Cognitive psychology worksheet with answers

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

1. AOnly observable behaviour and reinforcement
2. BUnconscious sexual and aggressive drives
3. CIntrospection about raw sensations only
4. DInternal mental processes such as memory and thinking

Damage to Wernicke's area typically causes:

1. ASlow, effortful speech with good comprehension
2. BLoss of the ability to recognise familiar faces
3. CFluent but largely meaningless speech with poor comprehension
4. DLoss of the ability to read but not to write

Which type of memory stores facts such as "Paris is the capital of France"?

1. ASensory memory
2. BProcedural memory
3. CSemantic memory
4. DEpisodic memory

Lists of similar-sounding letters (B, G, V, T) are harder to recall immediately than dissimilar letters (F, K, Y, W). This suggests short-term memory:

1. AStores letters mainly as visual images of their shapes
2. BMainly codes information by meaning
3. CHas unlimited capacity for letters
4. DMainly codes verbal information acoustically

In the Brown–Peterson task, participants count backwards by threes after seeing a trigram such as "KTR". The main finding was that:

1. ACounting backwards made the trigrams easier to remember
2. BOnly the first letter of each trigram tended to be forgotten
3. CRecall stayed almost perfect even after 18 seconds of counting
4. DRecall fell sharply within about 18 seconds without rehearsal

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

When a video shows a face saying "ga" while the audio says "ba", many people hear "da". This shows that:

1. AHearing always overrides vision when they conflict
2. BVision is ignored when we listen to speech
3. CSpeech perception combines what we see and hear
4. DPeople cannot tell similar speech sounds apart

In Sperling's experiments, participants saw a 3 × 4 grid of letters briefly. When a tone signalled which row to report immediately afterwards, they could report most letters of that row. What did this show?

1. AHearing a warning tone improves visual perception of nearby letters in general
2. BIconic memory holds only about four letters, however they are tested
3. CBriefly seen letters are transferred into long-term memory at once
4. DMost of the display is briefly held but fades before it can all be reported