NYU Comprehensive Exam Questions
with Complete Solutions21
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm - ANSWERS-Participant given a word list with a
central concept and then asked to recall the words. Common for people to recall the concept
when it was not listed. Evidence of false memory; more likely to remember the lure word when
in a happy vs. sad state (Reis & Gray, 2009). e.g. recalling "sleep" when the list reads bed, pillow,
rest.
Affective states and reasoning - ANSWERS-People perform worse (less logical) on drawing
inferences from syllogistic phrases when they are emotionally charged vs. when neutral (Reis &
Gray, 2009)
Primacy of affect - ANSWERS-Giving people Valium without them knowing causes changes in
mood but not cognition BUT some aspects of their mood are affected by cognition (Zajonc,
1984); "low route" in animal studies, sensory info (light) reaches the amygdala before reaching
the visual cortex (LeDoux, 1996)
Prototype Theory - ANSWERS-A prototype is the average member of a group and represents the
group best. Strength: supported by research: people are faster to answer "yes" to "is a robin a
bird" than "is a penguin a bird" (Rosch, 1975). Weakness: compositionality: combining
prototypes (pet + fish) does not result in prototypical members (Fodor, 1996)
Decomposition Model - ANSWERS-Group membership is based on having necessary and
sufficient features. Strength: clearly defined categories. Weakness: not all categories can be
defined like this, like games (Wittgenstein, 1953)
Exemplar Theory - ANSWERS-We store instances of a category in our memory as exemplars and
determine if new encounters are members by comparing to the stored examples. Strength:
supported by research: people were able to be trained on and assign geometric shapes to
,categories in this way (Medin & Schaffer, 1978). Weakness: cognitive economy: unlikely that we
remember every encounter of everything
Exemplar-based models vs. Theory-based models - ANSWERS-Exemplar-based: focus on surface-
level features. Theory-based: focus on the deeper ways that we conceptualize things
Theory-based Theories - ANSWERS-Essential effects: group membership is based on having the
"essence" of the group. Can paint a lemon red, inject with sugar, and flatten, but it is still a
lemon. Theory-theories work better for natural kinds: raccoon cannot be made into a skunk but
a ring can be made into a necklace (Keil, 2003)
Cognitive biases/illusions/fallacies - ANSWERS-Conjunction fallacy, hindsight bias, confirmation
bias
Conjunction Fallacy - ANSWERS-Estimating that the probability of two events co-occurring is
more likely than the probability of one of them. Linda was a philosophy student interested in
social justice and protests; many people think she is more likely to be a feminist and a bank
teller than just a feminist or just a bank teller (Tversky & Kahneman, 1983)
Hindsight Bias - ANSWERS-People incorrectly remember their expectations of an event after it
has occurred (they "knew it all along"). Participants were asked to predict the behavior of stocks
over the next week. A week later, the group that was not reminded of their predictions thought
their predictions were much closer to reality then the group that was reminded of their
predictions (Biais & Weber, 2009)
Confirmation Bias - ANSWERS-Emphasizing information that is more in line with one's ideas and
de-emphasizing information that is not. People shown adult-child pairs and led to believe they
are related will find ways they resemble and rate them as having high facial similarity even if
they are not related (Bressan & Del Martello, 2002).
Emotional state and judgments - ANSWERS-Parole judges granted more people parole at the
beginning of the day and right after a snack or lunch break when they could improve their
, moods through mental rest and increased glucose levels (Danziger et al., 2011). In a lottery task,
fear-induced people take fewer risks than anger-induced people (Kugler, 2010)
Working memory - ANSWERS-Limited capacity system that stores information in the very short
term. Three elements: central executive (core), phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
(slave systems) (Baddeley, 2003)
Phonological loop - ANSWERS-Slave system of working memory; stores verbal content,
phonological store holds memory traces for seconds and articulatory rehearsal prevents decay.
Evidence: longer lists of words are subject to more decay, longer words (word-length effect) and
similar-sounding items (phonological similarity effect) are harder to remember. Switching from
WM to STM then LTM makes sound less important and meaning more important (Baddeley,
2003).
Visuospatial sketchpad - ANSWERS-Slave system of working memory; stores visual and spatial
content; limited capacity: 3-4 seconds, features of the same dimension compete for capacity
(i.e. visual interferes with visual, and spatial interferes with spatial). Evidence: Corsi task
measures spatial span and is disrupted by spatial info but not visual; pattern span task measures
visual span and is disrupted by visual info but not spatial (Baddeley, 2003)
Central executive - ANSWERS-Core system of WM; directs and integrates info between
phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad; inhibits attention from irrelevant info and
towards relevant info; coordinates WM with STM and LTM
False memory evidence - ANSWERS-Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm: given a list of
words (bed, pillow, rest) with an unnamed concept (sleep) and instructed to recall/recognize the
words from the list. Common for people to falsely remember the concept despite not having
been exposed to it (Sugrue & Hayne, 2006)
Source misattribution - ANSWERS-Related to false memories. Misidentifying the origin of a
memory; participants were shown 10 men ("criminals"), a week later shown a photo array
(some "criminals", some foils, some men to be seen a week later), a week later shown a lineup
with Complete Solutions21
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm - ANSWERS-Participant given a word list with a
central concept and then asked to recall the words. Common for people to recall the concept
when it was not listed. Evidence of false memory; more likely to remember the lure word when
in a happy vs. sad state (Reis & Gray, 2009). e.g. recalling "sleep" when the list reads bed, pillow,
rest.
