COGNITION: EXPLORING THE
SCIENCE OF THE MIND (7TH
EDITION) — COMPLETE TEST BANK
WITH ANSWERS AND RATIONALES
CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF THOUGHT
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following topics is NOT commonly studied within cognitive psychology?
a. anger management
b. decision making
c. memory
d. Attention
ANS: A
Rationale: Cognitive psychology focuses on mental processes such as decision making, memory, and
attention. Anger management is more closely associated with clinical or counseling psychology, not
cognitive psychology.
2. Cognitive processes are NOT necessary for which daily activity?
a. reading a newspaper
b. studying for a test
c. talking on the phone
d. breathing
ANS: D
Rationale: Breathing is an automatic physiological process controlled by the brainstem, requiring no
conscious cognitive processing. Reading, studying, and talking all require cognitive processes like
attention, memory, and language.
3. Alyssa wants to be a psychologist but is unsure which topic within psychology most interests her.
Which of the following topics would be LEAST likely to lead her into cognitive psychology?
a. amnesia
c. Lyme disease
b. language acquisition
d. problem-solving strategies
,ANS: C
Rationale: Lyme disease is a medical/infectious disease topic, not a cognitive psychology topic. Amnesia,
language acquisition, and problem-solving strategies are all core cognitive psychology topics.
4. Consider the sequence "Betsy wanted to bring Jacob a present. She shook her piggy bank." Most
people, after hearing this sequence, believe Betsy was checking her piggy bank to see if she had
money to spend on the gift. This inference about Betsy's goals depends on the fact that
a. our previous knowledge fills in background information whenever we're understanding an event or
conversation.
b. readers are likely to know someone named Jacob.
c. English, unlike other languages, requires speakers to mention all of the people involved in an event.
d. the individual sentences are short.
ANS: A
Rationale: Understanding this sequence requires drawing on prior knowledge (that piggy banks contain
money, that gifts cost money) to fill in information not explicitly stated. This demonstrates how memory
and knowledge influence comprehension.
5. Which of the following statements is LEAST likely to apply to patient H.M.?
a. "He cannot remember what he did earlier today, including events that took place just an hour ago."
b. "He read this story last month, but he was still surprised by how the story turned out."
c. "Even though he has encountered the nurse many times, he is still unable to recognize her."
d. "He remembered that it was only a week ago that he'd heard the sad news that his uncle had died."
ANS: D
Rationale: H.M. suffered from severe anterograde amnesia, meaning he could not form new long-term
memories after his surgery. He would not be able to remember events from a week ago, so statement D
is least likely to apply.
6. Research with H.M. provides an illustration for which major theme of the chapter?
a. Introspection is an important research tool for cognitive psychologists.
b. Cognitive psychology can help us understand a wide range of activities that depend on someone's
ability to remember.
c. Memory is not very important.
d. The disruption caused by brain damage depends on how widespread the damage is, and not on the
specific sites that are damaged.
,ANS: B
Rationale: H.M.'s case demonstrates how memory influences countless daily activities and how
cognitive psychology can illuminate the role of memory in our lives.
7. Patients suffering from clinical amnesia are characterized by
a. memory dysfunction.
c. inarticulate speech.
b. an inability to recognize patterns.
d. impaired language comprehension.
ANS: A
Rationale: Clinical amnesia is defined by memory dysfunction—the inability to form new memories or
recall past ones—while other cognitive functions may remain intact.
8. The term "introspection" refers to the
a. process by which one individual seeks to infer the thoughts of another individual.
b. procedure of examining thought processing by monitoring the brain's electrical activity.
c. process of each person looking within, to observe his or her own thoughts and ideas.
d. technique of studying thought by interpreting the symbols used in communication.
ANS: C
Rationale: Introspection literally means "looking within"—observing and reporting on one's own
conscious thoughts and mental processes.
9. A participant is asked to look within himself or herself and report on his or her own mental
processes. This method is called
a. logical inference.
c. introspection.
b. reconstruction.
d. mentalistic study.
ANS: C
Rationale: This is the definition of introspection—the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and
feelings.
10. Of the following, introspection is LEAST useful for studying
a. topics that are strongly colored by emotion.
, b. mental events that are unconscious.
c. processes that involve conceptual knowledge.
d. events that take a long time to unfold.
ANS: B
Rationale: Introspection can only access conscious mental events. Unconscious processes, by definition,
cannot be observed through introspection.
11. Which of the following statements about introspection is FALSE?
a. It is the only way to observe conscious events directly.
b. It is subjective.
c. It provides strong evidence for hypothesis-testing.
d. It was a technique used historically to study cognition.
ANS: C
Rationale: Introspection provides subjective, personal reports that cannot be independently verified,
making it weak evidence for hypothesis-testing. The other statements are true.
12. Genie wonders why she can never remember the names of new acquaintances. In search of an
answer, she examines and reflects on her feelings about meeting new people. Genie is engaged in
which process?
a. practical rehearsal
c. learning history analysis
b. introspection
d. goal retrieval
ANS: B
Rationale: Genie is looking within and reflecting on her own mental processes and feelings—this is
introspection.
13. Introspection was employed as a research tool in the late 1800s because
a. it was regarded as the only way to observe the mind's contents directly.
b. it provided data from individuals without any specialized training.
c. conscious events are just as important as unconscious events.
d. it was the only method available at the time.
ANS: A
Rationale: Early psychologists like Wundt used introspection because they believed it was the only way
to directly observe the contents of the conscious mind.
