Practice Questions AP Psych Final

A six-year-old child with a mental age of 6 would have an IQ of

100

People who are gifted have an IQ of

130 or higher

If a child asks you why we can see colors, and you want to answer according to the trichromatic theory of color vision, you might tell him it is because there are ________ different types of cones in the retina.

3

You took a drug that lessened your feelings of fatigue, created an elevated mood, and decreased your appetite. Which of the following did you probably take?

Amphetamine

Pavlov's dog salivates each time he hears a bell. Now, however, after several trials of salivating to the bell and NOT receiving any food, the dog stops salivating. What happened?

Extinction has occurred.

________ refers to memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience.

Implicit memory

Which of the following is true of implicit memory?

Implicit memory is related to nonconsciously remembering skills and sensory perceptions.

Which of the following statements is true of working memory?

It is a kind of mental workbench on which the brain manipulates and assembles information to guide understanding, decision making, and problem solving.

Identify a statement that accurately differentiates between short-term memory and working memory.

Measures of working memory capacity are strongly related to cognitive aptitudes, whereas measures of short-term memory capacity are hardly related to cognitive aptitudes.

Identify a true statement about elaboration in memory.

Relating material to one's own experience is an effective way to elaborate on information.

Your aunt is in a nursing home and you often drop by unannounced to visit. You intentionally want to surprise your aunt. Your brother, however, argues that surprise visits are stressful rather than pleasant and that you should let your aunt know when you're coming. Which position has research support?

Research indicates that nursing home residents show better adjustment with predictable visits rather than unpredictable, random ones.

What theory of perception proposes that detection of stimuli depends on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, physical intensity of the stimulus, fatigue of the observer, and expectancy?

Signal detection theory

According to ________ there are three forms of intelligence, whereas according to ________ there are nine types of intelligence.

Sternberg's triarchic theory; Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

With which school of psychology is Wilhelm Wundt associated?

Structuralism

________ refers to a prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.

The availability heuristic

How is the correlational method different from naturalistic observation?

The correlational method is not limited to real world settings.

When a neuron is at its resting state, what is the status of the charges on each side of the cell membrane?

There is a negative charge on the inside of the cell membrane and a positive charge on the outside.

William James saw the mind as flexible and fluid, characterized by constant change in response to a continuous flow of information from the world. James called this natural flow of thought a "stream of consciousness." A core question in functionalism is:

Why is human thought adaptive?

Which of the following is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning?

a morpheme

A drug that mimics or increases a neurotransmitter's effect is called a(n)

agonist

In the United States, intelligence is generally defined as

an all-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience.

A drug that blocks the function of a neurotransmitter is called a(n)

antagonist

To find out a simple, yet accurate, way of measuring customer satisfaction, Carl, the human resource manager of a company, conducts a meeting and requires all employees to openly give their ideas and suggestions. He encourages them to think creatively and come up with as many ideas as possible, from which one will be chosen. Which of the following concepts related to creative thinking does this scenario exemplify?

brainstorming

Subliminally presented stimuli

can sometimes be consciously perceived

Samantha is suffering from fatigue and sometimes cannot make herself get out of bed. She feels that the world is a sad, unhappy place. Dr. Powell and Samantha examine her feelings and consider the relationships in her life which may have affected her view of life. Dr. Powell is a professional in the field of

clinical psychology

In the context of memory retrieval, ________ is described as a process in which people remember better when they attempt to recall information in the same circumstances in which they learned it.

context-dependent memory

The clear membrane just in front of the iris through which light first passes is the

cornea

The ethical obligation to tell participants about the study once participation in the study is complete is called

debriefing

Psychological research on sleep and memory has found that staying up all night to study for an exam is likely to

decrease memory performance

A service dog "knows" that it is off-duty when it is not wearing its harness, but is on-duty when it is wearing the harness. The dog is demonstrating

discrimination learning

The ability to listen to music while reading a magazine indicates

divided attention

According to activation-synthesis theory

dreams reflect the brain's efforts to make sense out of neural activity that occurs during sleep

Which of the following is subdivided into episodic and semantic memory?

explicit memory

An analogy is sometimes drawn between human cognition and the way computers work. The physical brain is analogous to a computer's ________, and cognition is analogous to a computer's ________.

hardware; software

People often form general rules and concepts based on specific experiences and examples. This type of reasoning is known as

inductive reasoning

Matteo specializes in the study of religious faith, practice, and experience. He is especially interested in the study of God and of God's relation to the world. According to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences, Matteo is most likely to score high on

intrapersonal intelligence.

