PSYCH 3130 MIDTERM - PSYCHOLOGY OF
THINKING UWO with correct questions and
answers 2025/2026
13 design features of language by hockey 1960 - correct answers vocal/auditory channel
broadcast transmission/directional reception
rapid fading, transitorines
interchangabiltiy
total feedback
specializeation
semanticity
arbitrariness
discreteness
displacement
productivity
traditional transmission
duality of patterning
2 core assumptions of classical view - correct answers 1. necessary and sufficient features are
qualifiers for category membership
2. categorization is absolute and all members are of equal standing
,2 opposing accounts of probabilistic theory - correct answers 1. prototype theory
2. exemplar theory
2 possibilities why people categorize things - correct answers 1. humans form categories and
concepts that reflect natural structure of world
2. humans form concepts to help achieve goals
2 reasons people catgories - correct answers 1. stimulus generalization: people categorize in
part bc of natural tendency to categorize
2. efficiency: a concept is a reduction in amount of info to be retained about a whole group of
thingsz
-behavioural equivalence class
-cognitive efficiency
3. concepts are natural: world of objects and things are somewhat self categorizing
3 core assumptions of geometric model of similarity - correct answers 1. minimality
2. symmetry
3. triangle inequality
7 sins of memory - correct answers transience, absentmindedness, blocking, memory
misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence
-memory is NOT designed to remember specific facts and details
-we need our memory to be flexible and stretch the truth - that's learning
absent mindedness - correct answers a form of forgetfulness that results from inattention
,-everyday memory failures in remembering info
acetaminophen - correct answers medicine. vs poison
its classified as medicine bt with that comes assumption that it is safer than it is
categories allow people to make quick and accurate judgements but occasionally come with
cost of misclassification
alignment models - correct answers specific how and why features should count
analogy - correct answers - language an be used via analogy and metaphor to guide
understanding
- good analogy relates concepts that may have a similar deep structure even though they may
be different on the surface
- listener of analogy has to attend to deep structure to realize the similarities
- i.e. "an atom is like a solar system"
anchor standard - correct answers 100 is seen as this
things are similar to it not the other way around
anchoring - correct answers known info influences new information and hinking
ie is percent of African nations in the UN higher or lower than 10%? higher or lower than 70%?
-response is anchored
arbitrariness - correct answers signal need not refer to a physical characteristic of the redf
assessments of similarity - correct answers ratings task
forced choice task
, sorting task
assumption of minimality - correct answers - a thing must be closer/more similar to itself than it
is to any other object ie: A:A < A:B
-this is sometimes violated: study showed that if S is shown twice on screen subjects are faster
to correctly say that the 2 tokens are similar than if the twice-shown letter is W.
-the letter S is more similar to itself than the letter W is to itself
-another ex: the letter C is more similar to the letter O than W is to itself as measured by inter
letter confusions, its easier to confuse these 2
-study found letter M is more recognizes than letter H when presented quickly
-"100" is seen as an anchor standard: things are similar to it not the other way around
assumption of minimality - correct answers similarity between an object and itself is the same
for all objects
if this is true in physical space it must be true in psychological space
the similarity of an object to itself must always be nearly 0
Tversky: this may not be true as probability of judging 2 identical stimuli is not instant for all
stimuli and judgements of similarity vary
assumption of similarity - correct answers A:B, B:A - comparison order should not matter
-but in psychological space this may not always be true
-study: found North Korea is more similar to china than china is the north korea
-this shows comparison order DOES matter
-how you ask questions frames the space of similarity
assumption of symmetry - correct answers distance between 1 object and another is same as
distance between other object and first one
not true
THINKING UWO with correct questions and
answers 2025/2026
13 design features of language by hockey 1960 - correct answers vocal/auditory channel
broadcast transmission/directional reception
rapid fading, transitorines
interchangabiltiy
total feedback
specializeation
semanticity
arbitrariness
discreteness
displacement
productivity
traditional transmission
duality of patterning
2 core assumptions of classical view - correct answers 1. necessary and sufficient features are
qualifiers for category membership
2. categorization is absolute and all members are of equal standing
,2 opposing accounts of probabilistic theory - correct answers 1. prototype theory
2. exemplar theory
2 possibilities why people categorize things - correct answers 1. humans form categories and
concepts that reflect natural structure of world
2. humans form concepts to help achieve goals
2 reasons people catgories - correct answers 1. stimulus generalization: people categorize in
part bc of natural tendency to categorize
2. efficiency: a concept is a reduction in amount of info to be retained about a whole group of
thingsz
-behavioural equivalence class
-cognitive efficiency
3. concepts are natural: world of objects and things are somewhat self categorizing
3 core assumptions of geometric model of similarity - correct answers 1. minimality
2. symmetry
3. triangle inequality
7 sins of memory - correct answers transience, absentmindedness, blocking, memory
misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence
-memory is NOT designed to remember specific facts and details
-we need our memory to be flexible and stretch the truth - that's learning
absent mindedness - correct answers a form of forgetfulness that results from inattention
,-everyday memory failures in remembering info
acetaminophen - correct answers medicine. vs poison
its classified as medicine bt with that comes assumption that it is safer than it is
categories allow people to make quick and accurate judgements but occasionally come with
cost of misclassification
alignment models - correct answers specific how and why features should count
analogy - correct answers - language an be used via analogy and metaphor to guide
understanding
- good analogy relates concepts that may have a similar deep structure even though they may
be different on the surface
- listener of analogy has to attend to deep structure to realize the similarities
- i.e. "an atom is like a solar system"
anchor standard - correct answers 100 is seen as this
things are similar to it not the other way around
anchoring - correct answers known info influences new information and hinking
ie is percent of African nations in the UN higher or lower than 10%? higher or lower than 70%?
-response is anchored
arbitrariness - correct answers signal need not refer to a physical characteristic of the redf
assessments of similarity - correct answers ratings task
forced choice task
, sorting task
assumption of minimality - correct answers - a thing must be closer/more similar to itself than it
is to any other object ie: A:A < A:B
-this is sometimes violated: study showed that if S is shown twice on screen subjects are faster
to correctly say that the 2 tokens are similar than if the twice-shown letter is W.
-the letter S is more similar to itself than the letter W is to itself
-another ex: the letter C is more similar to the letter O than W is to itself as measured by inter
letter confusions, its easier to confuse these 2
-study found letter M is more recognizes than letter H when presented quickly
-"100" is seen as an anchor standard: things are similar to it not the other way around
assumption of minimality - correct answers similarity between an object and itself is the same
for all objects
if this is true in physical space it must be true in psychological space
the similarity of an object to itself must always be nearly 0
Tversky: this may not be true as probability of judging 2 identical stimuli is not instant for all
stimuli and judgements of similarity vary
assumption of similarity - correct answers A:B, B:A - comparison order should not matter
-but in psychological space this may not always be true
-study: found North Korea is more similar to china than china is the north korea
-this shows comparison order DOES matter
-how you ask questions frames the space of similarity
assumption of symmetry - correct answers distance between 1 object and another is same as
distance between other object and first one
not true
