Cognitive Psychology Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Cognitive Psychology explores the mental processes underlying human behavior, including perception, attention, memory, language, problem-solving, and decision-making. This course examines how people acquire, process, and store information, drawing on experimental research, theoretical models, and real-world applications. Students will gain insights into how cognitive functions develop, interact, and can be influenced by factors such as emotion, motivation, and neurological changes. Emphasis is placed on both classic studies and current trends in cognitive science to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the mind works.
Recommended Textbook
Cognitive Psychology Theory Process and Methodology 1st Edition by Dawn M. McBride
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12 Chapters
521 Verified Questions
521 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
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43 Verified Questions
43 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The dependent variable is the factor in an experiment that is manipulated by the researcher.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The _____ approach asserts that knowledge about the world is represented in our minds such that cognitive processes can operate on the representations.
A) representationist
B) cognitive
C) behavioral
D) embodied cognition
Answer: A
Q3) Dr. Smith is developing a new drug to treat headaches. To test this drug, she develops a study in which one group gets the new drug, and the other gets a placebo, or a fake pill. Dr. Smith measures whether or not headaches improve by giving each participant a survey each day. The survey is the _____.
A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Cognitive Neuroscience
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43 Verified Questions
43 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) _____ is a technique that is often used in sleep studies, and measures the activity of large groups of neurons.
A) Magnetoencephalography
B) Electroencephalography
C) Single-cell recording
D) Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Answer: A
Q2) Conducting a case study on a patient with damage to their frontal lobe has the potential to reveal a great deal of information about our brain's role in vision.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Discuss the activities that take place during an action potential.
Answer: A correct answer would include the neuroanatomy associated with an action potential (i.e. parts of a neuron), as well as the generation of the action potential at the axon hillock, through termination at the terminal buttons and subsequent vesicular release of neurotransmitters[ok?] into the synapse. A correct answer would describe the exchange of ions.
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Chapter 3: Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) A distal stimulus is to a proximal stimulus as the environment is to our mind.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Sound waves are to _____ as light waves are to _____.
A) hearing; vision
B) touch; vision
C) vision; hearing
D) touch; hearing
Answer: A
Q3) You are waiting at a train crossing, and you notice how the "STOP" sign appears to blink in a way that the lights rotate around the words. Using the principle of _____, you rationalize that each light must turn on and off in a pattern, rather than one light travelling around the sign.
A) Pragnanz
B) closure
C) good continuation
D) similarity
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Attention
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Sample Questions
Q1) Being able to name the colors of various symbols illustrates _____.
A) Change blindness
B) Inattentional blindness
C) The Stroop Effect
D) The Simon Effect
Q2) Which of the following is NOT an analogy your textbook uses to describe attention?
A) A filter of information
B) A key fitting into a lock
C) A spotlight focused on an aspect of the environment
D) A glue that binds the features of the environment together
Q3) The two mechanisms hypothesized to underlie the Simon effect are _____ and _____.
A) The theory of unconscious inference; the attentional-movement hypothesis
B) The attentional-movement hypothesis; the referential-coding hypothesis
C) The computational approach; the referential-coding hypothesis
D) Sensation; perception
Q4) Discuss the societal and legislative impact of Strayer & Johnston's study (2001) on the cognition of distracted driving.
Q5) Discuss Kahneman's (1973) capacity model of attention and give one example.
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Chapter 5: Memory Structures and Processes
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45 Verified Questions
45 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) You are about to take a final exam, and you are spending the last few minutes in class going over your notes before the professor hands out the test. There are certain topics you studied very well, but others you are not so sure about. As soon as the professor hands out the test, you scribble down those few terms you are not very confident about, before you forget them. These terms are likely stored in _____.
A) Short-term memory
B) Long-term memory
C) Sensory memory
D) Echoic memory
Q2) Short-term memory has a limited capacity and unlimited duration.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Define working memory and discuss Baddeley's model of working memory.
Q4) The correct order of memory processes is as follows: storage, encoding, and retrieval.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss three[or the?] types of long-term memories, and give an example of each.
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Chapter 6: Long-Term Memory: Influences on Retrieval
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss the hypotheses presented about the[ok or other wording?] reasons we forget information. Provide examples.
Q2) While studying for a psychology exam, you devise a poem about Piaget's stages of development to help you remember. This is an example of _____.
