unit 2 cognition

A group of 25 American college students who were taking introductory psychology during the spring semester participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a "house" instead of using the Russian word "dacha" that was used in the story. Which of the following would explain why the students changed details in their recall of the study?

Availability heuristic

Dr. Carvalho performed a study to examine the relationships among measures of general intelligence and specific types of intelligence. They recruited 80 college students to complete a set of intelligence tests. Participants gave their informed consent to participate. After the data were collected, the researchers examined the test scores for correlations among the different measures of intelligence. In terms of ethical procedures, after the data are collected, it will be important for Dr. Carvalho to do which of the following?

Ensure confidentiality of the data

Martine needs a hammer but cannot find one. As she looks around her apartment, her gaze passes over a metal paperweight and some other objects that could potentially serve as a makeshift hammer. However, she is so focused on these objects' typical uses that she does not think to use any of them as a hammer. Martine is experiencing which of the following?

Functional fixedness

Fatima tries out for the debate team at her school because she believes that debate team members are the smartest kids in school. She is not chosen as a team member. After failing to make the debate team, Fatima remembers that the students who made the team last school year were juniors and members of the History Club. She now decides that she knew she should not have tried out since she is a sophomore and not a member of the History Club. Which of the following cognitive processes is Fatima using to justify her failure to make the team?

Hindsight bias

Clive Wearing is an individual involved in a well-known case study examining anterograde amnesia. Clive experienced a high fever which led to damage to the hippocampus nearly 40 years ago. Since that time, Clive has not been able to encode new memories and, by some estimations, can only hold a thought for 7 to 9 seconds. Which of the following is an ethical consideration regarding the case of Clive Wearing?

We should not know Clive's identity, especially while he is still living.

In a study on visual perception, participants were presented with the figure depicted and asked to describe what they saw. Of the 100 participants in the study, 97 saw a cube. Which of the following Gestalt principles best describes the phenomenon that has impacted these results?

closure

Darnayia has been seeing a lot of social media ads about an exciting new sports simulation game. While several of her friends say that the game is their ideal example of a video game, others who have played the game complain that it was too expensive and not as fun as they expected. Darnayia buys the game. When her mother asks her why she chose that game, Darnayia only mentions the advice she heard about the game was the best one they've ever played. Which of the following cognitive processes explains why Darnayia can justify her purchase of the expensive game and ignore her concerns over the cost?

confirmation bias

When Rocco views the image above, he sees it as a 13 when it is part of a larger number but as a B when it is part of a word. Rocco's response shows the importance of what perceptual concept?

context effects

A teacher asks Yvonne to go to another classroom to get a student whom Yvonne has never met. As she walks, she repeats the student's name to herself over and over to help her remember. Yvonne is boosting her memory by using which of the following memory concepts?

maintenance rehearsal

A researcher evaluated over 300 studies where algorithms were used to predict the future of the stock market. This study determined that Algorithms accurately predicted the stock market within three percentage points on average. These findings were later provided to individuals who follow the market to inform them about when to sell or buy stocks. Which of the following research techniques best represents the research described?

meta-analysis

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using which of the following memory concepts?

method of loci

Amirah attended a concert for her favorite band. As the band played her favorite song, Amirah sang along and repeated one of the lyrics incorrectly. Another person nearby heard the mistake and told her she had made a mistake, Amirah was confident she heard and sang the lyric correctly. What term best describes Amirah's belief?

overconfidence

After his friend said a new movie was the funniest he had seen in years, Willard found himself laughing throughout the viewing, even though the movie was not very funny. What concept is Willard demonstrating?

perceptual set

One night, Noel went to a new restaurant. While waiting for her meal, she could not ignore the slurping sound the other diners made while eating. She was so focused on that sound that she could not even enjoy her meal. Which of the following concepts explains Noel's experience?

selective attention

Piper reads about someone described as adventurous and extroverted. She then judges that this person is more likely to be a lawyer who enjoys hiking than a lawyer who does not. The best explanation for Piper's error is that she is basing her judgment on

the representativeness heuristic

Maeve wants to change her college major but has decided not to because she is close to finishing. She believes that the time she has spent in her current program will be wasted if she changes now. Maeve is experiencing

the sunk-cost fallacy

Dr. Messina conducts experiments that explore the rate at which people forget information. To conduct her research, she uses students who are taking psychology courses at her university. Which of the following best describes the type of samples Dr. Messina uses in her research?

Convenience sample

Researchers repeatedly presented a picture of a goat along with other animals and asked participants to rank how closely the picture of the goat matched their prototype of a "mammal." Participants used a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "not at all like my prototype of a mammal" to 5 meaning "exactly like my prototype of a mammal." The graph depicts the rankings of each participant based on the number of exposures. What type of research has been conducted?

Correlational study

Which of the following scenarios is an example of retroactive interference?

Carl tries to remember the name of his first boss, but he cannot because he keeps thinking of the name of his current boss.

