PSY 120 Exam 1 Review

What is mirror-image therapy?

A treatment for people who have lost a limb and are experiencing phantom pain in the missing limb.

________ is a state of being conscious of what is going on, whereas ________ is a physiological state of being engaged with the environment.

Awareness; arousal

Imagine I ask you to listen to a lecture and then do a one-on-one interview with me where I ask you questions about your comprehension of the lecture and you answer the questions using spoken words. If you had damage in _______, you might not be able to tell me about what you learned, even if your ______ was functioning fine (and you thus comprehended the lecture).

Broca's area; Wernicke's area

Which of the following statements is true according to activation-synthesis theory?

Dreams result from the brain's attempts to find logic in random brain activity that occurs during sleep.

An evolutionary psychologist discovers that males, on average, tend to prefer the scent of ovulating women over non-ovulating women (perhaps over the course of human history, males who happened to prefer this "ovulating" scent more often pursued sexual encounters with fertile women and thus had offspring result more often from their sexual encounters, ensuring that this preference was passed down often). T/F: An evolutionary psychologist would probably say that men with this preference will continue to experience the same degree of increase in reproductive success in the U.S. today (where 62% of females of reproductive age are using birth control). Otherwise, the evolved preference would not still exist.

False

The job of most psychologists today is to study mental disorders and research effective treatment.

False

True or false: Freud commonly used the technique of "'systematic introspection".

False

Imagine that a picture of a dog is briefly flashed in the left visual field of an individual with a severed corpus callosum. At the same time, a picture of a blue circle is briefly flashed in the right visual field. Based on Roger Sperry's work with split brain patients, you could predict that if asked to report, (using spoken language), what they saw, this individual will say _______.

I saw a blue circle.

Imagine that Dr. Zayler wants to understand initial romantic attraction (the kind that people feel when they first meet someone, that leads them to seek out further interactions). Which of the following statements is true?

If Dr. Zayler asked people to report on their specific emotions, preferences, cognitions, behaviors, etc. that were unfolding at every stage of the initial meeting, she would be taking a structuralist approach to understanding initial romantic attraction. If Dr. Zayler asked "why do people feel romantic attraction? What purpose does that serve?" she would be taking a functionalist approach.

Which of the following statements is true of meditation?

In meditation, a meditator is mindfully present to his or her thoughts and feelings but is not consumed by them.

Which of the following is true of the sense of touch?

In touch we detect mechanical energy, or pressure against the skin.

Linda usually listens to music on her phone while studying. When the volume is initially low, raising it by five decibels is highly noticeable. However, when the volume is initially high, increasing it by five decibels does not result in a noticeable change in sound. This phenomenon is best explained by

Weber's law

Who would have been most likely to rely on the technique of systematic introspection?

Wundt

A researcher is interested in breastfeeding and the health of infants. She gets a list of 10,000 women from Indiana hospitals who have all given birth to a baby anywhere from 12-18 months ago, and then randomly samples 2,000 of them to call and ask to participate in a survey. She is left with 1,500 willing particpants. She asks them whether they exclusively breastfed their babies for at least the first 6 months of their lives or not. She then asks many questions about the child's health over the past 12-18 months and compiles their answers into an overall health score. She discovers that the breastfeeders have healthier babies, on average. What kind of design is this?

a quasi-experimental design

Researchers want to see which sewing machine design results in being able to finish sewing a basic line faster. They recruit 500 participants. They have all the participants each complete the basic stitch first with one machine, and then with the other machine, to see which machine makes people go faster. All 500 people do the task twice (once on each machine), and then researchers compare their mean speed on each machine to see which helps people go faster. They flip a coin to determine which machine each participant will work with first (so about half the participants do one machine first, and about half do the other first. By counterbalancing the order and ensuring that about half work with each machine first, they deal with the problem that everyone might just be better the second time around, regardless of machine design. What kind of study design is this?

a within-subjects design

You are studying in your room, and your neighbor is listening to the news on television at a loud volume in the adjacent room. When you gently request your neighbor to turn the volume down until you cannot hear it, you are asking your neighbor to make the volume less than your

absolute threshold

Thinking about the minimum parental investment necessary for a biological offspring to survive, as an explanation of sex differences in mating strategies, is an example of:

an evolutionary explanation for the Clark/Hatfield results.

