Deck 14: Conscious Thought,Unconscious Thought

Question 1

A great deal of behind-the-scenes activity is necessary to make possible intellectual achievements like thinking and remembering.This behind-the-scenes activity is referred to by psychologists as

A)nuts-and-bolts work.
B)the cognitive unconscious.
C)subconscious production.
D)running the program.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Patients who have experienced damage to the striate cortex sometimes show a phenomenon known as blind sight.In this case,most patients

A)can consciously see where an object is but cannot identify it.
B)can consciously report the identity of an object but not where it is located.
C)are blind yet incorrectly report that they can see the identity and location of an object.
D)often guess correctly in response to what they have seen or where an object is located even though they report that they cannot see it.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The phrase "memory without awareness" is another way of describing a pattern in which

A)explicit memory tests indicate that participants remember an event,but implicit memory tests indicate that they do not remember it.
B)implicit memory tests indicate that participants remember an event,but explicit memory tests indicate that they do not remember it.
C)recognition tests indicate that participants remember an event,but recall tests indicate that they do not remember it.
D)direct memory testing indicates that participants remember an event,but indirect testing indicates that they do not remember it.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In one study,participants in Group 1 were given a pill and told,"This pill will make you a bit jumpy,will make your palms sweat,and may give you butterflies in your stomach." Participants in Group 2 were given the same pill,but they were told,"This pill may make you a little sleepy." In both cases,the pill was a placebo and actually had no effect.All participants were then exposed to electric shocks and were asked to rate how painful each shock had seemed.Given other evidence,we would expect that

A)there would be no difference between the two groups.
B)the participants would not differ in how they rated the shocks,but participants in Group 2 would end up having more positive feelings about the experiment.
C)the participants in Group 2 would rate the shocks as less painful than the participants in Group 1.
D)the participants in Group 1 would rate the shocks as less painful than the participants in Group 2.

Question 5

Which of these is most likely to be true about the process of introspection?

A)Introspection acts as a special window,allowing people to report correctly on why they acted the way they did.
B)People often show little confidence about their reasoning when they introspect,although their reasoning is mostly correct.
C)People can often use their confidence ratings to detect whether their introspections are likely to be correct.
D)Introspection often produces mistaken beliefs that arise from plausible after-the-fact inferences.

Question 6

In the late 1800s,the young science of psychology

A)considered consciousness to be a central concern of the science.
B)argued that consciousness could not be studied scientifically.
C)studied consciousness by focusing on the biological roots of conscious thought.
D)largely ignored the topic of consciousness.

Question 7

Even in cases where we're consciously and deliberately working on a problem,our thoughts are influenced by a set.Which of the following is NOT true of sets?

A)They can keep us focused.
B)They often include unnoticed assumptions.
C)They can be an obstacle to problem solving.
D)We're more likely to make progress if we can approach the problem without a set.

Question 8

Erin,who has Korsakoff's amnesia,is asked to perform in a memory experiment.Erin is likely to

A)be capable of some sorts of learning but do poorly in explicit tests of memory.
B)recall explicitly events that she has witnessed but not things that she has done.
C)perform well on tests requiring conscious recollection even though her performance is poor if memory is tested indirectly.
D)be unable to recall material learned in the past even though she explicitly recognizes the material when she encounters it.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT an example of the principle "We are aware of products but not of processes"?

A)Jeff knew that the stimulus seemed familiar,but he did not know why.
B)Jesse believed that the stimulus was "cake," but he could not tell whether he had seen the stimulus or just inferred it.
C)Jeremy suddenly found himself thinking about marriage,and he could not figure out what had brought this idea into his thoughts.
D)Jacob wanted to do well on the spelling test,but he did not know the best way to study the words.

Question 10

A patient with blind sight is likely to show all of the following traits EXCEPT that,if asked to

A)walk across the room,he or she does so easily.
B)reach toward an object,he or she tends to reach in the appropriate direction.
C)reach toward an object,he or she tends to reach with the appropriate hand position (e.g. ,with the hand open wide if the target is large).
D)guess the identity of a visual stimulus (e.g. ,"X" vs."O"),his or her guesses are consistently correct.

Question 11

Several authors have proposed that we are generally aware of the ________ of our own thoughts even though we are usually unaware of the ________ of thought.

A)product;processes
B)decision-making processes;products
C)implicit mechanisms;explicit mechanisms
D)inferences;strategies

Question 12

Sometimes we reason carefully and deliberately through an argument,scrutinizing each step.In a case of this sort

A)all aspects of our thoughts will be conscious even if we are unconscious of our thoughts in other situations.
B)the processes of our thoughts,but not the products,will be consciously available.
C)our sequence of thoughts depends on an unconscious support structure that guides how we interpret the elements of each thought.
D)there are no unconscious processes involved.

Question 13

Positive feedback increases confidence in memory.In light of the available evidence,which of the following seems the most likely explanation?

A)People are reasoning along the lines of "I was just told I got it right,so I guess I can set aside my doubts about my memory!"
B)People are reasoning along the lines of "I was always certain,but it seemed wrong to brag.The feedback,though,makes me feel comfortable saying how sure I am."
C)People are reasoning along the lines of "I'm not sure I trust the experimenter's feedback;maybe the experiment is trying to deceive me.Maybe,then,I should shift my confidence downward just to be careful."
D)People are reasoning along the lines of "I know I got a poor view of the target,but the feedback confirms something I've always believed-that I have a terrific memory!"

Question 14

Which of these is NOT an example of causal attribution in unconscious thinking?

A)Jenny believes she remembers the color of her last birthday cake.
B)Louise finds a name familiar,so she believes it belongs to a famous person.
C)Abby recognizes the face of a man,so she believes the man was part of a robbery.
D)In an experiment,Jane is willing to experience a higher intensity of electric shock,as she believes any adverse reactions are the side effects of a pill that she took prior to the experiment.

Question 15

Researchers have concluded that

A)we cannot study consciousness because any tests would be based on subjective introspections.
B)there is little to be learned about the unconscious mind because mental events are consistently available to introspection.
C)we can learn a lot about the unconscious mind by asking what activities can be done without conscious awareness.
D)we will eventually be able to study the unconscious mind once neuroimaging techniques have been refined.

Question 16

Which of the following is FALSE about introspective reports?

A)They are sometimes correct.
B)They can be the result of after-the-fact reconstructions.
C)They generally feel like inferences.
D)They are occasionally wrong.

Question 17

Our thoughts seem to be embedded in a context that is usually not noticed yet serves to define and guide the thoughts.Which of the following seems NOT to be an example of this sort of context?

A)Discovery based on mental imagery is influenced by the perceptual reference frame for the image.
B)Decisions are guided by how the decision is framed.
C)In a selective attention experiment,you're unlikely to understand the meaning of the message on the unattended channel.
D)Your perception of a word will depend on how you've been primed,whether you remember the primes or not.

Question 18

Our unconscious thinking about an event

A)tends to be simple and direct,leading us,for example,to think of the event as familiar or preferable.
B)can often be quite complex,involving several steps of reasoning and inference.
C)can influence us in small ways but seems not to have larger-scale impact.
D)is most influential with novel events;with familiar events,we react in a more reflective fashion.

Question 19

When asked to introspect about their reasons for making a particular choice,participants

A)sometimes offer an explanation with great confidence even though the explanation names factors that were actually irrelevant to their choice.
B)can usually specify their reasons and accurately report on the processes used for selecting the reasons.
C)often have no idea about their reasons,but if they are able to report their reasons,they are likely to be correct.
D)report their reasons in general terms but usually do so with little confidence.

Question 20

Based on what was discussed in the text,which of the following has NOT contributed to our current understanding of consciousness?

A)the strengths and weaknesses of introspection and subjective reports
B)what is and what is not possible with subliminal perception
C)what patients without a neuronal workspace can and cannot do
D)what functions are spared and which are disrupted in patients with amnesia

Question 21

In which of the following situations would reliance on routine most benefit performance?

A)When you're performing a task that is familiar and involves few decisions.
B)When you're performing a brand new,unfamiliar task.
C)When you're performing a task that requires frequent choices and adjustments.
D)When you're performing a task for which a routine is available but the current circumstances are ones in which it would be best to avoid the habitual routine.

Question 22

Which of the following contributes the LEAST to successful metamemory?

