This PSYCH 375 Cognition Exam 1 2026/2027 study guide contains 100+ detailed questions and answers across 23 pages for students studying cognition at Brigham Young University (BYU). The document begins with the historical foundations of cognitive psychology, including Donders' reaction-time experiment, Wundt's analytic introspection, Ebbinghaus' memory and savings experiments, William James, Watson's behaviorism, Tolman's cognitive maps, Chomsky, Lashley, Miller's “Magic Number Seven,” Neisser and the information-processing approach. These sections connect early experimental methods with modern behavioral and physiological approaches to studying cognition.
A substantial portion covers cognitive neuroscience and neural representation. Students review cognitive neuroscience, neural networks, the default mode network, spatial and temporal resolution, invasive methods, brain lesions, dissociations and double dissociations, single-cell recording, EEG, TMS, PET, fMRI and the subtraction technique. The guide also examines the neuron doctrine, dendrites, axons, synapses, neurotransmitters, resting and action potentials, feature detectors, experience-dependent plasticity and sensory coding, including specificity, population and sparse coding.
The document provides extensive exam preparation on localization of function and brain connectivity. Topics include Broca's and Wernicke's areas, the occipital, temporal, parietal and frontal lobes, the fusiform face area, parahippocampal place area and extrastriate body area, along with structural versus functional connectivity and the dynamic operation of brain networks. The material repeatedly links cognitive functions to both localized brain regions and interacting neural networks.
Another major section focuses on sensation and perception, particularly the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing. Questions cover Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference, the likelihood principle, speech segmentation, transitional probabilities, statistical learning, the inverse projection problem, Gestalt principles, the oblique effect, light-from-above assumption, semantic regularities, scene schemas and Bayesian inference. Object recognition is reviewed through edges, concavity and convexity, geons and relationships among object parts. The guide also covers Navon's global-versus-local feature experiment.
The visual-processing material includes the ventral “what” and dorsal “where/action” pathways, Ungerleider and Mishkin's brain-ablation research, Milner and Goodale's research involving patient D.F., and mirror neurons. These questions examine how perception, object identification, spatial location and action interact when people recognize and manipulate objects in their environment.
The final portion provides detailed coverage of attention and attentional control. Students review selective attention, distraction, divided attention, attentional capture, overt and covert attention, stimulus salience, mind wandering and the dorsal, ventral and executive attention networks. Classic attention theories and experiments include Cherry's dichotic listening task, shadowing, Broadbent's Filter Model, Treisman's Attenuator Model, MacKay's Late Selection Theory, Lavie's Load Theory and the Stroop Effect. The concluding questions address inattentional blindness, change blindness, binding and Feature Integration Theory, making the document especially useful for reviewing both terminology and research-based exam questions.
Relevant students: Brigham Young University PSYCH 375 students, BYU Cognition students, cognitive psychology students, psychology majors, neuroscience students, behavioral-science students, and learners preparing for an Exam 1 covering cognitive psychology history, cognitive neuroscience, perception, neural representation and attention.
Relevant academic reference:
Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience (5th ed.). Cengage. This established cognitive psychology textbook covers closely related academic areas such as the history of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, perception, attention, memory and higher cognitive processes. The reference is provided as supporting academic context; the specific questions and answers advertised above are derived from the uploaded PSYCH 375 document.
Keywords:
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Cognition (Psych 375) Exam 1
BYU 2026/2027 Exam
Questions and Answers |
Already Graded A+
Describe Donders's reaction time experiment and results - ANSWER
✔✔Donders wanted to know how long it took someone to make a
decision. He did this by asking a patient to click one button repeatedly
after they see a light (simple reaction time) and clicking the left button
when they see the light on the left & vice versa (choice reaction time).
The results seem to say that it takes 1/10 of a second to react
,Who founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology? Describe the
method of analytic introspection that was used in this laboratory -
ANSWER ✔✔William Wundt founded the first lab of scientific
psychology. Analytic introspection was asking people to describe the
things that they felt during a stress event; he trained people to describe
their thoughts and experiences while responding to stimuli in terms of
basic mental elements
Describe Ebbinghaus's memory experiments and results - ANSWER
✔✔Ebbinghaus was interested in memory so he tested something he
liked to call "savings." He tested this by using the equation he created
(original time to learn list-time to learn after the delay [a preset, given
amount of time]=savings). He found that less savings meant less
information was retained. He found that the ability to remember what
was learned drops rapidly for the first two days and then levels off after
that
What method did William James use to study the mind? - ANSWER
✔✔Himself. He observed his own mind and made conclusions based on
what he observed about himself
What kind of psychologist was watson? - ANSWER ✔✔behaviorist
, Why did Watson disprove of introspection? - ANSWER ✔✔problems
with studying consciousness, inconsistencies
What was Tolman's contribution to cognitive psych? - ANSWER
✔✔rate in the maze study; evidence for cognitive maps
What was Chomsky's contribution to cognitive psych? - ANSWER
✔✔children can produce novel statements & use rules of language in the
wrong way
What was Lashley's contribution to cognitive psych? - ANSWER
✔✔speech erorrs imply planning sentences out in whole, not
sequentially
What is the Information Processing Approach to Cognition, analogy
between computers and themind - ANSWER ✔✔If computers can
behave in limited ways like humans (e.g., Newell & Simon: Artificial
Intelligence), does the human mind work like the structure and
processes of the computer (e.g., Broadbent: Flow Diagrams and
Models)?
What was Miller's contribution to cognitive psych? - ANSWER
✔✔Magic Number Seven (+/- 2)
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