Cognition Unit Test

Kevin so frequently uses threats to get his children to help with household chores that he fails to recognize that using rewards would be more effective in gaining their cooperation. Kevin's shortsightedness best illustrates:

a fixation.

In language development, babbling refers to producing

a wide variety of phonemes and consonant-vowel combinations

The English language uses

about 40 phonemes, corresponding to the letters of the alphabet plus several variations

Logical, methodical step-by-step procedures for solving problems are called:

algorithms

Jamilla systematically tried each successive key on her dad's key ring until she found the one that unlocked his office door. This best illustrates problem solving by means of:

an algorithm.

If a conclusion is consistent with our personal opinion we often consider it valid, even if it doesn't make logical sense. This is known as:

belief bias.

Despite overwhelming and highly publicized evidence that Senator McEwan was guilty of serious political corruption and misconduct, many who had supported her in past elections remained convinced of her political integrity. Their reaction best illustrates:

belief perseverance.

Which of the following is NOT a cognitive activity?

blinking at something

To promote cognitive efficiency, concepts are often organized into:

category hierarchies.

Prototypes are especially important in the process of:

classifying objects.

Jahmal cites his cousin Luana's many car accidents as evidence that women are worse drivers than men. He overlooks the fact that his wife and three daughters have had far fewer car accidents than he and his two sons. Jahmal's prejudicial conclusion about women's driving skills best illustrates the effects of:

confirmation bias.

The tendency to search for information consistent with our preconceptions is called:

confirmation bias.

Chimpanzees are capable of learning to:

do all of the above. (use computer keyboards to communicate with other chimps, understand spoken words, string signs together into a meaningful sequence, push buttons in a sequence.)

Raul and Sophia were having a picnic when it started to rain. They did not think of using their big plastic tablecloth as a temporary rain shelter and so were drenched within minutes. Their oversight best illustrates:

functional fixedness.

Observing that elms, maples, oaks, and poplar trees all have bark, Ken hypothesizes that all trees have bark. In this instance Ken has demonstrated what type of reasoning?

inductive

A sudden realization of the solution to a problem is called:

insight.

An implicit activity means the activity is

internal to the subject.

The connotation of a word consists of

its emotional overtones and secondary implications

Chomsky's theory of language development suggests that children have an inborn:

language acquisition device.

Fast mapping is

mapping words to underlying concepts after only one exposure

When someone mentions Ivy League colleges, Trisha immediately thinks of Harvard University. In this instance, Harvard University is a:

prototype.

The requirement that a declarative sentence have both a noun phrase and a verb phrase is an example of a

rule of syntax

Observing the similarities between a new problem to be solved and one you've successfully solved in the past is called

searching for analogies

Dolphins have been observed to pause by a mirror to examine ink marks placed on their bodies. This best illustrates their capacity for:

self-recognition.

Heuristics are:

simple thinking strategies for solving problems quickly and efficiently.

Phonemes are the smallest units of ____ in a spoken language; morphemes are the smallest units of ____ in a language.

sound; meaning

You are listening to 2-year-old Annie as she says "No eat. No like." She is trying to let you know that she is not going to eat her broccoli because she doesn't like it. Annie's communication illustrates the use of

telegraphic speech

Two-year-old Dirk's sentences—"Dad come," "Mom laugh," and "Truck gone"—are examples of:

telegraphic speech.

A mental set is a:

tendency to approach a problem in a way that has been successful in the past.

After learning that her two best friends had lost their jobs, Mariah began to grossly overestimate the national unemployment rate. Mariah's reaction best illustrates the consequences of:

the availability heuristic.

Lance is trying to solve a complex anagram puzzle. He systematically tries every potential solution by testing each possible combination of the letters provided. In this case, Lance is

using an algorithm to solve the anagram

Working backward is a good strategy to follow when

you have many options available at the beginning of a problem, but few options at the end

Underextension would be evident if a three-year-old child

used a word too narrowly

Which linguistic theorist was most impressed by the underlying similarities of all human language systems?

Chomsky

In the words "lightly," "neatly," and "shortly," the "ly" ending is a(n):

morpheme.

The smallest speech units that carry meaning are called:

morphemes.

Functional fixedness refers to

not seeing a new function for a familiar object

Although Steve was certain that he answered between 70 and 80 items correctly on his biology test, he actually was right on only 55 items. Steve's misjudgment of his test performance illustrates:

overconfidence

Failing to recognize our potential for error is best demonstrated by:

overconfidence

The availability heuristic implies that people will ____ the frequency of events that are easy to remember and ____ the frequency of events that are hard to remember.

overestimate; underestimate

Kailee has learned the word "kitty," but she uses this word when she is referring to cats, bunnies, squirrels, and other small furry animals. Kailee's use of this word illustrates

overextension

A child who says, "I sawed a cat in the yard," is making which of the following errors?

overregularization

When the word "jar" is changed to the word "jars," the number of

phonemes and morphemes are both increased

Our capacity for thinking without language is best illustrated by:

unconscious information processing.

Many people perceive carjackings as more serious threats to their lives than failing to use seatbelts because carjackings are so much more memorable. This best illustrates the importance of:

the availability heuristic.

Ojinska sold many more raffle tickets when she told potential buyers they had a 10 percent chance of winning a prize than when she told them they had a 90 percent chance of not winning. This best illustrates:

the framing effect.

Because Ken is 6¢6², people often mistakenly assume that he must be a member of his college's basketball team. This mistaken judgment best illustrates the impact of:

the representativeness heuristic.

Framing refers to:

the way in which a problem or issue is phrased or worded.

Cognitive psychologists are most directly concerned with the study of:

thinking

Jenna is 14 months old and uses only "bottle, no, up, bye-bye, mama, and dada" when she talks. However, when the family is on their way to visit Jenna's grandmother, and her father tells Jenna to get her blue bunny from the bedroom and bring it with her, Jenna quickly runs to get the bunny. This episode demonstrates that

toddlers' receptive vocabularies are larger than their productive vocabularies