GRE Subject Test: Psychology : Social Perception & Cognition
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Psychology
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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Social Perception & Cognition
When communicating with others around us, which cues are typically necessary?
Visual and auditory
Visual
Auditory
Visual and olfaction
Auditory or somatosensory
Visual and auditory
Visual and auditory cues are necessary for communication because communication involves verbal and nonverbal cues. Languages consist of a spoken language and gestures and expressions that are nonverbal. Ignoring the visual components of communication can be just as detrimental as missing a spoken phrase.
Example Question #1 : Social
A choir is headed for a state competition to perform 5 pieces of music. The choir is very strong on some songs (i.e. performs well) and weaker on some songs (i.e. performs less well). If the director wants to order the songs in a strategic way, what might you suggest?
Placing the strongest songs in the middle
Alternating between stronger songs and weaker songs
Using random assignment for the songs
The primacy and recency effects refer to the tendency for our first impressions and most recent impressions to be most important in forming an opinion of groups and individuals. By placing the strongest songs as the first and last pieces, the director would strategically make it more likely that the impressions formed by the judges would be most influenced by the strongest pieces.
Example Question #2 : Social
Groupthink refers to which of the following?
Tendency for decision-making groups to consider all sides of the matter rather than one perspective (multiple heads are better than one)
Tendency of decision-making groups to get caught up in different opinions of group members and delay decision making
Tendency for decision-making groups to separate and form sub-groups with homogenous opinions
Tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
Tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information
While each of these scenarios may occur when in a decision-making group, groupthink is a specific concept that refers to the tendency of those groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information. For example, a group of friends could decide to go to the mall at 4:00pm after school. Although the mall closes at 4:30pm, the group might overlook this detail because it is discordant with their consensus of going to the mall.
Example Question #3 : Social
Consider the following scenario: Heidi is walking down the street when she sees a man on the street covered in blood yelling, "help me!"
According to Darley and Latane's bystander intervention research, then under which of the following circumstances would Heidi be most likely to demonstrate helping behavior?
Heidi is walking down a street with no one else around
Heidi is walking down the street by herself, but there are a few other people on the street
Heidi is walking down the street and it is very crowded with many people around
Heidi is walking down the street with a group of her friends
Heidi is walking down a street with no one else around
Darley and Latane's bystander intervention research suggests that responsibility to help gets diffused (or divided) among the observers. When there are no others around, the responsibility is not diffused with anyone else and Heidi would be most likely to help.
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