Question 1
Think of 10 animal names that begin with the letter R. This problem would probably be solved using a ______ technique.
• A. means-end analysis
• B. reasoning-by-analogy
• C. gestalt restructuring
• D. generate-and-test
• E. productive-thinking
Question 2
The problem-solving technique of ______ involves comparing the goal with the starting point, thinking of possible ways to overcome the distance between them, and choosing the best one.
• A. generate-and-test
• B. means-end analysis
• C. reasoning by analogy
• D. mental set
• E. introspection
Question 3
When one recalls the solution to an old problem and uses it to solve a new, similarly structured problem, one has reasoned by:
• A. introspection
• B. analysis
• C. analogy
• D. backtracking
• E. working memory
Question 4
When you adopt a certain framework or strategy for solving a series of problems, you may fail to see other, more efficient ways of solving some of the problems. This is referred to as:
• A. functional fixedness
• B. procrastination
• C. a heuristic
• D. mental set
• E. reasoning by analogy
Question 5
Study of chess masters indicate that masters:
• A. consider more possible moves than novices do
• B. choose the best move only after lengthy consideration
• C. extract more information from a brief exposure to a chess board
• D. are better at planning future moves than novices are
• E. consider more possible “reply” moves by their opponents
Question 6
When you walk away from a difficult problem and do something else for a while, then come back and solve the problem successfully, you have experienced the
• A. incubation effect
• B. mental-set effect
• C. unconscious-processing effect
• D. problem-space effect
• E. functional-fixedness effect
Question 7
Which type of reasoning results in conclusions that contain new information?
• A. inductive reasoning
• B. deductive reasoning
• C. invalid reasoning
• D. both inductive and deductive reasoning
• E. neither inductive nor deductive reasoning
Question 8
Some members of the Jones family are tall. Some tall people play basketball. Which of the following is true?
• A. Logically, some members of the Jones family play basketball
• B. Logically, no members of the Jones family play basketball
• C. Most people assume that some members of the Jones family play basketball
• D. Most people assume that all members of the Jones family play basketball
• E. Most people assume that no members of the Jones family play basketball
Question 9
Which of the following is a difference between everyday reasoning and formal reasoning?
• A. In everyday reasoning, all premises are usually supplied
• B. In everyday reasoning, there is typically one correct answer
• C. In everyday reasoning, problems are solved as a means of achieving other goals
• D. In formal reasoning, problems are not self-contained
• E. In formal reasoning, the content of the problem typically has potential personal relevance
Question 10
The tendency to seek out information that supports our current beliefs is called:
• A. a believability effect
• B. a content effect
• C. a confirmation bias
• D. syllogistic reasoning
• E. false induction
Question 11
According to psychologists, human decision making often falls short of optimality because:
• A. there is not enough information available to make a rational decision
• B. one cannot be rational under conditions of uncertainty
• C. the information available overwhelms the cognitive processes
• D. rationality assumes a higher degree of intelligence than most people have
• E. true rationality can only be achieved by a computer
Question 12
Which of the following is NOT one of the five phases of decision making, according to Galotti?
• A. goal setting
• B. information gathering
• C. planning
• D. random choice
• E. decision structuring
Question 13
When we assess probability by judging the ease with which relevant examples come to mind, we are using the heuristic of:
• A. representativeness
• B. availability
• C. framing
• D. hindsight
• E. the law of small numbers
Question 14
Because of the representativeness heuristic, we are likely to erroneously assume that which of the following sequences of coin flips is more probable?
• A. heads–heads–heads–heads–heads
• B. heads–tails–heads–tails–heads
• C. heads–heads–tails–tails–tails
• D. tails–tails–tails–tails–heads
• E. heads–tails–heads–tails–tails
Question 15
According to research on the anchoring phenomenon,
• A. even when given additional information, people refuse to depart from their original “anchors.”
