Deck 7: Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities

Question 1

Meta-analytic studies of mathematical ability reveal that

A) women have advantages in some quantitative tasks, and men have advantages in others.
B) men's advantage is small for arithmetic computation but large for mathematical problem solving.
C) men's advantage is larger than previously believed.
D) gender differences in mathematical ability had reversed-women now do better than men in problem-solving tasks.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

In the general population, mathematical ability is

A) equal for men and women.
B) not equal for men and women, and men have an advantage.
C) not equal for men and women, and women have an advantage.
D) of no practical use, so men's and women's ability is nothing more than a point for argument and debate.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The largest advantage for girls and women in verbal performance is in

A) verbal fluency.
B) spelling and punctuation.
C) vocabulary size.
D) writing.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Research on quantitative performance with children as participants shows

A) an advantage for boys as young as 4 years old.
B) a small advantage for young boys but a larger advantage for adolescent boys.
C) a small advantage for young girls but a larger advantage for adolescent girls.
D) either no gender differences or a small advantage for girls.

Question 5

Women's and men's scores on early intelligence tests

A) confirmed the prevailing view of the time that women have lower intelligence than men.
B) confirmed the prevailing view of the time that men have lower intelligence than women.
C) contradicted the prevailing view of the time that women have lower intelligence than men.
D) contradicted the prevailing view of the time that there is no difference between the intelligence of men and women.

Question 6

As samples become more selected for high mathematics ability,

A) fewer girls appear in the sample.
B) fewer mathematics classes are required for high scores.
C) grades become poorer predictors of mathematics achievement.
D) more groups of ethnic backgrounds appear in the sample.

Question 7

The most influential tests of intelligence have defined intelligence in terms of

A) adaptability.
B) sensory acuity.
C) school-related abilities.
D) motor skills

Question 8

Reviews of research on gender differences in verbal ability have usually concluded that

A) girls and women have a large advantage in most verbal tasks.
B) girls and women have a small advantage in many verbal tasks and a large advantage in writing.
C) girls have a large advantage in many types of verbal tasks, but this advantage disappears during adolescence.
D) neither gender has an advantage in any verbal task.

Question 9

Using the Stanford-Binet intelligence test, Terman found

A) no difference in intelligence between men's and women's test scores.
B) that the difference between men's and women's test scores was small but consistent, with men scoring higher than women.
C) that the difference between men's and women's test scores was large, with women outscoring men.
D) that the difference between men's and women's test scores was large, with men outscoring women.

Question 10

Researchers have used which of the following types of tasks to measure verbal ability?

A) reading comprehension
B) spelling
C) anagram
D) vocabulary
E) all of the above

Question 11

The intelligence tests developed by Wechsler divided mental abilities into

A) verbal and quantitative tests.
B) verbal and performance tests.
C) quantitative and spatial tests.
D) performance and spatial tests.

Question 12

The stereotype that women talk more than men

A) is one of the few gender stereotypes validated by modern research.
B) was confirmed by early psychology researchers in the late 1800s.
C) was once a widely accepted stereotype but is no longer widely accepted.
D) may still be accepted by many people, but research has not confirmed this difference.

Question 13

The conclusion that mathematics talent is biological, based on studies of mathematically gifted students,

A) is unwarranted because researchers collected no biological data.
B) is unwarranted because researchers found such small gender-related differences that their conclusions were invalid.
C) indicates their high heritability quotients from parents and first-degree relatives.
D) provides the best available evidence that quantitative abilities are biological because the home environment of the children showed no differences in encouragement for girls and boys.

Question 14

Meta-analytic reviews of the research on verbal abilities has shown that

A) women have no advantage in this area.
B) men have an average advantage of 5% in verbal ability.
C) women's advantage in verbal ability is only around 1%.
D) women's advantage in verbal ability is larger than the older reviews showed, with about a 25% advantage.

Question 15

The tests scores on the subtests of Wechsler's intelligence tests show ________; scores from the combined test show ________.

A) no gender-related differences . . . . no gender-related differences
B) gender-related differences . . . . no gender-related differences.
C) no gender-related differences . . . . gender-related differences
D) gender-related differences . . . . gender-related differences.

