Exam 1 Review - Lonnie Yandell\'s Cognitive Psychology Final Exam 1 Questions PDF

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Lonnie Yandell's Cognitive Psychology Final Exam 1 Questions...

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1. The investigation of how behavior is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers (e.g., food) or withdrawal of negative reinforcers (e.g., shock) is best known as a. operant conditioning. b. choice reaction time. c. the method of savings. d. classical conditioning. 2. By comparing reaction times across different tasks, Donders was able to conclude how long the mind needs to perform a certain cognitive task. Donders interpreted the difference in reaction time between the simple and choice conditions of his experiment as indicating how long it took to a. perceive the stimulus. b. attend to the stimulus. c. make a decision about the stimulus. d. process the stimulus. 3. Colin Cherry's experiment in which participants listen to two messages simultaneously, one in each ear, found all but which of the following? a. People can focus on the message they were repeating. b. People can focus on one message and ignore the other one. c. People who are deaf process auditory information on a nonconscious level. d. People take in very little information about the ignored message. 4. Who introduced the flow diagram to represent what is happening in the mind? a. Colin Cherry b. Donald Broadbent c. Wilhelm Wundt d. Newell and Simon 5. Who founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany? a. Erik Erikson b. Wilhelm Wundt c. Ivan Pavlov d. Sigmund Freud 6. Verbal behavior was written by a. B. F. Skinner. b. Noam Chomsky. c. Watson. d. Tolman. 7. Donders's main reason for doing his choice reaction time experiment was to study a. decision making. b. childhood attachment styles. c. personality development.

d. Sensation. 8. In Donders's experiment on decision making, when participants were asked to press a button upon presentation of a light, they were engaged in a a. choice reaction time task. b. simple reaction time task. c. classical conditioning task. d. sensory memory task. 9. Which of the following does NOT characterize the information processing (IP) approach to the study of cognition? a. IP emphasizes stimulus–response relationships in cognitive processes. b. IP traces the sequence of mental operations involved in cognition. c. IP depicts the mind as processing information in a sequence of stages. d. IP involves the use of computers as a metaphor to understand human cognition. 10. Consider the following definition of the mind: The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals. Which element of the mind does this definition emphasize? a. Cognition b. Functioning and survival c. Routine d. Attention 11. John Watson believed that psychology should focus on the study of a. observable behavior. b. mental processes. c. attention. d. Consciousness. 12. A technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli is known as a. structuralism. b. sensations. c. cognitive psychology. d. analytic introspection. 13. With which of the following sentences would the author disagree? a. The mind creates and controls mental processes such as language and emotions. b. The mind is a problem solver. c. We can consider the mind extraordinary if it is used for extraordinary purposes. d. The mind can create representations of the world. 14. The main point of the Donders's reaction time experiments was to a. measure the amount of time it takes to make a decision. b. determine differences in the way people react to stimuli. c. show that reaction times can be measured accurately. d. show that our cognitions are often based on unconscious inferences.

15. The first experiments in cognitive psychology were based on the idea that mental responses can be a. inferred from the participant's behavior. b. measured directly. c. measured by comparing responses among different participants. d. measured by comparing the presentation of the stimulus and the participant's response 16. In Donders's research on human decision making, he found that it took ____________ to decide which of two buttons to push in response to a stimulus. a. between one and two seconds b. two to five seconds c. less than one second d. more than five seconds 17. Attention, perception, memory, and decision making are all different types of mental processes in which the mind engages. These are known as different types of a. models. b. savings. c. cognition. d. reaction times. 18. How is the term mind used in this statement: “If you put your mind to it, I’m sure you can solve that math problem”? a. The mind as used to make decisions or consider possibilities b. The mind as valuable, something that should be used c. The mind as involved in memory d. The mind as problem solver 19. Why can we consider Tolman one of the early cognitive psychologists? a. Because of his interest in operant conditioning b. Because he focused on the stimulus–response connections in the rat’s mind during his maze experiment c. Because of his focus on measuring behavior d. Because he used behavior to infer mental processes 20. Wundt's procedure in which trained participants describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli presented under controlled conditions is known as a. functional analysis. b. behavioral analysis. c. information processing. d. analytic introspection. 21. Which of the following events is most closely associated with a resurgence in interest in the mind within the study of psychology? a. Watson's "Little Albert" experiment b. Skinner's publication of the book, Verbal Behavior

