AP Psychology
What is one of Watson's contributions to the study of learning?
He demonstrated how some emotions and behaviors can be learned by classical conditioning.
What is true of alcohol?
In large doses, it is a depressant; in small doses, it is a depressant
How did the definition of psychology change when behaviorism began to dominate the field?
Psychology centered on direct observation of our actions.
If a baseball player gets a hit after tapping the plate with the bat, he is more likely to repeat that behavior the next time he's up to the plate. Which best explains this superstitious behavior?
Reinforced behavior, even if its accidental, is more likely to be repeated.
The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion for their difference to be perceived is known as
Weber's law
What best explain why children are most likely to resist eating strong-tasting foods?
Young children have more taste receptors, so their sensitivity to taste is greater
The increase in death rates among older people when they reach a life milestone such as a birthday provides evidence of
a death-deferral phenomenon
The movement of positively charged ions across the membrane of a neuron can produce an
action potential
In contrast to alcohol, marijuana
amplifies sensitivity to sound
Someone who has difficulty speaking after a stroke is suffering from what?
aphasia
Sodium pentothal has sometimes been called a truth serum because it relaxes people and enables them to more freely disclose personally embarrassing experiences. It is most likely that sodium pentothal is a
barbiturate
The school of thought in psychology that systematically avoided the study of consciousness during the first half of the last century is
behaviorism
Which perspective is most relevant to understanding the impact of strokes and brain diseases on memory?
biological
When golden hamsters were repeatedly threatened and attacked while young, they suffered long-term changes in
brain chemistry
In explaining human behavior, psychoanalysts are likely to focus on _________, whereas humanistic physiologists concentrate on___________.
childhood experiences and unconscious thought processes; current environmental influences
Dr. Caleigh conducts basic research on the relationship between adults' language skills and their capacity to solve mathematical problems. Dr. Caleigh is most likely a __________ psychologist
cognitive
Nikki has leaned to expect the sound of thunder whenever she sees a flash of lightening. This suggests that associative learning involves
cognitive processes
In an experiment designed to study the effectiveness of a new drug, research participants who receive a placebo are participating in the ___________ condition
control
Which factor appears to be important for the development of depth perception in infancy?
crawling experience
as people progress through late adulthood, they typically experience a slight
decrease in brain weight
A child who is punished for swearing at home but reinforced for swearing on the school playground is most likely to demonstrate a patterned habit of swearing that is indicative of
discrimination
Research has indicated that hypnosis
enables some people to undergo surgery with only a local anesthesia.
Although Arturo has looked at his watch thousands of times, he is unable to recall whether the watch features Roman or Arabic numerals. This is most likely due to a failure in
encoding
Margaret has difficulty speaking in front of her classmates and explains to a friend, "Everybody in my family is shy, so it must be genetic." Using the biopsychosocial approach to understanding her behavior, Margaret should
examine additional psychological and social-cultural influences on shyness
After Pavlov had conditioned a dog to salivate to a tone, he repeatedly sounded the tone without presenting the food. As a result, ___________ occurred.
extinction
Bats need a lot of sleep because their high waking metabolism produces__________ that are toxic to neurons
free radicals
A sea slug learns to withdraw its gill after repeatedly being squirted by water. After repeated squirting, the withdrawal response lessens. Which term do learning theorists use to describe this reaction?
habituation
Parents can most effectively increase their influences on their children by
helping to select their children's neighborhood and schools.
Old and Milner located reward centers in the brain structure known as the
hypothalamus
Critics of evolutionary psychology are most likely to suggest that it underestimates the
impact of cultural expectations on human sexual behavior
Abler, a 70 year old retired teacher, feels that his life has not been of any real value or significance. According to Erikson, Abner has failed to achieve a sense of
integrity
Light-wave amplitude determines the
intensity of colors
compared with when she was an adolescent, elderly Mrs. Packer is likely to experience a sad mood with
less intensity and for a longer period of time
It is difficult to successfully train many children to walk before they are 10 months old. This best illustrates the importance of
maturation
Skinner is to shaping as Bandura is to
modeling
Mason, a stockbroker, runs 2 miles every day after work because it reduces his level stress. Mason's running habit is maintained by a ___________ reinforcer.
negative
In response to a harmful stimulus, __________ initiate neural impulses leading to the sensation of pain.
nociceptors
REM sleep is called paradoxical sleep because
our nervous system is highly active, while our voluntary muscles hardly move
After watching a scary movie, Julie perceived the noise of he wind rattling for front window as the sound of a burglar breaking into her house. her mistaken interpretation best illustrates the influence of
perceptual set
Physical pain and intense cravings indicate
physical dependance
the discovery that high-frequency sounds trigger large vibrations near the beginning of the basilar membrane supports the _____________ theory
place
Adoptive parents are most likely to influence the__________ of their adopted children
political attitudes
A young child who is spanked after running into the streets learns not to repeat this behavior. In this case, the spanking is a
positive punishment
Reading a romantic novel caused Consuela to recall some old experiences with a junior high school boyfriend. the effect of the novel on Consuela's memory retrieval is an illustration of
priming
John Locke would have suggested that a perceptual set results from
prior experience
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information is called
proactive interference
Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a ____________ perspective
psychodynamic
As we move, objects that are fixed in place, like a light pole, for example, may appear to move. what is this monocular cue for depth called?
relative motion
The inability to remember events in one's life which occurred prior to a brain injury is known as
retrograde amnesia
The most light-sensitive receptor cells are the
rods
Which part of your brain receives information that you are moving your legs?
sensory cortex
In a pleasant but unfamiliar setting, infants with an insecure maternal attachment are most likely to
show indifference to their mothers return after a brief absence
Developmental psychologists study physical, cognitive, and _____________ changes throughout the human life cycle
social
Compared with when they were only 20 years old, 60 year olds
spend less time in deep sleep
The unreliability of introspection contributed to waning popularity of
structuralism
Parapsychology is
study of phenomena such as ESP and psychokinesis
Psychoactive drugs interfere with normal neural transmissions. Where does this interference take place?
synapses
Experiments suggest that children exposed to a model who says one thing and does another will
talk in ways consistent with what the model says and act in ways consistent with what the model does
In explaining prosocial behavior, B.F. Skinner would most likely have emphasized.
the beneficial consequences of prosocial behavior
Watching the night sky for shooting stars is likely to be reinforced on a _____________ schedule.
variable-interval
Most researchers who have examined the effects of viewing televised aggression conclude that
viewing violence leads children and teenagers to behave aggressively