Chapter 01
1. Attention, perception, and memory are all different types of mental processes in which the mind engages.
These are known as different types of
a. models.
b. cognition.
c. reaction times.
d. savings.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Models are used for various forms of comparison, but these functions are not
examples of models.
b. Correct. These are three of the many components that make up cognition. Another
would include decision making, and there are many more beyond that.
c. Incorrect. Reaction time is a measure of processing speed. While this may be regarded
as a facet of cognition, attention, memory, and perception are not components of
reaction time.
d. Incorrect. Savings is a specific measure of how memory works, but the three processes
noted in the question are not types of savings.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.1 - Explain how cognitive psychology defines the “mind.”
CTIVES:
TOPICS: What Is the Mind?
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:37 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 2:52 AM
2. The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind is called
a. cognitive psychology.
b. introspection.
c. behaviorism.
d. memory consolidation.
ANSWER: a
FEEDBACK: a. Correct. Cognition is another name for “thinking,” which is the primary emphasis for the
study of the brain and its processes.
b. Incorrect. While introspection is one way to study the mind, proposed early in the
history of the field of psychology, it is a specific method rather than the entire branch of
psychology.
c. Incorrect. Behaviorism is a different branch of psychology altogether that excludes any
inner thought that is not directly observable by someone.
d. Incorrect. Memory consolidation is a process that might interest a cognitive
psychologist, but it is only one of many ways to study the brain as a whole.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Remember
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 1
,REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.1 - Explain how cognitive psychology defines the “mind.”
CTIVES:
TOPICS: What Is the Mind?
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:53 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 2:58 AM
3. Donders’s main reason for doing his choice reaction time experiment was to study
a. sensation.
b. childhood attachment styles.
c. decision making.
d. personality development.
ANSWER: c
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans process information and make
choices, whereas sensation is the process of taking in stimuli from the external world.
b. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans process information and select
from among different options, whereas childhood attachment styles describe how
infants bond with their caregivers.
c. Correct. Donders wanted to understand how humans process information when
presented with a variety of options simultaneously.
d. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans make choices, whereas
personality development is the process involved with adapting to one’s environment
based on genetics and experiences.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:58 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 3:04 AM
4. Donders interpreted the difference in reaction time between the simple and choice conditions of his
experiment as indicating how long it took to
a. perceive the stimulus.
b. process the stimulus.
c. attend to the stimulus.
d. make a decision about the stimulus.
ANSWER: d
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 2
,FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. The amount of time it took to perceive the stimulus was measured by the
simple reaction time.
b. Incorrect. In order for participants to process the stimulus, they would need to attend to
it, but attention was not directly measured in Donders’s work.
c. Incorrect. In order for participants to detect the stimulus, attention was required, but
attention was not directly measured in this study.
d. Correct. Donders believed that the simple reaction time represented how long it took to
perceive the stimulus, and the choice reaction time of button-pressing would only occur
after perception. Therefore, the amount of time to make a decision about the stimulus
was the time difference between these two.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:12 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:16 AM
5. The main point of the Donders’s reaction time experiments was to
a. show that reaction times can be measured accurately.
b. measure the amount of time it takes to make a decision.
c. determine differences in the way people react to stimuli.
d. show that our cognitions are often based on unconscious inferences.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Although Donders did study reaction times, he was mostly interested in
decision making rather than simple reaction times.
b. Correct. By comparing two different reaction times, Donders was able to infer the
amount of time it takes to make a decision.
c. Incorrect. The stimuli were important to Donders’s work because they allowed him to
make inferences about decision making, but he was not as interested in the stimuli
themselves.
d. Incorrect. Donders was not concerned with teasing apart the conscious from the
unconscious, but rather, using behaviors to infer mental processes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:16 AM
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 3
, DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:19 AM
6. In Donders’s experiment on decision making, when participants were asked to press a button upon
presentation of a light, they were engaged in a
a. sensory memory task.
b. simple reaction time task.
c. choice reaction time task.
d. classical conditioning task.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Perceiving the light was required before pressing the button, while it was still
present, whereas sensory memory involves retaining information that was presented
visually only briefly and then disappears.
b. Correct. In order to press the button when the light appeared, participants were
indicating they had indeed perceived the stimulus.
c. Incorrect. The choice reaction time task involved detecting the difference between the
placement of two stimuli rather than identifying the presence of a single light.
d. Incorrect. Donders was not pairing stimuli with responses, but rather timing participants
in their ability to perceive a stimulus.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:19 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:22 AM
7. When measuring reaction time, which describes the onset of the stimulus?
a. Sensation
b. Transduction
c. Change in intensity
d. Presentation
ANSWER: d
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Detection of a stimulus rarely occurs at the precise moment it is presented.
b. Incorrect. Reaction time captures not only the transduction of a stimulus in the
environment but also the amount of time it takes for the brain to process and then act
on that stimulus.
c. Incorrect. The intensity of a stimulus can affect the ability to detect the stimulus, but it
does not directly measure the amount of time it takes to do so.
d. Correct. Reaction time measures the amount of time it takes for detection of the
stimulus after it is presented.
POINTS: 1
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1. Attention, perception, and memory are all different types of mental processes in which the mind engages.
