Psych final quizzes

Which statement best characterizes Howard Gardner's view of intelligence?

"There are multiple independent intelligences, and each must be defined within the context of a particular culture."

Which refers to the processing of information INTO the memory system?

encoding

negative reinforcement

taking away an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior

When Jane first heard about the latest weight loss scheme on a late night "infomercial," she discounted the information as unreliable. Later, she heard it again on another channel and began to think about the information as being credible because she thought that she had heard it while watching a documentary on obesity. This is an example of ___________.

the sleeper effect

Al is playing a trivia board game. For several questions, he is surprised to find that he did know the answer but was momentarily unable to retrieve the information. This is an example of:

the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

According to Sternberg and Lubart, creative people are willing to champion ideas that they feel have potential but that most people think are worth little. They have the ability to build unpopular ideas into supported and high valued ideas and then often move onto other unpopular but promising projects. This theory is called the:

triarchic theory.

Telegraphic speech is most closely associated with the ________ stage of language development

two-word

After Paul's snow-skiing accident, doctors detected damage to his cerebral cortex in Wernicke's area. Because of the damage, Paul is most likely to experience difficulty in

understanding what others are saying

Noam Chomsky suggested that all human languages share a(n)

universal grammar

A company that sells sporting goods hires a famous tennis player to appear in commercials advertising the company and to wear the company logo. The famous tennis player is a ___________ and the type of conditioning involved in such advertisement is called ___________.

Conditioned stimulus; higher-order conditioning

Which of the following concepts offers a plausible explanation for why otherwise well-adjusted, normal people may become part of an angry mob at a soccer game?

Deindividualation may increase aggression.

Max is unfamiliar with the timelines he needs to remember for his history class, and he is disinterested in the material. Which of the following will memorization likely require?

Effortful processing

Consumers respond more positively to ground beef advertised as "75 percent lean" than to ground beef described as "25 percent fat." This illustrates that consumer reactions are influenced by

Framing

Anitra organizes her notes for the upcoming anatomy exam into hierarchies in order to make the information more understandable and memorable. Why is this a good approach?

Long-term memory (LTM) encoding, storage, and retrieval are all improved through the use of such hierarchies.

Which of the following does NOT enhance memory?

Massed practice

Researchers find that conformity to the group is more likely when all of the following occur EXCEPT

Researchers find that conformity to the group is more likely when all of the following occur EXCEPT

Jackie studied her notes for her engineering exam in the same order each night. What is likely to happen during the exam?

She is likely to remember the material at the beginning and end of her notes better than the material in the middle.

acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Deindividuation refers to

a loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that fosters arousal and anonymity

frustration-aggression hypothesis

a principle stating that animals aggress only when their goals are thwarted

The high levels of obedience in the Milgram experiments are LEAST likely to be attributable to

an aspect of gender-related behavior found only in males

The inability to form NEW memories is called:

anterograde amnesia

Researchers condition a flatworm to contract its body to a light by repeatedly pairing the light with electric shock. The stage in which the flatworm's contraction response to light is established and gradually strengthened is called

acquisition

positive reinforcement

adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior

positive punishment

adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior

In some alcohol-treatment programs, the taste and smell of alcohol is deliberately paired with a nausea-producing drug that makes the alcohol-addicted patient vomit or feel very sick. What is the conditioned stimulus (CS)?

alcohol

Maguire is in the third grade and has realized that he can solve the problem of 2 × 3 by adding 2 + 2 + 2. This is an example of:

algorithm

Which part of the brain is responsible for emotion-related memory formation?

amygdala

Jamie has learned in her biology class that a mammal is any warm-blooded vertebrate characterized by both a covering of hair on the skin and mammary glands (in females) for nourishing the offspring. This definition is an example of:

artificial concept

A single, memorable case of welfare fraud can have a greater impact on people's estimates of welfare abuse than do statistics showing that this case is actually the exception to the rule. This illustrates that judgments are influenced by

availability heuristic

Positive punishment is the introduction of a(n) ________ stimulus following a behavior and negative reinforcement is the withdrawal of a(n) ________ stimulus following a behavior

aversive; aversive

An unwillingness to give up our beliefs even when the evidence proves us wrong is called

belief perseverance

The type of learning in which one comes to associate two stimuli and thereby anticipate events is called

classical conditioning

Elizabeth has harbored negative feelings toward obese people and blames their obesity on poor self-control and laziness. However, once she takes a sedentary job that requires a lot of overtime, she becomes significantly overweight herself. Elizabeth no longer has such intense negative feelings toward obese people nor does she blame their obesity on character flaws. Her attitude change is most likely the result of ___________.

cognitive dissonance

The discomfort we feel when two thoughts are inconsistent is called

cognitive dissonance.

