BYU Psych375 Exam 1 Questions And Answers. |latest
updates 2025|
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - answers o Set up mazes for rats
- Would train them to go through maze and then reward them with food for doing it right
- Set 2 roadblocks. Since the rat was familiar with the maze they could figure out how to
problem solve.
- It disproved behaviorists because they weren't conditioned to just go left when they hit the
second roadblock
What was the "cognitive revolution"? - answers Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from behaviorism
to cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - answers · Noam
Chomsky was a neurolinguist and cognitive psychologist at MIT
o Key player in the cognitive revolution
o BF Skinner thought humans were conditioned to learn language
§ Chomsky wasn't convinced
· He thought speech was an innate ability and that it was impossible for 3 year olds to learn so
much
· "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"
o We know this is correct even though it makes no sense. We can even make sentences that we
have never heard before. How is this possible if mental processes don't affect us. This combated
behaviorist idea
What did Ulric Neisser contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - answers o Wrote first
cognitive psychology textbook (1967) and coined the phrase cognitive psychology
§ He wanted to promote conducting experiments with ecological validity
He even studied memory in the courtroom and the fallibility of eye witness testimonies. He
wanted to study meaningful things
What are the four themes of cognitive development? - answers 1. Stability and change
2. The role of the child in their cognitive development
3. Nature and nurture
4. Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences)
Stability and change - answers Stability - People who tend to be slower to a task tend to remain
slower
,Change - Children start slower, peak in their 20s, then progressively get slower
The role of the child in their cognitive development - answers a. The opposite of what Watson
said. "let me train an infant and I can shape their entire future"
b. Development is an active process
c. Children give cues to their environment that they are ready to move to the next developmental
level
d. Development progresses in interaction between biology and experience
Nature and nurture - answers a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - answers a. We can't always determine
why someone like a child is depressed
i. Multifinity - We can't say someone is doomed if they were sexually abused as a child.
1. Sexual abuse can lead to sex aversion, hyper sexuality, or normal sexuality
ii. Equifinity
1. Parental divorce, physical abuse, or parental substance abuse may lead to child depression
What are the major theories of cognitive development? - answers 1. Intelligence is an active,
constructive, and dynamic process
2. Schemes: how we organize our knowledge of the world in our minds
3. Mistakes are meaningful because they reflect our thought processes
4. As children develop, the structure of their thinking changes
Theory of core knowledge - answers Theory that basic areas of knowledge are innate and built
into human brain
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory - answers a. All learning is social
b. Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
i. Class is too easy and boring
ii. Class is too difficult and boring
iii. You need to find that zone which is just right for the most learning to occur
c. Scaffolding
i. Build on what they already know. Give steps to help them learn
Information processing task - answers We get faster response time and more accurate as we
learn things
, What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development? - answers Sensorimotor stage (0-2
years)
Preoperational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational stage (7-12)
Formal operational stage (12 years and older)
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) - answers From reflexes to goal-directed activity
Development of object permanence (things still exist even if you can't see it)
Preoperational stage (2-7) - answers Intuitive thought
i. Ask a child why a house is at a certain place. They will say because they want it to be there, or
because they grow like plants.
ii. Kids are confident about how the world works
Concrete operational stage (7-12) - answers Egocentrism
i. Idea that the world centers around me
ii. If I want something to exist, it will
iii. I like fire engines, therefore my mom likes fire engines
iv. If something goes wrong it is my fault. Parents fighting is my fault
Formal operational stage (12 years and older) - answers Abstract thought - (Reasoning about
objects not present)
Hypothetical (scientific) thinking - (Reasoning about objects never seen before)
Wilhelm Wundt - answers · Father of experimental psychology
o Used the introspective method to probe cognition
o Asked subjects to describe internal experience from receiving a sensory stimulus
§ He had people explain their thought process when answering if a soccer ball was bigger than a
tennis ball
o He wanted to break down consciousness into its bare parts, like a chemist or physicist
Mary Whiton Calkins - answers · American cognitive psychologist interested in studying
memory
· Became president of APA
· She presented lists of words to people and she would ask them to repeat as many words as they
could
o Words presented at the end were easiest to remember. This is called the recency effect
Hermann Ebbing - answers · He came up with nonsense syllables and each day he practiced
reciting them
updates 2025|
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - answers o Set up mazes for rats
- Would train them to go through maze and then reward them with food for doing it right
- Set 2 roadblocks. Since the rat was familiar with the maze they could figure out how to
problem solve.