Researchers want to examine if there is a difference between the retention of implicit versus explicit memories. To conduct this research as an experiment, which of the following would be necessary?

Random assignment

Professor DuVall teaches two classes of psychology. For Class Y, their first quiz consisted of multiple-choice questions. Class Z's first quiz covered the same material, but the questions required that students write a short answer for each question. Professor DuVall compared the scores for Class Y and Class Z and found that the mean score for Class Y was 76%, while the mean score for Class Z was 89%. In terms of memory retrieval processes, which of the following is consistent with this outcome?

Recall led to higher scores than recognition on this quiz.

Which of the following is the best operational definition of superior autobiographical memory?

Recalling information about life events with over 90% accuracy.

After visiting her professor's office, Rachel writes down everything she remembers seeing there. She correctly remembers many details, but she falsely remembers seeing books even though there were no books in the office. Additionally, she did not remember seeing a skull that was in the office. Which memory concept best explains why Rachel falsely encoded the books and failed to encode the skull?

Schemas

David was studying some important historical dates for a test. He noticed that the day and month of one of the dates was the same as his own birthday, and he tried to use that fact to help him remember the date for his test. What is David using to enhance his memory?

Self-reference

To help himself remember the name of his new colleague, Hope, Jose thinks about the meaning of her name—the feeling of hopefulness. Which of the following concepts best corresponds to Jose's strategy?

Semantic encoding

Which of the following scenarios involves using cued recall?

Steven studies a list of word pairs and is later given the first word of each pair and asked to recall the second word in the pair.

Luis constructed a flip-book with 30 different still images of a cartoon cat. When Luis quickly flipped through successive images of the cat, the cat appeared to move. Which of the following concepts does the example illustrate?

Stroboscopic movement, because the book is a series of images presented at separate time intervals.

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?

The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly.

In an experiment evaluating encoding strategies, a researcher taught participants 15 new psychological concepts. One group took notes to help learn the concepts while the other group was asked to create a mnemonic device for each concept. In this experiment, what is the independent variable?

The method used to learn the concepts.

A group of researchers are investigating how different studying strategies impact how much participants remember on a test. They recruit 50 participants and have half of the participants study by just reading a passage over and over for 10 minutes. The other half of the participants spend five minutes reading the passage one time and then answering a series of multiple-choice questions on the material for another five minutes. Finally, the participants write down as many facts from the reading passage as they can in three minutes. Which of the following is the dependent variable of the study?

The number of facts the participants remember during the test phase

In a groundbreaking study, a researcher shared a translation of an American Indian folk tale with middle-class British participants. Later, the participants were asked to repeat the story. The researcher measured the accuracy of their recollections when they were repeating the story. Several of the participants changed the words "canoes" to "boats" and "hunting seals" to "fishing". Which of the following explains why the participants made errors in their recollections?

The participants had difficulty repeating the story because the details didn't fit with their cultural schema.

A group of 25 American college students who were taking introductory psychology during the spring semester participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a "house" instead of using the Russian word "dacha" that was used in the story. If this study were to run as an experiment, which of the following would be necessary?

The participants must be randomly assigned to a control or experimental condition.

A researcher is studying the accuracy of people's memories when they use mnemonic devices. After studying the first 10 people, the data showed that memories using mnemonic devices were more accurate than the average's person's memories. Which of the following explains why the researcher should not draw any conclusions about the accuracy of memories using mnemonic devices yet?

The research method is a correlation, so she cannot infer causation from the results.

A researcher wants to determine which studying technique would be more effective: massed practice or distributed practice. The researcher randomly assigns 30 students to two groups and gives them a list of vocabulary words to remember. One of the groups uses a massed practice technique. The other uses a distributed practice technique. The researcher gives the students a quiz four days later to see how well they remembered their list of words. He compared the scores for both groups. What is the dependent variable in this study?

The vocabulary quiz scores

Creativity is most closely associated with which of the following?

Divergent thinking

Dr. Adedeji is trying to measure the capacity of her students' short-term memories. She shows them a long series of numbers on a display for several seconds, and then has them write down as many numbers as they can remember in order. Dr. Adedeji has the students complete a survey in which she asks them "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly effective, how well did you remember the numbers?" She concludes that her students have exceptionally good memories, as most of her students rated themselves as "highly effective." Which of the following best explains Dr. Adedeji's inaccurate conclusion?

Dr. Adedeji's survey led to self-report bias.

Which of the following best illustrates Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve?

Erik studied Italian in college. After he graduated, he went backpacking in Europe, where he realized he had forgotten a lot of Italian. Years later, he went on another trip to Italy and was surprised to discover that he remembered about the same amount of Italian as during his first trip.

Which of the following is an example of shape constancy?

Even though the angle from which she viewed the table had changed, Elise still perceived the table as rectangular.

In a research study on the multi-store method of memory, one group of randomly assigned high school students were given 5 minutes to rehearse details about a stimulus after being exposed to it for 15 seconds. A second group were not given time to rehearse the details of the stimulus. Which of the following research designs best represents this study?

