test 3 Flashcards
memory
the retention and retrieval of information or experience over time
- occurs through three processes: encoding, storage, retrieval
3 processes of memory
1: encoding
2: storage
3: retrieval
encoding
information gets into memory
- requires effort
- must pay attention, process deeply, elaborate and use mental imagery
- e.g. listening to a lecture, you encode information into memory
depth of processing
- according to the processing deeper processing stimuli produces better memory
levels of processing
-level of memory processing
- shallow, intermediate, deep
- deeper processing producing better memory
shallow processing
- noting physical features of a stimulus
- e.g. shapes of the letter mom
intermediate processing
giving stimulus a label
- as in reading the word mom
deep processing
thinking about the meaning of a stimulus
- thinking about the meaning of the word mom and about your own mother
elaboration
(deep processing)
formation of a number of different connections around the stimulus at any given level of memory
self-reference
relating material to your own experience
- helps to elaborate deeply on information
- drawing links to your own life
hippocampus activated:
when individuals are using elaboration during encoding
mental imagery
- most powerful way to remember
- person makes up pictures that are associated with each thing that needs to be remembered
Paivio’s argument
memory is stored in one of two ways: verbal code (word or label) or image code
dual code hypothesis
(Paivio)
memory for pictures is better than memory for words and pictures
- pictures are stores in both image codes and verbal codes
storage
encompasses how information is retained overtime and how it is represented in memory
Atkinson-Shiffrin theory
memory storage involved 3 separate systems
1: sensory memory: time frames of a second to several seconds
2: short-term memory: time frames up to 30 seconds
3: long-term memory: time frames up to a lifetime
sensory memory
holds information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant
- rich & detailed
- loose information quickly unless we use strategies that transfer into short term or long term memory
echoic memory
(echo)
auditory sensory memory
- retained in several seconds
iconic memory
(icon = image)
retained for about one-quarter of a second
short-term memory
- limited capacity memory system
- information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless we use strategies to retain it for longer
- passive storehouse
individuals are limited in how much information they can keep without external aids
range of 7 +- 2
chunking
grouping or “packing” information into higher-order units
- can be remembered as single units
working memory
combination of components
- short term memory and attention
- allow us to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks
- beneficial in early detention stage of Alzhimers disease
3 part model of working memory
- phonological loop
- visa-spatial sketchpad
- central executive
long term memory
permanent type of memory
- stores huge amounts of information for a long time
explicit memory subdivided
- episodic memory
- semantic memory
implicit memory subdivided
- procedural memory
- priming
- classical conditioning
explicit memory remembering:
- who
- what
- where
- when
- why
implicit memory remembering:
how
episodic memory
retention of information about where, when and what
- how we remember life’s episodes
semantic memory
type of explicit memory pertaining to a persons knowledge about the world
- knowledge of chess, geometry, who drake is
implicit memory or non declarative memory
behaviour is affected by prior experiences shout conscious recollection of the experience
- skill of skiing
procedural memory
- implicit memory process that involves memory for skills
priming
- activation of information that people already have in storage to help remember new information better and faster
- involuntary and unconscious process
schema
pre-exisitng mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information
script
schema fro an event
- information about physical features, people, and typical occurences
connectionism
(parallel distributed processing (PDP)
memory is stored thought the brain in connections among the neurone
- several work together processing single memory
specific brain structures involves in particular aspect of memory:
- frontal lobes
- episodic memory
- amygdala
- emotional memory
- temporal lobes
- explicit memory, priming
- hippocampus
- explicit memory, priming
- cerebellum
- implicit memory
memory retrieval
information was retained as a memory comes out
serial position effect
tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more easily than those in the middle
recognition
memory task where individual only has to identify
encoding specificity principle
information present at the time of encoding or learning tends to be effective as retrieval cue
autobiographical memory
episodic memory
- persons recollections of their life experiences
flashbulb memory
emotionally significance events people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events
- neil Armstrong walking on the moon
repression
defensive mechanism where a person is so traumatized by an event they forget it and the forget the act of forgetting it
most forgetting takes place soon after we learn it
encoding failure
information was never entered into the long-term memory
interference theory
people forget because memories are lost from storage
- & bc information gets in the way of what they want to remember
proactive interference
occurs when material that was leaned before disrupts the recall for material learned later
retroactive interference
occurs when material learned later disrupts the retrieval of information learned earlier
tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon
“effortful retrieval”
- occurs when we are confident that we know something but cannot pull It out of memory
retrospective memory
remembering information in the past
prospective memory
remembering information about doing something in the future
- timing and content
anterograde amnesia
inability to make new memories
retrograde amnesia
memory loss for a segment of past events
memory
- Memory is the process by which we observe, store, and recall information
- Memories may be visual, auditory, or tactile
- Memory processes may involve multiple systems
- Conscious
- Automatic
encoding
- Attention:
- Spotlight analogy
- Sensory detection
- Recognition of meaning
- Response selection
levels of processing
- Shallow processing - structural encoding
(capital letters, what color, etc…) - Intermediate processing - phonemic encoding
