Chapter 7 Cog
According to the research on mental imagery and interference, which of the following tasks would be most difficult? a. Trying to think about the sound of a particular word in French, while listening to a favorite song. b. Trying to create a mental image of a friend's face, while listening to a favorite song. c. Trying to mentally rotate a visual image, while listening to a favorite song. d. Trying to think about the sound of a particular word in French, while mentally rotating a mental image of a friend's face.
Answer: a
The spatial framework model emphasizes that people are typically most accurate when judging a. the above-below dimension. b. the front-back dimension. c. the right-left dimension. d. the right dimension if they are right handed, and the left dimension if they are left handed.
Answer: a
According to the rotation heuristic, a. people line up two or more geographic areas so that they form a straight row with one another. b. people tend to align angles so that the lines are perpendicular to each other. c. people tend to remember figures as being more vertical or horizontal than they really are. d. people tend to rotate their cognitive maps in a random pattern.
Answer: c
Alex lives in the United States, 20 miles due south of the boundary between the U.S. and Canada. His friend Shawn lives 30 miles due south of Alex. However, Alex thinks he lives closer to Shawn, rather than to the Canadian border. This is an example of a. the rotation heuristic. b. the alignment heuristic. c. border bias. d. a spatial framework model.
Answer: c
If you were to draw a map of the town or city in which your college is located, a. you would make the streets intersect at sharp angles, rather than right angles. b. you would make the streets more curved than they really are. c. you would tend to make the streets intersect at 90° angles. d. you would show a blending of your college building and the surrounding region, even if the boundary is really quite clear-cut.
Answer: c
Reed conducted research demonstrating that people had difficulty locating a parallelogram in their mental image of a six-sided star. This research a. supports the analog position on mental images. b. demonstrates that mental images require a four-stage processing sequence. c. supports the idea that we use verbal descriptions to store mental images. d. demonstrates that we must reject both the analog and propositional views of mental imagery.
Answer: c
Which of the following students would need to have the greatest spatial skill? a. Thomas, an English major b. Stephanie, a History major c. Elise, an Engineering major d. Patrick, a Music major
Answer: c
Which of the following students' statements provides the best summary of the section on visual imagery and interference? a. Chaim: "Although the early research showed that mental images interfere with perceptual stimuli, the more recent research shows no such evidence." b. Alexei: "Experimenter expectancy plays such an important role that the appropriate research has not yet been conducted." c. Sarah: "Interference is greater if the mental image and the physical stimulus are in the same mode (e.g., both visual) rather than in different modes." d. Rigoberta: "The studies on this topic provide the strongest support of the propositional code that researchers have yet demonstrated."
Answer: c
Chapter 7 examines gender comparisons in mental rotation skills. According to this discussion, a. gender differences tend to be smaller for mental rotation problems than for other mental imagery tasks. b. none of the research has reported significant gender differences in mental rotation. c. all of the research has reported significant gender differences in mental rotation. d. the research sometimes shows that the gender differences in mental rotation disappear when the instructions are changed.
Answer: d
Suppose you draw a map of a familiar street in your neighborhood. You draw all the houses an equal distance from the street, even though some houses are clearly closer to the street than others. Your error is an example of a. the 90° angle heuristic. b. the spatial framework model. c. the symmetry heuristic. d. the alignment heuristic.
Answer: d
An analog code means that a. a representation is very similar to the physical object. b. we store information in terms of abstract descriptions. c. we construct a representation from a verbal description. d. the image is permanently stored in working memory.
Answer: a
Cognitive neuroscience research on mental rotation suggests that the motor cortex is active when people mentally rotate objects a. after first having physically rotated objects with their hands. b. after standard instructions to rotate the figure in their mind. c. after watching a motor rotate objects. d. in three dimensions, but not in two dimensions.
Answer: a
Imagine that you read about research in which students study a map of an imaginary college campus. Then they are instructed to mentally travel between two points on this map. According to their results, the mental travel time increases as the distance increases between the two points. These results seem to support a. the analog code. b. the propositional code. c. the alignment heuristic. d. the spatial framework model.
