PSYCH MIDTERM

Which of the following is a partial reinforcement schedule that is most resistant to extinction? (A) Noncontingent (B) Shaping (C) Variable ratio (D) Fixed ratio (E) Fixed interval

E) Fixed interval

A student who scored at the mode would have how many points? (A) 3 (B) 5 (C) 6 (D) 8 (E) 10

(B) 5

Which of the following is the median score? (A) 1 (B) 5 (C) 6 (D) 8 (E) 10

(B) 5

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 (A) retroactive inhibition (B) sensory adaptation (C) perceptual constancy (D) object permanence (E) absolute threshold

(B) sensory adaptation

All human languages have several basic sounds in common called (A) pheromones (B) semantic units (C) syntactic units (D) morphemes (E) phonemes

A) pheromones

Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study (A) the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving (B) how infants move from basic trust to autonomy (C) the conflicts of the conscious and the unconscious (D) the relationship of cephalocaudal and proximodistal development (E) how attribution processes vary across cultures

A the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving

Which of the following sets of concepts is central to social learning theory? (A) Observation. imitation, and modeling (B) Fixed interval, variable interval, and fixed ratio (C) Generalization, spontaneous recovery, and discrimination (D) Acquisition. extinction, and counterconditioning (E) Higher-order learning, negative reinforcement. and variable ratio

A) Observation. imitation, and modeling

John B. Watson is best known as the founder of (A) behaviorism (B) functionalism (C) rationalism (D) structuralism (E) mechanism

A) behaviorism

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that help solve problems and reduce mental effort are called (A) heuristics (B) algorithms (C) syllogisms (D) propositions (E) concepts

A) heuristics

The brain scans of people with amnesia are most likely to show damage to the (A) hippocampus (B) hypothalamus (C) medulla (D) reticular formation (E) cerebellum

A) hippocampus

The ability to see a cube in the diagram below is best explained by which of the following? (A) The resting potential of neurons in the optic nerve (B) Gestalt principles of closure and continuity (C) The inverted and reversed image that a visual stimulus produces on the retina (D) The opponent process theory of vision (E) The trichromatic theory of vision

B Gestalt principles of closure and continuity

Which of the following systems produces, circulates, and regulates levels of hormones in the body? (A) Circulatory system (B) Endocrine system (C) Limbic system (D) Sympathetic nervous system (E) Parasympathetic nervous system

B) Endocrine system

Rafael has a sleep disorder for which he takes medically prescribed amphetamines. For which of the following sleep disorders is Rafael most likely being treated? (A) Sleep apnea (B) Narcolepsy (C) Insomnia (D) Circadian rhythm sleep disorder (E) Somnambulism

B) Narcolepsy

Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable? (A) Some characteristic of research participants that is constant, such as gender (B) Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment (C) A factor that is manipulated by the experimenter in order to observe its effects on some other factor (D) A factor that can be used to predict how people in an experiment will respond (E) A factor that is equated for the experimental and the control group

B) Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment

Which part of the nervous system is most immediately activated by sudden fear? (A) Parasympathetic (B) Sympathetic (C) Neostriatum (D) Somatic (E) Cortical

B) Sympathetic

Which of the following elements constitutes the independent variable in the study? (A) The number of successful coin tosses (B) The number of coins the participants tossed (C) The measure of self-esteem (D) The feedback about relative performance in coin tossing (E) The number of participants

B) The number of coins the participants tossed

Which of the following is an example of a prelinguistic event? (A) Telegraphic speech (B) Motherese (C) Babbling (D) Holophrasing (E) Paraphrasing

C) Babbling

A researcher shows the same video of an automobile accident to two different groups of participants. Participants in group one are asked: "Did you see a broken headlight?" Participants in group two are asked: "Did you see the broken headlight?" The researcher finds that participants in group two are much more likely to recall having seen a broken headlight, even though there actually was no broken headlight in the video. The researcher is investigating the effects of which of the following on recall? (A) Algorithms (B) Heuristics (C) Framing (D) Proactive interference (E) Priming

