Deck 8: Cognition and Language

Question 1

Which of the following best describes the Stroop effect?

A) If you look at letters and words flashed briefly on the screen, it is easier to read whole words than isolated letters.
B) If you have already committed a certain amount of time and effort to a project, it is hard to quit even though the project seems to be a failure.
C) If you grew up hearing another language without learning it, you will be able to learn it in adulthood better than those who did not have that early experience.
D) If you look at the word RED written in green ink, it is easier to read the word ("red") than to say the color of the ink ("green").

Answer 1

If you look at the word RED written in green ink, it is easier to read the word ("red") than to say the color of the ink ("green").

Question 2

The Stroop Effect is the phenomenon that people usually find it easier to

A) remember events in their own lives than to remember events they have read about.
B) remember the gist of a story than to remember the details
C) read a word than to say the color of its ink.
D) read a whole word than to read a single letter.

Answer 2

read a word than to say the color of its ink.

Question 3

A cognitive psychologist wants to learn about how a person thinks when solving a problem. What is the primary difficulty with simply asking people to describe their own thought process?

A) Research participants usually lie when describing their thought processes.
B) People think differently in a psychology laboratory than they do in "real life."
C) People are not always aware of how they solve particular problems.
D) Problem solving always involves thinking without words.

Answer 3

People are not always aware of how they solve particular problems.

Question 4

People performing a Stroop task will generally

A) make many errors stating the color name instead of the color the word is printed in.
B) miss a subtle change in a movie scene unless they focus their attention on it.
C) categorize a fish as an animal faster than a trout as an animal.
D) confuse the number of phonemes in a color word with the number of morphemes.

Question 5

People who look at real words find it difficult to say the color of ink of each word, instead of reading the words themselves. This result is known as the

A) Stroop effect.
B) word-superiority effect.
C) availability heuristic.
D) representativeness heuristic.

Question 6

This chapter mainly concerns itself with which one of the following questions?

A) If you want to find out what people think or what they know, why not ask them?
B) How can we measure thinking?
C) How much can your attention hold at once?
D) Why do people prefer a slim chance at a fortune to a small but sure gain?

Question 7

You are at a basketball game, and 100 students in one section are wearing matching white t-shirts, while one student is wearing a bright red shirt. You are likely to immediately notice the person in red

A) due to motivated cognition.
B) by systematically comparing each student to every other student.
C) by a preattentive process.
D) only if the students in that section are cheering for your team.

Question 8

Which task is more difficult for an experienced reader to perform than it is for someone just learning to read?

A) Look at the names of colors written in different colors and say the color of each word, rather than the word itself.
B) Look at a word flashed on the screen and identify the whole word.
C) Look at two complex pictures flashed on the screen and say whether or not they were the same.
D) Look at a series of words and identify the one that is written right to left instead of left to right.

Question 9

Which of the following would you be most likely to find by a "preattentive" process?

A) one red object among a group of gray and white ones
B) one E among a group of Fs
C) one F among a group of Es
D) one four-leaf clover among a group of three-leaf clovers

Question 10

A student in one experiment is showing the Stroop effect. Which change in the usual procedure would probably stop the student from showing this effect?

A) Have the student hold the page closer to his or her eyes.
B) Write the words in a language the student does not know.
C) Write the words in all capital letters.
D) Encourage the student to speak as rapidly as possible.

Question 11

The Where's Waldo books present elaborate drawings, each of which contains the character Waldo embedded somewhere in the drawing. Finding Waldo requires

A) a preattentive process.
B) an attentive process.
C) a postattentive process.
D) the Stroop effect.

Question 12

What is the Stroop effect?

A) the strategy of assuming that the number of available memories of an event indicates how common the event actually is
B) the tendency to assume that if an item is similar to members of a particular category, it is probably a member of that category itself
C) the greater ease of identifying a letter when it is part of a whole word than when it is presented by itself
D) the difficulty of naming the colors in which words are written instead of reading the words themselves

Question 13

Dr. Rhea D. Zeiner has been hired to improve the cockpit of an airplane. She observes that the main row of control gauges has needles pointing in several different directions for safety zones. She corrects this problem by designing gauges that all point in the same direction when things are operating properly. This is an example of the effective use of

A) attention deficits.
B) preattentive processes.
C) interior design.
D) visual cliff techniques.

