PSYCHOLOGY 340

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Lawrence University

WINTER 2007
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR FINAL EXAM
  1. Explain how the Teachable Language Comprehender (Collins & Quillian, 1969) model of memory retrieval works.  Describe TWO ways in which this model fails to account for the data.  How does a feature model (Rips, Shoben, & Smith, 1973) account for these failures of TLC?  What are the problems with the feature model in explaining semantic structure.
  2. Define each of the following terms, give an example, and explain how these contribute to our understanding of memory: basic level, declarative knowledge, episodic memory, family resemblance, graceful degradation, implicit memory, procedural knowledge, proposition, propositional fan, script, semantic (generic) memory, semantic priming
  3. Name and describe Finke’s (1989) five principles of visual imagery. Describe THREE experimental studies (e.g., Abelson, 1975; Brooks, 1968; Cooper, 1975; Kosslyn, 1973; Peterson, 1975; Shepard & Metzler, 1971) that suggest that use of imagery in memory is different from the use of propositional or verbal information.
  4. Describe Pylyshyn’s (1981) propositional theory of imagery.  What evidence does he offer to critique studies of mental imagery?   (Consider arguments about tacit knowledge, demand characteristics, experimenter expectation, limits of the picture metaphor, and theoretical parsimony.)  How does Farah’s (and others’) work in neuropsychology and Kosslyn’s view of the “mental matrix” answer some of these objections?
  5. Define the following terms, give an example if appropriate, and explain their relevance to a description of language: arbitrariness, ASL, competence, cooperative principle, creole, critical period, discreteness, duality of structure, finite state grammar, generativity, language acquisition device (LAD), linguistic relativism, linguistic universal, phoneme, phoneme restoration effect, phrase structure grammar, semanticity.
  6. Chomsky argues that a linguistic theory (in the form of a grammar for a language) must provide a description of the competence (rather than merely the performance) shown by native speakers of a language.  Discuss how Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar (particularly with respect to its postulation of deep structure vs. surface structure) accounts for the four linguistic intuitions important to a description of competence.  (Giving specific examples is recommended.)
  7. Describe the method and results of the following studies performed to investigate the psychological reality of linguistic structure: a) Fodor, Garrett, & Bever’s (1967) “click” studies, b) Jarvella’s (1971) clause recall study, c) Caplan’s (1972) probe word study, and d) Johnson’s (1966) “transition error probability” study.  Discuss the relationship between transformational complexity and cognitive difficulty in processing.
  8. Three (interrelated) strategies by which listeners may comprehend sentences are based on their form: word order, using cue words, or a semantic strategy.  Describe TWO of these strategies and give an example to demonstrate why we use this strategy in comprehension.
  9. Distinguish three kinds of ambiguity, giving an example of each.  Describe phoneme monitoring (Foss & Jenkins, 1973) and explain the rationale for using it to demonstrate that ambiguity causes sentence processing to be difficult.  Describe the lexical decision task used by Swinney (1979) to determine whether both or only one meaning of an ambiguous word is processed.  What may we conclude from Swinney’s study about the effect of a disambiguating context on processing difficulty?
  10. Define the integrative and abstractive functions of memory and describe the method and results of studies by Sachs (1967; 1974) and by Bransford and Franks (1971) that demonstrate these functions.  Discuss how Bartlett's (1932) study of remembering is related to these findings.
  11. Studies by Bransford and Johnson (1972; picture context), Anderson and Pichert (1977; taking perspective), and Thorndyke (1977; story grammar) show that prior knowledge is very important in language comprehension.  Describe the method and results of these studies.  Discuss how their findings are related to Bartlett’s (1932) theory about constructive memory.
  12. What are the effects of rigidity in thinking on the solving of a problem?  Give an example.  How do expertise and the method of problem presentation (context) affect this rigidity and people’s ability to solve problems?
  13. Describe and give an example of each of the general problem types enumerated in class: arrangement, induction, deduction, transformation, and divergent.  Discuss the effect of “ill-defined” problems in problem-solving strategies, especially with respect to Herbert Simon’s concept of satisficing.  Why is defining a problem so important in solving it?  Outline the steps of the IDEAL approach of problem-solving (Bransford & Stein, 1984).
  14. Define and differentiate algorithm and heuristic.  Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each for solving problems.  Give TWO examples of heuristics, and describe a situation where they might be effective.  Why are heuristics more often studied than algorithms?
  15. What is incubation?  Discuss the evidence for the effectiveness of incubation in problem solving.  Describe THREE reasons that incubation might be effective.
  16. What is the effect of content and believability on correct reasoning?  Describe ONE kind of premise misinterpretation that might account for people’s “bounded rationality.”  Define confirmation bias and explain how it affects reasoning and decision-making.
  17. How well do people estimate probabilities?  Describe TWO of the reasons why people estimate the probability of an occurrence incorrectly (availability, representativeness, framing, illusory correlation, hindsight biases).  Give examples that show how such inaccuracies in our ability to estimate probabilities may affect our decision-making.
  18. What is a “normative” theory with respect to decision-making?  Contrast expected utility theory with a multiattribute utility theory.  Define “elimination by aspects,” and explain why it is a descriptive, rather than normative model of decision-making.  Consider the relevance of “satisficing” to the validity and usefulness of these models.
  19. How do emotions affect decision-making (Naqvi et al., 2006)?  What is the evidence from focal brain damage and other physiological studies about this relationship?  Describe their somatic-marker hypothesis and explain how it integrates these findings about decision-making.
  20. Briefly characterize the observed gender differences in cognitive task performance.  Contrast the usual way of describing these differences with Halpern’s (2004) cognitive-process taxonomy.  Give an example that illustrates the advantage of this approach to explaining gender differences in cognition.  How does her taxonomy relate to a psychobiosocial model of cognitive abilities?
  21. In L’Enfant Sauvage, François Truffaut portrays Itard, a French scientist who attempts to “civilize” a feral boy.  Describe one of Itard’s assumptions about human cognition or language, and consider how this assumption is similar to or different from the description of human cognition and language presented in class and in our readings.
  22. Consider John Wade in O’Brien’s (1994) novel In the Lake of the Woods: Are aspects of his memory, as described in the novel, repressed?  In what sense?  What characteristics of traumatic memory (as discussed by McNally, 2003) are illustrated in his remembering (and forgetting)?  What characteristics of false or implanted memories (Loftus, 2004) are seen in the way his memory seems to work?
  23. Memento portrays a typical “vengeance” film, with a disturbing twist: Leonard has a “memory thing” and can neither remember nor savor his revenge.  Describe his disorder and consider how plausible his disorder is, given what we’ve learned about anterograde amnesia.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind portrays perhaps the opposite problem: the persistence of unwanted emotional memories.  How do Joel’s and Clementine’s adventures with Lacuna, Inc. reveal the importance of remembering in establishing our own identity and in defining our relationships with others?  Both films also show other characteristic distortions of memory:  How does Leonard’s memory show aspects of “false memories” despite his efforts to remember?   How does Joel’s memory show characteristics of construction even as elements of his memory are systematically destroyed?
  24. Genie was considered, in the first days after her discovery, as a modern-day analogue to Victor, the French “wild child.”  In what respects were her situation and her behavior similar, and in what respects different?  In what ways do cases like Genie and Victor beguile and illuminate our understanding of language and human nature?  What are the difficulties (ethical and scientific) in interpreting the findings of the “Genie project” with respect to a) a critical period for language development; b) the effect of social deprivation on cognitive development?

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