Exam 8: Thought and Language

Why do psychologists assert that heuristics are beneficial for problem solving?

On his way into work, Charlie sees a sign for an upcoming concert for the band Cake. Without even realizing it, the word cake has made Charlie think of baked sweets, which makes him think of getting a donut. This is an example of ______________.

Kyle buys a new refrigerator, but when he gets home, he cannot fit it through the front door of his house. Which of the following would describe the initial state for Kyle's problem?

Seventy percent of the students in a classroom are women and 30 percent are men. One student is described as ambitious, athletic, and assertive. Why are most people likely to think this description refers to a male student?

Lex is in the second grade. As part of a homework assignment, he is asked to write a sentence to describe a picture of a dog playing fetch. Lex writes the sentence, "Ball the dog has." Lex is clearly having trouble with ___________.

What did researchers find when they compared plant and animal naming of rural villagers in Central America to urban dwellers in the United States?

For most people, a dog is a better fit than a tarantula for the category of pets. This is an example of ____________.

What are the rules that govern how words are strung together into meaningful sentences?

Mental representations of an average category member are called _____________ and allow for "classification by resemblance."

If someone walked up to you and said, "Milk," and then asked you to quickly name an animal, you would likely say, "cow." This illustrates the concept of ______________.

Dominica is trying to spoon soup from a big pot into a bowl, but does not have a ladle. Although a large coffee cup is sitting on the counter in front of her, she does not think of using it to transfer the soup from the pot to her bowl. It is likely that _________________ prevented her from seeing this solution to her problem.

Greta is a researcher who studies how people come to understand meaning from words and how they are arranged. Greta's area of study would be described as ___________.

Miranda asks her teacher, "Can I go to the bathroom?" to which she replied, "I don't know, can you?" Miranda's teacher was purposely ignoring the ______________ of Miranda's question to make a point about grammar.

Suppose 40% of all of the books in a library are fiction and 2% of all of the books are on the Roman Empire. Wanda is a big fan of historical fiction novels. Which of the following is she LEAST likely to leave the library with?

For most people, brain regions specifically involved in language are located in the _____________.

When an individual believes that they are correct, they only seek evidence that will also lead to that conclusion. This is referred to as _______.

Which of the following best matches the view of your textbook's authors on the use of heuristic thinking?

The fact that humans so often rely on heuristics is evidence that:

Because semantic networks are arranged ________________, they show which categories are more basic than others.

A concept is the mental representation of an object, event, or idea.