psych final
A school collected data on student absences during stressful final exam periods when their sympathetic nervous systems would be activated. They graphed the data at the end of the academic term. Based on the graph, what is the most likely standard deviation for the number of days students missed classes?
2.0
Using the diagram, during which of the following do individuals typically dream?
D
Dr. Shay is designing a research study to demonstrate the serial position effect. They asked 10 of their friends to volunteer as participants in the study. Half of the participants were randomly assigned Group A and shown eight random words on a computer screen. After viewing the words, members of Group A were asked to recall as many words as possible. The other half of the students randomly assigned to Group B also viewed a set of eight random words. After viewing the words, students in Group B were asked to count backwards from one hundred, in increments of 3, before recalling any of the words. What is the design flaw of this study?
The participants in the study were not randomly selected.
Researchers at a local veteran's hospital wanted to explore the impact of traumatic brain injuries on veteran's ability to sleep. Which of the following would the researchers use if they wanted to see the brain activity in a particular area of the brain as the veteran's were sleeping?
fMRI
Researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. The researchers would be justified in concluding that
students who earn good grades tend to sleep more than those who do not
Researchers presented a picture of four stimuli to a group of college students and measured their heart rate by counting how many beats occurred in one minute. Which of the following brain structures would be most responsible for the emotional reaction as measured by heart rate after seeing the spider and the snake?
Amygdala
Professor Belvedere wants to help her anatomy students memorize the names of different parts of the body. Which of the following techniques will best help her students?
Asking them questions about the meaning of each word
Dr. Jones conducted a study in which he surveyed participants and compared their reported levels of physical activity to their measures of brain plasticity. Dr. Jones concludes that higher levels of physical activity cause a greater degree of neuroplastic changes in the brain. He plans to publish his findings. What mistake is Dr. Jones making in his research conclusion?
Dr. Jones's study was correlational, so it cannot generate a causal conclusion.
The trend of IQ scores presented in the graph is most consistent with which of the following?
The Flynn Effect
Neurologists trying to find a treatment for Alzheimer's disease selected 100 individuals with moderate to severe symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Fifty participants were randomly placed into either an experimental condition that received a new medication that acted as an agonist for acetylcholine or the control condition which continued to receive same care as before. The study lasted for ten weeks at which time members of both groups took a cognitive assessment to determine their level of functioning. Which of the following best explains the operational definition of the dependent variable in this study?
The score on the cognitive assessment.
Shayna is chronically tired and decides to record how many hours of sleep she is getting. Her data for the last ten nights include the following estimated hours: 8, 8, 8, 4, 6, 3, 6, 10, 6, 5. What number represents the median value?
6
Which of the following studies is from an evolutionary perspective?
A study to see if women were more attracted to men who liked children than men who did not like children
Dr. Lofter is a professor of cognitive psychology at a university. He has been collecting data from student performances on tests throughout the school year. Every other test is formatted as either a fill-in-the-blank test, which relies on recall, or a multiple-choice test, which relies more on recognition. At the end of the year, Dr Lofter publishes the research findings in a journal on cognitive sciences showing how students perform better on recognition tests than recall tests. Which of the following ethical violations did Dr. Lofter commit?
Dr. Lofter's students did not give informed consent to be a part of the research.
Dr. Popoca studied the characteristics of individuals experiencing red-green and yellow-blue color vision deficiency. They recruited one individual with each type of color vision deficiency and assessed each person three times per week for a period of three months. They found that all of the participants in their study were left-handed. Following their research, Dr. Popoca concludes that all individuals who experience dichromatism are left-handed. Why is their conclusion inappropriate based on their research strategy?
Dr. Popoca has conducted a case study, which cannot be generalized to the population.
Which of the following scenarios is an example of retroactive interference?
Carl tries to remember the name of his first boss, but he cannot because he keeps thinking of the name of his current boss.
Researchers were interested in whether there is a correlation between binocular cues and depth perception. Which of the following would be an operational definition of depth perception?
How many times a person accurately judges the distance of an object
Dr. Miller believes cell phone usage affects short-term memory ability. He randomly selected 20 male students from his university to participate and gave them a survey. Participants were asked a series of questions about how often they use their cell phone and whether they recalled information about world events. The data from the survey is presented in the graph below.
Number of correct details remembered about world events
The figure represents which model of memory?
The multi-store model of memory
A study was conducted to determine the power of a new chemical to increase the quality of olfactory sensations in humans. Participants were asked to rate the quality of a chocolate bar, before and after inhaling the chemical on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning low quality and 10 meaning high quality. Analysis of the data showed that the difference in perceived quality of the chocolate bar before and after exposure to the chemical was statistically significant.
