PSY 357 GCU COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
STUDY GUIDE
●● Psychologist Edward Titchener claimed to have identified and
catalogued nearly 10,000 sensations that he observed within himself.
What method best describes his approach?
Answer: Introspection
●● A researcher says she is of the same school of thought as scholars
Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. You can gather from this
statement that she feels that the best way to study thoughts is to:
Answer: have only highly trained and qualified people introspect about
their own thoughts
●● Which of the following was NOT one of the problems associated
with introspection as a research technique?
Answer: how people react to a stimulus is heavily influenced by past
experience
●● A psychologist who adheres to the behaviorist school of thought
would most likely attribute someone reaching for a slice of pie to:
Answer: a learned behavior in response to specific environmental
triggers
,●● Which of the following behaviors is most difficult to explain from a
behaviorist perspective?
Answer: your response to a stimulus is dependent on how you interpret
that stimulus
●● Which of the following is the LEAST accurate statement about
behaviorism?
Answer: behaviorism is primarily designed to explained why organisms
believe their behavior is justified or reasonable
●● Modern psychologists follow Kant in arguing that the solution to the
impasse between introspectionism and behaviorism lies in a method in
which we begin with _________ and then proceed to ___________.
Answer: observable facts; likely internal causes
●● What is the most precise explanation for why many aspects of
psychology (and most of cognitive psych) rely on inferential methods?
Answer: psychology often demands hypotheses about process that can't
be observed directly in order to explain the capacities and the behaviors
that we can observe
●● Which of the following is a way in which cognitive psych is different
from physics?
,Answer: psychologists must take into account the way in which
participants interpret their study
●● Which of the following concerns is NOT addressed by adopting a
cognitive approach to the study of psychology?
Answer: (?) many mental processes unfold so rapidly that it is difficult
to observe them
●● Martin is trying to understand why he has been forgetting things
lately. As a well-trained cognitive psychologist, Martin is likely to
investigate this puzzle by:
Answer: examining the circumstances associated with his memory
failures, including the complexity or familiarity of the material and how
fully he paid attention to the material during learning
●● Which of the following claims about the cognitive revolution is true?
Answer: its methods and tools spread to many other areas of psychology
●● Tolman's work with rats in mazes:
Answer: showed that learning involves the acquisition of knowledge
●● Who wrote a strong critique of behaviorism in the 1950s?
Answer: Noam Chomsky
, ●● The statements "please pass the salt" and "gee, this food really needs
some salt" are both likely to produce the same salt-passing response at
the dinner table. This illustrates that:
Answer: the meaning of an utterance, not the physical stimulus, is most
important for predicting behavior
●● Gestalt psychologists argued which of the following?
Answer: the perceiver is of central importance in organizing his or her
own experience
●● Bartlett contributed which of the following to the field of cognitive
psychology?
Answer: the idea of a "schema," which is a perception and mental
framework
●● Broadbent used the language of ____________ to describe important
aspects of human cognition, including how we direct our
______________.
Answer: computer science; attention
●● How do cognitive psychologists use speed to assess behavior?
Answer: they measure small differences in response times to gain insight
into the mental processing that is necessary for those responses
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
STUDY GUIDE
●● Psychologist Edward Titchener claimed to have identified and
catalogued nearly 10,000 sensations that he observed within himself.
What method best describes his approach?
Answer: Introspection
●● A researcher says she is of the same school of thought as scholars
Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener. You can gather from this
statement that she feels that the best way to study thoughts is to:
Answer: have only highly trained and qualified people introspect about
their own thoughts
●● Which of the following was NOT one of the problems associated
with introspection as a research technique?
Answer: how people react to a stimulus is heavily influenced by past
experience
●● A psychologist who adheres to the behaviorist school of thought
would most likely attribute someone reaching for a slice of pie to:
Answer: a learned behavior in response to specific environmental
triggers
,●● Which of the following behaviors is most difficult to explain from a
behaviorist perspective?
Answer: your response to a stimulus is dependent on how you interpret
that stimulus
●● Which of the following is the LEAST accurate statement about
behaviorism?
Answer: behaviorism is primarily designed to explained why organisms
believe their behavior is justified or reasonable
●● Modern psychologists follow Kant in arguing that the solution to the
impasse between introspectionism and behaviorism lies in a method in
which we begin with _________ and then proceed to ___________.
Answer: observable facts; likely internal causes
●● What is the most precise explanation for why many aspects of
psychology (and most of cognitive psych) rely on inferential methods?
Answer: psychology often demands hypotheses about process that can't
be observed directly in order to explain the capacities and the behaviors
that we can observe
●● Which of the following is a way in which cognitive psych is different
from physics?
,Answer: psychologists must take into account the way in which
participants interpret their study
●● Which of the following concerns is NOT addressed by adopting a
cognitive approach to the study of psychology?
Answer: (?) many mental processes unfold so rapidly that it is difficult
to observe them
●● Martin is trying to understand why he has been forgetting things
lately. As a well-trained cognitive psychologist, Martin is likely to
investigate this puzzle by:
Answer: examining the circumstances associated with his memory
failures, including the complexity or familiarity of the material and how
fully he paid attention to the material during learning
●● Which of the following claims about the cognitive revolution is true?
Answer: its methods and tools spread to many other areas of psychology
●● Tolman's work with rats in mazes:
Answer: showed that learning involves the acquisition of knowledge
●● Who wrote a strong critique of behaviorism in the 1950s?
Answer: Noam Chomsky
, ●● The statements "please pass the salt" and "gee, this food really needs
some salt" are both likely to produce the same salt-passing response at
the dinner table. This illustrates that:
Answer: the meaning of an utterance, not the physical stimulus, is most
important for predicting behavior
●● Gestalt psychologists argued which of the following?
Answer: the perceiver is of central importance in organizing his or her
own experience
●● Bartlett contributed which of the following to the field of cognitive
psychology?
Answer: the idea of a "schema," which is a perception and mental
framework
●● Broadbent used the language of ____________ to describe important
aspects of human cognition, including how we direct our
______________.
Answer: computer science; attention
●● How do cognitive psychologists use speed to assess behavior?
Answer: they measure small differences in response times to gain insight
into the mental processing that is necessary for those responses
