Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018
Thinking about Research Answer Key Contents Chapter 1. Introduction to Cognitive Psychology ........................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Cognitive Neuroscience ................................................................................................................ 2 Chapter 3. Perception..................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 4. Attention ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 5. Memory Structures and Processes ............................................................................................... 5 Chapter 6. Long-Term Memory: Influences on Retrieval ............................................................................... 6 Chapter 7. Memory Errors .............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 8. Imagery ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 9. Language ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 10. Concepts and Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 11. Problem Solving ........................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 12. Reasoning and Decision Making ............................................................................................... 12
Chapter 1. Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Proffitt, D. R., Stefanucci, J., Banton, T., & Epstein, W. (2003). The role of effort in perceiving distance. Psychological Science, 14, 106-112. 1.
Which approach to the study of cognition is being used in this study? Embodied cognition--body movements are important for the perceptual judgments.
2.
What type of research design are the researchers using in this study? Experiment--subjects were randomly assigned to the groups.
3.
What is the independent variable (IV) in this study? The main IV was the backpack group (backpack vs. no backpack). Another IV could be the distance to the target that was varied across trials in the study.
4.
What is the dependent variable in this study? The dependent variable was the estimated distance to the target.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018
Chapter 2. Cognitive Neuroscience McDaniel, M. A., LaMontagne, P., Beck, S. M., Scullin, M. K., & Braver, T. S. (2013). Dissociable neural routes to successful prospective memory. Psychological Science, 24, 1791-1800.
1.
Explain how this study used recordings of brain activity to test a theoretical description of a cognitive process. In this study, brain activity was recorded in fMRI scans to compare activity during two different prospective memory tasks. Differences in brain activity suggest differences in processing in the two tasks, which is predicted by the theoretical description of these tasks.
2.
What was the primary manipulated variable in this experiment? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section of Chapter 1 for help in answering this question.) The primary independent variable is the type of prospective memory task (focal vs. non-focal).
3.
Do you think the researchers would have achieved similar results if they had used EEG instead of fMRI in this study? Why or why not? They may have seen similar results, but because EEG recordings are not as accurate in terms of activity location and only record activity on the outer cortex, the specific differences across these tasks may not have been seen.
4.
Explain why it was important for the researchers to show that subjects were slower in performing the non-focal than the focal prospective memory task. This result shows that there is a behavioral difference between the two tasks that can be seen along with the difference in brain activity. Together, these results provide strong evidence that processing is different in the two
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 types of tasks. Without the speed difference result, it would be less clear what the difference in brain activity means.
Chapter 3. Perception Malcolm, G. L., Nuthmann, A., & Schyns, P. G. (2014). Beyond gist: Strategic and incremental information accumulation for scene categorization. Psychological Science, 25, 1087-1097.
1.
Which of the three approaches to the study of perception do you think this study most adheres to? More of the computational than other approaches are represented here since bottom-up processing seems to contribute to interpretation of the scene. There isn’t much here that is specifically the Gestalt approach, but since top-down processing is clearly involved, a case could be made here for that approach. There isn’t much action planning involved in the task they are asked to do so this approach is not connected here.
2.
What was the primary manipulated variable in this experiment? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section of Chapter 1 for help in answering this question.) Task type--basic vs. subordinate.
3.
From this study, is there evidence of bottom-up and/or top-down processing in scene categorization? Explain your answer. Both seem to contribute. The conclusion summary in the text says that we use “more than just gist information to interpret scenes,” meaning that both bottom-up and top-town processing contribute to the scene processing done in the task. For the basic categorization task, fewer details were needed than for the subordinate task, but subjects focused mostly on objects in both tasks in order to interpret the scenes showing that those details were important in both tasks (just fewer of them needed for the more specific task).
4.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 Of the results described, which are most informative about the research question in this study? Explain your answer. Data in Fig. 3.16 are the most important data, as they show that different amounts of detail are needed for the two tasks.
Chapter 4. Attention Böckler, A., van der Wel, P. R. D., & Welsh, T. N. (2014). Catching eyes: Effects of social and nonsocial cues on attention capture. Psychological Science, 25, 720-727.
1.
Which of the metaphors for the study of attention do you think this study most adheres to? Attention as a spotlight is the metaphor most connected to the task in the study--the gaze and change in gaze (motion) attracted attention despite being irrelevant to the task.
2.
What was the primary manipulated variable in this experiment? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section in Chapter 1 for help in answering this question.) The primary IVs were the type of gaze (direct vs. averted) and motion condition (sudden vs. static). These IVs are clearly labeled in the results figures.
3.
Can you think of an example from your own life where direct eye gaze captured your attention? How does that situation relate to the procedure used in the following study? Answers will vary, but will likely involve a case where someone noticed someone looking directly at them.
4.
Given the discussion of attention in this chapter, why do you think eye gaze and motion in particular capture our attention?
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 Answers will vary, but one possible reason is that eye gaze and motion are both evolutionarily relevant factors in the environment that are adaptive aspects of attention.
Chapter 5. Memory Structures and Processes Xu, Y., & Franconeri, S. L. (2015). Capacity for visual features in mental rotation. Psychological Science, 26, 1241-1251.
1.
What aspect of Baddeley’s (2000) working memory model does this study seem to address? What do the results tell us about this part of working memory?
2.
What type of research design are the researchers using in this study? Explain your answer. (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section in Chapter 1 for help in answering this question and Question 3.) This is an experiment--subjects saw rotating and non-rotating trials and the blank screen time (i.e., delay) was changed from trial to trial. Figure 5.11 shows the different kinds of trials.
3.