Tamika hypothesizes that women are more helpful than men, and she decides to conduct a study to test her hypothesis. During lunchtime, she goes to the crowded food court and deliberately drops her folder containing papers. She then notes whether the person standing closest to her bends over and picks up her papers and whether the person is male or female. What is the operational definition of "helpful" in Tamika's study?

bending over and grabbing papers

Jake, a researcher, measures the levels of testosterone in adult males who tend to be highly aggressive. He believes hormone levels are the single-most prominent cause of male aggression. In this scenario, Jake is most likely using the ________ approach in his study.

biological

The ________ is the area on the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye on its way to the brain, and it contains neither rods nor cones.

blind spot

What colors oppose each other in opponent process theory?

blue-yellow white-black green-red

Ali is learning how to read Spanish by speaking aloud one letter at a time. Ali is engaging in which of the following?

bottom-up processing

The term plasticity refers to the

brain's special capacity for modification and change

the brain and spinal cord make up the

central nervous system

The ________ is part of the forebrain, the outer layer of the brain, and is responsible for the most complex mental functions, such as thinking and planning.

cerebral cortex

In the human cell, threadlike structures that come in 23 pairs, one member of each pair originating from each parent, and that contain DNA are called

chromosomes

The biological cycle that regulates people's pattern of sleep is called a

circadian rhythm

The iris is the

colored part of the eye that contains muscles that control the size of the pupil.

the endocrine system

consists of a set of glands that regulate the activities of certain organs by releasing their chemical products into the bloodstream.

Michael, a college student, recently purchased a new smartphone. He was reading the user manual for the smartphone and did not pay attention to his friend who was talking to him. In the context of the levels of awareness, Michael's state of focused awareness best illustrates the idea of

controlled processes

Jane is having trouble sleeping. As she sits on her bed looking around the dark room, she notices that her peripheral vision seems to be better than her central vision. This is because vision in low light conditions

depends on the rods

Tranquilizers and alcohol are

depressants

Night terrors typically occur

during non-REM sleep

The ________ involves gaining knowledge by observing events, collecting data, and reasoning logically.

empirical method

Which of the following research methods allow(s) researchers to determine causality?

experimental studies

In the videos, we said that twin studies reveal that IQ tends to be:

pretty strongly heritable, compared to other traits psychologists study.

In his practice, Dr. Wagner stresses the role of unconscious processes and unresolved childhood conflicts that influence an individual's behavior. Dr. Wagner's belief aligns with the ________ approach to psychology.

psychodynamic

watson and skinner believed that

psychology should focus on an organism's visible interactions with the environment—that is, behaviors.

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, the primary colors associated with the stimulation of cones on the retina are:

red, blue, and green

Amelia, a researcher, conducts a study and finds that teenage boys in the country of Bodonia prefer to date older girls and keep their relationships confidential. Michael, Amelia's colleague, tries to reproduce her study to see if he gets the same result. In this scenario, Michael's act illustrates

replication

Normally, when a neuron is not transmitting information and a slight negative charge is present on the inside of the cell membrane, the neuron is said to be

resting

The multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts it to neural impulses for processing in the brain is known as the

retina

The fact that your finger appears to jump back and forth when you hold it close to your face and close first just your left eye and then just your right eye is an illustration of:

retinal disparity

I want to know what Purdue undergraduates onsite think about how the Protect Purdue pledge is going. I put the names of all currently registered onsite undergrads into a database and have the computer randomly pick 2,000 names, allowing each name to have an equal shot being chosen. I talk to those 2,000 and then generalize my findings to Purdue undergrads. In this example, the 2,000 people I speak to represents a:

sample

As you walk barefoot in the park, your nose conveys to your brain the smell of the freshly cut grass; your skin sends information about the feel of the gentle breeze; and your ears transmit the sound of children laughing on the playground to your auditory cortex. This process of detecting stimuli in the environment is called

sensation

When Mark started running for the first time, he could barely run two miles a day without his muscles aching. After practicing rigorously for a month, he was able to run five miles a day. In this scenario, Mark's leg muscles adjusting to his running schedule best illustrates:

sensory adaptation

Depression is associated with low levels of which neurotransmitter?

serotonin

In the context of examples of monocular cues, which of the following cues involves changes in perception due to the position of the light and the position of the viewer?

shading

The McGurk effect illustrates that:

sight impacts our speech perception

Derek watches an airplane that is flying. The plane seems to get smaller as it goes farther away. Which of the following aspects of perceptual constancy allows Derek to understand that the airplane is not getting smaller?

size constancy

Grandpa is napping in his recliner, snoring loudly, when suddenly he stops snoring. You look to see if he woke up, but he is still asleep and appears to not be breathing. For a moment you wonder if he's dead, but suddenly he snorts and resumes snoring. Grandpa is displaying signs of

sleep apnea

While attending a lecture, Lea starts yawning and fights hard to stay awake. She reclines in her chair and within minutes she falls asleep with her head jerking upward at short intervals. Lea is in

stage N1 sleep

Sleep spindles are defining characteristic of ________ sleep.

