Practice Exam 3

Stimulus-control techniques have gained popularity in laboratory research. Now, scientists interested in perception have studied "higher" cognitive processes in pigeons such as whether or not they know how to categorize. This higher cognitive process can also be described as which of the following?

Ability to sort or arrange different items into classes

Which psychologist conducts research on the mindset of children looking at differences in high and low achievers with similar IQ scores?

Carol Dweck

This person was among those who pioneered psychological measurement. Among other contributions, he was possibly the first to popularize the notion that the heritability of psychological traits could be assessed by looking at identical and fraternal twins.

Francis Galton

Alfred takes an IQ test at ages 25 and 55, measuring his fluid and crystallized intelligence. Based on research of their respective developmental trajectories, what are most likely changes in these two areas that we would see?

His fluid intelligence would decrease with age, whereas his crystallized intelligence would increase

Walter Mischel (1968, 2009) pointed out this apparent fact about the predictability of individuals' behavior through personality tests:

People's behavior varies greatly situation by situation, but tests can reveal their average behavior across many situations.

Emily naturally blinks whenever her sister pretends she's going to poke her in the eye. Her sister, a psychology major, then decides to have a little fun. She pairs the word "psychology" (conditioned stimulus) with pretending to poke Emily in the eye (unconditioned stimulus). Soon, Emily blinks as soon as she hears the word "psychology." According to the concept of blocking, what would happen in this scenario if Emily's sister also started snapping her fingers when she said the word psychology?

Snapping her fingers will not have any additional effects because it is not adding any surprise to predict the unconditioned stimulus

Walter Mischel was an important figure in the "person-situation debate" amongst psychologists. What was Mischel's side of the argument?

Traits are an illusion. People may not be consistent across situations and thus it would be fruitful to study the distinct reactions in specific situations.

In a follow-up study to the original Bobo Doll experiment, Badura observed the process of vicarious reinforcement, where children behaved less aggressively when:

aggressive models were punished

Factor analysis allowed personality theorists to:

analyze the correlations among traits and identify the most important ones

In Bandura's famous experiment children observed either an aggressive or a non-aggressive model in a room of toys and a Bobo Doll. When allowed to play with Bobo, researchers observed that children who observed the aggressive model were more aggressive in their own interactions. Research concluded that:

children used their observation of adult models to determine that aggressive behavior was acceptable

Sidney Crosby, a famous hockey player, is paid $10 million to wear Reebok ice-skates. Reebok hopes this will increase sales of their skates due to:

classical conditioning

When Nora goes into a cupcake bakery, she is surrounded by cues associated with cupcakes. Her response elicited by these cues is to expect a very delicious dessert. When she waits until she gets home to eat the cupcake, that's exactly what she experiences. However, when she eats the cupcake at the bakery it is not as delicious as she predicted. Which concept can explain this phenomenon of cues reducing the strength of the unconditioned response (i.e. enjoyment of the cupcake)?

conditioned compensatory responses

As learning occurs over repeated conditioning trials, the conditioned stimulus increasingly predicts the unconditioned stimulus, and prediction error __________.

declines

Some researcher say that ____________________ is really a set of skills including stress management and the ability to perceive moods.

emotional intelligence

When you drink spoiled milk or put a rancid piece of cheese in your mouth, you may spit it out before you have any cognitive awareness of why you are feeling disgusted. From an evolutionary perspective, this demonstrates which concept?

emotions help us act with minimally conscious awareness

Clint is a very confident person who tends to take charge when he has been assigned to a group task. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Clint likely score high in?

extraversion

David is happy and optimistic. He enjoys being around other people and participating in extreme sports like skydiving and bungee jumping. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score high in?

extraversion

When a goal-directed action becomes automated and routine it is called a:

habit

In what way are classical and operant conditioning distinct?

in operant conditioning, the strength of learning is usually measured by emitted responses, whereas in classical conditioning it is usually measured by elicited responses.

Leonard is a psychotherapist and is very good at his job partly because he has a strong sense of empathy for others. Which type of intelligence from Gardner's multiple intelligences theory does this most clearly indicate?

interpersonal

Marlon has found that when he gets sad, his girlfriend becomes particularly nurturing and tries to take care of him. While he does not particularly want to feel these emotions, the response it draws from his girlfriend demonstrates the ________ function of emotions.

interpersonal

Dr. Zelbing and her graduate assistant want to compile a list of personality traits using the approach advocated by Allport and Odbert. In order to do this, they get two copies of the unabridged dictionary of the English language, use it to look for words that are related to personality traits. When they are done several weeks later, they have a list of several thousand words that they will reduce based on duplicate terminology. Dr. Zelbing advocates for a(n) __________ to the study of personality.

lexical hypothesis

Kelly is grounded by her father, until she sits down and completes an important homework assignment. Which technique has her father used to try to alter her behavior?

negative reinforcement

Kyle has a reputation for being very calm during an emergency. He copes very well with stress and is able to think clearly and make effective decisions. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score LOW in?

neuroticism

Wayne likes to travel to learn about new cultures. Whenever he returns from a trip he brings home a piece of art from that culture to add to his collection. Which of the Big 5 factors of personality would Wayne likely score high in?

openness

Kurt's mom was so upset when she overheard him swearing that she made him clean his room! This is an example of:

positive punishment

According to the _________ law of effect, David is less likely to turn to drugs, sex, or alcohol for reinforcement since he has plenty of other sources of reinforcement such as good grades, soccer team wins, and parental praise.

quantitative

The process by which we look to other people to get information about how to feel in specific situations is called social ________.

referencing

Effects that increase behaviors are __________;effects that decrease them are ____________.

reinforcers; punishers

Personality traits are defined as:

relatively enduring dispositions in behavior that characterize individuals across varying types of situations

Which of the following is one of the physical responses that are immediately inspired by an emotional experience?

shutting down of unneeded digestive processes

When she notices that her girlfriend, Ellana, seems particularly quiet, Bess starts gently asking her what is wrong. After a while Ellana shares that she is having some problems in their relationship and this leads to a very constructive conversation about how things can be improved. This demonstrates the way that emotions can have ________ that elicits actions from others.

signal value

Young Lilah is taken to a family dinner and she meets an uncle who she has never met before. As he reaches to her for a hug, Lilah looks to her mother with an uncertain look on her face. As she sees her mother nodding and smiling, Lilah looks back to the uncle and gives him a warm hug. Lilah has used ________ to determine how to act in this situation.

social referencing

Banafsheh is a female student in a graduate program in pure mathematics. On the first day of classes, she notices that she is one of the only females in the group. Consequently, she feels more conscious of her gender in that situation. At the start of the class, the instructor gives each student a written quiz to assess their current level of knowledge. When taking this test, Banafsheh, being particularly aware of her gender, is most likely to experience which of the following phenomena?

stereotype threat

Pin-ya raises her hand when she wants to speak in the classroom; however, she does not need to do so at home. This is because at school, her operant behavior is under _________ control.

stimulus

When Carla was a child, she ate too much cotton candy at the fair and got very sick. For many years she avoided cotton candy and even the smell of it made her feel sick. This example demonstrates:

taste aversion

When Leanne was classically conditioned, she was in a room that had a waterfall painted on one wall. Now, when she goes hiking and sees an actual waterfall, she produces a conditioned response. This change in environment that can cause renewal effects is also known as what?

the change in context

Our emotions are influenced, in part, by our cultures. Culture provides information about which emotions it is ideal to have. How do people learn these cultural messages?

they are taught to us by our caregivers and through books, movies, advertisements and other cultural products.