Answer: a
In comparison to visual imagery, research suggests that auditory imagery is a. less vivid. b. a rare ability that only trained musicians have. c. more detailed. d. more likely to be the subject of published research.
Answer: a
Research on auditory imagery and pitch suggests that a. there are similar "distance" effects in auditory imagery as there are in visual imagery. b. people can only imagine a very small range of pitches. c. when imagining sounds, people tend to imagine them in a monotone, without pitch variation. d. women are better at imagining a variety of pitches than men are.
Answer: a
Researchers have conducted studies on a variety of vision-like processes that are unfamiliar to the general public. This research demonstrates that a mental image has roughly the same effect that an actual visual stimulus has, for example, in producing the masking effect. On the basis of this research, we can conclude that a. demand characteristics probably cannot explain the results. b. the propositional-coding explanation is likely to be correct. c. visual imagery is stronger than auditory or motor imagery. d. experimenter expectancy consistently influences the research on mental imagery.
Answer: a
Studies in which trained musicians rated the similarity of perceived and imagined musical instruments show that a. auditory imagery for timbre is quite similar to the actual perception of timbre. b. auditory imagery for timbre is significantly different than the actual perception of timbre. c. auditory imagery for volume is significantly different than the actual perception of volume. d. auditory imagery for pitch is significantly different than the actual perception of pitch.
Answer: a
Suppose that you have just studied a map of a region, and you have formed a cognitive map for it. Based on what you know from Chapter 7, we could predict that a. you would estimate that two cities are far apart if there are many other cities in between. b. you would estimate that two cities are close if there are many cities in between. c. the number of intervening cities only influences distance estimates when people are very familiar with the route. d. the number of cities on the route between two cities has little effect on distance estimates.
Answer: a
The research on visual imagery and interference shows that a. people have trouble seeing a blue arrow when they are imagining a tree. b. people have trouble seeing a blue arrow while they are imagining the sound of a musical instrument. c. the studies support the propositional-code perspective of mental imagery. d. a mental image does not typically interfere with seeing a physical image.
Answer: a
What is one advantage of the neuropsychology approach to studying visual imagery? a. Demand characteristics are not likely to influence the results. b. The stimuli can be manipulated much more precisely. c. Ethical considerations are substantially less worrisome. d. People are much more cooperative in trying to confirm the experimental hypotheses.
Answer: a
Which of the following everyday examples would be most similar to the research findings on visual images and interference? a. When you form a visual image of a friend's face, you have difficulty seeing a faint visual stimulus. b. When you form a visual image of a friend's face, you are faster at identifying his or her voice. c. A visual image will enhance your ability to see a faint visual stimulus, but it will reduce your ability to hear a faint auditory stimulus. d. When you form an auditory image of a doorbell ringing, you will be better at detecting a tone of a similar pitch; in contrast, you will be worse at detecting a tone that is at least an octave higher or lower.
Answer: a
Which of the following students provides the most accurate general summary of the research on cognitive maps? a. Francine: "When people store spatial information, they tend to represent their cognitive maps as being more regular and orderly than they really are." b. Justin: "Unfortunately, people seem to have difficulty retaining visual information, and so our cognitive maps are highly inaccurate." c. Ana María: "People are actually much more accurate in creating cognitive maps than they are in recalling a story." d. Oskar: "People's mental maps for large geographic regions are fairly accurate, but their mental maps for small geographic regions are likely to reveal many errors."
Answer: a
Which of the following students provides the most accurate information about analog codes and propositional codes for mental images? a. Qing: "An analog code emphasizes the physical resemblance between a visual stimulus and the corresponding mental image." b. Dave: "An analog code emphasizes the stimulation of the receptors, for example the receptors in the retina of the eye." c. D'Naijha: "A propositional code emphasizes the stimulation of the sensory portions of the cerebral cortex." d. Oscar: "A propositional code emphasizes the spatial relationships between the components of a mental image."