- It disproved behaviorists because they weren't conditioned to just go left when they hit the
second roadblock
What was the "cognitive revolution"? - answers Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from behaviorism
to cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - answers · Noam
Chomsky was a neurolinguist and cognitive psychologist at MIT
o Key player in the cognitive revolution
o BF Skinner thought humans were conditioned to learn language
§ Chomsky wasn't convinced
· He thought speech was an innate ability and that it was impossible for 3 year olds to learn so
much
· "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"
o We know this is correct even though it makes no sense. We can even make sentences that we
have never heard before. How is this possible if mental processes don't affect us. This combated
behaviorist idea
What did Ulric Neisser contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - answers o Wrote first
cognitive psychology textbook (1967) and coined the phrase cognitive psychology
§ He wanted to promote conducting experiments with ecological validity
He even studied memory in the courtroom and the fallibility of eye witness testimonies. He
wanted to study meaningful things
What are the four themes of cognitive development? - answers 1. Stability and change
2. The role of the child in their cognitive development
3. Nature and nurture
4. Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences)
Stability and change - answers Stability - People who tend to be slower to a task tend to remain
slower
,Change - Children start slower, peak in their 20s, then progressively get slower
The role of the child in their cognitive development - answers a. The opposite of what Watson
said. "let me train an infant and I can shape their entire future"
b. Development is an active process
c. Children give cues to their environment that they are ready to move to the next developmental
level
d. Development progresses in interaction between biology and experience
Nature and nurture - answers a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - answers a. We can't always determine
why someone like a child is depressed
i. Multifinity - We can't say someone is doomed if they were sexually abused as a child.
1. Sexual abuse can lead to sex aversion, hyper sexuality, or normal sexuality
ii. Equifinity
1. Parental divorce, physical abuse, or parental substance abuse may lead to child depression
What are the major theories of cognitive development? - answers 1. Intelligence is an active,
constructive, and dynamic process
2. Schemes: how we organize our knowledge of the world in our minds
3. Mistakes are meaningful because they reflect our thought processes
4. As children develop, the structure of their thinking changes
Theory of core knowledge - answers Theory that basic areas of knowledge are innate and built
into human brain
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory - answers a. All learning is social
b. Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
i. Class is too easy and boring
ii. Class is too difficult and boring
iii. You need to find that zone which is just right for the most learning to occur
c. Scaffolding
i. Build on what they already know. Give steps to help them learn
Information processing task - answers We get faster response time and more accurate as we
learn things
, What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development? - answers Sensorimotor stage (0-2
years)
Preoperational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational stage (7-12)
Formal operational stage (12 years and older)
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) - answers From reflexes to goal-directed activity
Development of object permanence (things still exist even if you can't see it)
Preoperational stage (2-7) - answers Intuitive thought
i. Ask a child why a house is at a certain place. They will say because they want it to be there, or
because they grow like plants.
ii. Kids are confident about how the world works
Concrete operational stage (7-12) - answers Egocentrism
i. Idea that the world centers around me
ii. If I want something to exist, it will
iii. I like fire engines, therefore my mom likes fire engines
iv. If something goes wrong it is my fault. Parents fighting is my fault
Formal operational stage (12 years and older) - answers Abstract thought - (Reasoning about
objects not present)
Hypothetical (scientific) thinking - (Reasoning about objects never seen before)
Wilhelm Wundt - answers · Father of experimental psychology
o Used the introspective method to probe cognition
o Asked subjects to describe internal experience from receiving a sensory stimulus
§ He had people explain their thought process when answering if a soccer ball was bigger than a
tennis ball
o He wanted to break down consciousness into its bare parts, like a chemist or physicist
Mary Whiton Calkins - answers · American cognitive psychologist interested in studying
memory
· Became president of APA
· She presented lists of words to people and she would ask them to repeat as many words as they
could
o Words presented at the end were easiest to remember. This is called the recency effect
Hermann Ebbing - answers · He came up with nonsense syllables and each day he practiced
reciting them
