Deck 9: Language and Thinking

Question 1

Tallulah is taking a dance class,so she mentally reviews the dance steps as she drives home.She is using __________________ thought.

A) imaginal
B) motoric
C) contextual
D) propositional

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Tremayne plans to ask his girlfriend to marry him.He wants his proposal to be perfect,so he mentally rehearses the words he will say to her.This kind of thinking is referred to as

A) imaginal.
B) motoric.
C) contextual.
D) propositional.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In 1965,Fred Smith wrote a management class paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.His professor gave him a C,because "the concept is interesting and well-formed,but in order to earn better than a C,[it] must be feasible." Smith ignored his professor's statement and founded Federal Express (FedEx),a company that is now worth more than $3 billion.Smith's professor wanted him to stick to business solutions that were proven,not come up with something "outside the box." In other words,Smith's professor was relying on a/an

A) mental set.
B) deductive approach.
C) inductive approach.
D) litmus test.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Whenever Leslie's father gets home before 6:00 p.m. ,she knows he finished work early and will probably be in a good mood.The last two times he came home early he took Leslie to dinner.Leslie hears her father's car pull into the garage at 5:30 p.m.and thinks,"We're going out to dinner!" Leslie is using

A) deductive reasoning.
B) inductive reasoning.
C) general reasoning.
D) invalid reasoning.

Question 5

Akio has decided to improve her health by incorporating exercise into her lifestyle.She tells her friend Ewan that she has taken up the sport of Tae Kwon Do.Ewan laughs and says,"That's not a sport! Sports have teams!" Akio disagrees,because,she says,"Any kind of organized physical activity is a sport,even if you're the only one doing it." Who is correct,and why?

A) Neither is objectively correct.Personal experience has taught each of them a different prototype for the concept of sport.
B) Ewan,because the word sport would not be plural most of the time if it referred to individual activities.
C) Ewan,because the word sports is always short for "sports teams."
D) Akio,because the word is derived from the Middle English word disport,which means to amuse or divert oneself.

Question 6

Human children begin to master language without any formal instruction,and languages throughout the world have common underlying structural characteristics.These two things suggest an inborn tendency to learn language that is called a

A) Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
B) Syntax Acquisition Adapter (SAA).
C) Morphophonemic tendency (MPT).
D) Language Learning Link (LLL).

Question 7

You are able to read this sentence because you understand a system of symbols and rules that create messages and meanings.This system is called

A) representational reasoning.
B) Chomsky's system.
C) species symbolism.
D) language.

Question 8

In French,the phrase "haven't the police found you yet?" is written "la police,ne t'a pas encore trouvé?" Since French speakers arrange words differently from English speakers,the literal translation is "the police,not you have yet found?" In other words,French and English speakers use different rules,called ________________,to govern word order.

A) morphemes
B) phonemes
C) syntax
D) displacement

Question 9

Dalila is two years old and is able to construct simple sentences with a noun and a verb.For example,if she wants to be held,she goes to her mother,holds up her arms,and says,"Mommy,up." This type of sentence is called

A) cooing.
B) telegraphic speech.
C) babbling.
D) phoneme.

Question 10

Though he spoke no English,Miguel emigrated to the United States for a job.At first,conversations of native English speakers seemed to him to run together into one long word,but now he can hear where each word begins and ends.This process is called

A) morphophonemics.
B) phonemics.
C) speech segmentation.
D) pragmatics.

Question 11

Oliver is filling out an online job application for an administrative position with a local law firm.He has never written a professional letter before,so he writes it the same way he'd write any email.His first line reads,"Hey,how u doin? Parents say I gotta find a job,& the one on yr site looks kewl." What language rule has Oliver violated?

A) Chomsky's theory
B) pragmatics
C) speech segmentation
D) morphophonemics

Question 12

Charlotte is a jeweller.A friend asks if she knows where violet diamonds come from.Charlotte replies that she has never seen a violet diamond,so they must not exist.Charlotte's _________________ reasoning may be in error.

A) premise
B) conceptual
C) inductive
D) deductive

Question 13

We develop a syllogism which states that all soccer players are men,Alex is a soccer player;therefore,Alex is a man." Is this statement logically correct?

A) We don't know,because we don't know if Alex is really a man or a woman.
B) We don't know,because we don't know if Alex is really a soccer player.
C) The facts are true,but the logic involved may not be correct.
D) The logic is correct,but the facts involved may not be true.

Question 14

The symbols used in any given language (in English the symbols in question are called letters)were developed

A) based on the shapes we make with our mouths to pronounce them.
B) based on the shapes of objects in the part of the world where the language developed.
C) based on astrological charts.
D) arbitrarily.

Question 15

Part of what makes human beings unique is that we are able to think better and communicate more effectively than other animals do.The images,ideas,concepts,and principles that we use to transfer ideas and skills to one another are called

A) surface structures.
B) deep structures.
C) mental representations.
D) syntax.