What are some possible controls the researchers likely included in this study? Why are these controls important? There are many possibilities that likely include: The verbal task was one control used to eliminate any verbal rehearsal for the task. Another control was likely normal or corrected eyesight for the participants. The number of trials of each type would be balanced in the task and the order of trials was likely counterbalanced or random across participants for this within-subjects design. The controls help rule out other possible explanations for the results of the study.
4.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 What are some practical implications of the results of this study? The main implication of this study is that moving objects are harder to store in working memory than stationary objects. Thus, multi-tasking with stationary objects will be easier than with moving objects.
Chapter 6. Long-Term Memory: Influences on Retrieval Nairne, J. S., Van Arsdall, J. E., Pandeirada, J. N. S., Cogdill, M., & LeBreton, J. M. (2013). Adaptive memory: The mnemonic value of animacy. Psychological Science, 24, 2099-2105.
1.
Can you connect the researchers’ hypothesis in this study to any of the encoding effects discussed in this chapter? In what way(s) are they connected? Their hypothesis is related to the level of processing effect. Although the participants did not complete deep and shallow tasks at encoding, the meaning the information they encoded (living vs. non-living) affected their later memory.
2.
Can you think of an alternative explanation for the results of the study beyond the explanation offered by the researchers? What type of study might allow the alternative explanation to be ruled out? Answers will vary, but one possibility is that a different aspect of the items other than their animacy affected memory. For example, it is possible that animate objects can provide a mental image more easily than inanimate objects. Matching the items on these other factors (which the researchers did, in fact, do in their study) would rule out these other explanations.
3.
What type of research design are the researchers using in this study? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section of Chapter 1 for help answering Questions 3 and 4.)
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 This is an experiment. All participants received both animate and inanimate items at study, and the researchers were able to compare their memory for item type. 4.
What is the independent variable in this study? What is the dependent variable (DV) in this study? IV = type of item (animate vs. inanimate)--could also include recall trial (1, 2, or 3) as an IV DV = proportion of items recalled correctly
5.
What do the results of this study suggest about the purpose of human memory? These results suggest that memory is specially tuned to encode and remember animate objects better than other information.
Chapter 7. Memory Errors Castel, A. D., McCabe, D. P., Roediger, H. L. III, & Heitman, J. L. (2007). The dark side of expertise: Domain-specific memory errors. Psychological Science, 18, 3-5.
1.
Describe the memory errors the subjects in this study made. What is the likely cause of the errors? Sometimes the participants remembered words that were not actually on the lists that they were presented earlier. In most cases these were words from the same category as the words that were on the list. One likely cause of these false memories is the associative links that they have with other members of these categories.
2.
In what way(s) is the method of this study similar to the DRM procedure described in this chapter? The procedure was very similar to the DRM lists. The major difference was that the DRM lists consisted of words all related to a central theme word that was not included on the memorized list. In this study, there was
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 not a centralized theme word, but rather three words from the same category that were not presented on the memorized list. 3.
What type of research design are the researchers using in this study? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section of Chapter 1 for help in answering questions 3 and 4.) The study used a quasi-experimental design because the study compares the performance of football experts with non-experts (a variable that isn’t manipulated by the researchers).
4.
What is the independent variable in this study? What is the dependent variable in this study? The independent variable was the type of words (animal or body part) used in the list that were memorized. The dependent variables were the number of correctly recalled words and the number of falsely recalled words.
5.
What do the results of this study suggest about the purpose of human memory? Answers will vary. One possible answer may be that our memory processes are structured to group things from similar domains of experience together to facilitate future recall, even at the risk of misremembering the source of the initial encoding of the experiences.
Chapter 8. Imagery Amit, E., & Greene, J. D. (2012). You see, the ends don’t justify the means: Visual imagery and moral judgment. Psychological Science, 23, 861-868.
1.
In what ways is this study similar to studies examining the role of visual imagery in cognitive tasks presented in this chapter? This study is similar to many of the studies described that investigated Paivio’s dual-coding theory (e.g. Snodgrass & McClure 1975 study
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 described in the chapter) which contrasted memory for imagined and verbally presented materials. 2.
What was the manipulated variable in this experiment? (Hint: Review the “Research Methodologies” section in Chapter 1 for help in answering this question.) Two variables were manipulated in the study. The first was whether the scenario favored the rights of an individual or a larger group. The second manipulated variable was the kind of interference task, either using actual shapes or shape words.
3.
What was the purpose of the control condition? In what way would the researchers’ conclusion have been limited if the control condition had not been included? The control condition was included to ensure that the participants were paying attention to both tasks to allow for the potential of interference. If it hadn’t been included, it could be argued that the difference between the two tasks was not due to interference.
4.
If the researchers had chosen to look at brain activity during the moral judgment task instead of looking at inhibition due to the type of interference task, what results would you expect for this study? One might expect to find greater levels of activity in visual cortex and associated areas of the brain when making moral judgments that favor the rights of individuals compared to those favoring group rights.
Chapter 9. Language Emberson, L. L., Lupyan, G., Goldstein, M. H., & Spivey, M. J. (2010). Overheard cell-phone conversations: When less speech is more distracting. Psychological Science, 21, 1383-1388.
1.
What aspects of language are being examined in this study?
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 This study examines the inter-relationship between language production, comprehension, and attentional processes. The study demonstrated that hearing only one side of a conversation was more distracting than hearing both sides of a conversation. It suggests that, in the halfalogue condition, the listeners may have been using cognitive resources to generate the missing side of the conversation. 2.
What is the independent variable in this study? The independent variable was whether the language that participants heard was both sides of a conversation or only one side of a conversation.
3.
What is the dependent variable in this study? The dependent variables were how well participants performed on the choice reaction time task (“respond when there were 4 letters”) and the dot tracking task.
4.
