Cognitive Psychology Chapter 13 Book Questions

One hundred students are enrolled in State University's course on introductory physics for math and science majors. In the group, 60 students are math majors and 40 are science majors. Sarah is in the class. She got all As in her high school science courses, and she would like to be a chemist someday. She lives on campus. Her boyfriend is also in the class. There is a ____ chance that Sarah is a science major. a) 40% b) 50% c) 60% d) 100%

a) 40%

Lydia is 48 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy as an undergraduate. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and she participated in anti- nuclear demonstrations. Which of the following alternatives is most probable? a) Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman. b) Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman and active in the feminist movement. c) Lydia is a state governor. d) Lydia is a state governor and active in the feminist movement.

a) Lydia is a U.S. Congresswoman.

Wally and Sharon are out on a date. When Sharon asks Wally where they should go for dinner, Wally says "My coworkers keep telling me about that new Japanese place downtown, so it must be a great place to eat." Wally's response illustrates the use of a(n) a) availability heuristic. b) confirmation bias. c) conjunction rule. d) permission schema.

a) availability heuristic.

An experiment measures participants' performance in judging syllogisms. Two premises and a conclusion are presented as stimuli, and participants are asked to indicate (yes or no) if the conclusion logically follows from the premises. Error rates are then calculated for each syllogism. This experiment studies ____ reasoning. a) deductive b) intuitive c) falsification d) inductive

a) deductive

Glinda is sure that if her boyfriend proposes, she will feel elation. This is an example of an a) expected emotion. b) immediate emotion. c) integral immediate emotion. d) incidental immediate emotion.

a) expected emotion.

Cosmides and Tooby tested participants' ability to solve variations of the Wason problem, including ones containing stories about a particular culture. Their results showed that ____ is not always necessary for conditional reasoning. a) familiarity b) a premise c) validity d) using a heuristic

a) familiarity

One reason that most people do not easily solve the original (abstract) version of the Wason four-card problem is that they a) ignore the falsification principle. b) are influenced by the atmosphere effect. c) confuse the ideas of validity and truth. d) incorrectly apply the permission schema.

a) ignore the falsification principle.

By using a(n) ____ , a country could increase the percentage of individuals agreeing to be organ donors dramatically. a) opt-out procedure b) opt-in procedure c) pragmatic reasoning schema d) permission schema

a) opt-out procedure

When the "abstract" version of the Wason four-card problem is compared to a "concrete" version of the problem (in which beer, soda, and ages are substituted for the letters and numbers), a) performance is better for the concrete task. b) performance is better for the abstract task. c) performance is the same for both tasks. d) performing the abstract task improves performance of the concrete task.

a) performance is better for the concrete task.

Mr. Huff always passes back exams to his algebra class in descending order (the highest grade is handed out first). Today, Maddelyn was the first to receive her exam. Joy complained, remarking, "Maddelyn, you always get the highest grade in algebra. It was true all last year and so far this year." Maddelyn was not sure if this was correct. To figure out if this was true, Maddelyn should a) search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first and for instances when she did not. b) search her memory for instances when she did not get her exam back first. c) search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first. d) wait until the next exam is passed back to see if she gets hers back first.

a) search her memory for instances when she did get her exam back first and for instances when she did not.

A syllogism is valid if a) the conclusion follows logically from the two premises. b) the two premises and the conclusion are true. c) there is evidence to support the two premises. d) there is no more than one exception to the conclusion

a) the conclusion follows logically from the two premises.

People tend to overestimate a) what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings. b) what positive feelings will occur following a decision more so than negative feelings. c) what positive and negative feelings will occur following a decision to the same degree. d) subjective utility values following a decision.

a) what negative feelings will occur following a decision more so than positive feelings.

If a motorcycle cop believes that young female drivers speed more than other drivers, he will likely notice young female drivers speeding in the fast lane but fail to notice young male or older drivers doing the same. In this case, the police officer's judgments are biased by the operation of the a) permission schema. b) confirmation bias. c) falsification principle. d) typicality principle.

b) confirmation bias.

Bonnie has ordered her monthly supply of medicines through the mail for the past five years. Except for one order, all orders have arrived within two business days. Bonnie placed an order yesterday, and she expects to receive her order tomorrow. Bonnie is using a) an omission bias. b) inductive reasoning. c) the conjunction rule. d) the similarity-coverage model.

b) inductive reasoning.

