AP Unit 7/Gen. Psychology Ch. 7 Cognition

The representativeness heuristic can produce faulty estimates if:

• We generalize our views to other, nonrepresentativeness heuristics
•  The representativeness  algorithm does not match the representativeness heuristic
•  Possible variations in the prototype are considered
•  We fail to consider the approximate number of prototypes that actually exist

  Dr. Mendoza is studying the mental strategies people use when solving problems. Dr. Mendoza is clearly a(n): 

• Cognitive psychologist
• Experimental psychologist
• Organizational psychologist
• Developmental psychologist

A mental grouping of similar things, events or people is called a(n):

• Prototype
• Concept
• Algorithm
• Heuristic

The conjunction fallacy is a tendency to:

• Draw general conclusions based on a few isolated cases
• Overestimate the odds of a chance event if that event hasn’t occurred recently
• Underestimate the odds of a chance event if that event hasn’t occurred recently
• Believe that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone

Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to:

• Allow preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning
• Cling to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
• Search randomly through alternative solutions when problem solving
• Look for information that is consistent with one’s beliefs

A common problem in everyday reasoning is our tendency to:

• Accept as logical those conclusions that agree with our own opinions
• Accept as logical those conclusions that disagree with our own opinions
• Underestimate the accuracy of our knowledge
• Accept as logical those conclusions that involve unfamiliar concepts

Mental sets and functional fixedness are types of:

• Algorithms
• Heuristics
• Fixation
• Insight

A strategy in which the likelihood of an event is estimated on the basis of how easily other instances of the event are available in memory is called the:

• Availability heuristic
• Availability algorithm
• Representativeness heuristic
• Representativeness algorithm

The term used to describe the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge is:

• Cognition
• Learning
• Perception
• Sensation

When Janice forgot to pack a pillow for her camping trip she used her down-jacket as a substitute pillow. In this situation Janice:

• Was not constrained by functional fixedness
• Was constrained by a mental set
• Was constrained by functional fixedness
• Used an algorithm to solve her problem