What alternative explanations can you come up with to explain the results of this study? Answers will vary. Some answers may argue that the difference between the conditions might not be the result of the language processing systems but rather some other difference between the halfalogue and the full dialogue stimuli that attracted attentional resources to different degrees.
Chapter 10. Concepts and Knowledge Sloutsky, V. M., Kloos, H., & Fisher, A. V. (2007). When looks are everything: Appearance similarity versus kind information in early induction. Psychological Science, 18, 179-185.
1.
What aspects of concepts are examined in this study? The study examines children’s acquisition and use of novel concepts. The central question examined whether category membership or physical
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 similarity was more important when making categorical inductions (inferring properties of one thing to another thing). 2.
What are the independent variables in this study? The independent variable was whether exemplars were members of ziblets or flurps. These categories were defined by the ratio of the different features of the objects.
3.
What are the dependent variables in this study? In the categorization phases of the study, the dependent variable was which category (ziblet or flurp) a new exemplar was in. In the induction phase of the study, the dependent variable was which exemplar (from a set of two), had the same hidden property that a target item had. These responses were classified as either consistent with category type or based on physical similarity.
4.
What alternative explanations can you come up with to explain the results of this study? Answers will vary but may include that the categories used are arbitrary groupings rather than categories found in nature and that the findings may not generalize.
Chapter 11. Problem Solving Grant, E. R., & Spivey, M. J. (2003). Eye movements and problem solving: Guiding attention guides thought. Psychological Science, 14(5), 462-466.
1.
Which of the approaches to the study of cognition do you think these researchers used in their experiments on problem solving: representationalist, embodied, or biological (see Chapter 1 for a review of these approaches)? This study can be viewed as having aspects of all of the approaches. Within the representationalist approaches, improved problem solving
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 resulted from an increased attentional focus on the relevant features of the underlying representation of the problem. However, the result also highlights the importance of the interaction between biological variables (like eye-position), the environment, and cognitive processes. 2.
What are the independent variables in this study? The main independent variable in the second experiment was the type of diagram that participants viewed when trying to solve the problem. In one condition it was a static picture, in another case it was an animated picture that emphasized an important aspect of the problem (relevant to solving the problem), in the final condition it was an animated picture that emphasized an irrelevant part of the problem.
3.
What are the dependent variables in this study? The dependent variable was whether the participants arrived at the correct solution to the problem.
4.
In what way might these results be useful for everyday problem solving? These results suggest that problem solving is facilitated if we can focus our attention on aspects of the problem that are relevant for the solution. The difficulty in figuring out in advance what the relevant aspects of a problem are is a large part of what makes everyday problem solving difficult.
Chapter 12. Reasoning and Decision Making De Neys, W. (2006). Dual processing in reasoning: Two systems but one reasoner. Psychological Science, 17(5), 428-433.
1.
What kind of reasoning is being examined in this study? The study examined syllogistic reasoning processes.
2.
What are the independent variables in this study?
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 The first independent variable was whether the problems contained conclusions that were logically consistent or inconsistent with common beliefs. A second variable manipulated cognitive load by varying the number of dots in the pattern that participants had to reproduce. 3.
What are the dependent variables in this study? The dependent variable was the rate at which participants were able to correctly identify whether the conclusion was logically correct.
4.
What alternative explanations can you come up with to explain the results of this study? Answers will vary, but may include the interfering tasks impacted processes like language comprehension rather than reasoning and that the differences reflected poorer understanding of the premises rather than the logical reasoning of the conclusion.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018
Answers to Chapter Quizzes Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology 1. Enter the letter for the approach to the study of cognition next to its corresponding definition below: a. Representationalism ______ describes cognitive processes as operating on knowledge concepts represented in our minds b. Embodied cognition ______ describe cognitive processes as the interplay between the body and the environment c. Biological-motivated models ______ describes cognitive processes in a similar fashion to the physiological functioning of the brain 2. Which core principle of the scientific method involves the identification of the underlying causes of behavior? a. empiricism *b. determinism c. parsimony d. testability 3. Which core principle of the scientific method involves the assumption that simpler explanations of behavior are preferred? a. empiricism b. determinism *c. parsimony d. testability Use the following study description to answer questions 4–7 below: A researcher is interested in examining the relationship between ones actual memory abilities and ones perception of how good their memory abilities are. Subjects in this study are given a list of words to remember and asked to remember these words after a short delay. They are also given a questionnaire that asks questions about how good the subject thinks their memory is, where high scores mean the subject thinks they have high memory abilities. The researcher finds a small, but positive, relationship between the memory test scores and the questionnaire scores. 4. What type of research design is used in this study? a. experiment b. case study *c. correlational study
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 5. Explain how you know which research design is being used? Looking for relationship between two measured variables. 6. Which of the following are dependent (response) variables in this study? (choose all that apply) a. the delay between the study list and the memory test *b. the score on the questionnaire *c. the score on the memory test d. the number of words in the study list 7. The results indicated a positive relationship between the variables that were measured. Explain what this means. This means that people with a higher estimation of their memory abilities showed higher memory performance in the test. 8. In what way does an experiment differ from other research designs? The use of an independent variable allows for a better test of causal relationships. 9. The measure used by researchers that indicates the speed with which someone completes a task is known as ______. a. accuracy *b. reaction time c. self-report d. an independent variable 10. What are two “metaphors of the mind” that have influenced the development of theories of cognition? Computers and wax tablet. 11. What are two developments that led to a rapid expansion of the field of cognitive psychology after the mid-20th century? Computers, Chomsky’s arguments against Skinner’s description of language development, and Neisser’s text. 12. Describe Donders’s experiments and explain how they propose to measure cognitive processes. These experiments measured the time to make a simple key press and the time to make a cognitive decision and to make a simple key press. By subtracting out the time to make the key press from the time to make the decision and the key press, Donders proposed that the time difference is the time it took to make the cognitive decision.