The application of a(n) ____ makes it easier to solve the "drinking beer" version of the Wason problem. a) conjunction rule b) permission schema c) atmosphere effect d) availability heuristic

b) permission schema

The rule of the Wason four-card problem is, "If there is a vowel on one side, then there is an even number on the other side." Let's say you are presented with A, 8, M, and 13, each showing on one of four cards. To see if the rule is valid, you would have to turn over the cards showing a) 8 and M. b) A and M. c) A and 13. d) 8 and 13.

c) A and 13.

Which concept below is most closely associated with the evolutionary perspective to solving the Wason four- card problem? a) Permission schemas b) Falsification principle c) Social-exchange theory d) Availability heuristic

c) Social-exchange theory

"You can't have any pudding unless you eat your meat," says a man to his son at the dinner table. This is an example of a) inductive reasoning. b) a self-serving bias. c) a permission schema. d) the illusory correlation.

c) a permission schema.

Mia has lived in New York City all her life. She has noticed that people from upper Manhattan walk really fast, but people from lower Manhattan tend to walk slowly. Mia's observations are likely influenced from a judgment error based on her using a) the law of large numbers. b) an atmosphere effect. c) an illusory correlation. d) the falsification principle.

c) an illusory correlation.

Given its definition, expected utility theory is most applicable to deciding whether to a) break up or stay involved with a current girlfriend. b) go out for junior varsity hockey or junior varsity basketball. c) buy first class or coach tickets for a spring break trip. d) take astronomy or geology as a physical science elective course.

c) buy first class or coach tickets for a spring break trip.

Making probable conclusions based on evidence involves ____ reasoning. a) deductive b) syllogistic c) inductive d) connective

c) inductive

Research in neuroeconomics has found that the function of the ____ may be to deal with the cognitive demands of a given task, while the ____ is responsible for handling emotional goals such as resenting an unfair outcome. a) basal ganglia; corpus callosum b) striate nucleus; locus coeruleus c) prefrontal cortex; insula d) diencephalon; putamen

c) prefrontal cortex; insula

Imagine that your friend James has just taken up the habit of smoking cigars because he thinks it makes him look cool. You are concerned about the detrimental effects of smoking on his health, and you raise that concern to him. James gets a bit annoyed with your criticism and says "George Burns smoked cigars, and he lived to be 100!" You might point out that a major problem with his "George Burns" argument involves a) framing. b) the conjunction rule. c) sample size. d) none of these

c) sample size.

In an experiment that combined both physiological and behavioral approaches to the study of decision making, PFC activity was recorded while participants accepted or rejected proposals to split a sum of money ($10). PFC activation was a) greatest for accepted offers. b) greatest for rejected offers. c) the same for accepted and rejected offers. d) dependent on how much money the responder was offered.

c) the same for accepted and rejected offers.

Which of the following statements would most likely invoke the operation of a permission schema? a) No artists can be beekeepers, but some of the beekeepers must be chemists. b) All A are B. All B are C. Therefore, all A are C. c) I forgot to charge my cell phone last night, therefore I missed an important call today. d) If I get an A on my cognitive psychology exam, I can go out with my friends Saturday night.

d) If I get an A on my cognitive psychology exam, I can go out with my friends Saturday night.

Many people receive unsolicited calls from telemarketers or unwanted "junk" mailers advertising offers for products such as cable or internet services or cellular phone companies. Most people do not consider these offers and do not make a change to the plans or services that they receive because they do not want to make a decision that requires serious consideration or thought. This is an example of the ____ bias. a) actor-observer b) dual systems c) self-serving d) status quo

d) status quo

The evolutionary approach proposes that the Wason problem can be understood in terms of people's a) innate language abilities. b) ability to work well with a group of others. c) innate reasoning abilities. d) tendency to detect when others are cheating.

d) tendency to detect when others are cheating.

According to your text, the key to solving the Wason four-card problem is a) a mental model. b) a categorical syllogism. c) the law of large numbers. d) the falsification principle.

d) the falsification principle.

Stereotypes are reinforced by all of the following EXCEPT a) the availability heuristic. b) illusory correlations. c) selective attention. d) the falsification principle.

d) the falsification principle.

Failing to consider the law of large numbers most likely results in errors concerning a) confirmation bias. b) utility. c) the falsification principle. d) the representativeness heuristic.

d) the representativeness heuristic.