Midterm Review Q's

What is a variable?

Anything that can change

_________ conditioning refers to a form of treatment that involves repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus to change an association.

Aversive

__________ conditioning refers to a form of treatment that involves repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus to change an association.

Aversive

___________ modification is the use of operant conditioning to change human behavior by analyzing and adjusting the rewards and punishers in a particular setting.

Behavior

Which of the following are examples of the areas in which psychological animal research has provided benefits to human populations?

Behavioral medicine, Drugs to treat anxiety and severe mental illness, Rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders, Alleviation of the effects of stress and pain

Which approach to psychology emphasizes the role of physical processes such as brain and nervous system functioning?

Biological

Which part of the neuron contains the nucleus?

Cell body

_____________ sprouting is the process by which axons of healthy neurons adjacent to damaged neurons grow new branches to make up for the damage.

Collateral

What are the three basic types of research used in psychology?

Correlational, Descriptive, Experimental

_____ research serves the purpose of determining the basic dimensions of a phenomenon and defining what it is or how often it occurs, but it cannot provide causal information.

Descriptive

Ari is watching a movie. Which initial memory process is Ari using?

Encoding

What is a psychological perspective that uses concepts such as adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors?

Evolutionary approach

Which of the following are NOT among the contemporary approaches to psychology?

Exploratory; Physical

Alzheimer disease involves deterioration of which of the following?

Language; Reasoning; Physical functioning; Memory

The consequences of an action influence the frequency with which that action is displayed in the future. What does this describe?

Law of effect

_____ is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.

Learning

__________ conditioning is a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior's occurrence

Operant

Which of the following are recommended for organizing for memory processes?

Organize the material in a way that will allow you to memorize; Experiment with different organizational techniques; Review notes that you are preparing to memorize

_____ refers to the ability of the brain to adapt and repair itself.

Plasticity

What is the function of Broca's area in the brain?

Production of speech

_____ is a memory task in which the person has to retrieve previously learned information; _____ is a memory task in which the person has to identify learned items.

Recall; recognition

Which of the following is the memory process by which information held in memory is brought out of storage?

Retrieval

_________ attention involves focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring other stimuli.

Selective

_________ is the process of receiving stimulus energies from the environment

Sensation

Which of the following holds information from the world in its original form for only a brief moment in time?

Sensory memory

Which of the following refers to rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior?

Shaping

Which of the following are functions of autobiographical memory?

Sharing personal experience creates social bonds; It provides us with identity; It allows us to learn from our experiences

_____ memory is a limited-capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for less than a minute unless strategies are used to retain it longer.

Short-term

Which psychological perspective examines the ways in which the social and cultural environments influence behavior?

Sociocultural approach

What flow into a neuron and depolarize its membrane when a neuron is activated?

Sodium ions

Which statement about the seven contemporary approaches to psychology is most accurate?

They all provide different lenses for studying human behavior.

T/F? A genotype is a person's genetic material or makeup, whereas a phenotype is the person's observable characteristics.

True

T/F? Psychology has its roots in both philosophy and the natural sciences.

True

_________ is a broad term for any characteristic that can change in some way.

Variable

Critical thinking is a(n) _____ process that involves engaging with ideas and not settling for simple answers.

active

A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation is called sensory _____.

adaptation

Before it can be conducted, all psychological research is subject to review by _____.

an institutional review board

A special form of episodic memory, is _______ memory, which includes individuals' recollections of their life experiences, which generally include some memory and some myth.

autobiographical

Uncle Charlie loves to tell family stories. His nephews observe that these stories evolve over time, but they enjoy hearing them because Charlie is a great storyteller. This is an example of how _____ memory fosters intimacy and creates social bonds.

autobiographical

Psychologist study _______.

behavior and mental processes

In Pavlov's original experiment, the conditioned stimulus (CS) was the _____.

bell

The nervous system is made up of _____ of communicating cells.

billions

The _______ approach focuses on the mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.

cognitive

Journalists are often not trained in psychological research; therefore, they frequently have issues presenting material appropriately. One of the better sources for learning about research is _____.

college professionals

The brain is able to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously. That makes it a(n) _____ organ.

complex

A(n) _________ gene will exhibit its trait even in the presence of a recessive gene.

dominant

When _______ is extensive, the person has attempted to make the to-be-remembered information meaningful and has engaged in detailed processing.