A)executive control
B)self-monitoring
C)conscious reflection
D)habitual responding

Question 23

The anterior cingulate cortex plays a crucial role in

A)regulating attention.
B)regulating prefrontal cortex activity.
C)binding representations together from different brain areas.
D)detecting conflict among brain systems.

Question 24

Which area of the brain is thought to be critical for resolving conflicts among disparate goals?

A)occipital lobe
B)basal ganglia
C)anterior cingulate cortex
D)frontal lobe

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT an advantage gained by relying on routine?

A)Mental tasks run more quickly.
B)We can focus attention on other aspects of a task,thus improving performance.
C)We can expend less effort in deciding how to execute a task.
D)We can consider each decision with greater care.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT an advantage gained by practicing a task?

A)Only one overall routine needs to be launched instead of several steps in order to complete a task.
B)Each step in the task no longer needs to be monitored to decide when to start the next step.
C)The task can be completed without the need to pay attention,so that attention can be allocated elsewhere.
D)Practice allows the mechanics behind the task to enter conscious awareness.

Question 27

The term "action slip" refers to

A)an unintended action as the result of clumsy behavior.
B)mistakenly relying on a habitual response when a different response was needed.
C)accidents that occur when a patient has blind sight.
D)the use of a conscious response rather than an unconscious one,even if it is more time-consuming.

Question 28

People can be influenced by a stimulus even if they are not consciously aware of having been exposed to the stimulus.Which of the following terms refers to this phenomenon?

A)placebo effect
B)subliminal perception
C)action slips
D)the mind-body problem

Question 29

Blind-sight patients seem able to make many visual discriminations and,when pressed,to locate objects in their visual environment.Yet these same patients often refuse to walk across a room because they are concerned that they will bump into something.The text suggests that blind-sight patients

A)are able to make discriminations only when the stimuli are particularly clear.
B)can make discriminations only in controlled laboratory conditions.
C)do not feel they have a reason or justification for using the information that is apparently available to them.
D)tend to rely on routine rather than use the information that is apparently available to them.

Question 30

Billy thinks he understands the information from the textbook very well;however,he fails the quiz on that same material.Billy's error results from a failure of

A)self-esteem.
B)metacognition.
C)false memories.
D)a problem-solving set.

Question 31

Biologically,attention seems to

A)sustain activity within a neural system but not to link the activity between different neural systems.
B)link the activities of different neural systems but not to help sustain the activity within a neural system.
C)sustain activity within a neural system as well as link the activities between different neural systems.
D)bind together neural systems that do not fire in synchrony.

Question 32

________ refers to one's ability to monitor or control one's own mental processes.

A)Metacognition
B)Metabolism
C)Cognitive effort
D)Mental control

Question 33

Participants will demonstrate a larger N400 brain wave when they perceive something that violates their expectations.Based on this,which of the following would be the strongest evidence for subliminal perception?

A)a large N400 after reading the phrase "The old man the boat" in a book
B)a large N400 after overhearing someone say,"It was a wonderful disaster"
C)a large N400 after "Don't eat popcorn" is flashed on screen at the theater during a movie scene
D)a large N400 after seeing a magic trick

Question 34

The fact that we are unaware of most of our mental processing is a good thing for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that

A)we can reliably infer what our mental processes are,so there's no need to monitor them.
B)awareness of all of our processing would likely send us into information overload.
C)in many cases,information about our underlying mental processes would be distracting rather than helpful.
D)most tasks would be greatly slowed if we had to sort through all of the underlying processing information.

Question 35

Which of these tasks is LEAST likely to succeed with a reliance only on unconscious processes?

A)a task that can be guided by habits
B)a task that involves an already established routine
C)a task that elicits strong stimulus-based actions
D)a task that has been previously well practiced but needs to be changed for a particular occasion

Question 36

The term "neural correlates of consciousness" refers to the

A)changes in the brain that occur when we become conscious of a stimulus.
B)subjective experience of how it feels to become conscious of a stimulus.
C)area of the brain that is damaged when a person experiences blind sight.
D)electrical activity in the brain that occurs when we are unconscious.

Question 37

Which of these is the best example of an action slip?