• B. people ignore rational anchors that should influence their subsequent estimates
• C. even when the anchor is arbitrary, people are unwilling to adjust upward or downward from that anchor by large amounts
• D. anchoring can result in serious overestimation of quantities such as 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8
• E. people should never use anchors in judgment
Question 16
Past events seem “inevitable” due to the action of the:
• A. framing effect
• B. hindsight bias
• C. gambler’s fallacy
• D. availability heuristic
• E. illusory correlation
Question 17
Patients with prefrontal cortex damage tend to show deficits in their:
• A. intelligence
• B. semantic memory
• C. working memory
• D. inductive reasoning
• E. deductive reasoning
Question 18
Field-independent people:
• A. find it easy to identify embedded figures in a larger picture
• B. find it difficult to identify embedded figures in a larger picture
• C. rely primarily on external referents in processing information
• D. rely upon others in ambiguous social situations
• E. rely upon both external referents and others in processing information
Question 19
Research has suggested that experts are more likely than novices to:
• A. perceive subtle distinctions between stimuli
• B. categorize stimuli based on perceptual similarities
• C. chunk information into meaningful configurations
• D. perceive subtle distinctions and chunk information into meaningful configurations
• E. perceive subtle distinctions, categorize based on perceptual similarities, and chunk information into meaningful configurations
Question 20
Research on ways of knowing has established that:
• A. connected knowing is consistently more prominent in women than men
• B. a person’s “way of knowing” can shift with the context in which a person is interacting
• C. ways of knowing are stable characteristics
• D. ways of knowing predict different kinds of performance on cognitive tasks
• E. socioeconomic status, level of education, and cultural heritage do not interact with gender in determining ways of knowing
Question 21
Susceptibility to certain kinds of visual illusions may depend on:
• A. schooling
• B. visual acuity
• C. literacy
• D. experience in certain environments
• E. religious beliefs
Question 22
Studies of the Kpelle children of Libya (regarding clustering in a memory recall task) suggest that:
• A. people in some cultures do not have long-term memory
• B. long-term memory processes vary dramatically across cultures
• C. the Kpelle are incapable of using clustering to aid recall
• D. the Kpelle are capable of learning to use clustering, but never get the amount of benefit from the technique that American children do
• E. more sophisticated participants spontaneously engage in organizational strategies to aid recall, while less sophisticated participants are not likely to engage in such behaviors without explicit instruction to do so
Question 23
Cross-cultural studies of categorization have shown all of the following EXCEPT:
• A. As children grow older, they become more likely to sort objects by function rather than by perceptual characteristics (color or size)
• B. As children grow older, they increase their abilities to sort systematically by any criteria (function, color, size, etc.)
• C. Education seems to play little role in categorization ability
• D. Categorization of familiar materials is easier than categorization of unfamiliar materials
• E. Mayan first-graders were almost completely unable to re-sort a set of stimuli that had previously been sorted by another dimension
Question 24
Studies comparing Mano farmers and American undergraduates on sorting cards and bowls of rice indicate that:
• A. different cultures’ exposure to stimuli affects how people in those cultures sort objects
• B. schooling affects how people sort objects
• C. intelligence varies across culture
• D. different cultures’ attitudes affect how people in those cultures sort objects
• E. innate perceptual abilities play a strong role in sorting tasks
Question 25
Studies of logical reasoning among nonliterate cultures show that:
• A. the ability to accept initial premises that contradict one’s own experience is culturally universal
• B. nonliterate participants treat general premises as descriptions particular to one person’s experience only
• C. both literate and nonliterate participants have no trouble seeing premises as interdependent parts of a single problem
• D. literate participants show a greater tendency than nonliterate participants to introduce new premises into a logical reasoning task
• E. nonliterate participants show accurate recall of individual premises of a reasoning task, although they cannot come to a reasonable conclusion from those premises
Question 26
Content effects in formal reasoning tasks are:
• A. greater for Americans than for Koreans
• B. equal for Americans and Koreans
• C. greater for Koreans than Americans
• D. never found at all in Koreans
• E. never found at all in Americans
Question 27
Different cultures develop different counting systems. The Oksapmin children of New Guinea learn to count using a system based on:
• A. branches of trees
• B. petals on flowers
• C. body parts
• D. types of animals
• E. types of fruit
Question 28
Which of the following is NOT a way in which culture affects cognition, according to Vygotsky?
• A. Cultures arrange for the occurrence of non-occurrence of particular problems
• B. Cultures determine the frequency with which problems occur
• C. Cultures determine which events go together
• D. Cultures regulate the level of difficulty of tasks
• E. Cultures regulate the value attached to certain abilities
Question 29
Scribner and Cole did discover some literacy effects among the Vai people, most having to do with:
• A. logical reasoning
• B. spatial cognition
• C. knowledge of language
• D. arithmetic skill
• E. confidence in problem solving
Question 30
Research on situated cognition suggests that:
• A. practical thinking is less flexible than formal, classroom thinking
• B. practical thinking employs methods that are more likely to be inaccurate
• C. practical thinking is tailored to specific contexts, whereas classroom thinking is more abstract
• D. practical thinking is only found in classrooms
• E. classroom thinking is more socially oriented than practical thinking
