Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

According to the first chapter in your textbook, research in cognitive neuroscience

often obtains brian images while people are working on a cognitive task

When neuroscientists use PET scans

they assess the regions of the brain in which blood flow increases while a person is performing a task

Why are cognitive psychologists less interested in the information-processing approach than they were in earlier years?

they now realize that the complexity of human thinking requires more sophisticated models

The information-processing approach

was facilitated by the early research in computer science

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

Cognitive psychology has had an important impact on a variety of areas throughout psychology.

Which of the following movements emphasized the human tendency to actively organize what we see?

Gestalt psychology

Your textbook discusses the early history of cognitive psychology. According to this discussion,

Wilhelm Wundt emphasized that introspection could provide useful information, if participants were well trained.

Which statement about the history of cognition is correct?

William James emphasized that the human mind is active, rather than passive.

Some researchers believe that the human brain works like a complex, sophisticated machine. These researchers would favor

a computer metaphor

An important feature of cognitive science is that it emphasizes

an interdisciplinary approach

Cognitive science is

an interdisciplinary field that explores questions about the mind

Chapter 1 presents some information about the history of cognition. According to this discussion

behaviorism is an approach that relies on objective, observable reactions.

Based on the discussion of artificial intelligence in Chapter 1,

both computers and humans have limited capacities

Researchers in artificial intelligence emphasize that

both the human brain and the computer can compare symbols and make choices based on that comparision

Which of the following perspectives was most likely to emphasize the importance of a precise operational definition? a. William James's work on the tip-of-the-tongue effect b. Wilhelm Wundt's introspection approach c. The behaviorists' research with animals d. The gestalt approach to perception

c. The behaviorists' research with animals

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

c. placed too much emphasis on concepts such as reinforcement and observable responses.

An operational definition is most likely to

describe precisely how the researchers will meausre a particular concept

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

has extended to other disciplines, such as neurology.

One of the characteristics of the human brain that is especially important in the connectionist approach is that the brain

has networks that link together many neuron-like units

Prior to 1995, cognitive psychologists tended to focus strongly on understanding

how the "average" person performs on cognitive tasks

Information processing models assume that

information from your senses about stimuli in the outside world can be compared to inputting information on a computer keyboard

According to the information-processing approach

mental processes can be interpreted as a flow of information, and these processes can be understood by comparison with the operations of a computer.

According to the discussion in Chapter 1, behaviorism places the most emphasis on

observable activities.

In contrast to Hermann Ebbinghaus, William James was more likely to focus on

people's everyday experiences.

A research team is studying which parts of the brain are active when a participant looks at a photograph of a person, and tries to judge how intelligent that person is. This kind of study is an example of

social cognitive neuroscience

Research on people with brain lesions

studies people who cannot perform specific cognitive tasks after they have had a stroke, tumor, or accident

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

the brain damage may extend into several areas of the brain

With practice and reinforcement, a rat learns to navigate a maze. A behaviorist would operationalize the rat's "learning" as

the decrease in the rate of errors, over time

Chris just telephoned Roberta and listed eight items that they need for the afternoon picnic. Roberta didn't have a pencil, so she couldn't write them down. However, she remembers the last three items very well because of

the recency effect

If a study has high ecological validity, then the most likely conclusion is that

the results could be applied in real-world situations

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

tries to create a program that performs a cognitive task in the same way that humans would perform it

According to Chapter 1's introduction to the chapters in your textbook, perceptual processes

use previous knowledge in order to interpret the stimuli that are registered by our senses

According to the discussion of cognitive neuroscience, the PET-scan technique

measures blood flow in the brain

William James made his most important contributions to cognitive psychology in his work on

memory in everyday life

Which term or phrase is closest in meaning to the term "cognition"?

Mental activity

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

Your knowledge that the word "bear" is similar to the word "lion"

Suppose that a psychologist writes an article on children's acquisition of gender stereotypes. Which of the following article titles would be most consistent with the cognitive approach?

"Children's memory for gender-consistent information"

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

"Planning strategies used in grocery-store shopping."

Imagine that you are attending a lecture by a guest speaker who describes a theory and then says, "Let's now look at the empirical evidence." Which of the following would most likely be the speaker's next sentence?

"We conducted an experiment to test this hypothesis."

Suppose that you hear about a research project in linguistics that is exploring the topic called discourse. Which of the following would be the most likely topic for this research?

"What are students' ideas about how a story should end?"

Suppose that several psychologists want to explore interpersonal interactions during adulthood. Which of the following topics would be most consistent with the cognitive approach?

