Psychology Quiz Answers

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

10, 12, 13, 14, 106.

Which of the following demonstrates the concept of habituation?

A baby glances at a familiar stuffed animal, then stares at a new one..

CH 2 What is the primary difference between a hypothesis and a theory?

A theory is a collection of data-based hypotheses.

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

Acetylcholine

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

Computed tomography (CT)

Schizophrenia most often presents itself at what stage?

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

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.

According to Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, which question best corresponds with an adolescent's search for identity?

How can I fit in socially with the people around me?.

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..

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

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

Which type of neuron is most common in the brain?

Interneuron

The effects of PKU are epigenetic because

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

The procedure by which researchers test whether a child has developed a theory of mind is called the

Sally and Anne test..

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

Similar environments shared by relatives.

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

Structuralism

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.

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..

A child finds a five-dollar bill beside her teacher's desk. Which scenario describes the application of preconventional moral reasoning?

The child is afraid she'll get in trouble if she takes the money, so she gives it to her teacher..

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

The inability to distinguish red from green.

CH 1 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.

Gerard's mother has noticed that he becomes very upset when she leaves for work in the morning. When she gets home, he is resistant to her attempts to bond with him. Gerard is displaying

ambivalent attachment..

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.

When a child learns new information about the world that fits with her schema, it is called _______. When a child learns new information that requires her to change her schema, it is called _______.

assimilation; accommodation.

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

birth order..

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

changes in metabolism

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

concordant.

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

developed mental impairments..

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 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

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.

All of the following are female secondary sex characteristics except

ovaries..

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.

Alzheimer's disease is dementia that is caused by

the build-up of amyloid in and outside of acetylcholine neurons..

CH 3 Xander has taken a medication that is an endorphin antagonist. Which side effect is most likely?

Increased pain sensitivity

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

gene expression..

CH 5 In the final stages of synaptogenesis, neurons

grow dendrites and axons..

Dizygotic twins

grow from separate zygotes..

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..

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.

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

in a required health class

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

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)

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

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Inhibitory synapses

hyperpolarize neurons

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 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

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

somatic; autonomic.

CH 4 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

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..

Which statement about vesicles is accurate?

they empty neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.