A)Darren was distracted and so took his usual route home from work instead of turning left,as he'd intended,to go to his friend's house.
B)David mistakenly pushed over a vase of flowers when he was reaching for his keys.
C)Daniel did not check the address of his dentist,as he mistakenly believed he remembered it correctly.
D)Derek reread the paragraph to make sure that he fully understood its content,even though he did not learn anything new from this second reading.

Question 38

Lisa rides the train to work and always gets off at Stop A.One Saturday she has to go into town,and she rides the same train she takes to work.She is supposed to get off at Stop F,but she starts talking to her mother on the phone and then gets off at Stop A.What does this tell us about unconscious processing?

A)Unconscious processing is impossible.
B)If not consciously attending to what we are doing,we often rely on habit.
C)Unconscious processing only causes problems.
D)People tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.

Question 39

Why is unconscious processing sometimes called "irresistible"?

A)Our unconscious is inflexible,making it difficult to adjust or overrule routines.
B)It is an attractive topic for psychologists to study.
C)Freud coined the phrase,and it is still in use today.
D)There are no limits to what the unconscious can achieve.

Question 40

Matt has sustained damage to his anterior cingulate cortex.What sort of disruptions in behavior would we expect to see as a result of this damage?

A)difficulty with language,making problem solving difficult
B)an inability to pay attention to anything in his environment for more than a few seconds
C)difficulty overriding default responses produced by well-practiced behaviors
D)a form of amnesia

Question 41

Which of the following statements about the role of the neuronal workspace is FALSE?

A)The workspace links other active areas of the brain,allowing for the "executive" to make decisions about current processing.
B)The workspace allows the executive to detect conflict that may arise from competing demands or goals.
C)It allows you to create new ideas and rise above habit.
D)It prevents activity from occurring in multiple areas of the brain,to avoid confusion.

Question 42

Although the text suggests that we know what consciousness is for,most researchers agree that defining consciousness is difficult.Which of these is LEAST likely to be a part of what
Consciousness is?

A)subjective feelings,such as what apples taste like or what the color green looks like
B)automatic responses to strong cues in the environment
C)the ability to report and use mental experiences
D)the awareness of self,such as individual memories

Question 43

What does the available evidence tell us about the nature of introspection? Can people be trusted to know about the mental processes in which they engage? Why or why not? Provide examples to justify your position.

Question 44

Participants in many experiments show clear evidence of implicit memory but fail on comparable tests of explicit memory.Yet the participants could,in principle,rely on their implicit memories to guide their guessing in the explicit test.If they did,they would perform well on the explicit tests.The text suggests that participants fail to do this because

A)implicit memories are memories of a sort that cannot be applied to a procedure with direct memory testing.
B)implicit memories are not detectable by the participant.
C)participants seem to treat their implicit memories as though they were unreliable,and do not trust them to be actual memories.
D)participants seem to rely on implicit memories for perceptually based tasks but not for tasks that are more conceptual.

Question 45

The text suggests that you will take action based on a memory

A)only if you are satisfied that the thought you are having is in fact an actual memory.
B)as soon as you recall the gist of the remembered information.
C)independently of how you assess the memory.
D)only if the content of the memory is consistent with your other beliefs.

Question 46

Describe the unconscious support structure that influences cognition and our cognitive products.

Question 47

In which of the following brain structures would you expect to see the most change in activity during an action slip?

A)neuronal workspace
B)anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
C)primary motor cortex
D)reticular activating system

Question 48

Explain how the experiences of patients with amnesia or blind sight contribute to our understanding of consciousness.Make sure to include in your answer a discussion of the disorders,the paradoxical abilities that the patients exhibit,and what this suggests about consciousness in the rest of us.

Question 49

In the neuronal workspace hypothesis,workspace neurons

A)carry the content (or information)of consciousness.
B)dictate the rate at which neurons fire.
C)glue together bits of information from different neural systems to create a unified experience.
D)detect neural systems that are firing in a fashion that is out of synchrony with each other.

Question 50

Which of the following is UNLIKELY to be influenced by an internal sense of processing fluency?

A)confidence estimates
B)familiarity estimates
C)judgments of familiarity
D)stereotype threat

Question 51

There is some suggestion that perceptual information has to be conscious before a person will put that information to use.This suggestion is supported by the observation that

A)blind-sight patients refuse to take action based on what they can apparently see.
B)blind-sight patients perform reasonably well in some tasks that require visual perception.
C)patients with amnesia make guesses about the past,even if not prompted.
D)people who are well-practiced in a task can perform the task without thinking about it.

