Chapter Eight Cognition and Language

Question Why does it take less time for people to answer when asked “Is a robin a bird?” than when asked “Is a penguin a bird?” Because a robin is a natural concept, whereas a penguin is not a natural concept Because robins are smaller than penguins Because a robin is an example of a prototype bird Because penguins are mammals

Answer Choice c is correct. The more prototypical a member of a concept is, the more quickly people can decide if it is an example of the concept. (Chapter 8, Concepts section)

Question People have a tendency to overestimate the probability of being involved in a plane crash and to underestimate the probability of being involved in an automobile accident. This tendency to overestimate the risks of flying is due to the _________ heuristic. anchoring representative availability egalitarian

Answer Choice c is correct. The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut through which judgments are based on information that is most easily accessible or available. Typically, information about plane crashes is more “available” to people because such accidents are usually major news stories that garner lots of coverage by the media, making the event more prominent in memory. (Chapter 8, Informal Reasoning section)

Question If you flip a coin and it comes up heads ten times in a row, what is the likelihood of tails on the next flip? More than 50% Less than 50% Exactly 50% Can’t be determined

Answer Choice c is correct. This question can be used to illustrate the gambler’s fallacy, a typical flaw in decision making. The gambler’s fallacy involves the belief that the probability of future events in a random process will change depending on past events. (Chapter 8, Biases and Flaws in Decision Making section)

Question Some children have, unfortunately, spent their early years isolated from human contact and normal language input from their environment. The fact that such children cannot compensate for this early deprivation from language is evidence for a critical period for language development. the fact that language development is innate. the telegraphic model of language development. a reaction range’s necessity for normal language development.

Answer Choice a is correct. The critical period hypothesis posits that there is a biologically determined “window of opportunity” during which normal exposure to environmental input (i.e., language) must occur in order for normal development to occur. (Chapter 8, How Is Language Acquired? section)