Question 14

You are looking for a well-camouflaged animal in an exhibit at the zoo. Finding it will require

A) an attentive process.
B) an affective reaction.
C) a preattentive process.
D) spreading activation.

Question 15

The study of how people think, acquire knowledge, imagine, plan, and solve problems is called __________ psychology.

A) semantic
B) cognitive
C) functional
D) operational

Question 16

You look at a series of gauges. Most have their indicators pointing the same direction (to the right), but one is pointing a different direction. You notice the odd one immediately, regardless of how many other gauges are present. This pattern indicates that you found the discrepant indicator by

A) a conceptual network.
B) an attentional blink.
C) a preattentive process.
D) an attentive process.

Question 17

In general, our attention is drawn to

A) whatever is unusual given the current context.
B) the sound of human voices.
C) the brightest color.
D) anything that moves.

Question 18

According to the Stroop effect, you would be likely say, "__________" if you were asked to name the color of ink of the word yellow written in blue ink.

A) yellow
B) blue
C) green
D) red

Question 19

Psychologists use the term __________ to refer to your tendency to respond to or to remember some stimuli more than others at any given time.

A) perception
B) attention
C) preattentive process
D) cognition

Question 20

When an object differs drastically from those around it in size, shape, color, or movement, we find it by a __________, meaning that it stands out immediately.

A) motivated processes
B) divergent processes
C) attentive processes
D) preattentive processes

Question 21

The "attentional blink' is the brief period of time

A) while information travels from one brain hemisphere to the other.
B) after perceiving one stimulus when it is difficult to perceive a second stimulus.
C) during which a person pays equal attention to two very different stimuli.
D) between the actual presence of a stimulus and the time the person notices it.

Question 22

People often fail to notice something that occurs slowly, or while they are blinking their eyes or while moving their eyes. This phenomenon is called

A) the attentional blink.
B) the Stroop effect.
C) change blindness.
D) the representativeness heuristic.

Question 23

"Change blindness" is the phenomenon that

A) we often fail to notice something that changes slowly.
B) shortly after you respond to one stimulus you tend to ignore another one.
C) it is easier to notice changes in a single letter than changes in a whole word.
D) many people start to suffer failing vision during their 40s and 50s.

Question 24

During the moment after perceiving one stimulus, it is difficult to accurately perceive a second stimulus. This is called the

A) blocking effect.
B) von Restorff effect.
C) attentional blink.
D) moment of truth.

Question 25

Which of the following statements regarding attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is TRUE?

A) It is currently diagnosed in 40% of 7^th graders.
B) No environmental correlates have been identified.
C) It is easy to differentiate children with ADHD from those with normal high energy.
D) It is diagnosed more frequently in boys than in girls.

Question 26

The basic conclusion about attention from the research on change blindness is that

A) our attention seems to be automatically drawn to change.
B) we are so prepared to detect sameness that we appear incapable of detecting change.
C) we notice a few details (depending on what we paid attention to) but otherwise we retain the gist of a scene.
D) attention cannot be studied scientifically in the way that memory can.

Question 27

According to the concept of prototypes, how do we decide whether an item belongs to a particular category?

A) We count how many defining characteristics of the category it has.
B) We consult a memorized list of which items belong to the category.
C) We compare the item to the most typical members of the category.
D) We compare the features of the item to a precise definition of the category.

Question 28

The attentional blink has been shown to be longer than normal in

A) left-handers.
B) speed readers.
C) people with attention deficit disorder.
D) college graduates.

Question 29

The concept of prototypes suggests that:

A) all members of a category are at the same level in a mental space.
B) people from different cultures use the same ways of categorizing objects.
C) every category has a sharp dividing line that separates members of the category from nonmembers.
D) people decide whether an item is a member of a category by comparing it to familiar or typical examples.

Question 30

The phenomenon known as the "attentional blink" illustrates the fact that

A) if something changes or moves very slowly, you usually do not notice it.
B) immediately after you blink your eyes, colors seem brighter and lines seem sharper.
C) shortly after responding to one stimulus, you tend to ignore another stimulus.
D) you can do two things at once, but you cannot plan two actions at once.

Question 31

If you are supposed to respond to either of two kinds of stimuli (such as the letter K or anything green), then if one comes quickly after another, you are likely to miss the second one. This phenomenon is called?