C) Framing

Neurotransmitters are typically stored in which of the following parts of a neuron? (A) The nodes of Ranvier (B) The myelin sheath (C) The terminal buttons (D) The soma (E) The axon

C) The terminal buttons

As you watch a friend walk away from you, your retinal image of your friend gets smaller. Despite this, you do not perceive him to be shrinking. This is an example of (A) motion parallax (B) retinal disparity (C) size constancy (D) continuity (E) common fate

C) size constanc

Standard deviation is a measure of how much (A) a normal person's behavior changes in a given time (B) two sets of scores vary together (C) difference there is between the highest and the lowest score in a sample (D) scores in a group differ from the mean of that group (E) scores from a sample differ from that of the population

D scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

Marie has to assemble a shelf but cannot find her screwdriver. Which of the following would help her complete this task? (A) Confirmation bias (B) Functional fixedness (C) Rigidity (D) Divergent thought (E) Mental set

D) Divergent thought

Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment? (A) More than one independent variable (B) Sophisticated equipment (C) Highly generalizable results (D) Precise operational definitions (E) A longitudinal design

D) Precise operational definitions

The biological clock that operates in human beings to adjust their functioning to night-and-day periodicity is referred to as (A) spontaneous neural activity (B) the biofeedback monitor (C) a fixed-interval schedule (D) a circadian rhythm (E) active consciousness

D) a circadian rhythm

An individual who drinks alcohol daily finds it necessary to drink increasing amounts to achieve the state of well-being attained in the past. This individual is showing (A) withdrawal symptoms (B) alcohol-induced psychosis (C) state-dependent learning (D) alcohol tolerance (E) delirium tremens

D) alcohol tolerance

Visual acuity is best in the (A) lens (B) iris (C) pupil (D) fovea (E) cornea

D) fovea

The area of the brain stem that is important in controlling breathing is the (A) suprachiasmatic nucleus (B) cerebellum (C) limbic system (D) medulla (E) hippocampus

D) medulla

Memory for automatic activities, such as bike riding and handwriting, is known as (A) declarative (B) semantic (C) sensory (D) procedural (E) repressed

D) procedural

In order to yield information that is generalizable to the population from which it was drawn, a sample must be (A) made up of at least 30 members of the population (B) as large as possible (C) normally distributed (D) representative of the population (E) made up of at least 50 percent of the members of the population.

D) representative of the population

The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a (A) bar graph (B) normal distribution (C) histogram (D) scatterplot (E) frequency polygon

D) scatterplot

A child who learns that spoons are tableware and then correctly calls forks and knives tableware is demonstrating (A) rote learning (B) imitation training (C) discrimination training (D) stimulus generalization (E) classical conditioning

D) stimulus generalization

A person with damage to Broca's area would most likely demonstrate which of the following symptoms? (A) Forgetfulness (B) Hearing difficulties (C) Difficulty controlling balance and coordination (D) Difficulty controlling emotions (E) Difficulty with speech production

E Difficulty with speech production

Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system results in which of the following? (A) An increase in pupil dilation (B) An increase in respiratory rate (C) A decrease in digestion (D) A decrease in salivation (E) A decrease in heart rate

E) A decrease in heart rate

Which of the following is the best example of shaping? (A) A child receives five dollars each time he cleans his room. (B) An employee receives a termination notice after coming to work late every day over a period of three months. (C) A child gets candy from a dispenser one time but gets nothing from the dispenser the next two times. (D) A teacher rewards a student for sitting quietly for ten minutes on Monday, fifteen minutes on Tuesday, twenty minutes on Wednesday, and thirty minutes on Thursday. (E) A rat receives a mild shock each time it tries to open the door of its cage.

E) A rat receives a mild shock each time it tries to open the door of its cage.

