Chapter 8 Study Guide

In nonhuman animals, the most common circumstances under which communication occurs are __________.
Feeding and labor
hunting and food distribution
violence and sex
mating and food distribution

Masha has been asked to participate in a research study where she is presented with words on a screen. The words include the names of colors, such as “BLACK,” “WHITE”, and “GREEN.” The words are printed in different colors, however. For example, the word “BLACK” appears in blue type, and the word “GREEN” appears in yellow type. What task is Masha performing?
the Stroop task
the Luscher test
the Rorschach test
the Beck inventory

One explanation for schizophrenia holds that individuals suffering from that mental illness have difficulty in filtering their attention. This is most closely related to the concept of __________.
cognitive economy
schema development
chunking
top-down processing

Benny and Darla are driving to a concert downtown. Benny decides to drive one route, and Darla does not object. When they get stuck in traffic, Darla mumbles, “I just knew it would have been faster if we’d gone my way.” What sort of heuristic is Darla employing?
the hindsight bias
the availability heuristic
the representativeness heuristic
the confirmation bias

While taking an exam in her philosophy class, Erynn was very disappointed to see two essay questions that emphasized the writings of Socrates because she had studied Plato instead. "I just knew I should have studied Socrates," she said to herself. This demonstrates __________.
the availability heuristic
the representativeness heuristic
the confirmation bias
the hindsight bias

Mitzi tells her mother Barbara that she wants to get a new outdoor refrigerator to keep by the swimming pool. Barbara immediately understands why, because she is familiar with the common characteristics of outdoor refrigerators and knows what makes them different from other appliances. Barbara is using mental categories called __________.
classes
concepts
attributes
classifications

Eduardo is from Brazil. He is fluent in both Portuguese and English. When he uses English to speak to you of his home in Brazil, he seems to have trouble remembering details. Yet when he is speaking Portuguese to another Brazilian, he has no trouble remembering. This phenomenon can best be explained by __________.
linguistic determinism
linguistic relativity
extralinguistic information
cryptophasia

People with cancer tend to be more optimistic if their doctor says “You are 90 percent certain to survive” as opposed to “There is a 1 in 10 chance you will die.” This is an example of __________.
poor bedside manners
a heuristic
framing information
developing a healthful concept

The field of __________ emphasizes research into the way the brain works when one makes financial decisions.
neuroeconomics
financial pragmatics
fiduciary cognition
econometrics

Sally is enrolled in a high school geometry course, which she describes as “drawing figures and figuring out drawings.” In a typical class, students draw geometric figures and use a formula to calculate an aspect of the figure such as its area. Each time Sally uses a formula, she is making use of what psychologists call __________.
heuristics
logarithms
algorithms
convergence

Roberto is thinking about redoing the walls in his bedroom, but there is 30-year old wallpaper currently in place. He knows that this will be a big task, but he thinks that he will first remove the wallpaper, then remove the glue-strip layer, then repair the wall before priming and painting it. These steps make the job feel less cumbersome and more manageable. Which heuristic is Roberto using?
a means-end analysis
reframing
breaking into subproblems
employing an algorithm

If I am given 10 math problems, and I can and do solve the first nine in the same way, I may struggle with the tenth problem if it requires a different method to solve it. This best illustrates the concept of __________.
the salience of surface properties
thin slicing
mental sets
hindsight bias

Anastasia is building a sand castle at the beach. She is frustrated by the fact that the water keeps washing it away. She has rebuilt the castle five times already, each one a little further from the waves. Her brother Christopher walks up, sees the problem, and proceeds to dig a channel for the water that bypasses her latest sand castle completely. Which cognitive block was Anastasia demonstrating?
functional fixedness
convergent thinking
mental set
thin slicing

MacGyver, a fictional TV hero, is able to solve nearly any problem with duct tape, chewing gum, and some luck. Which of the following cognitive tendencies is one that MacGyver has clearly overcome?
functional fixedness
linguistic relativity
mental sets
availability heuristic

You are learning Russian in preparation for a trip next summer. Although you are doing a good job recognizing the written signs you need to know, you are having trouble with the sounds of the Russian language. Some of the sounds do not regularly occur in your native language, and you find that your pronunciation of those sound units does not sound authentic. Which of the following aspects of language is giving you trouble?
syntax
phonemes
morphemes
audiograms

What is missing when a student who skips class copies notes from another student?
extralinguistic information
syntax clues
morphological markers
phonesthemes

A person from one part of the United States might ask you for a glass of “soda,” while a person from a different region might ask for a glass of “pop.” Still a third person might ask for a “Coke,” while a fourth would request a glass of “tonic.” All of these individuals want the same thing, but the variation in how they request it demonstrates a __________.
dialect
colloquialism
semantic error
phonemic shift

Fetuses can hear inside the womb __________.
by the second month
no earlier than the seventh month
by the fifth month
only after the sixth month

Linda’s 3-month-old infant keeps saying “ga-ga-ga-ga-ga” and “doh-doh-doh-doh-doh.” Should she be worried?
Yes; parents should not encourage nonsense language in their infants, because it can lead to language problems later on.
Maybe; her 3-month-old should be saying at least a couple of words by now.
No; this behavior is called babbling and it is normal for infants.
No, although the infant should start to string these syllables together to form words in the next month or two.

Your family dog is named “Happy.” Any time your young child sees a dog, she calls out “Happy.” This is an example of __________.
overextension
undergeneralization
incorrect word meaning
comprehension before production

One-year old Matthew wanders into the kitchen where his father is making dinner for the family. He points to the counter and says, “Nana!” His father looks down and says, “Do you want to eat a banana?” Matthew then gets very excited and starts jumping up and down. Matthew is currently in the __________ stage of language development.
holographic
one-word
telegraphic
fast-mapping

Which of the following was the individual who was chained to a potty chair in the back of a bedroom and deprived of social interaction until she was 13 years old?
Helen Keller
Genie
Noam Chomsky
Raymond

The case of Genie and her failure to acquire meaningful language ability best supports __________.
the nativist approach
the limitations of bilingualism
metalinguistic deficiency
the critical period theory

A group of deaf children was discovered after a terrible earthquake had nearly destroyed the town. The children had been hiding together for nearly a month. When an interpreter was brought in, she could not make sense of the signs she saw, yet the children were clearly communicating with one another. What is the most likely explanation?
The children were engaged in cryptophasia.
The children were just pretending to use sign language.
The interpreter was not fluent in signed English
The children had developed a form of homesign

A __________ period is a time during which people are more receptive to learning and can acquire knowledge more easily.
critical
sensitive
receptive
potentiated