A) the attentional blink.
B) the Stroop effect.
C) change blindness.
D) the representativeness heuristic.

Question 32

Movie directors discovered that they can film different parts of the same scene on different days, and most viewers would not detect that the extras (background actors) had changed clothes or appearance. Psychologists call this failure to notice such differences

A) priming.
B) the attentional blink.
C) change blindness.
D) the Stroop effect.

Question 33

Probably the best explanation for the classic Stroop effect would be that

A) reading always takes priority over color recognition.
B) children typically outperform adults because of fewer established synaptic connections.
C) one response dominates, perhaps automatically, and it will interfere with the less dominant response.
D) people are unable to perform two tasks simultaneously.

Question 34

What is a prototype?

A) an exception to the rule
B) a defining characteristic or list of characteristics
C) a term that has not been defined
D) a typical example of a category

Question 35

People can often decide whether something is a "vehicle" even though they cannot clearly define the category "vehicles". The fact that they do so tends to support the concept of

A) semantic priming.
B) the availability heuristic.
C) prototypes.
D) the word-superiority effect.

Question 36

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is most commonly treated with?

A) antidepressant medications.
B) stimulant medications.
C) antipsychotic medications.
D) depressant medications.

Question 37

"Change blindness" refers to the phenomenon that

A) when people shift their attention they have trouble moving their eyes.
B) people who go through a major change in their lives often suffer visual losses.
C) people who become blind may become more sensitive to other sensory information.
D) people looking at a scene often fail to notice something that changes.

Question 38

Which of the following would probably be the best prototype of "bird"?

A) robin
B) ostrich
C) penguin
D) duck-billed platypus

Question 39

The Stroop effect occurs because

A) it is very difficult to see the colors of ink.
B) people are so used to reading words that they cannot suppress the habit.
C) people do not take the frequency of things in the population into account.
D) people's thoughts are related to their categories.

Question 40

When people with ADD or ADHD participate in a Stop Signal Task, pressing a button in response to a circle unless a beep sounds immediately,

A) they do as well as people without ADD or ADHD, because they only have to pay attention for a short period of time.
B) they do as well as people without ADD or ADHD, because this task is unrelated to the brain mechanisms affected by ADD or ADHD.
C) they do worse than people without ADD or ADHD, because they have trouble inhibiting their responses.
D) they do worse than people without ADD or ADHD, because males don't do well on the Stop Signal Task and most people diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are male.

Question 41

Under which circumstances is it better to use heuristics to solve a problem than to rely on an algorithm?

A) when there are too many possible hypotheses to test them all
B) when it is necessary to get an answer that is precisely accurate
C) when it is possible to calculate the correct answer quickly and simply
D) when the question has to do with physics or chemistry

Question 42

What are heuristics?

A) mental representations of spatial arrangements
B) mechanical, repetitive mathematical procedures for solving a problem
C) strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation
D) highly typical members of a category

Question 43

Reading the word "petal" in a paragraph before presenting the letters "ltepa" may predispose the respondent to solve the anagram as "petal" rather than "plate". This phenomenon is called

A) cognitive facilitation.
B) priming.
C) spreading activation.
D) hindsight bias.

Question 44

If you strongly associate LION with TIGER, then hearing the word LION will temporarily increase your speed and accuracy of seeing or hearing the word TIGER. The type of "priming" is evidence in favor of the idea of

A) spreading activation.
B) the von Restorff effect.
C) depth of processing.
D) hindsight bias.

Question 45

According to spreading activation and priming, which of the following would most likely receive the most priming from the concept of Texas?

A) John Wayne, since he shot many movies set in Texas
B) Austin, since it is the capitol of Texas
C) Alaska, since it is a large state like Texas
D) George H. W. Bush, since he is from the Northeast but moved to Texas

Question 46

The tendency to assume that if an item is similar to members of a particular category, it is probably a member of that category itself, is known as the

A) Stroop effect.
B) base-rate effect.
C) representativeness heuristic.
D) availability heuristic.

Question 47

When you think about a particular concept

A) you become less likely to think of related concepts (they are temporarily inhibited).
B) you become more likely to think of related concepts (they are temporarily activated).
C) you typically activate high level concepts and inhibit lower-level concepts.
D) you typically activate lower-level concepts and inhibit higher-level concepts.

