Chpt. 9 Psych. applying

cognitive psychology

Professor Pegler’s research efforts focus on how the use of heuristics influences the way people assess financial risks. Which specialty area does his research best represent?

concept.

When we use the word "automobile" to refer to a category of transport vehicles, we are using this word as a(n):

category hierarchies

Having learned the rule that a triangle has three sides, we thereafter classify all three-sided geometric forms as triangles. This best illustrates the role of ______ in concept formation.

prototypes.

In the process of classifying objects, people are especially likely to make use of:

prototype.

Eva had difficulty recognizing that a sea horse was a fish because it did not closely resemble her fish:

prototype.

People are likely to take less time to recognize a woman as a nurse than a man as a nurse because a woman more closely resembles their nurse:

algorithm.

A chess-playing computer program that routinely calculates all possible outcomes of all possible game moves best illustrates problem solving by means of:

heuristics

save time in arriving at solutions to problems.

a heuristic.

As he attempted to spell the word "receive," Tim reminded himself "i before e except after c." Tim’s self-reminder best illustrates the use of:

strategy-based solutions.

Unlike the use of algorithms or heuristics, insight does not involve:

insight.

After spending two hours trying to solve an engineering problem, Amira finally gave up. As she was trying to fall asleep that night, a solution to the problem popped into her head. Amira’s experience best illustrates:

confirmation bias.

Because she believes that boys are naughtier than girls, Mrs. Zumpano, a second-grade teacher, watches boys more closely than she watches girls for any signs of misbehavior. Mrs. Zumpano’s surveillance strategy best illustrates:

confirmation bias.

University students were asked to figure out the rule used to devise the three-number sequence 2-4-6. After generating sets of three numbers to learn whether their sets met the rule, they typically convinced themselves of the wrong rule. Their errors best illustrated the impact of:

fixations

Some people are unable to arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles because they fail to consider a three-dimensional arrangement. This best illustrates the effects of ________ on problem solving.

heuristic.

Miss Jan De Jong is orderly, neat, fairly quiet, and shy. She enjoys reading in her spare time and belongs to a social club that includes three librarians, nine real estate agents, and eight social workers. A tendency to conclude that Jan must be one of the three librarians would illustrate the powerful influence of:

heuristic.

A televised image of a starving child had a greater impact on Mr. White’s perception of the extensiveness of world hunger than did a statistical chart summarizing the tremendous scope of the problem. This suggests that his assessment of the world hunger problem is influenced by:

heuristic.

By encouraging people to imagine their homes being destroyed by winds from a hurricane, insurance salespeople are especially successful at selling large homeowners’ policies. They are most clearly exploiting the influence of:

heuristic.

A single, memorable case of welfare fraud can have a greater impact on people’s estimates of welfare abuse than do statistics showing that this case is actually the exception to the rule. This illustrates that judgments are influenced by the:

perceived control

Which of the following best accounts for people’s greater fear of commercial air flights than of driving an automobile?

framing.

The risks of smoking are more alarming when presented in terms of the number of smokers with lung cancer than the percentage of smokers with lung cancer. This illustrates the importance of:

framing.

People are less upset when they miss getting an early payment discount than when they are asked to bear a late payment surcharge. This best illustrates the importance of:

belief perseverance.

People with opposing views of capital punishment reviewed mixed evidence regarding its effectiveness as a crime deterrent. As a result, their opposing views differed more strongly than ever. This best illustrates:

babbling

Infants are first able to discriminate speech sounds during the ________ stage.

one-word

At the age of 15 months, Anita repeatedly cries "hoy" when she wants her mother to hold her. Anita is most likely in the ________ stage of language development.

people most easily master the grammar of a second language during childhood.

The best evidence that there is a critical period for language acquisition is the fact that:

the bilingual advantage.

Bilingual children who inhibit one language while using the other, can better inhibit their attention to irrelevant information. This has been called:

studying effectively.

Introductory psychology students performed best on a midterm psychology test if they had previously spent five minutes a day visualizing themselves:

insight.

In Wolfgang Köhler’s experiment, the chimpanzee Sultan retrieved a long stick with a short stick to retrieve a piece of fruit. Sultan was able to reach the fruit as a result of:

sign language.

Beatrice and Allen Gardner taught the chimpanzee Washoe to communicate by means of:

syntax.

Those who are skeptical with regard to claims that apes share our capacity for language are especially likely to highlight chimps’ limited ability to use:

mental ability to learn from experience.

Experts would most likely agree that intelligence is a(n):

identify clusters of closely related test items.

Factor analysis is a statistical procedure that can be used to:

savant syndrome.

Twenty-five-year-old Alexandra is mentally handicapped and can neither read nor write. However, after hearing lengthy, unfamiliar, and complex musical selections just once, she can reproduce them precisely on the piano. It is likely that Alexandra is:

Gardner’s concept

Those who define intelligence as academic aptitude are most likely to criticize:

creative

Robert Sternberg distinguished among analytical, practical, and ________ intelligence.

divergent thinking.

Generating multiple possible answers to a problem illustrates:

emotional intelligence.

When Professor McGuire asks her students to answer questions in class, she can quickly tell from their facial expressions whether they are happy to participate. Professor McGuire’s perceptual skill best illustrates:

emotional intelligence.

Although Nicole scored well above average on an academic aptitude test, she frequently loses her temper and needlessly antagonizes even her best friends. Her behavior best illustrates a low level of:

reasoning skills.

To assess mental age, Binet and Simon measured children’s:

mental age/ chronological age * 100.

For the original version of the Stanford-Binet, IQ was defined as:

75.

A 12-year-old who responded to the original Stanford-Binet with the proficiency typical of an average 9-year-old was said to have an IQ of:

aptitude

A test of your capacity to learn to be an automobile mechanic would be considered a(n) ________ test.

assess learned knowledge or skills.

Achievement tests are designed to:

achievement

The written exam for a driver’s license would most likely be considered a(n) ________ test.

standardization.

When Brandon was told that he correctly answered 80 percent of the items on a mathematical achievement test, he asked how his performance compared with that of the average test taker. Brandon’s concern was directly related to the issue of:

reliability.

If a test yields consistent results every time it is used, it has a high degree of:

reliability.

Melinda completed the Computer Programming Aptitude Test when she applied for a position with Beta Electronics. Six months later, she took the same test when she applied for a position with another company. The fact that her scores were almost identical on the two occasions suggests that the test has a high degree of:

reliability

Researchers assess the correlation between scores obtained on two halves of a single test in order to measure the ________ of a test.

content validity.

If a road test for a driver’s license adequately samples the tasks a driver routinely faces, the test is said to have:

content validity

Your psychology professor has announced that the next test will assess your understanding of sensation and perception. When you receive the test, however, you find that very few questions actually relate to these topics. In this instance, you would be most concerned about the ________ of the test.

predictive validity

Psychologists would calculate the relationship between intelligence test scores and school grades in order to assess the ________ of the intelligence test.

spatial abilities.

Exposure to high levels of male sex hormones during prenatal development is most likely to facilitate the subsequent development of:

biased

When completing a verbal aptitude test, members of an ethnic minority group are particularly likely to perform below their true ability levels if they believe that the test:

stereotype threat.

Jim, age 55, plays basketball with much younger adults and is concerned that his teammates might consider his age to be a detriment to their game outcome. His concern actually undermines his athletic performance. This best illustrates the impact of

limit biased judgments

Intelligence tests have effectively reduced discrimination in the sense that they have: