Formula sheets, the key method steps for every topic and 8 practice problems, with full solutions at the back.
Which statement best describes top-down processing in perception?
Clive Wearing developed severe amnesia after a brain infection and cannot remember events from moment to moment, yet he can still play the piano and conduct music. This shows that:
Baillargeon found that young infants looked longer at "impossible" events, such as a screen rotating through a box behind it. This suggests infants:
Samuel and Bryant asked children about conservation only once, after the transformation, instead of before and after. Their results showed that:
Tom says he tripped because the floor was wet, but when he sees someone else trip he thinks they are clumsy. This is the:
In Ross's quiz study, randomly assigned questioners wrote hard questions for contestants. Observers rated the questioners as more knowledgeable. Why is this an attribution error?
A person spends hours daily worrying that a small mark on their nose is ugly, checks mirrors constantly, and others see nothing wrong. Which diagnosis fits?
Which evidence best supports CBT as a treatment for anxiety disorders, rather than a placebo effect?
Answer: A · Expectations and knowledge shape how we interpret sensory input
Top-down processing uses prior knowledge, expectations and context to interpret sensations. Bottom-up processing starts from the stimulus features.
Answer: C · Procedural memory can survive severe loss of episodic memory
His profound anterograde and retrograde amnesia for episodes, with preserved skills, supports separate memory systems for declarative and procedural knowledge.
Answer: B · Know hidden objects still exist earlier than Piaget thought
Longer looking at impossible events implies surprise, which suggests infants expected the hidden box to remain solid. This points to object permanence by a few months of age.
Answer: B · Children did better, suggesting the two-question format misled them
With one question, younger children conserved more often, suggesting Piaget's procedure underestimated them because repeated questions implied a change in answer was expected.
Answer: C · Actor–observer bias
As actors we see the situation around us, so we make situational attributions for ourselves and dispositional attributions for others.
Answer: C · The questioners' role advantage was taken as ability
Observers failed to adjust for the role, which let questioners display knowledge while hiding gaps. This is the fundamental attribution error in action.
Answer: C · Body dysmorphic disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder is preoccupation with perceived flaws in appearance that are slight or not observable, with repetitive behaviours such as mirror checking or seeking reassurance.
Answer: D · Randomised trials show CBT outperforms credible attention-placebo control conditions
Showing superiority over a credible placebo control rules out non-specific factors as the only explanation. Many trials and meta-analyses report this for CBT in anxiety disorders.
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