Chapter 3: Cognitive Development Across Adulthood

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is not a major approach to studying cognition in adulthood?

A. psychometric approach

B. psychodynamic approach

C. information processing approach

D. Baltes duel process concept

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Cognition?

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) assesses ______ intelligence.

A. performance and emotional

B. fluid and natural

C. natural and crystalized

D. crystallized and fluid

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Psychometric Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is based on deviations from the mean and is standardized to equal ______.

A. 80

B. 100

C. 120

D. 150

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location Psychometric Approach

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Because IQ is standardized, we would expect that the majority of people would have an IQ score between ______.

A. 85 and 115

B. 95 and 120

C. 75 and 100

D. 70 and 130

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Psychometric Approach

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. The organized, systematic, and acculturated learning provided by society refers to ______.

A. performance IQ

B. Intelligence Quotient

C. fluid ability

D. crystallized ability

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Fluid ability is thought to ______ over the life span.

A. increase then decline

B. decrease then increase

C. increase

D. remain stable

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Researchers have found that scores on chemistry, music, art, law, and physics increased in young and middle-aged people. This shows an increase in ______ intelligence.

A. domain-specific

B. complex

C. fluid

D. crystallized

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. Which of the following factors is not included in Thurstone’s theory of primary mental abilities?

A. social relations

B. spatial reasoning

C. perceptual speed

D. numerical ability

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Perceptual speed can be measured by ______.

A. using mathematical computation problems

B. analogies and vocabulary

C. asking people to generate members of different categories

D. asking people to perform proofreading tasks

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. What is the name of the most extensive study of adult intellectual development to date?

A. the Seattle Longitudinal Studies of Aging

B. Bandura’s Study of Social Theory

C. the Sandusky Scientific Experiments

D. the National Study of Aging and Cohort Effects

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. Arguably the most important finding from Schaie’s study of adult intelligence is that ______.

A. cognitive declines begin at age 40

B. there is a universal, true decline in cognition

C. cognitive decline is irreversible

D. cognitive decline is not entirely biologically based

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. The structure approach to memory suggests that ______.

A. there are distinct hypothetical entities defining memory

B. memory does not have different stores with different functions

C. memory failures are the same across each system

D. sensory memory is primary memory

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Information in sensory memory decays rapidly within ______ s.

A. 3–4

B. 2–3

C. 1–2

D. 1/3–1

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. Holding information in our memory about the day’s specials at a restaurant is an example of use of our ______.

A. long-term memory

B. sensory memory

C. short-term memory

D. intelligence

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Hard

15. When completing a digit span task, the typical young adult can hold ______ digits in their working memory.

A. four

B. five

C. six

D. seven

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. When completing a forward digit span task, the typical older adult can hold about five digits in their working memory. This is referred to as ______.

A. limited processing capacity

B. backward digit span capability

C. memory fullness

D. potential processing capacity

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Hard

17. Research has suggested that younger adults are better at ______.

A. recalling names

B. remembering history

C. knowing geography facts

D. having stores of personally meaningful information

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. In the context of long-term memory, registration best refers to ______.

A. whether the senses are activated

B. whether the material is heard or seen

C. identification of important aspects of content

D. visualizing an outcome

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. People who know more may actually appear to have a worse memory. This is because ______.

A. they become overwhelmed by all the information they have

B. their memory stores are limited

C. what they have stored is more complex and extensive

D. they have a greater storehouse of personally meaningful information

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Hard

20. The "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon is an example of a difficulty with ______.

A. encoding

B. sensory memory

C. retrieval

D. memory trace

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Hard

True/False

1. Dementia is a part of the normal aging process.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Longitudinal studies suggest that there is an increase in intelligence with age, as measured by the WAIS.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Psychometric Approach

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Research on intelligence suggests that we cannot compensate for deficiencies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. The study conducted by Shaie suggested that how much age decreases in intelligence varied were related to the type of ability examined and cohort membership.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Sensory memory is not really considered to be memory at all.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. Working memory is also known as long-term memory.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. In the backward digit span task, younger adults can remember about one more item than older adults.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Memory storage is not typically encoded in a hierarchical pattern.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. In regard to cognitive aging, typical declines are most pronounced in older adulthood and very late in life.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Information-Processing Approaches to Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Those who subscribe to an information processing perspective do not focus on component processes.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Information-Processing Approaches to Cognition

Difficulty Level: Easy

Short Answer

1. What is the definition of cognition?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What Is Cognition?

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Describe the psychometric approach to studying cognition.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Psychometric Approach

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. What is the difference between crystallized and fluid abilities?

learning provided by society (e.g., home, school, workplace). In contrast, fluid ability is akin to the Performance IQ. Gf fluctuates with the demands made on us in novel situations and is determined by idiosyncratic, largely self-determined causal learning influences. What is perhaps most distinctive about fluid ability is that it can be measured by tasks in which relatively little advantage comes from intensive or extended education and acculturation.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. What are three factors that underly intelligence according to Thurstone’s theory of primary mental abilities?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Seattle Longitudinal Study and Primary Mental Abilities

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. What is a verbal mediator, and how does it relate to long-term memory?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Long-Term Memory

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Compare and contrast crystalized and fluid ability.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Crystallized (Gc) and Fluid (Gf) Abilities

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Describe how short-term memory is impacted in older adulthood.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Memory as Cognition

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. How does registration and encoding relate to long-term memory?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Multidimensional Nature of Age

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Describe some of the major findings from the Seattle Longitudinal Study.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Why Do We Age? Theories of Biological Aging

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Describe sensory, short-term, and long-term memory and how they are impacted by age.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Why Do We Age? Theories of Biological Aging

Difficulty Level: Easy