M/C 2013

Question 1

2. Which of the following provides the most accurate description of the behavioural and physiological approaches to studying the mind?
3. The behavioural approach does not inform our theories about what goes on in our mind when we engage in cognitive tasks.
4. The physiological approach focuses only on brain activity not the relationship between brain activity and behaviour.
5. The behavioural approach involves examining how people’s behaviour changes when important factors are manipulated and uses that information to draw conclusions about the nature of our cognitive processes.
6. The physiological approach focuses on showing how different parts of the brain cause different types of cognition.

Answer 1

3. The behavioural approach involves examining how people’s behaviour changes when important factors are manipulated and uses that information to draw conclusions about the nature of our cognitive processes

Question 2

3. Which of the following is consistent with the idea of localization of function?
4. Specific areas of the brain serve different functions.
5. Neurons in different areas of the brain respond best to different stimuli.
6. Brain areas are specialized for specific functions.
7. All of these.

Answer 2

4. All of these.

Question 3

4. The temporal lobe is
5. the first place in the cerebral cortex where visual information is received.
6. important for language, memory, hearing, and vision.
7. important for higher functions such as language, thought, and memory, as well as motor functioning.
8. where signals are received from the auditory system.

Answer 3

4. where signals are received from the auditory system

Question 4

5. Brain-imaging techniques can determine all of the following EXCEPT
6. areas of the brain activated during cognitive tasks.
7. localization of brain activity in response to a specific stimulus.
8. the structure of individual neurons.
9. patterns of blood flow in the brain.

Answer 4

3. the structure of individual neurons.

Question 5

6. Recent research on language has modified our earlier understanding of Broca’s aphasia such that it is now understood as a problem in
7. language production but not understanding.
8. language production but not meaning.
9. language form but not meaning.
10. language meaning but not form.

Answer 5

3. language form but not meaning.

Question 6

7. A specific person’s face is represented in the nervous system by the firing of
8. a feature detector that fires specifically to that face.
9. a group of neurons that all respond only to that face.
10. a group of neurons each responding to a number of different faces. 4. a receptor in the retina that responds when the face is present.

Answer 6

3. a group of neurons each responding to a number of different faces.

Question 7

8. Paivio proposed the conceptual peg hypothesis. His work suggests which of the following words would be most difficult to remember?
9. Spoon
10. Cow
11. Internet
12. Holistic

Answer 7

4. Holistic

Question 8

9. Inattentional blindness occurs when
10. important motion signals are swamped by other motion signals.
11. people’s gaze is drawn away from the object or property that changes by a distracting event somewhere else in the scene.
12. attention is ‘consumed’ by a secondary task and the new object or property is not noticed.
13. people can’t remember all of the information in a scene and thus have no ability to compare the pre-change scene from the post-change scene.

Answer 8

3. attention is ‘consumed’ by a secondary task and the new object or property is not noticed.

Question 9

10. Which of the following changes may be most likely to be noticed in a change blindness flicker task?
11. A change to a medium-sized object.
12. A change to the colour of an object rather than the presence of an object.
13. A slow change rather than a rapid change.
14. A change to an object that is central to the main theme or meaning of the image.

Answer 9

4. A change to an object that is central to the main theme or meaning of the image.

Question 10

11. Kosslyn interpreted the results of his research on imagery (such as the island experiment) as supporting the idea that the mechanism responsible for imagery involves ____ representations.
12. epiphenomenal
13. propositional
14. spatial
15. unilateral

Answer 10

3. spatial

Question 11

13. Colin Cherry’s experiment in which participants listened to two different messages, one presented to each ear, found that people
14. could focus on a message only if they are repeating it.
15. could focus on a message only if they rehearsed it.
16. could focus on one message and ignore the other one at the same time.
17. could not focus on a message presented to only one ear.

Answer 11

3. could focus on one message and ignore the other one at the same time.

Question 12

14. Selection of the attended message in the Broadbent model occurs based on the
15. meaning of the message.
16. physical characteristics of the message.
17. physical characteristics of the message plus the meaning, if necessary.
18. listener’s ability to mentally block the unattended message from getting in.

