Week 9 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Cognition, Language & Intelligence

Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Objective tested: Objective 6 — cognition, problem-solving, heuristics & biases, language, and the theories & measurement of intelligence.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (15% of grade) · Due: end of Module 9.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-09-qti.xml; the reusable item-bank entries and the Canvas placement block are at the bottom of this file.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 9 misconceptions named in the lecture outline.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). A "prototype" is best described as —
- A. a step-by-step rule guaranteed to solve a problem
- B. the most typical, best example of a category ✅
- C. the smallest unit of meaning in a language
- D. a mental shortcut for judging probability
Feedback: A prototype is the "best example" your mind uses to stand in for a whole concept (a robin for "bird"). (A is an algorithm; C is a morpheme; D is a heuristic.)

Q2 (MC). Which statement correctly contrasts an algorithm with a heuristic?
- A. An algorithm is a fast shortcut; a heuristic is slow but guaranteed
- B. An algorithm is guaranteed to find the answer but can be slow; a heuristic is a fast shortcut that usually works but isn't guaranteed ✅
- C. Both are guaranteed to produce the correct answer every time
- D. An algorithm is only used in language, while a heuristic is only used in intelligence testing
Feedback: Algorithm = certain but slow; heuristic = fast but fallible. Option A reverses them; C is false (only algorithms guarantee a solution); D is made up.

Q3 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are obstacles to clear problem-solving or judgment (cognitive biases/blocks)?
- A. Functional fixedness ✅
- B. Confirmation bias ✅
- C. Mental set ✅
- D. The normal curve
- E. A prototype
Feedback: Functional fixedness, confirmation bias, and mental set are all things that get in the way of clear thinking. The normal curve is a distribution of test scores, and a prototype is a helpful mental category — neither is an obstacle.

Q4 (MC). After watching news coverage of a rare plane crash, Mia feels too anxious to fly and decides to drive instead — even though driving the same distance is statistically riskier. Mia's judgment best illustrates —
- A. the availability heuristic ✅
- B. functional fixedness
- C. the representativeness heuristic
- D. overconfidence
Feedback: The vivid, recent crash coverage makes plane crashes easy to recall, so they feel more likely than they are — that's the availability heuristic. (Representativeness would be judging by resemblance to a type; functional fixedness is about objects; overconfidence is being surer than you should be.)

Q5 (MC). Jordan believes a certain diet works, so he reads only success stories about it and ignores studies showing it fails. This tendency to seek out and favor evidence that supports what we already believe is called —
- A. framing
- B. the availability heuristic
- C. confirmation bias ✅
- D. standardization
Feedback: Confirmation bias is the pull to notice and trust evidence that confirms our existing beliefs while discounting evidence against them. (Framing is about wording; availability is about ease of recall; standardization is a test-construction step.)

Q6 (Matching). Match each cognitive shortcut or obstacle to its description.
| Shortcut / obstacle | Correct description |
|---|---|
| Availability heuristic | Judge likelihood by how easily examples come to mind |
| Representativeness heuristic | Judge likelihood by resemblance to a typical example |
| Functional fixedness | Being unable to see a new use for a familiar object |
| Framing | The way a choice is worded changes the decision |
Feedback: Watch the classic mix-up: availability = ease of recall; representativeness = resemblance to a prototype. Functional fixedness is about objects' uses; framing is about wording.

Q7 (MC). In language, the smallest unit of meaning — such as the "-s" that makes a word plural or the prefix "un-" — is called a —
- A. phoneme
- B. morpheme ✅
- C. prototype
- D. syntax marker
Feedback: A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound (the b in "bat"). Sounds vs. meanings — the pair to keep straight.

Q8 (True / False). "Heuristics always lead to wrong answers."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. Heuristics are efficient shortcuts that usually work and save real time; they only sometimes produce a predictable error. Calling them "always wrong" is exactly the misconception this week corrects.

Q9 (MC). Which theorist is associated with the idea that there is a single underlying "general intelligence" factor (g) that influences performance across many mental tasks?
- A. Howard Gardner
- B. Robert Sternberg
- C. Charles Spearman ✅
- D. Noam Chomsky
Feedback: Spearman proposed general intelligence (g) — one underlying factor. Gardner (multiple intelligences) and Sternberg (triarchic: analytical/creative/practical) argued intelligence is several kinds; Chomsky is a language theorist, not an intelligence theorist.

Q10 (MC). On a properly standardized IQ test, scores form a normal curve with an average of 100. What does this distribution mainly imply?
- A. A person's IQ score is fixed at birth and cannot change
- B. Most people score near the average, with progressively fewer people at the high and low extremes ✅
- C. An IQ score is a direct measure of a person's overall worth
- D. The test measures only one of Gardner's multiple intelligences
Feedback: The normal curve is a bell shape: scores cluster around the average (100) with fewer people at the extremes, and a score is meaningful relative to that distribution. It does not mean IQ is fixed (A), a measure of human worth (C), or a single narrow ability (D).

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q3) lists all three obstacles (A, B, C) and excludes the two non-obstacles (the normal curve, a prototype); the matching item pairs four shortcuts/obstacles to four distinct descriptions; no item asserts a fact outside the Week 9 course definitions. Group-difference/IQ content is handled non-deterministically (Q10 rejects "fixed at birth" and "measure of worth"). No computation in this quiz, so no arithmetic to mis-key.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=PSYC1 · week=9 · objective=6 · topic=cognition-language-intelligence and deposited in Item Bank: Week 9 — Cognition, Language & Intelligence. The final (Week 16) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 prototype, q2 algorithm-vs-heuristic, q3 obstacles-biases, q4 availability-heuristic, q5 confirmation-bias, q6 heuristics-match, q7 phoneme-vs-morpheme, q8 heuristics-not-always-wrong, q9 spearman-g, q10 normal-curve-iq.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 9 Quiz — Cognition, Language & Intelligence"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Bennett's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"