Answer: a
Which of the following students provides the most accurate information about the current importance of mental imagery and spatial skills? a. Assaf: "Spatial ability plays a very important part in careers related to science and technology." b. Lucille: "Within the area of mental imagery, people now conduct more research on auditory imagery than on visual imagery." c. Sondra: "Elementary school teachers in the U.S. are now emphasizing spatial skills much more than in the previous decade." d. Evgeni: "Unfortunately, people cannot greatly improve their spatial skills, once they have reached early adolescence."
Answer: a
Why do researchers in the area of mental imagery need to be concerned about demand characteristics? a. Experimenters might unintentionally convey their hypotheses to the participants. b. Experimenters typically expect participants to perform very well on imagery tasks. c. When experimenters expect a certain outcome in their research, the participants unconsciously produce results that contradict this expectancy. d. Demand characteristics typically increase the magnitude of individual differences.
Answer: a
You are driving in your car, listening to a mystery story on the radio. The narrator has just described the room, and then the main character turns 180° to face the location that had previously been at her back. Your response time to locate objects on your mental map would be quickest for a. objects that are above or below her. b. objects that are in front of or behind her. c. objects that are to her left or right. d. all objects; the data do not show consistent differences.
Answer: a
Your textbook discusses the research on explanations for mental imagery. According to this discussion, a. visual imagery and visual perception activate similar regions of the cortex. b. most of the research on mental imagery can be attributed to experimenter expectancy and demand characteristics. c. neurological evidence tends to support a propositional explanation of the results. d. when we perceive real objects, we manipulate them in a way that is impossible in mental imagery.
Answer: a
Chapter 7 discussed topics related to imagery and cognitive maps. Which of the following students provides the most accurate information about the situated cognition approach? a. Tom: "You always need to emphasize your current situation, if you want to construct an accurate cognitive map." b. Cynthia: "Our knowledge depends partly on information in our current environment." c. Manny: "This term is basically equivalent to another term, called a heuristic." d. Beatriz: "This term is basically equivalent to the propositional code, in connection with imagery."
Answer: b
If your mental image of your aunt's face is stored in an analog code, a. thinking about the image would produce increased blood flow throughout your frontal cortex. b. the representation would resemble the specific features and facial arrangement found on your aunt's face. c. the code would include language-like descriptions of the most important attributes of her face. d. that image would be represented in terms of both the alignment and the rotation heuristics.
Answer: b
In light of the research presented in your textbook regarding the analog and propositional viewpoints, a. the two viewpoints are incompatible; researchers can support either perspective, but not both. b. most mental imagery tasks seem to use an analog code, but some mental imagery tasks seem to use a propositional code. c. the propositional viewpoint argues that people do not experience actual mental images. d. the analog viewpoint is supported by the observation that people cannot re-examine a mental image and provide a new interpretation of that image.
Answer: b
In the Shepard and Metzler study, people judged whether two figures that were in different orientations were the same or different. What did this study demonstrate? a. It takes much longer to rotate pairs in depth (e.g., by turning a figure away from you) than to rotate pairs in the picture plane (e.g., by turning a figure clockwise). b. The amount of rotation necessary before making "same-different" judgments influences decision speed. c. There were no consistent relationships between the variables examined in this study. d. The propositional-storage interpretation of imagery is correct.
Answer: b
One of the most difficult problems in conducting research on imagery is that a. the individual differences are so large that it's virtually impossible to find any consistent results. b. it is difficult to examine such an inaccessible mental process. c. people's introspections about imagery are so vivid that they prevent researchers from manipulating most variables. d. only a relatively small proportion of people seem to use imagery on a regular basis.
Answer: b
Paivio conducted a study on mental imagery for the faces of clocks. His study demonstrated that a. individual differences are small, with respect to response latency on clock imagery tasks. b. high-imagery people have faster reaction times than low-imagery people. c. the larger the difference between the two angles that were being compared, the slower the decision speed. d. experimenter expectancy can explain the results of this research.