Question 48

Strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation are known as

A) heuristics.
B) algorithms.
C) prototypes.
D) cognitive maps.

Question 49

All of the following are situations when it would be appropriate to use a heuristic EXCEPT

A) when a decision has to be made quickly.
B) when a decision has to be made with limited information.
C) when a decision must be the right one.
D) when you can't go through Polya's four steps for solving a problem.

Question 50

When people are asked how many animals of each species Moses took on the ark, many people answer "two" instead of noting that Noah, not Moses, was the ark-maker. This error has been interpreted in terms of

A) spreading activation.
B) categorization by prototypes.
C) the Stroop effect.
D) the word-superiority effect.

Question 51

According to the conceptual network approach, which of the following questions should most people answer most rapidly? Do fashion models

A) draw pictures?
B) drive cars?
C) sometimes get sick?
D) wear dresses?

Question 52

In decision making, __________ means thoroughly considering every possibility to find the best one.

A) maximizing
B) availability heuristic
C) representative heuristic
D) satisficing

Question 53

A heuristic is

A) a way of simplifying a problem.
B) a mechanical procedure for testing all possible solutions to a problem.
C) a person who is not quite an expert in some field.
D) a puzzle or problem that has no solution.

Question 54

According to the conceptual network approach, we learn that a canary is a kind of bird, which is a kind of animal. We also learn the distinctive characteristics of canaries, birds, and animals. What evidence supports this view?

A) People deal with many categories that are not clearly defined, such as "shore birds."
B) People answer fast when asked whether a canary is yellow and slowly when asked whether a canary has skin.
C) People who answer (correctly) that a canary has skin are likely also to (incorrectly) that a canary has hair.
D) People have trouble answering questions about kinds of birds that they have not personally seen.

Question 55

What are algorithms?

A) mental representations of spatial arrangements
B) mechanical, repetitive mathematical procedures for solving a problem
C) strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation
D) highly typical members of a category

Question 56

In which situation would a heuristic be most useful?

A) when you have no hypotheses about how to solve a problem
B) when you have committed yourself to one hypothesis
C) you cannot think of a way to test a hypothesis
D) you have too many hypotheses to test

Question 57

The presentation of previous stimuli that facilitates one to think of a certain object or concept is called?

A) priming.
B) categorization facilitation.
C) cognitive facilitation.
D) hindsight bias.

Question 58

Suppose you have been asked to find as many prime numbers as possible. (A prime number is one that cannot be evenly divided by any smaller integer other than 1.) You know that it is impossible to test all the positive integers, so you devise a strategy for testing only certain numbers that you guess might be primes. Your way of solving this problem makes use of

A) heuristics.
B) an algorithm.
C) a prototype.
D) base-rate information.

Question 59

A mechanical, repetitive procedure for solving a problem or testing every hypothesis is called

A) an heuristic.
B) an algorithm.
C) a prototype.
D) a cognitive map.

Question 60

In decision making, __________ means searching only until you find something that is good enough.

A) satisficing
B) availability heuristic
C) representative heuristic
D) maximizing

Question 61

Zeke sees someone at the grocery store who looks like a famous movie actor. He assumes it really is the actor and overlooks the fact that about 1% of all adult men look a little like that actor. What error has Zeke made?

A) failure to rely on the availability heuristic
B) failure to use a cognitive map
C) failure to consider base-rate information
D) the Stroop effect

Question 62

Most people tend to consider themselves better than average, or at least average, drivers. We do so because when we think of other drivers we most easily remember unusually bad drivers, and compare ourselves to them. In other words, we make a decision based on

A) base-rate information.
B) the availability heuristic.
C) the representativeness heuristic.
D) an algorithm.

Question 63

Dr. Cutter finds that 90 percent of all people who need brain surgery have dandruff, while only 10 percent of all people with healthy brains have dandruff. He therefore recommends brain surgery for everyone with dandruff. What error is he making?

A) failure to consider base-rate information
B) confusion of categorization-by-levels with categorization-by-features
C) failure to use heuristics to solve a problem
D) unwillingness to accept a risk

Question 64

Critical thinking can best be defined as

A) the careful evaluation of evidence for and against any conclusion.
B) the process by which one compares a goal with the means to achieve that goal.
C) the ability to think in unique and novel ways.
D) the learning which takes place after preattention.

