1. _________ is a mental activity associated with obtaining, converting, and using knowledge, and _________ refers to coming to a decision, reaching a solution, or forming a belief.

d. Cognition; thinking

2. _________ are the mental representations of categories of objects, situations, and ideas that belong together based on their central features or characteristics.

a. Concepts

3. The boundaries of _________ are imprecise and hard to define, because they do not have rigid rules for identification. For example, not everyone agrees with what qualities make a mother.

c. natural concepts

4. Following a stroke, the neurons in the brain exhibit greater excitability, rewiring occurs, and there is increased efficiency of synaptic connections, all indicating _________ of the brain.

b. the plasticity

5. You are at dinner with a friend and you are struggling to determine the tip you should leave. Your friend suggests you do what she does to calculate a 20% tip: Move the decimal to the left one space and multiply by 2. This is an example of using _________ to solve the problem.

d. an algorithm

6. _________ is thought of as an understanding or solution that occurs in a sudden stroke of clarity. Research suggests activity occurs in the frontal and temporal lobes immediately preceding an “aha!” moment, implying that a reorganization occurs without our awareness.

a. Insight

7. Factors such as the frequency and vividness of an event make us more likely to predict such an event will occur in the future. This is known as using the:

b. availability heuristic.

8. Sometimes we do not gather important information when making decisions because we are only looking for evidence that upholds our beliefs. This is known as the:

d. confirmation bias.

9. The wording of a question can influence the outcome of a decision. People are more likely to prefer ground beef if it is described as 80% lean as opposed to 20% fat. This is an example of:

c. the framing effect.

10. Infants can recognize and distinguish among all _________ from all languages until about 9 months of age. This is why it is so much more difficult for older children and adults to learn to speak a foreign language without an accent.

b. phonemes

11. One important component of creativity is _________, which refers to the ability to devise many solutions to a problem.

a. divergent thinking

12. The word “unexcitable” can be broken into three parts (un, excite, able). Remove one of these and the meaning of the word changes. These three parts represent _________, the fundamental units that bring meaning to a language.

c. morphemes

13. _________ is one’s innate ability to solve problems, adapt to the environment, and learn from experience.

d. Intelligence

14. To determine the _________ of an intelligence test, you could give the assessment to a sample of participants and then compare the results with another assessment of intelligence to make sure the test is measuring what it intends to measure.

b. validity

15. Although there is a consistent gap between how Black Americans and White Americans score on IQ tests, research suggests this is the result of:

a. environmental factors such as chronic stress.

16. How are formal and natural concepts different? Give examples of each.

Formal concepts are created through rigid and logical rules, or features of a concept. Natural concepts are acquired through everyday experience, and they do not have the same types of rigid rules for identification that formal concepts have.

17. Explain how the theories of intelligence differ.

See Table 7.2. Charles Spearman speculated that intelligence consists of a general intelligence (or g factor), which refers to a singular underlying aptitude or intellectual ability. Howard Gardner suggested we have multiple intelligences, proposing eight different types of intelligences or “frames of mind”: linguistic (verbal), logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Robert Sternberg proposed three kinds of intelligences. His triarchic theory of intelligence suggests that humans have varying degrees of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.

18. Many people on the Jersey Shore had to leave their homes when Hurricane Irene hit in 2011. On returning home, they found that no significant damage had occurred. When told to evacuate for Superstorm Sandy in 2012, many of these same residents did not leave. What heuristic do you think they used?

Using the availability heuristic, we predict the probability of something happening in the future based on how easily we can recall a similar type of event from the past. The availability heuristic is essentially a decision-making strategy that relies on memory. They remembered a recent storm in which they did not have to leave their homes, and so they decided it was safe to stay.

19. Why are reliability and validity important in test construction? What is at risk if you have developed an unreliable IQ test? What might happen if your IQ test is not valid?

Reliability is the ability of an assessment to provide consistent, reproducible results. Validity is the degree to which an assessment measures what it intends to measure. An unreliable IQ test might result in getting different scores for the IQ test taken now and again in a few months; it would not be consistent across time, which is counter to what you would expect (we expect level of intelligence to remain fairly stable over time). An IQ test that is not valid would not be able to predict future performance on tasks related to intellectual ability.

20. Using divergent thinking, how many uses can you think of for a hammer?

Answers will vary. Divergent thinking is the ability to devise many solutions to a problem.