A) Shallow processing
B) Deep processing
C) Spacing effects
D) Storage
Q3) _____ are memory techniques that have been used by humans for thousands of years to remember information.
A) Mnemonics
B) Retrieval effects
C) Serial position curves
D) Languages
Q4) If given a list of words, people are more likely to remember the middle of the list rather than the beginning or the end.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Memory Errors
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Sample Questions
Q1) Normal forgetting over time is known as absentmindedness.
A)True
B)False
Q2) _____ described "seven sins of memory."
A) Elizabeth Loftus
B) Daniel Schacter
C) Ronald Cotton
D) Sir Frederick C. Bartlett
Q3) Childhood amnesia seems to be specific to _____ memories.
A) procedural
B) semantic
C) episodic
D) implicit
Q4) _____ amnesia is to the events before the damage as _____ amnesia is to events following damage.
A) Retrograde; anterograde
B) Anterograde; retrograde
C) Past; future
D) Old; new
Q5) List Daniel Schacter's seven sins of memory, and give an example of each.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Imagery
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the _____, words that rhyme with numbers are used as place holders in an ordered list.
A) Pegword mnemonic
B) Method of loci
C) The concreteness effect
D) The bizarreness effect
Q2) The idea that imagery serves a primary role in prospective cognition means that _____.
A) Imagery allows us to make predictions about how things will go
B) Imagery predicts how your cognition will change
C) Imagery predicts the future
Q3) People have an easier time imaging abstract objects[what is an abstract objectshd it be abstract topic or subject?] rather than concrete objects.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss a way that you could test the role of imagery in motor performance.
Q5) Imagery precedes social interaction.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Language
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Sample Questions
Q1) Your friend is telling you a story about Tom. She states, "Tom proposed to his girlfriend last night. She said yes!" You assume that "she" is referring to Tom's girlfriend because of _____.
A) Semantic inference
B) Anaphoric inference
C) Syntactic inference
D) Morpheme inference
Q2) People who cannot comprehend language as a result of a brain injury are likely to have damage to the left inferior frontal lobe.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Syntax is the level of representation at which there are rules that specify[ok?] the ordering of words.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The subfield of linguistics that examines the use of language within particular contexts is called semantics.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Concepts and Knowledge
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Sample Questions
Q1) The major difference between the exemplar approach and the prototype approach is that in the exemplar approach:
A) Comparisons are made between more recent rather than older memories
B) Comparisons are made between older rather than more recent memories
C) Comparisons are being made to abstractions rather than memories of actual experiences
D) Comparisons are being made to memories of actual experiences rather than an abstraction of those experiences
Q2) Your friend tells you that she just got a new golden retriever dog that is 2 years old. You assume that it has a yellowish color and is fairly large. This is utilizing the process of _____.
A) Category reduction
B) Category induction
C) Category specification
D) Category generation
Q3) Distinguish between the prototype and exemplar approaches to concepts. Define and give an example of each.
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Chapter 11: Problem Solving
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Sample Questions
Q1) While working in a lab, you encounter a problem with your experiment. You spend days trying to figure out what is wrong, and finally, it pops into your head that the temperature in the room is incorrect, causing fluctuations in your results. This is an example of _____.
A) trial-and-error
B) insight
C) introspection
D) recognition
Q2) Inductive reasoning is an application of a(n) _____.
A) algorithm
B) heuristic
C) mental set
D) insight
Q3) While baking a cake, you say the steps out loud as you are carrying them out. This is an example of _____.
A) pathology
B) functional fixedness
C) retrospection
D) introspection
Q4) Define functional fixedness, and provide three examples.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Reasoning and Decision Making
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sometimes it feels as though we use logic to reason, while other times we use other methods, like making a split-second decision without any time to think. This best illustrates _____.
A) Rapid-decision framework
B) Dual-process framework
C) Dual-decision framework
D) Inductive reasoning
Q2) Compare and contrast deductive vs. inductive reasoning.
Q3) Imagine that you are driving, and the car a few feet ahead of you gets into an accident. You think, "What if I had left a few seconds earlier; that could've been me!" This is an example of _____.
A) Counterfactual thinking
B) Hypothesis testing
C) Verification
D) Causal reasoning
Q4) Discuss the different types of heuristics biases we face when making decisions, and give an example of each.
Q5) Discuss the five stages of Galotti's (2002) model of general decision making. Discuss an example to illustrate all five stages.
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