Deck 6: Language and Communication

Question 1

Our perception of printed material is:

A) mostly error-free
B) hierarchical
C) serial
D) linear

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Most models of visual word recognition postulate an initial stage of:

A) unitization
B) encoding
C) feature processing
D) perception

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A study by Neisser, Novick and Lazer (1984) found that visual search for a target letter (e.g., K) in a list of non-target "noise" letters was greatly slowed if the "noise" letters:

A) shared similar features (e.g., N, M, X)
B) were more frequent in language
C) were distinct (e.g., O, S, U)
D) were less frequent in every-day use

Answer 3

A

Question 4

LaBerge (1973) demonstrated that letters can be processed:

A) implicitly
B) by focal attention alone
C) preattentively
D) with little cognitive effort

Question 5

What is required, in addition to experience, to develop automaticity for processing letters and other familiar symbols?

A) extensive training
B) consistent mapping to the same response
C) a large working memory capacity
D) a high IQ

Question 6

What mechanism has been proposed for the analysis of word shape?

A) spatial frequency analysis
B) spectral frequency analysis
C) components analysis
D) linear analysis

Question 7

Analysis of proof-reading errors reveals the important role of word ____.

A) comprehension
B) meaning
C) salience
D) shape

Question 8

Concerning nonverbal communication, which of the following is NOT one of the four possible causes of differences between the two models of verbal interaction.

A) disambiguity
B) verbal cues
C) shared knowledge of action
D) visualizing the mouth

Question 9

The process by which lower-level units (features and letters) feed into higher-level ones (letters and words) is known as _______ processing.

A) data-driven
B) information
C) top-down
D) data-rich

Question 10

The process by which expectations and context influences our perception is known as _____ .processing:

A) bottom-up
B) data-rich
C) top-down
D) data-driven

Question 11

An ambiguous word within a sentence can be guessed using its:

A) shape
B) surrounding context
C) features
D) frequency

Question 12

The term word superiority effect refers to:

A) words are quicker to speak than non-words
B) letters in a word are easier to remember than letters in isolation
C) words are easier to remember than non-words
D) letters in a word mutually facilitating one another's analysis

Question 13

Word perception involves continuous and interactive ____ and ____ processing.

A) top-down / bottom-up
B) serial / parallel
C) data-driven / analysis-driven
D) semantic-based / temporal-based

Question 14

Eye movement regressions refer to:

A) Saccades that move in an unwanted direction
B) Slower eye movements
C) Involuntary eye movements
D) Saccades that move backwards in the text

Question 15

The average eye fixation time in reading is approximately:

A) 20msec
B) 250msec
C) 500msec
D) 1second

Question 16

Pilotti, Chodorow and Schauss (2009) found that proofreading is slower and less accurate for _____ words.

A) high-frequency
B) meaningful
C) socially-unacceptable
D) visually-degraded

Question 17

Due to limitations of working memory, the number of propositions that can be carried by readers between sentences is about:

A) 2
B) 4
C) 8
D) 16

Question 18

Fast, little cognitive effort, operates in high workload, and robust to adverse effects of stress and fatigue are all advantages of:

A) extended training
B) feature-based recognition
C) automatic processing
D) implicit learning

Question 19

Dulaney and Marks (2007) found that automatic processing can be unlearnt over:

A) 100 training trials
B) 1000 training trials
C) 10,000 training trials
D) a one day training period

Question 20

The superiority of lowercase over uppercase letters appears to hold only for _____ sentences.

A) printed
B) meaningful
C) meaningless
D) short

Question 21

Tall Man lettering refers to the ______.

A) decrease in font size for dissimilar letters
B) capitalization of dissimilar letters
C) increase in font size for similar letters
D) capitalization of similar letters

Question 22

Which of the following does NOT occur when increasing the space between letters within words:

A) disruption of the unitization process
B) reduced memory for the words
C) improved identification of letters within words
D) reduced reading speed

Question 23

Klemmer (1969) found that the most rapid data entry was achieved when ____ digits were chunked together.

A) 1 to 2
B) 3 to 4
C) 5 to 6
D) 6 to 10

Question 24

When abbreviating words, the most important principle is to employ ____ rules.

A) logical
B) memorable
C) salient
D) consistent

Question 25

Zipf's law refers to the finding that:

A) words that occur frequently are short and words that occur rarely tend to be longer
B) words are more memorable when presented in larger font sizes
C) higher-probability messages are easier to encode
D) the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target

Question 26

The phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and so on) is an example of ______ in code design.

A) economy for sake of security
B) security for the sake of redundancy
C) redundancy for the sake of security
D) redundancy for the sake of economy

Question 27

Biederman (1987) proposed that humans recognize object in terms of combinations of a ____.

A) large number of complex features
B) small number of complex features
C) large number of basic features
D) small number of basic features

Question 28

Object recognition involves a blend of:

A) local and global processing
B) short-term and long-term memory
C) bottom-up and top-down processing
D) explicit and implicit processing

Question 29

The _____ of an icon refers to the extent by which it depicts a real-life object or person.