Affective states and reasoning - ANSWERS-People perform worse (less logical) on drawing
inferences from syllogistic phrases when they are emotionally charged vs. when neutral (Reis &
Gray, 2009)
Primacy of affect - ANSWERS-Giving people Valium without them knowing causes changes in
mood but not cognition BUT some aspects of their mood are affected by cognition (Zajonc,
1984); "low route" in animal studies, sensory info (light) reaches the amygdala before reaching
the visual cortex (LeDoux, 1996)
Prototype Theory - ANSWERS-A prototype is the average member of a group and represents the
group best. Strength: supported by research: people are faster to answer "yes" to "is a robin a
bird" than "is a penguin a bird" (Rosch, 1975). Weakness: compositionality: combining
prototypes (pet + fish) does not result in prototypical members (Fodor, 1996)
Decomposition Model - ANSWERS-Group membership is based on having necessary and
sufficient features. Strength: clearly defined categories. Weakness: not all categories can be
defined like this, like games (Wittgenstein, 1953)
Exemplar Theory - ANSWERS-We store instances of a category in our memory as exemplars and
determine if new encounters are members by comparing to the stored examples. Strength:
supported by research: people were able to be trained on and assign geometric shapes to
,categories in this way (Medin & Schaffer, 1978). Weakness: cognitive economy: unlikely that we
remember every encounter of everything
Exemplar-based models vs. Theory-based models - ANSWERS-Exemplar-based: focus on surface-
level features. Theory-based: focus on the deeper ways that we conceptualize things
Theory-based Theories - ANSWERS-Essential effects: group membership is based on having the
"essence" of the group. Can paint a lemon red, inject with sugar, and flatten, but it is still a
lemon. Theory-theories work better for natural kinds: raccoon cannot be made into a skunk but
a ring can be made into a necklace (Keil, 2003)
Cognitive biases/illusions/fallacies - ANSWERS-Conjunction fallacy, hindsight bias, confirmation
bias
Conjunction Fallacy - ANSWERS-Estimating that the probability of two events co-occurring is
more likely than the probability of one of them. Linda was a philosophy student interested in
social justice and protests; many people think she is more likely to be a feminist and a bank
teller than just a feminist or just a bank teller (Tversky & Kahneman, 1983)
Hindsight Bias - ANSWERS-People incorrectly remember their expectations of an event after it
has occurred (they "knew it all along"). Participants were asked to predict the behavior of stocks
over the next week. A week later, the group that was not reminded of their predictions thought
their predictions were much closer to reality then the group that was reminded of their
predictions (Biais & Weber, 2009)
Confirmation Bias - ANSWERS-Emphasizing information that is more in line with one's ideas and
de-emphasizing information that is not. People shown adult-child pairs and led to believe they
are related will find ways they resemble and rate them as having high facial similarity even if
they are not related (Bressan & Del Martello, 2002).
Emotional state and judgments - ANSWERS-Parole judges granted more people parole at the
beginning of the day and right after a snack or lunch break when they could improve their
, moods through mental rest and increased glucose levels (Danziger et al., 2011). In a lottery task,
fear-induced people take fewer risks than anger-induced people (Kugler, 2010)
Working memory - ANSWERS-Limited capacity system that stores information in the very short
term. Three elements: central executive (core), phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
(slave systems) (Baddeley, 2003)
Phonological loop - ANSWERS-Slave system of working memory; stores verbal content,
phonological store holds memory traces for seconds and articulatory rehearsal prevents decay.
Evidence: longer lists of words are subject to more decay, longer words (word-length effect) and
similar-sounding items (phonological similarity effect) are harder to remember. Switching from
WM to STM then LTM makes sound less important and meaning more important (Baddeley,
2003).
Visuospatial sketchpad - ANSWERS-Slave system of working memory; stores visual and spatial
content; limited capacity: 3-4 seconds, features of the same dimension compete for capacity
(i.e. visual interferes with visual, and spatial interferes with spatial). Evidence: Corsi task
measures spatial span and is disrupted by spatial info but not visual; pattern span task measures
visual span and is disrupted by visual info but not spatial (Baddeley, 2003)
Central executive - ANSWERS-Core system of WM; directs and integrates info between
phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad; inhibits attention from irrelevant info and
towards relevant info; coordinates WM with STM and LTM
False memory evidence - ANSWERS-Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm: given a list of
words (bed, pillow, rest) with an unnamed concept (sleep) and instructed to recall/recognize the
words from the list. Common for people to falsely remember the concept despite not having
been exposed to it (Sugrue & Hayne, 2006)
Source misattribution - ANSWERS-Related to false memories. Misidentifying the origin of a
memory; participants were shown 10 men ("criminals"), a week later shown a photo array
(some "criminals", some foils, some men to be seen a week later), a week later shown a lineup
