Psych Exam 1: Chapters 1-4

Out of the 46 chromosomes that humans have, how many are sex linked?

2

People called "supertasters," about ________ percent of people, have more taste buds than the rest of us.

25

Which of the following correctly defines the word "hypothesis"?

A testable prediction

Sam was a researcher interested in disentangling genetic and environmental influences on human behavior. What practice of adoption agencies made Sam's work more difficult?

selective placement

When you detect physical energy by way of organs such as your eyes, ears, or skin, you are experiencing

sensation

The authors accept the philosophical belief that science is ________, that is, neither good nor bad.

value-neutral

Which of the following senses allows us to maintain balance using fluid-filled canals in the inner ear?

vestibular

Neurons respond to neurotransmitters by generating ________ activity.

electrical

Psychics who perform poorly in lab tests and blame their poor performance on "bad vibes" from skeptical researchers are displaying which sign of pseudoscience?

Ad hoc immunizing hypotheses

Alex had ________ , a rare disorder in which affected people are not able to detect pain or temperature. This puts Alex at significant risk for injury.

CIPA

The "third variable problem" is associated with which scientific thinking principle?

Correlation isn't causation.

Yannick says he will have his new baby inoculated against any childhood diseases because he's afraid the shots will cause autism. You point out that there is no scientific evidence to support that idea. Yannick says he knows that, but he just feels that it's true anyway. What logical fallacy is at work?

Emotional reasoning fallacy

Jen's doctor was concerned about the possibility that a brain tumor might be the cause of her headaches. To rule that out, she recommended that Jen have (a/an) ________, which uses magnet fields to measure the release of energy from water in biological tissues

MRI

Which statement is true about the binding problem?

Psychologists have not successfully explained it.

When we say that the heritability of a trait is 70 percent, it means that

about 70 percent of the differences among individuals in their level of that trait is caused by their genes.

According to astronomer Carl Sagan, scientific skepticism includes (1) a willingness to keep an open mind to all claims, and (2) a willingness to

accept claims only after researchers have subjected them to careful scientific tests

In the case of the mother who was able to lift a heavy automobile to save her baby (who was trapped underneath), the hormone that gave her that remarkable strength was

adrenaline

The basic difference between male and female comes down to chromosomes. Females have an XX pair and males have

an XY pair

Cheng doesn't want to take the SAT or ACT exams because he believes they will not accurately reflect his ability to succeed in college and are no more useful than flipping a coin. Cheng's guidance counselor explains that psychologists have actually determined that, while not perfect, these tests are significantly better than chance at predicting college success. These psychologists are engaged in

applied research

Professor Santander mentioned stem cells, and found that most of his class already knew what they were—particularly the controversy surrounding them. Professor Santander explained that the reason stem cells are so interesting to scientific research is that stem cells

are not yet specialized for a specific function

Dr. Alonzo is studying the effect on depression of the loss of important personal relationships and the lack of social supports. Because this research addresses social and cultural influences on psychology, it is considered to be

at the top level of analysis

Which term means our sense of hearing

audition

Reports of the effectiveness of prefrontal lobotomy on schizophrenia were tragically wrong because they were

based on subjective clinical reports

Sound is transduced by hair cells in the organ of Corti and ________ in the inner ear.

basilar membrane

Psychologists in which field consider the mind to be a "black box" in that we know what goes in and what comes out but don't need to worry about what happens inside.

behaviorism

The phrase "don't confuse me with the facts" would BEST describe which self-deception trap?

belief perseverance

When we have a "normal" distribution of data, the graphed data will form the shape of a

bell

The taste of food can give us information about its quality. For instance, an unfamiliar ________ taste might indicate the presence of poison or dangerous bacteria.

bitter

The mental procedure that we use to create a whole by perceiving its parts is called

bottom-up processing

We perceive the ________ of an object based on the intensity of the light that is reflected to our eyes.

brightness

Research has found that a single area of the brain can have multiple functions. Which brain area plays a role in speech and also lets us know when a musical note is off key?

broca's area

Which of the following is one of the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?

occipital lobe

The proverbs "birds of a feather flock together" and "opposites attract" are examples of how things we consider to be common sense

can actually be contradictory

Which research design would we use to study a rare or unusual phenomenon that would be hard to re-create in a laboratory setting?

case study

Pockets that contain cerebrospinal fluid that protect the brain from injury and supply nutrients are called

cerebral ventricles

Which imaging technology reconstructs multiple x-rays to create a three-dimensional model of the brain?

computed tomography (CT)

Which phrase indicates that when evaluating a story about psychology research, we should generally place more confidence in a reputable science journal than a popular magazine?

consider the source

The curved, transparent layer of the eye that covers the iris and pupil, and bends incoming light to focus the visual image on the back of the eye is called the

cornea

A common mistake people make in interpreting correlation results is to jump the gun and assume that

one variable has caused the other one

We like foods that taste and smell good, but what we tend to think of as "good" also depends on

culture

The process in which researchers inform participants about what the test was about and, sometimes, explain their hypothesis in nontechnical language is called

debriefing

Based on their relative _______ levels, the sound of a nearby clap of thunder will be perceived as louder than a lawn mower.

decibel

Reporting measures of central tendency that are nonrepresentative of most participants is an example of _________ of statistics.

deliberate misuse

When research participants pick up clues as to the nature of the researcher's hypothesis, their responses can be influenced by what they believe the researcher wants to find. These clues are called

demand characteristics

Although alcohol does not actually kill brain cells, it can destroy ________ in the brain.