(rhyming, homonyms, etc…) - Deep processing - semantic encoding
(meaning or symbolism)
facilitating encoding
- Elaboration
- Visual Imagery
- Self Referential Encoding
- Rehearsal and Over-learning
- Deep and Transfer Appropriate processing
- Distributed practice
- Organize information
mnemonic devices
- Verbal mnemonics:
- acrostics, acronyms, and rhymes
- Visual mnemonics:
- link method, method of loci, keyword
- SQ3R
encoding specificity
- Encoding specificity principle: Idea that ease of retrieval of a memory depends on match of encoding with retrieval
- Poor recall if shallow learning is examined using a deep processing technique
- Student who reads multiple choice items in test book and then takes an essay exam will likely not do very well
- State-dependent memory
- Poor recall if shallow learning is examined using a deep processing technique
storage
- Assumes that memory consists of 3 stores:
- Sensory registers
- Iconic (visual)
- Echoic (auditory)
- Short-term memory (STM)
- Long-term memory (LTM)
characteristics of STM
- STM is a variant of memory that is of limited duration:
- Information in STM fades after 20-30 seconds (without rehearsal)
- STM has limited capacity storage
- STM capacity is about 7 items of information
- Capacity is constant across cultures
- STM capacity is about 7 items of information
- STM Involves rehearsal
- Maintenance: information is repeated
- Elaborative: information is related to other knowledge
working memory
Working memory is temporary storage and processing of information used to
- solve problems
- respond to environmental demands
- achieve goals
Working memory may consist of three modules
- Visual Memory Store
- Verbal Memory Store
- Central Executive
working memory stores
Visual memory store
- A temporary image (20-30 sec) that provides information about the location and nature of objects
Verbal memory store
- Involves storage of verbal items
- Limited capacity
- Shallow: Items are processed in order of presentation and are subject to interference
Working memory stores are independent
- Brain damage may alter visual but not verbal
LTM
- LTM refers to the representations of facts, images, actions, and skills that may persist over a lifetime
- LTM involves retrieval of information
- LTM is theoretically limitless in capacity
- The serial position curve supports the existence of STM versus LTM
- Primacy effect reflects LTM
- Recency effect reflects STM
working memory and LTM
- Evidence supporting a distinction between working memory and LTM
- Working memory is easily accessed, but is limited in capacity
- Neurological studies in which brain damage impairs memory
- LTM impairment: person shows normal working memory, but cannot transfer information to LTM
- Working memory deficit: person has a memory span of 2 digits, but normal LTM
- Chunking: LTM information is used to increase item size in working memory (e.g. IBM, USC, CIA)
functional aspects of memory
- Recall for information may be a function of our interest in the information:
- Men show better recall for workbench construction details than details on how to make a shirt…
networks of association
- LTM is organized in clusters of information that are related in meaning
- The network is composed of interconnected nodes
- A node may contain thoughts, images, smells, emotions, or any other information
- Mnemonic devices allow one to add concepts to existing networks
varieties of LTM
- Declarative memory
- Semantic: “generic” knowledge of facts
- Episodic: memories of specific events
- Autobiographical
- Procedural memory: for skills
- Explicit memory: Conscious retrieval of information
- Recall versus recognition - Implicit memory: Skills, conditioned learning, and associative memory
repressed memories
- Retrieval failures
- Motivated forgetting
- Denial
- Repression
- Psychogenic amnesia
- False Memory Syndrome
“seven sins of memory”
- Memories are transient (fade with time)
- We do not remember what we do not pay attention to
- Our memories can be temporarily blocked
- We can misattribute the source of memory
- We are suggestible in our memories
- We can show memory distortion (bias)
- We often fail to forget the things we would like not to recall (persistence of memory)
language
- A language is a system of symbols, sounds, meanings, and rules of combination that allows for communication among humans
- Phonemes: the smallest units of sound
- Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning
- Phrases are composed of morphemes
- Sentences: strings of morphemes and phrases that express a thought or intention
nonverbal communication
- Nonverbal communication includes:
- vocal intonation
- body language (crossed arms)
- gestures (often involving the hands or fingers)
- physical distance
- facial expressions
- touch
language development
- 100 basic phonemes
- Babbling (6 - 18 months)
- Words (10 - 13 months)
- Vocabulary spurt (18 – 24 months)
- Receptive vs. productive vocabulary
- Fast Mapping
- Over and Under-extensions
- Overregularizations
language development
- The case for nurture: (behaviorist)
- B.F. Skinner argued that children imitate the utterances of their parents
- Skinner suggests that children receive differential reinforcement for speech sounds
- The case for nature (Nativist)
- Chomksy argued that language acquisition appears to be universal across culture (could not be accounted for by learning)
- Interactionist
critical periods for language acquisition
- Critical periods assume that an organism must develop a function within a limited time frame or it will not develop at all
- Children easily learn second languages, adults have great difficulty
- Isolated children have language impairments:
- Genie: was isolated as a child and was unable to learn complex language as an adolescent
problem solving
- Problem solving refers to the process by which we transform one situation into another to meet a goal
- Problems vary by definition:
- Well-defined versus ill-defined
- Strategies of problem solving:
- Algorithms are systematic procedures that will produce a solution to a problem
- Hypothesis testing: make an educated guess about a problem; then test it
- Mental simulation: mental rehearsal of the steps needed to solve a problem
problem solving: barriers
- Irrelevant information
- Functional fixedness
- Mental set
- Unnecessary constraints
approaches to problem solving
- Algorithms
- Heuristics
- Forming sub-goals
- Working backward
- Searching for Analogies
- Changing the representation of the problem
base rate fallacy
- Fear of flying vs. driving
- Anthrax vs. influenza
- SARS vs. viral encephalitis
impact of vivid events
Which of the following are more frequent causes of death in Canada?
