Psych 7A midterm 1

Which neurotransmitter would you be most likely to find in the synaptic cleft between a motor neuron and a muscle?

Acetylcholine.

Which of these correlations has the least predictive value?

+0.10.

Chapter 1 practice quiz

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Chapter 2 practice quiz

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Chapter 3 practice test

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Chapter 4 practice quiz

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Chapter 5 practice test

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The median is a better measure of central tendency than the mean for which of the following distributions?

10, 12, 13, 14, 106.

In an analysis testing differences between an experimental and a control group on the dependent variable, a p-value of 0.07 means there is a

7 percent chance that differences between the two samples are due to chance alone..

Why are dominant, yet harmful, alleles like the huntingtin gene so rare in our genomes?

The carrier does not survive long enough to pass on the allele..

An unethical experimenter wants to test the relationship between discomfort and aggression. On a hot day, she turns off the air conditioning in one dorm and leaves it on in another, then has her research assistants count occurrences of verbal aggression in common areas of the buildings. Students in the air-conditioned dorm would be the _______, and students in the overheated dorm would be the _______.

control group; experimental group.

A researcher presents his participant with a series of flashing lights at varying intervals. After each presentation of a light, he asks the participant to fully describe her internal experiences, a method known as

introspection.

The action potential of a neuron is best compared to

liquid starting to spill over the rim of a cup when just enough force is applied..

A scientist has inserted an electrode into the frontal lobe of a monkey. Electrical stimulation would most likely cause the monkey to

make a kicking motion..

Neural development begins with rapid division of nerve cells in a process called

neurogenesis

The study of the nervous system is called

neuroscience

A patient has a dangerously low heart rate and is having difficulty breathing. The neurotransmitter that would be most helpful to him is

norepinephrine..

After her stroke, Mei was able to hear, smell, and taste normally. However, she had difficulty with her vision. She most likely experienced damage to her

occipital lobe..

One reason dysfunctional alleles can have such specific effects on the workings of our sensory systems is that

our sensory systems rely on the functioning of more than one protein..

A depressed teenager treated with medication begins feeling better immediately, even though the medication typically takes weeks to work. This is an example of a _______ effect.

placebo .

"Green is the prettiest color" is a _______ hypothesis because it is _______.

poor; not testable.

A technique that tracks blood flow to measure brain activity is

positron emission tomography (PET)..

After a skydiving accident, an MRI showed damage to Rose's cerebellum. She is most likely to have difficulty with

practicing yoga..

Following a head injury, Maria experienced a dramatic personality change. She now gambles heavily, swears and yells at work, and has difficulty planning ahead. She most likely experienced damage to her

prefrontal cortex. .

A researcher testing a new medication for attention deficit disorder randomly assigns half of the participants to get the actual medication and half to get a sugar pill. Neither the researcher nor the participants know who is getting what. This study design will

reduce unconscious bias..

In Plato's cave allegory, a prisoner was temporarily unchained and allowed to see the fire at the mouth of the cave. When he returned to the chains, the other prisoners

refused to believe him

A self-report measure of the personality trait of agreeableness produces very similar scores each time the same person completes it. It is also strongly correlated with whether family members describe a person as friendly and cooperative. This measure appears to be

reliable and valid..

Vision researchers have shown that a person will fail to develop visual perception abilities if light does not stimulate the eye early in development. This is evidence of _______ during development.

sensitive periods.

Computed tomography (CT) scans

show brain structures but not areas of brain activity..

A correlation of −0.80 between meditation and anxiety symptoms would indicate

shyness; party attendance.

Dopamine is most directly involved in

signaling pleasure..

The peripheral nervous system is divided into the _______ nervous system and the _______ nervous system.

somatic; autonomic.

Genes regulate protein synthesis by

specifying which amino acids will be joined together, and in what order..

Whether depression levels are truly lower in a treatment group than in a control group is assessed by determining the _______ of the difference in scores between groups.

statistical significance.

