Cognitive Psychology 2

Your teacher asks you how many uses you can think of a for a pencil. She is testing your _________.

divergent thinking

In order to determine if someone has just said "bark" or "park," you have to discriminate the initial sound, or:

phoneme

The Vietnamese language has the sound that goes with the letters "NG" at the beginning of words, including names. Americans have difficulty hearing and speaking that sound. That sound is a kind of:

phoneme

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions

divergent thinking

Instead of simply listing common uses for a paperclip, generating as many creative and unconventional uses for a paperclip as possible such as using the paperclip as a bookmark, fashioning it into a piece of jewelry, or using it to create a tiny sculpture is an example of what type of thinking?

divergent thinking

In trying to unscramble the letters ARGIN Derek is so focused on thinking that the word ends in ING that he doesn't unscramble the word to GRAIN. Derek is experiencing:

fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set

fixation

When a mental set interferes with our ability to solve a problem, _________ has occurred.

fixation

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with eplicit, conscious reasoning

intuition

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language

semantics

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation

sunk-cost fallacy

You choose to finish a boring movie instead of leaving because you already paid for the ticket. This is an example of:

sunk-cost fallacy

You decided to write a book, and five years later you're still writing it. The topic that once interested you no longer does, and it's a struggle to get yourself to sit down at your desk and start typing. But you're two hundred pages in and have dedicated hundreds of hours to researching and writing your novel. You are demonstrating:

sunk-cost fallacy

"If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are, a different game you should play." This quote spoken by the beloved Star Wars character Yoda has issues with what aspect of language?

syntax

In many of the Romance languages, the adjective often follows the noun it describes or modifies. The arrangement of words and sentences is an example of:

syntax

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

syntax

As soon as Poppy is safely fastened in her car seat, she says "go car" to her caregiver. Poppy is in which stage of language acquisition?

telegraphic speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs.

telegraphic speech

Which of the following best identifies the early speech stage in which a child speaks using mostly nouns and verbs?

telegraphic speech

A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

insight

After spending two hours trying to solve an engineering problem, Amira finally gave up. As she was trying to fall asleep that night, a solution to the problem popped into her head. Amira's experience best illustrates:

insight

In his study, Wolfgang Kohler placed bananas outside the reach of the chimpanzees and provided them with sticks that were too short to reach the bananas. The chimpanzees tried various methods of reaching the bananas, such as stacking boxes or using the sticks in creative ways, but were unsuccessful. However, after a period of trial and error, the chimpanzees suddenly used two sticks together to reach the bananas. These chimpanzees experienced:

insight

In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

phoneme

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

algorithm

Liam is baking a cake for the first time. He follows each of the steps in the recipe exactly as written, which results in a perfectly baked cake. Liam's success in this process is thanks to what term?

algorithm

Using the PEMDAS method to solve a math problem is an example of using (a/an):

algorithm

Dora plans to donate a portion of her allowance to either a foundation focused on increasing the accessibility of AIDS medication or an organization focused on malaria prevention. Believing that AIDS is more prevalent she chose AIDS. It turns out that fewer people have AIDS than malaria, but she has heard more about AIDS in her lifetime so she recalls more stories pertaining to that disease. What was Dora using when reasoning about the frequency of these two diseases?

availability heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability on memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

availability heuristic

Pia is trying to decide which of her two employees to promote. Both have worked the same position with the company for the same number of years and have strong leadership skills. In trying to consider any drawbacks, Employee 1 made a mistake that directly impacted Pia in a negative way, while Employee 2 made the same mistake, although it didn't cause Pia any inconvenience. Because of this, Pia was easily able to recall the mistake of Employee 1, but not Employee 2, promoting the second employee. Pia's choice was influenced by the:

availability heuristic

A stage of early language development when baby makes consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant sounds, such as "ma", "da" or "um".

babbling stage

Myrna's 6-month-old baby has been expressing a number of sounds that just sound like random syllables. Myrna's baby is currently in what stage of language expression?

babbling stage

The stage in which babies vocalize a number one-syllable sounds including phonemes not used in the language(s) they're exposed to is called the:

babbling stage

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were informed has been discredited

belief perseverance

Harold makes a statement to his niece about how young people today have it so easy. They just need to work hard and stop complaining because he worked hard to get where he is now. His niece points out a number of factors that demonstrate young people aren't afforded the same opportunities he had, but he brushes her off and remains set in his opinion. Harold is demonstrating:

belief perseverance

In spite of the substantial and extensively publicized evidence pointing towards Senator Norton's involvement in grave political corruption and misconduct, a significant number of her past election supporters maintained their conviction in her political integrity. This reaction is a prime illustration of

belief perseverance

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

cognition

A teenager believes very strongly that a particular basketball player should not play on his favorite team. Over the course of the season, the teenager focuses on every mistake, turnover, and missed shot the player makes. However, the teen does not notice how well the player passes, helps the other teammates, and rebounds. This teenager's behavior illustrates which of the following?