Answer 12

2. physical characteristics of the message.

Question 13

15. Flanker compatibility experiments have been conducted using a variety of stimulus conditions. By definition, this procedure must include at least one target and one distractor. In any condition where we find that a distractor influenced reaction time, we can conclude that the distractor
16. was overtly responded to by the participant.
17. was processed.
18. was ignored.
19. appeared in a high-load condition.

Answer 13

2. was processed.

Question 14

1. The relationship between the _____ is NOT measured directly by cognitive psychologists.
2. physiological response and the behavioural outcome
3. cognitive task and the behavioural outcome
4. cognitive task and the physiological response
5. cognitive task and the mental response

Answer 14

4. cognitive task and the mental response

Question 15

16. Imagine that New Zealand lawmakers are considering changing the driving laws and that you have been consulted as an attention expert. Given the principles of consistent vs. varied mapping, which of the following possible changes to driving laws would most interfere with a skilled driver’s automatic performance when driving a car?
17. Passing laws where headlights must be used during the day when the weather is bad.
18. Requiring all drivers learn to drive safely on wet roadways using anti-lock brakes.
19. Requiring successful curbside parking performance to obtain a licence.
20. Creating conditions where sometimes a green light meant “stop”.

Answer 15

4. Creating conditions where sometimes a green light meant “stop”.

Question 16

17. Automatic processing occurs when
18. cognitive resources are high.
19. response times are long.
20. tasks are well-practiced.
21. attention is focused.

Answer 16

3. tasks are well-practiced.

Question 17

18. Research on the use of cell phones while driving indicates that
19. the negative effect can be decreased by using “hands-free” units.
20. the problem with cell phones is that attention is distracted from the task of driving by the need to hold the phone and drive with one hand.
21. the main effect of cell phone use on driving safety can be attributed to the fact that attention is used up by the cognitive task of talking on the phone.
22. both 1 and 2 are correct.

Answer 17

3. the main effect of cell phone use on driving safety can be attributed to the fact that attention is used up by the cognitive task of talking on the phone.

Question 18

19. A property of control processes in the modal model of memory is that they
20. do not require attention.
21. may differ from one task to another.
22. are performed without conscious awareness.
23. are difficult to modify.

Answer 18

2. may differ from one task to another.

Question 19

20. Peterson and Peterson studied how well participants can remember groups of three letters (like BRT, QSD) after various delays. They found that participants remembered an average of 80 percent of the groups after 3 seconds but only 10 percent after 18 seconds. They hypothesized that this decrease in performance was due to _____, but later research showed that it was actually due to _____.
21. interference; decay
22. priming; interference
23. decay; interference
24. decay; lack of rehearsal

Answer 19

3. decay; interference

Question 20

21. If a person has a digit span of two, this indicates that they have _____ memory.
22. poor sensory
23. poor short-term
24. normal sensory
25. normal short-term

Answer 20

2. poor short-term

Question 21

22. The primary effect of chunking is to
23. maximize the recency effect.
24. increase memory for items by grouping them together based on sound.
25. develop a visual code to supplement a phonological code for the information.
26. stretch the capacity of STM.

Answer 21

4. stretch the capacity of STM.

Question 22

23. Working memory differs from short-term memory in that
24. short-term memory consists of a number of components.
25. short-term memory has unlimited capacity.
26. working memory is concerned with the manipulation of information. 4. working memory has unlimited capacity.

Answer 22

3. working memory is concerned with the manipulation of information.

Question 23

24. The word-length effect shows that it is more difficult to remember
25. a long list of words than a short list of words.
26. a list of long words than a list of short words.
27. a list of words that are all the same length than a list of words that are of
    different lengths.
28. a list of words that are of different lengths than a list of words that are all the
    same length.

Answer 23

2. a list of long words than a list of short words.

