cognitive psych final

Which of the following features are thought to be unique to human language (compared to animal communication systems)?

. The arbitrary mapping between sound units and the semantic meaning of the units. The fact that we can use our language to refer to events that are distant in time and/or space. The discrete nature of the sound units that we produce and the way that we can combine and recombine these discrete units for new meanings and mappings.

In the field of problem-solving which of the following is the best definition of a state:

A representation of the problem in some degree of solution

What is a spoonerism?

A speech error in which there is an exchange of sounds between words

Which of the following is a common problem with flashbulb memories?

Although flashbulb memories are vivid, they are often inaccurate.

What is transient ambiguity?

Ambiguity in a sentence that is resolved by the end of the sentence.

In the field of problem solving, which of the following is the best definition of an operator?

An action that will transform the problem state into another problem state

Let's assume that a student in a psychology class has a schema for what exams are like. If their new professor, Dr. Chapman, announces that they will have their first exam in a week, what can they expect?

Based on their schema of psychology exams, the students will probably assume that the exam will contain questions that they will have to answer, and that they will likely have to answer more than a single question. They will also assume that the content of the exam will come from lectures, the textbook, or both.

Most undergraduate students have spent a large portion of their college careers typing on computer keyboards and can type with ease. However, if I provided you with a blank keyboard (without the letters labeled on it) and asked you to tell me which letter was on each key, you would struggle to complete this task. Why is that?

Because your ability to type using a keyboard relies on implicit memory.

What are the three ways that we can acquire new problem solving operators?

By discovery, by observing someone use them, or by being told about them.

One of the reasons that people have a hard time finding the solutions to difficult problems is because they are fixated on representing objects in their conventional ways rather than in novel and creative ways. What is this tendency called?

Functional fixedness

Reducing the difference between the current state of a problem and the goal of the problem is a problem-solving technique referred to as:

Hill climbing Difference reduction

Which of the following is an example of elaborative processing?

If you are asked to memorize "The wrecking ball flew through the air", you will finish the sentence with "and smashed the building" in order to help you remember the first statement you were asked to memorize.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the nature of interference affecting memory?

It is difficult to maintain multiple associations to the same item in memory.

Research concerning how interference affects memory has shown which of the following?

It is harder to learn new associations to an item that has previous existing associations, and it is harder to retain old associations to an item once a new association is learned.

Which of the following statements best describes the insight problem?

Marsha has been working on a logic problem for the past three hours and feels very frustrated with her lack of progress. Marsha does not know that she is very close to the actual solution.

Wanner's (1983) experiment with participants listening to instructions revealed what about memory?

Memory is better for changes in wording that impact meaning (rather than style alone). Memory for meaning change is equally good whether people are warned that a change will occur or not, whereas memory for a stylistic change is much better when people are warned than not.

Which of the following statements IS NOT true of incidental and intentional learning?

Memory is better for intentional learning than incidental learning regardless of the circumstances.

Which of the following statements best describes the Power Law of Forgetting?

Memory loss is negatively accelerated as more time passes.

According to the Decay Theory of Forgetting

Memory traces decay in strength over time.

Which of the following is not an example of a flashbulb memory

Miley remembers what she ate for breakfast and lunch this morning.

Dr. Chapman knows how to drive her car. Her ability to remember how to operate her vehicle is an example of what kind of memory?

Non-declarative memory and procedural memory.

Mandler & Ritchey (1977) studied recognition memory for information in visual scenes. Which of the following statements is true of their findings regarding the effect of token distracters and type distracters on recognition?

Participants correctly rejected the type distracters 94% of the time but only rejected the token distracters 60% of the time.

The Theory of Propositional Representation would predict which of the following:

People remember the meaning of primitive assertions that are made in a sentence but do not remember the precise wording used in the sentence

Which of the following best explains the immediacy of interpretation principle?

People try to extract meaning out of each word as it arrives and do not wait until the end of a sentence (or end of a phrase) to decide how to interpret the word.

Which structures in the human brain are involved in the creation and storage of new memories?

Prefrontal regions and Hippocampal regions

What is the crucial difference between short-term memory and Baddely's phonological loop?

Short-term memory is critical for getting information into long-term memory whereas the phonological loop only functions to keep information available in an auxiliary system.