confirmation bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our presonceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

confirmation bias

Some individuals who have very strong political opinions only seek out news sources that align with their beliefs, not looking at a variety of news sources. These individuals are demonstrating:

confirmation bias

Mary is working on a crossword puzzle. For one of the clues, she analyzes the information, generate possible answers, and eliminate options that don't fit the puzzle. As you go through this process, she gradually narrows down the possibilities until she arrives at the correct answer that fits the puzzle. Mary is using:

convergent thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

convergent thinking

Seth is given the following riddle to solve: "I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but I need water to live. What am I?" He eliminates possible answers that don't fit the description, such as "a tree" (which is alive) or "a fish" (which has a mouth). He narrows down the possible answers to arrive at the single correct solution of "fire." What did Seth use to solve this?

convergent thinking

Divergent thinking and overcoming functional fixedness are related to:

creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

creativity

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

critical period

Being that people most easily master the grammar of a second language during childhood is the best evidence that language acquisition has a:

critical period

When infants and very young children live in environments where they have no exposure to or experience with language, their language development is severely limited. These limitations are not reversible. This supports which of the following terms?

critical period

On Monday, the meteorologist forecast a 20 percent chance of rain, so Sheryl took her umbrella to work. On Friday, he reported an 80 percent chance that it would not rain, so Sheryl left her umbrella at home. Sheryl's behavior illustrates:

framing

People are more concerned about a medical procedure when told it has a 10 percent death rate than theyare when told it has a 90 percent survival rate. Which psychological concept explains this difference in concern?

framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

framing

A teenager was given a new phone as a gift and thought the old phone should be thrown away, not realizing that the old phone could be used as a music player when running to avoid taking up space on the new phone and it wouldn't matter if it was dropped or got sweaty. This example illustrates (a/an):

functional fixedness

Looking for an ice pack, Millie doesn't even consider the bag of peas she could have placed on her jammed finger. Millie is demonstrating:

functional fixedness

The tendency to perceive an object only in terms of its most common use.

functional fixedness

A family has had three boy babies in a row thinks the next one is bound to be a girl. This family would benefit from learning about:

gambler's fallacy

Maureen has gone on five job interviews this week and she hasn't had any offers. I think today is the day she will get an offer. Maureen is falling prey to:

gambler's fallacy

The belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently

gambler's fallacy

A system if rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

grammar

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently

heuristic

A tip for taking the math portion of the ACT is to start by plugging the number for option C into the math formula. Since the answers are listed in order of value, if the number doesn't allow for the problem to be solved, it at least informs the test taker whether to use a smaller or larger number, saving them time in taking the test. This is an example of (a/an):

heuristic

Jillian starts puzzles by finding the corner and edge pieces and puts them together, then looking for pieces with similar patterns to put them together until it's complete. Jillian is using (a/an):

heuristic

A company launches a new product that doesn't sell well and is eventually discontinued. After the fact, employees and managers might say things like, "We should have known that product wasn't going to sell. It was obvious from the start that there wasn't enough demand for it." However, if they are honest with themselves, they would acknowledge that they didn't have all the information or insights they have now when they made the decision to launch the product. Their behavior is demonstrating:

hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it.

hindsight bias

You are watching a basketball game and see a player make a shot from half-court at the buzzer to win the game. After the game, you might say to yourself or others, "I knew he was going to make that shot. I could tell by the way he was playing earlier in the game." However, if you are honest with yourself, you would acknowledge that you didn't actually predict the outcome before it happened. This is an example of:

hindsight bias

You are trying to decide between two job offers. One job has a higher salary, but the other job feels like a better fit for your personality and interests. Even though you don't have any concrete evidence to support your decision, you have a strong feeling that the second job is the right choice for you. What are you experiencing as you make this decision?

intuition

You are walking alone on a dark and quiet street. Suddenly, you feel an uneasy and inexplicable sense of danger or fear, even though you don't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. You may not be able to articulate exactly why you feel this way, you feel something is not right, and you should be cautious or alert. The next morning, you hear on the news that there was a mugger out at the same time and location you were last night. This is an example of:

intuition

Jenna and Liza are discussing an open, rule governed communication system that uses symbols to convey meaning. They are discussing:

language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

language

A child's brain being pre-wired with a set of linguistic rules and principles that are universal to all languages. When a child is exposed to language, the LAD allows them to analyze and internalize these rules, and apply them to the language they are hearing. This is an example of what idea within the nativist theory of language acquisition?

language acquisition device

An inherited mechanism that enables children to develop a language structure from linguistic data supplied by parents and others.

language acquisition device

Chomsky believed that individuals were able to extract the rules of a language simply from hearing a language spoken and without any type of learning. The ability to do this connects to which of the following?

language acquisition device

Although Vivienne grew up speaking both English and Spanish equally, she tends to explain her emotions using Spanish words as she finds English words don't fully describe the depth of what she's experiencing. This is an example of:

linguistic determinism/ linguistic relativity hypothesis

It has been suggested that Alaskan Inuit's rich vocabulary for describing snow enables them to perceive differences in snow conditions that would otherwise go unnoticed. This suggestion most clearly illustrates:

linguistic determinism/ linguistic relativity hypothesis

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

linguistic determinism/ linguistic relativity hypothesis

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been sucessful in the past

mental set

Anne always tries to solve math story problems by rewriting the problem in equation form. Anne has developed a(n) _____ for solving story problems

mental set

Cady is used to solving math problems using a particular formula that she learned in school. She is then given a math problem that can be solved using a different formula, but didn't realize it because she was so accustomed to using the first formula. Even though the second formula would be more efficient or effective for solving the problem, Cady could not see the alternative approach because of (a/an):

mental set

Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

metacognition

Knowing the effectiveness of different study strategies for different courses for one's own brain is an example of:

metacognition

Ravi is studying for a test and notices he's having more trouble understanding this unit than he has with other units. He reflects on his own learning process and identify strategies for improving his understanding of the content. What is Ravi using to improve his learning?

metacognition

In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word

morphemes

The prefix "pre" in "preview" or "anti" in "antisocial" are examples of:

morphemes

The suffix of "ing" communicates that an action is occurring in the present while "ed" communicates past tense. These are examples of:

morphemes

Instead of saying "Can I have a cookie?" or "I want a cookie," Parker says "cookie" to express their desire. Parker is most clearly in what stage of language acquisition?

one-word stage

JJ is able to communicate what he wants to his caregiver by saying things like "bottle," "bed," and "car." JJ is most clearly demonstrating:

one-word stage

The stage in speech development, from about 1-2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words`

one-word stage

Irma takes a multiple-choice test and feels so certain in her answers that she doesn't double-check her answers or take the time to read the questions carefully. However, when she received ger test score, you realized that you made several mistakes and didn't do as well as she thought. Irma's lack of success is due to:

overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident that correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

overconfidence

Trevor is a new driver who has just passed his driver's test. Despite his lack of experience, engages in risky behaviors such as speeding, tailgating, or taking turns too fast. Trevor is demonstrating:

overconfidence

Applying grammar rules in areas they don't apply

overgeneralization/overregularization

In English, to make a noun plural you typically add an S. There are exceptions. For example the plural for the noun foot is feet. When a child uses the word foots instead of feet, the child's speech reflects which of the following?

overgeneralization/overregularization

Two-year-old Mica tells her grandmother that the new couch "costed" too much. This scenario illustrates:

overgeneralization/overregularization

A mental image or best example of a category

prototype

Because it has all of the features commonly associated with the concept bird, a robin is considered a:

prototype

Susan had difficulty recognizing that a sea horse was a fish because it did not closely resemble her ________ of a fish.

prototype

Having been told that Syd is an engineer and Fran is an elementary school teacher, when Arnold meets the couple for the first time, he assumes that Syd is the husband and Fran is the wife, rather than the opposite, which is the case. This best illustrates:

representativeness heuristic

If a disease like sleep apnea is most prevalent in overweight older male smokers, doctors may fail to think of this disorder when a petite non-smoking woman comes in for a checkup complaining about always being tired. This error in judgment is due to (a/an):

representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

representativeness heuristic

For the sentence "I saw her duck," the word "duck" could mean "I saw her lower her head" or "I saw the bird that belongs to her." This is an example of:

semantics

Some words can have more than one meaning. For example, the word crash can refer to an auto accident or decline in the stock market. The meaning of words in a particular language relates to which of the following?

semantics