Which of the following characterizes a behavioral approach to psychology? (A) A study of the unconscious motives involved in behavior (B) An introspective study of the mental imagery used in problem solving (C) An analysis of the neurons involved in memory storage (D) The use of a projective test to assess personality (E) A study of how reinforcement affects learning

E) A study of how reinforcement affects learning

Photoreceptors relay visual information to the brain through which of the following cells? (A) Trigeminal and vestibular (B) Ganglion and vestibular (C) Bipolar and vestibular (D) Bipolar and Schwann (E) Bipolar and ganglion

E) Bipolar and ganglion

Which of the following violations of ethical guidelines occurs in the study? (A) Inappropriate use of deception (B) Violation of the right to withdraw (C) Violation of privacy (D) Violation of confidentiality (E) Exposure to harmful procedures

B) Violation of the right to withdraw

Reuptake of a neurotransmitter refers to (A) absorption of the neurotransmitter into the dendrites of the receiving neuron (B) absorption of the neurotransmitter into the terminal buttons of the sending neuron (C) release of the neurotransmitter by the soma of the originating neuron (D) the rate at which a neurotransmitter is created for use by a neuron (E) the rate at which a neurotransmitter is broken down metabolically in the neuron

B) absorption of the neurotransmitter into the terminal buttons of the sending neuron

A research design involves two randomly assigned groups of participants. One group receives a one-time treatment, and the other does not. Later, the two groups are compared to see whether the treatment had an effect. Psychologists call this kind of research (A) a correlational study (B) an experiment (C) a case study (D) a survey (E) a cross-sequential study.

B) an experiment

According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of (A) observable behavior (B) conscious experience (C) unconscious motivation (D) physiology and behavior (E) evolved psychological mechanisms

B) conscious experience

In a research study, informed consent is a concern of (A) replicability (B) ethics (C) statistical significance (D) practical applicability (E) cross-cultural representativeness

B) ethics

The reversible figure below illustrates the Gestalt organizing principle of (A) proximity (B) figure-ground (C) closure (D) common fate (E) simplicity

B) figure-ground

In a memory study, the experimenter reads the same list of words to two groups. She asks group A to count the letters in each word, and she asks group B to focus on the meaning of each word for a later memory quiz. During a recall test, participants in group B recall significantly more words than participants in group A. Memory researchers attribute this effect to differences in (A) priming (B) levels of processing (C) proactive interference (D) procedural memory (E) episodic memory

B) levels of processing

In classical conditioning, stimulus generalization occurs when an organism responds (A) to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus (B) to stimuli that are similar to the unconditioned stimulus (C) to the conditioned stimulus the same way as to the unconditioned stimulus (D) with different types of responses to neutral stimuli (E) with different types of responses to the unconditioned stimulus

B) to stimuli that are similar to the unconditioned stimulus

Which of the following provides information regarding brain function by monitoring the brain at work through metabolism of glucose? (A) Computed tomography (CT) (B) Electrooculography (EOG) (C) Electroencephalography (EEG) (D) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (E) Positron emission tomography (PET)

E) Positron emission tomography (PET)

The linguistic relativity hypothesis of Benjamin Whorf suggests which of the following? (A) People of different cultures use similar words for common objects. (B) Languages with many words to describe certain phenomena lack deep structure. (C) The number of phonemes used in spoken language is universal across cultures. (D) People of cultures with few words to describe certain phenomena are more precise in their descriptions. (E) Speakers of different languages think differently due to the differences in their languages.

E) Speakers of different languages think differently due to the differences in their languages.

A person assembling a tool one week after reading the instructions can remember the first and last steps of the procedure but not the middle ones. This best illustrates which of the following? (A) Encoding failure (B) Social facilitation (C) Retrograde amnesia (D) Repression (E) The serial position effect

E) The serial position effect

A study can be regarded as scientific only if (A) it utilizes an effective placebo (B) its findings are accepted by experts in the field (C) its findings are consistent with established theories (D) its conclusions are based on strong correlational data (E) its conclusions can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies

E) its conclusions can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies

Individuals who believe that an unpleasant experience is unavoidable and therefore do nothing to change the course of events are exhibiting (A) self-actualization attributes (B) the fight-or-flight response (C) attributional deficits (D) cognitive dissonance (E) learned helplessness

E) learned helplessness

Balance is influenced by the (A) cochlea (B) basilar membrane (C) eardrum (D) auditory nerve (E) semicircular canals

E) semicircular canals