The perceived quality of the chocolate bar went up after being exposed to the chemical, and this was not due to chance.
Alumni of a small high school where everyone knew each other were tracked down twenty years after their high school graduation. Alumni were shown photographs of other individuals they graduated with. First, they were asked if they recognized the person in the photograph. Participants responded "yes" 75% of the time. Next, they were asked if they knew the person's name. Participants could only correctly name the person in the photograph 25% of the time. Which of the following is the dependent variable in the recall condition?
The percentage of people identified by name
A researcher wants to examine how much information from waking life ends up in dreams. The researcher recruits 40 volunteers from a local community college to record the details of their daily activities. The participants will be given a sleep monitor that gently wakes them each time they end an REM cycle, after which they will complete a detailed dream diary. The study is planned to last for two weeks. Why would an institutional review board be hesitant to approve this study?
The researchers are disrupting sleep for an extended period, which may cause harm.
Which of the following biological systems is most likely responsible for an increase in heart rate while experiencing anxiety?
The sympathetic nervous system
Which study is a researcher who wants to draw correct cause-and-effect conclusions about the sense of smell likely to conduct?
A study in which the researcher randomly assigns 50 people to a group that is exposed to a strong smell of roses and 50 people to a group that experiences an odor-free environment to see whether the group exposed to the strong smell of roses reports experiencing more memories.
Skylar experienced brain damage after a car accident. Researchers were interested in assessing whether Skylar's visuospatial abilities were affected. Skylar was shown 3 geometric figures, one at a time, for ten seconds. After each presentation, Skylar drew each one on a piece of paper. Researchers compared Skyler's drawings to the original figure and scored each. Which of the following research methods is being used to assess Skylar's abilities?
A case study
Synesthesia is a phenomenon that has been estimated to occur in only a few people in a million. Because of its rarity, researchers are likely to choose which research method to study it?
Case study
Dimitri and Dominic are identical twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families. When they found each other through DNA tracking, they were surprised to see how different they were. Which research method would a psychologist most likely use to document their behavioral differences?
Correlation
Dr. Copeland is interested in studying how diet impacts the nervous system activity of professional dancers. She randomly assigns a group of professional ballet dancers to either a protein-rich diet or a carbohydrate-rich diet. After three weeks on each food plan, she measures the function of specific parts of the brain and nervous systems while they are dancing.
Dr. Copeland is conducting an experiment.
Dr. Miller believes cell phone usage affects short-term memory ability. He randomly selected 20 male students from his university to participate and gave them a survey. Participants were asked a series of questions about how often they use their cell phone and whether they recalled information about world events. The data from the survey is presented in the graph below.
Hindsight bias
The data set represents the scores of students who took a standardized college placement exam at their own school and later took the same test at a neighboring school. Based on the data, which of the following conclusions can be made?
Participants scored better when testing in a familiar location.
Dr. Storck randomly assigned a group of adults to two groups. Group A was asked to memorize a list of 20 words that are all names of food items. Group B was asked to memorize a list of 20 random words, none of which were names of food items. A week later, Dr. Storck asked the participants to memorize a new list of 20 words, all of which were the names of different food items. He recorded how many words each group recalled accurately. The data he collected are shown in the graph.
People are less likely to remember new food words after they have previously learned a list of food words.
A psychologist was interested in how people of different cultures choose a pet. They posted on social media a question that asked people to respond with what kind of animal would make a good pet. Which of the following psychological concepts would best characterize what the psychologist was examining?
Schemas
Dr. Schmidt was interested in the relationship between sensation of a stimulus and the sensation of change in a stimulus. She tested this using sensation of weight. Participants were blindfolded and given two equal weights to hold one in each hand. With each trial, she added a slightly heavier weight to one hand than the other. The participant was asked to notify her if or when one felt heavier. She found that it was more difficult for the participants to determine the difference in the weights when the equal weights from the first trial were heavy.
The heaviness of the weights
A group of researchers collected the data displayed in the graph. Which of the following psychological concepts is most likely the focus of the research?
The interaction of "nature" and "nurture"
Dr. Copeland is interested in studying how diet impacts the nervous system activity of professional dancers. She randomly assigns a group of professional ballet dancers to either a protein-rich diet or a carbohydrate-rich diet. After three weeks on each food plan, she measures the function of specific parts of the brain and nervous systems while they are dancing.