c. Tolman's proposal of cognitive maps d. Development of the technique of analytic introspection 22. Wundt’s approach, which dominated psychology in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was known as a. structuralism. b. sensations. c. analytic introspection. d. cognitive psychology. 23. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Symposium on Information Theory, George Miller presented a paper suggesting that a. the human ability to process information is unlimited. b. memory consolidation is enhanced by REM sleep. c. there are limits to the human ability to process information. d. intelligent machines can be successfully created. 24. The use of the term artificial intelligence was coined by a. Colin Cherry. b. John McCarthy. c. B. F. Skinner. d. Edward Tolman. 25. Ebbinghaus's "memory" experiments were important because they a. plotted functions that described the operation of the mind. b. showed how positive reinforcers strengthen behavior. c. described complex decision making. d. were the first to combine basic elements of experience called sensations. 26. If the intensity of a stimulus that is presented to a touch receptor is increased, this tends to increase the __________ in the receptor's axon. a. rate of nerve firing b. size of the nerve impulses c. All of these are correct. d. speed of nerve conduction 27. Which of the following is consistent with the idea of localization of function? a. Neurons in different areas of the brain respond best to different stimuli. b. All of these are correct. c. Brain areas are specialized for specific functions. d. Specific areas of the brain serve different functions 28. Neurons that respond to specific qualities of objects, such as orientation, movement, and length, are called a. feature detectors. b. dendrites. c. retinal cells. d. Receptors.

29. Which of the following statements is the most accurate with regard to specificity coding? a. It is probably accurate, which explains why the human nervous system contains over one hundred billion neurons. b. It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each. c. Research has found that specificity encoding does occur for lower animals, such as dogs and cats, but has not found this phenomenon to exist in human beings. d. Specificity coding is one of the areas that is only theoretical and not applied, and thus there is no way to know if it truly exists in human beings. 30. Why is it easier to study brain tissue from newborn animals than brain tissue from adults? a. The nerve net system in newborn animals is more developed. b. The density of cells in a newborn brain is small compared with the density in an adult brain. c. The nerve net system in newborn animals is less developed. d. The density of cells in a newborn brain is higher compared with the density in an adult brain. 31. Before the advent of intercoms, old mansions had a sash in each room. Each sash was connected to a bell on a master board in the servants’ office. When someone pulled a sash in a particular room, a bell corresponding to the room would ring on the master board, informing a servant where to go to provide assistance. a. Localization coding b. Sparse coding c. Specificity coding d. Population coding 32. In the mid-20th century, the study of the mind began using which technique or model inspired by digital computers? a. Information processing model b. Signal processing model c. Genetic processing model d. Data processing model 33. Early studies of brain tissue that used staining techniques and microscopes from the 19th century described the “nerve net.” These early understandings were in error in the sense that the nerve net was believed to be a. composed of cell bodies, axons, and dendrites. b. composed of neurotransmitters rather than neurons. c. continuous. d. composed of discrete individual units. 34. Which substance is released when signals reach the synapse at the end of the axon? a. Neurotransmitters b. Axon c. Dendrites