dendrites

The classic visual cliff experiment designed by Eleanor Gibson established that infants can perceive

depth

According to the gate control model, ________ is an effective way of short-circuiting painful sensations.

distraction

Research has shown that people are especially prone to find patterns of meaning in meaningless stimuli when they

don't feel a sense of control

Which system controls secretion of blood-borne chemical messengers?

endocrine system

Wyman wanted to design a study that would be high in internal validity and allow him to infer causation. Which research design should Wyman use?

experimental design

The purpose of sending research articles to peer reviewers prior to publication is to

identify flaws in the research

The theoretical framework of psychology known as structuralism had two major problems. One was that highly trained introspectionists often disagreed on subjective reports. The other was the discovery of

imageless thought

Tiana had to submit her research proposal to a(n) ________, a group found at every major American research college and university that reviews all research carefully to protect participants against abuses.

institutional review board

Wilhelm Wundt developed the first full-fledged psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany. He pioneered the technique of _______________, in which trained observers reflected on and reported on their own mental experiences.

introspection

Science begins with the premise that knowledge should first be acquired through observation. This premise is called

intuition

Evolutionary psychology has been criticized because

its predictions are difficult to falsify.

In psychology, basic research examines how the mind works. Applied research

looks at ways to solve real-life problems using basic research

Why do most individuals on both sides of the animal rights debate believe that it is "a dreadful idea" for animal activists to release captive laboratory animals?

many of the animals die shortly after being released

Which measure of the central tendency can be affected by an extreme score?

mean

The belief that "seeing is believing" is an example of

naive realism

Which type of research design is considered high in external validity, that is, the extent to which findings can be generalized to real-world situations?

naturalistic observation

Louisa was considering two explanations that could account for the same data equally well, and remembered ______________, which said we should probably choose the simplest one

occam's razor

Men who were exposed to a certain chemical in a nasal spray were more likely to give money to a team partner during a risky investment game. That chemical was

oxytocin

You've just had a nice dinner and are nodding off on the sofa. At this time, which part of your nervous system is going to work?

parasympathetic

Touch and pain information travels through the brain stem and thalamus to reach the somatosensory cortex, as well as other cortical areas such as the

parietal lobe

Our brains rely on knowledge and experience to make educated guesses about the sensory information we receive. Which of the following is formed when our expectations influence our perceptions?

perceptual set

What wildly popular theory in the 1800s was the origin of the phrase "having one's head examined"?

phrenology

Which of the following is a Gestalt principle?

proximity

Which of the following is an indication of pseudoscience

relying on anecdotes

Which of the following helps us to avoid the pitfalls of relying too much on intuition and heuristics?

research design

Although Shere Hite sent out 100,000 surveys to American women for her study on male-female relationships in the 1980s, her results were flawed because

respondents did not represent a random selection of the population being studied

The continually occurring process by which synaptic vessels reabsorb a particular neurotransmitter, thus halting neurotransmission, is known as

reuptake

By testing hypotheses and analyzing the results of these tests, scientists can provisionally accept the theory behind the hypothesis, reject the theory outright, or

revise the theory

One important aspect of a research study that peer reviewers consider is whether the study considers alternate explanations. This is called

ruling out rival hypotheses

When we hear a media report about psychological findings that offer an explanation, we should ask ourselves if this the only possible explanation. This is the first principle of scientific thinking:

ruling out rival hypotheses

Analytical thinking is ________ compared to intuitive thinking.

slow

In class, Kaylie's instructor spoke of the "nerve cable" in the body, without identifying it with a name. Which of the following extends from the base of the brain to about two-thirds of the way down the vertebral column?

spinal cord

What event affecting the brain can cause the one hand to refuse to cooperate with the other, as in the case of the man whose left hand turned off the television and hit his family members?

split-brain surgery

Which term means applying mathematics to describe and analyze data?

statistics

Mark Twain referred to three kinds of untruths: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics," because

statistics can be used to mislead people

In a study of _________, none of the participants who were presented with religious words without realizing it took the opportunity to cheat on a different task.

subliminal perception

Madeline felt heavily pressured while she was studying for exams. Madeline had to do well to keep her scholarship, to say nothing of pleasing her parents. Arousal of the ________ occurs not only during an emergency but also in response to other stressors, like important exams.

sympathetic nervous system

As neurotransmitters exit the sending axon and before passing into the receiving dendrite, they must pass through the central

synaptic cleft

Your sister, Mya, tells you that to her, the numeral 7 is always green and 4 is always red. She is surprised to find that you don't share this experience. You are surprised to discover that she has a rare condition known as

synesthesia.

Scientists who study the brain use the term "plasticity" to describe

the ability of the nervous system to change

The question of how we combine cues of shape, motion, color, and depth over time into a meaningful total picture is called

the binding problem

Magic tricks can fool us because performers capitalize on the way our perception and attention work. Which saying is the most correct?

the hand is quicker than the brain

Which of the following is one of the APA's published codes of ethics regarding Informed Consent?

the research, its expected duration, and any potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects associated with it.

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis focused on

the role of unconscious

The process whereby the nervous system converts an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons.

transduction

Gray decided to present his statistical data in a(n) ________, which is considered a "no-no" as a way to present statistical data.

truncated line graph

Physiological studies to determine if humans possess taste receptors for ________ demonstrate the importance of replicating research results.

umami