AP Psych Unit 5: Cognition - Review Questions

Which of the following refers to the potential of an individual to perform an as-yet-unlearned task? A) Aptitude B) Interest C) Cultural fairness D) Achievement E) Projection

A) Aptitude

According to Sternberg, which of the following types of intelligence in his triarchic theory are measured by standard IQ test? I. analytic II. practical III. creative A) I only B) II only C) III only D) I and II only E) I, II, and III

A) I only

In the morning, Jorge watched a cartoon about a sarcastic rabbit. Later, in his psychology class, he viewed the image above and readily identified it as a rabbit instead of a duck. Which of the following best explains this phenomenon? A) Priming B) Habituation C) Conditioned response D) Stimulus generalization E) Discrimination

A) Priming

Research on a critical period during the acquisition of second languages indicates that which of the following statements is true? A) The older an individual is, the more difficulty he or she will have with second-language pronunciation. B) Children have a more difficult time than adults understanding the grammar of the second language. C) Articulation of difficult sounds in the second language is easier for adults than for children. D) Adults acquiring a second language typically speak with less of an accent than children acquiring the same second language. E) For adults, acquiring a second language is as easy as it was for them to learn their native language.

A) The older an individual is, the more difficulty he or she will have with second-language pronunciation.

Because it has all of the features commonly associated with the concept bird, a robin is considered A) a prototype B) a schematic C) an algorithm D) a phenotype E) a heuristic

A) a prototype

Which of the following is a good example of functional fixedness? A) failing to use a dime as a screwdriver when you have lost your screwdriver B) not being able to solve a physics problem because you apply the same rule you always do C) using a blanket as a pillow D) adding water to a cake mix when it calls for milk E) thinking of an apple first when you are asked to name fruits

A) failing to use a dime as a screwdriver when you have lost your screwdriver

A standardization sample for developing a test A) should be representative of all the types of people for whom the test is designed. B) is an early version of the test to determine questions that differentiate individuals C) is a set of norms that will determine what score should be considered passing. D) should include people from all different age groups, ethnic groups, and genders. E) must include a standard set of directions for administering the test that all students will receive.

A) should be representative of all the types of people for whom the test is designed.

Matthew's parents are physicists, and so are the parents of several of his best friends. Therefore, Matthew believes that many people are employed as physicists. Matthew's reasoning is based on A) the availability heuristic B) the conjunction fallacy C) the representativeness heuristic D) risky decision making E) a mental set

A) the availability heuristic

Which of the following best describes Charles Spearman's "g" of intelligence? A) There are many factors that determine intelligence, but genetics is the most important one. B) The internal validity of an intelligence test is "g". C) A general intelligence that underlies success on a wide variety of tasks is "g". D) Giftedness is determined by both innate ability to perform and experiences one has in life. E) The "g" is measured by the speed with which one can process information.

C) A general intelligence that underlies success on a wide variety of tasks is "g".

Which of the following is an example of a prelinguistic event? A) Telegraphic speech B) Motherese C) Babbling D) Holophrasing E) Paraphrasing

C) Babbling

The component of intelligence described by Raymond Cattell as involving the ability to understand logical relationships, reason abstractly, and learn quickly is related to which of the following? A) Mental age B) Intelligence quotient C) Fluid intelligence D) Emotional intelligence E) Crystallized intelligence

C) Fluid intelligence

Which of the following kinds of learning is indicated by the ability to recall a memorized list of unrelated words in reverse order? A) State-dependent B) Latent C) Serial D) Procedural E) Paired-associate

C) Serial

Barika, who is 75, takes longer to solve problems that require abstract reasoning than she did when she was 35. This tendency indicates A) a decrease in her overall intelligence level B) an increase in her crystallized ability C) a decline in her fluid intelligence D) failing eyesight, which can be compensated for by large print being used on the test. E) a problem in her concrete operational thought.

C) a decline in her fluid intelligence

When confronted with the sequence "__N __" at the end of a word in a crossword puzzle, Tony inserts the letters "I" and "G" in the two blanks because that procedure has often led to the correct answer in previous puzzles. This example illustrates the use of A) mental rotation B) elaborative rehearsal C) a heuristic D) a prototype E) a syllogism

C) a heuristic

Hermann Ebbinghaus' research would most likely predict that A) it is possible to implant false memories about being lost in a shopping mall in participants' minds B) children will learn best when they are challenged by a task that they cannot do on their own but can do with guidance C) a student who only studies the night before a test will very rapidly forget most of the information studied after the test is over D) cats can learn to free themselves from puzzle boxes and eventually become faster at freeing themselves E) rats will learn to navigate mazes even if they are not given a reward

C) a student who only studies the night before a test will very rapidly forget most of the information studied after the test is over

Unlike B.F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky believes that children A) learn to speak by mimicking the sounds around them B) speak more quickly if their parents correct their mispronunciations early C) are hard-wired for language acquisition D) learn language more quickly if positive rewards are given to them E) can learn to speak correctly only during a critical age