Homicide or Diabetes
Flood or Pneumonia
All accidents or Stroke
All cancers or heart disease
Tornados or Alzheimer’s disease
Drowning or Leukemia
Motor vehicle accidents or cancer of the digestive system
regression toward the average
- Rookie of the year rarely has a better second season
- Sports Illustrated Jinx
developmental psychology
- The focus of developmental psychology is on how humans develop and change over time
- Change can occur across the life span of the person
- Cradle to grave developmental psychology
- Assumes that change is inevitable
- Change can be continuous or discontinuous
- Change can occur across the life span of the person
core developmental issues
- Delineate the interacting forces of nature and nurture
- Maturation: Refers to biologically determined changes that follow an orderly sequence
- Determine the importance of early experiences
- The notion of “critical periods”
Assess whether change is continuous or in qualitative stages
critical periods
- Critical period concept suggests that the brain is set to acquire a function during a limited period of time.
- If key experiences do not occur during a critical time period, the function may not develop or may not be fully developed
- The case of Genie: a girl who was isolated until the age of 13. Although Genie made some gains in language, her syntax never approached normal levels. The case of Genie supports a critical period for language acquisition (yet some point to her gains later in life)
- Measles can cause mental retardation if contracted during certain fetal periods
developmental methodology
- Cross-sectional method compares groups of different ages at the same time
- Useful for assessing age differences
- Not useful for examining age changes
- The problem is that each age group (cohort) has different life experiences
- Longitudinal method compares same group at multiple time points
- Sequential studies examine different age groups at multiple time points (reduce cohort effects)
physical development
- Prenatal period has 3 phases:
- Germinal period (1st 2 weeks after conception)
- Embryonic period: 3rd to 8th weeks of gestation
- Fetal period: from 9 weeks to birth
teratogens
- During the embryonic period, the developing fetus is susceptible to toxins
- Teratogens are environmental agents that harm the fetus (viruses, chemicals)
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: If the mother consumes alcohol during pregnancy, the fetus is exposed to the alcohol, which can lead to abnormal physical development and to learning disabilities
- Crack Cocaine: Fetal exposure to cocaine alters motor and emotional development
infant reflexes
- Reflexes are innate motor responses elicited by critical stimuli
- Reflexes are adaptive
- Examples of infant reflexes:
- Rooting reflex: A touch on the cheek induces the infant to move its mouth toward the source of the touch (helps guide feeding)
- Sucking reflex: Tactile stimulation of the mouth produces rhythmic sucking
motor development
- lifts chin: 2 months
- sits alone: 5 months
- stands w support: 6 months
- walks w support: 9 months
- stands alone: 11 months
- walks alone: 12 months
emotional development
- Temperament
- Attachment:
1. Secure
2. Anxious-ambivalent
3. Avoidant
cognitive development
- Piaget’s interest was epistemology: the branch of philosophy concerned with the acquisition of knowledge
- Piaget argued that children have schemas which are organized patterns of thought or behavior
- Cognitive development for Piaget involved the modification of intellectual schemas as the child seeks to understand its world
assimilation and accommodation
- The cognitive schemas developed by children must be able to handle new information and situations
- Piaget proposed 2 intellectual processes:
- Assimilation: Involves interpreting new information in light of an old schema
- All 4-legged animals are viewed as a “dog”
- Accommodation: Process by which old schemas are modified to fit new situations
- A horse is not a “dog”
- Assimilation: Involves interpreting new information in light of an old schema
Piagets stage theory
- Senorimotor period (birth to 2 years)
- Preoperational period (2 to 7 years)
- Concrete operational period (7 to 11)
- Formal operational period (11 to adult)
- Centration, irreversibility, animism
issues in cognitive development
- Object permanence refers to the realization by a child that an object continues to exist even if it cannot be seen
- Egocentrism refers to a cognitive view in which a child understands the world to have only their view (has great difficulty in understanding the views of others)
- Conservation: Understanding that the basic properties of an object are constant even if the object changes shape
personality development
- Trust vs. Mistrust (1st year)
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (2 - 3)
- Initiative vs. Guilt (4 - 6)
- Industry vs. Inferiority (6 - puberty)
- Identity vs. Confusion (Adolescence)
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early adulthood)
- Generativity vs. Self-Absorbtion (Middle adult)
- Integrity vs. Despair (Late adulthood)
The gradual conversion of information into durable long-term memory codes is called
A. long-term potentiation
B. postsynaptic conversion
C. elaboration
D. consolidation
D. consolidation
The person who has the ability to see all aspects of a problem and make good decisions is demonstrating the __________ type of intelligence.
A. verbal
B. practical
C. social
D. academic
B. practical
A norm refers to
A. a test’s reliability
B. a test’s validity
C. a test’s distribution of scores
D. all of these things
C. a test’s distribution of scores
Penfield’s studies suggest that long-lost memories can be elicited through electrical stimulation of the brain. This suggests the possibility that forgetting may be a matter of
A. retrieval failure
B. displacement
C. gradual decay
D. unconscious wishes to forget
A. retrieval failure
The conjunction fallacy is a tendency to
A. ignore information about base rates when estimating the probabilities of certain combinations of outcomes
B. overestimate the odds of a chance event if that event hasn’t occurred recently
C. draw general conclusions based on a few isolated cases
D. believe that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone
D. believe that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone
When the word “oat” is changed to the word “boat,” the number of
A. phonemes and morphemes are both increased
B. phonemes stays the same, but the number of morphemes is increased
C. phonemes increases, but the number of morphemes stays the same
D. phonemes decreases, but the number of morphemes increases
C. phonemes increases, but the number of morphemes stays the same
The child’s first words are generally spoken at about what age?