Shaniqua is a subject in an experiment in which she is asked to press a "no" button whenever she sees a photograph depicting an elderly person with a stereotypical trait. She presses the "yes" button when she sees a photograph of an elderly person with a trait not normally associated with the elderly. This activity is an example of which approach to combat prejudice?

cognitive retraining

Extinction occurs when a ________ is no longer paired with a ________.

conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Michael is running for a local political position and readily accepts opinion polls that support his political views and ignores those that conflict with his viewpoints. Michael's tendency is called ___________.

confirmation bias

Monica is studying for her spelling test. She knows that for each word there is only one correct spelling. This is an example of:

convergent thinking

Kristi is a two-month-old baby who makes vowel-like sounds, such as "ooooh" and "aaaah." Which term most accurately describes this behavior?

cooing

Robert needs to write a term paper for his humanities class. He chooses a topic and uses the library and Internet to locate information related to his topic. He then organizes the information, writes an outline, reviews the paper, rewrites it, reviews it again, and finally submits it. By breaking down the problem into a series of steps, he is using which type of problem solving?

creating subgoals

Older people's capacity to understand the meaning of words does not decline as much as their capacity to engage in abstract reasoning. This best illustrates the stability of

crystallized intelligence

Jake is getting poor grades in his algebra course. His instructor assumes that Jake must be lazy and immature. The instructor is making a ___________ attribution.

dispositional

Little Rosie loved dogs until she was bitten in the face by an irritable dachshund. Now the little girl is fearful of all dogs. What is the neutral stimulus (NS)?

dog

Rafiq's psychology instructor asks the class to draw a penny from memory. Rafiq is surprised when he cannot draw this common coin accurately. Which type of forgetting is the instructor illustrating?

encoding failure

Luis was very frightened of going into deep water because he had experienced a terrible scare as a small child when he fell into a pool. His mother now takes him to the YMCA for swimming lessons. Each time he goes, the instructor encourages him but does not force his participation. Luis eventually learns to go into water above his waist, to place his face in the water, and to swim a short distance with no fear. This process is an example of:

extinction

Miska is working on an assembly line where she is paid $1.00 every time she places the handles on four pottery cups. What type of reinforcement schedule is being used?

fixed ratio schedule

In developing the light bulb, Thomas Edison and his colleagues tried literally hundreds of materials to find one that would heat to the point of glowing white without burning up. This is an example of which aspect of creative thinking?

fluency

In Pavlov's experiments on the salivary conditioning of dogs, the US was

food in dogs mouth

Lynn is an artist who cannot get a painting to look the way she wants it to look, and her anger begins to build. Finally, she throws the palette into the sink and takes her argument out on her husband. Which of the following concepts explains her anger best?

frustration-aggression hypothesis

Laura notices that Bob is occasionally late for work. She assumes that he is simply careless. She does not realize that Bob is a single parent with a young child whom he regularly drops off at daycare as soon as it opens. He then must hurry through heavy traffic to be at work on time. Laura's mistaken attribution is an example of ___________.

fundamental attribution error

Normative social influence results from peoples' desire to

gain social approval

Two-year-old Philip was recently clawed by the neighbor's cat. Philip now fears all small animals. His fear demonstrates the process of

generalization

A measure of intelligence based on head size is likely to have a ________ level of reliability and a ________ level of validity.

high to low

Prejudice can be not only subtle but also automatic and unconscious. This is best illustrated in studies of

implicit associations

Alicia tends to view members of her own group as more attractive, more intelligent, and as behaving in more socially acceptable ways than members of groups to which she does not belong. This tendency is referred to as ___________.

ingroup favoritisim

Research shows which of the following does NOT improve memory?

interference

Lynn is learning to play the piano. As she learns, specific neural pathways are established and become progressively more excitable and responsive. This process is called:

long-term potentiation.

Albert Einstein once said that his first insight into relativity theory occurred when he pictured a beam of light and imagined himself chasing after it at its own speed. He was describing a:

mental image

Christina continues to look for a romantic interest at singles bars even though this strategy has led to disappointment in the past. This is an example of:

mental set

Misleading information that has corrupted one's memory of an event is called (the)

misinformation effect

Arvin suffers from test anxiety. His psychology instructor has recommended that he artificially increase his anxiety level while studying for the test by thinking about the importance of good grades. He has also suggested that Arvin decrease his anxiety during test time by taking deep breaths and practicing simple relaxation exercises. The idea that a given mood tends to evoke memories consistent with that mood is referred to as ___________.

mood congruence

At Peter's high school reunion, he saw fellow classmates whom he had not seen in many years. Several of them brought up memories that they had of Peter in high school. The most embarrassing stories were basically factual and made Peter cringe. Until being reminded by his old schoolmates, Peter had long forgotten these incidents. This is an example of which type of forgetting?

motivated forgetting theory

Laura misbehaved at a pizza party, and her father immediately took her home. She became very upset because she missed the rest of the party. What type of feedback has she received?

negative punishment

In anticipation of attending a fancy dinner party with her new boyfriend, Ashley asks what others will be wearing so that she will dress "appropriately." While attending the dinner party, she watches others carefully and copies their behavior. This is an example of ___________.

normative social influence

Learning specific behaviors simply by watching others perform them is known as

observational learning

Children often learn to associate their pushing a vending machine button with the delivery of a candy bar. This best illustrates the process underlying

operant conditioning

Marcus has a tendency to view his Latino coworkers as all sharing similar characteristics. This bias is referred to as ___________.

outgroup homogeneity effect

The best evidence that there is a critical period for language acquisition is the fact that

people most easily master the grammar of a second language during childhood.