To identify the most popular exhibits at a science museum, visitors were asked every day for six weeks to rate how much they enjoyed each exhibit. The data were analyzed to look for age and sex differences in exhibit preferences. This was an example of

survey research..

The idea that children are born with no knowledge or "content" whatsoever and are "filled" by life experiences is called

tabula rasa

Any substance that can potentially harm the fetus during birth is called a

teratogen.

Heritability estimates tell us

the degree to which variations in a population can be attributed to genetics..

The sensation of a fly landing on your arm is weaker than the sensation of being hit with a dodgeball because

the dodgeball triggers more action potentials per second from each sensory neuron..

Epigenetics is most concerned with

the expression of a particular gene as influenced by external inputs..

Twin studies of the heritability of schizophrenia generally show that

the heritability of schizophrenia is about 50 percent..

Psychology is best defined as the study of

the mind and behavior.

According to the social brain hypothesis, each of us can deal effectively with social interactions with roughly 150 people. This implies that

we are capable of maintaining social networks of up to 150 people throughout our lives.

Schizophrenia most often presents itself at what stage?

Early adulthood, when people begin to face the world on their own.

A researcher would be most likely to find a negative correlation between _______ and _______.

Experimental research.

Which approach would be most appropriate for testing the hypothesis that taking practice tests improves learning more than studying alone does?

Experimental research.

What is a mainstream psychologist most likely to think about Sigmund Freud?

Freudian theory is untestable and not grounded in science

Which of the following perspectives argues that human behavior develops in certain ways because it serves a useful purpose?

Functionalism.

A quarter in your hand casts a different image on your retina than a quarter taped to the wall across the room, yet you know that the quarters have exactly the same dimensions. This phenomenon would be best explained by a

Gestalt psychologist

On an empathy questionnaire, Group 1 had a mean score of 117 with a standard deviation of 14. Group 2 had a mean score of 96 with a standard deviation of 23. Therefore, _______ scored higher on average and their scores were _______ spread out than scores from _______.

Group 1; less; Group 2.

Which of the following is a myth of psychology?

Heritable traits, such as IQ, cannot be altered by experience..

How is natural selection related to psychology?

Humans behave as they do in part because that behavior promotes survival..

Which statement best describes a valid gene—environment interaction on behavior?

Identical twins adopted by different families often display behaviors typical of their adoptive families..

Which confounding variable is teased out when psychologists study the traits of identical twins?

Similar environments shared by relatives.

Which statement reflects a reasonable attitude for a good student of psychology to have toward any claim about human behavior?

Skepticism is advisable until an idea is proven right..

Which of the following approaches to psychology did Edward Titchener advocate in the late 1800s?

Structuralism .

A news organization wanted to predict who would win the next U.S. presidential election. They sent an opinion poll to every fiftieth person on a list of students enrolled at a nearby college. Which of the following is the study population?

Students at this particular college.

Kobe, a native English speaker, has moved to Germany and is learning to speak German. Which brain region is likely to show the greatest plasticity?

Temporal lobe.

Students _______ would be the most representative sample for a study of competitiveness in high school.

in a required health class.

What is the primary difference between a hypothesis and a theory?

A theory is a collection of data-based hypotheses..

A doctor needs a brain imaging technique that shows brain structure but not brain function. Which technique should the doctor choose?

Computed tomography (CT).

What is the key difference between twin studies and adoption studies?

In adoption studies, twins are separated at birth, adopted, and raised apart..

Xander has taken a medication that is an endorphin antagonist. Which side effect is most likely?

Increased pain sensitivity.

In experimental research, which of the following variables is controlled by the researcher?

Independent.

Which type of neuron is most common in the brain?

Interneuron.

When the U.S. Supreme Court was deliberating on whether to require schools to integrate black children and white children, their decision to strike down laws permitting segregated schools was greatly influenced by the "Doll Test," conducted by

Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark.

What do studies of maternal nurturing behavior in rats suggest about humans?

