Cog Psych Chapter 9

1. A(n) ____ is a mental representation used for a variety of cognitive functions, including memory, reasoning, and using and understanding language.
A. exemplar
B. concept
C. unit
D. prototype

B

2. Which of the following statements is NOT cited in your text as a reason why categories are useful?
A. Categories provide definitions of groups of related objects.
B. Categories help us understand behaviors that we might otherwise find baffling.
C. Categories serve as a valuable tool for making inferences about things that belong to other categories.
D. Categories have been called "pointers to knowledge" because once you know an object’s category, you know a lot of general things about it.

A

3. Not all of the members of everyday categories have the same features. Most fish have gills, fins, and scales. Sharks lack the feature of scales, yet they are still categorized as fish. This poses a problem for the _______ approach to categorization.
A. prototype
B. exemplar
C. definitional
D. family resemblance

c

4. The definitional approach to categorization
A. is not well suited for geometrical objects but works for familiar everyday objects.
B. sets definite criteria called family resemblances that all category members must have.
C. doesn’t work well for most natural objects like birds, trees, and plants.
D. was proposed to replace the prototype approach.

C

5. The principle illustrated when most people are able to recognize a variety of examples of chairs even though no one category member may have all of the characteristic properties of "chairs" (e.g., most chairs have four legs but not all do) is
A. family resemblance.
B. prototypicality.
C. graded membership.
D. instance theory.

A

6. ______ is an average representation of a category.
A. A prototype
B. An exemplar
C. A unit
D. A component

A

7. The prototype approach to categorization states that a standard representation of a category is based on
A. the definition of the category.
B. a universal set of category members.
C. a defined set of category members.
D. category members that have been encountered in the past.

D

8. Which approach to categorization involves forming a representation based on an average of category members that a person has encountered in the past?
A. Exemplar
B. Network
C. Typicality
D. Prototype

D

9. Olin and Bob are neighbors. Olin loves birds and his father works for the zoo. He has been to a dozen bird sanctuaries, and he and his dad go on bird watching hikes once a month. In contrast, Bob doesn’t think much about birds. His only contact with them is in his backyard. It would be correct to say that Olin’s standard probably involves
A. more prototypes than Bob’s.
B. more exemplars than Bob’s.
C. more prototypes and more exemplars than Bob’s.
D. the same prototypes and exemplars as Bob’s.

B

10. A task for determining how prototypical an object is would be
A. a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate paired members within a category.
B. a task where participants rate the extent to which each member represents the category title.
C. a task where participants rate the extent to which category members resemble one another.
D. a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate the category classification for a list of members.

B

11. Which of the following members would most likely be ranked highest in prototypicality in the "birds" category?
A. Raven
B. Duck
C. Hummingbird
D. Sparrow

D

12. Items high on prototypicality have ____ family resemblances.
A. no
B. weak
C. moderate
D. strong

D

13. Which of the following is an example of the sentence verification technique?
A. Indicate whether the following statement was previously presented:
An apple is a fruit. YES NO
B. Indicate whether the following statement is true:
An apple is a fruit. YES NO
C. Fill in the blank in the following sentence:
An apple is a(n) ______.
D. Fill in the blank in the following sentence:
A(n) ______ is a fruit.

B

14. Which of the following reaction time data sets illustrate the typicality effect for the bird category, given the following three trials?
(NOTE: Read data sets as RTs for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3)

Trial 1: An owl is a bird.
Trial 2: A penguin is a bird.
Trial 3: A sparrow is a bird.
A. 583: 518: 653 msec
B. 518: 583: 653 msec
C. 583: 653: 518 msec
D. 653: 583: 518 msec

C

15. According to the typicality effect,
A. objects in a category have a family resemblance to one another.
B. objects that are not typical stand out and so are more easily remembered.
C. items that are high in prototypicality are judged more rapidly as being in a group.
D. we remember typical objects better than non-typical objects.