A) complexity
B) concreteness
C) semantic distance
D) concreteness

Question 30

______ refers to the degree of closeness of the relationship between the icon and its meaning.

A) semantic distance
B) concreteness
C) complexity
D) familiarity

Question 31

______ refers to the user's experience of the icon itself or the object depicted by the icon.

A) complexity
B) semantic distance
C) familiarity
D) concreteness

Question 32

Which of the following icon characteristics does NOT degrade icon processing:

A) low visual complexity
B) low concreteness
C) low familiarity
D) high semantic distance

Question 33

The perceived _______ of an icon can reduce the detrimental impact of visual complexity.

A) importance
B) urgency
C) aesthetic appeal
D) frequency

Question 34

Earcons are generated using:

A) recordings of real-life sounds
B) a combination of tones and a spoken phrase
C) abstract musical tones varying in intensity, pitch and timbre
D) simple tones

Question 35

Auditory icons use _____ to relate to their meaning.

A) well-known sounds
B) auditory metaphors
C) a combination of intensity, pitch and timbre
D) abstract sounds

Question 36

Which of following is NOT a facet of the effectiveness of auditory icons:

A) user preference
B) intuitiveness
C) learnability
D) perceived urgency

Question 37

Spearcons are created by:

A) speeding up a spoken phrase without changing its pitch
B) changing the pitch of a spoken phrase (without speeding it up)
C) combining an auditory icon with a spoken phrase
D) speeding up a spoken phrase to change its pitch

Question 38

Comprehension of text can be greatly enhanced by:

A) increasing the font size
B) connecting technical concepts with the personal experience of the reader
C) using a readability index
D) providing a general context

Question 39

To aid recognition and recall of verbal material, context should be presented:

A) during the inter-stimulus interval
B) during
C) immediately before the recall / recognition phase
D) before the presentation of the material

Question 40

Command displays should be used:

A) for aviation displays
B) during conditions of high stress and time pressure
C) to improve later recall of instructions
D) to increase situation awareness

Question 41

Statements that contain negatives _____ than those that do not:

A) are quicker to verify
B) are more difficult to remember
C) take longer to verify
D) are less difficult to remember

Question 42

Redundant presentation of text and words is likely to improve the accuracy of comprehending the message, but:

A) may delay processing time
B) may reduce recall performance
C) will create additional cognitive workload
D) may cause user frustration

Question 43

The design principle of spatial contiguity refers to:

A) the scaling of graphics in proportion to their importance
B) the placement of related text in the same place
C) graphics always following text
D) the placement of text next to its corresponding graphics

Question 44

Which of the following is NOT an important component of a warning:

A) signal word
B) definition of the target audience
C) instruction statement
D) statement of the nature of the hazard

Question 45

The analysis of speech into separate sine wave components of different frequencies and amplitudes is known as a(n) ____ analysis.

A) spectograph
B) Zipf
C) feature-based
D) Fourier

Question 46

The lack of correspondence between a phoneme and the physical speed sound is known as the:

A) Shannon-Fano principle
B) Zipf' Law
C) irrelevant sound effect
D) segmentation problem

Question 47

Golestani et al.'s (2009) finding that bilinguals are better able to perceive speech in the presence of noise in their native language compared to their non-native language suggests:

A) top-down semantic processing to native language processing only
B) bottom-up perceptual processing to non-native language processing only
C) a combination of bottom-up and top-down processing to both native and non-native languages
D) processing limitations relating to working memory capacity

Question 48

Measures of speech intelligibility are derived by delivering vocal material of a particular level of redundancy over the speech channel in question and calculating the:

A) percentage of words correctly recalled
B) articulation index of the vocal material
C) range at which the vocal material was heard
D) percentage of words understood correctly

Question 49

Crew Resource Management training refers to:

A) aviation-specific training
B) training relating to threat detection and management
C) training that emphasizes non-vocabulary aspects of communications
D) Human Resources process training

Question 50

Which of the following team processes is NOT directly related to Team Situation Awareness:

A) fact-checking
B) coordination
C) information sharing
D) cross-checking

Question 51

Briefly describe the stages in word perception.

Question 52

What is unitization?

Question 53

Briefly describe the factors known to influence the usability of icons?

Question 54

What are differences between auditory icons, earcons and spearcons?

Question 55

How useful are readability formulas for writing instructions and procedures that are easy to understand?

Question 56

What is the difference between a command and status display?

Question 57

What are the real-world applications of speech perception research?

Question 58

Briefly describe the differences between face-to-face and voice-only communications?

Question 59

What are the limitations of video-mediated communications?

Question 60

Briefly describe the concept of Team Situation Awareness.

Question 61

Describe the role of top-down and bottom-up processing in our perception of text

Question 62

How can our understanding of how we recognize objects contribute to the design of icons?

Question 63

How can instructions be made more comprehensible?

Question 64

How can product warnings be made more effective?

Question 65

What is crew resource management and how effective has it been?