Chapter 2: Cognitive Neuroscience
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 1. Which brain recording technique is often limited to laboratory animals because it requires insertion of a recording needle into the brain? a. PET scan b. EEG/ERP c. fMRI *d. single-cell recording e. PET scan and EEG/ERP 2. Which brain recording technique(s) measures a change in blood flow to different areas of the brain? *a. PET scan b. EEG/ERP c. fMRI d. single-cell recording e. PET scan and EEG/ERP 3. What is meant by localization and lateralization of brain function? This means that specific areas of the brain (location or hemisphere) are primarily responsible for specific functions. 4. Describe some disadvantages of using clinical case studies to connect brain function and cognition. Lack of control over the damage meaning damage could be widespread and in areas the researcher is not intending to study; results may not generalize to large groups. 5. From Phinneas Gage, researchers learned that the ______ lobe of the brain is important for reasoning abilities and control of emotion. *a. frontal b. parietal c. temporal d. occipital 6. In which lobe of the brain is visual information primarily processed? a. frontal b. parietal c. temporal *d. occipital 7. In what ways is the single-cell recording technique different from other brain recording techniques? Exact location can be determined, but it is invasive in that a needle is inserted into the subject’s brain.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 8. How do brain recording techniques allow for experiments that cannot be done with clinical case study patients? Can record from specific areas of the brain to see activity under controlled conditions. 9. When EEG recordings are connected to the timing of the presentation of a stimulus, it is called ______. Event-related potential. 10. The MEG technique provides better ______ than EEG. Location accuracy.
Chapter 3: Perception 1. Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of an object in terms of the geons that make up the object? a. Gestalt *b. computational c. perception/action 2. Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a doorway in terms of whether it can be walked through? a. Gestalt b. computational *c. perception/action 3. Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a tree as more than the addition of its branches, leaves, roots, flowers, etc.? *a. Gestalt b. computational c. perception/action 4. Which of the following parts of a sensory system is responsible for transforming stimulus energy into neural signals? a. sense organ b. brain areas *c. receptor cells d. nerve conduit 5. In which lobe of the brain is visual information first processed? a. parietal b. frontal c. temporal *d. occipital
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 6. Two objects appear in a scene: an elephant and a mouse. The mouse is much closer than the elephant. Explain how you might know that the mouse is closer from cues in the scene. The retinal image of the mouse might be larger or of the same size as the elephant; there may be linear perspective cues to indicate distance. 7. For the scene in question 6, what aspects of the scene would be of interest to a perception/action researcher? How one might move around between the elephant and the mouse. 8. According to the perception/action approach, explain how the perception of the gap in my backyard fence would differ between the rabbit in my backyard and myself. According to this approach, the rabbit would see the gap as one it could likely pass through, whereas, I would see it as something I could not pass through. 9. Look around the room you are in and describe your perception in terms of the Gestalt principles of proximity, similarity, and closure. Answers will vary. 10. Explain the difference in processing of visual stimuli that occurs in the ventral and dorsal brain pathways. The ventral pathway helps identify what an object is and the dorsal pathway helps identify where an object is. 11. In what way does the discovery of mirror neurons support the connection between perception and action? The presence of mirror neurons in our brain shows that we are processing the actions of objects in our environment. 12. How might mirror neurons be useful in social perception? They can help us understand the emotions and motives of another person. 13. The ______ visual pathway extends into motor cortex, whereas the ______ visual pathway extends into the temporal lobe where language is processed. Dorsal; ventral. 14. The information in the environment about movement where farther objects appear to be passing by more slowly than closer objects is called ______. Optic flow. 15. Perception of the taste of food begins in the ______. Tongue.
Chapter 4: Attention
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 1. Enter the letter for the description of attention next to its corresponding definition below: a. Spotlight model ______ attention is the focus of consciousness and can be moved around in the environment b. Feature-integration model ______ attention binds aspects of a scene together to identify objects c. Filter model ______ attention excludes irrelevant stimuli to allow one to focus on the relevant aspects of the environment d. Attenuation model ______ attention reduces the strength of irrelevant stimuli in the environment 2. Not noticing a change in the environment from moment to moment is called ______. a. selective attention *b. inattentional blindness c. attention capture d. visual search 3. In Treisman and Gelade’s (1980) experiments on visual search for a target, the targets in the ______ condition seemed to “pop out” of the displays. *a. single feature b. conjunction feature c. change blindness d. color 4. In a study, subjects are asked to perform an arithmetic task while also attempting to remember lists of words for later recall. The researchers in this study compared the performance on the memory task with and without the accompanying arithmetic task to determine if the arithmetic task interferes with ones performance on the memory task. This study used the ______ methodology to study attention abilities. a. visual search b. conjunction search c. inattentional blindness *d. dual-task 5. Describe the aspects that are similar in Tresiman’s feature-integration model and Schneider and Shiffrin’s (1977) description of attention. Both models contain conscious and automatic processes that support attention. 6. Suppose you were a researcher who wanted to study attention capture of warning signals in aircraft that occur when pilots are focused on another task (e.g., landing a plane). Describe how you might design such a study using methodologies described in this chapter. Answers will vary.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 7. Based on the work on Daniel Simons, explain how it is possible that you did not notice that a different person was now part of your conversation in the party scene described at the beginning of the chapter. Inattentional blindness is common--subjects did not notice a person in a gorilla suit moving across the scene when their attention was focused elsewhere. 8. Explain how tasks can become automatic that initially require controlled attention. With a lot of practice, a task can be become automatic as we need less conscious attention to complete it. 9. Schneider and Shiffrin’s (1977) experiments showed that when the targets and distractors were ______, the task became automatic for the subjects. a. of different types *b. of the same types c. all numbers d. all letters
