Practice AP Psychology Exam A1

The ratio of mental age to chronological age for a child of average intelligence is

1:1

Kathy is learning how to cook. She follows every direction on each recipe step by step to make sure her food tastes good. Which of the following describes the problem-solving approach that Kathy is using?

Algorithm

Darien's father dictated who Darien's friends should be and what classes he should take, and he set an extremely early curfew. If Darien went against his father's wishes, the repercussions were harsh and swift. What type of parenting did Darien experience?

Authoritarian

The area labeled 5 in the drawing above denotes which of the following structures?

Axon terminals

Jim decides to seek treatment for his alcoholism that involves taking a medication that causes nausea when paired with alcohol. What type of treatment has Jim chosen?

Behavioral

Because the most popular students in the high school tend to wear a particular brand of athletic shoe, a new student buys a pair of shoes of the same brand. Such behavior demonstrates which of the following social psychological concepts?

Conformity

A person with damage to Broca's area would most likely demonstrate which of the following symptoms?

Difficulty with speech production

Which of the following treatments assumes a biological cause for a disorder?

Electroconvulsive therapy

Which of the following is more associated with environmental effects than with genetic influence?

Fetal alcohol syndrome

A tumor that destroys the ventromedial hypothalamus is likely to produce which of the following?

Frequent eating and obesity

The ability to see a cube in the diagram above is best explained by which of the following?

Gestalt principles of closure and continuity

Consistent with the concept of neural plasticity, neurons in mammals have been found to change the way they function as a result of repeated stimulation by doing which of the following?

Growing new dendritic spines

Tina's mother often entertains Tina by bouncing a bunny puppet back and forth along the side of Tina's crib. Initially, Tina pays close attention to the puppet but after a while, she begins to ignore it and continues doing what she was doing before the puppet appeared. Which of the following psychological concepts best explains Tina's change in behavior?

Habituation

Which of the following factors is an important predictor of attraction?I. ProximityII. Mere exposureIII. Physical attractiveness

I, II, and III

Which of the following theories most accurately explains pitch perception? I. Opponent process II. Frequency III. Place

II and III only

A dog bit Sam when he was a small child and now Sam believes all dogs bite. Which of the following is a type of reasoning that Sam is using to come to this conclusion?

Inductive

In the early years of psychology, a research participant might have been asked to observe carefully and systematically his conscious experiences. What method would the participant be using?

Introspection

Which developmental milestone must be reached before an infant experiences separation anxiety?

Object permanence

Melvin, a server at a restaurant, is in the middle of a lunch rush. He is completing orders, serving customers, and seating new guests. He has adapted to this level of stress and is coping. Which of the following terms identifies a stage in Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome that Melvin is currently experiencing?

Resistance

Significant damage to which of the following parts of the brain will most likely cause a person to fall into a deep coma from which the person will be unable to awaken?

Reticular formation

Which of the following is the correct path a neural impulse will follow through the different layers of the retina?

Rods and cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells, optic nerve

Which of the following is NOT a method for reducing the dissonance a person might experience after refusing to contribute money for a gift to a coworker?

Saying a phrase such as "I am so rude" over and over

Raul wants to teach his daughter Sonia to tie her shoes. First he praises her when she manipulates her shoelaces in any way. Then he praises her when she makes a simple knot. Once she does that consistently, he praises her only when she makes the knot and a loop. He continues the pattern until she can do all the steps required to tie her shoes. Raul's actions are an example of which of the following techniques?

Shaping

Which of the following is true of a child with high self-efficacy regarding her ability to play soccer?

She feels confident that she can play well enough to score a goal.

Specific phobia differs from generalized anxiety disorder in which of the following ways?

Specific phobia is linked to a particular stimulus, whereas generalized anxiety disorder is not.

On an intelligence test, the number of questions an individual answers correctly is meaningless without which of the following?

Standardization

Which of the following studies in the field of social psychology met with the greatest criticism about the ethical issues involved?

Stanley Milgram's studies on obedience

A psychological researcher designs a study to determine whether positive feedback affects self-esteem. The researcher requires each participant to toss twenty coins into a coffee can that is three feet away. Half of the participants are told that their performance is superior, and the other half are told that their performance is well below average.Although some of the participants want to quit tossing coins after a few attempts, they are told that once they begin the study they have to complete it. After the coin toss, participants take a test measuring self esteem. Following the test, all participants are debriefed and told that information about their performance was false. Results of the study indicate that participants who are told their performance is well below average report lower levels of self-esteem than do those who are told their performance is superior

The feedback about relative performance in coin tossing

Which of the following explanations most clearly demonstrates an internal attribution for the reason a student fell asleep in class?

The student does not care about the class.

Paul and Sally, who met and married in their mid-20s, have been married for 25 years. Their youngest child recently graduated from high school and has left for college. Which of the following is most likely true of this couple?

Their marital relationship will improve.

Which of the following violations of ethical guidelines occurs in the study?

Violation of the right to withdraw

An individual bystander is most likely to help an injured person under which of the following circumstances?

When the bystander is the only other person present

A cancer patient becomes nauseated following chemotherapy treatments. After a few treatments, the patient begins having a sick feeling whenever entering the treatment room. The treatment room has become

a conditioned stimulus

Amanda experienced discomfort in class. She put on a sweater when she realized her discomfort was caused by the cold. Her behavior was motivated by

a drive

An individual was admitted to the hospital after experiencing a mild tingling on the right side of the face and a sudden inability to speak. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a doctor would likely find

an abnormality in the brain tissue of the left hemisphere

Research on the development of personality traits across the life span has revealed that

an individual's personality traits tend to be relatively stable during middle adulthood

A polygraph machine is often called a "lie detector," although it does not detect lies. Instead, it responds to changes in

autonomic arousal

Fluoxetine (Prozac®) has been shown to reduce depression primarily by

blocking reuptake and increasing the level of serotonin in the synapses

According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of

conscious experience

In Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation experiment, infants who were classified as securely attached were more likely to

express happiness when the mother returned to the room

When a projective technique is used, a person could be asked to

look at some pictures and tell a story about each of them

When viewed from the window of a moving train, nearby objects seem to pass by more quickly than do more distant objects. This cue for depth perception is called

motion parallax

A researcher interested in finding a simple way to estimate intelligence decides to evaluate skull circumference as a possible indicator of intelligence. He finds that the size of an adult's skull remains the same from one measurement to the next, but he finds that skull circumference is not a very good predictor of intelligence. In this example, skull circumference as a measure of intelligence is

reliable but not valid

Standard deviation is a measure of how much

scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

On his first day of work at the bakery, Brad was nearly overwhelmed by the sweet odor of the baked goods. However, by lunchtime, he did not even notice the smell. This is an example of

sensory adaptation

In Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment, young men were assigned roles as either guards or prisoners. The results showed that

situations can exert powerful effects on morality and identity

As a result of being hypnotized, an individual may not feel the hypnotist touching her arm because of

suggestibility

Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study

the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving

People were asked to sign a petition in support of a political candidate. Later, those who signed the petition were asked to donate money to the candidate, and many of them did. This phenomenon is best characterized as

the foot-in-the-door technique

In classical conditioning, stimulus generalization occurs when an organism responds

to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus