Question 1

Jumping out of your seat as a result of an unexpected scene in a movie is what type of thinking?

Accepted Answer

Jumping out of your seat as a result of an unexpected scene in a movie is a reflexive response, which is a type of automatic processing.

Question 2

While waiting to cross the street, you witness a man running a red light-causing a three-car accident. Just after it happens, the man who ran the stoplight gets out of the car to talk to you. He tells you that the light was yellow. Later you tell police that you remembered the light being yellow, not red, when the man went through the intersection. This scenario illustrates

Accepted Answer

The scenario illustrates the misinformation effect, which occurs when a person's memory of an event is influenced by misleading information. In this case, the man who ran the stoplight told the witness that the light was yellow, and this information influenced the witness's memory of the event, causing them to remember the light as yellow instead of red.

Question 3

You have a tendency to assume someone is still a good friend even after a person acts otherwise. This tendency is known as the

Accepted Answer

Belief perseverance phenomenon refers to the tendency to cling to one's initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms that belief.

Question 4

Activating particular associations in memory is called

Accepted Answer

Activating particular associations in memory is called priming. Priming refers to the process in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention. In other words, priming occurs when one stimulus affects how a person responds to a subsequent stimulus, without them consciously being aware of it.

Question 5

Despite reading numerous research studies that report the association of fast food consumption with heart disease and diabetes, Rachel continues to eat fast food and thinks that it is harmless. Rachel's thinking is an example of

Accepted Answer

Rachel's thinking is an example of belief perseverance, which is the tendency to maintain beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence. This is demonstrated by her continued consumption of fast food despite knowledge of its negative health effects. Choices A, B, and D do not accurately reflect Rachel's situation.

Question 6

Mental concepts or templates that intuitively guide our perceptions and interpretations are called

Accepted Answer

Schemas are mental concepts or templates that guide our perceptions and interpretations based on pre-existing knowledge and experiences. Hypotheses are tentative explanations that are tested through research. Ethics refers to principles of right and wrong behavior. Theories are comprehensive explanations of phenomena based on empirical evidence.

Question 7

Your immediate recognition of your friend's face or her voice on the phone is an example of

Accepted Answer

The immediate recognition of a friend's face or voice is an example of automatic processing because it occurs without conscious effort or deliberation. This kind of processing is fast, efficient, and usually accurate, allowing us to easily identify familiar people or objects in our environment. Controlled processing, in contrast, requires more conscious effort and attention and is typically employed when encountering new or complex information. Illusory correlation and attribution error refer to cognitive biases or errors in judgment that can occur under certain circumstances but are not directly related to the process of recognizing familiar faces or voices.

Question 8

Researchers provided study participants with evidence that either risk-prone or cautious people make better firefighters. When participants wrote an explanation for the findings, they were particularly susceptible to

Accepted Answer

Belief perseverance refers to the tendency to cling to one's initial beliefs even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms those beliefs. In this scenario, participants are likely to maintain their initial beliefs about what makes a better firefighter, despite being presented with evidence to the contrary.

Question 9

In the context of political perceptions, people everywhere perceive mediators and the media as

Accepted Answer

People often perceive mediators and the media as biased against their position due to a psychological phenomenon known as the "hostile media effect," where individuals with strong opinions on an issue perceive neutral media coverage as biased against their viewpoint.

Question 10

Persistence of one's initial conceptions is called

Accepted Answer

Persistence of one's initial conceptions is called belief perseverance, which refers to the tendency to cling to one's initial beliefs even after receiving new information that contradicts or disconfirms those beliefs. Hindsight bias refers to the tendency to see events as more predictable than they actually were after learning the outcome. Cognitive dissonance refers to the psychological discomfort that arises when one's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors conflict with one another. Counterfactual thinking refers to the tendency to imagine alternative outcomes or scenarios.

Question 11

Sometimes the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives. Social psychologists refer to this as

Accepted Answer

This is called belief perseverance, which refers to the tendency to hold onto one's beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence or discrediting information. The individual may still have reasons, justifications, or explanations for why they continue to believe what they do despite the evidence to the contrary.

Question 12

Incorporating inaccurate information into one's memory of an event, after witnessing the event and receiving misleading information about it is called

Accepted Answer

The misinformation effect refers to the incorporation of inaccurate information into one's memory of an event, after witnessing the event and receiving misleading information about it. The other choices refer to different concepts, such as the priming effect (the influence of prior information on later processing) and the confirmation bias (the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs). The information processing fallacy is not a commonly used or recognized term in psychology.

Question 13

Your best friend is a master chess player and has won numerous awards. When you play chess with her, you notice that she seems to be aware of strategies almost immediately after your move. Her awareness of these strategies reflects what type of thinking?

Accepted Answer

Automatic processing refers to the ability to effortlessly and quickly process information and perform complex tasks due to prior experience and mastery. As a master chess player, the friend has likely developed automatic processing in terms of recognizing chess strategies and moves, allowing her to quickly identify patterns and make decisions.

Question 14

"Implicit" thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness is called

Accepted Answer

The description matches that of automatic processing, which refers to unconscious mental processes that require little effort or attention. Controlled processing (A) requires effort and attention, internal processing (C) is a vague term that could refer to any thought process happening internally, and intentional processing (D) implies that there is an explicit goal or intention behind the thinking, which is not necessarily the case with implicit thinking.

Question 15

Your summer vacation was perhaps not an overwhelmingly positive event, but during the final week of August, you remember it as being a fantastic time. This is an example of

Accepted Answer

This is an example of rosy retrospection, where people tend to remember past events more positively than they actually experienced them. The fact that the person initially didn't think it was overwhelmingly positive, but now remembers it as a fantastic time, supports the idea of rosy retrospection. The other options are not relevant to the scenario.

Question 16

In the context of reconstructing past attitudes, researchers had students write essays opposing student control over university curricula. When asked to recall how they had felt about the same issue a week earlier most of the students

Accepted Answer

The text states that the researchers had the students write essays opposing student control over university curricula. This suggests that the students were asked to take a position that was different from their own beliefs. Therefore, it is likely that when asked to recall how they had felt about the same issue a week earlier, most of the students mistakenly "remembered" having felt the same as they do now, as this would be consistent with the position they took in their essays.

Question 17

"Explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious is called

Accepted Answer

Controlled processing refers to intentional and deliberate thinking that requires effort and attention, such as problem-solving, decision-making, and logical reasoning. This type of thinking is conscious, reflective, and requires focus, and is therefore distinct from automatic processing, which is more effortless and unconscious. External processing refers to thinking that involves processing information through external stimuli, such as discussion or writing, whereas intentional processing refers to thinking that is purposeful and goal-directed. Therefore, controlled processing is the most accurate term to describe deliberate thinking.

Question 18

In the context of perceiving and interpreting events, which of the following statements is true of beliefs?

Accepted Answer

Beliefs influence how information is perceived. Our beliefs and expectations shape our interpretation of incoming information, and can result in a confirmation bias where we selectively attend to and remember information that supports our pre-existing beliefs while disregarding or forgetting information that contradicts them.

Question 19

To retrieve a memory of where your date told you she wanted to go for dinner tomorrow, you need to activate one of the strands that leads to this memory, such as thinking about what types of food she does and does not like. This process is known as

Accepted Answer

This process is called priming, where one cue or thought can activate related information or memories. In this case, thinking about the types of food your date does and does not like can prime the memory of where she wants to go for dinner. Option A (belief perseverance) refers to the tendency to stick to one's beliefs even when presented with contradictory evidence and does not fit the scenario described. Option B (reconstruction) refers to the process of piecing together bits of information to create a coherent or plausible memory but does not involve activating related strands. Option D (induction) refers to drawing general conclusions from specific observations and is also unrelated.

Question 20

Jack works as a software engineer in a multinational company. He finds that the company is training employees to develop their leadership skills. Jack, who values self-development, thinks this is a good opportunity to improve his skills. In the context of perceiving and interpreting events, which of the following statements is true?

Accepted Answer

According to the concept of perception and interpretation, our beliefs, values, and experiences influence how we perceive and interpret new information. Therefore, Jack's beliefs will influence how he sees the opportunity to develop his leadership skills.

Quiz 3: Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind