Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (Chapter 1- Test Questions)
Colin Cherry's experiment in which participants listen to two messages simultaneously, one in each ear, found all but which of the following?
People who are deaf process auditory information on a nonconscious level.
Regarding children's language development, Noam Chomsky noted that children generate many sentences they have never heard before. From this, he concluded that language development is driven largely by
an inborn biological program
The "Little Albert" experiment involving the rat and the loud noise is an example of which of the following types of experiments?
classical conditioning
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
cognition
A mental conception of the layout of a physical space is known as a(n)
cognitive map
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
make a decision about the stimulus.
Ebbinghaus's "memory" experiments were important because they
plotted functions that described the operation of the mind.
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin's (1968) model of memory, which was introduced a year after the publication of Neisser's book, described the flow of information in the memory system as progressing through three stages. Which memory holds incoming information for a fraction of a second and then passes most of this information to short-term memory?
sensory memory
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
simple reaction time task.
Wundt's approach, which dominated psychology in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was known as
structuralism
The investigation of how behavior is strengthened by presentation of positive reinforcers (e.g., food) or withdrawal of negative reinforcers (e.g., shock) is best known as
operant conditioning
Donald Broadbent was the first person to develop which of the following?
A flow diagram depicting the mind as processing information in a sequence of stages
Which of the following is NOT true of positron emission tomography (PET)?
It replaced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) because it was less expensive.
The use of the term artificial intelligence was coined by
John McCarthy
Which of the following does NOT characterize the information processing (IP) approach to the study of cognition?
IP emphasizes stimulus-response relationships in cognitive processes.
Which of the following is a criticism of analytic introspection?
It produces variable results from person to person.
How is the term mind used in this statement: "When he talks about his encounter with aliens, it sounds like he is out of his mind"?
The mind as a healthy mind being associated with normal functioning, a nonfunctioning mind with abnormal functioning.
Who founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany?
Wilhelm Wundt
Which of the following terms is correct in context with "conception within the rat's mind of the maze's layout"?
cognitive mapping
The first experiments in cognitive psychology were based on the idea that mental responses can be
inferred from the participants' behavior
John Watson believed that psychology should focus on the study of
observable behavior.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Symposium on Information Theory, George Miller presented a paper suggesting that
there are limits to the human ability to process information
Why can we consider Tolman one of the early cognitive psychologists?
Because he used behavior to infer mental processes
What does the field of neuropsychology study?
Behavior of people with brain damage
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?
Functioning and survival
Watson became dissatisfied with the method of analytic introspection in which context?
Results were interpreted in terms of invisible inner mental processes
A technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli is known as
analytic introspection
Which of the following methods, often associated with structuralism, was used in the psychology laboratory established by Wilhelm Wundt?
analytic introspection
Wundt's procedure in which trained participants describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli presented under controlled conditions is known as
analytic introspection
In Donders's experiment on decision making, when participants were asked to press one button if the light on the left was illuminated and another button if the light on the right was illuminated, they were engaged in a
choice reaction time task
The relationship between the ____________ is NOT measured directly by cognitive psychologist
cognitive task and the mental response
According to Ebbinghaus's research on memory, savings is a function of
elapsed time
Behaviorists believe that the presentation of ____________ increases the frequency of behavior.
positive reinforcers
Reaction time refers to the time between the _______ of a stimulus and a person's response to it.
presentation
Which memory is used for physical actions?
procedural memory