Answer: b
Psychologists have studied how deaf individuals perform on mental rotation tasks when they are fluent in American Sign Language. The research shows that these individuals: a. make more errors than people who use spoken communication. b. make fewer errors than other people, because they are accustomed to viewing a scene from a different perspective. c. make fewer errors than other people, because they are not distracted by various sounds in the surrounding area. d. make the same number of errors as other people.
Answer: b
Suppose that Arthur lives in Houston, Texas, and his friend Scott lives in a much smaller city about 20 miles from Houston. Arthur seems to think that it is farther from Houston to that small town, compared to the distance from the small town to Houston. Arthur is demonstrating the a. spatial framework model. b. landmark effect. c. alignment heuristic. d. rotation heuristic.
Answer: b
Suppose that researchers are studying mental rotation, and they are comparing the performance of one group of people who are deaf and are fluent in American Sign Language and a second group of people who are not deaf and have had no experience with American Sign Language. Which of the following patterns of results would you be most likely to find, with respect to mental rotation? a. The individuals who are deaf would be more skilled, because auditory information would not interfere with their performance. b. The individuals who are deaf would be more skilled, because they are accustomed to seeing hand positions from a different perspective. c. The individuals who are not deaf would be more skilled, because they have extra clues from the auditory information that accompanies hand movement. d. The individuals who are not deaf would be more skilled, because they have had extra practice "translating" auditory stimulation into changes in visual images.
Answer: b
Suppose that you and a group of other students want to conduct a study on mental rotation, using photographs of human faces. You find that people take longer to rotate a mental image, as the size of the rotation increases. Which approach do your data support? a. The propositional approach b. The analog approach c. Both the propositional approach and the analog approach d. Neither the propositional nor the analog approach
Answer: b
Suppose that you are drawing a map, from memory, of the streets and buildings in a city you know well. If you were to show a bias in your recall of the buildings, you would be likely to a. place the buildings in a cluster near the center of town. b. place buildings with similar functions near each other. c. fail to recall clusters from certain geographic regions. d. first place one cluster of related buildings on the map, and then insert other important buildings on the map one at a time.
Answer: b
Suppose that you are reading a book that describes how the inside of the U.S. Supreme Court looks from a lawyer's point of view. Based on the discussion of neuroscience research and visual imagery, what would you predict about your visual system's reaction to this description? a. The cones in the retina would be stimulated more than the rods (assuming that the scene took place during the daytime). b. Your visual cortex would show increased blood flow. c. Your auditory cortex would show the largest increase in blood flow, because of the auditory code required during reading. d. Because no neurological correlates have yet been discovered, no measurable response would be located.
Answer: b
The alignment heuristic and the rotation heuristic are different from each other because a. the alignment heuristic encourages us to line up streets at right angles with each other. b. the rotation heuristic involves turning a single figure in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion. c. the rotation heuristic leads us to rotate rivers and other natural structures, but not human-made structures. d. the alignment heuristic applies to geometric figures, but not cognitive maps.
Answer: b
The neuropsychology evidence on the imagery question shows that a. imagery and perception involve entirely different biological processes. b. during mental imagery, some portions of the visual-processing regions of the cortex seem to be activated. c. the primary similarity between imagery and perception is that the visual receptors in the retina are stimulated in both cases. d. the neuroscience research in this area has a major problem with demand characteristics, so we cannot draw clear-cut conclusions.
Answer: b
The research on cognitive maps suggests that a. people—surprisingly—are just as accurate in reading a road map when it does not match the orientation of their mental map as when it has the same orientation. b. people create cognitive maps from several successive views, if the area is very large. c. individual differences in people's senses of direction are very small. d. there is a very high correlation between people's verbal skills and their skills in creating cognitive maps.