d. Receptors 35. What is the gap between the end of a neuron's axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron known as? a. Synapse b. Axon c. Dendrite d. Doctrine 36. Josiah is trying to speak to his wife, but his speech is very slow and labored, often with jumbled sentence structure. a. Broca's area b. Parahippocampal place area (PPA) c. Wernicke's area d. Extrastriate body area (EBA) 37. You are walking down the street and see a nice car drive by. You notice its color, movement, and shape. All of these features are processed a. in one localized area of the brain. b. through fMRI potentials. c. by a specific object neuron. d. in different parts of the brain. 38. In which of the following body parts are neurons NOT present? a. Eyes b. Ears c. Skin d. Arteries 39. Barbara has recently been diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Her oncologist wants to determine the best treatment method to eliminate the tumors. Her gastroenterologist is focused on relieving her symptoms and restoring normal digestive functioning. Barbara’s psychologist works to help minimize her anxiety and keep her spirits up. The fact that these doctors are considering Barbara’s situation with different goals and from different perspectives is similar to the idea of __________ presented in your textbook. a. idiographic evaluation b. levels of analysis c. nomothetic examination d. the dynamics of cognition 40. Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as a. myelin sheaths. b. potentiated somas. c. spreading activations. d. neural circuits. 41. What is a key difference between dendrites and axons? a. One has a positive charge and the other has a negative charge.

b. One has physical form and the other lacks physical form. c. One is internally activated and the other is externally activated. d. One sends information and the other receives information. 42. Which of the following could be considered as always taking a “working vacation”? a. Broca’s area b. Default mode network c. Temporal lobe d. Neural networks 43. Recording from single neurons in the brain has shown that neurons responding to specific types of stimuli are often clustered in specific areas. These results support the idea of a. localization of function. b. the information processing approach. c. dissociation. d. cortical association. 44. Your author points out that studying the mind requires both __________ and __________ experiments. a. behavioral; physiological b. observational; correlational c. nomothetic; idiographic d. brain; body 45. Groups of neurons or structures that are connected within the nervous system are called __________. a. neural networks b. synaptic vesicles c. fused conduits d. neuronal bridges 46. A synapse is a. the structure that receives electrical signals from other neurons. b. the gap that separates two different neurons. c. the structure that contains mechanisms to keep a neuron alive. d. a tube filled with fluid that conducts electrical signals. 47. Which of the following statements best describes how neurons communicate with one another? a. A chemical process takes place in the synapse. b. Dendrites make direct contact with each other. c. An electrical process takes place in the receptors. d. Action potentials travel across the synapse. 48. The value that stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron is known as a. nerve transmission. b. resting potential. c. action potential.

d. nerve impulse. 49. Which part of the nervous system picks up information from the outside environment? a. Receptors b. Synapses c. Axons d. Dendrites 50. The key structural components of neurons are the a. transmitters, dendrites, and nodes of Ranvier. b. cell body, cellular membrane, and transmitters. c. cell body, dendrites, and axons. d. axon, dendrites, and glands. 51. The idea that specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain is known as a. distributed representation. b. aphasia. c. modularity. d. localization of function. 52. Taking clay and sand to create bricks, which are then used to build modular wall panels, which are then assembled to construct tall buildings, is similar to which of the following neural concepts? a. Specificity coding b. Localization of function c. Hierarchical processing d. Distributed representation 53. When conducting an experiment on how stimuli are represented by the firing of neurons, you notice that neurons respond differently to different faces. For example, Arthur's face causes three neurons to fire, with neuron 1 responding the most and neuron 3 responding the least. Roger's face causes three different neurons to fire, with neuron 7 responding the least and neuron 9 responding the most. Your results support __________ coding. a. distributed b. sparse c. divergence d. Specificity 54. When the axon is at rest, the inside of the neuron has a charge that is 70 millivolts more negative than the outside. This difference will continue as long as a. signals remain in the neuron. b. the neuron’s receptor continues to be stimulated. c. the neuron is at rest. d. the impulse is past the recording electrode. 55. The likelihood principle states that a. feature detectors are likely to create a clear perception of an object. b. we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we

