Final Exam Flashcards
Cognitive researchers have suggested that nearly all of cognition is a form of problem solving. Briefly state why cognitive researchers have made this claim.
Because in everyday life you have problems you have to decide how to overcome, even simple ones such as, do I shower for my day, what should I eat for breakfast, etc
State three essential elements in solving a problem.
setting a goal
breaking the problems down into smaller subgoals
proceeding step-by-step to get closer to the goal
a. Briefly state what is a task analysis.
b. Describe an original task for which you, personally, carried out a task analysis.
c. State two of the component processes that you extracted from your task analysis.
a. the assumption that problems are generally complex and they can’t be solved in a single step and require multiple steps
b. when I was writing a research paper for my criminology class.
c. I had to break the paper into subgoals like finding sources, I also had to find an end goal of what I wanted to get done in the paper
a. Briefly describe an original personal past situation in which you failed to encode a critical dimension of a problem you faced.
b. State the critical dimension you failed to encode.
a. when I failed to remember a person’s name for an interview that I met a week prior
b. I failed to encode her name in my memory
a. Briefly describe how Kaiser, Proffitt, and McKloskey (1985) implemented rolled and carried conditions in their experiment.
b. In which condition were participants more accurate?
c. Why do you think participants were more accurate in that condition?
a. flat car went around a track and had a door that opened when it was dropped (carried condition), the rolled condition had a hill where the ball rolled down the incline
b. the rolled condition
c. because they could see the ball fall, while the carried condition seemed to be a surprise drop off for participants
a. State what Vosniadou and Brewer (1992) were investigating.
b. Briefly state what Vosniadou and Brewer found in their experiment.
a. they were investigating mental models in American and children in other cultures in regards to creating a mental model that the Earth is round
b. 40% of American 5th graders did not have a mental model of the Earth as a sphere
a. State a domain-general fact.
b. State a domain-specific fact.
a. eating gives you energy
b. it is polite to tip waiters in America
What are the general ages for using these rules on the balance beam:
a. Rule 1:
b. Rule 2:
c. Rule 3:
a. 5 year olds
b. 9 year olds
c. 13-17 year olds
For the following configurations on the balance beam, indicate (Left, Right, Balance) how a Rule I child would respond, how a Rule II child would respond, and how a Rule IV child would respond.
rule 1= if weight is same on both sides, it will balance, if not side w/ more weight goes down
rule 2= if one side has more weight, it will go down, if both sides have equal weight, side w/ greater distance goes down
rule 4= proceed like rule 3, but no muddle through calculate torques (weight x distance on each side), side w/ greater torque will go down
What are the general ages for solving these Tower of Hanoi problems:
a. 2-move problems:
b. 4-move problems:
c. 6-move problems:
a. 3 yrs
b. 4 yrs
c. 5&6 yrs
What is the minimum number of moves to solve a 4-disk problem?
15
a. What is the best first move in the Tower of Hanoi problem shown below? [IMAGE WILL BE PROVIDED ON THE EXAM]
b. If there were 4 cans stacked on the child’s side, what would be the best first move?
a. dependent on how many disks
b. move can to furthest peg
State the steps that an infant needs to follow in order to solve a problem like the one shown on the left.
(two rectangles and squiggly lines picture)
looked at how parents model how to retrieve toy through barrier
if presented w/ similar concept, 10mo old will analogize
if different 13 mo olds could analogize
When 4-7 and 7-10 year-olds were given the task of getting from point A to point B in a maze, how did the older participants differ from the younger participants when planning their route?
Older participants examined the complete maze when told avoiding wrong turns were important and made few errors
David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, attributed causal inference to three factors. State the three factors.
a.
b.
c.
a.contiguity
b.precedence
c.covariation
What is the earliest age at which infants demonstrate causal understanding?
5 months
(True or False) 6-month olds understand spatial continuity, but have difficulty understanding temporal continuity.
false
(True or False) After 11-month-olds are habituated to a medium sized object colliding with another object, they are surprised when a larger object has a larger causal force.
false
(True or False) 8-year-olds understand covariation.
true
To test for an understanding of causality (i.e., What caused an event), 3- and 5-year-olds were shown pictures of three events, for example, A. a boy pitching and a boy batting a ball, B. a picture of a broken window, C. a picture of boys gathered around with a bat. When asked what made B happen, which picture did 5-year-olds choose
a. boy pitching and batting ball
5-year-olds heard a story about a genie transporting jewels across a wall and into a bottle. She used a posterboard to make a tube. The children were then given a problem of an Easter bunny who had to get eggs across a river and into a basket . (Brown, Kane, & Echols, 1986)
a. How did the 5-year-olds solve the problem?
b. Could 3-year-olds solve this problem?
a. by analogy
b. they could only use analogy if asked guiding questions
Briefly describe TWO of the several experiments by DeLoache (1995) (Symbolic Tools in Powerpoint slides) and colleagues that used representations of things to help children find objects. Be sure to very briefly describe the participants, methods, and findings, in your response.
2 1/2 & 3 yr olds watched experimenter hide toy in miniature house, then told the toy would be hidden in the same place in the actual-size room next door and asked children to find it. 3yrs found it w/o error 70% of the time 21/2 only 20% of the time
When 3-year-olds were first allowed to play with the scale model, they were less likely to find the object in the actual room. And when the scale model was put under a glass cover, 2 1⁄2 year-olds were more likely to find the object in the real room
List three ways in which problem-solving ability grows in young children
learning how to plan
the ability to apply analogies
growing understanding of different types of causes
