Deck 1: Cognition As the Study of Information Processing

Question 1

Mind and behavior can be conceptualized as an "S," an "R," and a black box in between.The behaviorists were interested in

A)the Ss only.
B)the Rs only.
C)Ss and Rs.
D)the black box.

Answer 1

Ss and Rs.

Question 2

If you're a psychology major,you've probably been exposed to basic information about the history of psychology in several courses.Each time you're exposed to this information,you probably pick up on it and retain it a little better.This is an example of ________,a key concept from the work of memory psychologist

A)savings;Bartlett.
B)savings;Ebbinghaus.
C)schemata;Bartlett.
D)schemata;Ebbinghaus.

Answer 2

savings;Ebbinghaus.

Question 3

Helmholtz was a ________ whose work included the insight that

A)structuralist;perception involves unconscious inferences about incoming stimuli.
B)structuralist;consciousness is complex,but composed of simple elements that can be analyzed through introspection.
C)psychophysicist;perception involves unconscious inferences about incoming stimuli.
D)psychophysicist;consciousness is complex,but composed of simple elements that can be analyzed through introspection.

Answer 3

psychophysicist;perception involves unconscious inferences about incoming stimuli.

Question 4

Which psychophysicist came up with the notion of an unconscious inference?

A)Donders
B)Fechner
C)Helmholtz
D)Wundt

Question 5

The two disciplines typically characterized as the forerunners to psychology (and cognitive psychology)are

A)philosophy and physiology.
B)sociology and history.
C)history and philosophy.
D)chemistry and theology.

Question 6

Which psychophysicist's major contribution was to demonstrate that the relationship between incoming stimuli and corresponding perceptions was not one-to-one?

A)Fechner
B)Helmholtz
C)Wundt
D)Titchener

Question 7

William James was a prominent ________ who characterized consciousness as a

A)functionalist;stream.
B)functionalist;complex combination of simple elements.
C)structuralist;stream.
D)structuralist;complex combination of simple elements.

Question 8

__________ refers to a procedure that requires a rigorous and systematic self-report of the basic elements of an experience,and was the primary method used by

A)Schema analysis;Gestalt psychologists.
B)Savings;behaviorists.
C)Functional reporting;functionalists.
D)Introspection;structuralists.

Question 9

In which of these would a psychophysicist be most interested?

A)The ways in which the perceptual system translates an incoming stimulus
B)The basic relationship between brain activity and conscious experience
C)Identifying the basic sensations,images,and feelings that comprise experience
D)The behavior of someone in response to some stimulus

Question 10

Generally,as a stimulus becomes more intense,the minimal change in intensity needed for a person to notice the change

A)increases.
B)decreases.
C)stays the same.
D)has no relationship whatsoever to original intensity.

Question 11

What was the term Bartlett used for generalized knowledge structures about events and situations based on past experience?

A)Savings
B)Introspections
C)Configurations
D)Schemata

Question 12

The issue of how we manage (or fail to manage)driving and talking on a cell phone would be of most interest to someone who studies

A)problem solving.
B)attention.
C)memory.
D)decision making.

Question 13

The scientific perspective known as behaviorism was established by

A)John Watson.
B)William James.
C)Edwin C.Tolman.
D)B.F.Skinner.

Question 14

Bartlett's studies of memory were different than Ebbinghaus's in that

A)Bartlett found little evidence of forgetting.
B)Bartlett's studies featured a higher degree of realism.
C)Bartlett's ideas were consistent with the behaviorist approach of the day.
D)it has had relatively little influence on current day research.

Question 15

Who established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig,Germany?

A)Titchener
B)Fechner
C)Watson
D)Wundt

Question 16

When considering the emotion of anger,which of these questions would be of most interest to a functionalist?

A)What is the purpose of anger?
B)What is the conscious experience of anger like?
C)What are the behaviors of an angry person?
D)What happens in the brain during fits of anger?

Question 17

The forgetting curve,as mapped out by Ebbinghaus,demonstrates that material is forgotten

A)very slowly at first,then at a very rapid rate.
B)rapidly at first,then at a very slow steady rate.
C)at a fairly constant rate over time.
D)only if there is interference.

Question 18

Gestalt psychologists are known for their work on ________,and profoundly influenced the present-day study of

A)isolating the basic elements of conscious experience;perception and problem-solving.
B)isolating the basic elements of conscious experience;decision-making and language.
C)the basic tendency of the mind to organize experience;perception and problem-solving.
D)the basic tendency of the mind to organize experience;decision-making and language.