Question 65

Base-rate information is information about

A) whether the results of an experiment correspond to theoretical predictions.
B) how rare or common something is.
C) how similar something is to typical members of a category.
D) how something varies from one person to another.

Question 66

People who rely on the representativeness heuristic tend to overlook which kind of information?

A) creativity information
B) reaction-time information
C) script information
D) base-rate information

Question 67

You know there are only two librarians who live in your town of 10,000 people. However, when you meet a quiet young woman who likes to read, you decide she is probably a librarian. In your thinking you are relying on

A) an algorithm.
B) the representativeness heuristic.
C) the Stroop effect.
D) a cognitive map.

Question 68

A radar operator is trying to determine whether something on the screen is a hawk or a missile. Before deciding, the operator should consider which of the two is more common. In other words, the operator should consider

A) heuristics.
B) base-rate information.
C) the prototype.
D) the cognitive map.

Question 69

You are quite sure that it rains every time you wash your car. In fact, this is probably not true, but it is most related to which heuristic?

A) representativeness
B) base-rate
C) avoiding risk
D) availability

Question 70

Audrey sees someone sitting in a fast-food restaurant who looks like the President of the United States. Before she goes over to ask for an autograph and offer her advice on the world situation, she should consider the base-rate information. That is, she should consider

A) whether she could get in trouble for bothering the president.
B) how long it is until the next presidential election.
C) what would happen if she was wrong and this was not the president.
D) how many other people look like the president.

Question 71

The availability heuristic is based on the assumption that

A) if we ask a question in the proper manner, we will get the correct answer.
B) if we are not sure whether we are looking at something from category A or category B, it is probably from the more common category.
C) if we have found much evidence for a hypothesis and no evidence against it, then the hypothesis is probably correct.
D) if we can easily remember a few examples of some event, then it must be a common event.

Question 72

The term "base-rate information" refers to information about

A) what percentage of the available information supports a theory.
B) how rare or common something is.
C) how well someone can perform a given task.
D) the relationship between learning and performance.

Question 73

Someone who overlooks base-rate information is likely to make which kind of error?

A) accepting too large a risk of losing a large amount
B) accepting the first hypothesis considered and rejecting all others
C) being excessively cautious about making any decision at all
D) identifying some common event as if it were some other, rare event

Question 74

People sometimes form a stereotype about members of a certain group because they remember a few people who fit the stereotype and forget those who do not fit it. Reasoning of this type is an example of the

A) Stroop effect.
B) use of algorithms.
C) availability heuristic.
D) use of base-rate information.

Question 75

People are most likely to be overconfident in the accuracy of their predictions when predicting

A) events that are virtually certain to occur.
B) changes in the weather.
C) the accomplishments of other people.
D) their own accomplishments.

Question 76

Someone sees a strange-looking flying object. It might be a white pelican, or it might be a UFO from outer space. The viewer decides that it is a UFO. Assuming that it really was a pelican, which mistake of reasoning has the viewer made?

A) failure to use the availability heuristic
B) failure to use the representativeness heuristic
C) failure to consider base-rate information
D) failure to use a cognitive map

Question 77

Some people believe Friday the 13th is unlucky because they can remember times when they had bad experiences on that day but tend to forget times when nothing bad happened. Their reasoning is an example of illusory correlations. It is also an example of the use of

A) cognitive maps.
B) the availability heuristic.
C) categorization by features.
D) algorithms

Question 78

Which of the following is an example of base-rate information?

A) The population consists of 10,000 mosquitoes and 2 rare kwiny bugs
B) The kwiny bug looks like a mosquito except it is a bit bigger
C) The mosquito flies a bit faster than the kwiny bug
D) A particular specimen looks exactly like a kwiny bug

Question 79

Because it is easier to think of words that start with "k" than words that have "k" as the third letter, most people assume that our language has more words starting with "k" than words with "k" in the third position. That kind of reasoning is an example of

A) cognitive maps.
B) the Stroop effect.
C) the availability heuristic.
D) categorization by levels.

Question 80

Critical thinking involves

A) evaluation of evidence for and against a conclusion.
B) evaluation of evidence for a conclusion.
C) evaluation of evidence against a conclusion.
D) assumption of correctness of a conclusion until proven false.