A. 3 to 5 months
B. 6 to 8 months
C. 10 to 13 months
D. 18 to 21 months
C. 10 to 13 months
The fact that the correlation in IQ scores between identical twins reared apart is lower than that between identical twins reared together suggests that
A. environmental factors can have an influence on intellectual development
B. environmental factors have no impact on intellectual development
C. genetic factors have no impact on intellectual development
D. “identical twins often do not have the same genotype”
A. environmental factors can have an influence on intellectual development
The entrance exam that Jaclyn is taking for graduate school has a number of questions such as: glove is to hand as sock is to __________. Questions of this type are considered to be
A. problems of arrangement
B. problems of transformation
C. problems of inducing structure
D. ill-defined problems
C. problems of inducing structure
The fact that some people have an organized sequence of memories for driving their car to work implies the existence of
A. prototypes
B. analogies
C. scripts
D. chained connotations
C. scripts
According to Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence, a mnemonic device such as learning “Every good boy does fine” in order to remember which notes are on the lines of the treble clef in musical notation represents
A. a metacomponent
B. a knowledge-acquisition component
C. a performance component
D. an intelligence component
B. a knowledge-acquisition component
which of the following statements is the most debatable?
A. Intelligence is at least somewhat genetic in origin.
B. Genetic factors are strongly implicated in the cause of ethnic differences in intelligence.
C. The average IQ in the lowest social classes is about 30 to 30 points lower than the average IQ in the highest social classes.
D. The average IQ for some minority groups in the United States is about 3 to 15 points lower than the average for whites.
B. Genetic factors are strongly implicated in the cause of ethnic differences in intelligence.
Walter is 10 years old and has a mental age of 8, based on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Alfred is 12 and has a mental age of 10, based on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Using the intelligence quotient scoring system suggested by William Stern
A. Walter would be considered “more” intelligent than Alfred
B. Alfred would be considered “more” intelligent than Walter
C. both boys would be considered equally intelligent
D. the scores could not be meaningfully compared because the boys are not the same age
B. Alfred would be considered “more” intelligent than Walter
If you wanted to be able to predict how successful you would be at being an engineer, you would take a test that measured your potential for this profession. It is hoped that the test would be high in
A. criterion-related validity
B. internal validity
C. construction validity
D. hypothetical validity
A. criterion-related validity
Jacob is thinking of buying a $1 lottery ticket. In Lottery A his odds of winning are 1 out of a 1000, and he may win $500. In Lottery B his odds of winning are 1 out of 5000, but he may win $5000. Based on expected value theory, Jacob should
A. buy either ticket because both lotteries have the same expected value
B. buy a ticket from Lottery B because it has a higher expected value
C. buy a ticket from Lottery A because it has a higher expected value
D. “not buy either ticket because both lotteries have very low odds of winning”
B. buy a ticket from Lottery B because it has a higher expected value
Pseudoforgetting is viewed as a function of
A. interference effects
B. lack of attention
C. hippocampal damage
D. insufficient retrieval cues
B. lack of attention
An algorithm is
A. the set of possible pathways to a solution considered by a problem solver
B. a guiding principle or “rule of thumb” used in problem solving
C. a methodical procedure for trying all possible solutions to a problem
D. equivalent to a heuristic
C. a methodical procedure for trying all possible solutions to a problem
Spearman’s “g” infers that
A. most kinds of intelligence are highly related
B. most kinds of intelligence are not highly related
C. intelligence is highly correlated with personality characteristics
D. intelligence is primarily genetic in origin
A. most kinds of intelligence are highly related
The ability of people to “juggle” information in working memory in order to reason and make decisions is the __________ component of working memory.
A. executive control system
B. rehearsal loop
C. visual imagery
D. schematic
A. executive control system
__________ is a metabolic disorder (due to an inherited enzyme deficiency) that can lead to retardation if it is not caught and treated in infancy.
A. Hydrocephaly
B. Phenylketonuria
C. Down syndrome
D. Parkinson’s disease
B. Phenylketonuria
Which of the following terms is synonymous with “motivated forgetting”?
A. regression
B. repression
C. sublimation
D. rationalization
B. repression
The study of source monitoring - the process of making attributions about the origins of memories - is most closely associated with which of the following researchers?
A. Brenda Milner
B. Endel Tulving
C. Marcia Johnson
D. Elizabeth Loftus
C. Marcia Johnson
The Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model proposes that memory has
A. sensory, short-term, medium-term, and long-term stores
B. short-, medium-, and long-term stores
C. four different memory stores
D. sensory, short-term, and long-term stores
D. sensory, short-term, and long-term stores
Dave is reminiscing about the first car he owned in high school and how he felt the first time he drove it through town. This is an example of __________ memory.
A. procedural
B. declarative
C. episodic
D. semantic
C. episodic
Mrs. Bondle seldom corrects her 4-year-old’s grammatical errors, such as “Her drinked my milk.” However, she is careful to correct factual errors, such as “Tiger ate his milk.” Assuming Mrs. Bondle’s child develops normal language skills, her pattern of feedback would be inconsistent with
A. the behavioral view of language development
B. the nativist view of language development
C. all major theories of language development
D. the transformational theory of language development
A. the behavioral view of language development
In analyzing factors in intelligence, Charles Spearman emphasized a general intelligence factor known as
A. crystallized intelligence
B. s
C. g
D. the primary mental ability
C. g
A child who says, “I sawed a cat in the yard,” is making which of the following errors?
A. overextension
B. underextension
C. overregularization
D. underregularization
C. overregularization
If the three memory stores were ordered in terms of levels of processing, which of the following sequences would be the correct order for progressively deeper processing?
A. long-term memory, short-term memory, sensory memory
B. short-term memory, sensory memory, long-term memory
C. sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
D. sensory memory, long-term memory, short-term memory
C. sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
In cultures that depend on hunting and gathering for subsistence, a(n) __________ style is more adaptive.
