Deck 11: Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

Many of psychology's earliest pioneers such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James,
Hermann Ebbinghaus, and Edward Titchener, could all be described as cognitive psychologists. But their brand of psychology mostly disappeared in America for a 50-year period because

A)their research methods were found to be inaccurate
B)of the influence of Darwinian ideas that emphasized a focus on learning
C)of the advent and dominance of behaviorism
D)they were too closely tied to philosophical questions

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following comprises the field of cognitive psychology?

A)study of the physiological and endocrinological influences on behavior
B)study of the unconscious processes that can account for behavior
C)study of the relationships between mind and brain
D)study of such processes as thinking, memory, and perception

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The statement that "the whole is different from the sum of its parts" is associated with which school of psychology?

A)functionalism
B)behaviorism
C)psychoanalysis
D)Gestalt psychology

Answer 3

D

Question 4

A phenomenological approach to psychology means that

A)environmentalistic factors are emphasized
B)experience is studied just as it occurs
C)explanations are likely to draw from nativistic causes
D)unconscious factors play a large role in determining behavior

Question 5

The demonstration of apparent movement that is regarded as the birth of Gestalt psychology was about

A)the phi phenomenon
B)the autokinetic effect
C)the spiral aftereffect
D)induced motion

Question 6

One of Titchener's introspectors would have been confounded by phi movement because

A)it could not be reduced to its actual elements
B)it was too dim to be detected by the human eye
C)it was apparent movement and not real movement
D)it was a phenomenon that could not be replicated

Question 7

The Gestalt psychologists proposed the existence of innate cognitive structures that they called

A)phi formations
B)insight templates
C)organizing tendencies
D)deep processors

Question 8

Which one of the following characterizes Gestalt psychology?

A)environmentalism and reductionism
B)a focus on S-R connections
C)wholism and nativism
D)processing experience at a molecular level

Question 9

The Zeigarnik effect refers to the fact that

A)items at the end of a list are best recalled
B)uncompleted tasks are better remembered
C)wholes are more easily introspected than parts
D)similar items are usually grouped together

Question 10

In Köhler's chimp studies, he believed that successful problem solving was the result of the chimp

A)seeing another chimp solve the problem
B)engaging in a number of trial and error attempts before getting the correct solution
C)being so desperately hungry that it had to solve the problem in order to eat
D)seeing the problem as a whole

Question 11

Frederic Bartlett's research using the story of The War of the Ghosts convinced him that

A)cultural factors were the major determinants in perception
B)memory involved construction, not just reconstruction
C)cognitive factors were key to the utility of intelligence
D)learning rarely occurred in the absence of reinforcement

Question 12

Cognitive frameworks that organize past experiences related to particular concepts are called

A)constructions
B)patterns
C)schema
D)templates

Question 13

The rebirth of American cognitive psychology in the 1950s was due principally to

A)the recognition that the psychology of behaviorism was too limiting
B)the invention of the computer and the new research methods it afforded
C)an infusion of ideas from France and Germany
D)realization that the subjects studied by the behaviorists were of little importance in understanding human functioning

Question 14

Being able to explain linear sequences, such as how words are ordered in a sentence, was what Karl Lashley referred to as the problem of

A)syntax
B)categorization
C)linguistic form
D)serial order

Question 15

Allen Newell and Herbert Simon are important in the history of cognitive psychology because of their pioneering development of the field known as

A)transformational grammar
B)artificial intelligence
C)ecological memory
D)heuristics

Question 16

Donald Broadbent, one of the first psychologists to use a flow-chart model, used that approach to develop a model of

A)artificial intelligence
B)long-term memory
C)selective attention
D)language acquisition

Question 17

In the information processing model of memory there are ____________ memory stores.

A)one
B)two
C)three
D)four

Question 18

Brown and McNeill read word definitions to their subjects in order to study

A)tip-of-the-tongue experiences
B)transformational grammar
C)flashbulb memories
D)sentence structure

Question 19

Noam Chomsky's research on surface and deep structures in sentences was critical for his development of

A)artificial intelligence
B)transformational grammar
C)syntax
D)psycholinguistics

Question 20

Noting how rapidly a first language is learned and the way in which language is learned across nationalities, Chomsky posited the existence of a language acquisition device, which he said

A)was innate
B)developed in the first year of an infant's life
C)operated by rewards and punishers in language learning
D)was structured differently for different languages

Question 21

George Miller is best known for an article he wrote that defined the capacity for short-term memory (also called working memory). According to Miller that capacity is

A)unlimited
B)variable, depending on how much practice a person has with memory improvement techniques
C)variable, depending on a person's verbal intelligence
D)seven, plus or minus two

Question 22

Ulric Neisser's 1967 book on cognitive psychology

A)invented the concept of schema, a critical development for the field
B)is said to have given the field of cognitive psychology its name
C)called for a strictly behavioristic approach to the study of cognitions
D)criticized modern cognitive psychology for its failure to develop methods that were truly scientific

Question 23

Which of the following statements about cognitive psychology is true?

A)it has largely eliminated behaviorism from American psychology
B)it focuses primarily on observable behaviors and does not purport to study mental processes
C)it is the largest of the areas of experimental psychology
D)its primary emphasis is on the neurological underpinnings of cognitive behavior

Question 24

Describe the contributions of Gestalt psychology to the fields of perception, learning, and thinking.

Question 25

Gestalt psychology is described as being wholistic and nativistic. Explain what these terms mean and discuss their place in Gestalt psychology.

Question 26

Frederic Bartlett's research dramatically changed psychology's views of human memory. Discuss his work in that regard.

Question 27

Discuss the role of the computer metaphor in shaping the rebirth of cognitive psychology.

Question 28

Describe the method that Roger Brown and David McNeill used to study tip-of- the-tongue experiences. What did they discover about this phenomenon?

Question 29

Discuss the origins of psycholinguistics, especially in the work of Noam Chomsky and George Miller.

Question 30

One of the key topics of research in cognitive psychology is memory. For each of the following individuals, identify and explain one key contribution they made to our understanding of memory: Bluma Zeigarnik, Frederic Bartlett, Richard Atkinson, Roger Brown, George Miller.