Cognitive Psychology ACTUAL Questions
and CORRECT Answers
Hermann Ebbinghaus - CORRECT ANSWER - began modern memory research. Used
meaningless strings of letters to study the capacity of our memory system
Edward Titchener - CORRECT ANSWER - belonged to school of structuralism. Goal of
structuralism was to break consciousness down into its elements, or specific mental structures.
Used introspection: asked subjects to report on their current conscious experiences, in a lab
setting. Spawned functionalism, behaviorsm and Gestalt psychology in reaction. Wundt-trained
psychologist-Wundt also used introspection.
Noam Chomsky - CORRECT ANSWER - a linguist, paved way for modern cognitive
psych with critique of Skinner. Opposed behaviorist belief that speech is best explained by
operant conditioning, because children say things they could not have heard adults say and that
adults used language in novel and creative ways. Thought language study is most viable rout to
understanding the mind.
reaction time - CORRECT ANSWER - elapsed time between stimulus presentation and the
subject's response to it. Provides insight into organization of cognitive processes. Also called
mental chronometry
eye movements - CORRECT ANSWER - an "on-line" measure of information processing.
Has been used to study reading and language comprehension
brain imaging - CORRECT ANSWER - used to associated various cognitive processes
with various parts of the brain
Hermann Ebbinghaus' experiments - CORRECT ANSWER - used nonsense syllables to
study memory using himself as a subject. Came up with method of savings and forgetting curve
method of savings - CORRECT ANSWER - memorized items on a list, distracted himself
with other lists, then measured how much of the original list he remembered. Compared number
, of times he had to read the list in order to rememorize it. Subtracted number of trials it took to
rememorize list from number of trials it originally took to memorize the list. Divided it by the
original number of trials and multiplied by 100.
forgetting curve - CORRECT ANSWER - using method of saving over various time
intervals, indicates rate of forgetting (percent savings over number of days) Without practice we
forget rapidly, then at a certain point, forgetting occurs at a much lesser rate
mental processes involved in memory - CORRECT ANSWER - encoding: putting
information into memory
storage: retaining information in memory
retrieval: recovering the information in memory
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon - CORRECT ANSWER - verge of remembering something
but continue to be unsuccessful in doing so-problem with retrieval
recall - CORRECT ANSWER - independently reproducing information you have
previously been exposed to (short answer and fill-in the blank test this)
recognition - CORRECT ANSWER - realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you've
seen or heard before (multiple choice questions test this)
generation-recognition - CORRECT ANSWER - an attempt to explain why you can
usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental
process involved in recognition plus another process not required for recognition. You have to
generate info rather than simply recognize info presented
order effects - CORRECT ANSWER - recency effect: words presented at the end of a list
are remembered best
primacy effect: words presented at the beginning of a list are remembered
second-best
and CORRECT Answers
Hermann Ebbinghaus - CORRECT ANSWER - began modern memory research. Used
meaningless strings of letters to study the capacity of our memory system
Edward Titchener - CORRECT ANSWER - belonged to school of structuralism. Goal of
structuralism was to break consciousness down into its elements, or specific mental structures.
Used introspection: asked subjects to report on their current conscious experiences, in a lab
setting. Spawned functionalism, behaviorsm and Gestalt psychology in reaction. Wundt-trained
psychologist-Wundt also used introspection.
Noam Chomsky - CORRECT ANSWER - a linguist, paved way for modern cognitive
psych with critique of Skinner. Opposed behaviorist belief that speech is best explained by
operant conditioning, because children say things they could not have heard adults say and that
adults used language in novel and creative ways. Thought language study is most viable rout to
understanding the mind.
reaction time - CORRECT ANSWER - elapsed time between stimulus presentation and the
subject's response to it. Provides insight into organization of cognitive processes. Also called
mental chronometry
eye movements - CORRECT ANSWER - an "on-line" measure of information processing.
Has been used to study reading and language comprehension
brain imaging - CORRECT ANSWER - used to associated various cognitive processes
with various parts of the brain
Hermann Ebbinghaus' experiments - CORRECT ANSWER - used nonsense syllables to
study memory using himself as a subject. Came up with method of savings and forgetting curve
method of savings - CORRECT ANSWER - memorized items on a list, distracted himself
with other lists, then measured how much of the original list he remembered. Compared number
, of times he had to read the list in order to rememorize it. Subtracted number of trials it took to
rememorize list from number of trials it originally took to memorize the list. Divided it by the
original number of trials and multiplied by 100.
forgetting curve - CORRECT ANSWER - using method of saving over various time
intervals, indicates rate of forgetting (percent savings over number of days) Without practice we
forget rapidly, then at a certain point, forgetting occurs at a much lesser rate
mental processes involved in memory - CORRECT ANSWER - encoding: putting
information into memory
storage: retaining information in memory
retrieval: recovering the information in memory
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon - CORRECT ANSWER - verge of remembering something
but continue to be unsuccessful in doing so-problem with retrieval
recall - CORRECT ANSWER - independently reproducing information you have
previously been exposed to (short answer and fill-in the blank test this)
recognition - CORRECT ANSWER - realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you've
seen or heard before (multiple choice questions test this)
generation-recognition - CORRECT ANSWER - an attempt to explain why you can
usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental
process involved in recognition plus another process not required for recognition. You have to
generate info rather than simply recognize info presented
order effects - CORRECT ANSWER - recency effect: words presented at the end of a list
are remembered best
primacy effect: words presented at the beginning of a list are remembered
second-best
