Intro to Psychology Midterm Quiz Questions
According to the depth-of-processing principle, what determine(s) how easily you retrieve a memory?
Associations
According to terror-management theory, how do we cope with our fear of death?
By not thinking about our own deaths
What memory technique groups items into meaningful sequences or clusters thereby expanding the capacity of short-term memory?
Chunking
What seems to underlie the apparent superiority of males in comparison to females on tests of skills?
Differences in education and other opportunities
What does research on birth order show?
Effects thought to relate to birth order are more likely to be the result of family size.
Why is informed consent important in the conduct of research?
It ensures participants understand what is involved and that they are willing to participate.
Which substance stimulates neurons that release dopamine and, at higher doses, also stimulates neurons that release serotonin?
MDMA (ecstasy)
Louis is participating in a research study about online behavior. The researcher has all participants take a test prior to going into a mock social media account. Half of the participants take a test that is remarkably simple and half take a test that is impossible to do well on. Participants then respond to various social media postings, including some in which an obviously vulnerable person is being bullied and others in which a blatantly hostile person is being called out. Research participants posts are rated by trained observers in terms of characteristics like hostility and compassion. What is the independent variable?
The difficulty of the test
Which sensory system relies upon dissolved chemical compounds entering tiny clusters of receptor cells that trigger action potentials sent to the brain?
The gustatory sense
The process of converting a short-term memory into a long-term memory is known as
consolidation
Which of the following methods of testing memory utilizes significant hints about the material being tested?
cued recall
What structure receives input from other neurons?
dendrites
What type of statistics provide a summary of the data in a single number?
descriptive
Piaget's preoperational stage is characterized by which of the following?
egocentrism
Sadie can remember vividly the ordinarily mundane details of where she was and what she was doing the moment she heard that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded. Psychologists call this type of memory a(n)
flashbulb memory
The area of the eye responsible for detailed vision is which of the following
fovea
Which term refers to a clear, predictive statement?
hypothesis
A researcher who wants to generalize from their research sample to a larger population is most likely to use which type of statistics?
inferential
Just after Marek changed his network password at work, his desk phone rang. When the call concluded, Marek could remember the details of the call but could no longer remember the new password. Which of the following explains this experience?
interference
Which statistic is computed by adding up all of the scores and dividing by the total number of scores?
mean
Which statistic represents the midpoint of the distribution of scores?
median
Which nervous system component serves as insulation and speeds up transmission of impulses?
myelin sheath
Which region of the brain is involved in body sensations such as touch and the position of the body in space?
parietal lobe
What causes a return to the resting potential?
potassium leaves the cell
People raised in cultures described as collectivistic are more likely to show what trait?
pride in the family/community
Which type of sample is most likely to yield research results that are generalizable to the entire population?
random
The children of parents who are warm and loving but undemanding may be more likely than others to grow up to be what?
socially irresponsible
Together, the brain and spinal cord make up which system?
the central nervous system
The information processing model compares human memory to which of the following?
A computer
According to Erikson, what psychosocial conflict do infants face?
Basic trust versus mistrust
How does alcohol exert its effects?
Facilitating the effects of GABA
Professor Allen explained that we can distinguish one pitch from another because as pitch rises, nerve impulses of the same rate are fed into the auditory nerve. This theory of hearing pitch is known as which of the following?
Frequency theory
Which neurotransmitter is the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter?
GABA
During which stage of psychosocial development is the question "will I be a success in my personal and professional lives" most addressed?
Generativity versus stagnation
Which structure is involved in motivated behaviors like hunger and thirst?
Hypothalamus
James excels at sports that require precise aim like archery and baseball. Which of the following statements may explain his success?
James has a higher than usual number of axons in his optic nerve.
Lilly wants to depict two buildings of the same size at different distances in a painting, so she paints one building smaller than the other. What concept of visual perception did she use?
Object size
Gate control theory suggests what?
Pain messages pass through the same neural entry in the spinal cord. If the entry is closed by one message, other messages may not pass through.
Anna is attempting to solve a problem using prior experience and expectations. Which of the following methods is she using?
Top-down processing
Which of the following plays a key role in posture, balance, and responding to motion?
Vestibular senses
What does the all-or-none law state?
