Deck 4: Cognitive Abilities

Question 1

Exercise has ________ effect on intellectual skill.

A) a negative
B) a minimal
C) no measurable
D) a positive

Answer 1

D

Question 2

latest research on age-related changes in judgment and decision-making suggests that older adults utilize less information and take less time to make their choices (when compared to younger adults). However, there were NO differences in the choices made. The authors suggest that this is because _______.

A) older adults utilize better inductive reasoning
B) older adults better utilize deductive reasoning skills
C) younger adults base their decisions on intuition
D) younger adults better utilize their procedural memories

Answer 2

B

Question 3

definitions of intelligence include the global abilities to _______.

A) act purposefully
B) think rationally
C) deal effectively
D) all of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) scores produce a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. This suggests that 2/3 of all adults obtain a score between _______.

A) 70-130
B) 85-115
C) 100-115
D) 85-100

Question 5

Which of the following would be considered a test of "fluid" abilities?

A) vocabulary
B) response speed
C) social skills
D) reading comprehension

Question 6

Which of the following would be considered a measure of fluid intelligence?

A) a test of vocabulary
B) a test of comprehension of paragraph meaning
C) an abstract reasoning test
D) a measure of social skills

Question 7

Which individual is most likely to have an advantage in cognitive functioning into old age?

A) an unmarried female who elects to return to school for her GED after 15 years of factory work
B) a married female who completed college on the G.I. Bill and is now engaged as a personal trainer
C) a divorced male college professor who devotes 16 hours a day to his solitary research
D) a 24-year-old single male welfare recipient

Question 8

finding that average IQ has increased steadily over the 20th century is referred to as the _______ .

A) cohort effect
B) sequential effect
C) Flynn effect
D) positivity bias

Question 9

is the key flaw in studies of the effect of exercise on mental abilities in which comparisons are made between regular exercisers and sedentary adults?

A) The exercisers use so many different forms of exercise that we can't be sure what works.
B) Sedentary subjects may actually exercise somewhat but not report it.
C) Those who choose to exercise may be different in other significant ways from those who choose to be sedentary.
D) The samples of exercisers are normally younger than the samples of sedentary adults to whom they are compared.

Question 10

Chiante is an older adult who was taught the memory strategy of forming an image in her mind of the people's faces she met at the party and their names. This is an example of _______.

A) list making
B) an external memory aid
C) an IQ aid
D) an internal memory aid

Question 11

is the term used to describe the amount of information we can hold in mind while performing some type of operation on it?

A) storage
B) sensory memory
C) recognition
D) working memory

Question 12

Which of the following is the most probable explanation for the difference in the apparent pattern of decline in IQ from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies?

A) Older cohorts in cross-sectional studies have less education than do younger cohorts.
B) The older samples in cross-sectional studies include more ill subjects.
C) Declines in midlife were only observed in the cohort born between 1910 and 1920.
D) The longitudinal samples have been more representative of the overall population than have the samples studied in the major cross-sectional studies.

Question 13

longitudinal sample of adults is followed over 30 years. All of the following findings are hypothesized EXCEPT _________.

A) the average IQ of the whole group remains the same
B) no decline in cognitive functioning occurs
C) decline occurs, but it is not extreme
D) adults compensate for declines

Question 14

is the major explanation offered to account for the differences in the pattern of IQ stability or decline over adulthood shown in cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies?

A) cohort differences
B) terminal drop
C) subject attrition
D) unrepresentative samples

Question 15

is the major explanation offered to account for the differences in the pattern of IQ stability or decline over adulthood shown in cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies?

A) cohort differences
B) terminal drop
C) subject attrition
D) unrepresentative samples

Question 16

which of the following types of tests do adults retain the most skill well into old age?

A) unspeeded and crystallized
B) crystallized and speeded
C) fluid and non-verbal
D) fluid and verbal

Question 17

According to Cattell and Horn's theory of intelligence, which type of intelligence is thought to reflect the more basic, physiologically based type of ability?

A) fluid intelligence
B) crystallized intelligence
C) verbal intelligence
D) memory

Question 18

longitudinal sample of adults is followed over 30 years. All of the following findings are hypothesized EXCEPT ________.

