Deck 10: Comparative Cognition

Question 1

In a radial-arm maze,rats typically

A)move from one arm to the next in an orderly sequence
B)have no clear order to their choices of arms,yet seldom revisit the same arm twice
C)have no clear order to their choices of arms,and make many repeat visits to the same arms
D)tend to return to the arms where they first received food

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The peak procedure has been used to demonstrate an animal's ability

A)to discriminate between two stimuli of different durations
B)to discriminate between two different numbers of objects
C)to time the duration of an interval that sometimes ends with a reinforcer
D)all of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

After learning to discriminate between two and four sounds,rats

A)need no additional training to discriminate between two and four light pulses
B)need only a moderate amount of training to discriminate between two and four light pulses
C)have great difficulty learning to discriminate between two and four light pulses
D)can perform this task with no mistakes

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The impressive counting skills of the parrot Alex included the ability to

A)count objects he had never seen before
B)count up to six objects
C)say both the number of objects and their name
D)all of the above

Question 5

Research with pigeons has shown that they can learn a list of slides,treating some as positive and some as negative

A)as long as the list includes no more than seven slides
B)with up to about 20 slides
C)with up to about 100 slides
D)with more than 1000 slides

Question 6

Another name for short-term memory is

A)working memory
B)reference memory
C)abstract memory
D)concrete memory

Question 7

The chimpanzee Washoe,who was taught American Sign Language by the Gardners,failed to

A)use the signs spontaneously,to initiate a conversation
B)learn signs for verbs
C)use a consistent word order,or grammar
D)learn more than about 20 signs

Question 8

According to Wagner's theory of rehearsal in animals,a surprising post-trial episode can diminish the conditioning from a CS-US pairing because

A)surprising events attract a good deal of attention
B)short-term memory has limited capacity
C)both rehearsal and attention make use of short-term memory
D)all of the above

Question 9

If learning of new information makes it more difficult to remember older information,this is

A)proactive interference
B)retroactive interference
C)prospective coding
D)retrospective coding

Question 10

Performance on a delayed-matching-to-sample task can be affected by

A)the duration of the delay between sample and comparison stimuli
B)the species of the subject
C)the stimuli presented on previous trials
D)all of the above

Question 11

Studies on chunking by animals have found evidence that at least some species can

A)learn a list faster if the experiment provides them with items that are grouped into chunks
B)develop their own chunks and use them to perform better
C)use chunks to teach the younger individuals in their group
D)all of the above

Question 12

Suppose a rabbit receives a series of classical conditioning trials,and after a trial,something surprising happens.The conditioning will probably be slowest if the surprising event occurs

A)3 seconds after each conditioning trial
B)10 seconds after each conditioning trial
C)90 seconds after each conditioning trial
D)after some conditioning trials but not others

Question 13

The context-shift effect in memory is the finding that recall can be better if

A)the context is free from distractions
B)you switch to a new context when trying to remember something
C)the context during recall is the same as when the learning took place
D)none of the above

Question 14

According to Weber's law,which of the following temporal discriminations would be the most difficult for an animal to learn-

A)a 20-second tone versus a 40-second tone
B)a 5-second tone versus a 7-second tone
C)a 1-second tone versus a 2-second tone
D)a 20-second tone versus a 40-second light

Question 15

Clark's nutcrackers can hide several thousand seeds in different caches and retrieve them much later.To accomplish this feat,the birds appear to use

A)memory for specific visual landmarks
B)their sense of smell
C)the appearance of the soil above a cache
D)random trial and error

Question 16

The field of comparative cognition is concerned with comparing the cognitive abilities of

A)people of different ages
B)people with different educational backgrounds
C)different species of animals,including humans
D)individuals with different developmental disabilities

Question 17

Keeping track of what responses or tasks you need to make next is an example

A)proactive interference
B)retroactive interference
C)prospective coding
D)retrospective coding

Question 18

Which of the following provides evidence for maintenance rehearsal in animals-

A)research on discrimination reversals
B)research on directed forgetting
C)research on the speed of acquisition in classical conditioning
D)all of the above

Question 19

Suppose a pigeon must peck five response keys in the correct order to receive reinforcement.Which of the following orders of stimuli would probably be the easiest for a pigeon to learn-

A)blue,red,green,yellow,orange
B)blue,red,green,triangle,circle
C)blue,triangle,red,circle,green
D)triangle,circle,diamond,square,line

Question 20

Research has suggested that rats in a radial-arm maze tend to use

A)prospective coding
B)retrospective coding
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 21

If a chimpanzee learns that A is larger than B,and B is larger than C,it may choose A when given a choice between A and C.This problem is a test of

A)analogical reasoning
B)transitive inference
C)prospective coding
D)serial pattern learning

Question 22

In his critique of research on animal language,Terrace argued that

A)chimpanzees rely heavily on simple imitation of their trainers
B)chimpanzees use almost no consistent word order,or grammar
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 23

The chimpanzee Sarah,who was taught to use plastic symbols for words by David Premack,failed to

A)use the symbols spontaneously,to initiate a conversation
B)learn symbols for verbs
C)use a consistent word order,or grammar
D)use the symbols to answer questions

Question 24

Which of the following characteristics of human language has not been found in any other species-

A)the use of abstract symbols
B)productivity
C)grammar
D)none of the above (that is,all of these have been found in other species)

Question 25

Studies have shown that cats and dogs can solve problems involving

A)analogies
B)object permanence
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 26

Studies have shown that chimpanzees can solve problems involving

A)analogies
B)transitive inference
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 27

Which of the following has not been found in any creatures other than humans-

A)the correct use of pronouns and prepositions
B)reference to objects and events not present
C)accurate counting above 12 objects
D)the ability to recognize a repeating serial pattern