[To the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction (2017) by Russ Dewey]
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Revised 11/23/2016. Welcome to the self-quiz on Cognition. These questions accompany Chapter 7 (Cognition) of the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction). They are general enough to be useful for students using other textbooks as well.
Read the question and click on an answer. You will jump to a correction or (if the answer is correct) a confirmation.
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[The remainder of the page is not meant to be read sequentially; it consists of answers and explanations separated by stretches of nothing. You will jump back and forth to these as you click on possible answers of the questions.]
You picked...
AI used neuroscience
No...historically AI was not close to neuroscience. In fact, when it started out, AI (artificial intelligence) defined neuroscience as irrelevant. Neuroscience concerned "hardware" (they said) while AI was concerned with "software" or the logic of information processing. That is not quite so true in the 1990s; now researchers in AI and neuroscience often learn from each other.
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AI did not care about how humans did something
Yes...originally, researchers in AI (artificial intelligence) concerned themselves exclusively with the performance of computers, not with the question of how humans might carry out the same task. Cognitive psychologists did the opposite, studying only how humans carried out thought processes. Nowadays the boundaries are blurred and many researchers have expertise in both fields. Both types of research can be categorized as "cognitive science."
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AI was considered by many scientists as more subjective
No, artificial intelligence research is objective, in the sense that it involves public and shareable forms of evidence. AI "theories" are embodied in computer programs which can be analyzed and studied by other scientists.
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AI was the more common approach in psychology departments
No, artificial intelligence is an outgrowth of computer science more than psychology. Few artificial intelligence researchers are headquartered in psychology departments, unless they combine AI with cognitive psychology..
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AI was an older approach
No, cognitive psychology is older, arguably going back to the 1800s. Artificial intelligence grew out of the emergence of the computer as a new technology in the 1950s and 1960s.
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the "law of continuity," computer style
No; the constraint satisfaction approach helps explain the gestalt law of continuity, but they are not equivalent.
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finding the one solution which fits all the evidence
Yes. A constraint is literally a limitation, a factor which "rules something out." For each visual scene, the computer must locate one interpretation (in other words, make one assignment of meaning to the parts) which explains or "accounts for" all the sensory evidence. The computer arrives at this correct interpretation by ruling out all possibilities except one.
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listing requirements before starting problem-solving
No... a list of requirements could function as a set of "constraints" on a problem solving process, but this is only one example of constraint satisfaction, not a definition of it.
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an interpretation which meets expectations
This is not the best answer. An expectation might constrain ongoing cognitive activity. However, constraint satisfaction need not involve expectations. The visual scene analysis program, for example, is almost entirely "bottom-up" or data-driven so it does not involve "expectations."
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a program which analyzes spatial relationships
No, constraint satisfaction might be used as a strategy or technique in such a program, but the two are not equivalent.
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"higher" and "lower"
No, guess again...
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"internal" and "external"
Hmmm. Would "internal" imagery be imagination, "external" imagery be hallucination? Nah...
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right hemisphere and left hemisphere
No, contrary to stereotypes in popular media, imagery is not a specialization of the right hemisphere. Right parietal damage often causes difficulties in spatial reasoning (such as rotating shapes in imagination) but the ability to imagine pictures is often affected by left hemisphere damage. Visual perception in general involves areas on both sides of the brain.
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"pictures" versus "space"
Yes...spatial processing (such as rotating figures tests) is evidently distinct from pictorial processing (such as imagining a picture). These two types of imagery can be "doubly dissociated" by brain injury (a person can lose one ability while remaining normal in the other ability) and they are shown by brain scans to involve different brain areas.
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color versus black and white
No, there is another difference which is more fundamental (involving different brain areas).
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so-called "word attack"
No, word attack (the "sounding out" of words) is termed phonetic processing.
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orthographic processing
No, "orthographic" refers to the physical appearance of letters, such as their shapes. That is something different.
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recognizing individual letters
No, the "lexicon" involves words, not individual letters.
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accessing an internal dictionary
Yes...a "lexicon" is a dictionary, and "lexical processing" refers to our ability to retrieve the meaning of a word, when we read the word.
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arriving at a meaning which fits all the evidence
No, that would be termed "comprehension." Lexical processing is a step on the way toward comprehension.
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poor writers do not revise at all
No... This question refers to research comparing different groups of students, probably in English classes, who were working on papers. The "poor writers" did make some revisions.
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good writers produce a "polished" first draft
No, this seldom happens in research or in real life.
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good writers are more likely to move big chunks of a document to different places
Yes. Good writers are more likely to manipulate the overall structure of a piece of writing. Poor writers tend to correct typos and other small errors, but they typically do not examine or change their overall "plan of attack."