A) the average IQ of the whole group remains the same
B) no decline in cognitive functioning occurs
C) decline occurs, but it is not extreme
D) adults compensate for declines

Question 19

Which of the following best describes the conclusions about changes in average IQ with age drawn from cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies?

A) Both longitudinal and cross-sectional findings show similar significant declines in IQ scores beginning at about age 40 or 45.
B) Both longitudinal and cross-sectional findings show similar maintenance of IQ through old age.
C) Cross-sectional findings indicate maintenance of IQ scores well into old age, while longitudinal data indicate a decline in IQ beginning at about age 50.
D) Cross-sectional findings point to a decline in IQ beginning at about age 35, while longitudinal data point to much longer maintenance of IQ.

Question 20

latest version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale provides a Full

A) Verbal Comprehension, College Algebra, Science, and Music
B) Verbal Comprehension, Scientific Knowledge, Working Memory, and Processing Speed
C) Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed
D) Working Memory, Processing Speed, Generic Reasoning, and Word Problems

Question 21

Clarissa is walking through the grocery store and realizes that they only take cash or a debit card. She does not have a debit card, so she starts to add up the cost of her groceries to determine if she has enough money. She is using her ________.

A) declarative memory
B) semantic memory
C) working memory
D) prospective memory

Question 22

are introduced to someone new, and say his name over to yourself so that you will remember it a minute later when you will have to introduce this new person to someone else. Where is the new name likely to be "located" in your memory system?

A) sensory memory
B) short-term memory
C) long-term memory
D) procedural memory

Question 23

Which pair of memory systems demonstrates the largest decline with age?

A) sensory and primary
B) semantic and primary
C) episodic and semantic
D) working and episodic

Question 24

Suppose you hear someone say, "Intellectual skill is maintained, with no psychologically significant loss, until about age 60 or 65, after which there is a small decline." You are convinced that this is an overly optimistic view. Which of the following statements would be your most potent counterargument?

A) Cross-sectional data show a decline much earlier than age 60 or 65.
B) In longitudinal studies, earlier declines appear for tests that measure speeded or fluid abilities.
C) Studies of terminal drop indicate that declines occur only within 5 years of death.
D) Declines begin earlier than this for adults with significant health problems.

Question 25

Research has shown that IQ, from childhood into older adulthood:

A) is very stable.
B) is moderately variable.
C) is extremely variable..
D) can not be studied because it is not possible to compare IQ scores in childhood to those in adulthood.

Question 26

least 50% of adults aged 80 complete fluid and crystallized tests of intelligence and performance at rates similar to young people. This statement suggests _______.

A) extensive variability within age groups
B) that at least half of older adults have had increases in their IQ scores over time
C) that at least half of younger adults have higher IQ scores than the older adults
D) all of the above are suggested

Question 27

78-year-old grandfather recently attended his 60th high school reunion, and although he could describe the old gym where he and his teammates won the basketball championship, he had difficulty recalling his teammates' names. This is an example of age-related changes in ________.

A) procedural memory
B) working memory
C) semantic memory
D) none of the above

Question 28

recently compared your mother's recent IQ scores with those from the test she took 10 years ago. What combination of changes in crystallized or fluid subscale scores would you MOST likely find?

A) mild increase in crystallized tasks, mild decrease in fluid tasks
B) no change in crystallized, no change in fluid
C) no change in crystallized tasks, moderate increase in fluid tasks
D) moderate decrease in crystallized tasks moderate increase in fluid tasks

Question 29

Roderick arrived at the lab to participate in a study in which he was given two tasks: to remember a list of words and to remember the details of a story. The cognitive psychologist conducting this experiment was measuring his ________.

A) IQ
B) prospective memory
C) nondeclarative memory
D) episodic memory

Question 30

Several different distinctions among types of intellectual tests have been suggested. Which set of subtypes appears to be similar in content?

A) speeded, verbal, crystallized
B) speeded, fluid, performance
C) unspeeded, fluid, verbal
D) unspeeded, crystallized, performance

Question 31

speaking of the type of intelligence based on education and experience, Horn and Cattell refer to _______.

A) fluid intelligence
B) crystallized intelligence
C) spatial intelligence
D) deductive reasoning and long-term working memory

Question 32

Vernice is working on a task that requires her to regulate her attention and to determine what to do with information just gathered. These abilities are referred to as:

A) episodic memory.
B) executive function.
C) semantic memory.
D) "g".

