Thinking, Intelligence and Creativity Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The key marks speed, power and non-verbal (1, 2 and 3) as the characteristics of Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence Test.

The test uses non-verbal items such as series, classifications, matrices and conditions, so as to reduce the effect of language and culture, and it is a timed test. The keyed reading adds power, since the items vary in difficulty. Performance (4) is not how the test is described, so options C is wrong, and the options with fewer items leave out one of the characteristics the key includes.

Answer: D

What Chomsky did not argue is that language development is based on reinforced learning.

Chomsky argued against Skinner's reinforcement account of language. He held that there is a universal grammar, that language ability is wired in genetically, and that the mind has an innate language faculty. Statements A, B and C are therefore what he argued, and only D is the opposite of his view.

Answer: C

The components proposed by Torrance are elaboration and flexibility (2 and 4).

Torrance's tests of creative thinking score fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. Elaboration and flexibility are two of these. Divergent thinking is the broad kind of thinking measured, not one of the scored components, and transformation is not one of them, so options A, B and D are wrong.

Answer: B

The listener's biased reasoning is due to his beliefs.

He rejects the conclusion although he cannot refute the premises, because it conflicts with what he already believes. This is belief bias, in which the believability of a conclusion, rather than the logic, decides acceptance. Mood states are not mentioned, confirmation bias is the seeking of evidence that supports one's view, and hindsight bias concerns judging past events as predictable.

Answer: C

Jensen uses the regression argument to account for group differences in intelligence.

Jensen argued that regression to the mean explains why the children of high-scoring parents score closer to the average, and he used the argument in his discussion of average group differences in IQ. It is not used for the genetic contribution as such, for context-specific abilities, or for age-related changes in intelligence.

Answer: D

Individual differences in intelligence are due to many factors, including both genetic and environmental ones. Heredity sets a range of possibilities, and nutrition, schooling, family and other experiences decide where within that range the person develops.

The options that name only genetic factors or only environmental factors leave out one of the two main sources, and the option naming genetic and economic factors leaves out the wider environment, so the fourth option, which is inclusive, is correct.

Answer: C

The key gives p-2, q-3, r-4 and s-1: EEG goes with Eysenck, Reaction Time with Galton, the Culture Fair Test with Horn, and the Verbal Test with Binet. Eysenck linked intelligence with the speed of brain activity measured by EEG, Galton used reaction time as a measure of intelligence, and Binet's tests were largely verbal.

The other codes link these measures with the wrong psychologists. Reviewers may note that the culture-fair test is usually credited to Cattell, who is not in the list, so Horn is only the best available pairing.

Answer: D

The linguistic relativity hypothesis was emphasised by Benjamin Lee Whorf (Whorf B.L.), who held with Sapir that the language one speaks shapes the way one thinks. It is also called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Chomsky is known for generative grammar and the innateness of language, Piaget for cognitive development and Pinker for the language instinct, so none of them is correct. The fourth option is the answer.

Answer: C

Telegraphic speech is typical of the two-word stage, at about eighteen to twenty-four months, when a child produces short utterances such as 'mummy go' that contain the main content words and leave out the small function words, like a telegram.

Babbling and the one-word stage come earlier, and by the three-word stage the child is producing longer sentences. So the third option is correct.

Answer: D

The sentence 'Blue jeans wear false smiles' has correct syntax but incorrect semantics. The words are in a grammatical order, with a noun phrase followed by a verb and its object, so the syntax is right, but the sentence makes no sense, since jeans cannot wear smiles, so the semantics is wrong.

Morphemes and phonemes are right in the sentence because its words and sounds are English, and the third option reverses the correct and incorrect parts. The fourth option is the answer.