Chapter 5: Memory Structures and Processes 1. Enter the letter for the memory term next to the example below that illustrates that form of memory. a. semantic memory ______ you know the capital city of China is Beijing b. episodic memory ______ you remember the time you went with your friends to the movies to see The Hunger Games c. procedural memory ______ after years without practice you pick up a golf club and make an excellent drive 2. Which memory storage unit in the modal model of memory holds information for a second or two as raw sensory information? a. working memory b. long-term memory c. short-term memory *d. sensory memory 3. Which subsystem of the working memory system controls the focus of attention? a. episodic buffer *b. central executive c. phonological loop d. visuospatial sketchpad 4. Which subsystem of the working memory system allows for rehearsal of information held for the short term? a. episodic buffer
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 b. central executive *c. phonological loop d. visuospatial sketchpad 5. Which of the following is an example of procedural memory? a. remembering what you had for breakfast yesterday *b. remembering how to make breakfast c. remembering to have breakfast before you leave the house d. remembering what the word breakfast means 6. Describe the types of memory errors one is likely to make if one studies and recalls the following list--happy, game, honey, trust, lame, bee a. when recall occurs after 30 seconds. Sound errors like “tame” or “see” b. when recall occurs after 24 hours. Meaning errors like “hive” or “excited” 7. Describe the role of the central executive in Baddelet’s model of working memory. The central executive manages the interplay between the other units of working memory--the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer. 8. Provide examples of both proactive and retroactive interference. Answers will vary, but retroactive interference involves new information displacing older information and proactive interference involves old information blocking retrieval of newer information. 9. Explain how you could remember the following sequence of numbers for a short time using chunking: 1812200020181776 An easy way to organize the information into fewer units is to recode the numbers as years: 1812, 2000, 2018, and 1776
Chapter 6: Long-Term Memory: Influences on Retrieval 1. Enter the letter of each effect name with the type of effect it is below. ______ level of processing effect (a) ______ mood-dependent memory effect (c) ______ encoding specificity principle (c) ______ serial position curve (a) ______ testing effect (b) ______ transfer-appropriate processing (c) ______ spaced repetition effect (a) 2. Which of the following effects shows that long-term memory encoding is based on the meaning of information?
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 a. transfer-appropriate processing b. mood-dependent memory effect c. testing effect *d. level of processing effect 3. Which of the following effects shows that long-term memories can be strengthened by retrieving them? a. transfer-appropriate processing b. mood-dependent memory effect *c. testing effect d. level of processing effect 4. Which of the following effects shows that long-term memory retrieval is based on the match in processing type from study to test? *a. transfer-appropriate processing b. mood-dependent memory effect c. testing effect d. level of processing effect 5. Which of the following effects shows that long-term memory retrieval is based on the match in mental state (e.g., happy, sad, anxious) from study to test? a. transfer-appropriate processing *b. mood-dependent memory effect c. testing effect d. level of processing effect 6. Consolidation that occurs slowly over time is called ______ consolidation. a. synaptic *b. systems c. neuron d. cortex 7. Which of the following processes is a likely cause of normal forgetting (choose all that apply)? *a. interference b. decay over time c. death of neuron cells *d. lack of consolidation 8. Is there scientific support for “photographic memory”? Explain your answer. There is not. When people exhibit superior memory abilities, it is likely that they are using highly effective encoding techniques. 9. Would you like to have superior autobiographical memory? Why or why not? Answers will vary.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 10. Describe three study techniques that would improve your test performance. Answers will vary, but may include testing oneself, connecting information with current knowledge or processing it deeply for meaning, spacing study sessions, and matching context with testing conditions. 11. Describe a prospective memory from your life. Answers will vary, but should be about remembering to complete a future task.
Chapter 7: Memory Errors 1. Which memory “sin” is primarily due to a lack of attention at encoding or retrieval? *a. absentmindedness b. persistence c. suggestibility d. blocking 2. Which memory “sin” results in unwanted memories? a. source misattribution *b. persistence c. suggestibility d. bias 3. Which memory “sin” is synonymous with normal forgetting over time? a. bias b. persistence c. suggestibility *d. transience 4. Which type of amnesia results in an inability to explicitly retrieve memories from after the brain damage has occurred? a. semantic amnesia *b. anterograde amnesia c. cortical amnesia d. retrograde amnesia 5. Loftus’s studies of eyewitness memory showed that ______ can alter the memory for an event. a. a person’s schema *b. postevent information or suggestions c. thematic activation d. lack of confidence 6. A script is ______. a. the general meaning or gist of the information b. a cause of amnesia
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 *c. a stored set of actions typical to an event d. a network of stored concepts 7. I have a memory that I took my medicine this morning. But in reality, I only thought about taking my medicine. This type of memory error represents the ______ “sin” of memory. a. suggestibility b. bias c. transience *d. source misattribution 8. I arranged to call my friend at 3:00 p.m. when she had a break in her schedule. However, during the day, I was busy with many tasks and forgot to call at the scheduled time. This type of memory error represents the ______ “sin” of memory. a. source misattribution b. blocking c. transience *d. absentmindedness 9. Explain why memory is described as reconstructive. We encode and store our pieces of our experiences (e.g., sights, sounds, scents) and try to reassemble the pieces at retrieval. 10. How do we know that amnesics like H. M. can store new memories? While, amnesics like H.M. are unable to recall explicit memories of particular episodes, they do show relatively intact implicit memory functioning. For example, they are able to show improvement on skills tasks (e.g., playing a video game). 11. Describe the two types of neuron function disruptions that occur in Alzheimer’s disease. The development of plaques (bundles of protein) in the spaces between neurons disrupts neural communication, resulting in dementia. Tangles are protein fibers that develop in a neuron’s nucleus interfering with intracellular functioning. Cognitive functioning decreases as functioning neurons decrease. 12. How has research in eyewitness memory changed police procedures in some departments? Police departments may use double-blind suspect lineups, in which the administrators of the lineup does not know the identity of the suspect to avoid potentially biasing the witness. Additionally, lineups are composed of similar looking individuals and are often presented one-at-a-time instead of all at once. 13. Describe a situation where you (or someone you imagine) experienced the memory “sin” of bias.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 Answers will vary. For example, suppose that you are a football coach. Your team has the ball on the 1-yard line with just under 30 seconds left in the game. Your team is down by four points. You decide to pass rather than run the ball on the next play. Think about how your memory of your decision processes may change as a function of the result of the play. If the passing play results in a touchdown (and your team wins the game) versus if the passing play results in an interception (and your team losses the game).
