation bias
The pattern of observations that both experts and novices see if often not real but rather based on illusory co-variations
Data format seems to play an important role in decision making because
The correct format is more likely to trigger the necessary memory retrieval path
Certain formats, like frequencies are more likely to trigger System 1
Certain formats, like frequencies are more likely to trigger System 2
Proportions are the easiest to understand
One plan for solving a problem would be to consider every possible option, searching for the best solution. This broad plan is
Usually the best way to proceed for solving complicated problems
More effective with ill-defined problems
Usually ruled out by the sheer number of possible states within the problem space
Often the only plan available
Which of the following is NOT a procedure that makes analogy use more likely?
Participants are given two analogous problems, rather than just one, before the test problem
Participants are given financial bonuses for each one of the test problems they are able to solve
Participants are given several training problems and asked to compare the problems to one another
Participants are encouraged to work at understanding the solutions of the training problems so that they can explain the solutions later on
Two groups of participants are given sets of training problems to solve. One group of participants is told to try to understand the structure of the problem, while the other group is asked to try memorise the problem. They are later given test problems. Based on previous evidence, what results would you expect to see at testing?
The "memorise" group will be faster when solving the problems
The "memorise" group will solve problems
The "structure" group will solve more problems
The groups will solve the same number of problems
Melissa is a 35 year old woman. Over the next few decades, her intelligence will likely increase, while her ________ intelligence will likely decrease
crystallised; memory
crystallised; fluid
fluid; crystallised
reasoning ability; memory
The phase "memory without awareness" is another way of describing a pattern in which
explicit memory tests indicate that participants remember an event, but implicit memory tests indicate that they do not remember
implicit memory tests indicate that participants remember an event but explicit memory tests indicate that they do not remember
recognition tests indicate that participants remember an event, but recall tests indicate that they do not remember
direct memory testing indicates that participants remember an event, but indirect testing indicates that they do not remember
Lisa rides the train to work and always gets off at Stop A. One Saturday she has to into town, and she rides the same train she takes to work. She is supposed to get off at Stop F, but she starts talking to her mother on the phone and then gets off at Stop A. What does this tell us about unconscious processing?
Unconscious processing is impossible
Unconscious processing only causes problems
People tend to make the same mistakes over and over again
If not consciously attending to what we are doing, we will rely on habit
Which of the following is NOT an advantage gained by practicing a task?
Only one routine needs to be launched instead of several steps in order to complete a task
Each step in the task no longer needs to be monitored to decide when to start the next step
The task can be completed without the need to pay attention, so that attention can be allocated elsewhere
Practice allows the mechanics behind the tasks to enter conscious awareness
Billy thinks he understands the information from the textbook very well; however, he fails the quiz on the same material. Billy's error results from a failure of
self-esteem
metacognition
false memories
a problem-solving set
If Sheila says "Pass the salt, please" you are likely to pass the salt. You'll probably respond in the same way if Sheila (a chemistry major) instead asks, "Could you please hand me the sodium chloride crystals?"
This observation seems to indicate that our behaviour is
Primarily controlled by the physical characteristics of the stimuli we encounter
Shaped by the literal meanings of the stimuli we encounter
Determined by simple associations among the stimuli we encounter
Governed by what stimuli we encounter mean to us
Bert has sustained damage to part of his left temporal lobe, which is important for language production. What of the following problems would we expect to see if Bert were given a memory test?
He would not be able to memorise visual shapes
He would have difficulty rehearsing items with verbal labels
His working memory would be entirely non-existent
No working memory problems would be observed
Introspection, by definition, CANNOT be used to study:
Topics that are strongly coloured by emotion
Mental events that are unconscious
Processes that involve conceptual knowledge
Events that take a long time to unfold
Which of the following would a classical behaviourist be LEAST likely to study?
A participants response to a particular situation
A participants beliefs
Changes in a participants behaviour that follow changes in the environment
Principles that apply equally to human behaviour and to the behaviour of other species
Cognitive psychology often relies on the transcendental method in which
Mental events are explained by referring to events in the central nervous system
Information from introspection transcends behavioural data
Researchers seek to infer the properties of unseen events on the basis of the observable effects of those events
Theories are tested via computer models
Which of the Gestalt principles states that we tend to perceive objects in groups?
