Cognitive psychology worksheet with answers

What is "chunking"?

1. AGrouping information into meaningful units to remember more
2. BRepeating information aloud to remember it
3. CSplitting attention between two tasks
4. DForgetting information in large blocks

The "cognitive revolution" of the 1950s and 1960s shifted psychology's focus towards:

1. AInternal mental processes such as memory and thinking
2. BOnly observable behaviour and reinforcement
3. CUnconscious sexual and aggressive drives
4. DIntrospection about raw sensations only

Believing that after five tails in a row a fair coin is "due" to land heads is the:

1. AGambler's fallacy
2. BSunk cost fallacy
3. CHindsight bias
4. DEndowment effect

In a lexical decision task, people recognise "nurse" as a word faster after seeing "doctor" than after seeing "bread". This is best explained by:

1. ARetroactive interference
2. BThe phonological similarity effect
3. CIconic memory decay
4. DSpreading activation in a semantic network

In Duncker's candle problem, participants must fix a candle to a wall using a box of tacks and matches. The solution is hard to find because people:

1. ASpend too long trying to melt wax with the matches
2. BDo not realise the candle has to be lit first
3. CSee the box only as a container, not as a shelf
4. DAssume the tacks are too short to hold the candle

The idea that the language you speak influences how you think and perceive the world is known as:

1. ASemantic priming
2. BLinguistic relativity
3. CUniversal grammar
4. DPhonemic restoration

The Stroop effect shows that:

1. AAttention can be divided without any cost
2. BReading words is so automatic that it interferes with naming the ink colour
3. CColour perception depends only on the eyes
4. DPeople can name colours faster than they can read words

Which finding supports a reconstructive view of memory (Bartlett)?

1. APeople retelling an unfamiliar story change it to fit their own culture
2. BShort-term memory holds about seven items
3. CPeople can recall long lists of digits perfectly
4. DMemories of emotional events never change