Final Psychology Exam

A factory pays its employees on Wednesdays, and on Thursdays employee productivity seems to be a little slow. The productivity gradually increases over the week and reaches its peak on Wednesday. This is an example of which of the following types of schedules?

Fixed-interval schedule

Which of the following is a difference between single-blind studies and double-blind studies?

In single-blind studies, participants do not know the experimental condition to which they have been assigned, whereas in double-blind studies, neither the participants nor the researchers know who has been assigned to which condition.

In the context of the visual system, which of the following scenarios best illustrates the need for the functioning of rods in the retina?

Marcus is trying to find his seat in the dark in a movie theater.

________ is the ability to take in, solidify, store, and then use information.

Memory

Sarah wants to conduct a study about differences in the levels of emotion of jealousy between men and women. She asks 400 male and female college graduates in the United States a series of questions about hypothetical scenarios of partner infidelity. What is Sarah's population?

Men and women in the United States

Can negative reinforcers be punishers?

No, because negative reinforcers increase desired behaviors.

What did B. F. Skinner conclude about the effectiveness of reinforcements and punishments?

Reinforcements are more effective than punishments for modifying behavior.

Dr. Adriana conducts a study to determine if players who wear a new type of soccer uniform made from a specially designed fabric will perform better in soccer matches. She recruits a professional soccer team to participate in her study. She randomly assigns half of the men to wear the new-material uniforms made in the color blue and the other half to wear old-material uniforms made in the color red. Although the men know about the test, they are not told which one of the two uniforms is made from the new material. They are asked to wear their assigned uniforms and score as many goals as possible in a game against one another. Dr. Adriana notes the number of goals scored. Ultimately, the players who are wearing the old uniforms score more goals, and therefore, win the game. Dr. Adriana speculates that the new uniforms are not more beneficial to performance than the old uniforms, but she decides to conduct the test a few more times. From a scientific viewpoint, why was it important for Dr. Ariana to randomly assign the players to wear new or old uniforms?

She wanted to ensure that each player had an equal chance of wearing the new or old uniform.

Jenny received a lot of praise in class when she was the only one who did her homework on time. As a result, Jenny has never had to be reminded to do her homework; she always submits it on time. In this scenario, Jenny's behavior illustrates

Thorndike's law of effect.

An ________ is the process by which two pieces of information from the environment are repeatedly linked, so that we begin to connect them in our minds.

association

In the context of the organization of the brain, thinking and planning are mediated by the ________ of the brain.

cerebral cortex

Josephine is in the garden picking out flowers of different hues to decorate her living room. She can distinguish between colors primarily due to the functioning of her eyes' ________.

cones

Timothy's vision is a focus of interest for many ophthalmologists. He is able to see well when there is low illumination but not so well when there is a lot of light. For instance, if he is outdoors during the day, he is unable to detect most colors. Which poorly functioning structure of the eye is most likely causing Timothy's unusual vision?

cones

Replication of a study is important to ________.

confirm the results of the study.

Revoking a child's TV-watching privileges for repeatedly hitting a sibling is a form of ________ if it stops the hitting.

negative punishment

Liam is studying in his room for an exam but is disturbed by the loud music from his neighbor's house. He closes the window so that he can no longer hear the loud music. In this scenario, Liam's behavior demonstrates ________ in operant conditioning.

negative reinforcement

Gregory is an excellent basketball player. He is always able to gauge the distance between himself and the basket correctly, and he never misses a shot. Which of the following regions of the cerebral cortex should function most efficiently to help him use this spatial location skill?

the parietal lobe

Psychology is most accurately defined as the .

the scientific study of thought and behavior

Psychoanalysis assumes that ________.

the unconscious mind is the most powerful motivator of behavior

Gestalt psychology emphasizes that

the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Personality psychology can be best defined as the study of ________.

what makes people unique as well as the consistencies in people's behavior across time and situations

Which of the following statements is true of unconditioned stimuli?

They produce a response without prior learning.

While driving on a highway, George sees a sign on a building that says "MO_EL." George knows that the building is a motel even though the sign is missing a letter because of the Gestalt ________.

law of closure

The ________ is a group of forebrain structures that share important functions in emotion and motivation

limbic system

Beth is looking down a path of railroad tracks, and the two rails seem to meet far in the distance. This cue to depth is known as ________.

linear perspective

Primatologist Chan Lee, studied different groups of gorillas over a period of 18 years. She studied them daily in the subtropical forests of Africa to understand their mating and reproductive habits. Based on her observations, Chan found that male gorillas are ready to mate when they are 15 years of age. In this scenario, the descriptive method of research used by Chan can be best termed as a(n) ________.

naturalistic observation

We perceive movement when an image moves across the ________.

retina

________ processing happens with little effort or conscious attention to the task.

Automatic

________ refers to the difference in retinal images due to the fact that human eyes are separated by a few inches and is an important cue in depth perception.