Similarity
Proximity
Simplicity
Closure
Visual illusions often occur because
ones perception of the components of the stimulus are flawed
ones interpretation of the stimulus is incorrect
ones cognitive processes change when seeing an illusion
of obstructions in the image
Participants are shown the letter-string TPUM for 30 Ms and asked to identify what they saw. If they are going to answer incorrectly, which response are they most likely to give?
I did not see anything presented
OPUM
TRUM
TMPU
On one trial of an experiment, a participant is shown the sequence GQXT. On a different trial, the participant is shown the sequence PAFE. On the basis of prior research, we should expect that
PAFE will be easier to perceive than GWXT because detectors for PA and FE are likely to be well primed
the letter sequences will be equally difficult to perceive because neither is a word
participants will perceive more of the letters in GWXT because they are likely to confuse PAFE with PACE or SAFE
the letter sequences will be equally difficult to perceive because both contain regular bigram patterns
Biederman's recognition by components (RBC) model:
does not rely on a hierarchy of detectors
makes use of geon detectors, which in turn trigger detectors for geon assemblies
asserts that priming takes place primarily at levels higher than the level of geon detectors
can recognise three-dimensional objects provided they are seen from the appropriate viewing angle
McClelland and Rumelhart's model of word recognition suggests detectors on separate levels can interact in a bidirectional manner. Biological evidence _______________ this notion because __________________.
supports; visual processing is bidirectional
supports; there is parallel processing in the visual system
does not support; visual processing is an entirely bottom-up process
does not support; word recognition does not depend on visual processing
In dichotic listening experiments, some aspects of the unattended message seem to leak through and are heard despite the participants intention to ignore the message. Which of the following statements reflects what is LEAST likely to leak through in this fashion?
material that is easily distinguishable from the attended message in its semantic content
mention of the participants name
mention of a topic of personal importance to the participant
mention of a movie that the participant recently watched
Attention is limited in many ways. Which of the following statements is FALSE about attentional limits?
Attention is limited spatially
You can divide attention if the tasks are very similar
Attention cannot be divided among similar stimuli
Expectation can influence attention
Moore and Egeth (1997) asked participants to rate which of two lines was longer. Background dots were presented with the lines. On some trials, the dot pattern was a visual illusion, designed to manipulate the perceived length of the lines. Moore and Egeth found that
One can be influenced by events of which one is not conscious
One cannot have perception without consciousness
Attention and perception are necessary for consciousness
Attention requires perception
The evidence from unilateral neglect patients and patients with normal attentional abilities suggests that
Space-based attention is more important than object-based attention
Object-based attention is more important than space-based attention
Both space and object-based attention are important in attention
Attention is a perfect cognitive system
The existence of task-general resources is indicated by the fast that
similar tasks will interfere with each other more than dissimilar tasks
if a task has been heavily practised, it is less likely to cause interference with other tasks
some brain lessons disrupt all tasks requiring attention
interference between two tasks can sometimes be observed even if the two tasks appear to have no elements in common
A participant is shown a series of stimuli and is asked to name the colour of the ink in which the stimuli are printed. The eighth stimulus happens to be printed in green ink. We should expect a relatively slow response if the stimulus happens to be
a series of green X's
the word RED printed in green
the participants name in green
the word GREEN printed in green
According to the modal model of memory, words presented early in a list are easier to remember than words presented later because
They are still residing in working memory at the time of the test
Participants are particularly alert at the beginning of the list presentation
The early words receive more of the participants attention than the later words
The early words suffer from interference than the later words
When thinking of a list of digits in terms of racing times, one person is found to report up to 79 digits. This suggests that this person
Has a larger working memory than most other participants
Is well practiced at memory retrieval
Can remember this information due to a unique chunking strategy
Does not show the primacy or recency effect
Which of the following exemplifies the memory effects of repeated exposure without intention to remember?