Chapter 8: Imagery 1. The sentence “Twelve blackbirds flew through the cloudless blue sky and landed at the top of a large oak tree” is an example of what type of imagery? a. spatial imagery *b. propositional imagery c. motor imagery d. all of these 2. A video showing twelve blackbirds flying and landing on the top of a large tree is an example of what type of imagery? *a. spatial imagery b. propositional imagery c. motor imagery d. all of these 3. Imagining yourself jumping over a small fence is an example of what type of imagery? a. spatial imagery b. propositional imagery *c. motor imagery d. all of these 4. The description of images as spatial proposed by Kosslyn and others illustrates the ______ perspective of cognition. a. embodied cognition *b. representational c. biological 5. The description of images as important in simulations that help aid the fulfillment of perceptual goals illustrates the ______ perspective of cognition. *a. embodied cognition b. representational c. biological 6. Remembering words like book, tree, and butterfly better than words like justice, meaning, and life illustrates the ______ effect.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 a. bizarreness b. picture superiority *c. concreteness 7. Spatial images preserve ______ relationships for visual stimuli and auditory images preserve ______ relationships for auditory stimuli. a. verbal; visual *b. spatial; temporal c. analog; propositional d. spatial; temporal as well as analog; propositional 8. Explain the difference between spatial and propositional representations. Spatial representations are based on mental images and are processed in similar ways as the objects or scenes are perceived. For example, if we see a map, we may move our eyes to scan it. A spatial representation of that map may involve moving our attention to scan a mental image of the map. Propositional representations are based on abstract representations of the objects or scenes. Something like a map may consist of representations of the places, features, and relationships between elements (e.g., cities, roads, forests, which roads connect which cities, how long the roads are, etc.). 9. How have studies of brain activity helped support the spatial representation view of imagery? Similar areas of visual cortex appear to be involved during imaging tasks and perceptual tasks. 10. Provide some examples of the bizarreness effect from your life. Answers will vary. For example, I can remember many of the details of a funny commercial shown during the Superbowl, but can’t remember what I was eating while watching the game. 11. When finding a place you have never been, do you rely more on scenographic or abstract images? Provide some examples that illustrate this. Answers will vary. For example, if driving long distances through the countryside, I prefer using map overview instructions (abstract), but when driving in an unfamiliar city, I prefer directions based on landmarks (scenographic) 12. Explain how motor imagery is different from other forms of imagery discussed in this chapter. Provide an example of motor imagery from your life. Motor imagery involves representations or simulations of kinesthetic movement. It is similar to the experience of mentally scanning an image of an object (when the object isn’t actually present). For example, recently I wanted to move a couch to an upstairs room. Before picking up the couch and carrying it, I imagined myself going up the stairs, carrying one end of the couch, trying to figure out how to navigate it around the two corner turns and the low ceiling between the floors.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 After doing the mental simulation, I concluded that I could probably do it, and then we physically moved the couch.
Chapter 9: Language 1. Enter the letter for the correct definition next to the terms below. Constituent (d) a. the smallest unit of language that has meaning Categorical perception (b) b. perceiving a continuous stimulus as discrete Mental lexicon (h) categories Morpheme (a) c. a representation of what a text is about Phoneme (e) d. chunks of syntactic representations Semanticity (g) e. the sound representations that make up human Situational model (c) languages Syntactic parsing (f) f. building the grammatical structure of a sentence g. the characteristic that words have meaning h. the collection of word representations in our long-term memory 2. What does it mean that language is hierarchically structured? It means that there is an organization that consists of smaller parts that are constructed into larger parts. For example, phonemes make up morphemes, morphemes make up words, words make up phrases and clauses, phrases and clauses make up sentences. 3. What are the phoneme restoration and word superiority effects? What process do they illustrate? The phoneme restoration effect is the finding that if a sound (phoneme) is absent from a word, that we may perceive the missing sound when we listen to the word in context. The word superiority effect is the finding that letters are more quickly and accurately recognized if they are in the context of a word compared to non-word contexts. Both of these effects are demonstrations of the effects of top-down information on the perception of language. 4. What is the syntax-first approach to parsing? The syntax-first approach to parsing is an argument that the syntactic structure of a sentence should be based on syntactic information before other kinds of information (e.g., semantic or pragmatic). 5. What is an inference? How is it used to help with language comprehension? Inferences are pieces of knowledge about a situation that are not explicitly present, but are instead generated from either logical reasoning or past
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 experience. There are many different kinds of inferences used in language comprehension to fill in gaps and draw connections between different elements. 6. What is the “paradox” in language production? In contrast to language comprehension, a language producer has complete control of the content of an utterance. The producer knows what they wish to say, what words to use, what order to put them in, etc. The paradox comes from the fact that, despite having this level of control, patterns of errors in language production typically result in disruptions of meaning to maintain correct form of utterances. 7. What design feature of language corresponds to the use of unique combinations of representations to produce an infinite number of utterances? a. duality of patterning b. semanticity *c. productivity d. innateness 8. Washoe was ______. a. an African grey parrot b. a child raised in a language-free environment *c. a chimpanzee taught to use human language d. a speech error demonstrating categorical perception 9. In the sentence “Connor teased Daphne” the -ed is a ______. a. phoneme * b. bound morpheme c. free morpheme d. syntactic constituent 10. Evidence suggests retrieval of words from the mental lexicon is affected by ______. a. lexical frequency b. orthographic neighborhoods c. morphological complexity *d. all of these