Answer: b
Which of the following statements about cognitive mapping is correct? a. Cognitive maps consistently use analog rather than propositional encoding. b. The research on cognitive mapping is generally high in ecological validity. c. Spatial cognition is a topic within cognitive mapping that deals exclusively with tabletop models. d. So far, almost all of the research on cognitive mapping has been confined to people's knowledge about the layout of college campuses.
Answer: b
Which of the following students provides the best summary of the research on imagery and distance? a. Jian: "Unfortunately, researchers have not yet found an effective method for studying how people represent distances in their mental images." b. Kristen: "We take longer to scan a large mental distance than a small mental distance." c. Anna: "In general, the research on imagery and size supports the propositional explanation of mental imagery." d. Janki: "Kosslyn's original research supported the analog explanation of mental imagery, but the more recent research does not show a consistent relationship between mental distances and decision speed."
Answer: b
Which of the following students provides the most accurate statement about the research on mental imagery? a. Susan: "There is a negative correlation between the size of a mental rotation and the number of seconds required to perform that mental rotation." b. Shirin: "When people make judgments about the shapes of U.S. states, their judgments for mental images are similar to their judgments for physical stimuli." c. Dirk: "In general, the research on mental imagery supports the propositional perspective on mental imagery, rather than the analog perspective." d. Cyndi: "People make judgments about complex mental shapes in roughly the same way as they make judgments about complex physical shapes; but this similarity doesn't hold true for simple mental shapes."
Answer: b
Which of the following students' statements best describes the spatial framework model proposed by Franklin and Tversky? a. Susan: "The mental maps we create do not have a built-in bias; we attach the same significance to left-right distinctions as to up-down distinctions." b. Nadia: "The vertical dimension seems to have special significance when we try to create representations of our environment." c. Stanley: "When we hear a story, we automatically assume the perspective of someone looking down on the scene from above, because of the up-down heuristic." d. Igor: "People vary greatly in the way they construct mental maps when they hear a narrative; some rotate the scene to match the perspective of the main character, but most look at the scene as if they were outside the scene, looking in."
Answer: b
Your textbook described a study in which people saw an ambiguous figure, for instance, a sketch that could represent either a rabbit or a duck. When the figure was removed, the people were asked to create a mental image of the figure. The results showed that a. people could not create any mental images of the figures. b. people created the mental image but could not reinterpret the mental image. c. people created the mental image, and they also reinterpreted the mental image. d. the demand characteristics were so strong that the results of this study are questionable.
Answer: b
the analog viewpoint and the propositional viewpoint, in light of the accumulated research. According to this discussion, a. the two viewpoints are incompatible; researchers can support either perspective, but not both. b. most mental imagery tasks seem to use an analog code, but some mental imagery tasks seem to use a propositional code. c. the propositional viewpoint argues that people do not experience actual mental images. d. the analog viewpoint is supported by the observation that people cannot re-examine a mental image and provide a new interpretation of that image.
Answer: b
A general conclusion about cognitive maps is that a. they bear little relationship to physical reality. b. they are highly accurate. c. they are fairly accurate, and the errors that they show tend to be rational. d. they are fairly accurate, but the errors that they show tend to be random.
Answer: c
According to the discussion of the history of research on mental imagery, a. the early behaviorists rejected research about mental imagery, but they began to conduct imagery research during the early 1950s. b. the topic of mental imagery has consistently been more popular in the United States than in Europe. c. the popularity of mental imagery increased as cognitive psychology became more influential. d. surprisingly, theorists and researchers did not mention mental imagery until about 1930.
Answer: c
According to the introduction of the chapter on imagery, a. people often create mental images, but they seldom use these images in problem solving or other higher mental processes. b. students report that they use visual imagery and auditory imagery equally often. c. psychologists have conducted more research on visual imagery than any other kind of imagery. d. the first psychologists to pay attention to imagery were the radical behaviorists, in the late 1920s.