Question 52

Which of the following is true about brain activity when sleeping?

A)The brain is less active during sleep.
B)The activities of the various brain areas slow down during sleep.
C)During sleep,the brain's activities are not coordinated.
D)Brain activity during REM sleep is just like brain activity when someone is awake.

Question 53

Which of the following brain structures seems to be especially important for conflict detection in the neuronal workspace?

A)thalamus
B)hippocampus
C)amygdala
D)anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Question 54

Which of the following is LEAST plausible as a benefit of the neuronal workspace?

A)It allows us to think of a stimulus or idea long after the trigger for it has been removed.
B)It breaks down a unitary experience into its separate components.
C)It allows us to detect conflicts if two stimuli are leading toward different and incompatible responses or if the elicited response from a stimulus is incompatible with our goals.
D)It allows us to compare neural systems in order to produce new combinations of ideas or novel behaviors.

Question 55

Which of the following is a way in which the neuronal workspace supports metacognition?

A)The workspace enables the individual to maintain mental representations in an active state for prolonged periods of time.
B)The workspace can shift the executive's attention to more relevant information.
C)The workspace will shift attention to material that is more or less fluent depending on one's goals.
D)The workspace is selective in that it will integrate information that has yet to be learned or is not as well remembered.

Question 56

In order to detect that a red shape is moving,it is likely that

A)the neural system detecting motion and the neural system detecting the color red must both fire in synchrony.
B)only the neural system detecting the color red is firing,as motion is automatically detected.
C)only the neural system detecting motion is firing,as motion is visually more salient than color.
D)the neural system detecting motion and the neural system detecting the color red are both firing but at an asynchronous rate.

Question 57

Which of the following claims about consciousness and memory seems to be FALSE?

A)It is the nature and quality of our conscious experience that persuades us to take information seriously.
B)Outside of laboratory circumstances,we are unlikely to be influenced by the workings of implicit memory.
C)When our conscious experience is rich and detailed,this persuades us that the presented information is more than a fantasy or chance association.
D)When our conscious experience is impoverished,we tend not to take action based on the information gained from that experience.

Question 58

One possible difference between a "sleeping brain" and an "awake brain" relates to the neuronal workspace.Which of the following statements most accurately represents this relationship?

A)When you are awake,the neuronal workspace allows areas of the brain to communicate with each other,which plausibly gives rise to consciousness.
B)The workspace encourages the combination and integration of conflicting information when you are asleep,but not when you are awake.
C)Changes in brain activity are monitored by the neuronal workspace when you are asleep,but not when you are awake.
D)When you are asleep,the neuronal workspace allows areas of the brain to communicate with each other,which leads to dreaming.

Question 59

Describe the benefits and dangers of unconscious processing.How does unconscious processing facilitate cognitive processing in everyday life? How can it lead to errors?

Question 60

Some people suggest that unconscious processes are akin to "mental reflexes." Do you agree? Support your answer with empirical evidence.

Question 61

Explain the concept of a "neuronal workspace" as it relates to consciousness.What is the proposal,and how does it explain some of the apparent functions of consciousness?

Question 62

How is consciousness represented in the brain? Describe the critical areas and how they interact to lead to conscious awareness.

Question 63

Your friend Mark thinks he is ready for his big test.Describe metacognition to Mark.What factors are likely to be accurate metacognitive markers? What could be misleading?

Question 64

Explain how the neuronal workspace would account for changes in consciousness associated with sleep.

Question 65

Explain how the neuronal workspace balances both unconscious and conscious processes.Explain how conflicts (e.g. ,a conflict between one's goal and one's habit)are addressed by the workspace.

Question 66

What are "qualia"? Does the experience of processing fluency fit the definition of qualia? What might be the function of this particular experience?

Question 67

Patients afflicted with blind sight insist that they are blind and behave accordingly (e.g. ,they fail to react to visual stimuli).Nevertheless,they do appear to perceive stimuli and will,for example,reach in the correct region of space for an object that they otherwise claim not to be able to see.What do instances like this suggest about the role of consciousness as it relates to behavior? Provide another example of cognition in healthy individuals that supports this role.