Question 16

While trying to learn what a dog is,Arash mentally compares every animal to his family's new puppy.If the animal is similar enough,he decides that it is also a dog.Arash's puppy serves as a _______________ for the concept of dog.

A) proposition
B) heuristic
C) concept
D) prototype

Question 17

Diet pills and fads generate millions of dollars in revenue each year,yet Canadians are more overweight than ever.One of the problems is that few people plan intermediate steps to move themselves from being overweight to a healthy weight.They may know that diet and exercise are key,but they fail to plan when,where,and how often to exercise,or to keep themselves motivated over the long term.In other words,they are not using the ________________ heuristic.

A) algorithm
B) representativeness
C) availability
D) subgoal analysis

Question 18

Kirima moved to Germany with her parents and little brother Leif when she was 13 and Leif was 4.Ten years later,both Kirima and Leif speak German and English,but Leif is more fluent with German than is Kirima and he has no accent in either language.This

A) shows that Chomsky's theory about a language acquisition device is wrong.
B) proves that males are better with foreign languages than females.
C) could have happened only if Leif's elementary education was better than Kirima's.
D) suggests that children have a sensitive period for language acquisition.

Question 19

Kaspar and Jasmine have an opportunity to place their six-year-old son,Darius,into a bilingualism program.If they enrol him,half of his classes will be conducted in Spanish and the other half in English.Since Kaspar struggled with school,he worries that Darius will too,especially if he has to learn Spanish on top of everything else.Jasmine argues that bilingualism will actually improve Darius's other cognitive abilities.Who is correct?

A) Jasmine.Research shows that bilingualism is correlated with higher self-esteem,greater thinking flexibility,and higher performance on nonverbal intelligence tests.
B) Jasmine,but only because bilingual programs tend to hire extremely intelligent teachers.
C) Kaspar,because whenever someone learns a second language,the brain tries to overwrite the first one with the new information.
D) Kaspar,because Darius is already past the critical period to learn a second language.

Question 20

Dr.Katse tells students,"If I hit a glass with a feather,the glass will break.Now,imagine that I hit a glass with a feather.What happens?" Most students will say that the glass will not break,even though Dr.Katse has just told them it would,because in the real world feathers can't break glasses.This tendency to abandon logical rules in favour of personal beliefs is called

A) inductive reasoning.
B) a belief bias.
C) deductive reasoning.
D) a discourse.

Question 21

Cheyenne is reading a book on improving her memory skills.The book teaches a variety of mnemonic devices and memory strategies and encourages the reader to think about which approaches she feels will help her most.In other words,the book suggests that the reader use

A) metamemory.
B) incubation.
C) mental rotation.
D) functional fixedness.

Question 22

Nadalia is a physician who works in the emergency room at a local hospital.In medical school,she learned a variety of schemas that help her decide who needs immediate care,what kinds of sicknesses patients have,and how best to treat them.Her patients rely on her to know what to do to help them.Based on this information,we can say that Nadalia has _______________ in emergency medicine.

A) propositions
B) expertise
C) mental rotation
D) wisdom

Question 23

Mitch has been asked to develop a new product to serve an unmet need in American culture.He has several ideas,but none of them are quite right.Mitch's friend finally suggests that Mitch "sleep on it." Mitch agrees,and spends the remainder of the weekend thinking about other things.On Monday morning,Mitch looks over his notes and realizes the solution to his problem.The period of time in which Mitch let his subconscious work on the problem is referred to as

A) incubation.
B) generativity.
C) representativeness.
D) functional fixedness.

Question 24

In 1970,Spencer Silver was trying to formulate a strong adhesive for the 3M Company,and one of his failed attempts resulted in an extremely weak adhesive.Four years later,frustrated by how often his markers fell out of his church hymnal,Arthur Fry coated them with Silver's adhesive.The markers stayed in place but could be peeled out of the book without damaging the pages.Post-it Notes are now one of the top five-selling office products in the United States.Fry's novel approach is a good example of

A) functional fixedness.
B) divergent thinking.
C) the confirmation bias.
D) the availability heuristic.

Question 25

Human language has a hierarchical structure,with the most elementary building blocks being the units of sound that are recognized as separate in any given language.These building blocks are called

A) phonemes.
B) morphemes.
C) syntax.
D) discourse.

Question 26

Mathias works for an architectural firm that has been asked to build an office building on a particular lot.The lot is accessible from the road on three sides,and the client is unsure which way the building should face.Since the building has already been designed,Mathias is able to imagine it facing in different directions.By doing so,he can evaluate the pros and cons of each direction.Mathias is using

A) incubation.
B) linguistic relativity.
C) mental rotation.
D) motherese.