stage N2

Shabnam reported a boost in energy and a sense of well-being after taking a drug. Medical tests revealed increased activity of her central nervous system. The drug she took is most likely a

stimulant

A(n) _______ is a person who experiences the sense of taste with great intensity: for example, potentially showing an increased sensitivity to bitter tastes.

supertaster

Just before you went on a job interview your heart was pounding like crazy. You experienced a shortness of breath and felt sick to your stomach. These symptoms were most likely produced by your ________ nervous system.

sympathetic

You are walking to school when you encounter a barking dog. You start sweating and contemplate whether you should run away. Which nervous system is primarily responsible for this "fight-or-flight" reaction?

sympathetic

The somatic nervous system consists of motor nerves, whose function is to

tell muscles what to do

Hilgard's view that hypnosis involves a splitting of consciousness into two separate components, one of which follows the hypnotist's commands and the other of which acts as a "hidden observer," is known as

the divided-consciousness view of hypnosis.

Imagine that researchers find that genes have a large impact on IQ for kids raised in a "good" environment (having "good" genes means the kid's IQ will be substantially higher than if they have "bad" genes), but genes have virtually no impact on IQ for kids raised in a "bad" environment (having "good" genes does not seem to impact a kid's IQ at all in this situation). The researchers note that the strength of the impact of the genes depends on the environment the kids are in, which is consistent with:

the interactionist perspective

According to the place theory of pitch perception, pitch is partially determined by:

the location of the activated hair cells on the basilar membrane

A(n) ________ is a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations.

theory

The phrase ________ refers to individuals' understanding that they and others think, feel, perceive, and have private experiences.

theory of mind

Bo smokes marijuana. When he first started smoking marijuana, he used to get high off one joint, but now he needs to smoke more and more to get the same high. This is an example of

tolerance

Stewart does not have great handwriting. If he were to write the word "dog" in cursive on an index card, most people would not be able to read the word if you showed the card to them. However, if he were to write the word dog in a blank spot surrounded by the clearly printed words "The _____ barked loudly when it saw the cat", most people people would be able to read the word, despite the fact that its appearance was exactly the same as when he wrote it without the surrounding words. Which of the following explains the increased ease with which people can read the word when they have the context provided by the rest of the sentence?

top-down processing

dendrites are

treelike fibers which receive information and orient it toward the neuron's cell body.

Which of the following is an example of behavior?

two people holding hands in a park

George looks at the colors on a paint swatch card to select the right shade of red for the walls in his living room. He is able to differentiate between the various shades of red on the card and make a quick decision. His perception of the differences in the shades can be attributed to the ________ of light that are reflected from the card shades.

wavelengths

Dave associates various notes in the musical scale with colors (when he hears middle C on the piano, he sees red). Dave has:

Synaesthesia

Which of the following is true of opioids?

They depress the central nervous system's activity.

Which of the following is a TRUE statement about the field of psychology?

Today, psychologists use the scientific method to study both directly observable behavior and mental processes.

which of the following parts of the brain are correctly matched?

limbic system - forebrain

Professor Wong measures the intelligence and temperament of a group of preschoolers. He plans to study the same group of participants over time and collect data when the children are in Grades 3, 6, and 9. This is an example of which type of research design?

longitudinal design

In the context of brain imaging, ________ involves creating a magnetic field around a person's body and using radio waves to construct images of the person's tissues and biochemical activities.

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Which part of the nervous system regulates breathing and heart rate?

medulla

A ________ is a layer of fat cells that insulates most axons and speeds up the transmission of nerve impulses.

myelin sheath

Which of the following types of cells in the nervous system handle the information-processing function?

neurons

As a result of a brain injury after an accident, James lost his vision. Which of the following regions of James's cerebral cortex is most likely to be damaged?

occipital lobe

According to the all-or-nothing principle,

once the electrical impulse reaches a certain level of intensity (its threshold), it fires and moves all the way down the axon without losing any intensity

After taking her English final, Natalie attempts to relax in her chair by meditating. She is attempting to reduce her heart and respiration rates, as well as her muscular tension. In this scenario, her physiological relaxation can be best attributed to the functioning of her ________ nervous system.

parasympathetic

The somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system are components of the

peripheral nervous system

Psychology began as a science in the discipline of

philosophy

drug addiction occurs when

physical and/or psychological dependence develops.