Question 24

25. Regarding free recall of a list of items, which of the following will most likely cause the recency effect to disappear?
26. Inserting a 30-second delay before recall
27. Presenting the stimulus list at a slower pace
28. Counting backward for 30 seconds before recall
29. Using a very long list (greater than 30 items at one item per second)

Answer 24

3. Counting backward for 30 seconds before recall

Question 25

26. Which of the following is NOT a conclusion from the case of H.M., who had an operation to help alleviate his epileptic seizures?
27. The hippocampus is necessary for forming new LTMs.
28. Working memory does not rely on the hippocampus.
29. LTMs can still be present after the hippocampus is removed.
30. LTMs are stored in the hippocampus.

Answer 25

4. LTMs are stored in the hippocampus.

Question 26

27. One of the defining properties of the experience of episodic memory is that
28. it involves mental time travel.
29. it always corresponds to events from our past that actually
    happened.
30. it accesses knowledge about the world that does not have to be
    tied to any specific personal experience.
31. it involves all of these.

Answer 26

1. it involves mental time travel.

Question 27

28. Memory enhancement due to conceptual priming is a result of
29. the test stimulus being the same or resembling the priming stimulus. 2. the test stimulus being different from the priming stimulus.
30. the test stimulus being similar in meaning to the priming stimulus.
31. the test stimulus being different in meaning from the priming stimulus.

Answer 27

3. the test stimulus being similar in meaning to the priming stimulus.

Question 28

29. Which statement below is most closely associated with levels of processing theory?
30. Information enters memory by passing through a number of levels, beginning with sensory memory, then short-term memory, then long-term memory.
31. Events that are repeated enough can influence our behaviour, even after we have forgotten the original events.
32. Deep processing takes longer than shallow processing and results in better processing.
33. People who were sad when they studied did better when they were sad during testing.

Answer 28

3. Deep processing takes longer than shallow processing and results in better processing.

Question 29

30. According to your text, imagery enhances memory because
31. research shows people like pictures better than words, so there is an enhanced emotional response.
32. the brain processes images more easily than the meanings of words.
33. imagery can be used to create connections between items to be remembered.
34. pictures fit better with our basic instincts because children learn pictures
    before reading words.

Answer 29

3. imagery can be used to create connections between items to be remembered.

Question 30

31. People often report an annoying memory failure when they walk from one end of the house to the other for something and then forgetting what they went to retrieve when they reach their destination. As soon as they return to the first room, they are reminded of what they wanted in the first place. This common experience best illustrates the principle of
32. the self-reference effect.
33. maintenance rehearsal.
34. levels of processing theory.
35. encoding specificity.

Answer 30

4. encoding specificity.

Question 31

32. Transfer-appropriate processing is likely to occur if
33. the rememberer generates his own retrieval cues.
34. the type of encoding and type of retrieval match.
35. there is deep processing during acquisition of the new material.
36. imagery is used to create connections among items to be transferred into
    LTM.

Answer 31

2. the type of encoding and type of retrieval match.

Question 32

33. Autobiographical memory research shows that a person’s brain is more extensively activated when viewing photos
34. the person has seen before.
35. of familiar places.
36. they took themselves.
37. the person has never seen before.

Answer 32

3. they took themselves.

Question 33

34. Your text describes two experiments that measured people’s memory for what they were doing when they heard about the terrorist attack on 9/11. Results of these experiments show that participants
35. believed that their memories for the attack remained accurate over a 52- week period.
36. displayed memory for this flashbulb event that declined with time.
37. reported less vivid memories of 9/11 as time passed.
38. both believed their memories for the attack were accurate over a 52-week period and displayed memory for the flashbulb event that declined with time.

Answer 33

4. both believed their memories for the attack were accurate over a 52-week period and displayed memory for the flashbulb event that declined with time.

Question 34

35. In the “War of the Ghosts” experiment, participants’ reproductions contained inaccuracies based on
36. narrative rehearsal.
37. source misattributions.
38. cultural expectations.
39. shallow processing.

Answer 34

3. cultural expectations.

