Topic for Midterm 2

 

1.    General instructions:

 

a.    The topic covers three questions (you do not need to relate questions to one another, although this will be a plus).

 

b.    Use both class notes and the textbook (especially the textbook).

 

c.     Define all the terms you use.

 

d.    Proofread your paper for grammar and spelling.  It will count!

 

e.    Paper should be up to 6 pages in length (up to 2 pages per question).

 

f.      Paper should be typed, double-spaced.

 

g.    Paper is due 07/30/01 at class time.

 

 

2.     Questions (please answer all three):

 

a.    What is the Empiricists’ view of the sensory process?  What visual phenomena suggest that vision is NOT a passive sense as the Empiricists believed? Please give at least two examples of how the visual sensory process is an ACTIVE process.

 

b.    Describe the Stage Theory of Memory.  Discuss the recent change in emphasis, according to which memory is an active process (discuss working memory as an active process; processing and organizing of information, etc.)

 

c.     Describe Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.  Describe how it can explain human mate preference.  What NON-evolutionary factors can also explain human mate preference?