Answer: c
According to the introductory discussion of cognitive maps, a. the term cognitive map refers to the map constructed by neuroscientists, in which each location of the cortex is paired with a related cognitive task. b. whereas the term cognitive map refers to our mental representation of an imaginary region, the term spatial cognition applies to our mental representation of an actual geographic area. c. compared to the research on the nature of mental images, the research on cognitive maps is more likely to emphasize geographical representations. d. so far, cognitive maps have been examined almost exclusively by psychologists, rather than researchers from other disciplines.
Answer: c
According to the neuropsychology research on imagery, a. people who can quickly perform visual imagery tasks show only a small increase in blood flow to the visual cortex. b. people with lesions in the visual cortex typically manage to construct vivid visual images. c. visual imagery and visual perception cannot be identical, because actual perception activates the receptors in the eye. d. surprisingly, both the auditory cortex and the visual cortex are activated when people are instructed to create an auditory image.
Answer: c
Based on the research on gender differences in cognitive abilities, on which task would you expect men and women to show the greatest differences? a. Vocabulary size b. Performance in a math class c. Providing directions from point A to point B while looking at a map d. Reading comprehension
Answer: c
Considering all of the evidence presented in your textbook regarding the analog view of mental images, one can conclude that a. the analog viewpoint is no longer appropriate, because the majority of research supports the propositional viewpoint. b. the research allows us to conclude that mental imagery operates exactly the same way that perception operates. c. mental imagery is somewhat similar to visual perception. d. both the analog viewpoint and the propositional viewpoint are inconsistent with the current research, so that a new model needs to be developed.
Answer: c
From the research on mental imagery for the positions of the hands on a clock, we can conclude that a. in this area, there is strong evidence for propositional codes. b. so few people can construct this kind of mental image that we need to be concerned about the limits of imagery research. c. people with high mental imagery ability perform this task faster than people with low mental imagery ability. d. decisions about the shapes of images require much longer when the two images are very different than when they are very similar.
Answer: c
Nishimura and colleagues used magnetoencephalography techniques to investigate individual differences in mental imagery. They found that, when asked to visualize famous landmarks, a. both visualizers and verbalizers showed activity in occipital regions of the cortex. b. both visualizers and verbalizers showed activity in the frontal cortical areas. c. visualizers showed more activity in the occipital regions, whereas verbalizers showed more activity in the frontal cortical areas. d. visualizers showed more activity in the frontal cortical areas, whereas verbalizers showed more activity in the occipital regions.
Answer: c
Suppose that you are driving to an unfamiliar city. To reach your destination with the smallest number of navigational errors, how should your map be oriented? a. "North" should be at the top. b. "South" should be at the top. c. The map should be oriented so that the top is in the same direction that you are traveling. d. Surprisingly, the research shows that the orientation of the map has little influence on navigation accuracy.
Answer: c
Suppose that you are listening to your professor's description of the layout of several buildings in a city. If the discussion of mental maps can be applied to your representation of this city, it is most likely that a. you will store this information in a passive fashion, without creating a cognitive map. b. your cognitive map will represent the distances as being larger than they really are. c. you will construct a cognitive map to represent the arrangement of buildings. d. your cognitive map will be highly inaccurate.
Answer: c
Suppose that you are reading an article about visual imagery. The researchers point out that demand characteristics might have influenced the results of this study. One example of this possibility would be: a. the participants tried to ruin the researchers' results by refusing to follow directions. b. the participants tried to answer as quickly as possible, so they could leave early. c. cues within the study conveyed the researchers' hypothesis to the participants, potentially influencing the participants' responses. d. the researchers used a heuristic when trying to explain the results of this study.
Answer: c
Suppose that you are trying to draw a map showing part of the city or region you live in. Your map is likely to a. show streets intersecting at extreme angles, rather than right angles. b. show roads and rivers that are much more curved in your map than they really are. c. show curves that are more symmetrical than they really are. d. represent curves and angles as being much closer to each other than they really are.
