Deck 8: Cognition and Language

Question 1

Cognitive psychologists conduct the majority of their research by asking subjects to describe their own thinking.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Transformational grammar,is a system for converting a deep structure into a surface structure.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In general,it is easier to learn a second language at a younger age than at an older age.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Broca's aphasia is a condition marked by impaired recall of nouns and impaired comprehension of language,despite the ability to speak fluently and grammatically.

Question 5

Research on shifting attention demonstrates that cell phone conversations do NOT distract drivers' attention.

Question 6

The word superiority effect refers to the finding that it is easier to read a word that is part of a sentence than to read the same word in isolation.

Question 7

Expert chess players and beginners study a chessboard for five seconds and are then asked to recall the position of the pieces on the board.When the pieces are arranged randomly,experts demonstrate significantly better memory than the beginners.

Question 8

Attention is your tendency to respond to and to remember some stimuli more than others at a given time.

Question 9

The tendency to read the words,instead of saying the color of ink,is known as the Stroop effect.

Question 10

Strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation are known as heuristics.

Question 11

In general,it is easier to learn a second language during high school once you have mastered grammar for your primary language.

Question 12

Students were asked difficult questions (e.g. ,How long is the Nile River?)and asked to give a range of answers they were 90% confident included the correct answer.On difficult questions,students tend to be more confident than correct.

Question 13

Becoming an expert in a given field (whether playing chess or the violin)takes about ten years of concentrated practice.

Question 14

Although other species have the ability to communicate,only human languages have the property of productivity.

Question 15

A penguin is a prototype for the category "bird."

Question 16

Maximizing,means thoroughly considering every possibility to find the best one.

Question 17

Thinking about one of the concepts shown in this figure will activate,or prime,the concepts linked to it through a process called spreading activation.

Question 18

You see the letters "RED" printed in green ink.The difficulty you have in naming the color (instead of reading the word)is known as the Stroop effect.

Question 19

Research on the framing effect has demonstrated that people tend to choose the risky strategy when considering gains and avoid taking risks when considering losses.

Question 20

You wait in line for over an hour to buy a movie ticket for the late show.You then learn there is a strong,unpleasant odor in the theatre and that the movie is long and bad.According to the sunk cost effect,you will cut your losses (the money you spent on the ticket)and avoid the movie.

Question 21

According to the Stroop effect,you would be likely say,"__________" if you were asked to name the color of ink of the word yellow written in blue ink.
yellow

Question 22

Most people identify the letter more accurately when it is part of a word than when it is presented by itself.This is known as the __________.
word-superiority effect

Question 23

Noam Chomsky has called the rules that we learn for making and interpreting sentences __________ grammar.
transformational

Question 24

A person who suffers from __________ may be mentally retarded but still able to produce language in a normal and skillful way.
Williams syndrome

Question 25

In decision making,the maximizing strategy approximates the use of __________ whereas satisficing is more of a __________ approach.
an algorithm;heuristic

Question 26

Psychologists use the term __________ to refer to your tendency to respond to or to remember some stimuli more than others at any given time.
attention

Question 27

__________ is characterized by easy distraction,impulsiveness,moodiness,and failure to follow through on plans.
ADHD

Question 28

In decision making,__________ means searching only until you find something that is good enough.
satisficing

Question 29

Logan suffers a stroke on the left side of his brain and as a result has a condition characterized by inarticulate speech and difficulties using and understanding grammatical devices.This condition is known as __________ aphasia.
Broca's

Question 30

People who look at real words find it difficult to say the color of ink of each word,instead of reading the words themselves.This result is known as the __________.
Stroop effect

Question 31

In decision making,__________ means thoroughly considering every possibility to find the best one.
maximizing

Question 32

__________ is your tendency to respond to some stimuli more than others at any given time or to remember some stimuli more than others at any given time.
Attention

Question 33

A mechanical,repetitive procedure for solving a problem or testing every hypothesis is called an __________.
algorithm

Question 34

__________ a concept gets it started.Reading or hearing one word makes it easier to think or recognize a related word.
Priming

Question 35

When experts made predictions about U.S.and world politics over the next several years,their accuracy was generally__________,and they were __________ confident in their predictions.
low;not very

Question 36

We often err by accepting a hypothesis and then looking for evidence to support it,instead of considering other possibilities.This tendency is the __________.
confirmation bias

Question 37

When you increase your attention to something in your visual field,the part of your visual cortex sensitive to that area becomes __________.
more active

Question 38

The tendency to answer a question differently when it is framed (phrased)differently is called the __________.
framing effect

Question 39

Strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation are called __________.
heuristics

Question 40

Thinking about one of the concepts shown in this figure will activate,or prime,the concepts linked to it through a process called __________.
spreading activation

Question 41

The study of how people think,acquire knowledge,imagine,plan,and solve problems is called __________ psychology.

A)semantic
B)cognitive
C)functional
D)operational

Question 42

You have bought a $500 ticket package to take all of your family to Sea World on the first weekend in June.Your spouse has free passes to an IMAX viewing of Jaws for the same day.The morning of your outing,you notice storm clouds coming in and the weatherman says that there is a 95% chance of rain and lightning.You think that it might make more sense to go to the IMAX showing,but you paid significantly more for Sea World.Where would you be more likely to go? Name this phenomenon and briefly describe the premise of this type of cognitive error.

