PSYCH 211 FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
What is the definition of cognition? What are some processes that cognition underlies? -
Answers - Set of mental processes by which info is perceived, stored, manipulated, and
used. Ex. Perception, attention, short-term memory, identifying and classifying info, long
term memory, autobiographical memory, memory distortion, decision making, and
problem solving.
In what way is cognitive science an interdisciplinary effort? In other words, in addition to
cognitive psychology, what fields form cognitive science? - Answers - An
interdisciplinary effort to understand the mind. Ex. Philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience,
artificial intelligence, and anthropology.
In what way is philosophy relevant to cognitive psychology? - Answers - Knowledge:
nativism vs empiricism
o Mind and matter: idealism (dream, ritual, mind), materialism (matter, what you get),
dualism (a little bit of both)
What are the differences between idealism, materialism, and dualism? - Answers -
idealism (dream, ritual, mind),
o materialism (matter, what you get),
o dualism (a little bit of both)
What view gives rise to the mind-body problem? What is the mind-body problem? -
Answers - Rene Descartes thought the penial gland controlled the body
Who founded phrenology? Why/in what way is phrenology still relevant today? -
Answers - Gall founded phrenology in 1810, and it associates specific mental abilities
with specific brain areas. Today it still helps us see what different stimulus's effect what
parts of the brain.
What did the case of Phineas Gage teach us about the brain in general and the frontal
lobe specifically? - Answers - The damage to his frontal lobe showed changes in his
personality and confirmed the idea that different parts of the brain affect different things.
What was Paul Broca's contribution to neuroscience? - Answers - Language
production in the Broca's area
What does the term "psychophysics" mean? - Answers - The study of the relationship
between the physical properties of the stimulus and its properties when subjectively
experienced. It studied the relationship between mind and matter.
What is the distinction between a psychophysicist and a cognitive psychologist? -
Answers - Psychophysicist - early stages of processing info
o Psychologist - interested in all stages of info processing
,What did Wilhelm Wundt want to study and how? What were the problems with his
method? (SURF) - Answers - Wundt studied structuralism. He founded the first psych
lab in Leipzig Germany in1879 and focused on consciousness. Took a structural
approach on sensations, images, and feelings. Wundts methods was introspection
(looking into consciousness)
o Problems: subjective, you're limited to that persons thinking
§ S - subjective
§ U - unreliable
§ R - restrictive
§ F - flawed
What did William James think of the structuralist view? What did he propose instead? -
Answers - Rejected structuralism as too static, artificial, and advocated functionalism
o Consciousness was something you couldn't break down. More of an impact on
cognitive psychology than wundt and structuralism
What did Ebbinghaus study and what method did he use? What effects did he find?
What are savings and the forgetting curve? How does this differ from Bartlett's research
and findings? - Answers - Ebbinghaus studied memory and served himself as his only
participant. He memorized lists of constant trigrams and recorded how long it took to
rememorize a list after various delays. He discovered the learning curve, saving, the
forgetting curve, the spacing effect, and the serial position curve
§ High internal validity (experimental control)
o Bartlett studied memory in a naturalistic way and disapproved of tight lab settings.
§ High ecological/external validity (naturalness)
o Saving - relearning is easier
How did communications engineering and computer science provide metaphors for how
people process information? - Answers - Provided a language to talk about how some
cognitive processes work. Ex. coding
Does modern cognitive psychology focus on behavior or mental processes? What are
the pros and cons of this approach? - Answers - Believes the psychology should be a
science of behavior and mental processing. Emphasizes how people perceive, store,
manipulate, and use information. Mental processes viewed as similar to computer
programs and brain mapping is increasingly important.
o Pros - very broad; attempts to explain both mind and behavior. Well established
methods and principles; close to neuroscience
o Cons - difficult to verify the reality of some concepts - hidden homunculus (little man in
your head)
What is a representation? What is the difference between a representation and a mental
representation? - Answers - Representation - A physical state that stands for
something else. Ex. Map of the united states. This is meaningless unless you have a
process to interpret it.