A. field dependent
B. risk-averse
C. field independent
D. algorithmic
C. field independent
Most persons mistakenly believe that more people die from tornadoes than from asthma. This is because they mistakenly apply
A. a means/end analysis
B. a compensatory decision model
C. an availability heuristic
D. a representativeness heuristic
C. an availability heuristic
A student’s organized set of expectations about how to study for and take an exam is an example of a
A. script
B. cluster
C. conceptual hierarchy
D. semantic network
A. script
Series-completion problems are examples of which of Greeno’s (1978) categories?
A. inducing structure
B. arrangement
C. transformation
D. recategorization
A. inducing structure
Which of the following heuristics would you probably employ if assigned the task of carrying out a school election?
A. work backwards
B. representativeness
C. search for analogies
D. form subgoals
D. form subgoals
Malcolm has been watching a roulette-type game at a local charity bazaar. The game has only ten numbers on the wheel, and every number except 8 has come up as a winner during the last 15 minutes. Malcolm decides to bet $10 on number 8, because it has to come up eventually. In this case, Malcolm is showing evidence of
A. the availability heuristic
B. the gambler’s fallacy
C. the conjunction fallacy
D. the base rate fallacy
B. the gambler’s fallacy
According to the reaction range model
A. children with average IQ scores will not have very wide reaction ranges
B. children with average IQ scores are being raised in average-quality environments
C. children raised in high-quality environments should score near the top of their reaction range
D. children raised in high-quality environments will have higher IQ scores than children raised in poor-quality environments
C. children raised in high-quality environments should score near the top of their reaction range
A child who uses “wented” as the past tense of the verb “to go”
A. is using a metalinguistic transformation
B. is probably still at the stage of using semantic slanting
C. is using a general rule in an irregular case where it does not apply
D. is using motherese to express the past tense
C. is using a general rule in an irregular case where it does not apply
In their efforts to understand memory storage, theorists have historically related it to
A. the change of seasons
B. the water in a stream
C. the technologies of their age
D. a library of documents
C. the technologies of their age
Correlations between IQ scores and school grades can best be characterized as
A. nonsignificant
B. moderately negative
C. moderately positive
D. “positive, and nearly perfect”
C. moderately positive
Chunking is the
A. elaboration of information in short-term memory for storage into long- term memory
B. process of passing information from sensory memory to short-term memory
C. actual storage process of information in long-term memory
D. method used to increase the amount of information one can hold in short-term memory
D. method used to increase the amount of information one can hold in short-term memory
You flip a fair coin ten times. Each time it comes up heads you get 10 cents. Each time it comes up tails you lose 5 cents. What is your expected value for each flip of the coin?
A. +10 cents
B. +5 cents
C. -5 cents
D. -10 cents
B. +5 cents
Spearman argued that intelligence
A. is a series of unrelated factors
B. is made up of a “core factor” common to all intellectual abilities
C. can change from time to time
D. is only seen in certain “school-type” problems
B. is made up of a “core factor” common to all intellectual abilities
Jerome is 8 years old and has been determined to have a mental age of 10. What is Jerome’s IQ?
A. 80
B. 100
C. 110
D. 125
D. 125
General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned is contained in __________ memory.
A. episodic
B. semantic
C. implicit
D. procedural
B. semantic
Which of the following areas of the brain is associated with the severe memory impairment that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease?
A. limbic system
B. hippocampal region
C. sympathetic nervous system
D. Broca’s area
B. hippocampal region
Which subtheory of intelligence, as proposed by Sternberg, is associated with dealing effectively with novelty and how one performs familiar tasks automatically and effortlessly?
A. the contextual subtheory
B. the operational subtheory
C. the experiential subtheory
D. the generative subtheory
C. the experiential subtheory
If it takes you 10 minutes to memorize a list the first time and only 2 minutes to memorize it a week later, then your “savings score” is __________ percent.
A. 20
B. 50
C. 80
D. 90
C. 80
Steele’s theory of stereotype vulnerability is an attempt to explain why
A. Asian-Americans score higher than average on IQ tests
B. African-Americans score lower than average on IQ tests
C. cultural bias must necessarily be inherent in all intelligence tests
D. general intelligence in a population declines over time
B. African-Americans score lower than average on IQ tests
Professor Ridley is known for giving fair exams that include only test items for which the student should have been prepared. Professor Ridley’s exams can be said to be high in
A. criterion-related validity
B. content validity
C. predictive validity
D. standardized validity
B. content validity
“Rearing together” gives higher correlations in IQ than “rearing apart” for which groups?
A. fraternal twins only
B. identical twins only
C. siblings only
D. fraternal twins, identical twins, and non-twin siblings
D. fraternal twins, identical twins, and non-twin siblings
Mia was trying to figure out how to fit the box that contained her new computer into the trunk of her car. She mentally manipulated the position of the box, trying to figure out a way to make it fit. Based on Baddely’s model of working memory, Mia was utilizing
A. the visuospatial sketchpad to mentally manipulate the box’s position
B. the rehearsal loop while she worked repeatedly on the problem
C. the executive control system to juggle all the information she needed to consider
D. her prospective memory to remember the actions she would need to perform
A. the visuospatial sketchpad to mentally manipulate the box’s position
The smallest unit of meaning in a language is
A. the phoneme
B. the word
C. the phrase
D. the morpheme
D. the morpheme
You are at a daycare center and you hear three 12-month-old babies babbling; each baby from a different racial/ethnic background (Asian, Hispanic, and Caucasian). The babbling of each of these infants
A. will sound very similar, because maturation is the major determinant of language acquisition during the first year
B. will consist mainly of vowel sounds, because consonant sounds don’t usually emerge until 14 months of age
C. will consist mainly of two-word phrases (telegraphic speech)
D. will sound very different, with each child’s babbles sounding quite similar to the parents’ native language
D. will sound very different, with each child’s babbles sounding quite similar to the parents’ native language
The concept of motivated forgetting is based largely on the work of which of the following early psychologists?