C) are hard-wired for language acquisition

Freddie is a 10-year-old boy with a mental age of 12. According to the scoring of the Stanford-Binet test, Freddie's intelligence quotient score is A) 12 B) 83 C) 95 D) 120 E) 140

D) 120

The chart above illustrates which of the following psychological concepts? A) Next-in-line effect B) Spacing effect C) Misinformation effect D) Serial position effect E) Short-term memory decay

D) Serial position effect

Which of the following is the most useful study strategy to help a student retain the words in a vocabulary list? A) Focusing on the pronunciation of the words B) Putting the words in alphabetical order C) Repeating each word three times D) Using each word in a sentence E) Counting the number of syllables in each word

D) Using each word in a sentence

After having a stroke resulting from a blockage of blood to the medial temporal lobe, Gerald could not remember new information, such as the books he had just read, new songs he had just heard, or the faces of new people he had just met. Gerald was experiencing A) dissociative fugue B) dissociative amnesia C) retrograde amnesia D) anterograde amnesia E) conversion disorder

D) anterograde amnesia

According to the information-processing view of memory, the first stage in memory processing involves A) retrieval B) storage C) rehearsal D) encoding E) transfer

D) encoding

In the preceding example, which of the item would be recalled in Doug's short-term memory immediately after writing the list? A) peas, corn, squash B) peas, corn, onions C) apples, pears, bananas D) flour, milk, eggs E) flour, corn, bananas

D) flour, milk, eggs

On a fishing trip, Ed realizes that he has mistakenly packed the sewing box instead of the tackle box. He wants to fish but returns home because he does not have any line or hooks. Ed's failure to realize that sewing thread can be used as fishing line and that a bent needle can be used as a hook is an example of A) poor problem representation B) cognitive accommodation C) backward masking D) functional fixedness E) proactive interference

D) functional fixedness

Wolfgang Köhler considered a chimpanzee's sudden solving of a problem evidence of A) instinct B) modeling C) learning set D) insight E) spontaneous recovery

D) insight

Noam Chomsky's view of language proposes that A) there is an inherent language acquisition device B) thinking is merely subvocal language C) different levels of language ability are hereditarily determined D) language acquisition can be explained by social modeling E) language is learned principally through verbal reinforcement

A) there is an inherent language acquisition device

Which of the following exemplifies retroactive interference? A) After suffering a blow to the head, Jean cannot form new memories. B) Elle failed a Spanish test because she studied for her Italian test after studying Spanish. C) Lee cannot remember an important date on the history exam, D) Gene cannot remember his new locker combination but remembers last year's. E) Jodi remembers the first few items on her school supply list but can't remember the rest of them.

B) Elle failed a Spanish test because she studied for her Italian test after studying Spanish.

Failure to recognize that an object typically not used for a particular purpose can, in fact, serve that purpose illustrates which of the following? A) Schema B) Functional fixedness C) Availability D) Insight E) Confirmation bias

B) Functional fixedness

Elena is presented with a list of 20 numbers. When asked to recall this list, she remembers more numbers from the beginning than from the end of the list. This phenomenon demonstrates which of the following types of effect? A) Mnemonic B) Primacy C) Recency D) Secondary E) Clustering

B) Primacy

During development of standardized tests, questions that are answered correctly by almost all students and those that missed by almost all students are eliminated. Why? A) Only questions that are moderately difficult should be included on a test. B) These questions fail to show individual differences in ability. C) These questions are poorly written. D) The questions may be valid , but they are not reliable. E) This eliminates bias in administering the test.

B) These questions fail to show individual differences in ability.

Heidi was trying to solve the anagram TORYS by rearranging every letter one at a time until she was able to identify the correct word: STORY. She could have attempted to solve the anagram more quickly by pairing common letters, like ST, but she did not do so. Her approach to solving the anagram involved A) a heuristic B) an algorithm C) incubation D) inductive reasoning E) dialectical reasoning

B) an algorithm

A test that is valid must A) have scores that fit a normal curve B) be reliable C) be normed on a random sample D) predict future behavior E) reveal important information

B) be reliable

A group of friends watched a recent episode of a crime investigation show and concluded that they would have been able to figure out who was responsible for a crime more proficiently than did the television investigators. The friends' overestimation of their ability to determine who committed the crime is most likely due to a reasoning error known as A) the availability heuristic B) hindsight bias C) confirmation bias D) cognitive dissonance E) actor-observer bias

B) hindsight bias

In a memory study, the experimenter reads the same list of words to two groups. She asks group A to count the letters in each word, and she asks group B to focus on the meaning of each word for a later memory quiz. During a recall test, participants in group B recall significantly more words than participants in group A. Memory researchers attribute this effect to differences in A) priming B) levels of processing C) proactive interference D) procedural memory E) episodic memory

B) levels of processing

A word or part of a word that is in itself meaningful, but that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units, is called a A) grapheme B) morpheme C) phoneme D) performative E) holophrase

B) morpheme

A teacher has to learn 170 new student names every year and finds it difficult to remember the names of former students. The teacher's memory problem most likely results from A) proactive interference B) retroactive interference C) retroactive amnesia D) anterograde amnesia E) the misinformation effect

B) retroactive interference

The three stages of the Atkinson-Shiffrin process of memory are A) iconic, echoic, encoding B) sensory, short term, long term C) shallow, medium, and deep processing D) semantic, episodic, procedural E) cerebellum, temporal lobe

B) sensory, short term, long term

Jim has seen reports of a number of cases of Ebola on the news. He is more afraid of contracting Ebola than tuberculosis, even though the risk of infection of tuberculosis is greater than that of Ebola. Jim's fear would most likely be attributed to A) the representative heuristic B) the availability heuristic C) an illusory correlation D) functional fixedness E) gambler's fallacy

B) the availability heuristic

Phonemes are A) the rules of grammar that dictate letter combinations in a language B) the smallest unit of sound in a language C) the smallest unit of meaning in a language D) semantically the same as morphemes E) about 100 different words that are common to all languages

B) the smallest unit of sound in a language

Compared to convergent thinkers, to solve a problem divergent thinkers are more likely to A) process information to arrive at the single best answer B) think creatively and generate multiple answers C) problem solve in a systematic step-by-step fashion D) frequently suffer from functional fixedness E) use algorithms rather than heuristics to arrive at a solution

B) think creatively and generate multiple answers

According to the levels of processing theory of memory, A) we remember items that are repeated again and again. B) maintenance rehearsal will encode items into our long-term memory C) deep processing involves elaborative rehearsal, ensuring encoding into long-term memory D) input, output, and storage are the three levels. E) we can only hold seven items in our short-term memory store before it is full.

C) deep processing involves elaborative rehearsal, ensuring encoding into long-term memory

A researcher shows the same video of an automobile accident to two different groups of participants. Participants in group one are asked: "Did you see a broken headlight?" Participants in group two are asked: "Did you see the broken headlight?" The researcher finds that participants in group two are much more likely to recall having seen a broken headlight, even though there actually was no broken headlight in the video. The researcher is investigating the effects of which of the following on recall? A) Algorithms B) Heuristics C) framing D) Proactive interference E) The primacy effect

C) framing

Which of the following brain structures plays a key role in transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory? A) hypothalamus B) thalamus C) hippocampus D) frontal lobe E) parietal lobe

C) hippocampus

In Elizabeth Loftus' study of memory reconstruction in which students viewed films of an automobile accident, the major influence on recall was the A) number of pictures the students were shown of the accident B) length of time the students viewed pictures of the accident C) wording of questions the students were asked about the accident D) location of the accident E) sex and age of the students

C) wording of questions the students were asked about the accident

Which of the following examples best illustrates episodic memory? A) telling someone how to tie a shoe B) answering correctly that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066 C) knowing that the word for "black" in French is "noir" D) remembering that a clown was at your fifth birthday party E) long-term memory for the times tables learned in second grade

D) remembering that a clown was at your fifth birthday party

Dai was drunk, so his girlfriend convinced him to get out of his car, and she drove him home in her car. He could not remember where his car was parked when he got up the next morning, but after drinking some liquor, Dai remembered where he left his car. This phenomenon best illustrates A) the misinformation effect B) mood-congruent memory C) the framing effect D) state-dependent memory E) anterograde amnesia

D) state-dependent memory

A prototype is best defined as A) an example of habituation B) an example of bottom-up processing C) the equivalent of feature abstraction D) the hypothetical "most typical" instance of a category E) an essential element of category membership

D) the hypothetical "most typical" instance of a category

Which of the following is a holophrase 1-year-old Amanda is likely to say? A) "Mmmmm" B) "Gaga" C) "Eat apple" D) "I eated the cookie" E) "Bottle"

E) "Bottle"

An individual's ability to remember the day he or she first swam the length of a swimming pool is most clearly an example of which of the following kinds of memory? A) Semantic B) Flashbulb C) Procedural D) Priming E) Episodic

E) Episodic

A sudden inability to remember how to tie a certain kind of knot indicates a deficit in which kind of memory? A) Declarative B) Semantic C) Iconic D) Episodic E) Procedural

E) Procedural

Doug wrote a grocery list of 10 items, but leaves it at home. The list included in order: peas, corn, squash, onions, apples, pears, bananas, flour, milk, and eggs. If the law of primacy holds, which of the following is Doug most likely to remember when he gets to the store? A) peas, pears, eggs B) banana, flour, peas C) apples, pears, bananas D) flour, milk, eggs E) peas, corn, onions

E) peas, corn, onions

All human languages have several basic sounds in common called A) pheromones B) semantic units C) syntactic units D) morphemes E) phonemes

E) phonemes

People who have difficulty remembering recently learned materials because of similar information learned earlier in life are demonstrating the phenomenon of A) cue-dependent forgetting B) repression C) reconstruction D) retroactive interference E) proactive interference

E) proactive interference

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: A) confirmation bias B) cognitive illusion C) the mere exposure effect D) the anchoring effect E) the representativeness heuristic

E) the representativeness heuristic