C

16. When a participant is asked to list examples of the category vegetables, it is most likely that
A. a carrot would be named before eggplant.
B. an eggplant would be named before carrot.
C. a carrot and eggplant would have an equal likelihood of being named first.
D. the order of examples is completely random, varying from participant to participant.

A

17. For the category "fruit," people give a higher typicality rating to "banana" than to "kiwi." Knowing that, we can also reason that
A. the word "fruit" will lead to a larger priming effect for banana than for kiwi.
B. when people are asked to list all the fruits they can think of, kiwi will usually appear on their list before banana.
C. neither kiwi nor banana are likely to be the fruit "closest" to the prototype of the fruit category.
D. people will have a similar number of exemplars for kiwi and banana.

A

18. Priming occurs when presentation of one stimulus
A. disrupts the processing of another stimulus.
B. acts as a cue that tells the participant when his or her response was correct.
C. facilitates the response to another stimulus.
D. relates to a prototype.

C

19. Rosch found that participants respond more rapidly in a same-different task when presented with "good" examples of colors such as "red" and "green" than when they are presented with "poor" examples such as "pink" or "light green." The result of this experiment was interpreted as supporting the _____ approach to categorization.
A. exemplar
B. prototype
C. network
D. parallel processing

B

20. If you say that "a Labrador retriever is my idea of a typical dog," you would be using the _____ approach to categorization.
A. exemplar
B. definitional
C. family resemblance
D. prototype

A

21. _______ are actual members of a category that a person has encountered in the past.
A. Icons
B. Prototypes
C. Units
D. Exemplars

D

22. An advantage of the prototype approach over the exemplar approach is that the prototype approach provides a better explanation of the typicality effect.
A. True
B. False

B

23. Which approach to categorization can more easily take into account atypical cases such as flightless birds?
A. Exemplar
B. Prototype
C. Definitional
D. Network

A

24. Imagine that a young child is just learning about the category "dog." Thus far, she has experienced only two dogs, one a small poodle and the other a large German shepherd. On her third encounter with a dog, she will be LEAST likely to correctly categorize the animal as a dog if that animal
A. matches the size of the poodle but is of a different breed.
B. is a dog that does not bark.
C. matches an exemplar of one of the dogs she has experienced.
D. is similar to an "average" for the dogs she has encountered.

B

25. Research suggests that the _____ approach to categorization works best for small categories (e.g., U.S. presidents).
A. semantic network
B. definitional
C. prototype
D. exemplar

D

26. According to Rosch, the ____ level of categories is the psychologically "privileged" level of category that reflects people’s everyday experience.
A. superordinate
B. prototypical
C. basic
D. subordinate

C

27. People playing the parlor game "20 Questions" often use hierarchical organization strategies. One player asks up to 20 yes/no questions to determine the identity of an object another player has selected. The player’s questions usually start as general and get more specific as the player approaches a likely guess. Initial questions asked by a player are often one of three questions: "Is it an animal?" "Is it a vegetable?" and "Is it a mineral?" Each of these three questions describes which level of categorization?
A. Typical
B. Basic
C. Subordinate
D. Superordinate

D

28. Which of the following would be in a basic level category?
A. Truck
B. Vehicle
C. Pickup truck
D. Transportation

A

29. According to the text, jumping from _______ categories results in the largest gain in information.
A. superordinate level to basic level
B. basic level to subordinate level
C. subordinate level to basic level
D. basic level to superordinate level

A

30. Which of the following represents a basic level item?
A. Musical instrument
B. Guitar
C. Rock guitar
D. Paul McCartney’s bass guitar

B

31. Rosch and coworkers conducted an experiment in which participants were shown a category label, like car or vehicle, and then, after a brief delay, saw a picture. The participants’ task was to indicate as rapidly as possible whether the picture was a member of the category. Their results showed
A. the priming effect was most robust for superordinate level categories.
B. the priming effect was most robust for basic level categories.
C. no measurable priming effect.
D. the priming effect was the same for superordinate and basic level categories.

