PSY 357 Midterm #1 Practice Questions with
Complete Solutions
Cognitive psychology is primarily concerned with which of the following?
what we know, what we remember, and how we think
Psychologist Edward Titchener claimed to have identified and catalogued nearly 10,000
sensations that he observed within himself. What method best describes his approach?
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:
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?
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:
a learned behavior in response to specific environmental triggers
Which of the following behaviors is most difficult to explain from a behaviorist
perspective?
your response to a stimulus is dependent on how you interpret that stimulus
,Which of the following is the LEAST accurate statement about behaviorism?
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 ___________.
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?
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?
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?
(?) 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:
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?
its methods and tools spread to many other areas of psychology
Tolman's work with rats in mazes:
showed that learning involves the acquisition of knowledge
Who wrote a strong critique of behaviorism in the 1950s?
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:
the meaning of an utterance, not the physical stimulus, is most important for predicting behavior
Gestalt psychologists argued which of the following?
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?
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 ______________.
computer science; attention
How do cognitive psychologists use speed to assess behavior?
they measure small differences in response times to gain insight into the mental processing that
is necessary for those responses
, H.M. was an important case from the field of:
clinical neuropsychology
If a patient were to suffer amnesia similar to the amnesia suffered by H.M., which of the
following would pose a particular problem?
remembering his or her divorce, which occurred after brain surgery
Researchers in cognitive psychology rely on all of the following forms of data EXCEPT:
anecdotes and testimonials
Cognitive psychology uses which of the following?
a diverse set of methodologies for collecting data
When reading a story about a child shaking a piggy bank because he or she wants to buy
something, we understand the reasons for this action because:
we provide additional background knowledge base on our own experience
Which of the following tasks has NOT been connected with the amygdala?
discriminating between internal and external events
A central problem in Capgras syndrome seems to be difficulty with:
the emotional analysis of faces
An individual suffering from Capgras syndrome would most likely show an inability to:
detect the familiarity of an often-viewed face
Lobes of the brain
Complete Solutions
Cognitive psychology is primarily concerned with which of the following?
what we know, what we remember, and how we think
Psychologist Edward Titchener claimed to have identified and catalogued nearly 10,000
sensations that he observed within himself. What method best describes his approach?
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:
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?
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:
a learned behavior in response to specific environmental triggers
Which of the following behaviors is most difficult to explain from a behaviorist
perspective?
your response to a stimulus is dependent on how you interpret that stimulus
,Which of the following is the LEAST accurate statement about behaviorism?
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 ___________.
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?
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?
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?
(?) 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:
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?
its methods and tools spread to many other areas of psychology
Tolman's work with rats in mazes:
showed that learning involves the acquisition of knowledge
Who wrote a strong critique of behaviorism in the 1950s?
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:
the meaning of an utterance, not the physical stimulus, is most important for predicting behavior
Gestalt psychologists argued which of the following?
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?
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 ______________.
computer science; attention
How do cognitive psychologists use speed to assess behavior?
they measure small differences in response times to gain insight into the mental processing that
is necessary for those responses
, H.M. was an important case from the field of:
clinical neuropsychology
If a patient were to suffer amnesia similar to the amnesia suffered by H.M., which of the
following would pose a particular problem?
remembering his or her divorce, which occurred after brain surgery
Researchers in cognitive psychology rely on all of the following forms of data EXCEPT:
anecdotes and testimonials
Cognitive psychology uses which of the following?
a diverse set of methodologies for collecting data
When reading a story about a child shaking a piggy bank because he or she wants to buy
something, we understand the reasons for this action because:
we provide additional background knowledge base on our own experience
Which of the following tasks has NOT been connected with the amygdala?
discriminating between internal and external events
A central problem in Capgras syndrome seems to be difficulty with:
the emotional analysis of faces
An individual suffering from Capgras syndrome would most likely show an inability to:
detect the familiarity of an often-viewed face
Lobes of the brain