Question 35

36. In the experiment in which participants sat in an office and then were asked to remember what they saw in the office, participants “remembered” some things, like books, that weren’t actually there. This experiment illustrates the effect of _____ on memory.
37. schemas
38. scripts
39. confabulation
40. bias

Answer 35

1. schemas

Question 36

37. The sleep list experiment, in which many people misremember the word “sleep” as being part of a list of words, is an example of
38. a repeated recall error.
39. a disadvantage of memory’s constructive nature.
40. misleading postevent information’s influence on memory.
41. retroactive interference.

Answer 36

2. a disadvantage of memory’s constructive nature.

Question 37

38. The memory-trace replacement hypothesis states that the misinformation effect occurs because
39. MPI impairs or replaces memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.
40. MPI cues the rememberer that an error in memory is occurring.
41. MPI fills in the gaps in the original memory where it lacked detail.
42. the original memory for an event decays over time, leaving room
    for MPI to infiltrate the memory later.

Answer 37

1. MPI impairs or replaces memories formed during the original experiencing of an event.

Question 38

39. The principle illustrated when most people are able to recognize a variety of examples of chairs even though no one category member may have all of the characteristic properties of “chairs” (e.g., most chairs have four legs but not all do) is
40. family resemblance.
41. prototypicality.
42. graded membership.
43. instance theory.

Answer 38

1. family resemblance.

Question 39

40. Which of the following reaction time data sets illustrate the typicality effect for the fruit category, given the following three trials?
    (NOTE: Read data sets as RTs for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3)
    Trial 1: A strawberry is a fruit. Trial 2: A tomato is a fruit. Trial 3: An apple is a fruit.
41. 583: 518: 653 msec
42. 518: 583: 653 msec
43. 583: 653: 518 msec
44. 653: 583: 518 msec

Answer 39

3. 583: 653: 518 msec

Question 40

41. Which term below is most closely associated with semantic networks?
42. Distributed processing
43. Cognitive economy
44. Prototype formation
45. Family resemblance

Answer 40

2. Cognitive economy

Question 41

42. In evaluating retrieval rates for category information for a concept, Collins and Quillian’s semantic network approach would predict the slowest reaction times for which of the following statements using a sentence verification technique?
43. A field sparrow is a bird.
44. A field sparrow is a sparrow.
45. A field sparrow is an animal.
46. A field sparrow is a field sparrow.

Answer 41

3. A field sparrow is an animal.

Question 42

43. Which property below is NOT one of the characteristics that makes human language unique?
44. Hierarchical structure
45. Communication
46. Governed by rules
47. All of these make human language unique.

Answer 42

2. Communication

Question 43

44. In the phonemic restoration effect, participants “fill in” the missing phoneme based on all of the following EXCEPT
45. the context produced by the sentence.
46. the portion of the word that was presented.
47. the meaning of the words that follow the missing phoneme.
48. a mental “skimming” of the lexicon to find likely words.

Answer 43

4. a mental “skimming” of the lexicon to find likely words.

Question 44

45. The word frequency effect refers to the fact that we respond more
46. slowly to low-frequency words than high-frequency words.
47. slowly to letters appearing in non-words than letters appearing in words.
48. quickly to letters that appear multiple times in a word than just once in a word.
49. quickly to phonemes that appear multiple times in a word than just once in a word.

Answer 44

1. slowly to low-frequency words than high-frequency words.

Question 45

46. In a study, participants listened to the following tape recording:
    Rumor had it that, for years, the government building had been plagued with problems. The man was not surprised when he found several spiders, cockroaches, and other bugs in the corner of the room.
    As participants heard the word “bugs,” they completed a lexical decision task to a test stimulus flashed on a screen. Results showed that the participants responded most slowly to the test stimulus
47. ANT.
48. SPY.
49. SKY.
50. All of these would have similar response times.

Answer 45

3. SKY.

Question 46

47. The crucial question in comparing syntax-first and interactionist approaches to parsing is ____ is involved.
48. whether semantics
49. whether syntax
50. when semantics
51. when syntax

Answer 46

3. when semantics

Question 47

48. Coherence refers to the
49. mental process by which readers create information during reading that is not explicitly stated in the text.
50. principle that we process information in isolation before we link it to its context.
51. mental process whereby ambiguity is resolved online during sentence reading.
52. representation of the text in a reader’s mind, so that information in one part of the text is related to information in another part of the text.