Chapter 10: Concepts and Knowledge 1. The classical approach to concepts is that they are mental representations of ______. a. the averaged features of all members of a category b. the collection of all retrieved memories of encounters with members of a category *c. a definition consisting of necessary and sufficient features of all members of a category d. how and why features of category members are related to one another
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 2. Rips et al. (1973) demonstrated that people verify “a robin is a bird” faster than “a chicken is a bird.” This is an example of ______. a. an exemplar effect *b. a typicality effect c. a basic-level effect d. category induction 3. Consider the concept of an apple. Match the concept label with its label within a conceptual hierarchy. a. Basic level ______ Golden delicious (c) b. Superordinate level ______ Fruit (b) c. Subordinate level ______ Apple (a) 4. A schema representation for the concept “bird” consists of ______. a. an unordered list of common features b. a list of common features ordered in terms of their typicality *c. a structured set of dimensions with particular values for the dimensions d. all of the recalled memories of past experiences with birds 5. Imagine you read in the paper that a particular model of automobile had recently been recalled because of electrical issues. Based on the research on category induction, which of the following inferences would you most likely make? *a. that your car might develop electrical issues b. that your house might develop electrical issues c. that your truck might develop electrical issues d. that your car might develop mechanical issues 6. Summarize the methods and conclusions from the Allen and Brooks (1991) study. The researchers presented participants with a set of fictional creatures, systematically manipulating the features of the creatures and the context in which they were presented. Some of the participants were told a “rule” that could be used to categorize the creatures into two groups. The rest of the participants had to figure out the rule. After a period of training to categorize the creatures into the two groups, the participants were given new examples of the creatures to categorize. The new creatures varied to the extent that they were similar to either a prototype of one of the creature types, or similar to particular exemplars in the training set. The results of the study suggested that participants used similarity to past exemplars more than similarity to prototypes. 7. Summarize the methods and conclusions from the Lin and Murphy (1997) study. The researchers presented participants with pictures of artificial tools and background stories about how the tools were used. The stories emphasized the importance of different features of the pictured tool (e.g., one story may highlight the important functionality of a cone shaped part, while another may highlight an important loop part. In a learning phase of the study, participants were given
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 examples and asked to categorize them as particular types of tools. The results demonstrated that the participants considered the functional purposes of the tools to make their decisions about what categories the tools belonged to. 8. Compare and contrast the exemplar and prototype views of concepts. Both views propose that category membership relies on comparing features of objects to mental representations of similar objects. However, the prototype view proposes that the mental comparison object is an abstract representation constructed from all past experiences. In contrast, the exemplar view proposes that the mental comparisons are individual memories of past experiences (rather than a single combined abstraction). 9. Why is the lack of transitive inheritance properties (Hampton, 1982) a problem for the Collins and Quillian (1969) model? To maintain cognitive economy, the Collins and Quillian model proposed that features shared by all members of a category need not be stored for each individual member of the category, but rather could be represented at the level of the category itself. Category members would inherit those features by virtue of being members of the category. Hampton (1982) demonstrated that this inheritance does not always work as predicted by the Collins and Quillian model. For example, if a beanbag is a chair, and a chair is a type of furniture, then beanbags should inherit the properties of furniture. However, Hampton’s results indicated that his participants did not always agree with statements like a beanbag is furniture. 10. How does expertise in an area impact our conceptual representations? Experts have more experience within their domain of expertise compared to novices. This experience typically includes encountering more exemplars and having richer detailed theories of how objects (and their features) are related within the domain. This may lead to shifts in what they consider basic levels of their conceptual hierarchies, as well as other differences in how their concepts (within the domain of expertise) are structured. 11. How are stereotypes similar to other concept representations? Some researchers have proposed that stereotypes are a kind of prototype representation of social categories. For example, when we are trying to categorize an object as either a fruit or an animal we do so by comparing the features of the object to the features typically associated with the categories of fruits and animals. If we decide that the object is a fruit, we may infer that it has other properties of fruits that we may not have directly observed in it. Using stereotypes may operate in a similar fashion. When we meet somebody new, we may attempt to classify them into a particular social category based on a set of observed features. Once we classify them as belonging to a particular category, we may infer that they have other features that are typically shared by members of that category.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018
Chapter 11: Problem Solving 1. The problem-solving cycle includes all but the following stages: a. recognize and identify the problem b. define and mentally represent the problem c. monitor progress toward the goal and evaluate the solution *d. create alternative kinds of problems e. develop a solution strategy f. allocate mental resources for solving the problem 2. Researchers typically describe a problem as ______. a. the difference between past problems and the current problem *b. the difference between a current state and a desired state c. the difference between an insight and a representation d. the similarity between past problems and the current problem e. the similarity between attention and working memory 3. The checkerboard and dominos problem illustrates that ______. a. games are a kind of problem-solving task *b. how we represent a problem can have an impact on our ability to find a solution c. functional fixedness can make finding solutions easier d. monitoring progress toward the goal is rarely done e. the trial-and-error strategy is a fast and efficient method for finding a solution 4. The associationist approach describes most problem solving as involving ______. a. insight b. analogy c. chunking *d. trial and error e. searching through a problem space 5. Gestalt psychologists proposed that problem solving ______. a. often involves unconscious processing of a problem b. sometimes involves insight c. involves thinking aloud d. is impacted by past experience *e. all of these 6. Successfully solving a problem using the analogy transfer strategy typically results from ______. a. focusing on the surface features of the problem *b. focusing on the underlying structure of the problem c. focusing on both the surface features and underlying structure of the problem d. ignoring both the surface features and underlying structure and instead relying on insight to solve the problem
