Practice questions Cognition
Chapter 1: An introduction to cognitive psychology
What is cognitive psychology?
1) The cognitive approach is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes a person’s:
a) observable behaviors.
b) unconscious emotions.
c) social interactions with other people.
d) mental processes and knowledge.
2) Which of the following statements is correct?
a) A reflex such as a knee-jerk reflex is an example of cognition.
b) Cognition refers to the acquisition and retrieval of knowledge, but not the use of that knowledge.
c) “Cognitive psychology” is sometimes used as a synonym for “cognition.”
d) Cognitive psychology emphasizes mental processes that are easily observable.
3) Which of the following statements bestcaptures the scope of cognition?
a) Cognition includes every internal experience that humans have.
b) We use cognition when we acquire, store, transform, and use knowledge.
c) Cognition primarily emphasizes higher mental processes, such as problem solving and decision
making.
d) Cognition is more concerned with visible actions, such as motor activities, than with activities that
cannot be seen by an outside observer.
A historical perspective on cognitive psychology
1) During the first half of the 20th century, some strict behaviorists:
a) claimed that scientific psychology should rely only on operational definitions of introspective
reports.
b) said that psychology should focus only on objective reactions to environmental stimuli.
c) advocated research on human cognition instead of on animal cognition and computer cognition.
d) developed the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach to understanding behavior.
2) The rise of cognitive psychology was heavily influenced by:
a) the rise of behaviorism, which provided cognitive psychologists new ways to measure memory and
thinking.
b) the rise of Gestalt psychology, which provided clinical psychologists with new ways to conduct
psychoanalysis.
c) disenchantment with behaviorism and fascination with developments in linguistics, memory, and
developmental psychology.
d) disenchantment with behaviorism and fascination with emerging psychoanalytic studies of human
adjustment.
3) All of the following contributed to the rise of cognitive psychology EXCEPT for:
a) Noam Chomsky’s arguments about the inadequacy of behaviorist principles for fully explaining
human language acquisition.
b) the lack of interest in understanding how humans internally store (or represent) information in
their minds.
c) increased interest in human memory.
d) the publication of Neisser’s Cognitive Psychology.
4) Gestalt psychology emphasizes:
a) observable, objective reactions.
b) the introspective technique.
c) emotional causes of behavior.
d) the basic human tendency to organize our perceptions.