Cognitive psychology worksheet with answers

Free printable Cognitive psychology worksheet: 8 problems from easy to exam level, with an answer key. Print it or save it as a PDF.

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1.Easy

Generating many different possible uses for a brick is an example of:

  1. ADeductive reasoning
  2. BConvergent thinking
  3. CDivergent thinking
  4. DFunctional fixedness
2.Easy

Selective attention is best illustrated by:

  1. AFollowing one conversation at a noisy party
  2. BRemembering a phone number for a few seconds
  3. CSolving an arithmetic problem
  4. DRecognising a face you have seen before
3.Easy

What is a heuristic?

  1. AA type of long-term memory
  2. BA disorder of perception
  3. CA mental shortcut used to make judgements quickly
  4. DA step-by-step procedure that always finds the right answer
4.Medium

In Collins and Quillian's hierarchical network model, why does "A canary is an animal" take longer to verify than "A canary is a bird"?

  1. AThe sentence contains more letters to read
  2. BCanaries are rated as untypical members of "animal"
  3. C"Animal" is a longer and less frequent word than "bird"
  4. DMore levels must be travelled to reach "animal"
5.Medium

Baddeley added the episodic buffer to the working memory model to explain how working memory:

  1. ABinds information from different sources and from long-term memory
  2. BDirects attention and switches between tasks
  3. CStores visual information for a fraction of a second
  4. DRehearses speech sounds silently with an inner voice
6.Medium

Kosslyn found that the time to mentally scan between two landmarks on an imagined map increased with their distance. This suggests that mental images:

  1. APreserve spatial relationships of the real scene
  2. BAre processed in the phonological loop
  3. CAre stored only as abstract verbal descriptions of the scene
  4. DCannot be inspected once formed
7.Hard

H.M. practised mirror drawing over several days. His performance improved steadily, yet each day he said he had never done the task before. What does this show?

  1. ASkills can be learned without remembering the practice
  2. BH.M. was only pretending not to remember the sessions
  3. CHis improvement came from rehearsal in short-term memory
  4. DMirror drawing depends mainly on the hippocampus
8.Hard

A patient with a long history of heavy alcohol use cannot form new memories and fills gaps with invented stories that he believes. This is typical of:

  1. AWernicke's aphasia
  2. BRetrograde amnesia only
  3. CDissociative amnesia
  4. DKorsakoff's syndrome

Answer key

  1. 1. C · Divergent thinking
  2. 2. A · Following one conversation at a noisy party
  3. 3. C · A mental shortcut used to make judgements quickly
  4. 4. D · More levels must be travelled to reach "animal"
  5. 5. A · Binds information from different sources and from long-term memory
  6. 6. A · Preserve spatial relationships of the real scene
  7. 7. A · Skills can be learned without remembering the practice
  8. 8. D · Korsakoff's syndrome

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