Experiment

In a research study, participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. One group of participants received a drug once per day for four weeks. The drug increases the speed of communication between neurons. Other participants did not receive the drug. Researchers found that those who took the drug demonstrated an increased memory recall. What type of research design was conducted in this scenario?

Experiment

After Doug witnessed two cars involved in a car accident, a police officer asked Doug how fast the cars were going when the accident happened. According to research by Elizabeth Loftus, which of the following questions could the officer ask that would make Doug most susceptible to the misinformation effect?

How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

Intelligence tests have been used throughout history to purposefully discriminate against groups of people. Claims that minority groups have lower IQ scores because of genetic factors fail to consider which of the following?

IQ test scores are dependent on social factors such as educational opportunity and poverty.

Research on intelligence tests must be especially mindful of ethical principles related to confidentiality of data. A major reason for this is best described by which of the following?

Intelligence test scores have been used to determine access to opportunities such as jobs and education.

A computer company wants to hire a large group of employees to work in a newly opened branch of the company. The human resources department determines that the most effective way to screen applicants would be the use of intelligence testing. Which of the following is the main reason that the implementation of this screening policy would be inappropriate?

Intelligence tests can be subject to bias.

Which of the following statements is true of insight problem solving?

It requires an incubation period in which the problem solver can start fresh on the problem.

A group of 25 American college students who were taking introductory psychology during the spring semester participated in a study about cognition. Participants were first asked to read a story about a Russian battle from the 19th century. Later, participants were asked to write down as many details as they could remember from the story. Twenty-two out of 25 of the students changed some of the details of the story, such as referring to a "house" instead of using the Russian word "dacha" that was used in the story. Which of the following best describes the type of sample used in this study?

It was a study that involved convenience sampling.

Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates a context effect?

Jeannette does better on her exam when she takes it in the same room where she studies.

Which of the following best describes the primacy effect?

When people have better recall of things that occur at the beginning of a sequence

Even though it was nearly dark outside, Kaci could still tell that the basketball she was playing with was orange. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?

color constancy

Short-term memory is best described in which of the following ways?

memory that can hold only a small amount of information

Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the role of context effects in memory?

Amy studied for a vocabulary test in the same classroom and at the same time of day as the normal class, and she performed better on the test than students who studied in different classrooms under different conditions.

Professor Belvedere wants to help her anatomy students memorize the names of different parts of the body. Which of the following techniques will best help her students?

Asking them questions about the meaning of each word - pro tip: semantic encoding works best!

When Gustavo goes through lists of inventory items and thinks about whether each one is a fruit or not, he remembers more of the items on those lists later than when he goes through lists of inventory items and does not think about what each item is. Which of the following concepts best explains Gustavo's performance?

Elaborative encoding, because engaging in deeper processing improves memory. - pro tip: semantic encoding works best!

Dr. Rudolph's class has a big test coming up next week. Which of the following students is using a studying strategy that is most likely to lead to memory consolidation?

Elizabeth studies for a half hour before she goes to bed each night the week before the exam. - Pro tip: spaced repetition is key!

Which of the following is an example of the tip-of-the-tongue effect?

Emma is telling her friend what she did over summer vacation when she discovers she cannot think of a specific word that she would like to say. She stops telling the story, because she has the distinct feeling that she is about to be able to think of the word if she waits just a moment.

Dr. Adeyemi obtains IRB approval for a study examining the effects of growth mindset versus fixed mindset on people's motivation for learning new information. They recruit 80 participants and receive informed consent from them. Participants then complete a questionnaire about learning strategies. Next, the participants are told that, based on their results, they are either able to readily learn new information or that they will struggle to learn new information. In reality, this questionnaire is meaningless, and participants are randomly told fake results. After hearing their results, the participants are then tested on their ability to learn complex new information. In terms of ethical procedures, after the data are collected, it will be important for Dr. Adeyemi to do which of the following?

Fully debrief the participants on the deception involved in the study.

When studying for a vocabulary test, Catherine read one of her vocabulary words and its definition aloud several times. About twenty seconds later, she still remembered the word's meaning, but then she moved on to the next word in the list without engaging in any further strategies to enhance her memory. The next day, she tested herself on the same vocabulary word at the same time, in the same mood, and in the same location as when she had first studied the word, but she could not remember its definition. It is most likely that Catherine could not remember the word because she failed to engage which of the following memory functions?

Long-term memory, because Catherine failed to encode the word; therefore, the word did not become a part of her long-term memory.

Ms. Ritter is a high school math teacher. She believes that some people are born good at math and others are not. At the beginning of the new school term, she was informed that her incoming class had poor performance on prior standardized tests. Which of the following is a likely outcome for Ms. Ritter and the upcoming school year?

Ms. Ritter will likely see her students' poor test results during the school year as confirmation of her beliefs that math abilities are fixed.

Which of the following is true of analogies in supporting problem solving?

Relevant analogies usually help people solve problems, but people often do not spontaneously think of relevant analogies.