These are known as different types of
a. models.
b. cognition.
c. reaction times.
d. savings.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Models are used for various forms of comparison, but these functions are not
examples of models.
b. Correct. These are three of the many components that make up cognition. Another
would include decision making, and there are many more beyond that.
c. Incorrect. Reaction time is a measure of processing speed. While this may be regarded
as a facet of cognition, attention, memory, and perception are not components of
reaction time.
d. Incorrect. Savings is a specific measure of how memory works, but the three processes
noted in the question are not types of savings.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.1 - Explain how cognitive psychology defines the “mind.”
CTIVES:
TOPICS: What Is the Mind?
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:37 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 2:52 AM
2. The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind is called
a. cognitive psychology.
b. introspection.
c. behaviorism.
d. memory consolidation.
ANSWER: a
FEEDBACK: a. Correct. Cognition is another name for “thinking,” which is the primary emphasis for the
study of the brain and its processes.
b. Incorrect. While introspection is one way to study the mind, proposed early in the
history of the field of psychology, it is a specific method rather than the entire branch of
psychology.
c. Incorrect. Behaviorism is a different branch of psychology altogether that excludes any
inner thought that is not directly observable by someone.
d. Incorrect. Memory consolidation is a process that might interest a cognitive
psychologist, but it is only one of many ways to study the brain as a whole.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Remember
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 1
,REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.1 - Explain how cognitive psychology defines the “mind.”
CTIVES:
TOPICS: What Is the Mind?
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:53 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 2:58 AM
3. Donders’s main reason for doing his choice reaction time experiment was to study
a. sensation.
b. childhood attachment styles.
c. decision making.
d. personality development.
ANSWER: c
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans process information and make
choices, whereas sensation is the process of taking in stimuli from the external world.
b. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans process information and select
from among different options, whereas childhood attachment styles describe how
infants bond with their caregivers.
c. Correct. Donders wanted to understand how humans process information when
presented with a variety of options simultaneously.
d. Incorrect. Donders was concerned with how humans make choices, whereas
personality development is the process involved with adapting to one’s environment
based on genetics and experiences.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 2:58 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 3:04 AM
4. Donders interpreted the difference in reaction time between the simple and choice conditions of his
experiment as indicating how long it took to
a. perceive the stimulus.
b. process the stimulus.
c. attend to the stimulus.
d. make a decision about the stimulus.
ANSWER: d
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 2
,FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. The amount of time it took to perceive the stimulus was measured by the
simple reaction time.
b. Incorrect. In order for participants to process the stimulus, they would need to attend to
it, but attention was not directly measured in Donders’s work.
c. Incorrect. In order for participants to detect the stimulus, attention was required, but
attention was not directly measured in this study.
d. Correct. Donders believed that the simple reaction time represented how long it took to
perceive the stimulus, and the choice reaction time of button-pressing would only occur
after perception. Therefore, the amount of time to make a decision about the stimulus
was the time difference between these two.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:12 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:16 AM
5. The main point of the Donders’s reaction time experiments was to
a. show that reaction times can be measured accurately.
b. measure the amount of time it takes to make a decision.
c. determine differences in the way people react to stimuli.
d. show that our cognitions are often based on unconscious inferences.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Although Donders did study reaction times, he was mostly interested in
decision making rather than simple reaction times.
b. Correct. By comparing two different reaction times, Donders was able to infer the
amount of time it takes to make a decision.
c. Incorrect. The stimuli were important to Donders’s work because they allowed him to
make inferences about decision making, but he was not as interested in the stimuli
themselves.
d. Incorrect. Donders was not concerned with teasing apart the conscious from the
unconscious, but rather, using behaviors to infer mental processes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:16 AM
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 3
, DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:19 AM
6. In Donders’s experiment on decision making, when participants were asked to press a button upon
presentation of a light, they were engaged in a
a. sensory memory task.
b. simple reaction time task.
c. choice reaction time task.
d. classical conditioning task.
ANSWER: b
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Perceiving the light was required before pressing the button, while it was still
present, whereas sensory memory involves retaining information that was presented
visually only briefly and then disappears.
b. Correct. In order to press the button when the light appeared, participants were
indicating they had indeed perceived the stimulus.
c. Incorrect. The choice reaction time task involved detecting the difference between the
placement of two stimuli rather than identifying the presence of a single light.
d. Incorrect. Donders was not pairing stimuli with responses, but rather timing participants
in their ability to perceive a stimulus.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Understand
REFERENCES: Cognitive Psychology: Studying the Mind
QUESTION TYPE: Multiple Choice
HAS VARIABLES: False
LEARNING OBJE LO 1.2 - Describe the different approaches used by Wundt, James, Donders, and
CTIVES: Ebbinghaus in their early attempts to study the mind.
TOPICS: Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
DATE CREATED: 2/19/2022 5:19 AM
DATE MODIFIED: 2/19/2022 5:22 AM
7. When measuring reaction time, which describes the onset of the stimulus?
a. Sensation
b. Transduction
c. Change in intensity
d. Presentation
ANSWER: d
FEEDBACK: a. Incorrect. Detection of a stimulus rarely occurs at the precise moment it is presented.
b. Incorrect. Reaction time captures not only the transduction of a stimulus in the
environment but also the amount of time it takes for the brain to process and then act
on that stimulus.
c. Incorrect. The intensity of a stimulus can affect the ability to detect the stimulus, but it
does not directly measure the amount of time it takes to do so.
d. Correct. Reaction time measures the amount of time it takes for detection of the
stimulus after it is presented.
POINTS: 1
Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 4
