Cognitive Psychology Test Questions, Exam Questions, Quiz Questions

Lucia reported to her father that she saw a hummingbird in their back yard. Her father, however, knows that hummingbirds are extremely rare in that part of the country. In this situation:
A) there are two pieces of diagnostic information, but no base rate information.
B) the diagnostic information confirms the base rate.
C) the diagnostic information points toward one conclusion, but the base rate points toward a different conclusion.
D) the base rate is known, but no diagnostic information is available.
Studies of image scanning indicate that:
A) participants are able to scan across their image virtually instantaneously.
B) fastest scanning times tend to be obtained with moderate scanning distances.
C) participants' scanning rate is slow for short distances but is faster for greater distances.
D) there is a linear function linking scanning distances and scanning times.
One of the following is used to explain why, if we have (possibly innate) rules of mental logic, we don't always reason logically. Which one?
A) Bayes' theorem
B) Syllogistic figures
C) Conversion errors
D) Mental models
Which judgment heuristic most obviously relies on the relative ease of retrieval from long term memory?
A) anchoring heuristic
B) gambler's fallacy
C) covariation heuristic
D) availability heuristic
The "working backward" strategy:
A) is used far more often by experts than by novices.
B) is virtually never used by experts.
C) is used in the same way by experts and by novices.
D) is used by experts if they are working on an unfamiliar problem.
In the topic of decision-making, a normative model is one that:
A) accurately describes what most people do in making decisions
B) is supported by normative data
C) honors the moral principles behind decision-making
D) specifies what decision is logically best
What part of the brain do fMRI and PET experiments show is active during visual imagery?
A) Broca's area
B) occipital lobe
C) primary sensorimotor cortex
D) temporal lobe
In the "man on mountain problem", you have to determine whether there is any time during the second day when he will be at exactly the same point on the mountain he was at that time the first day. To solve this problem, you should __________
A) design and do a experiment
B) use a recursive algorithm
C) restructure it (e.g., as height as a function of time)
D) formulate an explicit problem space
What is the primary reason why humans (apparently) have consciousness?
A) we have language, and without language, we would never know that we were conscious
B) we use heuristics to solve many kinds of problems, and heuristics are above all conscious mental actions
C) we are very flexible creatures behaviorally, and cannot rely on automatic reactions to stimuli; consciousness helps us do novel things
D) unlike lower organisms, we have explicit memory, and if we lose explicit memory, we lose consciousness
Which of the following is NOT valid:
A) All A are B; No C are B; Therefore No C are A
B) All A are B; All C are B; therefore All A are C
C) If A then B; Not-B; Therefore Not-A
D) All A are B; All B are C; therefore All A are C
There are many reasons why introspection is a poor source of scientific evidence. Which of the following is NOT one of those reasons?
A) Participants' reports may in some cases be insincere.
B) Many mental events are too quick for introspection.
C) Participants must be carefully trained before they are able to introspect effectively.
D) Participants' reports are based on memory and are therefore vulnerable to error.
People generally say that San Diego is further west than Reno. This has been taken to mean that
A) People's judgment of spatial position is contaminated by non-spatial information in long term memory
B) Images are epiphenomena, not real ways of representing information that can be used in making decisions
C) People have an accurate map of their own country
D) People don't really use images to make decisions about spatial relations
If I ask you to decide whether a cat has ears, after you have formed an image of a cat, which of the following is true?
A) You are fast if you have formed an image of the cat upside-down
B) You are fast if you have formed an image of the cat next to an elephant
C) You are fast if you had just formed an image of an inanimate object
D) You are fast if you have formed an image of the cat next to an ant
Participants' use of "hill climbing" is evident in that:
A) participants are disrupted in their problem solving if they are asked to think out loud as they proceed.
B) participants are often confused unless the problem's path constraints are clearly specified.
C) problem solving often gets stalled if a problem requires the participant to move briefly away from the goal state in order (ultimately) to reach the goal.
D) participants solve problems more quickly if they can divide the problem into smaller subproblems.
Several authors have proposed that we are generally aware of the _____ of our own thoughts even though we are usually unaware of the _____ of thought:
A) decision making processes; products
B) implicit mechanisms; explicit mechanisms
C) inferences; strategies
D) product; processes
The term "qualia" refers to:
A) the raw feel of an experience, reflecting how it feels to have the experience
B) the information needed to make thought flexible and deliberate
C) the information contained within a conscious experience
D) the consequences of having a conscious experience
What is the biggest difference between the cognitive unconscious (CU) and the Freudian unconscious (FU) (as theoretical entities, not necessarily as real things)?
A) the FU is in conflict with the conscious mind, while the CU cooperates with it
B) the FU is governed by the pleasure principle while the CU is governed by instincts
C) anxiety keeps thoughts in the CU while repression serves the same function in the FU
D) you can become aware of the processes of the CU but not of the FU
Which of the following pieces of evidence provides really good evidence that visual images actually are patterns of neural activity in visual perception areas of the brain?