Retrieval is the memory process that

occurs when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage

Having a better memory for items at the beginning of a list demonstrates the ________, whereas having a better memory for items at the end of a list demonstrates the ________.

primary effect; recency effect

Rachel remembers that she has an important meeting with her advisor right after her English class on Tuesday. This is an example of ________ memory.

prospective

Minutes before her biology test, Katie tries to learn the definition of "osmosis" from her class notes. She repeats the definition over and over again in her mind until she is confident that she will remember it. Which of the following methods is Katie using to help her memorize the definition?

rehearsal

A correlation coefficient indicates a(n) ________ between two variables.

relationship

Which of the following concepts would you have to explain if teaching about Bandura's model of observational learning?

retention and motor reproduction

You walk to class, and you do not have to think consciously about how to walk. When you get there, even though the lecture is boring and you are tired you quickly notice and come to attention when another student drops a heavy book behind you. The structure that plays an important role in bringing you to attention by manipulation of various neurotransmitters is the

reticular formation

In the context of long-term memory, which of the following refers to schemas for an event, often containing information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences?

scripts

In terms of states of consciousness, hypnosis involves a

sense of deep relaxation and altered body awareness

You arrive at your friend's apartment for a big party at the end of the semester. When you first arrive, the music is so loud that it almost hurts your ears. After a couple of hours, even though the music is still at the same volume, it doesn't bother you any more, and you like it. This change over time describes the process of

sensory adaptation

Mr. Owens always sleeps restlessly, snoring and gasping during the night. It is most likely that Mr. Owens suffers from

sleep apnea

You are sitting in a public place next to a new acquaintance to whom you are attracted. You feel this person's hand touch yours. You move your hand to return the gesture. Your heart beats faster and you feel "butterflies" in your stomach. Your hand movement was initiated by your ________ nervous system. Your increased heart rate and stomach contractions were initiated by your ________ nervous system.

somatic; autonomic

Wilhelm Wundt is to ________, as William James is to ________.

structuralism; functionalism

If you were a psychologist who was labeled a structuralist, you would be interested in the ________ of the mind, using ________ as your primary research method.

structures; introspection

The sentence "The bicycle talked the boy into buying a candy bar" is

syntactically correct but semantically incorrect.

The fact that we hear about airplane crashes on news more often than we hear about automobile crashes may lead us to believe that we are more likely to die in a plane than a car. This is an example of

the availability heuristic

Jack doesn't need to look at his keyboard while typing. His fingers automatically move over the keys as he types information into the computer. In the context of memory storage, which part of Jack's brain is active in the memory required to perform these skills?

the cerebellum

If a child's mental age is higher than his or her chronological age, this means that

the child's IQ is above average.

The "third variable problem" refers to

the possibility that a variable that was not measured actually accounts for a relationship that was found

According to ________, when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a "family resemblance" with that item's properties.

the prototype model

Joaquin has been assigned a primary research project in his psychology class. He is to observe student behavior during a learning task and attempt to form a/an ________. In order to do this, he must be able to articulate a broad idea that describes principles and events, and how they may be related.

theory

Positive punishment ________ and negative reinforcers ________.

weakens behaviors; strengthen behaviors

A good strategy in subgoaling is to

work backward in your planning by first creating a subgoal that is closest to the final goal, and then work backward to the subgoal that is closest to the beginning of the problem-solving effort.

You go to a hypnotist to help you quit smoking. The hypnotist asks you to remember and describe things that you did differently before you started smoking. Which memory system will you use most to comply with this request?

your episodic memory system