Question 19

The subdiscipline of cognitive science that is interested in the association between mental processing and brain activity is

A)developmental.
B)clinical.
C)neuroscience.
D)social.

Question 20

According to structuralists,consciousness encompasses three basic categories of experience,including sensations,feelings,and

A)behaviors.
B)motives.
C)drives.
D)images.

Question 21

What was the term Tolman (1948)coined to refer to learning that occurs in the absence of any reinforcement?

A)Latent learning
B)Learning by savings
C)Gestalt learning
D)Associative learning

Question 22

Suppose damage to a particular brain area leaves someone unable to recognize faces,but does not affect the ability to recognize objects.This is an example of ________ and provides some evidence that

A)a single dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on different brain mechanisms.
B)a single dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on the same brain mechanisms.
C)a double dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on different brain mechanisms.
D)a double dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on the same brain mechanisms.

Question 23

Communication between neurons can be described as

A)electrical only.
B)chemical only.
C)both electrical and chemical.
D)neither electrical nor chemical.

Question 24

Which of these is a correct sequencing of cortical areas,from those most anterior to those most posterior?

A)Occipital lobe,parietal lobe,motor cortex,prefrontal cortex
B)Prefrontal cortex,motor cortex,parietal lobe,occipital lobe
C)Parietal lobe,motor cortex,occipital lobe,prefrontal cortex
D)Motor cortex,prefrontal cortex,parietal lobe,occipital lobe

Question 25

In explaining cognition,the connectionist approach emphasizes

A)interactions between individual processing units in the brain.
B)the serial nature of cognitive processing.
C)that cognitive processes are localized within certain regions of the brain.
D)simple perceptual processing,rather than higher-level cognitive processing.

Question 26

Recall the study by McNamara,Long,and Wike (1956)in which rats were exposed to a T-maze in one of two ways: the rats in one group ran the maze themselves,while the rats in the other group were pushed through the maze in carts.Which group(s)learned to make the correct choice at the end of the "T"?

A)The rats who ran themselves learned to make the correct choice,but the rats in carts failed to learn it.
B)The rats in carts learned to make the correct choice,but the rats who ran themselves failed to learn it.
C)Neither group of rats learned to make the correct choice.
D)Both groups of rats learned to make the correct choice.

Question 27

You're visiting the neuroscience lab of Dr.Wu,and he asks you to look at his plastic model of the brain,particularly the rostral area.Where should you look on his model?

A)The front
B)The back
C)The top
D)The bottom

Question 28

The _______ is the seat of what are typically labeled "higher cognitive functions."

A)hindbrain
B)midbrain
C)caudal area
D)cerebral cortex

Question 29

In a classic study reported by Tolman (1948),rats were exposed to a complex maze that had three different paths to food: Path 1 was shortest,Path 2 was a bit longer,and Path 3 was the longest.After experiencing all of the paths,rats showed a strong preference for Path 1 (the shortest path).Then,the researchers blocked Path 1-which,also,as it turns out,blocked Path 2.What did rats do when they were placed in this situation?

A)After being blocked at Path 1,they tried Path 2,and then finally chose Path 3.
B)After being blocked on Path 1,they kept trying Path 1 over and over again.
C)After being blocked at Path 1,they tried Path 2,and then kept trying Path 2 over and over again.
D)After being blocked at Path 1,they immediately switched to Path 3 (not even bothering with Path 2).

Question 30

Which school of psychology is best captured by its credo,"The whole is different than the sum of its parts"?

A)Structuralism
B)Functionalism
C)Gestalt
D)Behaviorism

Question 31

What happened to the group of rats that wasn't reinforced until the 11th day of the Tolman and Honzik study?

A)After the 11th day,they showed slow but steady improvement in their maze-running.
B)They showed no improvement and no decline in their maze-running.
C)They showed sudden improvement in their maze-running after day 11,running as quickly as the rats who had always been reinforced.
D)They showed sudden improvement in their maze-running,but never ran as quickly as the rats who had always been reinforced.

Question 32

Which subcortical structure seems particularly involved in regulating emotion and forming emotional memories?

A)Hippocampus
B)Hindbrain
C)Hypothalamus
D)Amygdala

Question 33

In explaining how a rat learns to navigate a maze to get food,behaviorists would be extremely unlikely to include which of these phrases in their accounts?

A)"The rat knows"
B)"The rat runs"
C)"Reinforcement strengthens"
D)"Stimulus-response connection"

Question 34

The information processing approach is to the connectionist approach as ________ is to

A)recent;antique.
B)serial;parallel.
C)automatic;controlled.
D)brain;computer.

