Exam 9: Thinking and Intelligence

Which concept is most basic: furniture, chair, or high chair?

________ is the knowledge or awareness of one's own cognitive processes.

________ analysis is a statistical method for analyzing the intercorrelations among various measures or test scores. It can be used to identify clusters of correlated items that seem to be measuring some common ability.

Barnaby thinks his pet snake Curly is harboring angry thoughts about him because Curly has been standoffish and won't curl around his neck anymore. What error is Barnaby making?

DeAndre and eleven others jurors are chosen for a major court case. As foreperson, it will be DeAndre's responsibility to make sure that, when the jury begins deliberating, they consider arguments for and against the defendant's guilt. This method of deliberation is an example of:

The tendency to think that human beings have nothing in common with other animals is called anthropomorphism.

Seymour thinks the media have a liberal political bias, and Sophie thinks they are too conservative. "Well," says Seymour, "I have my truth and you have yours. It's purely subjective." Which of King and Kitchener's stages of thinking describes Seymour's statement?

Harriet purchases a cupboard for her kitchen. She assembles the cupboard by following a series of steps illustrated in the instruction manual. Which type of problem-solving strategy has Harriet adopted?

In a classic experiment on cognitive dissonance, students did some boring, repetitive tasks and then had to tell another student, who was waiting to participate in the study, that the work was interesting and fun (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). Half the students were offered $20 for telling this lie and the others only $1. Based on what you have learned about cognitive dissonance reduction, which students do you think decided later that the tasks had been fun after all? Why?

One type of mental representation is the concept. How do concepts allow us to relate to the world around us in a manageable way? Create an example to show what a person's experience in a novel situation could be like if humans didn't organize the world based on concepts.

Asian students generally value education more than American students.

When people have strong feelings on an issue, they usually try to consider all of the information relevant to that issue.

Japanese school teachers and students are more likely than their American counterparts to believe that:

________ thinkers generally assume that a correct answer always exists and can be obtained through the senses or from authorities.

A prototype is a mental category that groups objects or activities that have common properties.

________ is the capacity to reason and use information to solve problems. It is relatively independent of a person's education.

Confirmation bias explains why so many people hold on to a belief when evidence exists that demonstrates the belief is wrong.

Standardized IQ tests predict school performance fairly well.

When Mitch was learning to drive, he couldn't imagine how he could ever remember to steer the wheel, flip on the turn signal, step on the accelerator, and still manage to turn the car! After driving for three years, Mitch's reactions have become automatic. Now, when he drives a car:

The process of drawing conclusions or inferences from facts, observations, or assumptions is called: