©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
BYU Psych375 Exam 1 Practice Questions
and Answers
John B. Watson - ANSWER✔✔Behaviorist
o He focused on observable human nature. He thought internal thoughts had no causal role in behavior
What did Watson study or introduce to the scientific field? - ANSWER✔✔o He believed you can raise
anyone to become anything. Stimulus=Response
o Little Albert experiment rat + loud bell=baby learning that rat was bad
What role did Gestalt psychology play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - ANSWER✔✔· Gestalt psychology
o Interested in learning perception that people have of the world around them
- Show images to people (rabbit duck, hidden triangle)
· Looking at individual parts won't let you see the full picture
· It countered behaviorists belief that you can 100% guess how people would perceive these images
Page 1/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive psychology? -
ANSWER✔✔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"? - ANSWER✔✔Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from behaviorism to
cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - ANSWER✔✔· 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"
Page 2/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
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? - ANSWER✔✔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? - ANSWER✔✔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 - ANSWER✔✔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
Page 3/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
The role of the child in their cognitive development - ANSWER✔✔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 - ANSWER✔✔a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - ANSWER✔✔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? - ANSWER✔✔1. Intelligence is an active,
constructive, and dynamic process
Page 4/36
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
BYU Psych375 Exam 1 Practice Questions
and Answers
John B. Watson - ANSWER✔✔Behaviorist
o He focused on observable human nature. He thought internal thoughts had no causal role in behavior
What did Watson study or introduce to the scientific field? - ANSWER✔✔o He believed you can raise
anyone to become anything. Stimulus=Response
o Little Albert experiment rat + loud bell=baby learning that rat was bad
What role did Gestalt psychology play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - ANSWER✔✔· Gestalt psychology
o Interested in learning perception that people have of the world around them
- Show images to people (rabbit duck, hidden triangle)
· Looking at individual parts won't let you see the full picture
· It countered behaviorists belief that you can 100% guess how people would perceive these images
Page 1/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive psychology? -
ANSWER✔✔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"? - ANSWER✔✔Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from behaviorism to
cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - ANSWER✔✔· 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"
Page 2/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
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? - ANSWER✔✔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? - ANSWER✔✔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 - ANSWER✔✔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
Page 3/36
, ©EMILLECT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC YEAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISH OCTOBER 2024
The role of the child in their cognitive development - ANSWER✔✔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 - ANSWER✔✔a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - ANSWER✔✔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? - ANSWER✔✔1. Intelligence is an active,
constructive, and dynamic process
Page 4/36