A. Hermann Ebbinghaus
B. Sigmund Freud
C. John Watson
D. Wilhelm Wundt
B. Sigmund Freud
If a psychological test is to tell you how you score relative to other people, the following must be developed
A. test norms
B. test scores
C. test scales
D. “test levels”
A. test norms
The educational practices in modern Western societies seem to nourish
A. field independence
B. risk-averse behaviors
C. field dependence
D. algorithmic problem-solving
A. field independence
The fact that overregularizations occur in many different languages as children master language skills provides evidence against
A. the interactionist theory of language development
B. the behavioral theory of language development
C. the nativist theory of language development
D. the linguistic relativity theory of language development
B. the behavioral theory of language development
The form of mental retardation that is usually caused by the presence of an extra chromosome is
A. phenylketonuria
B. hydrocephaly
C. organic
D. Down syndrome
D. Down syndrome
Attempting possible solutions to a problem sequentially, then discarding the ones that don’t work until you find one that does, is called the __________ method of problem solving.
A. working backward
B. heuristic
C. algorithmic
D. trial-and-error
D. trial-and-error
The process of making attributions about the origins of memories is referred to as
A. reality monitoring
B. source monitoring
C. buffering
D. a contraindication
B. source monitoring
Overconfidence in recalling information is most likely to be fueled by which of the following errors in thinking?
A. source-monitoring errors
B. reality-monitoring errors
C. the fundamental attribution error
D. the failure to seek disconfirming evidence
D. the failure to seek disconfirming evidence
Which of the following researchers sparked a heated debate by arguing that cultural differences in IQ are largely due to heredity?
A. Alfred Binet
B. Arthur Jensen
C. Robert Sternberg
D. David Wechsler
B. Arthur Jensen
Nodes representing concepts joined together by pathways that link related concepts is referred to as a(n)
A. clustering hierarchy
B. organizational schema
C. lexical ordering
D. semantic network
D. semantic network
Wilson is watching two different roulette-type games at a local charity bazaar. Each game costs $1.00 to play. In one game there are ten different numbers, and if the number he selects comes up he will win $12.00. In the other game there are 100 different numbers, but if the number he selects comes up he will win $50.00. Based on expected value theory, Wilson should
A. play the second game because it has a higher expected value
B. play either one of the games because they both have the same expected value
C. not play either game because they both have such low odds of winning
D. play the first game because it has a higher expected value
D. play the first game because it has a higher expected value
Which of the following statements regarding the prevalence of childhood abuse is accurate?
A. Data tend to support the view that very few people have actually been victimized by childhood sexual abuse.
B. Males are more likely to have experienced physical abuse and females are more likely to have suffered from sexual abuse.
C. Females are more likely to have experienced physical abuse and males are more likely to have suffered from sexual abuse.
D. Males and females are equally likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse.
B. Males are more likely to have experienced physical abuse and females are more likely to have suffered from sexual abuse.
Noam Chomsky contended that
A. language is almost wholly a matter of social learning
B. biological factors play a relatively minor role in language development
C. there is an inborn biological propensity that guides language learning
D. reinforcement is the main factor in language learning
C. there is an inborn biological propensity that guides language learning
Mort hated his history professor last year and can never remember the professor’s name. This instance of forgetting probably reflects
A. ineffective encoding
B. inadequate depth of processing
C. poor organization in Mort’s semantic memory
D. motivated forgetting
D. motivated forgetting
When the word “jar” is changed to the word “jars,” the number of
A. phonemes increases, but the number of morphemes stays the same
B. phonemes stays the same, but the number of morphemes is increased
C. phonemes and morphemes are both increased
D. “phonemes decreases, but the number of morphemes increases”
C. phonemes and morphemes are both increased
Which of the following statements is false?
A. Algorithms can be used to apply the trial-and-error approach systematically.
B. If an algorithm is available for a problem, it guarantees that a solution can eventually be found.
C. Algorithms exist for all well-defined problems.
D. Algorithms may be impractical when the problem space is large.
C. Algorithms exist for all well-defined problems.
The current thinking is that memories are consolidated in the __________ and stored in the __________.
A. limbic system; cerebellum
B. hippocampal region; cortex
C. cortex; limbic system
D. cerebellum; hippocampus
B. hippocampal region; cortex
Reorganizing the letters “OSHUE” to form an English word is an example of an anagram, which constitutes a problem of
A. inducing structure
B. lexical analysis
C. transformation
D. arrangement
D. arrangement
Diagnosticians are able to pin down an organic cause for retardation in about __________ percent of all cases.
A. 25
B. 40
C. 60
D. 85
A. 25
The type of memory where information is stored for the shortest period of time is
A. sensory memory
B. short-term memory
C. long-term memory
D. working memory
A. sensory memory
Pseudoforgetting is information loss due to ineffective
A. encoding only
B. storage only
C. retrieval only
D. encoding, storage, and retrieval
A. encoding only
According to Robert Sternberg, IQ tests tend to focus narrowly on which of the following types of intelligence?