, o Mental representation - physical state in the brain (pattern of neural firing) that stands
for something. Ex. Metal lexicon (dictionary)
What is a process? What is a mental process? - Answers - Process - transformation of
an input to an output
o Mental process - representations don't do anything unless they're processed
What is a variable? What two kinds of variables are involved in experimental research?
- Answers - A variable is something that is changed or manipulated. There is an
independent variable and a dependent variable.
Define independent and dependent variable. Be able to apply these to simple examples.
- Answers - Independent - the one being manipulated
o Dependent - changes and is tested
o A scientist studies the impact of a drug on cancer. The independent variables are the
administration of the drug - the dosage and the timing. The dependent variable is the
impact the drug has on cancer.
What are the four main methods of studying behavior? Why don't cognitive
psychologists use surveys to study mental processes? - Answers - 1. Observational/
descriptive research
o 2. Correlation research
o 3. Experimental research
o 4. Quasi - experimental research (when age doesn't match or with brain injury studies)
male and female we have an independent variable that isn't a true independent variable
What is reaction time? - Answers - The time between stimulus and response
(measured in miliseconds)
Is visual search parallel or serial? Under what conditions can you conduct a parallel
search? How about a serial/conjunctive search? - Answers - It can be both!
o Serial - looking at everyone's face before picking someone; when the target is defined
by 2 or more features (conjunction)
o Parallel - looking at the whole pic or looking for a shape for example
What are the four stages of processing? How does Donder's Subtraction method help
us understand these? - Answers - 1. Detect the object
o 2. Categorize the object (bag, dog, etc.)
o 3. Select a response (break, swerve, etc.)
o 4. Execute the response
o this all happens very quickly and may be effected by variables or with different parts of
the brain. We can make a test that reflect all of these stages. Get reaction times and
then subtract the reaction times that we didn't specifically measure.
What is the definition of cognition? What are some processes that cognition underlies? -
Answers - Set of mental processes by which info is perceived, stored, manipulated, and
used. Ex. Perception, attention, short-term memory, identifying and classifying info, long
term memory, autobiographical memory, memory distortion, decision making, and
problem solving.
In what way is cognitive science an interdisciplinary effort? In other words, in addition to
cognitive psychology, what fields form cognitive science? - Answers - An
interdisciplinary effort to understand the mind. Ex. Philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience,
artificial intelligence, and anthropology.
In what way is philosophy relevant to cognitive psychology? - Answers - Knowledge:
nativism vs empiricism
o Mind and matter: idealism (dream, ritual, mind), materialism (matter, what you get),
dualism (a little bit of both)
What are the differences between idealism, materialism, and dualism? - Answers -
idealism (dream, ritual, mind),
o materialism (matter, what you get),
o dualism (a little bit of both)
What view gives rise to the mind-body problem? What is the mind-body problem? -
Answers - Rene Descartes thought the penial gland controlled the body
Who founded phrenology? Why/in what way is phrenology still relevant today? -
Answers - Gall founded phrenology in 1810, and it associates specific mental abilities
with specific brain areas. Today it still helps us see what different stimulus's effect what
parts of the brain.
What did the case of Phineas Gage teach us about the brain in general and the frontal
lobe specifically? - Answers - The damage to his frontal lobe showed changes in his
personality and confirmed the idea that different parts of the brain affect different things.
What was Paul Broca's contribution to neuroscience? - Answers - Language
production in the Broca's area
What does the term "psychophysics" mean? - Answers - The study of the relationship
between the physical properties of the stimulus and its properties when subjectively
experienced. It studied the relationship between mind and matter.