A) Evidence that most people experience more-or-less vivid visual images and can make decisions based on them
B) Evidence from PET scans about activity in the occipital lobe while imagining large vs. small size objects
C) Evidence that the time to decide whether two pictures are the same apart from orientation increases linearly with their angular separation
D) Evidence that the homunculus cannot accurately see small objects without blowing them up in size
Solomon remembers how Jacob acted last weekend, and the weekend before that. Based on this, Solomon is trying to figure out whether there is a pattern to Jacob's actions. Solomon is working on a problem of:
A) induction.
B) derivation.
C) deduction.
D) confirmation.
People who report vivid imagery, compared to people who do not,
A) exhibit slower mental rotation
B) exhibit comparably fast mental rotation
C) talk more
D) exhibit faster mental rotation
Studies of analogy use indicate that participants:
A) are more likely to use analogies if there is a superficial resemblance between the problem being solved and the problem serving as the base for the analogy.
B) are more likely to use analogies in solving spatial problems than they are in solving verbal problems.
C) use analogies only if they are experts in the domain of the problem.
D) use analogies spontaneously in a wide range of problems.
Which of the following statements is most nearly accurate?
A) the shape of an imaged object is echoed by the shape of its neural representation
B) images are subjective epiphenomena
C) images are organized depictions of objects
D) images are pictures in the mind
If we form an image of a tiger, we (probably) can't count the stripes. This is probably because
A) We know too much about tigers
B) The homunculus that examines images can't count
C) We really don't have images after all
D) Images aren't pictures in the head
Chess experts are better than novices at remembering chess piece configurations from real games because of
A) chunking
C) their larger working memory
B) their willingness to work harder
D) their greater intelligence
The "expected utility" associated with an action:
A) is negative if the likelihood of success with the action is extremely low.
B) provides an estimate that is independent of the likelihood of reaching the action's desired outcome.
C) can be calculated as a value independent of the action's consequences.
D) is calculated as the utility of the likely outcome of the action multiplied by the probability of reaching that outcome.
In memorizing new material (e.g., words with concrete referents), the pattern of "dual coding" refers to:
A) the strategy of encoding the material from two separate perspectives.
B) the process of encoding the material on two separate occasions.
C) steps that lead to both a verbal memory and a visual memory.
D) the formation of a mental image in which the target item is in two separate relationships with its surrounding context.
What is the Turing Test supposed to do?
A) determine how long some cognitive process takes
B) determine whether some cognitive process is conscious or unconscious
C) tell you whether or not a computer is conscious
D) determine whether someone can distinguish the behavior of a computer from the behavior of a person
It has been argued that you will take action based on a memory:
A) independent of how you assess the memory.
B) only if the content of the memory is consistent with your other beliefs.
C) as soon as you recall the gist of the remembered information.
D) only if you are satisfied that the thought you are having is in fact an actual memory.
People are likely to accept the following (invalid) logic: Some smokers get lung cancer; some lung cancer victims die young; therefore, some smokers die young. This illustrates
A) syllogistic reasoning
B) belief bias
C) heuristic reasoning
D) confirmation bias
An "image file" refers to:
A) descriptive information in long-term memory used as the basis for creating an active image.
B) the memory representation of a basic element of visual appearance, such as the representation for "red" or "circular."
C) the information that can be derived from a close inspection of a mental image.
D) the portion of long-term storage that contains all of one's knowledge about visual appearances.
A problem's "initial state" refers to:
A) the actual statement of the problem.
B) the first goal one must move toward in solving the problem.
C) the participant's circumstances before he or she has understood the problem.
D) the knowledge and resources one possesses at the outset of the problem.
Reasoning theorists claim that the problem of verifying "if a person is drinking beer, the person must be over 21 years old" (by checking out some people who are drinking beer vs. coke or who are young vs old) is easy:
A) because people are good at modus tollens
B) because it follows a "permission schema"
C) because it is a simple syllogism
D) because it has a true conclusion
Some "framing effect" phenomena in decision-making can be explained by assuming that:
A) people are affected by their expectations (top-down processing) as well as by objective reality (bottom-up processing)
B) subjective utility is an S-shaped function of objective value, with the fastest changes in subjective utility occurring at relatively small values of objective gain or loss
C) subjective utility is an S-shaped function of objective value, with the smallest changes in subjective utility occurring at relatively small values of objective loss or gain
D) people do not make their decisions in a rational way but instead area affected by how the decisions are framed
A base rate is defined as:
A) information about the broad likelihood of a particular type of event
B) information indicating the internal variability of a set or category
C) information that can be used to diagnose an individual category member
D) information that helps us to identify which specific candidates have a target property
Participants are more likely to judge a syllogism to be valid if:
A) the participants have been trained in logic.
B) the conclusion is a statement participants believe to be true based on other knowledge.
C) the syllogism is phrased in abstract terms.
D) the conclusion contains the word "all."
What factor has been demonstrated to help people give proper weight to base rate in making decisions?
A) taking a statistics course
B) all of these factors help
C) being a psychology or a social science major in college
D) providing a causal schema for why the base rate would matter
Which of the following is not a heuristic used in problem solving?
A) working backward from the goal state
B) framing
C) hill-climbing
D) means-end analysis
Which of the following is correct about our reasoning ability?