Binocular disparity

Sarah wants to conduct a study about differences in the levels of emotion of jealousy between men and women. She asks 400 male and female college graduates in the United States a series of questions about hypothetical scenarios of partner infidelity. How can Sarah ensure that the results of her study are more accurate?

By ensuring that the sample accurately represents people of different ethnicities

In the context of psychological perspectives, which of the following is true of the evolutionary perspective?

Changes in human behavior take place by natural and sexual selection.

In the context of the subdisciplines of psychology, which of the following is the study of how people perceive information, how they learn and remember, how they acquire and use language, and how they solve problems?

Cognitive psychology

How do psychologists define learning?

Enduring changes in behavior that occur with experience

Boris uses classical conditioning to teach his goldfish to swim to the surface of its tank to eat whenever Boris turns on the aquarium light. He drops food into the tank and then turns on the light. After several such trials, the fish shows no more inclination to swim to the surface when the light is turned on than it did on the first trial. In the context of classical conditioning, which of the following should Boris do to improve his training technique?

He should turn on the light before he drops the food into the tank.

What happened when Phineas Gage sustained an injury when an iron bar exited through the top of his skull after passing through his frontal lobes?

His personality changed.

In the context of operant conditioning, identify a true statement about negative reinforcement.

It has nothing to do with "good" and "bad" behavior.

Which of the following statements is true of scientific thinking?

It involves the reasoning skills required to generate, test, and revise theories.

Identify a true statement about classical conditioning.

It is a form of respondent behavior, behavior that occurs in automatic response to a stimulus and later to a conditioned stimulus.

Which of the following statements best describes classical conditioning?

It is a learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response.

Which of the following is true about encoding as a processing stage in long-term memory?

It is driven by attention.

Which of the following statements is true of sensation?

It is given meaning by the brain through perception.

Which of the following statements is true of associative learning?

It occurs when an organism makes a connection between two events.

Which of the following is true of classical conditioning?

It occurs without awareness or effort, based on the presentation of two stimuli together.

In the context of operant conditioning, which of the following statements is true of shaping?

It refers to rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior.

Which of the following statements is true of the Stroop effect?

It represents a failure of selective attention.

Which of the following scenarios correctly illustrates the effect of damage to Broca's area in the brain?

Janine is unable to produce any words.

Which of the following statements best describes the concept of operant conditioning?

Organisms learn from the consequences of their behavior.

In the context of psychological perspectives, which of the following is an assumption made by the humanistic-positive perspective?

People strive toward meaning, growth, well-being, happiness, and psychological health.

Which of the following scenarios best represents variable-ratio schedule?

Rishi continues to insert money into slot machines because he never knows how many pulls of the arm it will take to win the jackpot.

Which of the following is true of the differences between science and pseudoscience?

Science encourages open skepticism of its findings, whereas pseudoscience does not.

________ is the stimulation of our sense organs by the outer world.

Sensation

In the levels-of-processing model of memory and recall, which is the shallowest level of processing?

Structural

Which of the following is true of Ivan Pavlov's experiment on classical conditioning?

The bell was a neutral stimulus before it was paired with the meat powder.

John, a six-year-old boy, loves dogs. However, after being bitten by one, he starts to fear dogs. Which of the following is true in the context of classical conditioning?

The dog becomes a conditioned stimulus after it bites John.

In the context of the levels-of-processing approach to memory, identify one of the findings of research conducted on recall.

The more deeply a person processes material, the better he or she will remember it.

Dr. Adriana conducts a study to determine if players who wear a new type of soccer uniform made from a specially designed fabric will perform better in soccer matches. She recruits a professional soccer team to participate in her study. She randomly assigns half of the men to wear the new-material uniforms made in the color blue and the other half to wear old-material uniforms made in the color red. Although the men know about the test, they are not told which one of the two uniforms is made from the new material. They are asked to wear their assigned uniforms and score as many goals as possible in a game against one another. Dr. Adriana notes the number of goals scored. Ultimately, the players who are wearing the old uniforms score more goals, and therefore, win the game. Dr. Adriana speculates that the new uniforms are not more beneficial to performance than the old uniforms, but she decides to conduct the test a few more times. What is the dependent variable in Dr. Adriana's study?