Question 35

Noam Chomsky

A)proposed that language can be accounted for solely based on S-R principles.
B)sharply criticized Skinner's view of language learning.
C)proposed that language learning is dependent on automatic self-reinforcement.
D)saw no need for the concept of mental representations in explaining language.

Question 36

Little Baruti sees a four-legged creature that makes the noise,"Woof! Woof!" He points and says,"Dog!" His mother says,"Good,Baruti,good!" Skinner would propose that Baruti saying,"Dog!" is a _____ that comes under control of the stimulus,which is

A)response;his mother saying "Good!"
B)response;the dog.
C)reinforcement;his mother saying "Good!"
D)reinforcement;the dog.

Question 37

The information processing approach to cognition likens thought to

A)the operation of a computer.
B)the storage system of a library.
C)the assembly-line production of a factory.
D)the trial-and-error learning of the rat in a maze.

Question 38

Research on split-brain patients reveals that

A)the left hemisphere typically specializes in verbal processing,while the right hemisphere specializes in spatial tasks.
B)the left hemisphere typically specializes in spatial tasks,while the right hemisphere specializes in verbal processing.
C)people who have had their corpus callosum severed have a great deal of difficulty functioning in everyday life.
D)for normal people,there is no difference between the functioning of the left and right hemispheres.

Question 39

In the end,what happened to behaviorism?

A)It was replaced by a renewed interest in structuralism.
B)It completely died out.
C)It continues to hold some sway to this day.
D)It was replaced by a renewed interest in functionalism.

Question 40

The assumption that the association between two neurons becomes stronger if these two neurons are active at the same time forms a partial basis for which approach to cognition?

A)Descriptive approach
B)Connectionist approach
C)Information processing approach
D)Ecological approach

Question 41

A semantic anomaly (i.e. ,"Jake put the cookies into the birdbath.")produces an ERP signal termed an N400.What does the "400" refer to?

A)Distance in the brain's cortex
B)Approximate number of neurons responding
C)Time between stimulus presentation and brain response
D)The time it takes for the person to say they notices an anomaly in the sentence

Question 42

Which neuroscience investigation technique uses detectors that are sensitive to hemoglobin levels in the blood?

A)PETscan
B)TMS
C)fMRI
D)MEG

Question 43

How much of our brain do we use?

A)More of the right than the left
B)More of the left than the right
C)About 10%
D)100%

Question 44

Which neuroscientific investigation technique uses a SQUID?

A)ERP
B)MEG
C)PTscan
D)fMRI

Question 45

How does magnetoencephalography (MEG)compare to EEG in terms of spatial and temporal resolution?

A)MEG is better than EEG for spatial resolution;the reverse is true for temporal resolution.
B)MEG is better than EEG for temporal resolution;the reverse is true for spatial resolution.
C)EEG is better than MEG for both spatial and temporal resolution.
D)MEG is better than EEG for both spatial and temporal resolution.

Question 46

Which term refers to a constellation of ideas emphasizing the belief that thinking is dynamic and occurs in conjunction with action and within a broader context that guides and shapes it?

A)Materialism
B)Embodied cognition
C)Dualism
D)Empiricism

Question 47

In referring to "the problem of meaning," renowned psychologist Jerome Bruner was offering what critique of cognitive research?

A)Too much emphasis on internal validity at the expense of external validity
B)Too much emphasis on external validity at the expense of internal validity
C)Not enough emphasis on how cognition relates to brain activity
D)Research in cognition should be "disembodied"

Question 48

Suppose damage to brain area "A" leaves someone unable to recognize faces,but does not affect the ability to recognize everyday objects.In addition,suppose that damage to brain area "B" leaves someone unable to recognize everyday objects,but does not affect the ability to recognize faces.This is an example of ________ and provides some evidence that

A)a single dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on different brain mechanisms.
B)a single dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on the same brain mechanisms.
C)a double dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on different brain mechanisms.
D)a double dissociation;recognition of faces and recognition of objects depend on the same brain mechanisms.

Question 49

How does TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)differ from the other techniques?

A)TMS involves direct stimulation of the brain;the other techniques do not.
B)TMS involves getting an "image" or picture of the brain;the other techniques do not.
C)TMS provides poorer temporal and spatial resolution than all of the other techniques.
D)TMS is more costly than any other of the techniques.

Question 50

What is the term proposed by Descartes that refers to the belief that mind and body are separable entities?

A)Empiricism
B)Materialism
C)Dualism
D)Embodied Cognition