Answer 47

4. representation of the text in a reader’s mind, so that information in one part of the text is related to information in another part of the text.

Question 48

49. Warmth judgments on nearness to a solution ____ prior to the solution of an insight problem and ____ prior to the solution of a non-insight problem.
50. gradually rise; gradually rise
51. gradually rise; rise suddenly just
52. rise suddenly just; gradually rise
53. vary unpredictably; vary unpredictably

Answer 48

3. rise suddenly just; gradually rise

Question 49

50. Which of the following provides the best example of functional fixedness?
51. Using a pair of pliers as a paperweight
52. Using a tire as a swing seat and as a football practice target
53. Using a juice glass as a container for orange juice
54. Using a wine bottle as a vase

Answer 49

3. Using a juice glass as a container for orange juice

Question 50

51. The Tower of Hanoi problem is an example of a(n) ____ problem that has been analyzed using the ____ approach.
52. ill-defined; Gestalt
53. ill-defined; information processing
54. well-defined; Gestalt
55. well-defined; information processing

Answer 50

4. well-defined; information processing

Question 51

52. The best description of the purpose of think-aloud protocols is that they are used to determine
53. what information a person is attending to while solving a problem.
54. which people can be considered more creative in ability to solve problems.
55. how to develop computer programs that best mimic human problem solving.
56. how a person’s expertise increases his or her likelihood of solving a problem, relative to a beginner.

Answer 51

1. what information a person is attending to while solving a problem.

Question 52

53. When the process of analogical problem solving was applied to the fortress and radiation problems, which of the following represented the mapping step of this process?
54. Likening the dangerous mines to the dangerous tumor
55. Developing schemas for each individual problem
56. Connecting the fortress with the tumor
57. Generalizing from groups of soldiers to using many rays to solve the problem

Answer 52

3. Connecting the fortress with the tumor

Question 53

54. Experts _____ than novices.
55. spend less time analyzing problems
56. are better at reasoning in general
57. are more likely to be open to new ways of looking at problems 4. take a more effective approach to a problem

Answer 53

4. take a more effective approach to a problem

Question 54

55. The validity of a syllogism depends on
56. the truth of its premises.
57. the truth of its conclusion.
58. its form.
59. both the truth of its premises and the truth of its conclusion.

Answer 54

3. its form.

Question 55

56. When the “abstract” version of the Wason four-card problem is compared to a “concrete” version of the problem (in which beer, soda, and ages are substituted for the letters and numbers),
57. performance is better for the concrete task.
58. performance is better for the abstract task.
59. performance is the same for both tasks.
60. performing the abstract task improves performance of the concrete task.

Answer 55

1. performance is better for the concrete task.

Question 56

57. Cosmides and Tooby tested participants’ ability to solve variations of the Wason problem, including ones containing stories about a particular culture. Their results showed that ____ is not always necessary for conditional reasoning.
58. familiarity
59. a premise
60. validity
61. using a heuristic

Answer 56

1. familiarity

Question 57

58. The finding that people tend to incorrectly conclude that more people die from tornados than from asthma has been explained in terms of the
59. representativeness heuristic.
60. availability heuristic.
61. falsification principle.
62. belief bias.

Answer 57

2. availability heuristic.

Question 58

59. People tend to overestimate
60. what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings.
61. what positive feelings will occur following a decision more so than negative feelings.
62. what positive and negative feelings will occur following a decision to the same degree.
63. subjective utility values following a decision.

Answer 58

1. what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings.

Question 59

60. By using a(n) _____, a country could increase the percentage of individuals agreeing to be organ donors dramatically.
61. opt-out procedure
62. opt-in procedure
63. pragmatic reasoning schema
64. permission schema

Answer 59

1. opt-out procedure

Question 60

51. The Tower of Hanoi problem is an example of a(n) ____ problem that has been analyzed using the ____ approach.
52. ill-defined; Gestalt
53. ill-defined; information processing
54. well-defined; Gestalt
55. well-defined; information processing

Answer 60

4. well-defined; information processing