What is the distinction between a psychophysicist and a cognitive psychologist? -
Answers - Psychophysicist - early stages of processing info
o Psychologist - interested in all stages of info processing
,What did Wilhelm Wundt want to study and how? What were the problems with his
method? (SURF) - Answers - Wundt studied structuralism. He founded the first psych
lab in Leipzig Germany in1879 and focused on consciousness. Took a structural
approach on sensations, images, and feelings. Wundts methods was introspection
(looking into consciousness)
o Problems: subjective, you're limited to that persons thinking
§ S - subjective
§ U - unreliable
§ R - restrictive
§ F - flawed
What did William James think of the structuralist view? What did he propose instead? -
Answers - Rejected structuralism as too static, artificial, and advocated functionalism
o Consciousness was something you couldn't break down. More of an impact on
cognitive psychology than wundt and structuralism
What did Ebbinghaus study and what method did he use? What effects did he find?
What are savings and the forgetting curve? How does this differ from Bartlett's research
and findings? - Answers - Ebbinghaus studied memory and served himself as his only
participant. He memorized lists of constant trigrams and recorded how long it took to
rememorize a list after various delays. He discovered the learning curve, saving, the
forgetting curve, the spacing effect, and the serial position curve
§ High internal validity (experimental control)
o Bartlett studied memory in a naturalistic way and disapproved of tight lab settings.
§ High ecological/external validity (naturalness)
o Saving - relearning is easier
How did communications engineering and computer science provide metaphors for how
people process information? - Answers - Provided a language to talk about how some
cognitive processes work. Ex. coding
Does modern cognitive psychology focus on behavior or mental processes? What are
the pros and cons of this approach? - Answers - Believes the psychology should be a
science of behavior and mental processing. Emphasizes how people perceive, store,
manipulate, and use information. Mental processes viewed as similar to computer
programs and brain mapping is increasingly important.
o Pros - very broad; attempts to explain both mind and behavior. Well established
methods and principles; close to neuroscience
o Cons - difficult to verify the reality of some concepts - hidden homunculus (little man in
your head)
What is a representation? What is the difference between a representation and a mental
representation? - Answers - Representation - A physical state that stands for
something else. Ex. Map of the united states. This is meaningless unless you have a
process to interpret it.
, o Mental representation - physical state in the brain (pattern of neural firing) that stands
for something. Ex. Metal lexicon (dictionary)
What is a process? What is a mental process? - Answers - Process - transformation of
an input to an output
o Mental process - representations don't do anything unless they're processed
What is a variable? What two kinds of variables are involved in experimental research?
- Answers - A variable is something that is changed or manipulated. There is an
independent variable and a dependent variable.
Define independent and dependent variable. Be able to apply these to simple examples.
- Answers - Independent - the one being manipulated
o Dependent - changes and is tested
o A scientist studies the impact of a drug on cancer. The independent variables are the
administration of the drug - the dosage and the timing. The dependent variable is the
impact the drug has on cancer.
What are the four main methods of studying behavior? Why don't cognitive
psychologists use surveys to study mental processes? - Answers - 1. Observational/
descriptive research
o 2. Correlation research
o 3. Experimental research
o 4. Quasi - experimental research (when age doesn't match or with brain injury studies)
male and female we have an independent variable that isn't a true independent variable
What is reaction time? - Answers - The time between stimulus and response
(measured in miliseconds)
Is visual search parallel or serial? Under what conditions can you conduct a parallel
search? How about a serial/conjunctive search? - Answers - It can be both!
o Serial - looking at everyone's face before picking someone; when the target is defined
by 2 or more features (conjunction)
o Parallel - looking at the whole pic or looking for a shape for example
What are the four stages of processing? How does Donder's Subtraction method help
us understand these? - Answers - 1. Detect the object
o 2. Categorize the object (bag, dog, etc.)
o 3. Select a response (break, swerve, etc.)
o 4. Execute the response
o this all happens very quickly and may be effected by variables or with different parts of
the brain. We can make a test that reflect all of these stages. Get reaction times and
then subtract the reaction times that we didn't specifically measure.
