PSYC 355- Cognition Final Exam
Questions and Answers SOLVED 2026
How is Dichotic Listening studied?
Answer: by asking people to wear earphones; one message is
presented to the left ear, and a different message is presented to
the right ear.
Summarize Kosslyn's classic research on distances in
mental images and scanning times. Summarize Paivio's
research using mental clocks and the angles formed by the
two clock hands. Do these findings support the analog
position or the propositional position?
Answer: Kosslyn
-seems like ppl use analog code for simple figures, and
propositional for more complex
-since storage for visual imagery is limited, its maybe easier to
store verbal descriptions of complex figures
-observers can locate similar, unanticipated shapes in their
mental images
research showed that ppl take a long time to scan between two
,widely separated points on a mental image of a map that they had
created, and quickly scanned btwn two close by points
-linear relationship between point distance and time to scan
Paivio did the same type of research, but with hands of a clock
and how the distance btwn the 2 hands affects the ability to scan
btwn them
-participants also did standardized testing on their visual imagery
ability... high imagery ppl performed better on clock task
-this supports analog, not propositional
shape of objects mentally are similar to physical shapes
Summarize the gender differences in spatial ability. What is a
meta-analysis?
Answer: most gender differences in cognitive abilities are small
meta-analysis: statistical method for combining numerous studies
on a single topic. Researchers begin by locating all appropriate
studies on a topic such as gender comparisons in verbal ability.
Then they perform a meta-analysis that combines the results of all
these studies.
meta-analyses of cognitive abilities by gender
-no significant diff in math or verbal ability
-small diff in spatial ability
,spatial ability has many moving parts
1. spatial visualization (small gender Diff here)
2. spatial perception (moderate diff)
3. mental rotation (mod-large diff)
mental rotation is the only cognitive skill where men are more
likely to perform better than women but some studies also say
theres no diff
-diff may be due to boys experience w toys and sports
-this one area of cognitive gender differences can be reduced by
providing girls with experience and training in spatial activities
Summarize the research findings on whether visual images
interfere with visual perception and what this finding means.
Do these findings support the analog position or the
propositional position? What are demand characteristics,
and how were they ruled out as an explanation of findings?
Answer:-mental image can interfere w physical one
visual imagery can interfere w visual perception
ex. you can't picture a grilled cheese at the same time as you
read the textbook
study
-told ppl to picture a tree and then put a blue arrow in front of
them to see if they would detect its physical presence
, -when making a mental image the participants had trouble picking
up the physical one
-when told to come up with a sound in their head they had no
trouble spotting the arrow
study
-told participants to create a visual image of a set of narrow
parallel lines. Next, they were instructed to rotate their mental
image of this set of lines, so that the lines were in a diagonal
orientation. Meanwhile, the researchers presented a physical
stimulus, a small segment of a line. The participants were told to
judge whether this line segment had an exactly vertical
orientation. The results showed that the imagined set of lines and
the real set of lines produced similar distortions in the participants'
judgments about the orientation of that line segment
-research in visual perception shows that ppl see a stim better if
its surrounded by vertical lines around it and for some reason the
same thing works for mental imagery... ("masking effect")
-demand characteristics: all the cues that might give away the
experimenter's hypothesis to the participants
-demand characteristics cannot account for the masking effect
with mental images bc you wouldn't expect it to be a thing
-people have especially good acuity for mental images that are
Questions and Answers SOLVED 2026
How is Dichotic Listening studied?
Answer: by asking people to wear earphones; one message is
presented to the left ear, and a different message is presented to
the right ear.
Summarize Kosslyn's classic research on distances in
mental images and scanning times. Summarize Paivio's
research using mental clocks and the angles formed by the
two clock hands. Do these findings support the analog
position or the propositional position?
Answer: Kosslyn
-seems like ppl use analog code for simple figures, and
propositional for more complex
-since storage for visual imagery is limited, its maybe easier to
store verbal descriptions of complex figures
-observers can locate similar, unanticipated shapes in their
mental images
research showed that ppl take a long time to scan between two
,widely separated points on a mental image of a map that they had
created, and quickly scanned btwn two close by points
-linear relationship between point distance and time to scan
Paivio did the same type of research, but with hands of a clock
and how the distance btwn the 2 hands affects the ability to scan
btwn them
-participants also did standardized testing on their visual imagery
ability... high imagery ppl performed better on clock task
-this supports analog, not propositional
shape of objects mentally are similar to physical shapes
Summarize the gender differences in spatial ability. What is a
meta-analysis?
Answer: most gender differences in cognitive abilities are small
meta-analysis: statistical method for combining numerous studies
on a single topic. Researchers begin by locating all appropriate
studies on a topic such as gender comparisons in verbal ability.
Then they perform a meta-analysis that combines the results of all
these studies.
meta-analyses of cognitive abilities by gender
-no significant diff in math or verbal ability
-small diff in spatial ability
,spatial ability has many moving parts
1. spatial visualization (small gender Diff here)
2. spatial perception (moderate diff)
3. mental rotation (mod-large diff)
mental rotation is the only cognitive skill where men are more
likely to perform better than women but some studies also say
theres no diff
-diff may be due to boys experience w toys and sports
-this one area of cognitive gender differences can be reduced by
providing girls with experience and training in spatial activities
Summarize the research findings on whether visual images
interfere with visual perception and what this finding means.
Do these findings support the analog position or the
propositional position? What are demand characteristics,
and how were they ruled out as an explanation of findings?
Answer:-mental image can interfere w physical one
visual imagery can interfere w visual perception
ex. you can't picture a grilled cheese at the same time as you
read the textbook
study
-told ppl to picture a tree and then put a blue arrow in front of
them to see if they would detect its physical presence
, -when making a mental image the participants had trouble picking
up the physical one
-when told to come up with a sound in their head they had no
trouble spotting the arrow
study
-told participants to create a visual image of a set of narrow
parallel lines. Next, they were instructed to rotate their mental
image of this set of lines, so that the lines were in a diagonal
orientation. Meanwhile, the researchers presented a physical
stimulus, a small segment of a line. The participants were told to
judge whether this line segment had an exactly vertical
orientation. The results showed that the imagined set of lines and
the real set of lines produced similar distortions in the participants'
judgments about the orientation of that line segment
-research in visual perception shows that ppl see a stim better if
its surrounded by vertical lines around it and for some reason the
same thing works for mental imagery... ("masking effect")
-demand characteristics: all the cues that might give away the
experimenter's hypothesis to the participants
-demand characteristics cannot account for the masking effect
with mental images bc you wouldn't expect it to be a thing
-people have especially good acuity for mental images that are