Answer: c
Suppose that you have a mental image of your favorite male actor. If that image is stored in a propositional code, the representation would emphasize a. spatial relationships, including information about angles and lines. b. a correspondence between the mental imagery and perceptual imagery. c. a language-like description. d. spatial relationships for the actor's general shape, but a language-like description for the details of his face.
Answer: c
The introductory discussion of cognitive maps in Chapter 7 points out that a. researchers in the area of artificial intelligence have developed programs that can create highly accurate cognitive maps. b. most of the errors we make on cognitive maps can be traced to defects in humans' ability to construct mental images. c. most errors in mental maps can be traced to a rational strategy. d. in general, the errors on cognitive maps are larger and less systematic than the errors people make in storing verbal information.
Answer: c
The research on mental rotation has shown that a. people use very different strategies when they rotate letters of the alphabet, as opposed to abstract geometric figures. b. right-handed people and left-handed people are basically identical in their ability to recognize pictures of left and right hands. c. young people are typically faster than elderly people in the speed of their mental rotation. d. young people and elderly people differ greatly in their sense of direction.
Answer: c
Those who argue that we store mental imagery information in terms of propositions would claim that a. storage is most like vision. b. storage is most like an abstract spatial representation. c. storage is most like language. d. representation closely resembles the physical object.
Answer: c
When most people draw a map of the coastline of the United States, they show Miami about due south of Boston, when Miami is actually fairly far to the west. This error is an example of a. the 90° heuristic. b. the alignment heuristic. c. the rotation heuristic. d. the symmetry heuristic.
Answer: c
When people look at a 3-dimensional figure and mentally rotate this figure, a. they mentally rotate this figure much more quickly in a counter-clockwise direction, compared to a clockwise direction. b. individual differences are not very strong on this task. c. they make judgments more quickly when rotating the mental image only a small distance, rather than a large distance. d. people can actually identify a figure much more quickly if it is upside down, rather than in the normal upright orientation.
Answer: c
Which of the following students provides the most accurate information about gender comparisons in cognitive skills? a. Debra: "Males are consistently better than females in both mathematics and spatial ability." b. Andy: "The only large gender differences are in verbal ability, where females typically earn higher scores." c. Eladj: "The only large gender differences are in spatial ability, where males often earn higher scores." d. Amelie: "Actually, there are no moderate or large gender differences in any area of cognitive skills.
Answer: c
Which of the following students provides the most accurate summary of the neuroscience research on mental imagery? a. Sambridhi: "Visual imagery and visual perception activate virtually identical structures throughout the visual pathway and also in the visual cortex." b. Scott: "Visual imagery and visual perception activate identical structures in the retina, but not in the visual cortex." c. Tessa: "Visual imagery and visual perception activate some of the same structures in the cortex, but not in the retina." d. Christine: "Visual imagery and visual perception activate very different structures throughout both the visual pathway and in the visual cortex."
Answer: c
Your textbook discusses research showing that people have better acuity for mental images that are visualized in the center of the retina, rather than in the periphery of the retina. The reason that this research is significant is that a. it offers strong support for the propositional approach to mental images. b. it demonstrates that the previous imagery research had been influenced by experimenter expectancy. c. the research is similar to the results obtained when people perceive actual visual stimuli. d. it demonstrates that individual differences in visual imagery are actually very small.
Answer: c
According to the research on mental imagery and shape, people take longer to make a judgment when two mental images have similar shapes than when they have different shapes. This finding tends to support a. experimenter expectancy. b. the introspection approach. c. bottom-up processing. d. the analog-code approach.
Answer: d
According to the spatial framework model described by Franklin and Tversky, a. people can make decisions equally quickly about all directions. b. people turn their head in the specified direction, so that the major relevant variable is the amount that their head is turned. c. people base their responses on propositional coding of all three relevant dimensions. d. the above/below direction has special prominence in our mental maps.