A) We are born with innate rules of logic and are always able to apply them accurately.
B) When people are making decisions about financial matters, they act as if they are rational economists and their subjective evaluation of gain vs. loss does not influence their decisions.
C) As social beings, our implicit understanding of social rules can influence how we reason and make decisions.
D) The distance effect in linear ordering problems shows that we always solve problems by applying rules of logical inference, step by step.
Which of the following observations would be inconsistent with the claim that participants often use mental models to guide their reasoning?
A) If a problem's premises can be modeled in many different ways, the problem will be easier to solve.
B) The greater the number of models needed to reason through a problem, the more likely errors are to occur.
C) Participants' self-reports often indicate a reliance on mental models.
D) Participants' performance improves if the premises of a problem are presented in a sequence that decreases the number of mental models needed to solve the problem.
Which of the following cognitve processes is generally agreed to be conscious?
A) The process that allow you to perceive the color of a flower as red.
B) The process in visual search that make some items "pop out"
C) Explicit long-term memory.
D) Knowledge of grammar rules in language.
People who do research on problem solving have shown that one heuristic that can help people to solve problems is:
A) Try different ways of representing a problem if the first representation doesn't work well.
B) Rely on your innate rules of mental logic.
C) Keep your eye right on the main goal, and don't get distracted by subgoals.
D) Consider every possibility in the search space, and don't get distracted by the possibilities that seem attractive.
One of the most important things in making an analogy useful in problem-solving involves
A) actually having to solve a problem as the analogy, not just reading about a problem
B) being able to spontaneously use the analogy rather than being led into using it
C) having superficially similar entities be involved in the analogy and the problem
D) finding the appropriate mapping between the structure of the analogy and the problem
In using the "representativeness heuristic," participants:
A) are unable to discriminate actual patterns of covariation.
B) extrapolate from a sample of evidence if the category is homogeneous, but not if the category is heterogeneous.
C) are sensitive to the sample size and draw conclusions more readily from a large sample.
D) seem to assume that all instances of the category resemble the prototype or average for that category.
Which of the following is a normative principle that takes base rates into account in estimating conditional probabilities?
A) Representativeness heuristic
B) Causal reasoning
C) Bayes' rule
D) Modus Ponens
Participants were presented with a group of numbers, such as "2, 4, 6," and were told that the numbers followed a certain rule. The participants' task was to determine the rule. Sam's hypothesis is this: "The second number must be two higher than the first, and the third number must be two higher than the second." To test his hypothesis, Sam asks the experimenter, "Does 14, 16, 18 fit with the rule?" Sam's question:
A) is contrary to the pattern called confirmation bias.
B) may or may not reveal confirmation bias, depending on what the rule actually is.
C) may or may not reveal confirmation bias, depending on how the experimenter answers.
D) is consistent with the pattern called confirmation bias.
Blind-sight patients seem able to make many visual discriminations and, when pressed, are able to locate objects in their visual environment. Yet these same patients can not walk across a room without bumping into something. It has been suggested that:
A) the patients tend to rely on routine rather than use the information that is apparently available to them.
B) blind-sight patients are able to make discriminations only when the stimuli are particularly clear.
C) the patients can make discriminations only in controlled laboratory conditions.
D) the patients do not feel they have a reason or justification for using the information that is apparently available to them.
It has been argued that some cognitive psychology research can increase our understanding of the nature of consciousness. Which area of research is meant here?
A) memory
B) perception
C) attention
D) all of these areas
In general, a training procedure will promote subsequent analogy use if the procedure:
A) makes the value of analogy use clear to participants.
B) encourages participants to pay attention to the training problem's deep structure.
C) teaches the participants general principles about how analogies function.
D) helps participants to remember the exact formulation of the training problems.
In reasoning about the relations (e.g. "bigger than") among four items, many people construct a linear mental model, A-B-C-D. If such a person has to judge the relationship between two items (e.g., which is bigger) , which pair will result in the fastest judgment?
A) B-C
B) A-D
C) A-B
D) A-C
When presented a list containing several famous women's names and an equal number of unknown men's names, subjects tend to report there are more women than men in the list. This is due to_____.
A) an excellent heuristic
B) the representativeness heuristic
C) the availability heuristic
D) framing effects
As a neuromaging techinque, ERP is characterized by
A. Low spatial and low temporal resolution
B. Low spatial and high temporal resolution
C. High spatial and high temporal resolution
D. High spatial and low temporal resolution
What is one way in which a feature net (for recognizing words) can account for the fact that letter strings that follow the spelling patterns of English are recognized faster than letter strings that don't?
A. including bigram detectors as nodes in the net
B. including whole-word nodes in the net
C. including the correct primitive features in the net
D. including hypercomplex features as nodes in the net
The recognition of faces:
A. resembles other forms of recognition in that our ability to recognize faces is relatively unimpaired by changes in viewing angle or orientation
B. differs from other forms of recognition in that face recognition appears not to be influenced by expectation or knowledge effects
C. is influenced by configurational factors, suggesting that a model based on feature detection will provide a poor explanation of face recognition
D. seems to rely on the detection of features and geons, indicating that the recognition by components model can be applied to face recognition