Irv is unable to describe the appearance of his wrist watch even though he has owned it for years and looks at it many times each day
Mary is unable to recall the name of her first-grade teacher
Tony is unable to remember his high school algebra even though he did well in his algebra courses
Samantha has managed, with some effort, to learn the names of all her classmates
Reading your notes, or the textbook over and over again is NOT recommended as a study strategy because
It is an elaborative way to learn information
It encourages deep processing
It is a passive form of learning
You should be using a highlighter to identify important material
A participant is trying to memorise theword “parade.” To help herself, she thinks about the word within a complicated sentence: “From their third-floor apartment, they had a great view of all the bands, the cowboys, and the floats in the Thanksgiving parade.” This learning strategy will produce
fine memory performance, but similar performance could be achieved with simpler sentences as long as they require the participant to think about the meaning of the word
poor memory performance because the complicated sentence draws attention away from the target word
excellent memory performance because the sentence involves a great deal of maintenance rehearsal
excellent memory performance because the strategy requires attention to meaning and provides many memory connections
In a peg-word system, participants help themselves memorise a group of items by
forming an elaborate sentence about each of the items to be remembered
associating each item with some part of an already memorised framework, or skeleton
naming the items to themselves over and over again
placing each item in its appropriate semantic category
Several researchers have compared brain activity during the learning process for words that were later remembered or forgotten. Which of the following is NOT consistent with their findings?
Increased activity in the hippocampus was associated with better retention
Increased activity in the prefrontal cortex was associated with better retention
Exposure to an item is enough for retention
Learning is an active process
A researcher hypothesises that high doses of caffeine can produce context-dependent learning. To confirm this hypothesis, the researcher would need to show that
participants learn more effectively if they drink several cups of coffee before studying the material to be learned
participants’ recall performance is improved if they are tested soon after drinking several cups of coffee
participants who drink a lot of coffee are, in general, likely to do better on memory tests
if participants study the material while drinking a great deal of coffee, they will remember the material better if they drink a great deal of coffee while taking the memory test
Which of the following statements seems to be the best illustration of encoding specificity?
Susan is terrible at learning general arguments, although she is excellent at learning more specific claims
Susan has learned the principles covered in her psychology class, but she has difficulty remembering the principles in the context of her day-to-day life
Susan easily learns material that is meaningful but cannot learn material that is abstract
Susan quickly masters new material if she knows some related information, but she has trouble learning new material if the domain is new to her
When a person experiences familiarity but no accompanying source memory, the effect can be far-reaching but is unlikely to include
the person believing that a familiar statement is true, even though he or she cannot remember where he or she heard it
the person inaccurately accusing someone of a crime, merely because that person seems familiar
the person’s preferences changing in favor of the familiar information
explicit recollection of a person’s name or profession
Which of the following statements is NOT likely to be an influence of implicit memory?
Participants know they have encountered the stimulus recently but cannot recall the details of the encounter
Participants have a preference for a familiar stimulus in comparison to other, new stimuli
Participants think a false, made-up phrase that they have heard recently is true
Participants remember the circumstances in which they first encountered a stimulus
Cindy and Linda are both eyewitnesses to a bank robbery. At the police station, they each select Mike from a police lineup and say, “He’s the thief!” It turns out, though, that Mike has been a customer at the store at which Cindy works while Linda has never before seen Mike. With this background
Cindy’s identification is more valuable to the police because she has an advantage of familiarity and context
both identifications are likely to be accurate because face recognition draws on specialised mechanisms that work effectively with both familiar and unfamiliar faces
Cindy’s identification is more valuable to the police because her recognition of Mike will be more fluent than Linda’s, thanks to the previous encounters
Linda’s identification is more valuable to the police because Cindy may have been misled by the fact that Mike seemed familiar because of her other encounters with him
The famous patient H.M. was unable to remember events he experienced after his brain surgery because of
repression
anterograde amnesia
retrograde amnesia
infantile amnesia
Theodore has suffered from Korsakoff’s amnesia for the last decade. Theodore is LEAST likely to do which of the following actions?
accurately recall events from early childhood
hold a coherent conversation lasting many minutes
recall events that occurred last month
recognise people he met 18 years ago
An important theme emerging from memory research is that memory connections:
are crucial for recognition but are less important for recall
can improve our memory accuracy
make memories easier to locate but can lead to intrusion errors
play a role in implicit memory but not in generic memory
When presented with a list of words along a theme (e.g., “bed,” “rest,” “slumber,” “dream,” “tired”), participants often (mis)recall the theme word to be part of the list (e.g., “sleep”). This procedure is commonly referred to as the:
Disclusion–Recall–Memory procedure
Decreased-Remembering-Magnitude procedure
Deese–Roediger–McDermott procedure
Daily-Reconstructing-Mnemonics procedure
Participants viewed a series of slides depicting a car accident. Immediately afterward, half of the participants were asked, “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” The other participants were asked, “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” One week later, all participants were asked more questions about the slides, including whether they had seen any broken glass in the slides. A comparison of the two groups of participants is likely to show that
participants who were asked the “smashed” question gave higher estimates of speed and were more likely to remember seeing broken glass
the groups gave similar estimates of speed, but the “smashed” group was more likely to remember seeing broken glass
participants who were asked the “smashed” question gave higher estimates of speed, but the groups gave similar responses to the “broken glass” question
the minor contrast in how the groups were questioned had no effect on participants’ memories
Someone versed in memory research could plant false memories in his or her friends or family. Imagine you want to perform such an (unethical) act. Which technique is LEAST likely to be effective in planting the false memories?
