Mock Exam: Thinking and Remembering (Cognitive
Psychology)
1. The difference between inattentional blindness and change blindness is:
a) Inattentional blindness happens when we fail to see objects even though we
know that they should appear, while change blindness is when the stimulus
changes when you look the other way and when you look back you don’t
notice the change.
b) These terms are used interchangeably since they both represent the
phenomenon when people don’t notice things that change in their eyes.
c) Inattentional blindness is about the failure to notice unexpected objects/
events when the attention is focused elsewhere, while change blindness is
when the stimulus starts changing in your eyes but you don’t see it.
Example of the answer with explanation: C: Concepts are related but don’t mean the same.
As an example Inattentional Blindness happened when participants could not notice the
gorilla coming to the basketball field because they were focused on counting the players (the
task of the experiment), for change blindness - they did not notice the curtains closing while
looking at the scene.
2. What were the findings of the experiment using a dichotic listening task?
a) Participants had to listen through headphones when 2 different audio streams were
playing in each ear, they were asked to focus on both of them and recall later what
they heard, the result - they heard one better than the other, and only heard the
second when the language was switched.
, b) Dichotic listening task: A task in which different audio streams are presented to each
ear. Typically people are asked to listen to one ear and then tested if they heard
anything on another ear. Result: participants did not notice what the speaker in the
ear they didn’t focus on said. Not even if they switch their language.
c) 35% of the participants were able to hear both streams equally while the rest only
could recall the stream they focused on.
3. Which of the theories of selective attention is described here: “The model involves later
filtering mechanism: Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens the strength
of stimuli other than the target stimulus. So when the stimuli reach us, we analyze them at a
low level for target properties like loudness and pitch.”
a) Broadbent model
b) Treisman Attenuation model
c) Selective filter model by Moray
4. In the experiment on attentional blink, participants where asked to recall two
numbers in a sequence of letters (T1 and T2). Researchers wanted to find out under
which conditions participants recall the T2 better. Under which condition was T2
recalled the best?
a) Under Standard Group conditions: participants were asked to focus and try to
remember the numbers.
b) Under listening to music condition while they were doing the task.
c) Under reward condition: when they were paid based on their performance
5. What is ‘retroactive interference’?
a) When we have trouble learning new information based on before stored
information. This is caused by the primacy effect.
b) When the later items will interfere with your ability to properly process the first few
items. It is caused by the recency effect
Psychology)
1. The difference between inattentional blindness and change blindness is:
a) Inattentional blindness happens when we fail to see objects even though we
know that they should appear, while change blindness is when the stimulus
changes when you look the other way and when you look back you don’t
notice the change.
b) These terms are used interchangeably since they both represent the
phenomenon when people don’t notice things that change in their eyes.
c) Inattentional blindness is about the failure to notice unexpected objects/
events when the attention is focused elsewhere, while change blindness is
when the stimulus starts changing in your eyes but you don’t see it.
Example of the answer with explanation: C: Concepts are related but don’t mean the same.
As an example Inattentional Blindness happened when participants could not notice the
gorilla coming to the basketball field because they were focused on counting the players (the
task of the experiment), for change blindness - they did not notice the curtains closing while
looking at the scene.
2. What were the findings of the experiment using a dichotic listening task?
a) Participants had to listen through headphones when 2 different audio streams were
playing in each ear, they were asked to focus on both of them and recall later what
they heard, the result - they heard one better than the other, and only heard the
second when the language was switched.
, b) Dichotic listening task: A task in which different audio streams are presented to each
ear. Typically people are asked to listen to one ear and then tested if they heard
anything on another ear. Result: participants did not notice what the speaker in the
ear they didn’t focus on said. Not even if they switch their language.
c) 35% of the participants were able to hear both streams equally while the rest only
could recall the stream they focused on.
3. Which of the theories of selective attention is described here: “The model involves later
filtering mechanism: Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens the strength
of stimuli other than the target stimulus. So when the stimuli reach us, we analyze them at a
low level for target properties like loudness and pitch.”
a) Broadbent model
b) Treisman Attenuation model
c) Selective filter model by Moray
4. In the experiment on attentional blink, participants where asked to recall two
numbers in a sequence of letters (T1 and T2). Researchers wanted to find out under
which conditions participants recall the T2 better. Under which condition was T2
recalled the best?
a) Under Standard Group conditions: participants were asked to focus and try to
remember the numbers.
b) Under listening to music condition while they were doing the task.
c) Under reward condition: when they were paid based on their performance
5. What is ‘retroactive interference’?
a) When we have trouble learning new information based on before stored
information. This is caused by the primacy effect.
b) When the later items will interfere with your ability to properly process the first few
items. It is caused by the recency effect