A. social
B. mechanical
C. quantitative
D. academic/verbal
D. academic/verbal
Four-year-old Nina says: “I runned all the way home.” This most likely indicates that
A. Nina has forgotten the correct way to form the past tense
B. Nina hears improper verb forms spoken in her home
C. Nina is still relying on telegraphic speech to convey meaning
D. Nina is overregularizing a grammatical rule
D. Nina is overregularizing a grammatical rule
Valerie is 18 months old. Her productive vocabulary probably consists of
A. fewer than 3 words
B. 3 to 50 words
C. 100 to 200 words
D. “about 500 words
”
B. 3 to 50 words
Information about where a particular score on a test falls in relationship to some group is given by
A. standardization information
B. test outcome data
C. test reliability
D. test norms
D. test norms
Eskimo hunters of the Arctic wastelands and the Aboriginal hunters of the desert wastelands in Australia are
A. among the most field independent peoples of the world
B. among the most risk-averse peoples of the world
C. among the most field dependent peoples of the world
D. two groups who are least likely to utilize heuristic reasoning skills
A. among the most field independent peoples of the world
The memory system that has an almost unlimited storage capacity is
A. time-based memory
B. long-term memory
C. working memory
D. auditory sensory memory
B. long-term memory
Cyril Burt’s studies of the influence of heredity on intelligence were conducted on
A. identical twins reared apart
B. fraternal twins reared apart
C. unrelated siblings raised together
D. a group of genetically identical monkeys
A. identical twins reared apart
Failure to actively seek out contrary evidence may lead to
A. overestimating the improbable
B. the conjunction fallacy
C. the gambler’s fallacy
D. confirmation bias
D. confirmation bias
Sternberg suggests that traditional IQ tests have placed too much emphasis on
A. reasoning ability
B. abstract concepts
C. speed
D. metacomponents
C. speed
If the scores on a mechanical aptitude test are strongly correlated with performance in an auto mechanics training class, the test would be said to be high in
A. reliability
B. face validity
C. construction validity
D. criterion-related validity
D. criterion-related validity
Based on Charles Spearman’s view of intelligence, individuals who excel in
A. academics are also likely to be gifted athletes and musicians
B. one academic area are likely to excel in most academic areas
C. one academic area are likely to show deficiencies in other academic areas
D. academics early are likely to “burn out” when they are older
B. one academic area are likely to excel in most academic areas
The difficulties associated with the concept of mental age include
A. the fact it’s difficult to think of a person as having a mental age
B. applying it to adults
C. the calculation of the intelligence quotient from it
D. “all of these things”
B. applying it to adults
Claude and Marie are excited because they have just bought a restaurant from the previous owners. The two partners know that the last seven restaurants that have been operated at that location have gone bankrupt within a year of their openings, but Claude and Marie are certain their restaurant will be successful because they plan on working hard to be a success. In this case, the two new business partners are
A. showing belief perseverance
B. showing evidence of the gambler’s fallacy
C. showing the confirmation bias
D. apparently ignoring base rates
D. apparently ignoring base rates
Models of memory that are based on the assumption that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks are called __________ models.
A. functional
B. dual coding
C. information processing
D. parallel distributed processing
D. parallel distributed processing
__________ memory involves remembering to perform actions in the future.
A. Proactive
B. Retrograde
C. Prospective
D. Retrospective
C. Prospective
During a party, Michael was talking to a friend about the symbolism involved in a recent movie. Michael attributed the explanation of the symbolism to a prominent movie critic, when actually he heard it from his roommate. This example illustrates which of the following phenomena?
A. amnesia
B. cryptomnesia
C. source-monitoring error
D. serial-position effect
C. source-monitoring error
Which of the following statements is an example of reification?
A. Birds of a feather flock together.
B. Creative people are born not raised.
C. She gets good grades in school because she is intelligent.
D. Intelligence tests are only moderate predictors of vocational success.
C. She gets good grades in school because she is intelligent.
Test norms allow you to convert your raw score on a test into a(n) __________ score, which indicates the proportion of people who scored below your obtained score.
A. variation
B. average
C. percentile
D. prototypical
C. percentile
According to the notion of semantic networks, which pair of words would be linked most closely?
A. car-nose
B. boat-goat
C. fill-feed
D. tree-bird
D. tree-bird
Hydrocephaly may lead to mental retardation because of
A. a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid that destroys brain tissue
B. the presence of an extra chromosome
C. an inherited enzyme deficiency
D. nutritional deficiencies
A. a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid that destroys brain tissue
An intelligence test is designed to measure
A. a person’s accumulated knowledge
B. a person’s intellectual potential
C. a person’s previous learning
D. all of these things
B. a person’s intellectual potential
Thurstone argued that intelligence is really cluster of __________ distinct or primary mental abilities.
A. three
B. seven
C. fifty
D. one hundred and fifty
B. seven
The main reason that Cyril Burt’s conclusions about the role of heredity in intelligence are controversial is that
A. he provided no data to support the conclusions
B. there is evidence that his data cannot be trusted
C. his research was not well known during his lifetime
D. subsequent research has contradicted his conclusions
B. there is evidence that his data cannot be trusted
According to Howard Gardner, IQ tests have generally emphasized which of the following skills?
A. spatial and linguistic
B. verbal and mathematical
C. analytical and practical
D. academic and interpersonal
B. verbal and mathematical
The sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based primarily on trial and error is called
A. functional fixedness
B. insight
C. rearrangement
D. transformation
B. insight
Who was originally responsible for developing IQ tests for all ages with both verbal and performance items and with subtest scores?
A. Alfred Binet
B. Lewis Terman
C. David Wechsler
D. Jean Piaget
C. David Wechsler
According to the notion of consolidation, memories of visual information are most likely to be stored in
A. the limbic system
B. areas of the visual cortex
C. the hippocampal region
D. the cerebellum
B. areas of the visual cortex
The word “unchangeable” consists of
A. nine morphemes, one for each letter of the alphabet used
B. one morpheme, for the entire word
C. four morphemes, one for each syllable
D. three morphemes: “un,” “change,” and “able”
D. three morphemes: “un,” “change,” and “able”
__________ memory involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information.
A. Reactive
B. Proactive
C. Prospective
D. Retrospective
D. Retrospective
The process of deciding on whether a memory is based on an external source or an internal source is referred to as
A. reality monitoring
B. transmogrification
C. either an internal or external attribution
D. the locus of causality
A. reality monitoring
People generally prefer a choice that provides an 80 percent chance of success over one that provides a 20 percent chance of failure. This illustrates the effect of
A. the availability heuristic
B. the representativeness heuristic
C. framing
D. mental set
C. framing
Which of the following is a true statement regarding the validity of IQ tests?
A. IQ tests do not appear to be valid indicators of intelligence in a general sense.
B. IQ test scores are good predictors of success in life.
C. IQ tests are valid measures of practical intelligence.
D. IQ tests are valid measures of social intelligence.
A. IQ tests do not appear to be valid indicators of intelligence in a general sense.
Which of the following statements is false?
A. Overregularizations occur only in English, which has numerous irregular verbs.
B. Overregularizations reflect the fact that children do not acquire the rules of grammar in a single leap.
C. Overregularizations decline when school-age children are formally taught subtle exceptions to grammatical rules.
D. “Overregularizations are more common in children’s comprehension of words than in their production of words.”
A. Overregularizations occur only in English, which has numerous irregular verbs.
Sean was stranded in the desert when his plane crashed. He has the best chances for survival under these circumstances if his cognitive style is
A. field independent
B. risk-averse
C. field dependent
D. based on algorithms
A. field independent
If you’re thinking about your plans for the weekend while you are reading your psychology textbook, the reason you will probably forget most of what you read is that you’ve used __________ encoding, which is inferior to __________ encoding for retention of verbal material.
A. phonemic; semantic
B. semantic; reconstructive
C. phonemic; proactive
D. proactive; semantic
A. phonemic; semantic
Flashbulb memories are
A. memories for information
B. memories for actions, skills, and operations
C. chronological recollections of personal experiences
D. unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events
D. unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events
Which type of theory best accounts for the apparent rapidity and ease of language acquisition in early childhood?
A. behaviorist theory
B. nativist theory
C. cognitive theory
D. social communication theory
B. nativist theory
Martin can’t remember who invented flush toilets because he was flirting with a classmate when his history professor described this momentous event. His forgetting appears to be due to
A. ineffective encoding
B. motivated forgetting
C. time decay
D. proactive interference
A. ineffective encoding
Which of the following statements regarding sensory memory is not accurate?
A. Information can be stored in sensory memory for only a fraction of a second.
B. Sensory memory is the first component of the memory system.
C. Sensory memory preserves information according to the acoustic properties of the stimulus.
D. Sensory memory can preserve information from a variety of sensory modalities (e.g., visual, auditory).
C. Sensory memory preserves information according to the acoustic properties of the stimulus.
Which of the following statements regarding the repressed memories of childhood abuse is not accurate?
A. Some accused parents have argued that their children’s recollections are false memories created by therapists.
B. Many clinical psychologists accept recovered memories of abuse at face value.
C. Many psychologists involved in research on memory have expressed skepticism about the recent upsurge of recovered memories of abuse.
D. “All of these statements are accurate.”
D. “All of these statements are accurate.”
Autumn has been figure skating since she was five years old. She has never placed higher than third in any of the competitions she has been in, but she is still convinced that she will be able to become a professional figure skater in a few years. Her coach and her parents have tried to tell her that not many people make it as professional skaters, but Autumn is convinced that she can beat the odds. In this case, Autumn is
A. displaying evidence of mental set
B. showing belief perseverance
C. apparently ignoring base rates
D. showing the confirmation bias
C. apparently ignoring base rates
A __________ measure requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues.
A. recall
B. recognition
C. relearning
D. reiteration
A. recall
Which of the following statements corresponds most closely to Arthur Jensen’s position on ethnic differences in average IQ scores?
A. IQ differences are a function of relative nutritional levels for different ethnic groups, particularly the amount of protein in one’s diet.
B. IQ differences reflect the inherent bias in IQ tests toward different ethnic groups.
C. IQ differences are a function of the relative nature of the gene pool for different ethnic groups.
D. Jensen is an interactionist and would partially endorse all of these statements.
C. IQ differences are a function of the relative nature of the gene pool for different ethnic groups.
Lance is trying to solve a complex anagram puzzle. He systematically tries every potential solution by testing each possible combination of the letters provided. In this case, Lance is
A. working backward to solve the anagram
B. using an algorithm to solve the anagram
C. using a heuristic to solve the anagram
D. using means-ends analysis to solve the anagram
B. using an algorithm to solve the anagram
Subjective utility refers to
A. the expected value of an outcome
B. what an outcome is personally worth to an individual
C. a personal estimate of what the probability of an outcome is
D. an individual’s willingness to take risks
B. what an outcome is personally worth to an individual
Which of the following situations would lead you to suspect that the child has a language development problem?
A. A one-year-old child understands a few words and can say a few words.
B. A two-year-old child babbles and uses a few words.
C. A three-year-old child uses grammar correctly around 75% to 80% of the time.
D. A five-year-old child can use language much better than a chimpanzee.
B. A two-year-old child babbles and uses a few words.
Criterion-related validity is established by
A. logic and theory testing
B. having experts in the field assess the items on the test
C. examining correlation coefficients for repeated administrations of the test
D. correlating scores on the test with another trait associated with the test
D. correlating scores on the test with another trait associated with the test