"When meeting someone for the first time, what attribute does a person perceive most quickly, gender or ethnicity?"

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.

Aristotle

How does the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique (fMRI) compare with other imaging techniques?

It is more effective than the PET scan in measuring brain activity that occurs rapidly

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

The Gestalt approach

Based on the information in Chapter 1, how would you describe the approach of William James?

He emphasized the kinds of psychological experiences that people encounter in their everyday lives.

Which of the following interests is shared by researchers within the discipline of cognitive science? a. Internal representations of the world b. Individual differences c. The relationship between emotions and thought d. An emphasis on problem solving

Internal representations of the world

Which of the following women was an early researcher in memory who reported the recency effect and also became the first female president of the American Psychological Association?

Mary Whiton Calkins

The "father of cognitive psychology" was

Neisser

Suppose that you are writing a paper about cognitive processes in people who are depressed. Which of the following topics would be most relevant for your paper?

The ability of depressed individuals to recall people's names.

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?

The event related potential technique (ERP)

Suppose that you want to see whether the human brain responds differently when a person reads a pleasant word, rather than an unpleasant word. Which of the following neuroscience techniques would provide the most useful information about processing these two kinds of words?

The event-related potential (ERP) technique

A cognitive psychologist who analyzes a cognitive task in terms of a series of stages - like the way a computer operates - is using which of the following approaches?

The information-processing approach

Behaviorists and cognitive psychologists are most likely to agree on which of the following points? a. Researchers need to have detailed definitions about how a concept will be measured. b. Researchers must emphasize the external stimuli in the environment. c. Theorists must try to explain higher mental processes in terms of mental events. d. Most thought processes can be explained in terms of people's observable responses to stimuli.

a. Researchers need to have detailed definitions about how a concept will be measured.

According to the discussion about the rise of cognitive psychology, a. enthusiasm for behaviorism decreased because it was difficult to explain complex human behavior using only the concepts from learning theory. b. Piaget's research on children's thinking was actually ignored until cognitive psychology was well established in the 1970s. c. modern linguistics favors behaviorism rather than cognitive approaches. d. behavioral approaches to human memory are still more widely accepted than cognitive approaches.

a. enthusiasm for behaviorism decreased because it was difficult to explain complex human behavior using only the concepts from learning theory.

A psychologist who favors the Gestalt approach would be most likely to criticize the fact that behaviorists a. ignore the context in which a behavior occurs. b. overemphasize introspection. c. are not sufficiently rigorous in designing their psychological research. d. pay too much attention to insight.

a. ignore the context in which a behavior occurs.

During the 1950s, many psychologists were becoming discouraged with behaviorism, and cognitive psychology began to emerge. A major reason they were disappointed with behaviorism is that a. it considered only psychological processes that are clearly observable. b. it paid too much attention to individual differences. c. it failed to develop objective methods of measuring behavior. d. it focused too much on emotional factors, and not enough on observable behaviors.

a. it considered only psychological processes that are clearly observable.

The term "pure AI" refers to

an approach that attempts to accomplish a task as efficiently as possible

Which of the following students provides the most accurate summary of the behaviorists' contributions to cognitive psychology? a. Anton: "The behaviorists refined the introspection technique through the use of careful interview techniques." b. Elena: "The most important contributions of the behaviorists were related to research methodology." c. Sarah: "Behaviorists clarified the cognitive abilities of infants and children, especially in their research on object permanence." d. Jason: "Behaviorists' contributions to cognitive psychology focused on theoretical models, rather than on empirical results."

b. Elena: "The most important contributions of the behaviorists were related to research methodology."

Which of the following students provides the best summary of the decline of behaviorism and the rising popularity of the cognitive approach? a. Sarah: "Psychologists began to realize that the behaviorists only emphasized behavior, and they admired how the cognitive approach emphasized people's emotional experiences." b. Harlan: "Many psychologists favored the cognitive approach, because the behaviorist approach could not account for complex thought processes." c. Ilia: "Most psychologists thought that the behaviorist approach was too heavily influenced by its early gestalt principles." d. Savita: "In general, psychologists realized that the cognitive approach was better than the behaviorist approach in explaining individual differences."

b. Harlan: "Many psychologists favored the cognitive approach, because the behaviorist approach could not account for complex thought processes."