In the study of language, syntax, semantics, and phonology concern what parts of language, respectively?

Syntax concerns word order, Semantics concerns sentence meaning, and Phonology concerns sound structure of sentences.

The two neural components (event-related potential) that are related to language processing are the N400 and P600. These two components reflect which kinds of language violations in language comprehension tasks?

The P600 represents a neural response to snytax violations and the N400 represents a neural response to semantic violations. Both the N400 and the P600 represent a neural response to both snytax violations and semantic violations.

Research has shown that children interpret these two sentences in the same way "The cat chased the mouse" and "The mouse chased the cat". The children act both sentences out by showing a cat doll chasing a mouse doll. Which of the following statements best describes why the children interpreted both sentences in the same way?

The children relied more heavily on semantic patterns than syntactic patterns

Neuroscience studies have examined the brain's neural activation during false and true memories. Which of the following statements best describes the findings regarding these experiments?

The hippocampus shows the same activation level to true and false memories; the activation in this structure does not appear to discriminate between what the person experienced versus what they imagined

The two systems that Baddely proposed in his theory of working memory are:

The visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological sketchpad

Linguists focus on two aspects of language: productivity and regularity. Which of the following statements best describes what these terms refer to? Linguists focus on two aspects of language: productivity and regularity. Which of the following statements best describes what these terms refer to?

There are an infinite number of possible utterances in any language and the utterances are systematic in many ways.

Which of the following statements is true about the relationship between a person's goals in a problem solving task and their neural response during that task (as measured by fMRI)?

There is increased blood flow to the prefrontal cortex during problem solving, and there is a strong relationship between the number of goals being maintained and the neural activity level in the prefrontal cortex.

In the following sentence, there are language violations. What type of language violations are present here? "Did vomit the cat on the floor?"

This sentence contains a syntax violation.

The short-term memory span of most adults is what?

Typical memory span is 7 items

Which of the following best describes the Power Law of Learning?

When people try to learn a set of facts (and they practice those facts daily), the time it takes to recognize a fact will decrease. However, the rate of improvement will decrease overtime. Each day, the improvement is a bit smaller.

Imagine you open a new credit card account. The customer service representative asks you for your mailing address, and you have no problem providing it (without having to look it up). This is an example of what kind of memory?

explicit memory

A physician meets a new patient. This patient suffered a head injury in a bad car accident and she is unable to learn the doctor's name or remember what day it is. But she can still recall everything she learned before her car accident. It is most likely that this patient is experiencing retrograde amnesia.

false

A set effect is always considered a hindrance to problem-solving

false

Declarative memory includes several categories of memory including procedural memory

false

Difference reduction is a more sophisticated way to solve problems compared to means-end analysis.

false

Eyewitness testimony is typically very accurate because individuals are in a high-arousal state when they encoded the memories

false

If a participant is shown pairs of items and asked to judge whether they are words or nonwords as quickly as possible, the participant should respond more quickly to "GLOVE-TEACHER" than "CEREAL-MILK".

false

Implicit memory refers to knowledge that we can consciously recall.

false

In the theory of Modularity Processing, syntax and semantics are combined at all levels of neural processing.

false

It is possible to solve the Tower of Hanoi problem using only a difference reduction strategy.

false

Language comprehension consists of three stages: the parsing stage, the perceptual stage, and the utilization stage, in that order.

false

One major issue that arises during problem solving is that people are reluctant to apply an operator that will require them to undo the effect of a previous operator. This is referred to as difference reduction.

false

Only humans are capable of analogical reasoning.

false

Schemas do not allow for variation in the objects or items that fit a particular category.

false

State-dependent learning proves that learning is equal when you are intoxicated or not intoxicated, as long as the learning and testing occur under the same conditions

false

The Power Law of Learning shows that the time needed to recognize a fact you are learning will remain the same every time you are tested.

false

The four R's in the PQ4R method are: Read, Recite, Regurgitate, Review.

false

The incubation effect allows people to solve problems that they have been struggling with because as time passes, they realize that the poor solutions they were using are clearly ineffective and they refocus their attention on what is feasible.

false

The theory of spreading activation refers to short-term memory.

false

The word-length effect provides strong evidence that Baddeley was incorrect about the articulatory loop in his model of working memory.

false

We cannot parse a sentence if it lacks the appropriate syntax, even if it contains the appropriate semantic content. An example of something we cannot process is "Child candy eat".

false

When children first start using language, the complexity of their sentence structures matches that of adults.

false

Recently, a large controversy emerged related to memories of child sexual abuse. There have been many cases in which individuals claim that they have recovered previously-supressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, typically recovered in therapy. Some researchers believe that these memories may not be true, and perhaps were introduced through suggestion from the therapist during their interviews. What is this called?

false-memory syndrome

A college student is working on a problem set for her Calculus II class. She is struggling to figure out the solution to one of the problems and after working on it for several hours, she decides to go to sleep and try again in the morning. Once she sits down to look at the problem again with a cup of coffee in hand, she quickly figures out the appropriate solution that she couldn't figure out the day before. What is this an example of?

incubation effect

The Tower of Hanoi problem:

is a problem solving task in which participants are asked to move disks from one peg to another peg in order to align the disks in the appropriate size order on a specific peg. a simple difference-reduction method to solving the problem is not effective. can be solved using a means-end strategy with subgoals

For approximately 96% of the human population, language is processed where in the brain?

left hemisphere

Which brain structure is thought to allow humans to have exceptional problem solving abilities (and is also much larger in humans than other mammals)?

prefontal cortex

In long-term memory, currently attended items (e.g words) can help make associated memories more available. Words and items can prime our memory for other items. What is this referred to?

spreading activation

According to the modularity position of language, language processes in the brain are entirely independent from the rest of the cognitive processes.

true

According to the principle of minimal attachment, language users tend to interpret sentences in a wa that causes minimal complication of its phrase structure.

true

Analogy can be used in problem solving when the problem solver realizes that the way they solved a previous problem may be relevant to the current problem and they apply their previous experience to help solve the current situation.

true

Baddeley's theory proposed that working memory functioned with a central executive that controlled two slave systems including a visuospatial sketchpad and a phonological loop.

true

Children believe that all things in an artifact category have the same functions and all things in a biological category have the same parts.

true

Explicit memories are formed in the hippocampus, but implicit memories can be primed in cortical brain structures.

true

If someone has experienced brain damage to the prefrontal cortex, they are likely to struggle to complete specific steps in the Tower of Hanoi problem.

true

In order for an action to qualify as problem solving, the action has to be goal-directed, has to include sub-goal decomposition, and include operator application.

true

In order to overcome functional fixedness, the problem-solver needs to be willing and able to consider different and novel uses for the items they have to work with

true

Infants under 1 year and monkeys with frontal lobe damage are not able to successfully perform delayed match to sample tasks.

true

Lexical ambiguity arises when a sentence contains a word that has more than one meaning and we have to use the context of the sentence to interpret the meaning of the word.

true

Older children and adults acquire a language more rapidly than young children, but younger children who acquire a new language will ultimately attain full mastery of the language, whereas the older children and adults may never master the finer points of language (such as phonology and morphology).

true

One possible concern with learning to scuba dive is that all of the classroom instruction you receive is conducted on land, whereas the test of the information you learned will take place in a different context (underwater).

true

Our ability to recall happy memories is better when we are in a happy mood than when we are in a sad mood.

true

Schemas represent categorical knowledge according to a slot structure.

true

Some scientists who support the embodied cognition perspective believe that our understanding of language relies on our covert simulation of the actions that the language is describing.

true

Spreading activation explains how a context can help make some memories more available.

true

The depth of processing theory argues that rehearsal will improve a memory only when the items are processed in a deep and meaningful way.

true

The sentence "the horse raced past the barn fell" is called a garden-path sentence because when we read it, we first commit to one interpretation before realizing that the interpretation is incorrect.

true

The term "isa link" refers to the connection between nodes in a semantic network.

true

The two critical factors in the activation equation for the ACT theory are the base-level activation and the activation received through associations.

true

The very famous amnesic patient, HM, could not form any new memories after his surgery for epilepsy. HM likely could not form new memories because his entire hippocampus had been removed.

true

You are more likely to be able to remember information if you can revisit the same emotional and physical state that you were in when you learned the information, which is referred to as state-dependent learning.

true

the following sentence is an example of a center-embedded sentence. "The professor the student liked was young"

true

The delayed match to sample task allows researchers to assess what type of memory?

working memory