Unit 2 Thinking and Problem Solving Practice

Dr. Meerdink wants to know if creativity varies throughout the day. In a morning class, she asks her college students to list as many uses as possible for a stick. On the same day 12 hours later, she asks students in an evening class to list as many uses as possible for a stick. Which of the following factors is the dependent variable?

• Morning

• Evening

• Creativity

• College students

Raj, a four-year-old child, learned to open the door to a classroom by pulling on the handle. Now whenever he approaches any door he pulls on the handle and is confused when that does not work. This is best explained by Raj’s having developed which of the following for door opening?

• Accommodation

• Object permanence

• A mental set

• Divergent thinking

A prototype is best defined as

• an example of bottom-up processing

• the equivalent of feature abstraction

• the hypothetical 'most typical' instance of a category

• an essential element of category membership

When Cory is given a logic problem to solve, he systematically tries every possible solution until he finds the correct answer. Cory’s strategy is to use

• an algorithm

• a heuristic

• cognitive restructuring

• insight

When confronted with the sequence “__N __” at the end of a word in a crossword puzzle, Tony inserts the letters “I” and “G” in the two blanks because that procedure has often led to the correct answer in previous puzzles. This example illustrates the use of

• elaborative rehearsal

• a heuristic

• a prototype

• a syllogism

Creativity is most closely associated with which of the following?

• Convergent thinking

• Divergent thinking

• Interpersonal intelligence

• Intrapersonal intelligence

On a fishing trip, Ed realizes that he has mistakenly packed the sewing box instead of the tackle box. He wants to fish but returns home because he does not have any line or hooks. Ed's failure to realize that sewing thread can be used as fishing line and that a bent needle can be used as a hook is an example of

• poor problem representation

• cognitive accommodation

• functional fixedness

• proactive interference

After visiting her professor’s office, Rachel writes down everything she remembers seeing there. She correctly remembers many details, but she falsely remembers seeing books even though there were no books in the office. Additionally, she did not remember seeing a skull that was in the office. Which memory concept best explains why Rachel falsely encoded the books and failed to encode the skull?

• Schemas

• Association networks

• Sensory memory

• Context effects

A problem-solving strategy that is thorough but often inefficient when it is used by humans is an example of which of the following concepts?

• a heuristic

• social-cognitive learning

• insight

• an algorithm

Jordan learns a trick to solve one particular type of math problem. He then uses the same trick to solve other types of math problems, even though it does not work and he keeps getting the wrong answer. Jordan’s use of the trick is an example of

• reversibility

• a prototype

• insight

• a mental set