have received. c. we perceive size to remain the same size even when objects move to different distances. d. it is easier to perceive vertical and horizontal orientations. 56. The saying, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all” best reflects which of the following? a. likelihood principle b. principle of similarity c. semantic regularities d. law of pragnanz 57. In the text's use of the Olympic Rings example, which Gestalt law contributes to the correct perception of five interlocking circles rather than nine separate segments? a. Common fate b. Figure-ground c. Simplicity d. Contiguity 58. The notion that every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible is called the law of a. pragnanz. b. similarity. c. common fate. d. Continuity. 59. The perception pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway, while the action pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway. a. what; where b. size; distance c. where; what d. distance; size 60. Maria took a drink from a container marked "milk." Surprised, she quickly spit out the liquid because it turned out that the container was filled with orange juice instead. Maria likes orange juice, so why did she have such a negative reaction to it? Her response was most affected by a. bottom-up processing. b. top-down processing. c. focused attention. d. reception of the stimulus. 61. What is the process of unconscious inference? a. When our perceptions are the result of inferences that we make about the environment b. When our unconscious perceptions align with our conscious perceptions c. When our subconscious mind interferes with our conscience

d. When our subconscious interferes with what we perceive from our retina 62. Entering a church service and seeing someone selling hot dogs and cotton candy from a cart near the altar would be perceived as a violation of a. pragnanz. b. scene schema. c. mirror neurons. d. natural selection. 63. Which of the following adjectives has the LEAST connection to perception? a. supportive b. complex c. conscious d. Interactive 64. According to your textbook, perception goes beyond the simple receipt of sensory information. It is involved in many different cognitive skills. Which of the following is NOT one of those skills as noted by the chapter? a. Experiencing neuromodulation b. Answering questions c. Communicating with other people d. Solving problems 65. Perception is NOT essential for a. creating memories. b. acquiring knowledge. c. solving problems. d. improving empathy 66. Perceiving machines are used by the U.S. Postal Service to "read" the addresses on letters and sort them quickly to their correct destinations. Sometimes, these machines cannot read an address because the writing on the envelope is not sufficiently clear for the machine to match the writing to an example it has stored in memory. Human postal workers are much more successful at reading unclear addresses, most likely because of a. repeated practice at the task. b. top-down processing. c. their in-depth understanding of principles of perception. d. bottom-up processing. 67. Which of the following is NOT considered a starting point for perception? a. thinking b. hearing c. seeing d. Feeling 68. Viewpoint ________ is the ability to recognize the same object even if it is seen from different perspectives. a. invariance

b. resistance c. consistency d. Constancy 69. Which of the following is an example of an effect of top-down processing? a. Perceiving all of the birds in a flock as belonging together b. Seeing a flash of lightning in a thunderstorm c. Recognizing a crying friend’s sounds as words in a sentence d. Walking all around a car and always knowing it’s a car 70. Speech segmentation is defined as a. recognizing a few words out of many when hearing a largely unfamiliar language. b. creating a sentence from a series of spoken words. c. ignoring the spaces between the spoken words of a sentence. d. organizing the sounds of speech into individual words. 71. Which term best reflects what we do with an image projected onto our retina? a. We reverse it. b. We infer it. c. We interpret it. d. We confirm it. 72. You look at a rope coiled on a beach and are able to perceive it as a single strand because of the law of a. good continuation. b. good figure. c. familiarity. d. Simplicity. 73. Semantic regularity refers to the _____. a. consistency between situations b. idea that regularities in the environment provide information we can use to resolve ambiguities c. regularity between locations d. meaning between properties of an object 74. Which of the following is an example of unconscious inference? a. Perceiving the transitional probability of a language b. Perceiving that a partially covered automobile continues beneath the cover c. Perceiving the length of an unfamiliar object by using a familiar object d. Perceiving the ringing of an alarm clock while sleeping 75. Which of the following would have the most semantic regularities? a. a toll booth b. a shopping mall c. A skyscraper d. a forest 76. The Gestalt psychologists believe that _____.

a. we use data about the environment to determine what is out there b. experience has no effect on perception, only sensation c. perception is affected by experience, but built-in principles can override experience d. top-down processing is central to perception 77. A person with strong ________ would likely have a d...