The nervous system activation for any other type of dancers on carbohydrate-rich diets would be similar.
When Gustavo goes through lists of inventory items and thinks about whether each one is a fruit or not, he remembers more of the items on those lists later than when he goes through lists of inventory items and does not think about what each item is. Which of the following concepts best explains Gustavo's performance?
Elaborative encoding, because engaging in deeper processing improves memory.
Students who have faced many obstacles in educational settings were asked to participate in a study that required that they take a test. Many of the students scored poorly on the test. Which of the following ethical issues arises because the students feel that their low test scores are reflective of their abilities, rather than their circumstances?
Risk to participants
A research study seeks to examine the influence of REM sleep disruption on memory and attention. To investigate this, researchers gather a representative sample of healthy participants ages 18 to 40 years old with no prior history of sleep disorders or psychiatric conditions. They give each participant a baseline cognitive functioning test. The participants are housed in a sleep research lab for the duration of the study where they have their REM sleep disrupted multiple times each night. Following a three-week period of REM sleep disruption, participants will repeat the initial cognitive assessments to evaluate changes in performance. Which of the following research methods is being used in this study?
An experiment
Which of the following concepts is depicted by the graph?
Weber's law
Dr. Naum is studying the function of the temporal lobe of the brain by examining the case study of J.S., an individual who incurred damage in this area during a motor vehicle accident. Dr. Naum administers a battery of tasks multiple times over the course of several weeks to assess J.S.'s cognitive abilities. The graph below shows J.S.'s performance on three different tasks. The bar on the left shows his accuracy forming new memories in a lab context, the middle bar shows his accuracy on a driving course, and the bar on the right shows his accuracy on a third task.
remembering events that occurred shortly before his accident
A teacher gives an exam in her AP Psychology course on the function of the parts of the brain. If the exam scores were normally distributed, what would be the percentage of scores that fall at or below the mean score?
50
A study was conducted to determine the power of a new chemical to increase the quality of olfactory sensations in humans. Participants were asked to rate the quality of a chocolate bar, before and after inhaling the chemical on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning low quality and 10 meaning high quality. Analysis of the data showed that the difference in perceived quality of the chocolate bar before and after exposure to the chemical was statistically significant.
68
Dr. Miller believes cell phone usage affects short-term memory ability. He randomly selected 20 male students from his university to participate and gave them a survey. Participants were asked a series of questions about how often they use their cell phone and whether they recalled information about world events. The data from the survey is presented in the graph below.
Correlation
Two researchers are interested in the social skills by people with synesthesia to perceive color. Researcher A interviews people with this disorder, and Researcher B creates a survey with a dozen questions that the participants answer using a numeric scale. Which of the following is true about this research scenario?
Researcher B is using a quantitative measure.
Researchers investigated the extent to which 30 pairs of identical and fraternal female twins shared with their twin a diagnosis for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Identical twins are genetically identical and share the same DNA pattern. Fraternal twins are only as genetically similar as any other sibling pair. Researchers found that 9 out of 16 pairs of the identical twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, while 1 out of 14 pairs of the fraternal twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Which of the following conclusions can be made based on the data collected in this study?
Heredity appears to be correlated with the development of anorexia nervosa.
A manager of a company that makes self-driving cars is interested in showing that self-driving cars cause fewer accidents than traditional cars. She recruited 30 people for her study. After keeping her participants awake for 24 hours straight, she randomly assigned them to either drive a traditional car or a self-driving car. Which of the following is the most significant ethical factor that might influence the approval of this study?
Protection from harm
Researchers randomly assigned 50 elementary school children to place a plug on their nose to limit their sense of smell. The children were then presented with a series of different foods and asked to rate the taste, texture, and intensity on a scale from 1 to 5. Another 50 children were randomly placed in a group with no nose plug and asked to rate the same food using the same scale. Using random assignment in this study can help with which of the following?
Random assignment to groups would allow researchers to understand if the differences between groups was due to the independent variable (the nose plug).
A corporation created what they referred to as an "intelligence assessment" to give to people who are applying for jobs with their company, which sells medical equipment. The assessment asked questions about popular culture, sports, and historical events that occurred in the United States. Which of the following might explain why the assessment results did not give the company a diverse pool of final candidates?
The assessment lacked validity by only asking about United States cultural and historic topics.
A psychological study to determine the harmful effects of sleep disruption asked a company to start an overnight shift without notice. Many of the employees began to have accidents while on the job. The researchers conclude that a sudden change in circadian rhythm causes an effect on job performance. What ethical concern may be present in this study?
