AP Psychology

What is one of Watson's contributions to the study of learning?

He demonstrated how some emotions and behaviors can be learned by classical conditioning.

What is true of alcohol?

In large doses, it is a depressant; in small doses, it is a depressant

How did the definition of psychology change when behaviorism began to dominate the field?

Psychology centered on direct observation of our actions.

If a baseball player gets a hit after tapping the plate with the bat, he is more likely to repeat that behavior the next time he's up to the plate. Which best explains this superstitious behavior?

Reinforced behavior, even if its accidental, is more likely to be repeated.

The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion for their difference to be perceived is known as

Weber's law

What best explain why children are most likely to resist eating strong-tasting foods?

Young children have more taste receptors, so their sensitivity to taste is greater

The increase in death rates among older people when they reach a life milestone such as a birthday provides evidence of

a death-deferral phenomenon

The movement of positively charged ions across the membrane of a neuron can produce an

action potential

In contrast to alcohol, marijuana

amplifies sensitivity to sound

Someone who has difficulty speaking after a stroke is suffering from what?

aphasia

Sodium pentothal has sometimes been called a truth serum because it relaxes people and enables them to more freely disclose personally embarrassing experiences. It is most likely that sodium pentothal is a

barbiturate

The school of thought in psychology that systematically avoided the study of consciousness during the first half of the last century is

behaviorism

Which perspective is most relevant to understanding the impact of strokes and brain diseases on memory?

biological

When golden hamsters were repeatedly threatened and attacked while young, they suffered long-term changes in

brain chemistry

In explaining human behavior, psychoanalysts are likely to focus on _________, whereas humanistic physiologists concentrate on___________.

childhood experiences and unconscious thought processes; current environmental influences

Dr. Caleigh conducts basic research on the relationship between adults' language skills and their capacity to solve mathematical problems. Dr. Caleigh is most likely a __________ psychologist

cognitive

Nikki has leaned to expect the sound of thunder whenever she sees a flash of lightening. This suggests that associative learning involves

cognitive processes

In an experiment designed to study the effectiveness of a new drug, research participants who receive a placebo are participating in the ___________ condition

control

Which factor appears to be important for the development of depth perception in infancy?

crawling experience

as people progress through late adulthood, they typically experience a slight

decrease in brain weight

A child who is punished for swearing at home but reinforced for swearing on the school playground is most likely to demonstrate a patterned habit of swearing that is indicative of

discrimination

Research has indicated that hypnosis

enables some people to undergo surgery with only a local anesthesia.

Although Arturo has looked at his watch thousands of times, he is unable to recall whether the watch features Roman or Arabic numerals. This is most likely due to a failure in

encoding

Margaret has difficulty speaking in front of her classmates and explains to a friend, "Everybody in my family is shy, so it must be genetic." Using the biopsychosocial approach to understanding her behavior, Margaret should

examine additional psychological and social-cultural influences on shyness

After Pavlov had conditioned a dog to salivate to a tone, he repeatedly sounded the tone without presenting the food. As a result, ___________ occurred.

extinction

Bats need a lot of sleep because their high waking metabolism produces__________ that are toxic to neurons

free radicals

A sea slug learns to withdraw its gill after repeatedly being squirted by water. After repeated squirting, the withdrawal response lessens. Which term do learning theorists use to describe this reaction?

habituation

Parents can most effectively increase their influences on their children by

helping to select their children's neighborhood and schools.

Old and Milner located reward centers in the brain structure known as the

hypothalamus

Critics of evolutionary psychology are most likely to suggest that it underestimates the

impact of cultural expectations on human sexual behavior

Abler, a 70 year old retired teacher, feels that his life has not been of any real value or significance. According to Erikson, Abner has failed to achieve a sense of

integrity

Light-wave amplitude determines the

intensity of colors

compared with when she was an adolescent, elderly Mrs. Packer is likely to experience a sad mood with

less intensity and for a longer period of time

It is difficult to successfully train many children to walk before they are 10 months old. This best illustrates the importance of

maturation

Skinner is to shaping as Bandura is to

modeling

Mason, a stockbroker, runs 2 miles every day after work because it reduces his level stress. Mason's running habit is maintained by a ___________ reinforcer.

negative

In response to a harmful stimulus, __________ initiate neural impulses leading to the sensation of pain.

nociceptors

REM sleep is called paradoxical sleep because

our nervous system is highly active, while our voluntary muscles hardly move

After watching a scary movie, Julie perceived the noise of he wind rattling for front window as the sound of a burglar breaking into her house. her mistaken interpretation best illustrates the influence of

perceptual set

Physical pain and intense cravings indicate

physical dependance

the discovery that high-frequency sounds trigger large vibrations near the beginning of the basilar membrane supports the _____________ theory

place

Adoptive parents are most likely to influence the__________ of their adopted children

political attitudes

A young child who is spanked after running into the streets learns not to repeat this behavior. In this case, the spanking is a

positive punishment

Reading a romantic novel caused Consuela to recall some old experiences with a junior high school boyfriend. the effect of the novel on Consuela's memory retrieval is an illustration of

priming

John Locke would have suggested that a perceptual set results from

prior experience

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information is called

proactive interference

Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a ____________ perspective

psychodynamic

As we move, objects that are fixed in place, like a light pole, for example, may appear to move. what is this monocular cue for depth called?

relative motion

The inability to remember events in one's life which occurred prior to a brain injury is known as

retrograde amnesia

The most light-sensitive receptor cells are the

rods

Which part of your brain receives information that you are moving your legs?

sensory cortex

In a pleasant but unfamiliar setting, infants with an insecure maternal attachment are most likely to

show indifference to their mothers return after a brief absence

Developmental psychologists study physical, cognitive, and _____________ changes throughout the human life cycle

social

Compared with when they were only 20 years old, 60 year olds

spend less time in deep sleep

The unreliability of introspection contributed to waning popularity of

structuralism

Parapsychology is

study of phenomena such as ESP and psychokinesis

Psychoactive drugs interfere with normal neural transmissions. Where does this interference take place?

synapses

Experiments suggest that children exposed to a model who says one thing and does another will

talk in ways consistent with what the model says and act in ways consistent with what the model does

In explaining prosocial behavior, B.F. Skinner would most likely have emphasized.

the beneficial consequences of prosocial behavior

Watching the night sky for shooting stars is likely to be reinforced on a _____________ schedule.

variable-interval

Most researchers who have examined the effects of viewing televised aggression conclude that

viewing violence leads children and teenagers to behave aggressively