Deck 3: Psychological Mechanisms

Question 1

The distinction between automatic and attentional processes deals with the degree to which a task:

A) involves permanent memory retrieval
B) requires a deep level of processing
C) requires mental resources or processing capacity
D) is processed in working memory

Answer 1

requires mental resources or processing capacity

Question 2

The type of memory that holds traces of events that are specific to a time and place is called _____ memory.

A) semantic
B) working
C) episodic
D) secondary

Answer 2

episodic

Question 3

When two or more processes take place simultaneously, it is called _____ processing.

A) top-down
B) serial
C) parallel
D) automatic

Answer 3

parallel

Question 4

Within cognitive psychology, modularity refers to:

A) the degree of independence of the language system from the general information processing system
B) the belief that language processing strategies are "wired in"
C) the notion that working memory, automatic processing, and related concepts play a major role in language comprehension and production
D) all of the above

Question 5

Our organized knowledge of words, concepts, symbols, and objects is called:

A) episodic memory
B) semantic memory
C) permanent memory
D) working memory

Question 6

________ models are inspired by patterns of neural activity in the brain.

A) Parallel distributed processing
B) Modularity
C) Visuospatial sketchpad
D) Autonoetic

Question 7

Processing that proceeds from the lowest level to the higher levels in such a way that all of the lower levels of processing operate without influence from the higher levels is called _____ processing.

A) top-down
B) bottom-up
C) controlled
D) parallel

Question 8

Information that is being processed by the cognitive system is temporarily held in ________ memory.

A) permanent
B) episodic
C) semantic
D) working

Question 9

Daneman and Carpenter (1980) studied the relationship between working memory span and reading comprehension with two span measures. The results suggested that performance on __________ correlated highly with reading comprehension SAT scores.

A) the simple digit span measure
B) the complex storage and processing span measure
C) both the simple digit span and complex storage and processing span measures
D) neither the simple digit span nor the complex storage and processing span measure

Question 10

Which is NOT true of neural network models?

A) They are based on patterns of excitatory and inhibitory neural activity.
B) They are useful for modeling cognitive processes.
C) They are an important alternative to serial models of processing.
D) They have not yet been shown to be useful for modeling language processes.

Question 11

A processing model in which higher-level information may influence processing at the lower levels is called a _____ model.

A) bottom-up
B) automatic
C) top-down
D) controlled

Question 12

Memories of childhood vacations are stored in:

A) semantic memory
B) working memory
C) episodic memory
D) secondary memory

Question 13

What conclusion can be drawn from the text's discussion of the "Ali" sentence?

A) we use serial processing when encountering ambiguous words
B) we use controlled processing to comprehend ambiguous sentences
C) we use top-down processing to comprehend ambiguous sentences
D) our intuitions regarding sentence comprehension are not always accurate

Question 14

_______ models divide the activities involved in processing language into non-overlapping stages.

A) Top-down
B) Bottom-up
C) Serial
D) Parallel

Question 15

The word-length effect refers to the finding that:

A) the longer the word list, the more words a subject can recall
B) subjects can recall a greater number of shorter words in a list
C) subjects can recall a greater number of longer words in a list
D) most subjects cannot recall more than seven plus or minus items in a word list

Question 16

In the Baddeley and Hitch (1974) model, _________ is a subsystem of working memory.

A) the sensory store
B) the visuospatial sketchpad
C) the speech perception module
D) primary memory

Question 17

Studies of brain-damaged patients with deficits in autonoetic consciousness have provided evidence that:

A) episodic memory refers solely to the retrieval of personal facts from long-term memory
B) episodic memory is more resilient than semantic memory
C) semantic memory is more resilient more than episodic memory
D) the distinction between episodic and semantic memory is biologically real

Question 18

Most models of memory assume that:

A) memory capacity and attentional resources are unlimited
B) how many things we can attend to at once depends on the nature of each task
C) with practice, there is no limit on how many activities we can perform simultaneously
D) working memory and long-term memory have the same storage capacity

Question 19

A test in which increasingly longer lists of items (such as numbers or words) are presented for later recall is called a ________ test.

A) partial report
B) memory span
C) sketchpad
D) Stroop

Question 20

Which of the following characterize processing modules?

A) They are independent of general cognitive processes.
B) They are shared by processes from different domains (such as art and music).
C) They draw on controlled process, such as decision making.
D) Their workings are available to conscious inspection.

Question 21

According to Piaget, the transition from the sensorimotor period to the preoperational is signaled by:

A) the appearance of the child's first word
B) the child's ability to walk unaided
C) deferred imitation and pretend play
D) the ability of a child to discriminate speech sounds

Question 22

In Diamond's (1985) study of object permanence, infants as young as seven and a half months were able to solve the problem if:

A) the object was hidden in a consistent place
B) their mother was present during testing
C) they were allowed to immediately search for the object
D) the object was only partially obscured

Question 23

_________ experience childhood amnesia, and cannot recall events before their third birthday

A) Adults who have suffered stroke
B) Children born with aggramatism
C) Children who have experienced head trauma
D) All adults

Question 24

Children's pretend play is developmentally important because:

A) it signifies that one object can stand for another
B) it reveals that children can imitate what they see
C) it helps young children remember that hidden objects still exist
D) it shows that children's thinking processes are vastly different from those of adults

Question 25

The studies by Case, Kurland, and Goldberg (1982) on the development of working memory found that:

A) there is no increase in working memory capacity from infancy to six years of age
B) there is no increase in working memory capacity from six years to adulthood
C) there was a positive correlation between response speed and memory span
D) all of the above

Question 26

Baddeley, Gathercole, and Papagno (1998) used a _______ test to study the relationship between working memory and vocabulary development in children.

A) memory span
B) digit span
C) reading comprehension
D) deferred imitation

Question 27

Piaget referred to the concepts we use to organize our experience as:

A) imitiations
B) intuitions
C) schemata
D) episodes

Question 28

Object permanence refers to:

A) the use of an object in a symbolic manner
B) understanding that an object exists even if it cannot be perceived
C) infants' use of an object, such as a rattle, to get adult attention
D) the concepts that infants and children use to organize their experience