Deck 14: Individual Differences in Cognition

Question 1

During the first 2 years,the number of neurons _____ and the number of synapses _____.

A) increases;increases as well
B) increases;decreases
C) decreases;increases
D) decreases;decreases as well

Answer 1

decreases;increases

Question 2

_____ enables the axon to conduct brain signals rapidly.

A) Dendrification
B) Glialization
C) Myelination
D) Sheathing

Answer 2

Myelination

Question 3

A researcher shows a child two rows of coins.Then,the researcher compresses one row;no coins are added,no coins are taken away.After that,the researcher asks the child which row has more coins.Assume that the child is in Piaget's preoperational stage.What will be his response?

A) The compressed row has more coins.
B) The uncompressed row has more coins.
C) Both rows have equal amounts of coins.
D) Children in this stage may or may not be able to provide the correct response.

Answer 3

The uncompressed row has more coins.

Question 4

The _____ option holds that children learn better methods and more facts as they get older.

A) know-better
B) know-more
C) think-better
D) think-more

Question 5

A researcher shows a child two rows of coins.Then,the researcher compresses one row;no coins are added,no coins are taken away.After that,the researcher asks the child which row has more coins.Assume that the child is in Piaget's concrete-operational stage.How will he respond?

A) The compressed row has more coins.
B) The uncompressed row has more coins.
C) Both rows have equal amounts of coins.
D) Children in this stage may or may not be able to provide the correct response.

Question 6

According to Siegler,developmental changes during the first 2 years are the result of _____ changes.

A) experiential
B) hormonal
C) neural
D) nutritional

Question 7

_____ argue that humans enter the world with genetically programmed knowledge.

A) Empiricists
B) Geneticists
C) Nativists
D) Naturalists

Question 8

_____ myelinate axons.

A) Dendrites
B) Glial cells
C) Myoepithelial cells
D) Neurons

Question 9

The human birth process is _____ that of other mammals.

A) more difficult than
B) less difficult than
C) similar to
D) The birth process depends on the woman giving birth.

Question 10

At 2,the brain has reached _____ of its adult size.

A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 60%
D) 80%

Question 11

A child in Piaget's _____ stage can now treat the physical world in a systematic way.

A) concrete-operational
B) formal-operational
C) preoperational
D) sensory-motor

Question 12

A child in Piaget's _____ stage develops schemes for thinking about the physical word.

A) concrete-operational
B) formal-operational
C) preoperational
D) sensory-motor

Question 13

How is the birth of human babies physically possible?

A) The birth canal of the human female is large.
B) The pelvis of the human female is long.
C) The skull of the human infant is pliable.
D) The birth canal of the human female is large and the skull of the human infant is pliable.

Question 14

A child in Piaget's _____ stage is capable of scientific reasoning.

A) concrete-operational
B) formal-operational
C) preoperational
D) sensory-motor

Question 15

The _____ option holds that children's basic cognitive processes become better.

A) know-better
B) know-more
C) think-better
D) think-more

Question 16

Humans have _____ brains in relation to their body size.

A) very large
B) somewhat large
C) somewhat small
D) very small

Question 17

At the age of 2,the number of synapses:

A) begins to decrease.
B) begins to increase.
C) reaches its peak,after which it decreases.
D) reaches its peak,after which it levels off.

Question 18

Why is much of human neural development postponed until after birth?

A) Neural development depends on experience.
B) Neural development depends on the postpartum nutrition.
C) The human birth canal is expanded to its limits.
D) The human pelvis is lengthened to its limits.

Question 19

A child in Piaget's _____ stage can engage in internal thought,but these thoughts lack systematicity.

A) concrete-operational
B) formal-operational
C) preoperational
D) sensory-motor

Question 20

During the first year of life,the human brain:

A) increases in size by 50%.
B) doubles in size.
C) triples in size.
D) remains the same size.

Question 21

The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler are:

A) tests of performance ability.
B) tests of verbal ability.
C) tests of specialized abilities.
D) general intelligence tests.

Question 22

IQ scores appear to have risen about 3 points per decade.This is referred to as the _____ effect.

A) Cannizzo
B) Flavell
C) Flynn
D) Keeney

Question 23

According to Case,_____ memory capacity is the key to the developmental sequence.

A) implicit
B) long-term
C) short-term
D) working

Question 24

Young children are:

A) better at drawing inferences.
B) poorer at drawing inferences.
C) better at drawing backward inferences but poorer at drawing forward inferences.
D) poorer at drawing backward inferences but better at drawing forward inferences.

Question 25

Degree of myelination:

A) decreases with age.
B) increases with age.
C) remains the same.
D) cycles.

Question 26

Performance on the performance component of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale:

A) increases dramatically with age.
B) increases somewhat with age.
C) decreases dramatically with age.
D) maintains itself quite constantly through the years.

Question 27

Performance on the verbal component of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale:

A) increases dramatically with age.
B) increases somewhat with age.
C) decreases dramatically with age.
D) maintains itself quite constantly through the years.

Question 28

Children do:

A) better than adults on almost every memory task.
B) somewhat better than adults on almost every memory task.
C) worse than adults on almost every memory task.
D) somewhat worse than adults on almost every memory task.

Question 29

The _____ loses about 5% of its cells every decade.

A) hippocampus
B) hypothalamus
C) parietal cortex
D) prefrontal cortex

Question 30

_____ argue that all knowledge comes from experience with the environment.

A) Empiricists
B) Geneticists
C) Nativists
D) Naturalists

Question 31

Keeney et al.(1967)found that 10-year-olds:

A) almost always verbally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
B) seldom verbally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
C) almost always mentally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
D) seldom verbally mentally a set of objects to be remembered.

Question 32

With age,the ability to hold information in working memory:

A) decreases.
B) increases.
C) remains the same.
D) It depends on the individual.

Question 33

Typically,correlations between tests are _____ correlations.

A) perfect positive
B) positive (but not perfect)
C) perfect negative
D) negative (but not perfect)

Question 34

Keeney et al.(1967)found that 5-year-olds:

A) almost always verbally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
B) seldom verbally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
C) almost always mentally rehearse a set of objects to be remembered.
D) seldom verbally mentally a set of objects to be remembered.

Question 35

_____ refers to acquired knowledge.

A) Crystallized intelligence
B) Fluid intelligence
C) Factor analysis
D) Meta analysis

Question 36

Individuals in many professions tend to produce their best work in their:

A) twenties.
B) thirties.
C) forties.
D) sixties.

Question 37

Which sentence might lead to better memory performance?

A) The women have wind chimes.
B) The man has many apples.
C) The girl had a closet.
D) The boy drove the car.

Question 38

Number is represented in the _____ cortex.

A) frontal
B) occipital
C) parietal
D) temporal

Question 39

The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler produce measures that are called:

A) adjusted scores.
B) intelligence quotients.
C) psychometric scores.
D) raw scores.

Question 40

One's brain is at its best physically during one's:

A) twenties.
B) thirties.
C) forties.
D) sixties.

Question 41

What is crystallized intelligence? What is fluid intelligence?

Question 42

_____ refers to the ability to reason.

A) Crystallized intelligence
B) Fluid intelligence
C) Factor analysis
D) Meta analysis

Question 43

Why do children do worse on memory tasks than adults?

Question 44

Individuals with high verbal ability have large:

A) working memories.
B) working memories for verbal information.
C) short-term memories.
D) short-term memories for verbal information.

Question 45

What are the ways of explaining why children perform better on intellectual tasks as they age?

Question 46

_____ refers to the ability to solve problems in novel domains.

A) Crystallized intelligence
B) Fluid intelligence
C) Factor analysis
D) Meta analysis

Question 47

According to Case,what controls the growth in working memory?

Question 48

What are psychometric tests?

Question 49

Why was the original definition of IQ unsuitable?

Question 50

What is meant by "know-better?" What is meant by "think-better?"

Question 51

What is the Flynn effect?

Question 52

Provide evidence for each side of the Empiricist-Nativist debate.

Question 53

What is factor analysis?

Question 54

Describe each of Piaget's stages of development.

Question 55

Why is human childhood prolonged?

Question 56

How does an understanding of conservation develop as the child moves through Piaget's stages?

Question 57

Why might older adults do worse on IQ tests than younger adults?

Question 58

Why is much of human neural development postponed until after birth?

Question 59

How do individuals with high verbal ability compare with individuals with low verbal ability?

Question 60

What is object permanence?

Question 61

According to Salthouse's (1992)study,older adults show decrements in which component of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R)?

A) both verbal and performance
B) neither verbal nor performance
C) verbal only
D) performance only

Question 62

Which statement BEST summarizes the findings of Keeney,Cannizzo,and Flavell's (1967)study?

A) Children's memory ability can be improved through the use of rehearsal strategies.
B) Memory performance in children is domain-specific.
C) Children's memory performance is better for material that they hear rather than read.
D) Memory performance proceeds in a uniform sequence across cultures.

Question 63

Fraternal twins raised together have more similar IQs than identical twins raised apart.

Question 64

According to Piaget,infants develop which concept during their first year of life?

A) object permanence
B) theory of mind
C) conservation of number
D) egocentrism

Question 65

Children do worse than adults on almost every memory task.

Question 66

According to Lehman's (1953)study of the written work of philosophers,during what decade of life did MOST of them write their best book?

A) the 1920s
B) the 1930s
C) the 1940s
D) the 1950s

Question 67

Faster processing is associated with greater metabolic expenditure.

Question 68

The majority of human neural development is not complete until age 15.

Question 69

The twenties tend to be the time of peak intellectual performance.

Question 70

Hippocampal cells grow to compensate for the age-related deaths of other hippocampal cells.

Question 71

According to Case's memory-space theory of cognitive development,development of which type of memory is the critical element in increased intelligence during maturation?

A) episodic long-term memory
B) iconic memory
C) working memory
D) semantic long-term memory

Question 72

At birth,a child's brain has more neurons than an adult brain has.

Question 73

What are the two critical stages in solving Sternberg's analogies?

Question 74

According to Piaget's theoretical framework for cognitive development,in which stage is a 4-year-old child?

A) formal operations
B) sensorimotor
C) preoperational
D) concrete operations

Question 75

Chi's (1978)study of memory abilities across the life span that employed 10-year-old skilled chess players and adult novice chess players is BEST summarized by which statement?

A) Adults have better recall than children for all types of information.
B) Experience with the stimulus used in a memory task is critical to performance.
C) Children perform as well as adults on spatial tasks,but adults are superior on verbal measures.
D) The brain regions activated by a semantic memory task are different for children and adults.

Question 76

Measures of simple digit span are more strongly related than listening span and reading span.

Question 77

The number of synapses in the brain reaches its peak at about age 2,after which it declines.

Question 78

Which is the proper conclusion to draw from the study by Chi (1978)regarding children's memory performance?

A) Children's memory is largely undeveloped until the age of 5.
B) The poorer memory performance shown by children is due to a lack of experience.
C) The hippocampus of children under 10 is not developed sufficiently to perform complex memory tasks.
D) Females show a more rapid pattern of memory development than do males during childhood.

Question 79

IQ scores appear to have risen about 3 points per decade.

Question 80

In the nervous system,the number of synaptic connections increases _____ times during the first 2 years of life.

A) 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 100