Question 27

Though research supports the idea that there is some innate biological mechanism that helps us learn language,the social environment is so crucial that it has been called a

A) Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
B) Language Learning Link (LLL).
C) Syntax Acquisition Adapter (SAA).
D) Language Acquisition Support System (LASS).

Question 28

Though chimpanzees and apes seem to be able to use symbolic gestures (i.e. ,sign language)to convey meaning,some researchers question whether they really understand how to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present;that is,whether they understand

A) generativity.
B) displacement.
C) syntax.
D) surface structure.

Question 29

In 1970,Spencer Silver was trying to formulate a strong adhesive for the 3M Company,and one of his failed attempts resulted in an extremely weak adhesive.Four years later,frustrated by how often his markers fell out of his church hymnal,Arthur Fry coated them with the adhesive.The markers stayed in place but could be peeled out of the book without damaging the pages.Post-it Notes are now one of the top five-selling office products.If Silver and Fry had just thrown the adhesive out because it hadn't done what it was supposed to,they would have been demonstrating

A) functional fixedness.
B) divergent thinking.
C) the confirmation bias.
D) the availability heuristic.

Question 30

Nadalia is a physician who works in the emergency room at a local hospital.In medical school,she learned a variety of schemas that help her decide who needs immediate care,what kinds of sicknesses patients have,and how best to treat them.Her patients rely on her to know what to do to help them.As Nadalia's knowledge of emergency medicine develops,her brain functioning will change to increase her

A) processing efficiency.
B) short-term memory capacity.
C) mental rotation.
D) sensory memory time.

Question 31

Maylin and her friend are reading the same book on American politics and meet weekly to talk about it.The process of combining sentences into paragraphs,chapters,books,conversations,and debates is collectively referred to as

A) incubation.
B) morphophonemics.
C) syntax.
D) discourse.

Question 32

Ingrid tried to darken her naturally blond hair with store-bought colour and accidentally dyed it black.When she and her friend Minka go to the gym,she notices a woman looking in their direction."Everybody's staring at me!" she says."Ingrid," Minka replies,"you pick out the one woman in the whole gym who's staring,just to prove your point!" By looking for evidence that confirms what she believes rather than evidence that does not,Ingrid is relying on the

A) confirmation bias.
B) representativeness heuristic.
C) availability heuristic.
D) algorithm.

Question 33

If we were to use brain imaging to study brain activity when our subject is thinking about a baseball field,then when we show him a picture of a baseball field,we would see that some of the same neurons fire in both situations.These neurons are called

A) metacognitive neurons.
B) divergent neurons.
C) rotational neurons.
D) imagery neurons.

Question 34

The brains of men and women appear to process language differently.Research shows that men who suffer left-hemisphere strokes are more likely than women to show severe aphasic symptoms,which suggests that

A) the corpus callosum is integral to language use.
B) more of women's language function is shared between the right and the left hemispheres.
C) men have fewer language-processing neurons than do women.
D) women rarely use their left hemispheres.

Question 35

As an elder among the Intuit,Acadia is treated with great respect for her knowledge about human nature and relationships,her appreciation of different people's values,her understanding of lifespan contexts,and her ability to deal with uncertainty.Acadia has what researchers refer to as

A) intelligence.
B) expertise.
C) mental rotation.
D) wisdom.

Question 36

When Thierry goes through a fast-food restaurant drive-thru,he knows that he will pull his car up to a speaker and wait until he is greeted.He also knows that after he places his order he should drive forward and give his money to the person in the window.That person will then give him his food,and he will drive away.In other words,Thierry has a/an _____________ for going through a drive-thru.

A) functional fix
B) confirmation bias
C) script
D) availability heuristic

Question 37

Sam enjoys action movies,science fiction novels,weightlifting,and football.One day Sam hopes to become an aerospace engineer or a physics professor.Based on this information,most people will assume that Sam is male due to the _____________ heuristic.

A) divergent
B) base rate
C) representativeness
D) probability

Question 38

Sasha drives whenever she must travel,because she's terrified that if she were to travel in a plane it would crash.Statistics show that there are 40,000 deaths per year in automobile accidents and only about 200 in air transport,but news programs tend to sensationalize plane crashes and minimize car wrecks.As a result,people like Sasha can easily call to mind examples of plane crashes.They are relying on the

A) representativeness heuristic.
B) availability heuristic.
C) base rate analysis.
D) confirmation bias.

Question 39

Bryson's psychology professor asks his students to think about their personal cognitive abilities,then to guesstimate where they would fall on the intelligence scale.In other words,the professor is asking the students to use

A) propositions.
B) metacognition.
C) mental rotation.
D) overconfidence.

Question 40

Aysha's professor announces that the next exam will be in an essay format.Aysha doesn't believe she writes well,so she sees essay tests as difficult and unfair.Aysha has thus judged the exam without ever seeing it,using a

A) functional fixedness.
B) schema.
C) confirmation bias.
D) subgoal analysis.