Deck 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

Some investigators are interested in how cognition is associated with brain activity. This interest represents the ______.

A) embodied cognition approach
B) cognitive-behavioral approach
C) representationalist approach
D) biological perspective

Answer 1

biological perspective

Question 2

Aristotle suggested that a human's memory is like a message carved into wax. What did he mean by this?

A) Memories are difficult to form, like trying to write on a wax tablet with a stick.
B) Memories can be surprising, like seeing messages carved into wax.
C) Like messages carved into a tablet, our memories endure for our entire lives.
D) Like messages on a heated wax tablet, our memories can blur or disappear.

Answer 2

Like messages on a heated wax tablet, our memories can blur or disappear.

Question 3

If you think of cognitive processing as a type of information processing, then the brain is the ______ and the cognitive processes themselves are the ______.

A) hardware; software
B) response; stimulus
C) software; hardware
D) stimulus; response

Answer 3

hardware; software

Question 4

Who invented the term "cognitive psychology"?

A) Noam Chomsky
B) Sigmund Freud
C) Wilhelm Wundt
D) Ulric Neisser

Question 5

Using a computer or information-processing model would most accurately depict which approach to cognition?

A) embodied cognition
B) behaviorist
C) representationalist
D) linguistic

Question 6

We use ______ to accomplish everyday tasks.

A) neuroscience
B) cognition
C) correlation
D) priming

Question 7

Which of these terms refers specifically to the ability to focus on one stimulus among the many that are in our environment?

A) sensory perception
B) attentional process
C) memory retrieval
D) language process

Question 8

Which of these is an advantage of behaviorism?

A) It encourages self-reporting by research subjects, who share their thoughts and feelings with scientists.
B) Its research focuses on identifiable, visible actions and does not rely on subjects' descriptions or impressions.
C) It proves that language abilities result from cognitive processes inherent to humans.
D) Its dual focus allows researchers to study overt behaviors and the processes behind them.

Question 9

Which psychologist extensively tested his own memory to develop theories of cognition?

A) Aristotle
B) Wundt
C) Ebbinghaus
D) Chomsky

Question 10

Cognitive psychology is broad, and thus overlaps with many other fields including neuroscience, philosophy, and ______.

A) chemistry
B) astronomy
C) linguistics
D) robotics

Question 11

Ancient scholars in which field asked the first questions related to cognitive psychology?

A) behaviorism
B) sociology
C) biology
D) philosophy

Question 12

Dr. Martinez performed a study in which participants in one group studied for an exam by acting out the principles in their textbook, and the other group studied by reading the chapters over and over. This study most closely illustrates the ______.

A) embodied cognition approach
B) biological perspective
C) representationalist approach
D) cognitive-behavioral approach

Question 13

Your psychology professor tells you, "Our cognitive processes exist mainly to provide a means of interacting with the world around us." Which approach to cognitive psychology is this?

A) embodied cognition
B) representationalist
C) behaviorist
D) biological determinalist

Question 14

A belief in cognitive psychology reemerged following which event?

A) a series of experiments showing how learning is affected by behavioral conditioning
B) John Watson's experimentation on Little Albert
C) Sigmund Freud's discussion of the psychosexual stages of development
D) the development of information processing approaches to study the mind and behavior

Question 15

Dr. Chen asserts that knowledge about the world is represented in our minds such that cognitive processes can operate on the representations. He is a(n) ______.

A) representationalist
B) biological perspectivist
C) behavioralist
D) embodied cognitionist

Question 16

The study of cognition fell out of favor because of the rise in popularity of ______.

A) philosophy
B) neuroscience
C) behaviorism
D) sociology

Question 17

Researchers use ______ to study the way in which neurons are connected in networks in the brain and to understand how different cognitive processes work.

A) brain activity
B) connectionist models
C) behavior indications
D) language structures

Question 18

Dr. Smith believes that overt, observable behavior is the only valid way that we can study people. He is a ______.

A) sociologist
B) behaviorist
C) neuroscientist
D) biologist

Question 19

Cognitive psychologists who focus on the role of consciousness in human thought processes want to know how much ______ we have in our behaviors.

A) repetitiveness
B) social dysfunction
C) ability
D) conscious choice

Question 20

Who was one of the first psychologists to study cognition?

A) John Watson
B) Wilhelm Wundt
C) B. F. Skinner
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 21

Your psychology professor asks you to take part in an experiment that will measure how speedily and accurately you can remember details about a song. Which of these will your professor measure?

A) innate intelligence
B) mental chronometry
C) musical physicality
D) rhythmic priming

Question 22

Dr. Smith is developing a new drug to treat headaches. To test this drug, she develops a study in which one group gets the new drug, and the other gets a placebo, or a fake pill. Dr. Smith measures whether headaches improve by giving each participant a survey each day. The amount of improvement, as measured by the survey, is the ______ variable.

A) independent
B) dependent
C) non-response
D) explanatory

Question 23

Why do many scientists measure eye movement as a way of understanding cognition?

A) It is impossible to monitor activity within a living brain, but eye movement helps scientists understand visual memory.
B) It is likely that if we look at something for at least a few seconds, then we are mentally processing details about that person or thing.
C) Many scientists believe that the sooner a subject looks away from something, the more time he or she dedicates to processing information about it.
D) Eye movements lead to corresponding behaviors in the olfactory and auditory sense systems.

Question 24

The ______ is a method of gaining knowledge in a field that relies on observations of phenomena and allows for tests of hypotheses about these phenomena.

A) representationalist approach
B) biological perspective
C) scientific method
D) embodied cognition approach

Question 25

As a graduate student in psychology, you design a study on how lawbreakers who get away with their crimes react to news of others' crimes. Your graduate adviser rejects your study because it is not ______.In other words, it cannot be evaluated through observation.

A) negotiable
B) testable
C) accurate
D) parsimonious

Question 26

What methods, other than accuracy and response time, do investigators use to study mental processes?

A) hand movements
B) running speed
C) brain visualization measures
D) driving skill

Question 27

Elizabeth's sister, Meredith, isn't answering her phone when Elizabeth calls. Elizabeth thinks, "Well, either Meredith's phone has been stolen, or the battery died." Concluding that Meredith's battery likely died and that her phone wasn't stolen would best illustrate ______.

A) circular reasoning
B) determinism
C) parsimony
D) testability

Question 28

Why did so many researchers make one individual, Henry Molaison, the subject of their research?

A) He was unusually insightful in how he described his thought processes, so he became the focus of many case studies.
B) Molaison had incredibly fast reflexes, which made him one of a kind.
C) He was so neurotypical in his responses that scientists could study just him instead of hundreds of other people.
D) Molaison had an unusual illness that caused him to undergo risky surgery, so there were few other subjects like him.

Question 29

Which of these is essential to every correlational study?

A) the ability to focus on just one variable
B) a group of subjects to study
C) the chance to collect responses with maximal impact on the variable of interest
D) a single subject who will agree to in-depth testing

Question 30

In the 1930s, Frederic Bartlett discovered that ______ could contribute to memory distortion.

A) sophisticated comparisons
B) short reaction times
C) metaphors
D) stereotypes

Question 31

John went to the bank, where he encountered a very rude, grumpy bank teller. Rather than getting angry and being rude back, John was polite through the encounter while thinking, "This person must be going through a difficult time for her to be so rude, so I shouldn't take it personally." John's attitude best illustrates ______.

A) determinism
B) testability
C) reliability
D) parsimony

Question 32

A researcher is interested in studying how people memorize lists of associated words. The most appropriate dependent variable for an experiment like this would be ______.

A) percentage correct
B) response time
C) eye tracking
D) response duration

Question 33

The speed of neuronal transmission is one meter per ______.

A) millisecond
B) second
C) 10 seconds
D) minute

Question 34

Dr. Smith is developing a new drug to treat headaches. To test this drug, she develops a study in which one group gets the new drug, and the other gets a placebo, or a fake pill. Dr. Smith measures whether headaches improve by giving each participant a survey each day. The drug is the ______ variable.

A) independent
B) dependent
C) response
D) optional

Question 35

Who was the German physiologist who studied the speed of neuronal transmission by attaching electrical wires to the leg muscles of frogs?

A) Herman von Helmhotz
B) B. F. Skinner
C) Ulric Neisser
D) Wilhelm Wundt

Question 36

A(n) ______ is designed to simplify the contexts surrounding the behavior of interest, allowing for focused investigation of the impact of a relatively small set of variables.

A) correlational study
B) survey study
C) case study
D) experimental study

Question 37

A group of scientists notices that people who smoke often develop cancer later in life. To test this, they design a longitudinal study in which they take note of how many cigarettes each participant smokes each day, how many years each participant smokes, and whether he or she develops any kind of cancer at any point. What type of study is this?

A) an experimental study
B) a correlational study
C) a case study
D) a survey study

Question 38

What kind of research methodology focuses on intensive analyses of a single individual?

A) surveys
B) case studies
C) correlational studies
D) naturalistic observations

Question 39

If a researcher were interested in studying how multiple variables relate to each other, which research approach would he or she likely use?

A) a correlational study
B) an experimental study
C) a case study
D) an independent variable

Question 40

Which of these is a way that cognitive researchers measure mental processing?

A) pulse rate
B) breathing rate
C) type of memory errors
D) speed of hand movements

Question 41

Define indirect measurement and explain why most cognitive psychology experiments rely on it. Give an example of it. What is the drawback to this type of measurement?

Question 42

Distinguish between correlational designs and experimental designs. Provide an example of each.

Question 43

The computer and information-processing models of cognition led to the representationalist view of cognitive processes.

Question 44

Discuss the differences between an independent variable and a dependent variable. Give an example of each.

Question 45

How are scientists using new techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography?

A) as the beginning of evidence-based cognitive psychology
B) as a replacement for older methods
C) in conjunction with older methods
D) to replace cognitive psychology

Question 46

Compare and contrast the following approaches to cognitive psychology: representationalism, embodied cognition, and the biological perspective. Then tell which approach interests you most and why.

Question 47

Wilhelm Wundt coined the term "cognitive psychology" and is considered the father of this field.

Question 48

Explain how Noam Chomsky's work on language acquisition changed the field of cognitive psychology. Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Explain your answer.

Question 49

Neuroscience, linguistics, attention, and perception are all part of the study of cognitive psychology.

Question 50

The dependent variable is the factor that a researcher believes influences the behavior of interest.

Question 51

Noam Chomsky suggested that language is learned through behavioral conditioning.

Question 52

What is the drawback to most methods that researchers use to measure cognitive processing?

A) Thanks to technology, human cognition is changing rapidly.
B) Human subjects can accurately push buttons for only a few minutes at a time.
C) The subjects' stereotypical beliefs interfere with cognition.
D) The measurements are indirect and based on assumptions.

Question 53

There can be more than one independent variable in an experimental study.

Question 54

Modern psychologists accept the study of both behavior and cognition.

Question 55

Neuronal transmission is as fast as the speed of light.

Question 56

The independent variable is the factor in an experiment that the researcher manipulates.

Question 57

Eyewitness testimony is highly accurate because of the speed at which the human brain transmits and stores thoughts.