Question 43

This chapter mainly concerns itself with which one of the following questions?

A)If you want to find out what people think or what they know,why not ask them?
B)How can we measure thinking?
C)How much can your attention hold at once?
D)Why do people prefer a slim chance at a fortune to a small but sure gain?

Question 44

According to the Stroop effect,you would be likely say,"__________" if you were asked to name the color of ink of the word yellow written in blue ink.

A)yellow
B)blue
C)green
D)red

Question 45

Which of the following best describes the Stroop effect?

A)If you look at letters and words flashed briefly on the screen,it is easier to read whole words than isolated letters.
B)If you have already committed a certain amount of time and effort to a project,it is hard to quit even though the project seems to be a failure.
C)If you grew up hearing another language without learning it,you will be able to learn it in adulthood better than those who did not have that early experience.
D)If you look at the word RED written in green ink,it is easier to read the word ("red")than to say the color of the ink ("green").

Question 46

Psychologists use the term __________ to refer to your tendency to respond to or to remember some stimuli more than others at any given time.

A)perception
B)attention
C)preattentive process
D)cognition

Question 47

Which of the following would you be most likely to find by a "preattentive" process?

A)one red object among a group of gray and white ones
B)one E among a group of Fs
C)one F among a group of Es
D)one four-leaf clover among a group of three-leaf clovers

Question 48

You look at a series of gauges.Most have their indicators pointing the same direction (to the right),but one is pointing a different direction.You notice the odd one immediately,regardless of how many other gauges are present.This pattern indicates that you found the discrepant indicator by

A)a conceptual network.
B)an attentional blink.
C)a preattentive process.
D)an attentive process.

Question 49

Some children grow up in a bilingual environment,learning two languages about equally well.Describe the two disadvantages and one primary advantage to bilingualism identified in the chapter.

Question 50

What is the Stroop effect?

A)the strategy of assuming that the number of available memories of an event indicates how common the event actually is
B)the tendency to assume that if an item is similar to members of a particular category,it is probably a member of that category itself
C)the greater ease of identifying a letter when it is part of a whole word than when it is presented by itself
D)the difficulty of naming the colors in which words are written instead of reading the words themselves

Question 51

People who look at real words find it difficult to say the color of ink of each word,instead of reading the words themselves.This result is known as the

A)Stroop effect.
B)word-superiority effect.
C)availability heuristic.
D)representativeness heuristic.

Question 52

You are looking for a well-camouflaged animal in an exhibit at the zoo.Finding it will require

A)an attentive process.
B)an affective reaction.
C)a preattentive process.
D)spreading activation.

Question 53

When an object differs drastically from those around it in size,shape,color,or movement,we find it by a __________,meaning that it stands out immediately.

A)motivated processes
B)divergent processes
C)attentive processes
D)preattentive processes

Question 54

You are at a basketball game,and 100 students in one section are wearing matching white t-shirts,while one student is wearing a bright red shirt.You are likely to immediately notice the person in red

A)due to motivated cognition.
B)by systematically comparing each student to every other student.
C)by a preattentive process.
D)only if the students in that section are cheering for your team.

Question 55

Individuals sometimes face a choice among a huge number of options.For example,when you go to library to check out a book,do you go through every book to find the perfect book for your mood or do you browse several books until you find one that looks interesting? People generally follow two strategies;maximizing and satisficing.Define each term and describe which of the above scenarios for checking out a book goes with each.

Question 56

Define phoneme and morpheme.Identify the number of phonemes and number of morphemes in the following sentence: "The cat runs quickly."

Question 57

A cognitive psychologist wants to learn about how a person thinks when solving a problem.What is the primary difficulty with simply asking people to describe their own thought process?

A)Research participants usually lie when describing their thought processes.
B)People think differently in a psychology laboratory than they do in "real life."
C)People are not always aware of how they solve particular problems.
D)Problem solving always involves thinking without words.

Question 58

Often the issues that you have to resolve quickly on a daily basis are complicated and you don't have time to go through every possible solution.You want a "good enough" answer or one that works most of the time.Define the concept of heuristics.In addition,define availability heuristic and representative heuristic and give an example of each type of heuristic.

Question 59

In general,our attention is drawn to

A)whatever is unusual given the current context.
B)the sound of human voices.
C)the brightest color.
D)anything that moves.

Question 60

The Where's Waldo books present elaborate drawings,each of which contains the character Waldo embedded somewhere in the drawing.Finding Waldo requires

A)a preattentive process.
B)an attentive process.
C)a postattentive process.
D)the Stroop effect.

Question 61

The attentional blink has been shown to be longer than normal in

A)left-handers.
B)speed readers.
C)people with attention deficit disorder.
D)college graduates.

Question 62

People often fail to notice something that occurs slowly,or while they are blinking their eyes or while moving their eyes.This phenomenon is called

A)the attentional blink.
B)the Stroop effect.
C)change blindness.
D)the representativeness heuristic.

