Question 1

Which of the following types of people would be LEAST likely to show the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

The word-superiority effect refers to the phenomenon where people are better at recognizing letters when they are presented in the context of a word rather than in isolation. This effect is strongest in people who are fluent readers, such as college students and those who are fluent in multiple languages. Someone who is just learning how to read would be less likely to exhibit this effect since they are still developing their reading skills. However, an expert chess player would not be related to the word-superiority effect.

Question 2

The basic assumption behind connectionist models is that

Accepted Answer

Connectionist models assume that our perceptions and memories are represented as connections among units, which are often modeled as artificial neurons or nodes. This is the fundamental idea behind how these models simulate human cognition and learning.

Question 3

Which of the following is consistent with the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

The word-superiority effect suggests that letters are more easily recognized when they are part of a word than when they are seen in isolation or in a non-word context. Option D directly reflects this principle by stating that a single letter is identified faster when part of a whole word, compared to focusing on the letter alone.

Question 4

The ability to understand sentences such as "This store sells horse shoes,and that store sells alligator shoes" depends on our

Accepted Answer

Understanding the meaning of the sentence requires knowledge about the world, specifically about which animals are commonly used for making shoes. It does not necessarily depend on understanding each individual morpheme or phoneme, and the word superiority effect (which refers to the faster recognition of words compared to individual letters) is not directly relevant.

Question 5

The "word superiority effect" is the observation that on the average,

Accepted Answer

The word superiority effect is the phenomenon in which people can recognize letters more quickly and accurately when they are presented within a word, rather than presented alone or within a non-word. This suggests that the context of the word helps to facilitate letter recognition.

Question 6

The context provided by words at the end of a sentence influences

Accepted Answer

The answer of The context provided by words at the...

Question 7

In an experiment subjects heard a tape-recorded sound that sounded halfway between "dent" and "tent." For which of the sentences below (if any)would the subjects be equally likely to report either "DENT" or "TENT"?

Accepted Answer

The answer of In an experiment subjects heard a tape-recorded...

Question 8

When an experimenter flashes the letter P on the screen for a split second,you cannot identify it.Yet when the experimenter flashes PARK on the screen for the same period of time,you do identify it.This is an example of the

Accepted Answer

This is an example of the word-superiority effect, which means that we are better able to identify letters when they are presented in a context of a word. In this case, the letter P is more difficult to identify on its own, but when it is presented as part of the word PARK, we are able to identify it more easily. The Stroop effect refers to the difficulty in naming the color of a word when the color and the word's meaning are different (e.g. the word "red" written in blue ink). The availability heuristic refers to the tendency to rely on readily accessible information when making judgments. The representativeness heuristic refers to the tendency to categorize objects based on how similar they are to our mental representation of a concept or prototype.

Question 9

An investigator flashes one or more letters on a screen and asks the viewer to look at the whole set and then say the first letter (the one on the left).After which of the following displays will it be easiest to give the correct answer?

Accepted Answer

The fewer letters there are, the easier it is for the viewer to focus on the first letter. Therefore, D is the best choice as it only has one letter. The other choices have 2, 3 or even 4 letters, which makes it harder to quickly identify the first letter.

Question 10

People have difficulty understanding a statement like "She is not unfriendly" because

Accepted Answer

Double negatives can be confusing because they require more cognitive effort to interpret, as the brain has to process the negation of a negation to understand the intended meaning.

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

The word-superiority effect refers to the phenomenon where people are better at recognizing and recalling words than individual letters. Option D is an example of this effect as it shows that people could identify the word WEST more easily than they could identify the letter W after seeing both for just a split second. The other options are not examples of the word-superiority effect.

Question 12

If people are given a choice between two foods,one of which they are told is "good for you" and the other of which they are told is "not bad for you," what will happen?

Accepted Answer

When people are given the choice between two foods, they are likely to choose the one they were told is "good for them" because they perceive it as healthier and better for their well-being. This preference is based on the belief that the food will provide more nutritional value and contribute to better health outcomes. On the other hand, the food that is described as "not bad for you" implies that it is not particularly beneficial or harmful, and consequently, people are less likely to choose it.

Question 13

You are listening to someone speak,and one of the words they say at the beginning of a sentence is muffled.The sounds you hear form a word that sounds halfway between "dent" and "tent." How will you interpret what you heard?

Accepted Answer

The answer of You are listening to someone speak,and one...

Question 14

In one study,students watched an experimenter fill two jars with sugar.They were then given two labels and instructed to put whichever label they wanted on each jar;one of the labels said "sucrose,table sugar" and the other said "not sodium cyanide,not poison." Later,when making Kool Aid,most subjects used the sugar from the jar labeled __________.These results are consistent with the idea that people __________.

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is consistent with the idea that people have difficulty processing negations or negatives in statements, thus preferring to use items labeled with straightforward, positive descriptions.

Question 15

What is meant by the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

The superiority effect refers to the fact that it is easier to identify a letter when it is part of a word than when it is presented by itself. This is because the context provided by the word makes it easier for the brain to process and identify the letter.

Question 16

Deciding what you heard when you heard a word that contained an ambiguous sound (e.g. ,it could have been either "dent" or "tent")is influenced by

Accepted Answer

The immediate context following the word has a stronger influence on deciding the intended word than the delayed context. The delayed context can still play a role, but it is less significant than the immediate context. Therefore, option B accurately represents the influence of context on sound ambiguity.

Question 17

Which procedure is an investigator likely to use in an experiment on the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

Flashing letters or words on a screen is a common procedure used in experiments on the word-superiority effect. This allows researchers to manipulate the presentation of stimuli and control variables such as the duration and intensity of the presentation, in order to investigate how different factors affect the effect.

Question 18

In an experiment subjects heard a tape-recorded sound that sounded halfway between "dent" and "tent." In which of the sentences below would subjects be most likely to report the word as "TENT"?

Accepted Answer

The context of the sentence mentioning a forest makes it more likely for the subject to report the word as "TENT" since it is more semantically related to a forest than a fender. Therefore, Option B is the best choice.

Question 19

An experimenter flashes one or more letters on the screen for a split second and then asks the viewer what he or she saw.Under which of the following conditions is the viewer most likely to answer correctly?

Accepted Answer

The answer of An experimenter flashes one or more letters...

Question 20

Which of the following has been used to explain the word-superiority effect?

Accepted Answer

Connectionist models have been used to explain the word-superiority effect, which is the phenomenon of better recall and recognition of letters within words as compared to isolated letters or groups of letters not forming words. These models explain this effect as a result of the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in the brain, with context and prior knowledge influencing the activation patterns in the neural network.

Quiz 8: Cognition and Language