Question 16

Comparisons of underlying mathematics ability (rather than mathematics performance) for females and males

A) can be done at many periods of development through the use of achievement test scores.
B) can be done before formal training in higher mathematics through the Scholastic Assessment Test.
C) is easier than an assessment of verbal ability.
D) is virtually impossible, due to gender differences in experience and expectation with mathematics.

Question 17

In selected groups of mathematically talented adolescents,

A) girls outnumber boys.
B) boys outnumber girls.
C) the gender ratio is approximately equal.
D) girls are never chosen, because their scores are always too low.

Question 18

The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) shows higher average scores for the young men than for the young women who take the Mathematics subtest. This gender-related difference may reflect the influence of

A) women taking more math courses than men.
B) a test format that favors men.
C) brain development in the right hemisphere, which leads to better male performance in math.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 19

Intelligence is

A) a complex concept that is not easy to define.
B) the subject of intense debate.
C) an area of study since the early years of modern psychology.
D) all of the above

Question 20

Terman's finding during the early 1900s that women and men score similarly on IQ tests

A) has not yet been fully accepted; people still estimate men's IQs as higher than women's IQs.
B) provoked a storm of protest from educators, who began reforms to change education.
C) prompted educators to begin encouraging women to seek higher education.
D) both b and c

Question 21

Girls with high ability in math

A) find math more difficult than boys with high math ability.
B) make poorer grades in advanced math classes than boys with high math ability.
C) tend to have high verbal ability, which allows them career options other than math.
D) both a and b
E) all of the above

Question 22

One factor in tests of mathematics performance is the number of math courses completed. Men

A) have always outnumbered women in mathematics classes during high school and continue to do so.
B) outnumbered women in mathematics classes during high school until the 1990s, but now enrollment is similar.
C) are less numerous in math classes during both high school and college.
D) not only outnumber women in math class but also make better grades.

Question 23

When trying to find the way, men tend to _______, and women tend to ________.

A) use landmarks. . . . rely on memory
B) rely on mental maps . . . . use landmarks
C) rely on memory . . . . ask for directions
D) ask for directions . . . . rely on maps

Question 24

Results of a meta-analytic study on experience as a factor in performance on spatial tasks showed that

A) men perform consistently better than women regardless of experience.
B) men's greater ability allows them to perform consistently better than women who have more experience.
C) experience is a factor in the performance of both men and women.
D) experience is a factor in women's but not men's performance.

Question 25

One of the main problems in concluding anything about the role of gender in verbal, quantitative, and spatial abilities is

A) these abilities change so much over the developmental span, and boys and girls experience many fluctuations in their performance.
B) that the role of hormones has not been studied.
C) meta-analytic studies indicate that there are no gender differences in any of these areas.
D) each of these areas has been defined using so many different types of tasks that underlying ability is difficult to determine.

Question 26

Which of the following statements describes the status of mathematical performance for women and men?

A) Men have higher mathematical ability and make better grades in math courses from elementary school through college.
B) Boys make higher scores on standardized tests of mathematics performance, but this advantage fades during junior high school, and performance becomes equal for girls and boys.
C) Men make higher scores on some standardized tests of mathematics performance, but women make better grades in math classes from elementary school through college.
D) Boys have higher scores on standardized tests of mathematics performance during elementary school and make better grades, but from junior high onward, girls and women make better grades.

Question 27

Considering performance on various types of mental abilities tests, women have the largest advantage on _______ and men have the largest advantage on ________.

A) mathematics problem solving . . . . verbal analogies
B) vocabulary tests . . . . arithmetic computation
C) writing . . . . mental rotation tasks
D) verbal abilities tests . . . . mathematics and quantitative abilities

Question 28

What type of experience has been shown to increase performance on spatial tasks?

A) video games
B) team sports
C) board games
D) games that involve taking turns

Question 29

The spatial ability tested in the rod-and-frame task and Piaget's water level test

A) shows no gender differences.
B) shows small gender differences during childhood and larger ones during adulthood, with boys and men having the advantage.
C) shows large gender differences during both childhood and adulthood, with boys and men having the advantage.
D) shows small differences during both childhood and adulthood, with girls and women having the advantage.