repeating the false suggestion several times
giving electrical shocks
using a plausible false event
asking the individual to imagine the event
Which of the following claims about memory accuracy is FALSE?
Participants’ confidence in their false memories is often just as great as their confidence in their accurate recollections
Children may be even more vulnerable to the “planting” of false memories than adults.
When a participant’s response is based on a false memory, the response is likely to be given just as quickly as it would be if based on an accurate memory
Participants are sometimes mistaken in their recollection of an event’s minor details, but do not create an entirely new false memory
You should be skeptical of “recovered” memories that were repressed because
many painful events are well remembered
retrieval failure may explain “recovered memories”
if the memory was important enough to be repressed, it would be a flashbulb memory and be robust to decay
some recovered memories turn out to be false memories suggested by therapists
The effect that time has on forgetting is not monotonic. Forgetting is ________ over the first few minutes and hours and then ________ over subsequent decades.
slow; fast
fast; very fast
slow; very slow
fast; slow
The claim that mental categories have graded membership is the claim that
one cannot specify precisely whether a test case is in the category
some category members are better suited than others as category members
a participant’s belief about a category’s membership shifts as the participant learns more about the category
many category members approach the ideal for that category
According to exemplar theory, typicality effects
are difficult to explain
reflect the fact that typical category members are probably frequent in our environment and are therefore frequently represented in memory
are produced by the fact that the exemplars in memory for each category tend to resemble each other
should be observed with categories having homogeneous membership but not with more variable categories
It is possible for a test case to be thought of as typical of a category, despite not being a member of that category. Which of the following examples is consistent with this idea?
Whales are more typical of fish than sea lampreys
A squashed lemon that has been painted purple is more typical of fruit than an apple
Poodles are more typical of dogs than golden retrievers
Abraham Lincoln is a typical American president
In one procedure, participants were asked to judge which was a “better” even number, 4 or 18. The participants
were unable to perform this task
offered judgments that show that well-defined categories do not show the graded-membership pattern
regarded all of the even numbers as being “equivalently even”
made the judgment in a fashion that implied a graded-membership pattern for the category “even number”
A mutilated lemon will still be categorised as a lemon, while a counterfeit $20 bill will not be categorised as money. What does this say about categorisation?
Psychologists will never understand categorisation
Category membership cannot be based on resemblance alone
Category membership is based on previously encountered examples
Prototype theory is the most accurate theory of categorisation
One study found that if participants were told a new fact about robins, they would also believe that the new fact was true of ducks. However, if told a new fact about ducks, participants would not extrapolate this information to robins. This suggests that
participants treat each category member independently (on a case-by-case basis) when applying new beliefs
participants are willing to apply inferences from a typical case within a category to the whole category but will not apply inferences from an atypical case to the whole category
new knowledge about a member of a category is unstable, leading to a change in a person’s belief system only on rare occasions
beliefs within a theory are less likely to affect typical category members than atypical ones
According to a Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) model, how is the fact “Neil Armstrong was an astronaut” represented in the mind?
Neurons that represent Neil Armstrong and astronaut are connected via a synaptic junction
Nodes representing Neil Armstrong and astronaut are in close proximity to one another
A pattern of connections among many nodes represent Neil Armstrong and astronaut separately, and through learning, these patterns begin to co-occur
A single node representing Neil Armstrong is connected via a proposition to the word “astronaut”
In some studies, participants have been asked to visualise a particular stimulus (e.g., the letter A). If the same stimulus is then presented at low contrast, visualisation:
has no effect on the perception of the stimulus
primes perception, but no more than when participants were asked to visualise a different letter (e.g., the letter B)
disrupts perception of the stimulus
serves to prime perception of the stimulus
The technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation employs strong magnetic pulses at a particular site on the scalp. When it is used on the scalp near Area V1, the effect is
to give the participant rich and detailed hallucinations
a temporary disruption of vision but not visual imagery
a permanent disruption of visual imagery, and therefore use of the technique is unethical
a temporary disruption of vision and visual imagery
Participants are asked to perform an imagery task while simultaneously keeping track of a visual target (a light that varies in brightness). The visual task will
disrupt the imagery task
have no effect on the imagery task
disrupt the imagery task if it requires visual imagery but not if the task can be done with spatial imagery
cause the images to be less vivid but will have no other effects
If you are asked to imagine a three-dimensional cube, like a Necker cube, which is ambiguous with respect to depth, your mental image will be
based on one configuration or the other
able to be viewed from several angles, just as the picture would be
indeterminate with regard to depth
static and incapable of being altered
“Image file” refers to
the information that can be derived from a close inspection of a mental image
the portion of long-term storage that contains all of one’s knowledge about visual appearances
the memory representation of a basic element of visual appearance, such as the representation for “red” or “circular”
descriptive information in long-term memory used as the basis for creating an active image
The concept of boundary extension illustrates that
people understand a picture by means of a perceptual schema
schemas influence memory for images, but not as much as they influence memory for verbal information
people remember pictures in a “zoomed-in” manner
semantic knowledge has no influence on memory for images
An employer interviews a job candidate for 15 minutes. On the basis of this, the employer decides that the candidate will perform well in the job, so he hires her. This is a case of a
sound decision because the employer is making use of available information
sound decision because the employer is employing base rates
potential error because the employer is assuming that a small sample of information (the interview) is representative of a broader pattern (job performance)
potential error because the employer is relying on schema-based reasoning rather than on deduction
Participants are told that Flower A has a disease and are asked how likely it is that all flowers will have the same disease. Which of these is LEAST likely to affect the participant’s opinion?
whether the participant is an expert of flowers
whether Flower A is a typical flower
whether Flower A had been mentioned recently and so has been primed
a participant’s causal belief in how the disease infected Flower A
Reisberg suggests that illusory covariations arise from the fact that participants: A. base their covariation estimates only on a small sample of the data that are available to them
base their covariation estimates only on a small sample of the data that are available to them
are generally dogmatic and make their judgments with little regard for the data
do not know how to compute covariation, so they use an estimation strategy that is little better than guessing
do not know how to make these judgments, so performance improves once the participant gains some expertise
The law of large numbers implies that larger samples of data are less likely to show accidental patterns; therefore, larger samples are generally more informative. In making judgments about evidence, participants:
seem to understand and respect this law
ignore this law even though they do follow other principles of statistics
follow this law only if they have been trained in statistics
ignore this law in some situations but respect it in other situations
Background knowledge can lead to mistakes, but it can also provide a benefit if:
the person is aware of heuristics
the knowledge is about how the parts of the problem are related
the person is very confident in his or her knowledge
it contains descriptive information
Belief perseverance is one of the phenomena used to demonstrate:
normative thinking
confirmation bias
rigid thinking
nonselective memory search
A rooster thinks it causes the sun to rise, because every morning the rooster crows and then the sun rises. This story illustrates which important point about reasoning?
Roosters do not have the reasoning skills humans do, because humans would never make this type of reasoning mistake
Sometimes there is no way to disprove something
A belief can be confirmed hundreds of times, but still be false.
It is more important to confirm a theory than disconfirm it.
Which of the following is NOT a benefit received from using a means-end analysis to solve a problem?
It highlights the differences between the current state and the goal state
It often leads a person to break a problem into subproblems
It provides guidelines for what a person should do to solve the problem
It encourages the person to move away from the goal initially, so as to get to the goal faster
If you are trying to help a friend use analogies in problem solving, which piece of advice should you NOT give?
Attend to the deep structure of the problem
Try to see the mapping between problems you already know and test problems
Memorise as many problems as you can
Search your memory for content related to the deep structure of the problem, not surface details
Which of the following statements about creative people is most correct?
Creative people are fundamentally different from other people
Creative people have a cognitive architecture that is unlike the architecture for less creative people
Creative people typically rely on the same strategies and processes as less creative people
Creativity is typically associated with superior visual memory
In some procedures, participants are helped by an interruption during their attempts at solving a problem. In explaining this effect, which of the following hypotheses seems LEAST plausible in light of the available evidence?
