AP Psychology Quiz - Problem Solving

A defense attorney emphasizes to a jury that her client works full-time, supports his family, and enjoys leisure-time hobbies. Although none of this information is relevant to the trial, it is designed to make the defendant appear to be a typical member of the local community. The lawyer is most clearly attempting to take advantage 

• confirmation bias.
• functional fixedness.
• belief perseverance.
• the representativeness heuristic.

Which of the following is TRUE?

• People underestimate the accuracy of their judgments.
• People pay closest attention to information that disconfirms what they believe.
• It is difficult for most people to explain away their failures.
• People are overconfident about how they will perform on various tasks.

Maintaining one's conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited is known as: 

• the representativeness heuristic.
• belief perseverance.
• confirmation bias.
• functional fixedness.

Which of the following is NOT included as part of today’s general definition of intelligence?

• the ability to solve problems
• nthe ability to use knowledge to adapt to new situations
• the ability to understand people and emotions
• the ability to learn from experience

Problem solving is one type of cognitive activity in which we all engage.  Which of the following cognitive tendencies is seen to be an obstacle to problem solving?

• availability heuristic
• insight
• prototype confusion
• confirmation bias

To find Tabasco sauce in a large grocery store, you could systematically search every shelf in every store aisle. This best illustrates problem solving by means of: 

• the availability heuristic.
• functional fixedness.
• an algorithm.
• the representativeness heuristic.

  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

Experts in a given field prefer heuristics to algorithms because heuristics:

• Guarantee solutions to problems
• Prevent mental sets
• Often save time
• Prevent fixation

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