Question 30

The ability to detect the horizontal or vertical in the presence of distracting information is

A) spatial orientation.
B) spatial perception.
C) perceptual distortion.
D) figure-ground contrast.

Question 31

The definition of spatial ability has included the ability to

A) visualize objects.
B) mentally manipulate objects.
C) locate figures embedded in a larger figure.
D) all of the above
D) perceive spatial patterns.

Question 32

Men and boys have larger advantages over women and girls in tests of ______ but small or no advantage on ________ tests.

A) spatial perception . . . . mental rotation
B) spatial visualization . . . . mental rotation
C) mental rotation . . . . spatial memory
D) verbal analogies . . . . mental rotation

Question 33

The largest gender-related difference is mathematics occurs in

A) arithmetic computation ability.
B) mathematical reasoning ability
C) problem solving ability.
D) the attitudes toward the usefulness of mathematics.

Question 34

A study of attitudes toward mathematics of children around the world showed that

A) children tend to evaluate mathematics as difficult and not very interesting.
B) children in Europe evaluated mathematics as interesting, but students in the U. S. did not.
C) children in Asia evaluated mathematics as not difficult but not interesting.
D) younger children gave more negative evaluations than older children and adolescents.

Question 35

On tests of memory involving verbal material __________, and when the material to be memorized is spatial __________.

A) no gender differences appear . . . . men have a small advantage
B) no gender differences appear . . . . no gender differences appear
C) women have a small advantage . . . . men have a small advantage
D) women have a small advantage . . . . no gender differences appear

Question 36

Which statement is true concerning the intelligence and mental abilities of women and men?

A) Women's and men's scores on IQ tests are equal.
B) On the average, men are better than women at math.
C) On the average, men are better than women at verbal tasks.
D) Both b and c are true.

Question 37

When comparing women's and men's strategies of learning routes and finding their way,

A) men's reliance on spatial orientation is ineffective.
B) women's reliance on using landmarks to navigate is ineffective.
C) both genders are effective in finding their way, but women's landmark strategy offers more flexibility when forced to use an alternative route.
D) both genders are comparably effective in finding their way, and a combination of landmarks and spatial orientation is actually the most efficient.

Question 38

Overall, gender-related differences in spatial abilities

A) are complex, with advantages for men in some, women in others, and no reliable differences in others.
B) are complex, with varying degrees of advantage for men, but no tasks show advantages for women.
C) are complex, with an increasing age-related disadvantages for women in most spatial tasks.
D) are straightforward, with boys and men outperforming girls and women in all four types of spatial tasks.

Question 39

Performance on some spatial tasks, such as the rod-and-frame task, is influenced by the situation in which the testing occurs and by the expectations of the participants. Such findings suggest that

A) verbal mediation strategies give women an advantage in such tasks.
B) performance is variable, and expectation can be an influential factor.
C) biological determinism is the best explanation for such findings.
D) motor performance is related to spatial performance, giving boys and men the advantage in all spatial tasks.

Question 40

On what type of spatial tasks do women usually outperform men?

A) rapid identification of matching objects
B) estimating arrival time of objects moving in space
C) remembering the placement of objects
D) both a and c
E) all of the above

Question 41

Most media reports of gender differences in cognitive performance focus on a biological basis for these differences, and

A) most researchers accept this view.
B) most researchers believe that an interaction of biological and environmental factors provides a better explanation.
C) most psychologists reject the possibility of biological factors influencing behavior.
D) a majority of researchers questions not only the validity but also the wisdom of this approach.

Question 42

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study women and men as they performed a verbal task, researchers found that

A) the activation patterns of women's and men's brains showed no average difference.
B) men's right hemispheres and women's left hemispheres were activated during the verbal task.
C) the cerebellum was more active among men than women, which related to men's better performance in this task.
D) both women's and men's left hemispheres were activated during the verbal task.

Question 43

Gender-related differences in mental abilities are _________, but differences in the choices that women and men make are _________.

A) large . . . . large
B) large . . . . small
C) small . . . . large
D) small . . . . small

Question 44

An alternative to biological explanations of school and career achievement comes from gender differences in

A) hormonal and chromosomal inheritance.
B) self-perception and expectancies for success.
C) personal relationships and sexual behavior.
D) self-acceptance of personal weaknesses and tendency to blame others.

Question 45

Research on the ability to understand nonverbal communication indicates that

A) women are better at these skills-a confirmation of "women's intuition."
B) there are no gender-related differences in these skills-a failure to confirm the concept of "women's intuition."
C) men are better a these skills-it should be called "men's intuition."
D) greater skill at interpreting nonverbal cues goes with the subordinate position rather than gender-it should be called "subordinates' intuition."

Question 46

Gender-related differences in creativity

A) appear as early as first grade.
B) do not appear until junior high school but become larger during adolescence.
C) filter women out of careers that require high creative ability.
D) are not part of the results of most studies on this topic.

Question 47

When asked to memorize a shopping list for groceries and another for hardware,

A) men outperform women on both tasks.
B) women outperform men on both tasks.
C) women outperform men on the shopping list, and men outperform women on the hardware.
D) no gender differences appear.

Question 48

Experience plays a role in spatial task performance. Evidence confirming this role comes from

A) a study that indicated that people who are better at spatial performance participated in physical activity.
B) a study that indicated that allowing women to familiarize themselves with the computer also erased the gender difference on the spatial task performed on the computer.
C) a study that indicated that men who are good at verbal skills are also good at spatial skills.
D) both a and b
E) all of the above

Question 49

The role of evolution in gender-related differences in brain lateralization is

A) impossible to confirm or refute.
B) the most likely explanation for women's superior spatial ability.
C) the most likely explanation for men's superior spatial ability.
D) not related to other biological factors in natural selection.

Question 50

Small gender-related differences in cognitive abilities

A) cannot produce large performance differences-without the basic ability differences, no performance differences are possible.
B) can produce larger differences in achievement.
C)
C) are diminished by workplace demands, which are similar for women and men.
D) both a and

Question 51

The gender difference in number of male versus female professional musicians is due to

A) differences in musical ability, with women having higher ability but lower achievement.
B) differences in musical ability, with men having higher ability but lower achievement.
C) a combination of musical ability and greater dedication to musical achievement among men.
D) greater dedication to achievement among men rather than differences in musical ability.

Question 52

Evolutionary psychologists take the view that the cognitive abilities of women and men

A) differ because men dominated women during human prehistory, which prevented women from developing good spatial abilities.
B) differ because women developed good spatial abilities by foraging, and men developed good nonverbal communication through the need to communicate during hunting.
C) differ because the task demands differed for women and men in human prehistory, prompting different brain organization.
D) are similar because spatial abilities were more important than verbal abilities during human prehistory, creating individuals with similar cognitive abilities.

Question 53

When asked to remember a list,

A) the labeling of the task and the gender of the learner influenced learning.
B) girls' memory was better than boys' memory, but men's memory was better than women's.
C) men's memory performance was faster but not better than women's performance.
D) no gender differences appeared.

Question 54

In several studies using imaging techniques of brains at work, men's and women's brains have shown different patterns of activation.

A) These patterns provide evidence for the relationship between structure and behavioral gender differences.
B) But the function of men's and women's brains are more alike than different.
C) Women's brains show a more active pattern than men's brains.
D) Women's brains show more left hemisphere activation, and men's brains show more right hemisphere activation.

Question 55

When women perform more poorly on a math test after hearing that women do worse on this type of test than men do, ___________ has shown an effect.

A) reverse discrimination
B) male superiority
C) stereotype threat
D) a negative reinforcement gradient

Question 56

One of the large differences in nonverbal communication is

A) women's tendency to smile more than men.
B) women's ability to hide their emotions, especially from men.
C) men's ability to dominate through eye contact.
D) men's reluctance to establish nonverbal but to maintain verbal dominance.

Question 57

When college women hear that men do better on the type of test that they are about to take,

A) the women perform more poorly than those women who do not hear about men's performance.
B) the women perform better because they want to prove that they can succeed.
C) the women perform more poorly if they are weak in the subject, but if they are well prepared, this information has no effect.
D) the women's performance is not affected.

Question 58

Rather than being related to gender, memory differences for various types of material seem related to

A) age.
B) gender stereotypes.
C) emotional associations to the material.
D) educational background.

Question 59

Small gender-related differences in cognitive abilities, such as verbal or quantitative ability

A) are often ignored in the classroom.
B) are noticed by parents, who encourage their talented daughters but not their equally talented sons.
C) can be magnified through gender-stereotypical expectations of teachers and parents.
D) are rarely noticed by children and do influence self-concept.
E) all of the above

Question 60

According to research on various types of testosterone exposure, what type is most likely to be related to increased spatial ability?

A) Prenatal exposure to testosterone is most likely to relate to better spatial performance.
B) Exposure to the increase in testosterone production during puberty boosts spatial ability in boys but not in girls.
C) Exposure to high testosterone levels during adulthood is related to increased spatial performance in both women and men.
D) Taking anabolic steroids increases spatial performance during adolescence and adulthood.

Question 61

The gender gap in engineering-the disproportionate representation of male engineers-

A) is proportional to the gender difference in the distribution of spatial abilities, which is essential for all types of engineers.
B) is disproportional to the gender difference in the distribution of spatial ability. There are more female engineers than would be expected based on ability alone.
C) is disproportional to the gender difference in the distribution of spatial ability. There are more male engineers than would be expected based on ability alone.
D) is larger than it was 20 years ago.

Question 62

When the ability distributions of men and women overlap 99%, such as in verbal ability,

A) such large differences should be reflected in career choices.
B) such large differences must be based on biological differences between women and men.
C) the ability difference is as large as physical differences, such as in height and weight.
D) individual differences are more important than gender as a factor in this ability.

Question 63

According to Richard Nisbett, ________ is more important than _________ in understanding cognitive abilities.

A) status . . . . culture
B) gender . . . . culture
C) culture . . . . gender
D) power . . . . gender

Question 64

When examining the cross-cultural research on mathematical and spatial performance for women and men, differences appear among countries.
A) But men always show an advantage in a wide range of spatial tasks.

A) Women in some cultures score higher in these tasks than men in other cultures.
C) Cultural variation is much smaller than the differences between men and women.
D) But women in Asia score as high in spatial performance as men in those cultures.

Question 65

According to studies by Richard Nisbett and his colleagues on the influence of culture on cognitive processes,

A) people in Western cultures tend to think more holistically.
B) people in Asian cultures tend to think more analytically.
C) women in Asian cultures tend to think more analytically than women in Western cultures.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 66

The type of holistic, situation-dependent thinking that Nisbett claimed is typical of people in Asian cultures also leads these individuals to

A) perform better than people in Europe and the United States on spatial tasks.
B) perform more poorly than people in Europe and the United States on spatial tasks.
C) have less confidence in their verbal abilities than people in Western countries.
D) both a and c

Question 67

Parents explain the mathematics achievements of their sons in terms of ________ and use _________ as an explanation of their daughters' success.

A) hard work . . . . hard work
B) hard work . . . . natural talent
C) natural talent . . . . hard work
D) natural talent . . . . natural talent

Question 68

Examining research evidence on spatial performance from one Stone Age culture, one culture from the Middle East, and another from northern Europe, results showed that

A) the performance of men and women varied from the results of studies done on participants from the United States.
B) boys and men outperformed girls and women in all cultures, but the gender difference was not as large as the gender difference found in the United States.
C) girls and women only show a performance deficit in the United States.
D) the pattern of gender differences that appear in the United States is common to other industrialized (but not to unindustrialized) cultures.

Question 69

Researchers who concentrate on gender-related differences in cognitive abilities

A) tend to focus on the differences and obscure the similarities between women and men.
B) tend to provide information that allows parents and educators to develop children's strengths and remediate their weaknesses.
C) emphasize the magnitude of differences and convey an accurate impression that gender-related cognitive differences are large.
D) allow ample opportunity for individual differences, emphasizing how individual differences and not gender differences are more important.

Question 70

Hyde warned about the danger of confusing the terms well-established and large, arguing that

A) well-established gender differences may be too small to be of practical significance.
B) large gender differences may be well established yet unimportant.
C) well-established gender differences may not be statistically significant but may be of practical significance.
D) a gender difference may be both well established and large but of neither statistical nor practical significance.