Ch 7

Question 1

When people are asked to say how many windows they have in their dwelling, the amount of time people take to come up with the answer

Answer 1

depends on the number of windows

Question 2

You ask a student to describe the path to his dorm room. The most likely way in which he will do this is to:

Answer 2

walk through a mental image of the path and describe it to you as he does it

Question 3

Concepts are ideas that represent:

Answer 3

a class or category of objects, events, or activities

Question 4

Concepts and categories are important because they allow us to:

Answer 4

organize and manage tremendous amounts of information

Question 5

Before enrolling in an abnormal psychology course, Tod’s idea of psychological disorders had been influenced primarily by talk shows. He expected to hear the same kinds of stories he had heard on talk
shows. What an eye-opening experience the course turned out to be! How would a cognitive psychologist describe the influence the course had on Tod’s idea of psychological disorders?

Answer 5

The course altered Tod’s concept of psychological disorders.

Question 6

Which is the most likely prototype for the concept “vehicle”?

Answer 6

Car

Question 7

Which example would most people take longest to identify as a fruit (even though it technically is a fruit)?

Answer 7

Olive

Question 8

The first notion that comes to mind when asked to name an example from a category is called the:

Answer 8

Prototype

Question 9

“You wait a little while, then you’re shown to a table. A person brings you a list of options and asks if you want anything. The person comes back a little later and offers to bring you more things from the list. The things arrive and you eat them. After a while you put some money on the table and leave.” This general outline is a ________ for “eating in a restaurant.”

Answer 9

Script

Question 10

The trial-and-error method of solving problems is also known as the:

Answer 10

Mechanical solution

Question 11

What systematic problem-solving method guarantees a solution, provided that one exists?

Answer 11

Algorithmic method

Question 12

Queenie purchases a cupboard for her kitchen. She assembles the cupboard by following a series of steps illustrated in the instruction manual. Which type of problem-solving strategy has Queenie adopted?

Answer 12

algortithmic

Question 13

Jenna is enrolled in a high school geometry course, which she describes as “drawing figures and figuring 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 Jenna uses a formula, she is making use of what
psychologists call:

Answer 13

algorithms

Question 14

What problem-solving strategies don’t guarantee solutions but make efficient use of time?

Answer 14

heuristics

Question 15

Which strategy is a heuristic approach to determining how many brownies to make for a party?

Answer 15

Make the same number as you did for your last party because you recall that number being about right.

Question 16

An advantage of using a heuristic over an algorithm is that a heuristic:

Answer 16

can be quicker

Question 17

Which decision-making strategy involves making judgments of likelihood based on how well an example represents a specific category?

Answer 17

the representativeness heuristic

Question 18

Because of the availability heuristic, Jayne and her husband are most likely to exaggerate the likelihood of risk to their children caused by:

Answer 18

being kidnapped

Question 19

Hayden is trying to determine the best way to get to his house after work, because his usual route has been blocked by emergency vehicles due to a car accident. He can’t “see” a different route, so instead
he imagines how he would drive to work from home if he had to take a different route. Hayden is using the ________ heuristic.

Answer 19

working backward

Question 20

A seemingly arbitrary flash “out of the blue,” through which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes apparent to you, but you do not consciously know how you “figured it out,” is called:

Answer 20

insight

Question 21

A block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects only in terms of their most common or typical use is called:

Answer 21

functional fixedness

Question 22

A loose screw on the visor causes it to drop down while Ramón drives; however, he keeps forgetting to take a screwdriver out to the car to fix it. When he notices the visor drop again, he reaches into his pocket for a dime and uses it to tighten the screw holding the visor. What problem-solving difficulty did Ramón overcome?

Answer 22

functional fixedness

Question 23

The television character MacGyver was famous for using everyday objects to get out of trouble. In one episode, for example, MacGyver used the foil wrapper from a stick of gum to replace a blown electrical fuse. The MacGyver character clearly did NOT suffer from which cognitive obstacle to
problem solving?

Answer 23

functional fixedness

Question 24

The tendency to perceive and approach problems in the same ways that have worked in the past is called:

Answer 24

mental set

Question 25

What term do psychologists use to describe our tendency to search for evidence that supports our belief and to ignore evidence that might disprove it?

Answer 25

confirmation bias

Question 26

Mrs. Ingrid Samuelson is determined to ban guns in the United States. This is a controversial topic and social scientists have debated whether the ownership of guns by citizens increases or decreases crime. Ingrid could go to the library and look up studies on the linkage between guns and crime rates. Instead, she just reads the local newspaper and only cuts out articles about robberies in which the “bad guy” used a firearm. Ingrid is demonstrating:

Answer 26

confirmation bias

Question 27

Oscar is a Socialist Party supporter. He goes out of his way to read articles about the achievements of the Socialist Party, but doesn’t pay any attention to articles that are critical of the party and its candidates. Oscar is exhibiting:

Answer 27

confirmation bias

Question 28

the ability to solve problems by combining behaviours and ideas in new ways is called:

Answer 28

creativity

Question 29

A person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point. The person is engaging in ________ thinking.

Answer 29

divergent

Question 30

A group of businesspeople meet in order to solve the problem of decreased sales of their company’s products. One of them suggests that they generate as many ideas as they can in a short period of time without being critical of any of them. This technique of stimulating divergent thinking is called:

Answer 30

brainstorming