You should answer each question to the best of your ability. The maximum length of any answer will be one typed, double- spaced page. You will not need all of that for every question. You should feel free to skip introductory material and get right to the answer. It does not need to be an essay; if there are parts to the question you may just answer a, b, c, etc. without trying to make it into an overall paragraph. The answers should be on separate pages.

1. In the first unit (Introduction/History), I made an effort to describe the cognitive paradigm. It had six parts: Pretheoretical ideas, intellectual antecedents, subject matter, method, concepts/language, and analogies. Since then, we have seen a number of studies that I think really embody the paradigm. For the CogLabs or studies listed below, tell me how they fit the paradigm (use one or two of the six parts that are most relevant for each answer, don’t try to drag them all in); or, in what way are they NOT a great example of the paradigm? (Note that some parts of the paradigm are MUCH easier to do this with than others.)

a. The Muller-Lyer Illusion CogLab.
b. The influence of anxiety on working memory and math performance. c. The Memory Span CogLab.

2. Methodology is an important part of the paradigm. One important methodological tool is the double dissociation. Explain how Glanzer and Cunitz’s study on the difference between short and long term memory is a perfect example of a double dissociation in action.

3. Methodology is an important part of the paradigm. I’ve mentioned nomothetic explanation as a potential problem on a number of occasions.
a. Explain what nomothetic explanation is, and tell me why we have to do it.
b. Why is nomothetic explanation a potential problem?

c. Give me an example of a cognitive psychology result for which nomothetic explanation would be a particularly relevant concern (pick anything that we’ve covered).

4. For each of these, answer with something to do with signal detection. What kind of error is it (if it is an error)? What led to it (sensitivity, bias)?
a. A person turns on Archer street when they wanted Archley street. Why?
b. A person hits a pedestrian in a crosswalk on a rainy night. Why?

c. My alarm goes off in a quiet room and I hear it and get up. Why?
d. My alarm doesn’t go off and I keep sleeping. Why?
e. Give me an example of a situation (not yet discussed by us) for which you would prefer false alarm errors to miss errors.

5. The picture below was taken on a ghost hunt. There might be a person sitting in the chair on the left. From a bottom-up perspective, why would someone think they see a person in the chair? From a top-down perspective, why would they think they see a person in the chair? How do bottom-up and top-down combine?

6. Define an automatic process using the three characteristics. Give an example of a skill that you have that is automatic (create your own example) and explain how that process fits the criteria.

7. Here are some properties of short-term memory. I have also given you some problems. Which property goes (or which properties go) with which problem? Why? How could you apply your knowledge of short-term memory to help solve the problem? (You may use each property more than once or some may not be used at all.)

Properties:
1) Duration.
2) Capacity.
3) Code(s).
4) Mechanism of forgetting.

Problems:

a. I’m trying to type up my notes and somebody stops by to talk to me. It makes it really hard for me to remember more than a couple of words at a time to type them.
b. My students’ names are Billy, Bobby, Molly, Tommy, Johnny, and Robby. In a different class I have Sue, James, Joe, Marcus, Kyle. On the first day of class when everyone introduces themselves I remember the names from the second class better.

c. I go to my seminar for my new job at work and we do finance all day. The longer we go the harder it is to learn new terms.
d. I ask someone for the combination to the lock on the lab. Before I can put it in, someone asks me where the psychology office is. When I go to enter the combination, I find that I’ve forgotten it.

e. I’m doing a catering job and I’m familiar with the menu. People are able to give me all kinds of special orders and I can remember them fine.