The employees did not provide informed consent and were not given the option to withdraw from the study.
Dr. Ronaldo wants to measure levels of creativity in the participants in his study. He presents an ambiguous object and records how long it takes for the participants to come up with at least six practical uses for each of the objects. The data in the graph represent the time and the number of participants who completed the six responses within that time range. Which of the following best represents the measures of central tendency in this data set?
The mean will be higher than the mode
Dr. Darcy was interested in whether the primacy or recency effect leads to better memory recall. He conducted a study to test the difference using two randomly assigned groups of participants and the results are presented in the graph. Which of the following statements is true based on this information?
The recency effect leads to better memory recall than the primacy effect.
Researchers conducted a correlational study during the winter season, which has shorter days and longer nights. The researcher asked about people's experiences with depression-like symptoms, including feelings of tiredness and reduction in energy output. The researcher found that there was a positive correlation between the amount of daylight and depression-like symptoms. Which of the following statements best reflects how to interpret this correlational finding?
The relationship between daylight and depressive symptoms may also be linked to a third variable.
Researchers investigated the extent to which 30 pairs of identical and fraternal female twins shared with their twin a diagnosis for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Identical twins are genetically identical and share the same DNA pattern. Fraternal twins are only as genetically similar as any other sibling pair. Researchers found that 9 out of 16 pairs of the identical twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, while 1 out of 14 pairs of the fraternal twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Which of the following explains why researchers could not implement an experimental design in this study?
The twins could not be randomly assigned to groups.
A researcher is exploring the effectiveness of a new drug that works as an agonist to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. A research design involves two randomly assigned groups of participants. One group receives a one-time treatment, and the other does not. Later, the two groups are compared to see whether the treatment had an effect. Psychologists call this kind of research which of the following?
An experiment
Dr. Schmidt was interested in the relationship between sensation of a stimulus and the sensation of change in a stimulus. She tested this using sensation of weight. Participants were blindfolded and given two equal weights to hold one in each hand. With each trial, she added a slightly heavier weight to one hand than the other. The participant was asked to notify her if or when one felt heavier. She found that it was more difficult for the participants to determine the difference in the weights when the equal weights from the first trial were heavy.
An experiment
A researcher studied rats to determine the effectiveness of a new drug on acetylcholine receptor sites. First, the rats were trained to find a reward at the end of a maze. Next, the rats were randomly assigned to two groups. One group of rats were injected with the new acetylcholine-like drug. The second group of rats were injected with a saline solution. Finally, researchers measured how many mistakes the rats made as they navigated the maze. Which of the following research methods was used by the researchers?
Experimental
A sample of pregnant women is given a high dose of caffeine daily to determine if their babies are born with an addiction to caffeine. Which of the following is an ethical issue in this study?
There is possible long-term harm to the babies.
A researcher is interested in measuring adrenaline levels in male subjects and then comparing those levels to each participant's corresponding level of aggression. The researcher takes blood samples from each male participant to identify their adrenaline levels, and then gives each participant a survey that measures aggression. The results of the study indicate that higher levels of adrenaline were associated with higher rates of aggression. Which of the following best describes why the researcher cannot report a causal relationship in this study?
There was no manipulation of an independent variable.
Dr. Schmidt was interested in the relationship between sensation of a stimulus and the sensation of change in a stimulus. She tested this using sensation of weight. Participants were blindfolded and given two equal weights to hold one in each hand. With each trial, she added a slightly heavier weight to one hand than the other. The participant was asked to notify her if or when one felt heavier. She found that it was more difficult for the participants to determine the difference in the weights when the equal weights from the first trial were heavy.
Weber's law
Dr. Gomez conducts research looking at similarities in identical twins. In one study, she is interested in looking at athletic ability. What do the results in the graph indicate?
When one twin demonstrates high athletic ability, so does the other twin.
Samantha experienced a traumatic brain injury and afterward began to exhibit bizarre symptoms that no one had ever documented before. The best research method to study Samantha would be
a case study
Mary has an IQ score within one standard deviation above the mean score. This indicates her score is best described as having which of the following qualities?
within the middle 68% of people who took the test
Dr. Scott was interested in whether using mnemonics increases memory recall. He randomly assigned 20 college students in his anatomy class to two groups. Participants in Group A were given a list of 20 class concepts and 10 minutes to study them using the method of loci. Those in Group B were given the same list but were told to repeat each term 10 times as their study method. When each group finished the task, Dr. Scott administered a recall quiz. The scores for each group are presented in the table. What is the median score for Group A and Group B, respectively?