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poor writers are more likely to construct an outline, then "stick to it"
No. They would probably benefit from this antique-but-still-current advice.
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poor writers revise much more often, up to five times more frequently than good writers
No, poor writers actually revise less, in certain important ways...
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watch hands in a mirror
No, that is the "mirror-tracing" task, which is another common way to measure motor learning.
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keep a wand on a little metal dot
Yes. The "pursuit rotor" consists of a turntable with a metal dot on the platter. The subject being tested must keep a flexible metal wand on the dot. This is a way to measure motor coordination or motor learning.
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shoot through a hole which turns
No, the "rotor" of a pursuit rotor apparatus lies flat, like a turntable...guess again...
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judge whether a dot of light is moving or still, in a darkened room
No, that is a famous "test" but the pursuit rotor involves motor activity.
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walk on a treadmill apparatus while aiming at a rotating target
No, the pursuit rotor is a tabletop apparatus...
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no learning whatsoever has occurred
No, a "learning curve" is a graph showing improvement in learning over time, so a steep learning curve would indicate something about the pattern of improvement.
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learning has been fast
Yes. Contrary to the usual (mistaken) use of this phrase, a "steep" learning curve—one which rises rapidly—would indicate rapid learning. Probably the reason people misuse the phrase "steep learning curve" is that they are influenced by the word "steep," so they think it means difficulty learning, like the difficulty walking up a steep hill.
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learning has been slow
No, if learning is slow the "learning curve" should rise only slowly.
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learning has been steady, until levelling off
No, the word "steep" implies a rapid rise, not a steady slope.
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massive forgetting has occurred
No, a steep learning curve is not the same thing as a rapidly falling "forgetting curve."
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subjects ingest some sort of chemical
No, although some forms of brain scanning require people to inhale or ingest chemicals, this is not required by most cognitive neuroscience research (or by brain scanning techniques such as MRI and MEG).
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computers model human processes in simulations
No, that would be more typical of a cognitive psychologist with interests in computer simulations. The term neuroscience implies a biological emphasis.
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subjects are asked to keep diaries or otherwise record subjective events over the long term
No, cognitive neuroscience research must have something to do with the thought process (cognition) and the study of the nervous system (neuroscience).
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brain scans show which areas are active during a cognitive task
Yes...this is a common type of research in the 1990s. It combines the interests of cognitive psychologists (who are interested in how people think and process information) with the interests and research tools of neuroscience (such as brain scanning).
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animals such as rats are used as "model systems" to represent humans
No, that is a type of research which has been done for several decades (for example, studying epilepsy in dogs or Parkinson's Disease in rats) but it would not usually be categorized as "cognitive," just as neuroscience.
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treating each sub-problem as a distinct goal
No, that is "sub-goaling," the main emphasis of the SOAR program, not hill-climbing, the emphasis of the GPS program.
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choosing the more difficult path
No, hill-climbing does not involve an assessment of path difficulty (which is actually one of its weaknesses...)
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"going against the grain" or being stubborn
No, hill-climbing as the term is used here does not necessarily imply difficulty, just consistent pursuit of a goal.
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taking steps toward a goal
Yes. The metaphor of "hill-climbing" as used in the General Problem Solver program refers to a tactic of selecting whatever step or move will advance the program toward its goal, similar to the tactic of climbing a hill by always stepping in the direction of the summit.
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basically the same thing as constraint satisfaction
No, they are not the "same thing." You might, however, argue that hill-climbing is a particular type of constraint satisfaction: "pick the action which meets the constraint: of advancing you toward your goal."
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experts are distinguished by lots of domain-specific knowledge
Yes. Experts are distinguished by lots of knowledge relating to a particular (often quite limited) domain of knowledge. This is called "domain-specific knowledge." Examples would be knowledge of how to play chess, or how to fix car engines.
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experts have general problem solving abilities
No, expertise is usually defined by highly specific knowledge (although you could certain argue that they need some general problem-solving abilities, too.)
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experts often fail because they are too specialized
No, experts must be specialized in order to be considered experts.
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the expertise provides macrostructure, the domain-specific knowledge provides the infrastructure
Infrastructure? That word is used mostly to refer to highways and bridges, these days (the "infrastructure" of the economy). Macrostructure is a word used in cognitive psychology to refer to large-scale organization, for example, the outline of a term paper, so it does not specifically relate to expertise.
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the two are opposites, one being "general," the other being "particular"
No, experts must deal with "particulars," and domain-specific knowledge also concerns the "particulars" of a domain or area of knowledge.
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