Fall 2000
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PART II: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS (3 points each)
Write your answer in the space provided below each question. You should be able to answer
each question in a sentence or two. Please write your last name and ID number at the top of
each page in case the pages are separated.
1. Describe how bottom-up processing and top-down processing both might contribute to your
ability to immediately recognise your course instructor when he or she walks into class.
2. How do template models and feature-analysis models differ in explaining how pattern
recognition works?
3. In Sperling's (1960) study of the "visual icon" or perceptual store, how was it determined that
the information held in the icon persists for about 250 milliseconds?
4. Posner and his colleagues (e.g., Posner, Nissen, & Ogden, 1978; Posner, Snyder, &
Davidson, 1980) have conducted visual detection experiments in which the participant is
provided with a cue (an arrow presented at fixation) that the upcoming target will fall to the
left or right of the fixation point. Most of the time, this cue is valid, but on some trials it is
misleading. Briefly describe the basic finding of these experiments and what they tell us
about visual attention.
5. Suppose you work for an advertising agency and are currently in charge of the Kellogg’s
Frosted Flakes account. How might you develop an advertising campaign or slogan based on
the results of Wegner’s thought suppression research?
6. How does the modal or duplex model of memory account for the shape of the standard serial
position curve for free recall memory?
7. The visuospatial sketchpad is one component of Baddeley’s working memory model. What
are the other two, and what are their functions?
8. Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed the Levels of Processing theory, suggesting that all
types of rehearsal do not lead to the same performance on later tests of memory. Discuss one
of the experiments that were described in your textbook (Reed) that provides support for
Craik and Lockhart’s contention.
Fall 2000
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9. What is the relationship between the results of Bartlett's (1932) "War of the Ghosts" study
and Brewer and Treyen's (1981) study in which subjects were asked to recall the contents of
an office in which they had waited prior to the experiment?
10. Compare and contrast the hierarchical network model and the feature comparison model of
memory as discussed in the Reed textbook.
PART III: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS ON JOURNAL ARTICLES
Please answer any 3 of the following 4 questions, and leave the remaining question unanswered.
Again, you should be able to answer each question in a few sentences.
1. “Face Recognition in Poor-Quality Video: Evidence from Security Surveillance”
(Burton, Wilson, Cowan, & Bruce, 1999)
In Experiment 2 subjects were recruited who were familiar with the targets in the video clips and
were asked to identify them. Aspects of the video were selectively edited creating three
conditions: Body obscured, Face obscured and Gait obscured. Compare the recognition accuracy
between these three conditions. What information do these findings suggest subjects were using
to identify targets from these videos?
2. “To See or Not To See: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes”
(Rensink, O’Regan, & Clark, 1997)
In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a visual display (scene A) followed by a blank
interval and then an altered display (scene A'). Participants were instructed to detect the aspect
of the scene that was changing (e.g., colour, location) during the alternation of displays A and A'.
Describe participants’ performance with respect to central and marginal regions of interest.
When the blank intervals that were presented between A and A' were removed, was detection
performance altered for central and marginal regions of interest?
3. “Tricks of Memory”
(Roediger & McDermott, 2000)
Roediger and McDermott concluded that people have specific memories of events that they only
inferred at the time of encoding. Which aspect of their results in their original experiment
provides the best support for this conclusion?
4.
“Does the gun pull the trigger”
(Anderson, Benjamin & Bartholow, 1998)
Explain the weapons-as-primes hypothesis.