Which of the following students provides the best summary about the current status of the information-processing approach? a. Alena: "The information-processing approach is now more popular than the parallel distributed processing approach, because most cognitive tasks require serial processing." b. Magda: "The information-processing approach has declined in popularity during recent years, because those models are not complex enough to explain many cognitive activities." c. Dave: "The information-processing model is still extremely popular, and it remains at the cutting edge of cognitive psychology." d. Samuel: "The most important model is one in which the information-processing approach has been blended with the gestalt approach, in order to explain higher mental processes."

b. Magda: "The information-processing approach has declined in popularity during recent years, because those models are not complex enough to explain many cognitive activities."

Which of the following research topics would be most likely to interest a behaviorist? a. The effect of parents' marital satisfaction on children's nightmares. b. The effect of praise on children's running speed. c. Individual differences in verbal ability. d. The relationship between the true size of an object and its size as represented in a mental image.

b. The effect of praise on children's running speed.

Which of the following is the best example of a schema? a. your knowledge of the last 10 winners of the "Best Picture" Academy Award b. Your tendency to read familiar words more quickly than unfamiliar words c. Your understanding that the concept "dentist's office" includes a waiting room and a receptionist, but not video games d. Your ability to reach for your car's turn signal on the left side of the steering wheel, even if you could not verbally describe where it is located

c. Your understanding that the concept "dentist's office" includes a waiting room and a receptionist, but not video games

Cognitive psychologists believe that behaviorists cannot explain human language because a. behaviorists place too much emphasis on genetic explanations. b. behaviorists cannot provide appropriate explanations because their research rarely uses operational definitions. c. language has a complex structure that cannot be explained in terms of stimuli and responses. d. language is acquired in humans through adults' careful teaching of young children.

c. language has a complex structure that cannot be explained in terms of stimuli and responses.

Cognitive psychology has had an important impact on a variety of areas throughout psychology.

can explain a major part of your daily experiences.

Chapter 1 of your textbook ends with a discussion about the five themes of this book. According to this discussion,

cognition typically emphasizes both top-down and bottom-up processing

Suppose that you meet a professor who is trying to determine what portions of the brain are involved in trying to recall a word that is on the tip of your tongue. This person is likely to use the approach of

cognitive neuroscience

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

computer simulation

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

create a system that uses a problem-solving technique that is similar to the way humans would solve the problem

According to your textbook, the artificial intelligence (AI) approach

creates computer models that demonstrate intelligent behavior

Which of the following students provides the best understanding of the PET scan technique a. Prinsetta: "PET scans record fluctuations in the brain activity that are completed within a fraction of a second." b. Lisa: "Unfortunately, the PET scan can only be used for someone who has a brain lesion." c. Jeff: "A PET scan is basically a very fast version of the event-related potential." d. Jamie: "The PET scan creates an image based on a chemical that travels through the bloodstream."

d. Jamie: "The PET scan creates an image based on a chemical that travels through the bloodstream."

Which of the following students provides the most accurate interpretation of one of the themes of the textbook? a. Daquan: "In general, our cognitive processes may operate quickly, but we make numerous errors." b. Jessica: "In general, our cognitive processes tend to be passive, unless we make a special effort." c. Sam: "We are typically more accurate in processing negative information, rather than positive information." d. Sophie: "Many cognitive processes emphasize both top-down processing and bottom-up processing."

d. Sophie: "Many cognitive processes emphasize both top-down processing and bottom-up processing

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 _____.

decision making

Suppose that your professor tells you that you must locate a journal article about cognitive psychology that presents empirical evidence. You should look for an article that

emphasizes evidence collected in experiments.

Suppose that you attend a lecture on the bottom-up processes involved in speech perception. The lecturer is likely to emphasize

how the listener's auditory system registers and transmits information about the speech sounds

An important characteristic of the connectionist approach to cognition is that

it can perform many operations at the same time

An important characteristic of the connectionist approach is that

it is flexible enough to explain many cognitive skills

According to the discussion of the themes of the textbook,

our cognitive processes are interrelated with one another

According to the themes of your textbook,

our cognitive processes are quite accurate; our errors can often be traced to strategies that are useful in other situations

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

parallel processing

In the introspection technique

people describe what they are thinking as they perform a task.

When researchers use the introspection technique,

people report their sensations as accurately as possible

An important difference between the classical AI approach and the connectionist approach is that the classical AI approach

proceeds one step at a time

In contrast to a PET scan, the fMRI technique

provides more precise information when measuring a series of events in the brain

The primary contribution of Hermann Ebbinghaus to current cognitive psychology was

research about factors that might influence human memory.

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

the human brain can process several items simultaneously

Metacognition refers to

your thoughts about your cognitive processes