Answer: d
How are the terms demand characteristics and experimenter expectancy related to each other? a. When experimenters clearly prefer participants who have certain cognitive characteristics, the experimenters expect them to perform especially well. b. If the participants are especially demanding or difficult, the experimenter tends to have lower expectations about their performance. c. It is unethical for an experimenter to have certain expectations, just as it is unethical for participants to make demand characteristics. d. The experimenter's expectancy about a study's results may be one kind of demand characteristic.
Answer: d
How does mental imagery compare with perception? a. Perception relies exclusively on bottom-up processing. b. Perception relies exclusively on top-down processing. c. Mental imagery relies exclusively on bottom-up processing. d. Mental imagery relies exclusively on top-down processing.
Answer: d
In your textbook, Chapter 7 discusses meta-analyses that focus on gender comparisons in cognitive abilities. Which of the following is the area in which gender differences are typically the largest? a. Verbal abilities b. Mathematics abilities c. Spatial abilities such as locating hidden figures in a drawing d. Spatial abilities such as mental rotation
Answer: d
Suppose that in your college campus, Building A is east of Building B, but they aren't exactly in a straight row; one is 15 feet north of the other. The students' cognitive maps show them in a straight row, however. A likely explanation for this effect is a. the rotation heuristic. b. the meta-analysis technique. c. the 90° angle heuristic. d. the alignment heuristic.
Answer: d
Suppose that you are taking a course in geometry. You are trying to determine whether two geometric shapes are identical, so you mentally rotate one of the figures in a clockwise fashion. You are likely to find that a. you will not be very accurate in this task, because mental imagery is very poor for geometric figures. b. you will take more time than if you had to rotate the figure in a 3-dimensional plane (e.g., away from you). c. you will rotate the figure more quickly than if you had to rotate it in a counterclockwise fashion. d. you will take longer to rotate it 120° than 40°.
Answer: d
Suppose that you draw a sketch of your college campus. In reality, one particular road on campus is vaguely U-shaped, but the right-hand portion of the curve is steeper than the left-hand portion. According to your drawing, however, the two portions have the same degree of curvature. This example illustrates a. the 90° angle heuristic. b. the alignment heuristic. c. the rotation heuristic. d. the symmetry heuristic.
Answer: d
Suppose that you participate in a study in which the experimenter has strong beliefs about how the study should turn out, and these biases influence how you perform. This would be an example of a. a propositional code. b. the landmark effect. c. a heuristic. d. experimenter expectancy.
Answer: d
Suppose you draw a map of Italy, and you show the "boot" located in a north-south direction, rather than slanted at an angle. This would be an example of the a. regularization heuristic. b. alignment heuristic. c. symmetry heuristic. d. rotation heuristic.
Answer: d
The research on mental imagery and ambiguous figures suggests that a. once again, the analog code is strongly supported. b. people have such limited visual imagery for ambiguous figures that neither the analog code nor the propositional code is supported. c. demand characteristics on this task are so strong that no firm conclusions can be reached. d. some imagery tasks use a propositional code, but others use an analog code.
Answer: d
Which of the following is the best example of timbre? a. The difference between a tune played in two different octaves on a piano b. The difference between the sound of a church bell directly overhead and the same bell a mile away c. The difference between a note sung by a female soprano and a female alto d. The difference between the sound made by a flute and the sound made by a violin
Answer: d
Which of the following people would be expected to be especially skilled at 180° mental rotations? a. Left-handers b. Typesetters c. Elderly people d. Deaf people who are fluent in American Sign Language
Answer: d
Which of the following provides the best example of auditory imagery? a. Creating a mental image of your favorite actor's face b. Creating a mental image of the scent of your mother's perfume c. Creating a mental map of your campus d. Creating a mental image of the chorus of your favorite song
Answer: d
You are trying to draw a map of a local park. You represent the northern edge of the park as being a smooth, regular curve—even though one side is actually more irregular than the other side. Your inaccurate cognitive map is an example of a. the alignment heuristic. b. the rotation heuristic. c. the landmark heuristic. d. the symmetry heuristic.
Answer: d