Question 33

you look up a phone number and say it over to yourself once so that you can dial the whole number without having to check it again, what part of the memory sequence are you using?

A) retrieval
B) short-term memory
C) encoding
D) sensory memory

Question 34

Which of the following would be considered a "fluid" ability?

A) vocabulary
B) response speed
C) social skills
D) reading comprehension

Question 35

Which of the following would be considered a measure of crystallized intelligence?

A) a vocabulary test
B) a test of spatial ability
C) an analogies test
D) a measure of abstract reasoning

Question 36

Short-term memory is also referred to as ________.

A) primary memory
B) prospective memory
C) declarative
D) working memory

Question 37

which of the following kinds of "everyday" memory tasks is an older adult likely to do as well as younger adults?

A) recalling whether she turned off the stove before she left the house
B) recalling whether she voted in the last election
C) recalling the names of all the major streets of the town in which she lives
D) remembering to take medication a specified number of times each day

Question 38

__________ refers to the initial step as information is picked up by the senses and processed briefly by the perceptual system.

A) The sensory store
B) Short-term memory
C) Semantic memory
D) Procedural memory

Question 39

experimenter reads a series of numbers and requires the subject to repeat those numbers back in the order given. This is a test of what kind of intelligence?

A) crystallized intelligence
B) fluid intelligence
C) dialectical intelligence
D) practical intelligence

Question 40

which type of memory test do adults show the MOST loss of skill with age?

A) short-term memory
B) working memory
C) procedural memory
D) sensory memory

Question 41

Exercise has ____ effect on intellectual skill.

A) a negative
B) a minimal
C) no measurable
D) a positive

Question 42

Dixon suggests the cognitive changes that take place as we age should be examined in terms of "gains and losses." What is one area of gain?

A) increased useful field of view
B) increased traditional problem-solving skills
C) increased compensatory skills
D) increased working memory
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Question 43

Word-finding failure and name-retrieval failures are both examples of tasks that require ________.

A) semantic memory
B) prospective memory
C) episodic memory
D) psychometrics

Question 44

Which individual is most likely to have an advantage in cognitive functioning into old age?

A) an unmarried female who elects to return to school for her GED after 15 years of factory work
B) a married female who completed college on the G.I. Bill and is now engaged as a personal trainer
C) a divorced male college photographer who devotes 16 hours a day to his work.
D) a 24-year-old single male welfare recipient

Question 45

Rodriguez, a 75-year-old male, was a participant in a study that required him to look at different types of advertisements. These ads featured three types of appeals: emotional, knowledge-related, and neutral. Based on research, it is most likely that:

A) Mr. Rodriguez will remember all the ads equally well.
B) Mr. Rodriguez will remember the neutral items the best. *c Mr. Rodriguez will remember the emotional ads the best.
D) Mr. Rodriguez will remember the knowledge-related ads the best.

Question 46

What is positivity bias and how do researchers measure it?

Question 47

latest research on age-related changes in judgment and decision-making suggests that older adults utilize less information and take less time to make their choices (when compared to younger adults). However, there were NO differences in the choices made. The authors suggest that this is because _______.

A) older adults utilize better inductive reasoning
B) older adults better utilize deductive reasoning skills
C) younger adults base their decisions on intuition
D) younger adults better utilize their procedural memories

Question 48

Which of the following is TRUE?

A) The more related the practical problems are to the older participant's interests and areas of expertise, the better they do solving the problems.
B) Younger adults do better than older adults on traditional problem-solving tasks as measured in a lab.
C) When the "memory" part of the study is de-emphasized, older adults perform better.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 49

Which of the following is TRUE?

A) Men have a slight advantage over women in episodic memory, verbal tasks, and maintaining brain weight.
B) The rate of decline in cognitive abilities is the same, regardless of how privileged individuals have been in terms of income, professional prestige, and social position.
C) Living with a spouse who is functioning at a high cognitive level is no more likely to ward off cognitive decline than living with one whose cognitive level is low.
D) Reading books, traveling, and attending cultural events do not have any impact on intellectual functioning as people age

Question 50

Older adults' reduced performance on declarative memory tasks when they are reminded of the negative age stereotype is probably the result of such reminders:

A) decreasing the positivity bias.
B) taxing their prospective memory.
C) decreasing the Flynn effect
D) consuming more working memory capacity.