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 7. Newell and Simon proposed that problem solving involves a search through a problem space. What is a problem space? a. the part of memory where we store all of our past experience with problems *b. a mental representation of the set of intermediate states, subgoals, and operators c. the combination of the articulatory loop and spatial sketchpad components of working memory d. the mental set of typical functions that objects usually are used for 8. A hill-climbing strategy for problem solving is an approach ______. a. that starts at the top of a set of potential solutions and works down the set *b. in which operators are selected if they result in changing the current state to something that is closer to the goal state c. in which you work through the problem space in reverse, starting with the goal state and working backward to the initial state d. that factors in the amount of effort required to use a particular operator 9. Experts are often much better (faster and more accurate) problem solvers within their domain of expertise because they ______. a. have more experience with the typical problems in the domain. b. are usually more intelligent than novices. c. are able to focus on the underlying structure of the problem better than novices. *d. both have more experience with the typical problems in the domain and are able to focus on the underlying structure of the problem better than novices e. (a), (b), and (c) are correct. 10. Bransford and Stein proposed the IDEAL framework of problem solving. IDEAL stands for ______. a. Identify past solutions, Determine good strategies, Explore alternative methods, Always keep trying, Look back and learn b. Inhibit surface features, Discover underlying structure, Explore possible solutions, Activate relevant knowledge, Learn from past mistakes c. Identify potential representations, Decode chunked information, Examine past assumptions, Anticipate outcomes and act, Leap forward with intuition and insight d. Interpret and comprehend, Define underlying assumptions, Elaborate, Activate relevant chunks, Learn from past mistakes *e. Identify problems, Define goals, Explore strategies, Anticipate outcomes and act, and Look back and learn 11. Think of situations where you have overcome functional fixedness to solve a problem (e.g., using a shoe to squash a bug). Think back to what it felt like to come up with that solution. Did it involve having an “insight”? Answers will vary, but should involve using something in a novel way to solve a problem. Insight examples will include a description that the solution suddenly occurred to them.
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 12. What kind of problem-solving strategies do you use in your college courses? Do you mostly use algorithmic or heuristic methods? Answers will vary, but algorithmic methods will involve step by step procedures for getting coursework done and heuristics will involve generally methods that are usually used for getting coursework done.
Chapter 12: Reasoning and Decision Making 1. Using logical rules about the validity of an argument that draws a conclusion based on general information is an example of ______. a. representational reasoning *b. deductive reasoning c. inductive reasoning d. analogical reasoning 2. Drawing a conclusion about general properties based on specific data information is an example of ______. a. representational reasoning b. deductive reasoning *c. inductive reasoning d. analogical reasoning 3. Drawing conclusions by using the structure of one conceptual domain to interpret another domain is an example of ______. a. representational reasoning b. deductive reasoning c. intuitive reasoning *d. analogical reasoning 4. An example of a counterfactual reasoning problem is the following: a. If all fire trucks are red, and my truck is red, then my truck is a fire truck. *b. If I had decided to become a firefighter instead of professor, then I would be in better physical conditioning. c. If there are five firefighters and seven police officers in a room and two people walk out of the room, what is the probability that one is a firefighter and the other is a police officer? d. Firefighter is to water hose as police officer is to ______? 5. Galotti describes decision making as consisting of which five phases? *a. setting goals, gathering information, structuring the decision, making a final choice, evaluation b. identifying the purpose, determining the representation, estimating probabilities, adjusting expectations, learning from past mistakes c. understanding the premise, building mental models, combining mental models, ruling out invalid combinations, evaluating the final model
Instructor Resource McBride, Cognitive Psychology 2e SAGE Publishing, 2018 d. identifying representative choices, retrieving available resources, framing the decision, applying heuristics, evaluation 6. Wilson and Schooler’s jam experiment demonstrated that ______. a. students and expert tasters never show the same pattern of preferences b. students and expert tasters always show the same pattern of preferences *c. students and expert tasters sometimes show the same pattern of preferences d. magazines that report the opinion of experts have no value for our everyday decisions 7. What are the possible mental models for the statement “Some cars are Fords”? There are four mental models consistent with this statement (see Figure 12.6). It could be that the set of cars and Ford overlap such that there is at least one automobile that is both a Ford and a car. It could be that all cars are Fords, but there are some Fords that aren’t cars. It could be that all Fords are cars, but there are some cars that aren’t Fords. Finally, it could be that every Ford is a car and every car is a Ford. 8. When considering whether two events are related to one another causally, what factors should you consider? To be causal, the two events must have some co-occurrence. But we should also consider how often things don’t occur. The causal event must precede the caused event. Additionally, there also needs to me some possible mechanism that connects the two events together. 9. Explain the elimination-by-aspects strategy for making decisions. Making decisions one factor at a time, starting with what is considered to be the “most important,” eliminating choices that don’t meet the criteria. As you move down your list of factors, crossing choices off as you go, eventually you may have only one choice remaining. 10. Using stereotypes to make decisions about people is likely to involve the use of what heuristic? The representativeness bias.