PYC3703 May/June 2018 Exam
QUESTION 1
A cognitive psychologist is least likely to study whether
1. people can pay attention to multiple stimuli at once without losing accuracy
2. a group of people will voluntarily give money to charity
3. the reading speed of college graduates differs from that of high school graduates
QUESTION 2
Which approach emphasises logical analysis as the means to acquiring new knowledge
1. tabula rasa
2. synthesis
3. rationalism
QUESTION 3
Aristotle's empiricist approach to the investigation of the mind and reality was based on the belief that one acquires
knowledge through
1. introspection
2. experience and observation
3. spiritual insight
QUESTION 4
A psychologist lecturing on the psychology of perception makes the following statement: “In perception, pattern and
organisation are primary. These aspects often emerge directly from the relationship between discrete elements, and
they cannot be deduced from a knowledge of the individual elements alone. Indeed, at times elements can be
missing or altered yet the overall shape will be perceived directly, showing that overall form is primary.”
From the statement above we can infer that the psychologist is probably a supporter of
1. behaviourism
2. Descartes' rationalism
3. Gestalt psychology
QUESTION 5
During the 1950s, many psychologists were becoming disillusioned with behaviourism, and cognitive psychology
began to emerge A major reason why they were disappointed with behaviourism is because it
1. only examined overt behaviour and did not consider mental processes as relevant to research
2. paid too much attention to individual differences
3. focussed too much on emotional factors, and not enough on observable behaviours
QUESTION 6
Which researcher examined the impact of rehearsal on memory using himself as a subject?
1. Tolman
2. Kant
3. Ebbinghaus
QUESTION 7
The philosopher, Descartes, is known for having been a(n)
1. functionalist
2. behaviourist
3. rationalist
,QUESTION 8
Who is known for the development of the concept 'modularity of the mind'?
1. B F Skinner
2. Jerry Fodor
3. Albert Bandura
QUESTION 9
There are two radio stations, one receiving signals from the western hemisphere and one receiving signals from the
eastern hemisphere. A cable connects the two stations so that signals sent from one half of the world can be
transmitted to the other half. The cable is analogous to the brain's _____.
1. parietal lobe
2. hippocampus
3. corpus callosum
QUESTION 10
The ____ and ______ both play a role in anger
1. amygdala, hippocampus
2. septum, amygdala
3. hippocampus, septum
QUESTION 11
The primary function of the thalamus involves ______
1. the consolidation of short term memory information into long term memories
2. the survival functions, namely fighting, fleeing, feeding and mating
3. relaying incoming sensory information to the appropriate regions of the cortex
QUESTION 12
Sisiwe had a small tumour which destroyed a small portion of her hippocampus, but the tumour did not cause
damage to any other region in her brain Based on cognitive neuroscience research, we can therefore predict that
1. transfer of declarative information to her long-term memory and her spatial navigation ability will be
impaired
2. her ability to process auditory information will be impaired
3. her procedural memory and visual processing capabilities will be impaired
QUESTION 13
Susan has been diagnosed with severe depression, and her psychiatrist attributes this to a deficit in a specific
neurotransmitter system which has been shown to have an effect on mood and also sleeping and dreaming. The
neurotransmitter system that the psychiatrist identified is the ______ system
1. acetylcholine
2. GABA
3. serotonin
QUESTION 14
What does an fMRI produce?
1. A connectionist model of the brain in which the operation of the brain is captured using a parallel distributed
processing approach
2. A 2D image produced through radio-frequency waves in the magnetic field which is similar to a black and
white X-ray
3. A 3D computer generated image of the brain reflecting blood and oxygen flow produced during cerebral
activity
,QUESTION 15
Based on his study of patients suffering from aphasia, Paul Broca concluded that
1. there is no evidence of any localisation of functions in the brain
2. speech functions are typically localised in the left hemisphere of right-handed individuals
3. speech functions are localised, but this occurs randomly in the two hemispheres
QUESTION 16
Which neurotransmitter is important for regulating impulsivity and is associated with eating behaviour as well as
aggressive behaviour?
