exam 1 (revel questions)

A popular notion is that people only use about 10 percent of their brains and that the remaining 90 percent has untapped potential. In fact, researchers now know that we use more of our brains than previously thought. The true brain use percentage is closer to __________.

100 percent

Approximately how many neurons are contained in the human brain?

85 billion

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 key

An important principle of scientific thinking states that if two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon, we should generally select the simpler one. This principle is known as __________.

Occam's Razor

What is the crucial drawback in using family studies to try to determine the risk of a genetic disorder among relatives sharing a household?

Sharing both an environment and genetic background can make nature hard to distinguish from nurture.

An approach to psychology that relied heavily on dream interpretation, symbolism, unconscious motives, and the suppression of sexual and aggressive urges was developed by __________.

Sigmund Freud

As an illustration that brain scan images are not always easy to interpret correctly, mischievous researchers were able to come up with "results" when they took brain scans of __________.

a dead salmon

Bruno is asked to estimate which California city occupies a greater area: San Francisco or San Jose. "San Francisco is a big city," he muses, "whereas San Jose is out in the suburbs. San Francisco must be bigger." In actuality, San Francisco occupies about 48 square miles, compared to San Jose's 180 square miles. Bruno was mislead because he relied on __________.

a heuristic

The idea that we can dismiss scientific theories (such as Darwinian evolution) from serious consideration because a theory "is just an educated guess" is

a misconception

Sherri wants to design a self-report measure for her study of personality traits, but she knows she should be concerned that respondents might distort their answers, especially to paint themselves in a positive light. This tendency is known as __________.

a response set

Of the 3,500 or so self-help books published every year, what percentage are scientifically tested?

about 5 percent

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

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

ad hoc immunizing hypotheses

Which hormone triggers the opening of bronchioles in the lungs and the breakdown of glycogen into glucose?

adrenaline

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

an XY pair

The technical term for a score that is much higher or lower than the typical responses, and might produce a misleading interpretation of the data set, is __________.

an outlier

Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman refers to intuitive thinking as System 1. What type of thinking does Kahneman refer to as System 2?

analytical

The idea of placing a third brake light at the base of a car's back windshield and changing the color of fire engines from red to yellow are examples of __________.

applied psychological research

Georgio does not want to take the SAT or ACT exams because he thinks they will not accurately reflect his ability to succeed in college and are no more useful than flipping a coin. His guidance counselor explains that psychologists have determined that, although not perfect, these tests are significantly better than chance at predicting college success. These psychologists are sharing some __________ with Georgio.

applied research

The reason stem cells are so interesting to researchers is that stem cells __________.

are not yet specialized for a specific function

Which part of the peripheral nervous system controls involuntary actions of internal organs and glands?

autonomic nervous system

The APA Ethical Principles for Human Research indicate that psychologists must take reasonable steps to __________.

avoid harming participants

Which of the following is the portion of a neuron that sends a signal to other neurons?

axon

The central nervous system is organized into various areas. Which structures control movement and motor planning?

basal ganglia

Twin and adoption studies addressing the nature-nurture debate are typically conducted by __________.

behavior geneticists

People have a tendency to continue holding on to their beliefs even when those beliefs have been shown to be wrong. This phenomenon is known as

belief perseverance

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

belief perseverance

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures changes in __________, which indirectly indicate neural activity.

blood oxygen levels

The cases of facilitated communication and lobotomies demonstrate that good research design is important because intelligent, well-trained people __________.

can be swayed into believing that a treatment is effective when it is not

Sensory information comes into which part of the two-way nervous system "superhighway"?

central nervous system

Which term refers to the type of descriptive statistic that tells us where the scores tend to cluster in a set of measurements?

central tendency

Naturalistic observation can be problematic if people realize they are being observed. This is because they might __________.

change their behavior

Which type of psychologist is most likely to work with patients who have serious mental disorders such as major depression?

clinical psychologist

In the 1950s and 1960s, many psychologists were disillusioned with behaviorism's neglect of the mental processes involved in different aspects of thinking. Arguing that thinking has a powerful effect on behavior, psychologists such as Jean Piaget began to develop the field of __________.

cognitivism

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses magnetic fields to measure the release of energy from water in biological tissues. MRI is better than __________ for detecting soft tissues, such as brain tumors.

computes tomography (CT)

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

consider the source

One reason that intuition and common sense are not a good basis for scientific psychology is that we often do not notice __________.

contradictions between our views

Which of the following is responsible for transferring information from one side of the brain to the other, and when cut, prevents information from the visual field on one side from reaching the visual cortex on the other side?

corpus callosum

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

correlation is not causation

Your friend is an emergency room nurse. He tells you the ER is always busier when there is a full moon; he claims it is because unstable people are more affected by the moon's gravitational pull. To evaluate his claim, you should understand that __________.

correlation is not causation

The easiest way to determine if two variables are associated with one another is to use a(n) __________ research design.

correlational

Located on top of the kidneys, the adrenal glands release adrenaline and __________ during times of emotional arousal.

cortisol

Psychological researchers have become more aware of the importance of replicating research results. Part of this awareness is driven by the observation that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time. This phenomenon is known as the __________.

decline effect

Although alcohol does not actually kill brain cells, it does cause brain shrinkage and can destroy __________.

dendrites

Questions such as, "What is the average level of extraversion in this sample?" call for the use of which kind of statistics?

descriptive

You meet a psychologist who tells you that she conducts research on children to determine how their cognitive processes differ as the child gets older. You recognize that this person is most likely a(n) __________.

developmental psychologist

Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker died as a result of a pseudoscientific treatment called "rebirthing therapy." This is an example of pseudoscience causing __________.

direct harm

Which term describes a curved line on a graph that can be bell shaped, negatively skewed, or positively skewed?

distribution curve

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

do not feel a sense of control

A friend says he will not have his new baby inoculated against any childhood diseases because he is afraid the shots will cause autism. You point out that there is no scientific evidence to support that idea. He says he knows that, but he just feels that it is true. What logical fallacy is at work?

emotional reasoning fallacy

One reason people are drawn to believing in pseudoscience is that we use our emotions as guides to evaluate the validity of claims. This is known as the affect heuristic or the __________.

emotional reasoning fallacy

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

empiricism

Which bodily system controls the secretion of blood-borne chemical messengers?

endocrine

Dr. Sardonicus is designing a case study in order to demonstrate that a particular psychological phenomenon actually happens. Case studies can be useful in providing this kind of demonstration, also known as __________.

existence proof

You want to design a study that will be high in internal validity and will allow you to infer causation. Which research design should you use?

experimental design

The only research designs that allow us the possibility of drawing cause-and-effect inferences are __________.

experimental designs

Dr. Ingo Larsen is testing the effectiveness of a new memory-enhancing study technique. He greets each participant at the door and escorts them into either the control group (that receives the old memory technique) or the experimental group (that receives the new memory technique). He then conducts the experiment and analyzes the results. This is all quite problematic, because of the potential presence of __________.

experimenter expectancy effects

Dr. Frohardt is a psychology professor who has been asked to explain what all people will look at first when they view photographs of dangerous animals. Dr. Frohardt will find this task difficult because

eye-tracking studies show differences between cultures when inspecting visual materials

One of the great debates that has shaped the field of psychology is the question of whether people choose their behaviors or are obliged to act in certain ways by factors beyond their control. This is known as the __________ debate.

free will-determinism

Alcohol and antianxiety drugs both increase __________ activity, which is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter.

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

The neurotransmitter __________ rapidly excites neurons, and is one of the most common neurotransmitters in the central nervous system.

glutamate

In evolutionary terms, "fitness" means that an organism __________ than other organisms in its environment.

has a better chance of passing on its genes

The extent to which genes contribute to differences in a trait among a group of individuals is known as __________.

heritability

A mental shortcut or general "rule of thumb" is referred to as a(n) __________ by psychologists.

heuristic

Because carefully controlled studies generate more trustworthy results, the high internal validity of these studies can lead to __________.

high external validity

One primary purpose of sending research articles to peer reviewers prior to publication is to __________.

identify flaws in the research

When we perceive a reliable association between two events (although none exists), such as the presence of rainy weather and arthritis flare-ups, we are experiencing the phenomenon called __________.

illusory correlation

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

The two kinds of statistics used by psychologists are descriptive statistics and __________ statistics.

inferential

The APA Ethical Principles for Human Research state: "A contact [person] who can answer questions about the research and the participant's rights should be provided." This statement is most relevant in which of the following aspects of ethical research?

informed consent

Which ethical procedure is being followed when researchers let test subjects know what they are likely to encounter during an experiment before the subjects agree to participate?

informed consent

Which group at every major American research college and university 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

The type of thinking that allows us to operate on "autopilot" and make snap decisions is called __________.

intuitive

Research involving animals can generate strong, often negative, feelings among people. This is especially so when the research involves __________ procedures that cause physical harm to the animals.

invasive

According to philosopher of science Sir Karl Popper, for a scientific claim to be meaningful, it must be falsifiable, which means __________.

it can be tested to determine if it is false

The pituitary hormone oxytocin has been called the "love molecule" because __________.

it plays roles in maternal and romantic love

Evolutionary psychology has been criticized because __________.

its predictions are difficult to falsify

As a discipline, psychology spans multiple __________, which can be thought of as the rungs on a ladder.

levels of analysis

Ways of thinking that appear to make intuitive sense but are actually traps that lead to mistaken conclusions are called __________.

logical fallacies

As a researcher, if you needed to track brain changes over milliseconds (1/1000 of a second), the imaging technology you would most likely choose would be __________.

magnetoencephalography (MEG)

We say that a result has practical significance if it __________.

makes a difference in the real world

The hormone testosterone is found in __________.

males and females

The two ingredients that make a research study an experiment are 1) random assignment of participants to conditions, and 2) __________.

manipulation of an independent variable

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

many of the animals die shortly after being released

When a politician makes the statement that the average tax return will be $5,000 for citizens of her state, we should be suspicious of her statistics. It would be more meaningful to report the __________ as a measure of central tendency.

median or mode

Twin studies work best when using identical or __________ twins, because these twins share all of their genetic material in common.

monozygotic

In people with multiple sclerosis, the degradation of the __________ causes neural messages to become mixed up, creating many physical and emotional symptoms.

myelin sheath

Which term describes the common sense belief that we see the world as it really is?

naive realism

If we want to study people's actual behavior "in the wild" without them being influenced by the researcher, we can use __________.

naturalistic observation

As recently as two decades ago, scientists believed we were born with all the neurons we would ever have. But the discovery of __________ occurring in certain brain areas in monkeys gave rise to the hope that someday scientists will be able to induce the adult human brain to heal itself.

neurogenesis

Endorphins are a type of __________, short strings of amino acids that are narrowly targeted to perform a specific job. For instance, endorphins specialize in reducing pain.

neuropeptide

Who uses sophisticated tests of reason, attention, and verbal and spatial abilities to figure out where brain dysfunction is located in human patients?

neuropsychologists

Bud and Sandy are discussing the merits of new automobiles. Bud noted, "This car model has been tested by four different consumer agencies in hundreds of tests with virtually the same outcomes each time; it is very reliable." Sandy countered, "Yeah, but my neighbor down the street bought that car, and he has had nothing but problems. I would stay away from it." Which hallmark of pseudoscience has Sandy fallen prey to?

overreliance on anecdotes

During an experiment investigating the effects of hormones on behavior, 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

Freda is reading a journal article in psychology, and sees that a statistically significant outcome would have occurred by chance alone less than 5 out of 100 times. This statement would be summarized in the journal article as __________.

p < .05

You have 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

The process of soliciting feedback from qualified experts in a research area prior to publishing the results of a research study is called __________.

peer review

According to David Hume, an eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more __________ must be the evidence for the claim.

persuasive

A discredited technique for "mapping" areas of the brain is called __________.

phrenology

Which gland was once thought of as the "master gland" because it controls the other glands in the body?

pituitary

What is the name for the part of the brain stem connecting the cortex to the cerebellum?

pons

Broca's area, named for French surgeon Paul Broca, is a region of the __________ and plays a key role in language production.

prefrontal cortex

The story of how facilitated communication was debunked is a powerful illustration of the triumph of science over __________.

pseudoscience

Media reports have a tendency to try to present two opposing sides of an issue as though both sides were equally valid. What is this tendency called?

pseudosymmetry

Just as behaviorism was gaining popularity in the United States, Sigmund Freud was founding a new field of psychology, one that focused on internal psychological processes such as unconscious impulses, thoughts, and memories. This approach is called __________.

psychoanalysis

Megan wanted to get a measure of the amount of variability in her set of data, so she subtracted the lowest score from the highest score. Megan computed the __________.

range

Identify the term that behavioral geneticists use to describe the extent to which genes limit how much a trait can change in response to new environments.

reaction range

Which type of gene is expressed only in the absence of a dominant gene?

recessive

The outgoing behavior of other people can make an extraverted person act even more extraverted. Bandura called this mutual influence on one another's behavior __________.

reciprocal determinism

When a neuron is neither being stimulated nor inhibited, the neuron is described as having a __________.

resting potential

Laurie told her friend Sandi, "I had a headache this morning so I used an old family cure: Three sips of ginger ale, and an hour later my head felt better." Sandi replied, "I am glad you are feeling more comfortable now, but maybe the sheer passage of time made your headache go away." Sandi is offering a(n) __________ in response to Laurie's explanation.

