Practice questions

Question 1

Characteristic feature of behaviourism

Answer 1

you investigate stimuli and responses

Question 2

Which perspective is related to Titchener believing that all consciousness could be reduced to elementary states of sensations and feelings?

Answer 2

structuralism

Question 3

Criticism of analytic introspection

Answer 3

it produces variable results from person to person

Question 4

Pavlov performed classical conditioning experiments with dogs. Tolman performed maze
learning experiments with rats. A strict behaviorist would have trouble explaining the results
of:
◦ Pavlov
◦ Tolman
◦ Pavlov and Tolman
◦ Neither

Answer 4

Tolman

Question 5

If John Watson was to use the computational metaphor to describe his view of the mind
which portion of the method would he focus on?
a) the screen
b) the user-interface
c) the RAM
d) the keystrokes

Answer 5

the user-interface

Question 6

The water main that supplies the Tower is, sadly, broken. Three psychology professors who work in the building—
one, a structuralist; another, a behaviorist; and the last, a champion of the information processing perspective—are
getting thirsty.
Which of the following reasons would each of the thirsty professors give to account for their thirst?
a. “I do not feel thirsty…my body is simply water deprived.”
b. “I studied my own sensations, images, and affections.”
c. “Since I could not directly examine my feeling of thirst, I observed my body’s physiological reflection of it and
infer that I am thirsty.”

Answer 6

A - behaviourist
B - structuralist
C - cognitivist

Question 7

Which statement would be endorsed by a cognitive psychologist but would NOT be endorsed
by a behaviorist?
a) Measures of behavior are important dependent variables.
b) Our primary method for studying the mind should be to that each of us look within ourselves at
what is going on in our own private thoughts.
c) A person’s complex behavior, such as the use of language in speech and writing, results from the
past reinforcements he or she has encountered.
d) Scientists must be able to verify the results of experiments carried out by other scientists.
e) We can understand human behavior by assuming that the mind makes use of representations
and processes

Answer 7

Endorsed: E
Not endorsed: B

Question 8

Suppose that a subject is given the following task:
Raise your left hand if you hear a low-pitched tone, and raise your right hand if you hear
a high-pitched tone. The subject takes, on average, 350 msec to complete this task.
The subject is given a simpler task:
Raise your left hand if you hear any tone, of either pitch. On average, the subject takes
200 msec to complete this simpler task.
Which of the following is a possible interpretation of these results?
◦ There is a “detection” stage and a “decision” stage (in which the subject decides which one is heard and
which hand to raise). It takes 150 msec for the subject to perform the decision stage.
◦ The detection and decision stages may operate partially in parallel, so that the decision stage actually
takes MORE than 150 msec.
◦ There may be another stage, other than detection and decision, such that the decision stage actually
takes LESS than 150 msec.
◦ When the decision task is added, it may change the way the detection task is performed; you cannot
make any precise conclusions about the stages.
◦ All of the above are possible interpretations of the data.

Answer 8

All of the above possible