elaboration

According to the concept of levels of processing, the process of _____ involves three levels.

encoding

The ________ system is a set of glands that regulates the activities of certain organs through the release of hormones.

endocrine

Critical thinking is the practice of evaluating _________.

evidence

Brain grafts have greater potential success when the brain tissue used is from the _____ stage.

fetal

Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first person to conduct scientific research on _____.

forgetting

Afferent neurons convey information _____.

from the senses to the brain

Positron-emission tomography (PET scan) uses ________ levels to identify levels of activity throughout the brain.

glucose

The medulla _____.

governs breathing and heart rate

The _______ approach to psychology emphasizes a person's positive qualities, the capability for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.

humanistic

When Don was an undergraduate many years ago, his physics professor shot a flaming arrow across the lecture hall to illustrate a physics theory. Don vividly remembers the theory today. This is an example of the effect of _____.

imagery

Researchers must submit their research proposal to an _____ review board that evaluates the ethical nature of research conducted at their college or university.

institutional

What setting would researchers choose if they needed to remove the complex factors of the real world to conduct their research?

laboratory

A behaviorist might study _______.

learning through environmental determinants

A relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information is _____ memory.

long-term

An experiment involves _____ one variable and observing the effect on another variable.

manipulating

Dr. Quincy loves to have students in her Abnormal Psychology class work with case studies and reflect upon diagnostic questions, instead of reading and studying material. This is because Dr. Quincy is familiar with the research on memory and understands that _____.

memory of material is better when we think deeply and connect new information we already have

Dr. Wu asks students to look at real-world problems related to political science, instead of reading and studying textbooks and not cards with definition. This is because Dr. Wu is familiar with the research on memory and understands that __________.

memory we can connect to knowledge we already have is recalled better.

In comparison to neurotransmitters, hormones typically take _____ to act.

more time

The complex interaction of neurons working together to integrate and organize incoming and outgoing information is referred to as a neural _______.

network

The cells in the nervous system that handle information processing are called ________.

neurons

Encoding failure occurs when the information was _____.

never entered into long-term memory

A Skinner box is a chamber with a highly controlled environment that was used to study _____.

operant conditioning processes with laboratory animals

Before using memory processes, you must first ____________ the information you are about to study.

organize

The four lobes of the brain are the _____, _____, _____, and _____.

parietal; temporal; frontal; occipital

In terms of the effects of serial position, the ________ effect refers to better recall for items at the beginning.

primacy

The type of memory that involves remembering information about doing something in the future is _____ memory.

prospective

The technique that Freud developed is called ____________.

psychoanalysis

Every time the family dog sits on command, she receives a treat. The treat would be considered _____.

reinforcement

Memory is defined as the _____.

retention of information or experience over time

Psychology is the _________ study of all human behaviors.

scientific

The five steps of the _______ method are reflected differently in three types of research commonly used in psychology.

scientific

The five steps of the ________ method are reflected differently in three types of research commonly used in psychology.

scientific

Bette is able to focus on one voice in a crowded restaurant, demonstrating _____.

selective attention

Correlational research involves gathering data on _____.

sets of variables

The absolute threshold is defined by psychologists as the _____.

smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be present for the stimulus to be detected

When you become alarmed, your _____ nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response, but when your body calms down, your _____ nervous system has been activated.

sympathetic; parasympathetic

The experience of one sense inducing an automatic experience in another sense (e.g., sight and hearing) is called _____.

synaesthesia

A(n) ___ is the tiny gap between the axon terminal and the next neuron.

synapse

In psychological research, the population is _____.

the group about which the researcher would like to draw conclusions

Overall, psychology may concern itself with the nervous system, emotion and motivation, and mind and body. However, it is essentially all about _____.

the individual

Many psychologists believe that because psychologists are human, they cannot be _____, even if they try.

value-free

In a complex behavior, such as escaping from a burning building, how many brain systems are typically involved?

virtually all

The Atkinson-Shiffrin theory of memory proposed that there are _____ systems in memory.

3

_____ neurons receive information from sensory organs.

Afferent; Sensory

The theorist _______ _______ developed the theory of observational learning

Albert Bandura

__________ disease is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder that is characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and eventually physical functioning.

Alzheimer's

Each parent contributes _____ chromosome(s) to each pair of chromosomes.

1