Question 51

Bjorklund noted that "cognitive processes are preserved in later adulthood for people who exercise those processes regularly." Discuss research evidence highlighting the benefits of intellectual activity in late adulthood.

Question 52

Which of the following is TRUE regarding the link between educational attainment and rate of cognitive decline with age?

A) People with fewer years of schooling show more cognitive decline.
B) People with more years of schooling show more cognitive decline. c There is no correlation between number of years of formal schooling and cognitive decline.
D) No researchers have examined this question because so few people in late adulthood went to college.

Question 53

Briefly summarize the findings on the link between physical health and the maintenance or decline of mental abilities over the adult years.

Question 54

general, older adults are more emotionally ________ than younger adults.

A) negative
B) positive
C) neutral
D) unstable

Question 55

Which of the following persons is most likely to maintain good intellectual functioning into old age?

A) Sarah, of average intelligence, who does the crossword puzzle every day and takes a brisk one-hour walk each morning
B) Jim, who has a high IQ and reads regularly, but rarely exercises
C) Paul, who has a high IQ, runs three miles each day, and plays handball regularly, but doesn't read even the daily paper
D) We do not have enough information to make a prediction.

Question 56

A newspaper reporter asks you for a brief summary statement about the relationship between age and intellectual skill in adulthood. Write a two or three sentence summary.

Question 57

Socioemotional selectivity theory provides an explanation for

A) older people's positivity bias.
B) older people's greater vulnerability to stereotype threats involving memory.
C) the Flynn effect.
D) the contextual perspective.

Question 58

Which of the following is a valid statement relating to research concerning genetic influence on cognitive abilities?

A) Fraternal twins have higher correlations on scores of cognitive functioning than do monozygotic twins.
B) Different types of cognitive abilities are influenced to the same extent by genetics.
C) For general cognitive ability, heritability decreases with age.
D) Meta-analyses of variance in IQ scores among twins suggest that 50% of the variance can be explained by genetic differences.

Question 59

What explanation(s) can you offer for the differences in the findings from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of IQ change over adulthood?

Question 60

Which of the following is TRUE regarding research on driving?

A) 20-year-olds have much higher rates of two-vehicle crashes than 70-year-olds.
B) Useful field of view is a constant perceptual ability; it stays the same even when attending to other activities.
C) Older adults' failure to scan at intersections is a bad habit that can be modified by simulator training.
D) Even after training, older adults do not show increases in useful field of view.

Question 61

Why would researchers get dramatically differing scores for IQ measures depending on whether their design was cross-sectional or longitudinal?

Question 62

If you were going to give advice to a friend about what lifestyle or habits to follow in order to maximize the likelihood of maintaining intellectual skill well into old age, what specific items would you list? For which of these pieces of advice do you have the best support?

Question 63

Many studies show that better-educated adults retain their intellectual skills better and later into old age than is true for less well-educated adults. Provide at least one explanation for this finding.

Question 64

Choose a game [e.g. concentration with images of travel destinations), and provide the rationale using background information on cognition and memory from your text, that would be a fun, memory training game for the AARP website.

Question 65

What do results on stereotype threat tell us about memory processes in late adulthood?

Question 66

What does it mean to say that the correlation between 2 sets of IQ scores obtained 20 years apart in adulthood is .80?

Question 67

Briefly summarize what we know about the relationship (if any) between mental or physical exercise and maintenance of mental skill in old age. What sort of additional research do we need to clarify the relationship more fully?

Question 68

Baltes (1993) argues that cognition is like a computer; the hardware becomes less efficient and the software can be maintained. Argue for or against this position and use research to support your position.

Question 69

Create a fictitious individual, male or female, and compare and contrast that individual's memory functions at age forty and at age seventy. Please be thorough and include explanations of the causes for the changes in function. What, if anything, would you suggest to help your seventy-year-old retain or reclaim memory functions?

Question 70

With memory, the contextual perspective considers the adaptive nature of cognition, the idea that as we age our lives change, and that successful aging depends on how we adapt our cognitive styles to fit those changes. Consider yourself, choose a circumstance or an example that illustrates how you remember things or events now that is different from when you were younger.