Question 1

John is reading his Cognitive Psychology textbook. He notices that his stomach is grumbling, but he thinks, "I will finish this section of the chapter and then go to lunch." John's thought illustrates the cognitive process of _______.

Accepted Answer

A)   pattern recognition
B)   memory
C)   imagery
D)   decision making D

Question 2

According to the introductory chapter in your textbook, the influence of cognitive psychology

Accepted Answer

A)   has been relatively weak, both within psychology and in other disciplines.
B)   has been limited primarily to areas related to education.
C)   has not yet reached applied areas of psychology.
D)   has extended to other disciplines, such as neurology. D

Question 3

One component of your general knowledge focuses on semantic memory. Which of the following would be an example of semantic memory?

Accepted Answer

A)   Your ability to create a mental image
B)   Your ability to add several three-digit numbers together
C)   A strategy you use to memorize important material for a test
D)   Your knowledge that the word "bear" is similar to the word "lion" D

Question 4

When researchers use the introspection technique,

Accepted Answer

A)   people report their sensations as accurately as possible.
B)   people report their experiences in a spontaneous, unsystematic fashion.
C)   the researchers observe how people respond to learning tasks.
D)   the researchers encourage people to interpret their reactions to selected stimuli.

Question 5

Some cognitive neuroscientists study brain lesions to learn more about brain functions. However, a major problem with this technique is that

Accepted Answer

A)   the brain damage may extend into several areas of the brain.
B)   this technique is low in ecological validity.
C)   it requires using a radioactive chemical, which may be dangerous.
D)   it cannot be used in studying humans or other primates.

Question 6

An important feature of cognitive science is that it emphasizes

Accepted Answer

A)   individual differences in cognition.
B)   an interdisciplinary approach.
C)   that all mental processes should be explained in biological terms.
D)   that researchers should focus on personality characteristics.

Question 7

Which of the following titles of research projects would have the most ecological validity?

Accepted Answer

A)   "Planning strategies used in grocery-store shopping"
B)   "Recall for nonsense words after varying delay periods"
C)   "Children's ability to perform abstract reasoning tasks"
D)   "Perception of the loudness of isolated computer-generated tones"

Question 8

According to Chapter 1 in your textbook, the computer-simulation method

Accepted Answer

A)   attempts to explain how a computer can perform a cognitive task as quickly as possible.
B)   is not yet sophisticated enough to perform any cognitive task as efficiently as humans can.
C)   typically produces an idealized version of how humans should perform a cognitive task, rather than how they actually do perform it.
D)   tries to create a program that performs a cognitive task in the same way that humans would perform it.

Question 9

During the late 1960s, psychologists began to favor the cognitive approach, because they felt that the behaviorist approach

Accepted Answer

A)   emphasized unobservable cognitive processes.
B)   overused Wundt's technique of introspection.
C)   placed too much emphasis on concepts such as reinforcement and observable responses.
D)   devoted too much research to the organization of memory.

Question 10

Suppose that you look up from this exam, and you immediately perceive a scene that includes students, desks, and classroom walls. In order to perceive it quickly, you are probably using

Accepted Answer

A)   serial processing.
B)   parallel processing.
C)   ecological validity.
D)   metacognition.

Question 11

The perspective called the "parallel distributed processing approach" includes the word "parallel" in its name because:

Accepted Answer

A)   the human brain can process several items simultaneously.
B)   both the human brain and the PDP models have parallel weaknesses in terms of processing speed.
C)   an item stored in your brain is registered in just one very small location.
D)   the neural network in your brain is arranged in parallel columns.

Question 12

Imagine that some researchers are trying to design a computer-simulation model for an arithmetic task. They would be most likely to

Accepted Answer

A)   begin by using the single-cell recording technique, and then gradually shift to the fMRI technique.
B)   design a system that solves each arithmetic problem as quickly as possible.
C)   examine the way people's strategies change as they become more familiar with the task.
D)   create a system that uses a problem-solving technique that is similar to the way humans would solve the problem.

Question 13

The philosopher ____ can be called the first cognitive psychologist, because he examined topics such as memory and perception and emphasized the importance of empirical evidence.

Accepted Answer

A)   Plato
B)   Sophocles
C)   Aristotle
D)   Descartes

Question 14

A neuroscience technique that provides time-course information about the processing of stimuli, plus coarse-grained information about the location of neural tissue that is involved in this processing, is called

Accepted Answer

A)   the event-related potential (ERP)  technique
B)   magnetoencephalography (MEG) 
C)   the brain-lesion technique
D)   positron emission tomography (PET)  scan

Question 15

Which of the following early approaches to psychology developed the idea of insight when people solve problems?

Accepted Answer

A)   Introspectionism
B)   The Gestalt approach
C)   Behaviorism
D)   Ebbinghaus and his followers

Question 16

Suppose that several cognitive scientists are trying to program a computer so that it solves a particular problem in the same way a human does, taking into account that a human may make a few false starts before successfully solving the problem. This approach is called

Accepted Answer

A)   the neuroscience approach.
B)   behavioral modeling.
C)   the "Pure AI" approach.
D)   computer simulation.

Question 17

A researcher wants to study how people's attention shifts when they see a visual stimulus in an unexpected portion of a screen that they are viewing; this attention shift occurs in just a fraction of a second. Which of the following techniques is this researcher most likely to use?

Accepted Answer

A)   The neural-network approach
B)   A positron emission tomography (PET)  scan
C)   The functional magnetic resonance imaging technique (fMRI) 
D)   The event-related potential technique (ERP)

Question 18

Researchers in artificial intelligence emphasize that

Accepted Answer

A)   both the human brain and the computer can compare symbols and make choices, based on that comparison.
B)   human memory distinguishes between short-term memory and long-term memory, whereas computer models have no comparable distinction.
C)   neither the human mind nor the computer can compare symbols.
D)   a flowchart designed in connection with a computer is very different from human mental processes.

Question 19

According to the discussion of the themes of the textbook,

Accepted Answer

A)   negative information is consistently easier to process than positive information, because it is more startling.
B)   our cognitive processes are interrelated with one another.
C)   our higher mental processes generally operate independently of the more basic mental processes.
D)   in general, our cognitive processes are not very accurate.

Question 20

What does the introductory chapter conclude about the influence of cognitive approaches on other areas of psychology?

Accepted Answer

A)   Cognitive psychology has had very little influence on areas outside traditional experimental psychology.
B)   Cognitive psychology has influenced experiments in some research-oriented areas of psychology, but it has not yet had an impact on applied areas.
C)   Cognitive psychology has influenced disciplines that are concerned with the behavior of humans as individuals, but it has not yet influenced the areas of psychology concerned with social interactions.
D)   Cognitive psychology has had an important impact on a variety of areas throughout psychology.

Exam 1: An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology