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Spring 00, Exam 1 |
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Part 1: Multiple Choice. Circle the letter corresponding to the correct answer. Only one answer is correct for each question. (1 point each) 1. McClelland and Rumelhart's (1981) Interactive Activation Model, unlike PANDEMONIUM,
includes _____. 2. _____ studies assume that measurable time is required for information to cross the
corpus callosum. 3. According to the _____ hypothesis thinking is information processing, information
processing is computation on symbols, and the semantics of symbols connect thinking to the
external world. 4. Because it happens outside our conscious awareness and does not use up any of our
limited short-term memory resources, word recognition is an example of a(n) _____ process. 5. Which of the following symptoms is not normally associated with damage to the
right cerebral cortex? 6. PANDEMONIUM is formulated at the level of analysis that Marr refers to as the _____. 7. A _____ is the smallest unit of a language that carries definable meaning or
grammatical function. 8. Patients suffereing from _____ Aphasia produce sentences that are fluent and
grammatical but largely meaningless. 9. If Neisser (1967) had found that it takes longer to search for two target letters
than to search for just one, then _____ would have been disconfirmed. 10. In a(n) _____ writing system, graphemes are used to represent each phoneme in the
language.
Part 2: Definitions. In just 1 or 2 sentences, give an operational definition for each of the following concepts. Your definition may come from an experiment you are familiar with or you may make up your own definition (as long as it accurately defines the concept and is operational). (2 points each) Grading Criteria:
11. Reversible versus Nonreversible Sentences To determine if sentences are reversible or nonreversible I would present them to a group of participants and ask them to judge whether they still make sense when the agent and object are reversed (e.g., "The boy ate the bagel." --> "The bagel ate the boy."). Those for which a majority responded "yes" could then be classified as reversible while those for which a majority responded "no" could be classified as nonreversible. 12. Word Frequency I would begin by collecting a very large sample of naturally occurring language such as all the magazines published in the U. S. during 1998. To determine the frequency of a given word, I would then calculate the number of times it occurs (per million words) in my sample. 13. Working Memory Capacity Over earphones I would present participants with groups of 5, 6, 7, etc. randomly selected digit and ask them to repeat them back immediately. I would use the highest number of digit that a participant was correct on at least half the time as a measure of his or her working memory capacity. [Note: This is the standard memory span measure.] 14. The Word Superiority Effect To demonstrate the Word Superiority Effect, we could ask people to look at a fixation point on a computer screen then name, as quickly as possible, letters that appear in its place. The Word Superiority Effect can then be defined as the difference in letter naming times (the time that elapses between presenting a letter and detecting the naming response) between letters presented alone (e.g., "O") and letters presented in the context of a word (e.g., "DOG"). 15. An Evoked Response Potential (ERP) To measure Evoked Potentials we could attach electrodes to participants heads and measure changes in electrical conductivity under two conditions: while they are staring at a fixation point and when that fixation point is replaced (very breifly) by some stilulus such as a word. We could then define the ERP as the difference between these two conditions.
Part 3: Short Essay. Answer each of the following questions using no more than half of a page for each. (5 points each) 16. Explain the difference between automatic and controlled processes and give an example of each. Grading Criteria:
Example Answer: Controlled processes must be intentionally initiated, they can be stopped at any time, we are consciously aware of their intermediate steps, and they use up short-term memory resources. When an inexperienced chess player chooses a move, that is an example of a controlled process. Automatic processes occur whenever the appropriate stimuli are present, once they begin they cannot be stopped, we are not aware of their intermediate steps, and they do not use short-term memory resources. Lexical access is an example of an automatic process. 17. Previous research has shown that when listeners encounter a semantic anomaly such as the word "socks" in the sentence, "He spread the warm bread with socks." they show a strong N400 response (i.e., a negative change in electrical conductivity measured on the scalp which reaches its peak 400 msec after the word is presented). Design an experiment that makes use of this effect to test the claim that semantic knowledge is preserved in patients with Broca's Aphasia. Be sure to specify (using operational definitions and/or examples where they are appropriate) what your independent and dependent variables would be. What pattern of results would you expect to see if the claim is true? What pattern would you expect to see if it is false? [Note: Don’t worry about the details of measuring electrical conductivity on the scalp. Just take it for granted that you can do it.] Grading Criteria:
Example Answer: I would begin by creating a set of 50 sentences frames such as "He spread the warm bread with _____." Then I would ask a group of 50 college students to complete each sentence by filling in the blank with a noun that "makes sense" in the context of the rest of the sentence. I would use these responses to create 2 versions of each sentence. One version (the control sentence) would include the most common response given by the students (e.g., "bread"). The other version (the anomalous sentence) would include a noun that was never given as a response by the student and which I felt made no sense in the context of the rest of the sentence (e.g., "socks"). These nouns would be matched in average length and frequency with the nouns in the control sentences. The two types of sentences (control and anomalous) would define the independent variable in my experiment. The participants would be 20 to 25 patients with Broca’s Aphasia. I would ask them to listen to 25 control sentences and 25 anomalous sentences presented in a random order. I would attach electrodes to their heads to measure changes in electrical conductivity on the scalp that occur in response to the last word in each sentence. For each person, I would calculate the average magnitude of the N400 response in the control and anomalous sentences. This would be my dependent variable. If semantic information really is preserved in patients with Broca’s Aphasia I would expect the N400 response to be significantly greater for anomalous sentences than for control sentences. If semantic information is not preserved in Broca’s Aphasia, I would expect to find no difference between the two types of sentences.
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