What is cognition? Do we need to study cognition (what goes on in the mind) or is it enough just to study behavior? What (objective) evidence is there that mental images are real? What is a concept? What is the difference between a formal concept and a natural concept? Give an example of each. What is deductive reasoning? What is inductive reasoning? Give an example of each. Think of a problem. Give an example of how you would solve it using trial and error, algorithm and heuristic approaches. What are the availability heuristic and the representativeness heuristic (described in Myers)? In the context of judgement as described in Myers, what is overconfidence?
What is language? In the context of a definition for language what do each of the following words mean: "arbitrary," "displacement," "generative," and "shared"? Describe and contrast the "universal grammar" theory and the learning-theory of language. What is the evidence in favor of each?
Describe the following theories of motivation: instinct, drive-reduction, arousal theory, incentive, sensation-seeking, competence. Describe the personality of a person with high achievement motivation? How do they differ from those low in achievement motivation? Describe and explain Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Compare and contrast the above theories of motivation with classical and operant conditioning.
What is homeostasis? Describe the role of the following in controlling eating behavior: blood chemistry, conditioning, the hypothalamus, social factors, and the stomach. Describe the set-point theory of body weight. Why doesn't dieting work? How else might one try to lose weight? What are the symptoms of anorexia and bulimia?
Describe the following theories of emotion: the Cannon-Bard theory, the cognitive-mediational theory, the James-Lange theory, the Schachter-Singer theory. Give the evidence for and against each. What is your definition of emotion (include the aspects described in your textbook)? How might one be able to fool a polygraph (lie detector)?
Anthony G Benoit
abenoit@trcc.commnet.edu
(860) 885-2386
Revised