SCIENCE OF THE MIND (7TH
EDITION) — COMPLETE TEST BANK
WITH ANSWERS AND RATIONALES
CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF THOUGHT
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following topics is NOT commonly studied within cognitive psychology?
a. anger management
b. decision making
c. memory
d. Attention
ANS: A
Rationale: Cognitive psychology focuses on mental processes such as decision making, memory, and
attention. Anger management is more closely associated with clinical or counseling psychology, not
cognitive psychology.
2. Cognitive processes are NOT necessary for which daily activity?
a. reading a newspaper
b. studying for a test
c. talking on the phone
d. breathing
ANS: D
Rationale: Breathing is an automatic physiological process controlled by the brainstem, requiring no
conscious cognitive processing. Reading, studying, and talking all require cognitive processes like
attention, memory, and language.
3. Alyssa wants to be a psychologist but is unsure which topic within psychology most interests her.
Which of the following topics would be LEAST likely to lead her into cognitive psychology?
a. amnesia
c. Lyme disease
b. language acquisition
d. problem-solving strategies
,ANS: C
Rationale: Lyme disease is a medical/infectious disease topic, not a cognitive psychology topic. Amnesia,
language acquisition, and problem-solving strategies are all core cognitive psychology topics.
4. Consider the sequence "Betsy wanted to bring Jacob a present. She shook her piggy bank." Most
people, after hearing this sequence, believe Betsy was checking her piggy bank to see if she had
money to spend on the gift. This inference about Betsy's goals depends on the fact that
a. our previous knowledge fills in background information whenever we're understanding an event or
conversation.
b. readers are likely to know someone named Jacob.
c. English, unlike other languages, requires speakers to mention all of the people involved in an event.
d. the individual sentences are short.
ANS: A
Rationale: Understanding this sequence requires drawing on prior knowledge (that piggy banks contain
money, that gifts cost money) to fill in information not explicitly stated. This demonstrates how memory
and knowledge influence comprehension.
5. Which of the following statements is LEAST likely to apply to patient H.M.?
a. "He cannot remember what he did earlier today, including events that took place just an hour ago."
b. "He read this story last month, but he was still surprised by how the story turned out."
c. "Even though he has encountered the nurse many times, he is still unable to recognize her."
d. "He remembered that it was only a week ago that he'd heard the sad news that his uncle had died."
ANS: D
Rationale: H.M. suffered from severe anterograde amnesia, meaning he could not form new long-term
memories after his surgery. He would not be able to remember events from a week ago, so statement D
is least likely to apply.
6. Research with H.M. provides an illustration for which major theme of the chapter?
a. Introspection is an important research tool for cognitive psychologists.
b. Cognitive psychology can help us understand a wide range of activities that depend on someone's
ability to remember.
c. Memory is not very important.
d. The disruption caused by brain damage depends on how widespread the damage is, and not on the
specific sites that are damaged.
,ANS: B
Rationale: H.M.'s case demonstrates how memory influences countless daily activities and how
cognitive psychology can illuminate the role of memory in our lives.
7. Patients suffering from clinical amnesia are characterized by
a. memory dysfunction.
c. inarticulate speech.
b. an inability to recognize patterns.
d. impaired language comprehension.
ANS: A
Rationale: Clinical amnesia is defined by memory dysfunction—the inability to form new memories or
recall past ones—while other cognitive functions may remain intact.
8. The term "introspection" refers to the
a. process by which one individual seeks to infer the thoughts of another individual.
b. procedure of examining thought processing by monitoring the brain's electrical activity.
c. process of each person looking within, to observe his or her own thoughts and ideas.
d. technique of studying thought by interpreting the symbols used in communication.
ANS: C
Rationale: Introspection literally means "looking within"—observing and reporting on one's own
conscious thoughts and mental processes.
9. A participant is asked to look within himself or herself and report on his or her own mental
processes. This method is called
a. logical inference.
c. introspection.
b. reconstruction.
d. mentalistic study.
ANS: C
Rationale: This is the definition of introspection—the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and
feelings.
10. Of the following, introspection is LEAST useful for studying
a. topics that are strongly colored by emotion.
, b. mental events that are unconscious.
c. processes that involve conceptual knowledge.
d. events that take a long time to unfold.
ANS: B
Rationale: Introspection can only access conscious mental events. Unconscious processes, by definition,
cannot be observed through introspection.
11. Which of the following statements about introspection is FALSE?
a. It is the only way to observe conscious events directly.
b. It is subjective.
c. It provides strong evidence for hypothesis-testing.
d. It was a technique used historically to study cognition.
ANS: C
Rationale: Introspection provides subjective, personal reports that cannot be independently verified,
making it weak evidence for hypothesis-testing. The other statements are true.
12. Genie wonders why she can never remember the names of new acquaintances. In search of an
answer, she examines and reflects on her feelings about meeting new people. Genie is engaged in
which process?
a. practical rehearsal
c. learning history analysis
b. introspection
d. goal retrieval
ANS: B
Rationale: Genie is looking within and reflecting on her own mental processes and feelings—this is
introspection.
13. Introspection was employed as a research tool in the late 1800s because
a. it was regarded as the only way to observe the mind's contents directly.
b. it provided data from individuals without any specialized training.
c. conscious events are just as important as unconscious events.
d. it was the only method available at the time.
ANS: A
Rationale: Early psychologists like Wundt used introspection because they believed it was the only way
to directly observe the contents of the conscious mind.