rival hypothesis

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

You are reading an article in a psychology journal that has an accompanying, two-dimensional graph with dots representing data from individual people. This is called a __________.

scatterplot

Because religious concepts cannot be tested scientifically, we should consider that __________.

science and religion are nonoverlapping realms of understanding the world

What practice of adoption agencies can make adoption studies problematic for researchers interested in disentangling genetic and environmental contributions to human behavior?

selective placement

Questionnaires fall into which category of measurement tools?

self-report measures

The police have arrested a suspect in an assault case and the victim has agreed to look at a lineup to see if he can identify the person who attacked him. Gary, a police psychologist, is advising the detectives on the most accurate way to put together a lineup. What should he recommend that they use?

sequential lineup

In the popular media (as opposed to scientific journals), research results can be presented in a misleading way because reporters have the tendency to exaggerate the gist or central message of the study. This is called __________.

sharpening

To be sure that we are not fooled by popular media reports about psychology research, we should be on the lookout for __________.

sharpening and leveling

Analytical thinking is __________ compared to intuitive thinking.

slow

When Georgie goes to the sink to fill a glass with water, his brain sends signals telling different parts of his body what to do in order to complete this action. Which part of the nervous system carries out these directions?

somatic

Which of the following is the name for the "nerve cable" that 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 bizarre behavioral outcomes, such as the extreme example of one hand refusing 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 indicates applying mathematics to describe and analyze data?

statistics

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

statistics sometimes can be used to mislead people

Which of the following responses is created by the sympathetic nervous system, which is active during the fight-or-flight response?

stomach slows digestion

E.B. Titchener was a leading figure in which framework of psychology, which advocated the use of introspection to identify basic elements of experience?

structuralism

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

synaptic cleft

Jerry is asked to estimate which is more common in the English language: Words that end in "ing" or words that have "-n-" as the second-to-last letter. He mentally recites many examples of the first category ("running," "jumping," "flying," "talking") but can only think of a few examples of the second category ("sink," "nine"). He judges that "ing" endings are more common, which of course is incorrect. (All words that end in "ing" also have "n" as the second-to-last letter; the addition of words that do not have an "i" and a "g" on either side of the "n" makes that second group larger.) After all this hubbub, it is clear that Jerry relied on __________ to reach his conclusion.

system 1 thinking

British philosopher John Locke stood on the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate, comparing the mind of a newborn to a sheet of paper that had yet to be written on. Others later used which term to describe the same idea?

tabula rasa

Which part of the brain is used for hearing, understanding language, and storing memories, and is separated from the rest of the cortex by the lateral fissure?

temporal lobe

If subjects' scores on a self-esteem scale are consistent over time, the scale has high __________ reliability.

test-retest

Women's bodies produce about one-twentieth the amount of which hormone compared to men's bodies?

testosterone

Which of the following brain structures is part of the limbic system?

thalamus

What shameful experiment was conducted over the course of 40 years to determine what would happen if syphilis was left to run its course in unsuspecting "subjects" (at a time when a cure for the disease was already available)?

the Tuskegee study

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

the ability of the nervous system to change over time

A central issue in considering medical and psychological research using animals is balancing the advances gained through such experimentation against __________.

the costs in death and suffering they produce for the test subjects

Science writer Michael Shermer coined the termed "patternicity" to refer to __________.

the human tendency to see patterns in meaningless data

In thinking of the multiple levels of analysis in psychology, the neurochemical level is considered to be __________ because this level is more closely tied to biological influences.

toward the lower end of the ladder

Some main warning signs of pseudoscientific claims include overreliance on anecdotes, exaggerated claims, absence of connectivity to other research, lack of peer review, and __________.

use of scientific-sounding terms that make little sense

Alice is looking for an effective diet program. She is able to evaluate the claims of competing programs in an open-minded and careful fashion by __________, the hallmark of scientific skepticism.

using her critical thinking skills

The authors accept the philosophical belief that science is __________; that is, neither good nor bad in itself.

value-neutral

There is a popular idea that people are either "left-brained" (scholarly, logical, analytical) or "right-brained" (artistic, creative, emotional). The textbook authors note that these claims are __________.

vast oversimplifications based on a small nugget of truth

In a study in which college students are pampered (given endless amounts of money, cable TV, and spicy Chinese food) to see whether this will improve their scores in their psychology course, what is the independent variable?

whether students were pampered or not