PSY 101: TEST 1 REVIEW

Identical twins share 100% of their genes, whereas fraternal twins share only ____, on average

50%

Rods are:

More light-sensitive and less color sensitive than cones

The brain's thin surface layer, which serves as your body's ultimate information processing center is the:

cerebral cortex

The branch of psychology that can be considered a marriage between the science of the mind and the science of the brain is called:

cognitive neuroscience

Which of the following is NOT a biological influence on behavior or mental processes, according to the biopsychosocial approach:

cognitive processing

After an experiment, research participants are told its purpose and about any deception they may have experienced. This is called :

debriefing

Sensation refers to the ___ of physical energy and perception refers to the ___ of resulting information:

detection; interpretation

Dr. Santaniello conducts research on how children's moral thinking changes as they grow older. It is most likely that Dr. Santaniell is a(n) _____ psychologist.

developmental

Professor Crisman believes that most women prefer tall and physical strong partners because this preference promoted the survival of our ancestors' genes. This viewpoint best illustrates the ___ perspective

evolutionary

Which psychologists are MOST likely to be involved in applied research?

industrial-organizational

Our sense of the position and movement of individual body parts is called:

kinesthesia

a myelin sheath is a

layer of fatty tissue encasing the axons of some nerve cells

In a research study in which participants were fitted with electronically activated recorders so that researchers could sample their everyday activities, researchers employed a scientific method known as :

naturalistic observation

Luke shows an increase in aggressive behavior after playing violent video games with his friends. This is possible due to:

observational learning

A type of learning that occurs when an organism forms an association between a behavior and an outcome of that behavior is called:

operant conditioning

In a published report of a research study on social anxiety, psychologists included a 30-items questionnaire, which they had used to assess levels of social anxiety. The psychologists have thus provided their readers with a(n):

operational definition

A theory is an explanation using an integrated set of principles that ___ observations and ___ behavior or events:

organizes;predicts

Most psychologists define consciousness as:

our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

Simultaneously analyzing distinct subunits of information received by different areas of the brain is known as:

parallel processing

Rhonda insists that Dr. Philips' theory of aggression be checked against observable evidence. She is demonstrating the scientific attitude of:

skepticism

Dr. Renk is studying how people interact and react in the presence of others. She is examining the ____ influence on behavior and mental processes, according to the biopsychosocial perspective:

social-cultural

The two divisions of the peripheral nervous system are:

somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system

An organism's ability to learn that one event signals the arrival of another event whereas another event does NOT is called

stimulus discrimination

Although phrenology incorrectly suggested that bumps on the skull revealed a person's character traits, phrenology did succeed in focusing attention on :

the localization of function

A psychophysicist would be most directly concerned with:

the relationship between wavelength of light and the experience of color

The increased risk of car accidents for drivers talking on a cell phone is:

the same for those using handheld and those using hands-free phones

The process by which our sensory systems transform stimulus energy into neural impulses is called:

transduction

This psychologist pioneered the study of observational learning as a possible cause of violent behavior in children

Albert Bandura

This theorist developed principle of operant conditioning through research on animals such as rats and pigeons:

B.F. Skinner

Consciousness contributes to all of the following EXCEPT:

Being shocked by the present situation

Which early Psychologist aimed to discover the mind's structure?

Edward Titchener

Which of the following is NOT a descriptive method?

Experiment

Who first imagine using the "natural experiment" comparing identical twins and fraternal twins to estimate the role of nature and nurture in psychological differences?

Francis Galton

Which major force in psychology emphasized unconscious thought processes?

Freudian

Intelligence (IQ) is:

Substantially heritable (50%-70%)

Who developed the first Psych lab?

Wilhelm Wundt

The cochlea consists of

a fluid-filled tube in the inner ear

Circadian rhythm refers to:

a pattern of biological functioning that occurs on a roughly 24-hour cycle

The classic case of railroad worker Phineas Gage best illustrated that frontal lobe damage can:

alter one's personality

The most extensive regions of the brain are involved in higher mental functions such as memory and reasoning. These regions are called the

association areas

psychology is best described as the science of:

behavior and mental processes

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies observable human behavior without reference to mental processes is known as

behaviorism

A subliminal message is one that is presented:

below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness

the central nervous system includes

brain and spinal cord

Basic automatic survival functions such as heartbeat and breathing are controlled by:

brainstem

During REM sleep, your skeletal muscles are relaxed because messages from the motor cortex are blocked by the:

brainstem

In classical conditioning, an event that is initially neutral for the organism but gains the potential to elicit some response is called the

conditioned stimulus

Research participants drank either caffeinated or decaffeinated beverages in a study of the effects of caffeine on anxiety levels. Those who received the decaffeinated drinks were assigned to the ___ group :

control

Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and strength of a relationship between two variables?

correlation coefficient

The conclusion that "playing violent video games leads to violent crime" has been refuted by the American Psychological Association. Why is this statement problematic?

correlation does not imply causation

Hindsight bias refers to people's tendency to

exaggerate their ability to have foreseen an outcome after the fact

In which type of research would an investigator manipulate at least one factor and observe its effect on some behavior or mental process?

experimentation

Which portion of the cerebral cortex lies directly behind the forehead and is involved in speaking, muscle movements, and making plans?

frontal lobes

___ is a statistic that captures the degree of genetic influence on variation across people in a psychological traits

heritability

The wavelength of visible light determines its

hue

Positive reinforcement ___ the likelihood of a behavior recurring.

increases

Neurons are best described as

nerve cells that function as the building blocks of the nervous system

Neuron-produced chemicals that carry messages to other neurons or to muscles and glands are called

neurotransmitters

Sensory receptors in our skin that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals are called:

nociceptors

A representative sample is one that accurately reflects a larger:

population

To help control for possible confounding variables, researchers assign research participants to different experimental groups using:

random assignment

The function of dendrites is to

receive incoming signals from other neurons

Which cells for visual processing are located closest to the back of the retina?

rods and cones

Our inability to consciously process all the sensory information available to us at any single point in time best illustrates the need for:

selective attention

The sense of ___ is a so-called chemical sense:

taste

Auditory stimulation is processed in the ___ lobes:

temporal

A hypothesis is a(n)

testable prediction that gives direction to research