Multiple Choice Questions on
Thinking and Intelligence

1. As she moves quietly around the
restaurant where she works as a waitress, Alicia finds herself humming in her
head the phrase, “Just whistle while you work?” This is an example of
a/an:

a. Proposition

b. prototype

c. auditory image

d. cognitive schema

2. Chris must sit out the next two
weeks of basketball games because of a problem with her hamstring muscle. Her
eight grade coach tells her to use this off time imagining herself out on the
court. He wants Chris to feel her body running down the court, to see herself
reaching for the ball and shooting a basket. It is most likely that Chris’s
coach is:

a. trying to keep her spirits up
during the time she won’t be able to play.

b. trying to change her
perspective and see the game through his eyes.

c. keeping her involved in the
game, so she’ll stop brooding over her injury.

d. encouraging her to rehearse in
this way, so her performance will improve when she’s ready to play again.

3. When Mitch was learning to
drive, he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever remember to steer the wheel, flip on
the turn signal, step on the gas pedal, and still manage to keep the car on the
road. Now that he has been driving for three years, Mitch’s reactions have
become so automatic that, when he’s driving is/are involved.

a. nonconscious processes

b. convergent thinking

c. subconscious processes

d. divergent thinking

4. Dawn and Erin can’t figure out
how to fit their clothes, furniture, futons, computers, and a refrigerator into
their small dorm room. Just when it seems hopeless, Erin says, “Aha, I’ve
got it!” She begins moving the items around until they fit perfectly.
Erin’s sudden revelation is most likely due to:

a. clues that triggered
nonconscious processing about the room arrangement, followed by conscious
awareness of the solution.

b. simplifying the process by
imagining a prototype of a dorm room, then making a decision based on that
prototype.

c. subconscious processing and
automatic routines that Erin has learned so well that she can perform them
without thinking.

d. beginning the task in a state
of mindlessness, then directing her conscious thinking to the task at hand.

5. Zelda dials her boyfriend’s
number instead of her mother’s, as she intended. Zelda correctly attributes her
error to:

a. pre-reflecting reasoning.

b. mindlessness.

c. implicit learning

d. inductive reasoning

6. Scientist make very careful
observations. From those observations they draw a conclusion, while remaining
open to the fact that there may be several possible correct answers. This leads
us to conclude that science depends heavily on reasoning.

a. inductive

b. algorithmic

c. deductive

d. intuitional

7. A production executive, using
deductive reasoning as an approach to solving production problems, concludes
that there is only one correct solution to every problem. The flaw in his
reasoning is that:

a. it allows his managers to find
their own answers.

b. clear solutions to
manufacturing problems are rare.

c. it doesn’t allow for
dialectical reasoning.

d. it relies too heavily on what
has proved effective in the past.

8. Reflective judgment requires an
ability to think critically about everyday problems and be prepared to:

a. stand up for what you believe.

b. reassess conclusions in the
light of new information.

c. discover that there is no good
an answer for anything in life.

d. reflect on what is presented,
ask questions, and search of that single correct answer that is “out
there.”

9. Neville’s physician has told
him that there is no association between weather conditions and his arthritis
pain. Nonetheless, Neville is convinced that his arthritis will act up whenever
the barometric pressure changes. His conviction that a meaningful pattern
exists when it doesn’t is an example of:

a. mindlessness

b. justification of effort.

c. stereotype threat

d. a mental set.

10. As Alicia awaits the birth of
her first grandchild, she says she doesn’t care if it is a boy or a girl as
long as the baby is healthy. When she holds her new granddaughter for the first
time, Alicia reveals that she knew all along that her daughter would have a
little girl. Alicia’s barrier to rational reasoning in this instance is a case of:

a. hindsight bias

b. confirmation bias

c. a mental set

d. justification of effort

11. Paul thinks of himself as an
excellent negotiator after purchasing a brand new car. Two months later, his
brother-in-law Noah purchases the same model for $1,000 less than Paul paid!
According to cognitive dissonance theory, Paul will probably:

a. decide that he isn’t as good as
he thought at negotiating the price of a car.

b. ask Noah to come along the next
time he purchases a car.

c. tell himself he’s glad he’s had
his new car for these two months, even though prices dropped later.

d. begin to dislike his new car,
noticing little defects that bother him.

12. Which one of the following
statements about the g factor is TRUE?

a. G factor is a statistical
method for evaluating aptitude test scores.

b. There is a great deal of
dispute among psychologists about the existence of general intellectual ability
shared by all humans.

c. G factor is the broad term for
measurement of mental ability.

d. G factor was used by Alfred
Binet to determine a child’s mental age (MA).

13. The first intelligence test
was developed by Alfred Binet as a way to:

a. identify slow learners.

b. isolate children in the top one
percent of the intelligence scale.

c. identify children who
demonstrate the g factor.

d. measure test anxiety.

14. David Wechsler designed the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) to produce separate IQ scores.

a. componential, experimental, and
contextual

b. tacit knowledge and emotional
intelligence

c. culture-free and general
knowledge

_d. general, verbal, and
performance

15. Enrique, a psychologist, is
concerned about his client Carmen who is scheduled to take an advanced math
test. It seems she’s convinced that men have better mathematical minds than
women. Enrique’s concern is that this will hinder Carmen’s ability to perform
well on the math exam.

a. test anxiety

b. gender dissonance

c. gender bias

d. stereotype threat

16. Bill, a successful salesman,
knows exactly what to say to his customers to make them feel at ease. He reads
each unique situation and responds appropriately. Clearly, Bill possesses a
highly developed intelligence.

a. contextual

b. componential

c. experiential

d. psychometric

17. Logan understands the material
in his statistics class, but he spends the entire test period on the most
difficult problems and never gets to the ones he knows how to solve. It’s
evident that Logan needs to improve his:

a. reflective judgment

b. cognitive dissonance

c. componential intelligence

d. justification of effort

18. When Bob, a brilliant
physicist, gets anxious about solving a problem, he becomes belligerent with
his coworkers. Cognitive psychologists would describe Bob’s behavior as being
due to low:

a. self-worth.

b. emotional intelligence

c. emotional threshold

d. social tolerance

19. When Wolfgang Kohler put
tempting bananas out of the reach of chimpanzees, he found that:

_a. the apes often sat quietly at
first, then seemed to have a sudden insight into a solution.

b. the apes performed impressive
gymnastic maneuvers to get the bananas, but did not know how to use tools.

c. many of the apes showed
humanlike emotions, and some even demonstrated near-human cognitive abilities.

d. almost all of the apes seemed
to have sudden insights into a solution, followed by positive action.

20. Cognitive ethologists agree
that animals’ intelligence is demonstrated in their ability to anticipate
future events, make choices and plans, then:

a. respond to reinforcement

b. avoid dangerous situations

c. act on their environment to
gain rewards

_d. coordinate activities