Cognitive Psychology Bonus Quiz for Exam #1

1) Since the association cortex combines simple ideas and sensations into more complex thoughts and ideas,

damage to it can cause :

a) Agnosias

b) Aphasias

c) Apraxias

d) Neglect Syndrome

e) All of the Above

2) What does a letter span test measure (a letter span test is a specific type of span test)?

3) Describe, in a few complete sentences, the procedure for measuring the capacity of working memory

for digits (how many numbers working memory can hold).

4) What is meant by the term "shadowing", in Cognitive Psychology?

5) Describe a research situation where someone might use shadowing (explain what they are trying to find out

and how shadowing is used -maybe think about a divided attention study testing the hypothesis of task-specific resources *that's what we did in class*).

6) Which of the following laws of perception (according to Gestalt theory) means that we perceive

incomplete forms as being complete?

a) Law of Proximity

b) Law of Similarity

c) Law of Closure

d) Law of Good Continuation

7) Which of the following laws of perception (according to Gestalt theory) means that we perceive items

near each other in space as belonging together?

a) Law of Proximity

b) Law of Similarity

c) Law of Closure

d) Law of Good Continuation

8) What is meant by the term habituation? Or you can give an example of habituation. (use complete sentences)

9) According to Muller's Law, what is the maximum number of energy types that can excite one neuron?

10) Describe the procedures used in an experiment to measure the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) from

the base weight of 5 coins. In your answer, only describe the procedure for 1 person and don't be concerned about

finding an average for that person.

11) According to Weber's Law, if I have a JND of 2 coins from a base weight of 5 coins, what would the

JND from 15 coins be?

12) Combined practice is needed to increase the amount of:

a) Crosstalk

b) JND

c) Channel Segregation

d) None of the Above

13) Which of the following explanations for our occasional inability to effectually divide attention

(e.g. drive and talk on the phone, read and write simultaneously) has at least some supporting evidence?

a) Hypothesis of General Resources

b) Hypothesis of Specific Resources

c) Response Selector Bottleneck Hypothesis

d) All of the Above

14) In perception, what is an "absolute threshold"?

Answers

1)E 2) The capacity of working memory for letters (how many letters working memory can hold) 3) To measure working memory capacity

for numbers, you would first read a person a short list of numbers (around 1,2, or3). You would then have them repeat the list back to you. You would then continue reading, and having them repeat, longer lists until they could no longer remember the entire list. Their number span would be the length of the longest list.

4) Shadowing is the procedure of repeating back what is heard as you are hearing it. 5) If you wanted to find out if task-specific resources were used in divided attention tasks you might use shadowing. You would have people shadow and then give them tasks that differ in similarity to shadowing. If the dissimilar tasks were easier to perform while shadowing, then that shows that task specific resources were probably in use. 6) C 7) A 8) Habituation refers fact that we do not continue to perceive persistent stimuli, except when a change in the stimulus occurs. An example of habituation is when we no longer perceive constant traffic noise outside of our house because we are used to it. 9) 1 10) To measure the JND from 5 coins, you would put five coins in each of a blindfolded person's hands. You would then add coins to one hand until they noticed the difference between the two. 11) 6 12) C 13) D 14) An absolute threshold is the minimum amount of a stimulus needed in order to perceive it.