Question 63

The phenomenon known as the "attentional blink" illustrates the fact that

A)if something changes or moves very slowly,you usually do not notice it.
B)immediately after you blink your eyes,colors seem brighter and lines seem sharper.
C)shortly after responding to one stimulus,you tend to ignore another stimulus.
D)you can do two things at once,but you cannot plan two actions at once.

Question 64

During the moment after perceiving one stimulus,it is difficult to accurately perceive a second stimulus.This is called the

A)blocking effect.
B)von Restorff effect.
C)attentional blink.
D)moment of truth.

Question 65

"Change blindness" refers to the phenomenon that

A)when people shift their attention they have trouble moving their eyes.
B)people who go through a major change in their lives often suffer visual losses.
C)people who become blind may become more sensitive to other sensory information.
D)people looking at a scene often fail to notice something that changes.

Question 66

Probably the best explanation for the classic Stroop effect would be that

A)reading always takes priority over color recognition.
B)children typically outperform adults because of fewer established synaptic connections.
C)one response dominates,perhaps automatically,and it will interfere with the less dominant response.
D)people are unable to perform two tasks simultaneously.

Question 67

The Stroop Effect is the phenomenon that people usually find it easier to

A)remember events in their own lives than to remember events they have read about.
B)remember the gist of a story than to remember the details
C)read a word than to say the color of its ink.
D)read a whole word than to read a single letter.

Question 68

The Stroop effect occurs because

A)it is very difficult to see the colors of ink.
B)people are so used to reading words that they cannot suppress the habit.
C)people do not take the frequency of things in the population into account.
D)people's thoughts are related to their categories.

Question 69

People performing a Stroop task will generally

A)make many errors stating the color name instead of the color the word is printed in.
B)miss a subtle change in a movie scene unless they focus their attention on it.
C)categorize a fish as an animal faster than a trout as an animal.
D)confuse the number of phonemes in a color word with the number of morphemes.

Question 70

Which of the following would probably be the best prototype of "bird"?

A)robin
B)ostrich
C)penguin
D)duck-billed platypus

Question 71

If you are supposed to respond to either of two kinds of stimuli (such as the letter K or anything green),then if one comes quickly after another,you are likely to miss the second one.This phenomenon is called?

A)the attentional blink.
B)the Stroop effect.
C)change blindness.
D)the representativeness heuristic.

Question 72

A student in one experiment is showing the Stroop effect.Which change in the usual procedure would probably stop the student from showing this effect?

A)Have the student hold the page closer to his or her eyes.
B)Write the words in a language the student does not know.
C)Write the words in all capital letters.
D)Encourage the student to speak as rapidly as possible.

Question 73

Movie directors discovered that they can film different parts of the same scene on different days,and most viewers would not detect that the extras (background actors)had changed clothes or appearance.Psychologists call this failure to notice such differences

A)priming.
B)the attentional blink.
C)change blindness.
D)the Stroop effect.

Question 74

Which of the following statements regarding attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)is TRUE?

A)It is currently diagnosed in 40% of 7^th graders.
B)No environmental correlates have been identified.
C)It is easy to differentiate children with ADHD from those with normal high energy.
D)It is diagnosed more frequently in boys than in girls.

Question 75

"Change blindness" is the phenomenon that

A)we often fail to notice something that changes slowly.
B)shortly after you respond to one stimulus you tend to ignore another one.
C)it is easier to notice changes in a single letter than changes in a whole word.
D)many people start to suffer failing vision during their 40s and 50s.

Question 76

When people with ADD or ADHD participate in a Stop Signal Task,pressing a button in response to a circle unless a beep sounds immediately,

A)they do as well as people without ADD or ADHD,because they only have to pay attention for a short period of time.
B)they do as well as people without ADD or ADHD,because this task is unrelated to the brain mechanisms affected by ADD or ADHD.
C)they do worse than people without ADD or ADHD,because they have trouble inhibiting their responses.
D)they do worse than people without ADD or ADHD,because males don't do well on the Stop Signal Task and most people diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are male.

Question 77

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)is most commonly treated with?

A)antidepressant medications.
B)stimulant medications.
C)antipsychotic medications.
D)depressant medications.

Question 78

The "attentional blink' is the brief period of time

A)while information travels from one brain hemisphere to the other.
B)after perceiving one stimulus when it is difficult to perceive a second stimulus.
C)during which a person pays equal attention to two very different stimuli.
D)between the actual presence of a stimulus and the time the person notices it.

Question 79

Which task is more difficult for an experienced reader to perform than it is for someone just learning to read?

A)Look at the names of colors written in different colors and say the color of each word,rather than the word itself.
B)Look at a word flashed on the screen and identify the whole word.
C)Look at two complex pictures flashed on the screen and say whether or not they were the same.
D)Look at a series of words and identify the one that is written right to left instead of left to right.

Question 80

The basic conclusion about attention from the research on change blindness is that

A)our attention seems to be automatically drawn to change.
B)we are so prepared to detect sameness that we appear incapable of detecting change.
C)we notice a few details (depending on what we paid attention to)but otherwise we retain the gist of a scene.
D)attention cannot be studied scientifically in the way that memory can.