The number of goals scored

Dr. Adriana conducts a study to determine if players who wear a new type of soccer uniform made from a specially designed fabric will perform better in soccer matches. She recruits a professional soccer team to participate in her study. She randomly assigns half of the men to wear the new-material uniforms made in the color blue and the other half to wear old-material uniforms made in the color red. Although the men know about the test, they are not told which one of the two uniforms is made from the new material. They are asked to wear their assigned uniforms and score as many goals as possible in a game against one another. Dr. Adriana notes the number of goals scored. Ultimately, the players who are wearing the old uniforms score more goals, and therefore, win the game. Dr. Adriana speculates that the new uniforms are not more beneficial to performance than the old uniforms, but she decides to conduct the test a few more times. What was the experimental group in Dr. Adriana's study?

The players who wore blue uniforms made from the new material

Dr. Adriana conducts a study to determine if players who wear a new type of soccer uniform made from a specially designed fabric will perform better in soccer matches. She recruits a professional soccer team to participate in her study. She randomly assigns half of the men to wear the new-material uniforms made in the color blue and the other half to wear old-material uniforms made in the color red. Although the men know about the test, they are not told which one of the two uniforms is made from the new material. They are asked to wear their assigned uniforms and score as many goals as possible in a game against one another. Dr. Adriana notes the number of goals scored. Ultimately, the players who are wearing the old uniforms score more goals, and therefore, win the game. Dr. Adriana speculates that the new uniforms are not more beneficial to performance than the old uniforms, but she decides to conduct the test a few more times. What was the control group in Dr. Adriana's study?

The players who wore red uniforms made from the old material

Which of the following studies is most likely to be conducted by Cathy, who is majoring in biological psychology, for her honors thesis?

The relationship between the neurotransmitter serotonin and happiness

What happens as a correlation approaches +1.00 or −1.00?

The strength of the relationship increases.

Dr. Adriana conducts a study to determine if players who wear a new type of soccer uniform made from a specially designed fabric will perform better in soccer matches. She recruits a professional soccer team to participate in her study. She randomly assigns half of the men to wear the new-material uniforms made in the color blue and the other half to wear old-material uniforms made in the color red. Although the men know about the test, they are not told which one of the two uniforms is made from the new material. They are asked to wear their assigned uniforms and score as many goals as possible in a game against one another. Dr. Adriana notes the number of goals scored. Ultimately, the players who are wearing the old uniforms score more goals, and therefore, win the game. Dr. Adriana speculates that the new uniforms are not more beneficial to performance than the old uniforms, but she decides to conduct the test a few more times. What is the independent variable in Dr. Adriana's study?

The type of uniform worn—made from old or new material

Which of the following is true about theories?

Theories organize and explain what we have observed.

Which statement best describes the term descriptive designs?

They are study designs in which a researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything.

Which of the following statements regarding vision is true?

Visual perception happens in the brain, with input from the eye.

A part of David's brain was damaged in a ski accident. Once he was out of his coma, the doctors noticed that even though he could produce words in speech, he couldn't seem to understand the meanings of the words spoken by others. In this scenario, which of the following areas of David's brain was damaged that caused this symptom?

Wernicke's area

When can scientists help ensure accurate and honest presentation of results?

When they allow their work to be evaluated by other scientists

When Gary observes the moon closer to the horizon, it appears to be huge. However, when the moon is further away from the horizon, it appears to shrink in size. Of course, Gary is aware that the size of the moon does not actually change, but the phenomenon being observed is due to ________.

a monocular depth cue

In a certain experiment, a research subject is supposed to hear the sound of a bell. The sound of the bell that the research subject can hear in 50 percent of the trials is his ________.

absolute threshold

Dr. Hennessy believes that psychologists should analyze only human conduct that can be observed, not ideas, thoughts, feelings, or motives. He is most likely a strict ________.

behavioral psychologist

Which of the following is an example of a primary reinforcer in operant conditioning?

being treated to a good meal

In the context of depth perception, ________ cues are ones that depend on the combination of the images in the left and right eyes.

binocular

A teacher uses pictures of animals to help her students identify those animals. The children look at each picture and then say the name of the animal in the picture out loud. This method of learning is most reflective of _____ processing.

bottom-up

Jack always takes his dog out for a walk in the morning. Whenever Jack puts the leash on his dog, the dog gets very excited about going for a walk. In this scenario, the dog has learned to associate the leash with going for a walk through

classical conditioning.