Maternal neglect early in life may have lasting impacts on a person's ability to cope with life's challenges..

Which is the correct order of measures of central tendency, from lowest to highest, for a positively skewed distribution?

Mode, median, mean.

How do gene mutations contribute to evolution?

Natural selection favors beneficial mutations, so they survive and are passed on to future generations..

The effects of PKU are epigenetic because

PKU is harmful only if a child ingests significant amounts of phenylalanine..

Which situation is most consistent with the results of twin studies of schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is more likely to materialize in a twin who experiences extreme stress..

Which single gene effect do men display more often than women?

The inability to distinguish red from green.

You take a job selling magazine subscriptions from home because the recruitment video says the average earnings per employee are $90,000 a year. You work 60 hours a week for a year and earn $30,000. An Internet search reveals that hundreds of people have had the same experience with this and other work-at-home schemes. How can companies legitimately claim that the average salary is $90,000 if most employees make less than $30,000?

The mean salary reflects the presence of outliers..

Which statement about vesicles is accurate?

They empty neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft..

Your uncle tells you about an interesting magazine article explaining that humans use only 10 percent of their brains. As a student of psychology, your response should be:

Well, research actually shows that almost all of the brain is continually active.

Sensory input -> Participant processing information -> Report, press button, ect.

cognitive psychology

The year 1879 might be thought of as the beginning of psychology as a science because that is the year

Wilhelm Wundt developed and opened the first psychology laboratory..

A research team was investigating the impact of stereotypes on performance. In one group, women read a magazine article about why the structure of men's brains makes them better at math. In the second group, women read a magazine article saying there are no biological differences in the mathematical abilities of men and women. All women in the study then took a challenging math test. Researchers scored the number of items women answered correctly. In this study, which of the following was the dependent variable?

Women's scores on the math test.

A professor wanted to learn more about the body image concerns of young teenage girls. She randomly selected 200 girls from local middle schools to complete her questionnaire. These girls were

a representative sample..

Twins who share a certain physical or behavioral trait are _______ for that trait

concordant.

To prove that electrical stimulation can produce intense feelings of anxiety, the mad scientist would stimulate his victim's

amygdala..

A neuron with _______ would be expected to have the slowest-moving action potential.

an unmyelinated, thin axon.

In cases where only one of two identical twins develops schizophrenia, all of the following factors may be responsible except

birth order..

Neurotransmitters influence the polarization of a neuron by

causing receptor channels to open, allowing positively charged sodium ions to flow into the neuron..

After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Kaela had her thyroid removed. The effects of this are likely to include

changes in metabolism..

Each of our _______ consists of tightly coiled DNA.

chromosomes.

The key purpose of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to

determine whether a proposed study is ethical..

Before the mechanisms behind PKU were known to science, infants that inherited the genes for the disorder almost always

developed mental impairments..

During neural development, the nervous system generates more cells than it ultimately needs. Over half of the extra cells

die though a natural process before birth..

Twins who do not share 100 percent of their genes are called

dizygotic..

In the experiment with dull and bright rats, Cooper and Zubek demonstrated a gene—environment interaction by showing that when navigating the maze

dull rats raised in enriched environments eventually performed as well as bright rats..

The fusion of your father's sperm and your mother's egg is referred to as

fertilization..

You feel sick after eating leftovers you found in the back of the refrigerator. Occam's razor would favor the hypothesis that you have

food poisoning..

A researcher would most likely use _______ to investigate which brain areas are active during speech?

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

A researcher plans to study changes in patients' brain activity as Alzheimer's disease progresses by detecting changes in blood flow and oxygen content. The appropriate brain imaging technique to use is

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)..

The process by which a cell directs a gene to make a certain protein is called

gene expression..

Even though your body changes and you develop new physical and behavioral characteristics, your _______ never changes.

genotype.

In the final stages of synaptogenesis, neurons

grow dendrites and axons..

Dizygotic twins

grow from separate zygotes..

Inhibitory synapses

hyperpolarize neurons..