B

32. Your text describes cross-cultural studies of categorization with U.S. and Itza participants. Given the results of these studies, we know that if asked to name basic level objects for a category, U.S. participants would answer ____ and Itza participants would answer ____.
A. bird; bird
B. bird; sparrow
C. sparrow; bird
D. sparrow; sparrow

B

33. If we were conducting an experiment on the effect knowledge has on categorization, we might compare the results of expert and non-expert groups. Suppose we compare horticulturalists to people with little knowledge about plants. If we asked the groups to name, as specifically as possible, five different plants seen around campus, we would predict that the expert group would primarily label plants on the _____ level, while the non-expert group would primarily label plants on the _____ level.
A. superordinate; subordinate
B. superordinate; basic
C. subordinate; basic
D. basic; subordinate

C

34. In the semantic network model, a specific category is represented at a
A. link.
B. input unit.
C. node.
D. output unit.

C

35. The _____ model includes associations between concepts and the property of spreading activation.
A. parallel distributed processing
B. connectionist network
C. neural network
D. semantic network

D

36. Which term below is most closely associated with semantic networks?
A. Distributed processing
B. Cognitive economy
C. Prototype formation
D. Family resemblance

B

37. How is cognitive economy represented in the following example? The property _____ is stored at the _____ node.
A. can fly; bird
B. can fly; canary
C. has feathers; ostrich
D. bird; penguin

A

38. The semantic network model predicts that the time it takes for a person to retrieve information about a concept should be determined by
A. the amount of information contained in each concept.
B. the distance that must be traveled through the network.
C. the typicality of the information contained in each concept.
D. the representativeness of the information contained in each concept.

B

39. In evaluating retrieval rates for category information for a concept, Collins and Quillian’s semantic network approach would predict the slowest reaction times for which of the following statements using a sentence verification technique?
A. A field sparrow is a bird.
B. A field sparrow is a sparrow.
C. A field sparrow is an animal.
D. A field sparrow is a field sparrow.

C

40. Which of the following is NOT associated with the semantic network model?
A. Family resemblance
B. Hierarchical organization
C. Cognitive economy
D. Spreading activation

a

41. According to Collins and Quillian’s semantic network model, it should take longest to verify which statement below?
A. Pigs are pigs.
B. A pig is an animal.
C. A pig is a pig.
D. A pig is a mammal.

B

42. Collins and Quillian explained the results of priming experiments by introducing the concept of _____ into their network model.
A. spreading activation
B. cognitive economy
C. typicality
D. back propagation

A

43. Spreading activation
A. primes associated concepts.
B. inhibits unrelated concepts.
C. creates new links between associated concepts.
D. weakens the link between unrelated concepts.

A

44. In a lexical decision task, participants have to decide whether
A. a statement is true.
B. a letter string is a word.
C. a stimulus is presented.
D. two stimuli are associated.

B

45. Collins and Quillian’s semantic network model predicts that the reaction time to verify "a canary is a bird" is _____ the reaction time to verify "an ostrich is a bird."
A. slower than
B. faster than
C. the same as

C

46. Collins and Loftus modified the original semantic network theory of Collins and Quillian to satisfy some of the criticisms of the original model. In their modification, Collins and Loftus account for the typicality effect by
A. creating a "typical" node linked to special concepts in a category.
B. representing more typical concepts as higher in the categorical hierarchy.
C. using shorter links to connect more closely related concepts.
D. none of these

C

47. Collins and Loftus modified the original semantic network theory of Collins and Quillian to satisfy some of the criticisms of the original model. People consider this to be a strong theory because it is powerful enough to explain just about any result.
A. True
B. False

B

48. Collins and Loftus modified the original semantic network theory of Collins and Quillian to satisfy some of the criticisms of the original model. However, their revised model was not immune to criticism. One criticism of Collins and Loftus’ semantic network theory is that it
A. cannot explain exceptions to category properties (e.g., account for the fact that an ostrich can’t fly while most birds can).
B. is of little explanatory value because it can explain just about any result.
C. is so inflexible that it has been easy to falsify.
D. explains the length of links as resulting from a person’s past experiences.