Jarvis received an important phone call while driving. He is generally an experienced driver and is used to talking on a hands-free cell phone while driving. However, a few minutes into the call, Jarvis had an accident. A ________ would be most concerned about how Jarvis's attention affected his ability to drive while talking on a cell phone.

cognitive psychologist

The blind spot of the eye ________.

contains no receptor cells

Giving a dog a treat every time it jumps on command is an example of ________.

continuous reinforcement

When interpreting correlations, it is important to remember that a

correlation does not mean there is a causal relationship between the two variables.

The ability to see things in three dimensions and to discriminate what is near from what is far is termed as ________.

depth perception

Mohit conducts research on how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span. This indicates that Mohit is most likely a ________.

developmental psychologist

Advancing age tends to lessen recall for events and experiences that require ________ processing, but not for those that involve ________ processing.

effortful; automatic

The first step of forming memories involves ________.

encoding one's sensory experiences

If a worker's wages or tips depend on the number of units he or she produces, he or she will work faster—possibly risking injury—to make more money. This is an example of a ________.

fixed-ratio (FR) schedule

Operant conditioning is a form of learning that

focuses on the association between behaviors and the stimuli that follow them.

Zeus was injured in a mining accident and suffered severe brain damage. In time, his brain healed, and he was back to working in the mines. The only change was in his personality. From being a mild-mannered and calm person, he became an aggressive and temperamental person. In this scenario, the region of the cerebral cortex that was most likely damaged in the accident was the ________ lobe.

frontal

Neuroscientists conducted research with taxicab drivers in London and found that taxicab drivers, who are required to have a tremendous amount of spatial and geographic knowledge, had a larger ________ than other drivers.

hippocampus

Karolina can see only a part of a stack of books because a box is partially obstructing the view. Karolina, therefore, knows the box is in front of the stack of books. This cue to depth is known as ________.

interposition

In the fourth step of the scientific method, scientists use mathematical techniques to ________ the results and determine whether they are significant and whether they closely fit the prediction.

interpret

In the context of the structure of the eye, the axons of the ganglion cells make up the

optic nerve

Jack sees a sleek object with four wheels and four doors on the street and recognizes that it is a car. This process of interpreting what he sees as a car is called _____.

perception

Rachel is walking in the woods and feels sudden pain in the back of her neck. Because of the nature of the pain, she recognizes that she has been stung by a bee. In this scenario, which of the following processes has most likely helped her identify the source of her pain?

perception

Few of the patients undergoing treatment for phobic disorder agree to participate in a clinical trial of a new antidepressant medication. The patients are randomly divided into two groups. Both groups receive pills to be taken on a daily basis, but only one of the groups receives pills with the newly produced active ingredients. The other group's pills contain no active ingredients. In this study, the pills that do not contain any active ingredients are said to be ________.

placebos

Nate was fined for parking his car in a no-parking zone. Thereafter, he stopped parking his car in no-parking zones. In this scenario, Nate received a(n) ________.

positive punishment

Jennifer accidentally plays a radio channel that she has never heard before. She loves the music it plays, and, as a result, she plays only that channel whenever she wants to listen to music. In this scenario, Jennifer's behavior has most likely been learned through ________ in operant conditioning.

positive reinforcement

When Carlos first arrives at his friend's party, the music is so loud that he covers his ears. After a few hours, even though the music is still at the same volume, it stops bothering him. This change in his reaction to the volume of the music illustrates

sensory adaptation.

James's brain injury has resulted in him not being able to process information about the things he sees around him or to react to them appropriately. In the context of the cerebral cortex, which of his brain regions is most likely to be damaged?

the occipital lobe

Psychology as a modern empirical science ________.

tests predictions about behavior with systematic observations and gathered data

In operant conditioning, organisms learn

the association between a behavior and a consequence.

Carrie suffered brain damage when she was injured in a car accident. Since then, she has been unable to take pleasure in the things she used to. She has also lost interest in sexual intimacy with her husband and does not enjoy the taste of her favorite foods. In this scenario, which of the following areas of the brain is most likely damaged, causing her inability to experience pleasure?

the hypothalamus

As Mike gets up to go to his kitchen, the lights go out. Despite not being able to see in his house, he is still able to go to his kitchen. In this scenario, Mike's ability to use his knowledge of the layout of his house to find his way is an example of

top-down processing.

In Pavlov's experiments on classical conditioning, prior to associating the sound of the bell with the food, the dog's salivation in response to the food was the

unconditioned response.