Chapter 6

Question 1

Mental models may include:

Answer 1

Mental models are representations that describe, explain or predict how things work.

Question 2

An abstraction across many instances of a category is a(n):

Answer 2

When people construct a prototype in their minds, they essentially extract the most important common features of the object in a category. This means a prototype of, for example, a bird does not look exactly like any particular bird but more like an airbrushed photograph that smooths out idiosyncratic features.

Question 3

According to data from neuroimaging studies, categorising at different levels:

Answer 3

Researchers found that when categorising at the superordinate (more abstract) level, a region of the left prefrontal cortex involved in verbal memory retrieval was activated. At the subordinate level, the right prefrontal cortex, along with the circuits involved in visual attention, were activated.

Question 4

According to the textbook, before people can think about an object, they must:

Answer 4

Before people can think about an object, they usually have to classify it so that they know what it is and what it does.

Question 5

Two views of categorisation are:

Answer 5

Categorisation is the process of identifying an object as an instance of a category. Although people sometimes categorise objects by comparing them with a list of defining features, people typically classify objects rapidly by judging their similarity to prototypes (abstract representations of a category) stored in memory.

Question 6

Whereas ______ involve groupings based on common properties, a ______ is a mental representation of that grouping.

Answer 6

People and things fall into groupings based on common properties called categories. A concept is a mental representation of a category; that is, an internal portrait of a class of objects, ideas or events that share common properties.

Question 7

Most people categorise most rapidly at the _____ level of a hierarchy.

Answer 7

The basic level is the level at which people categorise most quickly; it is thus the natural level to which the mind gravitates.

Question 8

Heuristics are:

Answer 8

Heuristics allow people to make rapid, efficient but sometimes irrational judgments.

Question 9

According to psychologists who study the brain, thought processes are:

Answer 9

Thought processes are spread out through large networks of neurons as well as being localised and carried out through specialised processing units in
particular brain regions.

Question 10

According to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a ‘rat is a cat is a dog is a monkey, is a human being’. This is an attempt to categorise all animals:

Answer 10

The superordinate level
is one level more abstract than the basic level. Objects classified at this
level share few common features.

Question 11

Categorisation in different cultures:

Answer 11

Categorisation is
constrained by the nature of reality, which leads to cross-cultural universals. People everywhere group things together simply because that is the way they are. At the same time, people tend to categorise in ways that help them solve problems.

Question 12

For mental simulations to be most beneficial, the individual should be sure to:

Answer 12

Mental simulation as a problem solving strategy involves imagining the steps involved in solving a problem mentally before actually undertaking them. In order to be effective, one should mentally simulate the steps needed to achieve the outcome (rather than just focus on the outcome).

Question 13

Connectionism views cognitive processes as:

Answer 13

The connectionist view asserts that most cognitive processes occur simultaneously through the actions of multiple activated networks

Question 14

15. Motivational and emotional factors play an important role in risk assessment because:

Answer 14

For example, scientists who work in corporate research laboratories tend to find the risk of potential cancer-causing agents much smaller than scientists who work in universities. The difference depends upon who pays their salaries and hence what they are motivated to find.

Question 15

People can read handwriting rapidly and correctly because:

Answer 15

This is an example of connectionism, which states that cognitive processes occur simultaneously through the action of multiple activated neural networks.

Question 16

Constraint satisfaction is:

Answer 16

When perceiving, remembering, categorising or performing other cognitive tasks, the brain settles on a cognitive solution that satisfies as many constraints as possible in order to achieve the best fit to the data, through a process of parallel constraint satisfaction.

Question 17

According to Herbart Simon and others, people are frequently better off making decisions:

Answer 17

According to bounded rationality, people are rational within the bounds imposed their environment, goals and abilities. Simon called this ‘satisficing’, a combination of satisfying and sufficing. If we need to make a quick decision, we begin we a quick yes/no judgement rather than systematically weighing all of the available information.

Question 18

Prospect theory suggests that:

Answer 18

Prospect theory suggests that the value of future gains and losses to most people is in
fact asymmetrical, with losses having a greater emotional impact than
gains.

Question 19

According to prospect theory:

Answer 19

Prospect theory
suggests that the value of future gains and losses to most people is in fact asymmetrical, with losses having a greater emotional impact than gains. This theory predicts that people should be more willing to take a risk to avoid a loss than to obtain a gain

Question 20

If I take all the students in my class and separate or group them based on their grades (A, B, C, D, etc.), then I have:

Answer 20

Categorisation is the process of identifying an object as an instance of a category - recognising its similarity to some objects and dissimilarity to others. I am categorising students when I identify them as an HD or a credit student.

Question 21

Which of the following persons is using a mental image?

Answer 21

People can think in either images or words depending on the kinds of things they are thinking about.

Question 22

Henry is known to be a bit pretentious. He will, for example, say things like ‘I make sure I keep my favourite significant other happy’ when referring to his wife Anne. In talking in this way, Henry is deliberately avoiding ___________ for talking about his relationship to Anne.

Answer 22

The basic level of categorisation is the level people naturally tend to use in categorising objects and states.

Question 23

What relationship does ‘motorcycle’ have to ‘vehicle’?

Answer 23

The level of classification that is used in most instances is the subordinate level. It is below the basic level and superordinate level and stores specific attributes which are shared by members of a category. For example, motorcycle (subordinate) is a type of vehicle (basic) which is a mode of transport (superordinate).

Question 24

I notice that those students who arrive to class at least ten minutes before the class officially begins perform much better than those who arrive late. I conclude that grades are influenced by the time of arrival. I have used:

Answer 24

Inductive reasoning moves from specific observations to broader generalisations and theories (known as the bottom-up approach). You observed that pattern of student attendance and then made a conclusion about the interaction between attendance and grades.

Question 25

Jax has noticed that almost every time he shakes hands with someone who has a cold, he comes down with a cold too. He concludes that the cold virus can be transmitted via hand-to-hand contact. This reasoning is an example of:

Answer 25

Inductive reasoning relies on probabilities. It involves inferring a conclusion based on probabilities rather than certainties.

Question 26

My friend is angry at me and I have no idea why or how to fix it. I have a(an):

Answer 26

An ill-defined problem is one in which both the information needed to solve it and the criteria for determining when the goal has been met are vague.

Question 27

Elle and Jack sent out 100 invitations to their wedding. They then took the number of replies they received and multiplied them by the price per plate that the caterer had given, to arrive at the cost of the wedding reception dinner. This problem solving strategy is an example of a(n):

Answer 27

Algorithms are systematic procedures that inevitably produce a solution to a problem.

Question 28

The alternator on your car needs to be replaced and you decide to do it yourself. You see yourself going to the store for parts and buying a replacement, coming home, finding your tools, removing the old alternator and finally installing the new one. You have just engaged in:

Answer 28

Mental simulation, the most important problem solving strategy, involve imagining the steps involved in solving an problem mentally - before you actually undertake a task.

Question 29

The fact that prison inmates are capable of creating deadly weapons out of seemingly non-offensive objects suggests that they must NOT be using:

Answer 29

Functional fixedness is the
tendency for people to ignore other possible functions of an object when they have a fixed function in mind. In this case, the inmates are not being caught up with functional fixedness.