The interruption provides an opportunity for participants to gather further information about the problem
The interruption provides an opportunity for frustration or fatigue to dissipate
The interruption allows participants to forget their earlier approaches to the problem, thus enabling a fresh start
The interruption allows an opportunity for unconscious problem solving to occur
Some psychologists describe problem-solving as a process of searching. Which of the following is NOT part of this description?
the problem’s initial state
the problem’s path conflicts
the problem’s goal state
the problem’s operators
According to the scoring procedure originally used by Binet, a child who scores at age 10 when he or she is only 8 would have an IQ of
100
125
150
200
Mark scored very well on a verbal intelligence test. How is he likely to score on a visuospatial test of intelligence?
He will score below average on the visuospatial test
He will score above average on the visuospatial test
One cannot assume how he will score because there is no correlation between general and specialised intelligence
He will score similarly if he takes the test today, but his score will be very different if he takes the test in a few months
Dr. Smarts is giving a test to a few students in his class. The test is very simple: he presents two objects and asks the students to reply as quickly as possible if they match (yes or no). Student 1 replies faster than student 2. What does this indicate about the students’ intelligence levels?
Student 2 is more intelligent than student 1
Student 1 is more intelligent than student 2
Both students are likely to have above average intelligence
Reaction time on this task is not correlated with intelligence
Which of the following is NOT an example of the principle, “We are aware of products but not of processes”?
Jeff knew that the stimulus seemed familiar, but he did not know why
Jesse believed that the stimulus was “cake,” but he could not tell whether he had seen the stimulus or just inferred it
Jeremy suddenly found himself thinking about marriage, and he could not figure out what had brought this idea into his thoughts
Jacob wanted to do well on the spelling test, but he did not know the best way to study the words
When asked to introspect about their reasons for making a particular choice, participants
sometimes offer an explanation with great confidence even though the explanation names factors that they know to be irrelevant and leaves out factors that they know to be crucial
can usually specify their reasons and can also report on the processes used for selecting the reasons
often have no idea about their reasons, but if they are able to report their reasons, they are likely to be correct
report their reasons in general terms but do so with little confidence
Our thoughts seem to be embedded in a context that is usually not noticed yet serves to define and guide the thoughts. Which of the following is NOT an example of this sort of context?
Discovery based on mental imagery is influenced by the perceptual reference frame for the image
Decisions are guided by how the decision is framed
The meaning of the terms involved in our thoughts is clarified by the surrounding context of thought
Perception of a word or object is strongly shaped by the other words and objects that surround the target
Which of these is NOT an example of causal attribution in unconscious thinking?
Jenny believes she remembers the colour of her last birthday cake
Louise finds a name familiar so she believes it belongs to a famous person
Abby remembers the face of a man so she believes the man was part of a robbery
In an experiment, Jane is willing to experience a higher intensity of electric shock as she believes any adverse reactions are the side effects of a pill that she took prior to the experiment.
Patients who have experienced damage to the striate cortex sometimes show a phenomenon known as blind sight. In this case, most patients
can consciously see where an object is but cannot identify it
can consciously report the identity of an object but not where it is located
are blind yet incorrectly report that they can see the identity and location of an object
often guess correctly in response to what they have seen or where an object is located even though they report that they cannot see it
Which of these is the best example of an action slip?
Darren was distracted and so took his usual route home from work instead of turning left at the traffic light to go to his friend’s house, as he had intended
David mistakenly pushed over a vase of flowers when he was reaching for his keys
Daniel did not check the address of his dentist, as he mistakenly believed he remembered it correctly
Derek reread the paragraph to make sure that he fully understood its content, even though he did not learn anything new from this second reading
Describe the mental activities that are included in cognitive psychology
Perception, Attention, Memory, Concepts, Language, Visual Knowledge, Judgement/Decisions, Reasoning/Problem-Solving
Perception, Attention, Focus, Concentration, Language, Knowledge, Reasoning
The field of introspect was founded by
Wilhem Wundt and Edward Titchner
Josh B. Watson
Immanuel Kant
The field of behaviourism was founded by
John B. Watson
Wilhelm Wundt
What is the process of Immanual Kant's Cognitive Resolution?
Input (cause), Output (effect)
Output (cause), Input (effect)
Input (effect), Output (Cause)
Output (effect), Input (cause)
