The Bell Curve by Richard J

question 21

Multiple Choice

The Bell Curve by Richard J.Herrnstein and Charles Murray generated an enormous amount of controversy because it suggested that racial differences in IQ scores were due to genetically driven differences in intelligence.They argued that "both genes and the environment have something to do with racial differences." For those who disagreed,this seemed like a familiar argument because

• A) racism usually is reducible to a group's cultural characteristics.
• B) this is the same argument that was made by the founding fathers to justify the treatment of Native Americans and Africans.
• C) it leaves education policy at the center of a racial controversy.
• D) racist beliefs are often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are genetic.

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Definitions:

Top-Down Processing

Information processing in which previous experience and conceptual knowledge are applied to recognize the whole of a perception and thus easily identify the simpler elements of that whole.

Signal Detection

A technique used to identify the presence or absence of a stimulus amidst background noise.

Feature Detection

The process by which the brain identifies specific elements or patterns, such as lines or edges, in a visual stimulus.

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, influenced by expectations, emotions, culture, and past experiences.