The strength and speed of action potentials do not vary
Migda is participating in a research study testing the effectiveness of a new treatment for test anxiety. Neither Migda nor the researcher knows whether Migda is in the experimental or control group. What is the term for this procedure?
double-blind
Which neurotransmitter decreases the experience of pain and increases the experience of pleasure?
endorphins
Kennan recalls vague images of a bizarre event involving other family members even though there is no other evidence that the event occurred. His parents and siblings, who he claims were present, have no recollection of the event. Research suggests that Kennan may be experiencing which of the following?
false memory
You are nervous to take a test because you spent very little time studying. While taking the test, you feel unsure about your responses. When your instructor posts that you received a B on the test, you exclaim to your friends, "I knew I would do well!" and actually believe that you knew it all along. This is an example of
hindsight bias
Dr. Hernández is conducting research to determine whether a new therapy is effective in treating anxiety and, for the purposes of the research, defines anxiety as the score on a checklist of anxiety symptoms. What sort of definition is Dr. Hernández using?
operational
Demelzo took German in freshman year and is taking Dutch in his junior year. He finds that he is recalling German terms rather than the Dutch he has learned this semester. This is an example of
proactive interference.
Even though she had not driven a manual transmission car in years, while on vacation Mackenzie was able to drive her Uncle's car instead of having to pay for a rental car with an automatic transmission. Mackenzie's ability to drive the stick-shift car is an example of a(n)
procedural memory
In Gestalt psychology, the tendency to perceive objects that are close together as belonging to a group is referred to as
proximity.
For a given gene to exert its effects, two copies must be present. What type of gene is it?
recessive
Emma's doctor told her she has conduction deafness. The doctor explained that conduction deafness is caused
when the bones connected to the eardrum cannot transmit sound.
What is the responsibility of the institutional review board?
Protecting human research participants
The opponent-process theory of color vision proposes which of the following?
The opponent-process theory of color vision proposes which of the following?
A child is shown two balls of clay that are equal in volume and then one is squashed flat. If the child has achieved the concept of conservation, how will they respond?
They will recognize that the squashed ball and the other ball still have the same volume.
Which substance both increases the release and slows the reuptake of dopamine, thus increasing energy and alertness?
amphetamine
The sensory receptors of the ear are located in which structure?
cochlea
According to Piaget, which stage of cognitive development is characterized largely by simple responses to stimuli?
Sensorimotor
Dr. Guilroy wants to understand age-associated differences in social media use and selects a group of 10-year-olds, a group of 12-year-olds, and a group of 14-year-olds who will be asked about their social media use once a year for the next 10 years. What sort of design is Dr. Guilroy using?
Sequential
Eighteen-month old Jessenia is participating in the Strange Situation test. While her mother is in the room, Jessenia often clings to her and when her mother leaves, Jessenia sobs as though her mother may never return. When her mother does return, Jessenia once again clings to her. What kind of attachment is Jessenia exhibiting?
anxious
Color vision is made possible by activation of which one of the following structures?
cones
Which system is most closely associated with preparing the body for vigorous action?
sympathetic
Dr. Maas is working with a combat-wounded veteran who suffered a severe head injury and has recovered far better than seemed medically possible. Curious as to what produced such a remarkable recovery, Dr. Mass decides to conduct a detailed assessment of the veteran, identifying abilities, disabilities, and other factors that might have contributed. What type of research is Dr. Maas conducting?
case history
Tran finds that they can only remember the last few terms on their vocabulary list. What might explain this experience?
Recency effect
Which of the following is the most effective way of studying the material that you want to remember for a long time?
Study the material by scheduling a series of review sessions across time.
What is a likely reason for infantile/early childhood amnesia?
The turnover of neurons that helps infants learn so fast also facilitates forgetting.
What does a correlation of -1 (negative one) indicate?
There is a strong relationship, and as one variable increases, the other decreases.
The layer of visual receptors covering the back surface of the eyeball is the
retina
Yvette can describe the taste of every letter of the alphabet and reports that she often tastes a letter before recognizing it. Yvette may be diagnosed with
synesthesia
Jared is a junior in high school and really hasn't given much thought to what he will do when he graduates. He might go to trade school, he might find a job, or he might go to college. He doesn't really know what he wants to do in terms of education or profession. How is Jared's identity development best characterized?
Identity diffusion
Vygotsky emphasized the importance of others helping children acquire new knowledge and skills. What term did Vygotsky use for the distance between what a child can do alone and what is possible with help?
The zone of proximal development
What is the function of the action potential?
To transmit information along axons.
What example illustrates a cohort effect?
Younger adults do better on computer-administered tests of knowledge than do older adults because they have more experience with technology.
Which process involves reproducing the results of research by repeating its methods?
replication
Naadir suffered a head injury damaging his hippocampus and is unable to remember events that occurred prior to the accident. Naadir has been diagnosed with
retrograde amnesia
Louis is participating in a research study about online behavior. The researcher has all participants take a test prior to going into a mock social media account. Half of the participants take a test that is remarkably simple and half take a test that is impossible to do well on. Participants then respond to various social media postings, including some in which an obviously vulnerable person is being bullied and others in which a blatantly hostile person is being called out. Research participants posts are rated by trained observers in terms of characteristics like hostility and compassion. What is the dependent variable?
the observer ratings of the participants' posts