Your mother must always have an early morning cup of coffee. She usually has several more cups throughout the day. If she misses her daily doses of coffee, she gets a headache. The fact that your mother experiences headaches when she discontinues the use of caffeine is an example of

physical dependence

The primary function of the ________ is to collect sounds and channel them into the interior of the ear.

pinna

Damien has been unable to sleep for the past few weeks. He wakes up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. On certain occasions, he cannot fall asleep at all and at other times, he is unable to wake up from sleep. In the context of organization of the brain, Damien's problem with sleep and arousal is most likely caused by the poor functioning of the

pons

Jamie is conducting an experiment and wants to see if people who have just been given a sandwich to eat behave less aggressively when provoked than people who have not just been given a sandwich to eat. Jamie recruits 100 participants. The first 50 who sign up at the beginning of the month get put in the "eat a sandwich" group, and the last 50 who sign up at the end of the month get put in the "no sandwich" group. Jamie then has a partner (who is an actor working for the researchers) provoke the participants and sees who lashes out at their partner the most. She finds out that the average aggression score of the "no sandwich" group is higher than the "eat a sandwich" group! Jamie wants to conclude that for her participants, being given a sandwich to eat decreased aggression! Don't just think about what might be generic weaknesses of this approach. Specifically, I want to know which of the following is the problem with Jamie's experiment that most threatens her ability to know that it was being given the sandwich to eat that was causing the decrease in aggression in her participants?

Jamie has not used random assignment to determine who goes into which condition.

In one study, researchers wanted to see if putting students in a black room (as opposed to a bright yellow room) would increase their feelings of anger when they were provoked. They took 500 students and randomly assigned half to complete the study in a black room and half to a yellow room. Everybody had to answer the same writing prompt. Then a research assistent entered the room, collected the writing assignment and left to go "grade" it, and came back ten minutes later and told everybody the same thing - that it had received a low score for composition quality (to try to provoke the participant). Then, all the participants reported on their emotions/anger levels after receiving the negative feedback. The average anger level of the people who were provoked in the black room was higher than for the people provoked in the yellow room! Researchers conclude that the color of the room increased anger! Hypothesis supposedly confirmed! However, the researcher assistant who was entering the room to provide the negative feedback knew the hypothesis (that the black room would provoke more anger in the participants). Careful video analysis revealed that the research assistant was unintentionally using an angrier, more hostile face when she delivered the bad feedback to the people in the black room (perhaps she was unconsciously anticipating that these participants were going to immediately be angrier with her, so she acted more intense/hostile with them when delivering the feedback!) So, the researchers instead began providing the critical feedback from the research assistant over a pre-recorded video feed, leading participants to believe it was a live conversation with someone in the other room. This ensured the feedback was delivered consistently to everyone in both conditions. When conducted in this manner, there was no difference in anger between the participants in the black vs. yellow room. The difference in participant anger that was detected in the first version of the study was due to the more hostile behavior of the research assistant instead of the color of the room - this is an example of WHAT? Choose the best answer that most exemplifies the essence of the problem here!

experimenter bias

The ________ is the principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out and those that are left over.

figure-ground relationship

The ________ are involved in personality, intelligence, and the control of voluntary muscles.

frontal lobes

Which of the following essential body functions are under the control of the autonomic nervous system?

functions of heart rate, breathing, and digestion

In the videos for this module, we described an experiment that involved randomly assigning people to either wear a black or white tshirt and then measuring their aggression in the laboratory (by having them punch a punching bag, instead of unleashing them on a real person like we might see aggression unfold in the real world... ethical concerns with doing this!) Assume we find that putting people in a black tshirt does increase aggression (as measured by number of times/with what force they hit the punching bag). This design would be:

high in internal validity and low in external validity

Nathan is suffering from amnesia, an illness that prevents the retrieval of new memories. In the context of the organization of the brain, which area of Nathan's brain is most likely responsible for the amnesia?

hippocampus

According to evolutionary psychologists

human behavior is traceable to problems early humans faced in adapting to their environments.

Abe and Carla are psychologists who believe that people have free will and can make choices based on higher human values. Abe and Carla's views reflect the ________ approach to psychology.

humanistic

Carrie suffered brain damage when she was injured in a car accident. Since then, she is unable to take pleasure in the things she used to. She has also lost interest in sexual intimacy with her husband and does not enjoy the taste of her favorite foods. In this scenario, damage to which of the following areas of the brain is most likely causing her inability to experience pleasure?

hypothalamus

Roger thinks that drinking diet coke increases blood pressure, so he randomly assigns people to either drink 10 diet cokes a week or 0 diet cokes a week and then monitors their blood pressure. In this experiment, drinking diet coke is the _________ and blood pressure is the ____________.

independent variable; dependent variable

According to the principle of ________, all participants must know what their participation will involve and what risks might develop.

informed consent

Which of the following characteristics of the brain refers to the brain's ability to pull information together?

integration

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the trichromatic theory of color vision?

it fails to adequately explain afterimages