Carrie is talking with her neighbor while simultaneously sweeping the porch and supervising her young daughter's play in the yard. Which area of the brain is MOST involved in such multi-tasking?

prefrontal cortex

Maria is a newborn infant. Her mother has learned through trial and error that Maria has several distinct patterns of crying that reflect whether she is hungry, angry, or in pain. What term MOST accurately describes Maria's stage of language development?

prelinguistic stage

The tendency to recall items that appear first on a list is called (the):

primacy effect

After going to see a romantic movie, Anton notices that his memories of romantic feelings have increased. This is an example of ___________.

priming

Charity is having trouble remembering the layout of her new dorm room this year because the location of appliances is on the opposite side of the room. Almost by habit, she walks to the wrong side of the room to use them. This is an example of:

proactive interference

As a college student, Elaine is taking French, but she is having a difficult time with the class. She took Spanish as a high school student and believes that the Spanish that she learned is interfering with her ability to learn French. This is an example of:

proactive interference.

Sheila is viewing a line-up at the police station in an attempt to make an eyewitness identification. This task is an example of:

recognition.

An event that strengthens the behavior it follows

reinforcement

Lisa has moved several times in the past five years. When she moves to a new address, she forgets the old address. This type of forgetting is called ___________.

retroactive interference

Sophie is involved in a serious car accident. Because of a brain injury, she has forgotten some events that occurred before the accident, yet she has no trouble remembering things that have happened since the accident. What type of memory loss is this?

retrograde amnesia

Giselle has been dating Alfredo for 6 months and reports to her roommate that she is deeply in love. She claims that Alfredo has "no faults" and is her ideal companion. She is highly distracted at work because she is thinking of him and anticipating their next date. What type of love is she likely to be describing?

romantic love

Ryan believes that his good grades in his business classes are the result of his strong work ethic and high intelligence. However, he believes that his poor grades in psychology are the result of an unskilled and vindictive instructor. Ryan's thinking is an example of ___________.

self-serving bias

An animal trainer is teaching a miniature poodle to balance on a ball. Initially, he gives the poodle a treat for approaching the ball, then only for placing its front paws on the ball, and finally only for climbing on the ball. The trainer is using the method of

shaping

Constance wants to teach her young son to play the piano. She teaches him by praising him each time he shows a little improvement. What type of learning is this?

shaping

The fundamental attribution error refers to our tendency to underestimate the impact of ________ and to overestimate the impact of ________ in explaining the behavior of others.

situational influences; personal dispositions

Which branch of psychology is most directly concerned with the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another?

social psychology

Misattributing whether we heard about, read about, or imagined an event is called:

source amnesia

Bradley has decided to drink coffee while studying for his next psychology exam and then again on the morning of the exam. He believes that this may enhance his memory of the material during the test. The term that best applies to such an idea is ___________.

state-dependent memory

One of Pavlov's early experiments conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of low-pitched tones. Pavlov and his students later demonstrated that the dogs also would salivate to higher-pitched tones. When Pavlov repeatedly presented food following a high-pitched tone but not following a low-pitched tone, the dog gradually learned to distinguish between the two tones. This tendency to respond only to specific stimuli and to ignore similar stimuli is called:

stimulus discrimination

Juan is 5 years old and gets a cookie from Grandma when he sings for her. Juan tries to elicit cookies from other adults by singing to them. This is an example of:

stimulus generalization

Jackie plays professional basketball. Once before an important game, she placed her wedding ring on a chain, hung it around her husband's neck, and then kissed him for good luck. She performed exceedingly well during that game and now feels compelled to repeat the same ritual before every game. What best explains this behavior?

superstitious behavior resulting from accidental reinforcement

English speakers place adjectives before the noun, as in "my precious love." However, depending on the intended meaning, Italian speakers sometimes place the adjective before the noun and sometimes after. This is an example in the differences in ___________ between English and Italian speakers.

syntax

negative punishment

taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior

Sidney is playing the slot machine. Overall, she has lost money but continues to play because she never knows when the machine will pay out. What type of reinforcement schedule is being used?

variable ratio schedule

Marcus has decided to build a tool shed. He has asked his neighbor for advice on specific aspects of the job. He has bought blueprints and other materials necessary for this project. After a week of preparation, he is ready to build. This is an example of which type of problem solving?

working backwards