1. acetylcholine
2. GABA
3. serotonin
QUESTION 17
This particular type of metabolic imaging technique uses a radioactive form of glucose that emits positrons as it is
metabolised to look at the physiological functioning of the brain in action. It monitors increase in blood flow to
particular parts of the brain
1. Electroencephalograms (EEGs)
2. Glucose Metabolism Tomography (GMT)
3. Positron emission tomography (PET)
QUESTION 18
Complete the following sentence: Visual perception is best defined as the cognitive process ----
1. associated with creating a perfect replica of the external environment
2. of storing 'raw' sensory data in memory
3. of interpreting information about the environment received via the visual sensory system
QUESTION 19
Research in cognitive psychology indicates that the Muller-Lyer illusion can be explained
1. in terms of misapplied size constancy
2. by interpreting the figure as showing lines in depth, and the less sharp the angles are at the end of the lines
are, the less pronounced the illusion will be
3. with reference to activation in the frontal and parietal, but not the occipital cortex
QUESTION 20
Gibson's direct perception model is sometimes referred to as a(n) ______ , because of Gibson's concern with
perception as it occurs in the everyday world rather than in laboratory situations
1. anti-laboratory view
2. real-life view
3. ecological model
QUESTION 21
According to Hubei and Wiese', ____ cells receive input from neural cells projected from the thalamus and then fire
in response to lines of particular orientations and positions in the receptive field. These cells differ from one another
in that each cell responds only to a specific line orientation
1. simple
2. complex
3. subcortical
, QUESTION 22
This hypothesis suggests that there are two distinct visual pathways in the brain, one pathway is important for
identifying the object and the other for identifying the function of the object
1. Identity/Location
2. Identity/ Position
3. What/Where
QUESTION 23
______ perception is also known as intelligent perception, because it states that higher-order thinking plays an
important role in perception
1. Synthetic
2. Unconscious
3. Constructive
QUESTION 24
(a) _______ describes a partial or total loss of memory. There are two subtypes (b) ________ which refers to an
inability to recall events prior to injury, and (c) ________ which refers to an inability to (d) ________
1 (a) Amnesia (b) retrograde amnesia (c) anterograde amnesia (d) remember events before and after
injury
2 (a) Hypermnesia (b) anterograde amnesia (c) retrograde amnesia (d) remember events subsequent to
injury
3 (a) Hypermnesia (b) anterograde amnesia (c) retrograde amnesia (d) remember events prior to injury
QUESTION 25
In retrograde amnesia, the memories that return typically do so starting
1 from the more distant past and progressing up to the time of the trauma
2 with the more meaningful experiences, regardless of their chronological time
3 with the less meaningful experiences, regardless of their chronological time
QUESTION 26
During a memory experiment, the participants are first presented with the items that they have to remember and
are then asked to count backwards after the presentation of the last item, and before they have to recall them. The
counting task is designed to
1 deceive the participants about the purpose of the experiment
2 allow some decay to occur
3 prevent the participants from rehearsing
QUESTION 27
After a test, Jill identified and then learned the information that she had forgotten for the test. She noted that there
was a 'saving' in that the information was learned faster the second time. Jill has discovered the concept of ___.
1 partial-report method
2 subsequent refinement
3 relearning
QUESTION 28
Participants are asked to recall material that has been verbally presented to them. Which of the following types of
error in their recall would be indicative of acoustic confusion?
1 Errors that look like the correct response
2 Errors that have the same meaning as the correct response
QUESTION 1
A cognitive psychologist is least likely to study whether
1. people can pay attention to multiple stimuli at once without losing accuracy
2. a group of people will voluntarily give money to charity
3. the reading speed of college graduates differs from that of high school graduates
QUESTION 2
Which approach emphasises logical analysis as the means to acquiring new knowledge
1. tabula rasa
2. synthesis
3. rationalism
QUESTION 3
Aristotle's empiricist approach to the investigation of the mind and reality was based on the belief that one acquires
knowledge through
1. introspection
2. experience and observation
3. spiritual insight
QUESTION 4
A psychologist lecturing on the psychology of perception makes the following statement: “In perception, pattern and
organisation are primary. These aspects often emerge directly from the relationship between discrete elements, and
they cannot be deduced from a knowledge of the individual elements alone. Indeed, at times elements can be
missing or altered yet the overall shape will be perceived directly, showing that overall form is primary.”
From the statement above we can infer that the psychologist is probably a supporter of
1. behaviourism
2. Descartes' rationalism
3. Gestalt psychology
QUESTION 5
During the 1950s, many psychologists were becoming disillusioned with behaviourism, and cognitive psychology
began to emerge A major reason why they were disappointed with behaviourism is because it
1. only examined overt behaviour and did not consider mental processes as relevant to research
2. paid too much attention to individual differences
3. focussed too much on emotional factors, and not enough on observable behaviours
QUESTION 6
Which researcher examined the impact of rehearsal on memory using himself as a subject?
1. Tolman
2. Kant
3. Ebbinghaus
QUESTION 7
The philosopher, Descartes, is known for having been a(n)
1. functionalist
2. behaviourist
3. rationalist
,QUESTION 8
Who is known for the development of the concept 'modularity of the mind'?
1. B F Skinner
2. Jerry Fodor
3. Albert Bandura
QUESTION 9
There are two radio stations, one receiving signals from the western hemisphere and one receiving signals from the
eastern hemisphere. A cable connects the two stations so that signals sent from one half of the world can be
transmitted to the other half. The cable is analogous to the brain's _____.
1. parietal lobe
2. hippocampus
3. corpus callosum
QUESTION 10
The ____ and ______ both play a role in anger
1. amygdala, hippocampus
2. septum, amygdala
3. hippocampus, septum
QUESTION 11
The primary function of the thalamus involves ______
1. the consolidation of short term memory information into long term memories
2. the survival functions, namely fighting, fleeing, feeding and mating
3. relaying incoming sensory information to the appropriate regions of the cortex
QUESTION 12
Sisiwe had a small tumour which destroyed a small portion of her hippocampus, but the tumour did not cause
damage to any other region in her brain Based on cognitive neuroscience research, we can therefore predict that
1. transfer of declarative information to her long-term memory and her spatial navigation ability will be
impaired
2. her ability to process auditory information will be impaired
3. her procedural memory and visual processing capabilities will be impaired
QUESTION 13
Susan has been diagnosed with severe depression, and her psychiatrist attributes this to a deficit in a specific
neurotransmitter system which has been shown to have an effect on mood and also sleeping and dreaming. The
neurotransmitter system that the psychiatrist identified is the ______ system
1. acetylcholine
2. GABA
3. serotonin
QUESTION 14
What does an fMRI produce?
1. A connectionist model of the brain in which the operation of the brain is captured using a parallel distributed
processing approach
2. A 2D image produced through radio-frequency waves in the magnetic field which is similar to a black and
white X-ray
3. A 3D computer generated image of the brain reflecting blood and oxygen flow produced during cerebral
activity
,QUESTION 15
Based on his study of patients suffering from aphasia, Paul Broca concluded that
1. there is no evidence of any localisation of functions in the brain
2. speech functions are typically localised in the left hemisphere of right-handed individuals
3. speech functions are localised, but this occurs randomly in the two hemispheres
QUESTION 16
Which neurotransmitter is important for regulating impulsivity and is associated with eating behaviour as well as
aggressive behaviour?
1. acetylcholine
2. GABA
3. serotonin
QUESTION 17
This particular type of metabolic imaging technique uses a radioactive form of glucose that emits positrons as it is
metabolised to look at the physiological functioning of the brain in action. It monitors increase in blood flow to
particular parts of the brain
1. Electroencephalograms (EEGs)
2. Glucose Metabolism Tomography (GMT)
3. Positron emission tomography (PET)
QUESTION 18
Complete the following sentence: Visual perception is best defined as the cognitive process ----
1. associated with creating a perfect replica of the external environment
2. of storing 'raw' sensory data in memory
3. of interpreting information about the environment received via the visual sensory system
QUESTION 19
Research in cognitive psychology indicates that the Muller-Lyer illusion can be explained
1. in terms of misapplied size constancy
2. by interpreting the figure as showing lines in depth, and the less sharp the angles are at the end of the lines
are, the less pronounced the illusion will be
3. with reference to activation in the frontal and parietal, but not the occipital cortex
QUESTION 20
Gibson's direct perception model is sometimes referred to as a(n) ______ , because of Gibson's concern with
perception as it occurs in the everyday world rather than in laboratory situations
1. anti-laboratory view
2. real-life view
3. ecological model
QUESTION 21
According to Hubei and Wiese', ____ cells receive input from neural cells projected from the thalamus and then fire
in response to lines of particular orientations and positions in the receptive field. These cells differ from one another
in that each cell responds only to a specific line orientation
1. simple
2. complex
3. subcortical
, QUESTION 22
This hypothesis suggests that there are two distinct visual pathways in the brain, one pathway is important for
identifying the object and the other for identifying the function of the object
1. Identity/Location
2. Identity/ Position
3. What/Where
QUESTION 23
______ perception is also known as intelligent perception, because it states that higher-order thinking plays an
important role in perception
1. Synthetic
2. Unconscious
3. Constructive
QUESTION 24
(a) _______ describes a partial or total loss of memory. There are two subtypes (b) ________ which refers to an
inability to recall events prior to injury, and (c) ________ which refers to an inability to (d) ________
1 (a) Amnesia (b) retrograde amnesia (c) anterograde amnesia (d) remember events before and after
injury
2 (a) Hypermnesia (b) anterograde amnesia (c) retrograde amnesia (d) remember events subsequent to
injury
3 (a) Hypermnesia (b) anterograde amnesia (c) retrograde amnesia (d) remember events prior to injury
QUESTION 25
In retrograde amnesia, the memories that return typically do so starting
1 from the more distant past and progressing up to the time of the trauma
2 with the more meaningful experiences, regardless of their chronological time
3 with the less meaningful experiences, regardless of their chronological time
QUESTION 26
During a memory experiment, the participants are first presented with the items that they have to remember and
are then asked to count backwards after the presentation of the last item, and before they have to recall them. The
counting task is designed to
1 deceive the participants about the purpose of the experiment
2 allow some decay to occur
3 prevent the participants from rehearsing
QUESTION 27
After a test, Jill identified and then learned the information that she had forgotten for the test. She noted that there
was a 'saving' in that the information was learned faster the second time. Jill has discovered the concept of ___.
1 partial-report method
2 subsequent refinement
3 relearning
QUESTION 28
Participants are asked to recall material that has been verbally presented to them. Which of the following types of
error in their recall would be indicative of acoustic confusion?
1 Errors that look like the correct response
2 Errors that have the same meaning as the correct response
