Psych final exam

Which of the following is the best example of fluid intelligence?

Using cubes to figure out the solution to a previously unseen puzzle

a mental image of a spatial layout is called

a cognitive map

a particular group of brain cells seem to provide a basis for observational learning. researchers call these specialized cells

mirror neurons

A standardized test must have all of the following EXCEPT

multiple-choice questions

In adult humans, which of the following is typically true of REM sleep?

It is correlated with dreaming.

According to the ethical guidelines set by the American Psychological Association (APA), which of the following is true of psychological research in which animals are used as subjects?

It should conform to all APA ethical guidelines for animal research.

the hypothesis that intelligence is in part inherited is best supported by the fact that the IQ correlation for

pairs of identical twins is greater than for pairs of fraternal twins

henry took an intelligence test and scored lower than he thought he should. He kept retaking the test, but he kept getting about the same score each time. This series of events indicates that the test was

reliable

Tina is reading an important letter when she accidentally splashes water on the paper. The water has smudged a few words, but she is still able to understand what the letter says. This can be explained by

top-down processing

which of the following best reflects contemporary interpretations of classical conditioning?

they take into account cognitive processes like expectancy

in high school, it did not seems to make a difference how much Clive studied spanish, he always earned poor grades. now that clive is in college, he is required to take spanish again. according to the concept of learned helplessness, which of the following statements can be most expected from clive as he starts the new spanish class?

"Why study? There isn't anything I can do to improve my Spanish skills."

in a normal distribution of test scores, the percentage of scores that all at or below the mean score is

50

A test has a mean of 80 with a standard deviation of 4. Which of the following scores is within one standard deviation of the mean?

77

Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research

may reveal a causal relation

People who have experienced severe damage to the frontal lobe of the brain seldom regain their ability to

make and carry out plans

Although people can acquire phobias to almost any object or situation, certain phobias (e.g., those to snakes, spiders, heights) are much more common than others. This finding can best be explained by which of the following concepts?

Biological preparedness

Which of the following is true of the frequency distributions shown in the graphs above?

Distribution B has more variation than distributions A or C.

Which of the following theories most accurately explains pitch perception? Opponent process Frequency Place

II only

Michael, who has an IQ of 60, is able to do complex calculations in his head, regardless of the size of the numbers. When he is with his family and friends, he does not engage socially; he focuses on his numerical calculations. Which of the following best describes these characteristics?

Savant syndrome

A cancer patient becomes nauseated following chemotherapy treatments. After a few treatments, the patient begins having a sick feeling whenever entering the treatment room. The treatment room has become

a conditioned stimulus

charles spearman's concept of g is most accurately defined as

a single, underlying intellectual capacity reassured by intelligence tests

The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's

absolute threshold

the APA was administered to to incoming college psychology majors. their scores were later compared to their performance in the introductory psychology course, and high scores on PAT were related to high grades in the course. therefore the PAT has

adequate standardization

information is relayed to the spinal cord or the brain by

afferent neurons

Kathy is learning how to cook. She follows every direction on each recipe step by step to make sure her food tastes good. Which of the following describes the problem-solving approach that Kathy is using?

algorithm

activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system results in

an increase in respiratory rate

A dog retrieves the newspaper every day because in the past it received a food reward for this behavior. The dog's behavior is an example of which of the following?

an operant response

After having a stroke resulting from a blockage of blood to the medial temporal lobe, Gerald could not remember new information, such as the books he had just read, new songs he had just heard, or the faces of new people he had just met. Gerald was experiencing

anterograde amnesia

A basic assumption underlying the evolutionary approach to sexual attraction is that men seek potential mates who

appear fertile

Which of the following refers to the potential of an individual to perform an as-yet-unlearned task?

aptitude

which process transfers information from sensory memory to short-term memory?

attention

The area labeled X in the drawing above denotes which of the following structures?

axon terminals

When struck by light energy, cones and rods in the retina generate neural signals that then activate the

bipolar cells

The intelligence quotient (IQ) has traditionally been based on the relationship between an individual's mental age and his or her

chronological age

the coiled tube in the inner ear that contains the auditory receptors is called the

cochlea

drawing a random sample of people from a town for an interview study of social attitudes ensures that

each person in the town has the same probability of being chosen for the study

most glands in the human body are a part of which system?

endocrine

In memory experiments on free recall, the recency effect refers specifically to the

enhanced recall of items at the end of a list of words

in extreme cases, surgically severing the corpus callosum is a treatment for which of the following conditions?

epilepsy

an individual's ability to remember the day he or she first swam the length of a swimming pool is most clearly an example of which of the following kinds of memory?

episodic

The next question(s) are based on this scenario: A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. This research method is best characterized as

experimental

An individual's fear of dogs that is lost as the individual is exposed to dogs in nonthreatening situations is referred to by behaviorists as a fear that has been

extinguished

The reversible figure above illustrates the Gestalt organizing principle of

figure-ground

Visual acuity is best in the

fovea

Failure to recognize that an object typically not used for a particular purpose can, in fact, serve that purpose illustrates which of the following?

functional fixedness

Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for

gaining insight into unconscious motives

A group of friends watched a recent episode of a crime investigation show and concluded that they would have been able to figure out who was responsible for a crime more proficiently than did the television investigators. The friends' overestimation of their ability to determine who committed the crime is most likely due to a reasoning error known as

hindsight bias

Mary participates in an exercise program because she experiences an increase in energy and feelings of well-being at the end of each exercise session. The best explanation for Mary's perseverance in the program is that exercise

increases her level of endorphins

Dylan has difficulty solving a physics problem in class. The next day, he suddenly thinks of a solution to the problem as he is watching a friend play the guitar. The thought process that Dylan experienced is an example of

insight learning

When Sophie reads her history assignments, she goes over them very carefully and tries to memorize each fact. Emma, on the other hand, studies by trying to relate the new information to things she has experienced, been told about by others, or seen in movies and on television. Emma's performance on history tests will probably be better than Sophie's due to differences in

levels of processing

in elementary school, lisa learned to speak some Japanese in addition to english. as a sophomore in high school, lisa took a class in chinese. she found that some of the new vocab was difficult to learn because her earlier japanese vocabulary was competing with the new chinese words. this situation best illustrates

proactive interference

in developmental psychology, one advantage of cross-sectional over longitudinal studies is that cross-sectional research

requires comparatively little time

Which of the following is a binocular cue for depth perception?

retinal disparity

The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a

scatterplot

A student's test score of 86 is at the 42nd percentile. This means that this student has

scored the same as or higher than 42 percent of her fellow students

using cell phones while driving increases the number of accidents because use of the phones requires

selective attention

The chart above illustrates which of the following psychological concepts?

serial position effect

The first time four-year-old Savannah attempted to make her bed, her father praised her for covering the pillow with a blanket. After a few times, her father began praising Savannah for covering the pillow and tucking in the corners of the sheet. Finally, Savannah's father praised her when she covered the pillow, tucked in the corners of the sheet, and smoothed the blanket. The process described in this scenario is known as

shaping

the thalamus processes information for all of the following senses EXCEPT

smell

Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study

the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving