AP Psych Unit 4 A Day Exam

Your friend is taking her first psychology class. She comes to you saying, "I don't understand why we are studying the brain; I thought this was a psychology class." Because of your background in psychology, your best response should be

"Everything psychological is simultaneously biological"

Psychologist Michael Gazzaniga asked split-brain patients to stare at a dot as he flashed HE·ART on a screen. HE appeared in the left visual field, ART in the right. When asked to point to the word with their left hand, patients pointed to

HE

Researchers use dichotic listening tasks to investigate right-left differences in an intact brain. In this task a different verbal stimulus is presented simultaneously to each ear. Findings suggest that participants more quickly recall information heard by the right ear. This suggests that

The left hemisphere is dominant in language processing

Mr. Logwood's eyewitness perceptions of a car accident were influenced by his inborn ways of organizing sensory experiences, his learned schemas, and by other eyewitnesses' reactions to the car accident. An integrated understanding of Mr. Logwood's perceptions of the accident is most clearly provided by

a biopsychosocial approach

The depolarization of a neural membrane can create a(n)

action potential

The process of anticipating that you will be punished for misbehaving takes place within the

association areas

The part of a neuron that transmits neural messages to other neurons or to muscles or glands is called the

axon

While mapping the motor cortex, researchers Foerster and Penfield found that

body areas requiring the greatest control occupied the greatest amount of cortical space

The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem is called the

cerebellum

Researchers found that 40 percent of people focused on repeating a list of challenging words failed to notice a change in the person speaking. This best illustrates

change blindness

Jamal claims that his special psychic powers enable him to perceive exactly where the body of a recent murder victim is secretly buried. Jamal is claiming to possess the power of

clairvoyance

Someone skilled at word processing thinks several letters ahead while typing, whereas a beginner must focus on one letter at a time. A novice is most likely using _________ to complete the task.

conscious serial processing

Split-brain patients have had their ________ surgically cut.

corpus callosum

A brain lesion refers to _______ of brain tissue

destruction

Weber's law is relevant to an understanding of

difference thresholds

Hormones are the chemical messengers of the

endocrine system

Neurosurgeons have severed the corpus callosum in human patients in order to reduce

epileptic seizures

If a professor accused you of cheating on a test, your adrenal glands would probably release ________ into your bloodstream.

epinephrine

To those throwing a very heavy rather than a light object at a target, the target is likely to be perceived as

farther away

In 1848, Phineas Gage, a railroad construction foreman, survived when an explosion drove an iron rod through his head. The once friendly, soft-spoken Gage became irritable and dishonest. Gage's case provided evidence that which region of the brain plays a role in personality and behavior?

frontal lobes

Which of the following is the component of the limbic system that plays an essential role in the processing of new memories?

hippocampus

The chemical messengers of the endocrine system are called

hormones

The secretions of the pituitary gland are most directly regulated by the

hypothalamus

In one experiment, most of the participants who viewed a videotape of men tossing a basketball remained unaware of an umbrella-toting woman sauntering across the screen. This illustrated

inattentional blindness

Which of the following are located exclusively within the brain and spinal cord?

interneurons

In 1861, Paul Broca studied a stroke patient he called "Tan". He was called this because as a result of brain damage it was the only word he could pronounce. Based on Broca's early work, which of the following brain regions is involved in speech production?

left frontal lobe

A perceptual set is a

mental predisposition that influences what we perceive

The constant quivering movements of our eyes enable us to

minimize sensory adaptation

Dendrites are branching extensions of

neurons

A PET scan of a patient looking at a photograph of a painting would most likely indicate high levels of activity in which brain structure?

occipital lobes

As Maria and her little brother looked up at the clouds, he exclaimed, "That one looks like a giant dinosaur!" Maria thought it looked more like a giant duck. Which of the following concepts best explains their different interpretations of the same ambiguous stimuli?

perceptual set

Margo insists that her dreams frequently enable her to perceive and predict future events. Margo is claiming to possess the power of

precognition

Deaf people who use sign language typically

process language in their left cerebral hemisphere.

Farouk insists that by intense mental concentration he can actually influence the mechanically generated outcomes of slot machines. Farouk is most specifically claiming to possess the power of

psychokinesis

The selective permeability of a neural membrane creates a(n)

resting potential

The goal of constraint-induced therapy is to

rewire damaged brains by forcing patients to use a nonfunctioning limb.

The detection and encoding of stimulus energies by the nervous system is called

sensation

The parietal lobes are to _______ as the occipital lobes are to ______

sensing touch; seeing

As you are reading this question, the cells in your eyes are firing in response to the light coming from this paper. Which type of neuron is carrying this message to the brain?

sensory

When Mr. Valdez thought his 1-year-old daughter had fallen down the stairs, his heartbeat accelerated, his blood pressure rose, and he began to perspire heavily. Mr. Valdez's state of arousal was activated by his ________ nervous system.

sympathetic

Sir Charles Sherrington observed that impulses took more time to travel a neural pathway than he might have anticipated. His observation provided evidence for the existence of

synaptic gaps

The auditory hallucinations experienced by people with schizophrenia are most closely linked with the activation of areas in which brain area?

temporal lobes

Humans experience the longest visible electromagnetic waves as

the color red and the shortest visible waves as blue-violet

The minimum level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse is called the

threshold

Our experiences, assumptions, and expectations may give us a perceptual set that influences what we perceive. This is an example of

top-down processing

Sheelah was able to jerk her hand out of the scalding water before sensing any pain because this withdrawal reflex

was activated by interneurons in her spinal cord