B

49. Good psychological theories must have all of the following properties EXCEPT being
A. too powerful to be refuted by empirical evidence.
B. able to predict the results of a particular experiment.
C. able to stimulate a great deal of research to test the theory.
D. shown to be wrong if a particular experimental result occurs.

A

50. Which of the following is most closely modeled on the way the nervous system operates?
A. Semantic network theory
B. The prototype approach
C. Parallel distributed processing theory
D. Enhancement due to priming

C

51. Connectionist theory states that a particular object (like a canary) is identified by activity in the specific "canary" output unit of the network.
A. True
B. False

B

52. Connectionist networks are modeled after neural networks in the nervous system and incorporate all of the following features of the nervous system EXCEPT
A. excitatory and inhibitory connections.
B. strength of firing patterns determined by the number and type (excitatory/inhibitory) of inputs.
C. concepts represented by activity in individual nodes.
D. distributed coding.

C

53. One of the key properties of the _____ approach is that a specific concept is represented by activity that is distributed over many units in the network.
A. semantic network
B. hierarchical
C. spreading activation
D. connectionist

D

54. Which of the following is NOT a property of the connectionist approach?
A. It proposes a slow learning process that eventually creates a network capable of handling a wide range of inputs.
B. Connectionist networks respond to being damaged in ways similar to the response that occurs in actual cases of brain damage in humans.
C. Before any learning has occurred in the network, the weights in the network all equal zero.
D. The connectionist system learns to generalize by recognizing that properties of one concept provide information about other, related concepts.

C

55. Learning takes place in a connectionist network through a process of _____ in which an error signal is transmitted from output units towards the input units.
A. graceful degradation
B. error verification
C. spreading activation
D. back propagation

D

56. The process of back propagation is most closely associated with
A. semantic networks.
B. connectionist networks.
C. reasoning about categories.
D. spreading activation.

B

57. The activity that represents a particular object is established in a connectionist network through a process of learning that involves
A. adjusting the weights of inhibitory and excitatory connections between units.
B. a process of trial and error.
C. comparing the object to objects in other categories.
D. adjusting the length of the links that connect the nodes in the circuit.

A

58. Learning in the connectionist network is represented by adjustments to network
A. weights.
B. nodes.
C. hidden units.
D. output units.

A

59. The connectionist network has learned the correct pattern for a concept when
A. the connection weights add up to exactly +1.00.
B. the output pattern matches the initial input pattern.
C. the back propagated error signal is zero.
D. the output unit response is greater than zero.

C

60. One beneficial property of connectionist networks is graceful degradation, which refers to the property that
A. these networks learn by a process that is analogous to the way a child learns about the world by making mistakes and being corrected.
B. learning a new concept does not interfere with remembering a previously learned concept.
C. damage to the system does not completely disrupt its operation.
D. learning can be generalized between similar concepts to facilitate future learning.

C

61. If a system has the property of graceful degradation, this means that
A. it loses information at a very slow rate.
B. damage to the system doesn’t completely disrupt its operation.
C. it is either functioning at 100 percent, or it is not functioning at all.
D. it can be set to operate at "low efficiency" or "high efficiency" depending on the demand of the current task.

B

62. Research on the physiology of semantic memory has shown that the representation of different categories in the brain (like living and non-living things) is best described as being
A. specific.
B. subordinate.
C. graded.
D. distributed.

D

63. Which methodology is used to study categorization processes in very young infants?
A. Familiarization/novelty preference procedure
B. Sentence verification technique
C. Lexical decision task
D. Semantic priming procedure

A

64. At what age do infants begin forming basic level categories?
A. 2 months
B. 3-4 months
C. 6-7 months
D. 1 year
b

b