16; 7
Trinna and Suzanne are identical twins who were the same length at birth. They were adopted by different families at birth and then reconnected in their early thirties. Trinna is two inches shorter and was a severely selective eater as a child. A researcher was conducting an investigation about twins separated at birth. What research method and explanation best fit this scenario?
A case study, because both heredity and environment are important in determining length and height.
Researchers investigated the extent to which 30 pairs of identical and fraternal female twins shared with their twin a diagnosis for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Identical twins are genetically identical and share the same DNA pattern. Fraternal twins are only as genetically similar as any other sibling pair. Researchers found that 9 out of 16 pairs of the identical twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, while 1 out of 14 pairs of the fraternal twins were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Which of the following psychological perspectives would best help researchers answer questions about the relationship between heredity and the environment regarding the development of disorders such as anorexia nervosa?
Biological
Dr. Felder is studying whether the color of a drink impacts how a person experiences the taste of the drink. She has an orange-flavored liquid that she dyes either orange, purple, or blue, and gives it to participants to drink. She then asks them to describe the taste. Which of the following would best help her evaluate the impact of vision on taste?
Create an additional control condition in which participants wear blindfolds while they taste the drink.
Mr. Flores is trying to convince his students that there are more effective ways to study. He has his students use two different strategies to remember a list of 20 random words over two consecutive weeks. During week one, the students repeat the words 5 times, and during week two, they create an analogy for each word based on its definition. The results of the study were posted on his classroom door as proof of how students should study.
Elaborative rehearsal
Memory researchers want to determine if using a mnemonic device will prevent participants from forgetting information. They present a list of nonsense syllables to participants that have been randomly divided into two different groups. One group is instructed to use an assigned mnemonic device to remember the words while the other group is instructed to just try to recall the words without using any memory aid. Participants are then asked to recall the nonsense syllables after one hour, one day, and one week. Which of the following research designs best describes this research?
Experiment
Dr. Hayes is studying people's memories. She had a group of randomly selected participants learn a list of dates related to historical events. Group 1 had to recall the dates without any cues, and Group 2 was given a one-word cue to help them with their recall of the dates. Dr. Hayes then asked the participants to rank how strongly they agreed with the following statement: How confident are you that you remembered the dates accurately? Participants were given a range of numbers to choose from to rank their level of agreement, from 1 meaning they were not confident at all to 5 meaning they were absolutely confident. Which of the following measurement tools was Dr. Hayes using in this study?
Likert scale
Dr. Barry conducted a study in which participants were put into a driving simulator that mimicked the experience of driving a car on the highway. Participants were split into three groups: The Silence condition, where participants drove in silence with no external distractions The Radio condition, where participants listened to the radio while driving and were told they would be asked questions about what they heard after The Cell Phone condition, where participants received text messages every 90 seconds and were told they would be asked questions about the messages after At random intervals during the driving time, participants would see obstacles they needed to avoid, and the simulator would record how long it took the participants to hit the brake. The results of the study are given in the figure:
Listening to the radio does impair a driver's responsiveness, but not as much as paying attention to a cell phone.
Mr. Flores is trying to convince his students that there are more effective ways to study. He has his students use two different strategies to remember a list of 20 random words over two consecutive weeks. During week one, the students repeat the words 5 times, and during week two, they create an analogy for each word based on its definition. The results of the study were posted on his classroom door as proof of how students should study.
Long term memory
A study was conducted to determine the power of a new chemical to increase the quality of olfactory sensations in humans. Participants were asked to rate the quality of a chocolate bar, before and after inhaling the chemical on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning low quality and 10 meaning high quality. Analysis of the data showed that the difference in perceived quality of the chocolate bar before and after exposure to the chemical was statistically significant.
Make sure the chemical does not affect the participants' olfactory systems long-term.
Mr. Flores is trying to convince his students that there are more effective ways to study. He has his students use two different strategies to remember a list of 20 random words over two consecutive weeks. During week one, the students repeat the words 5 times, and during week two, they create an analogy for each word based on its definition. The results of the study were posted on his classroom door as proof of how students should study.
Mr. Flores should have kept the students' results anonymous.
Dr. Copeland is interested in studying how diet impacts the nervous system activity of professional dancers. She randomly assigns a group of professional ballet dancers to either a protein-rich diet or a carbohydrate-rich diet. After three weeks on each food plan, she measures the function of specific parts of the brain and nervous systems while they are dancing.
Parasympathetic nervous system
Ms. Harrison asks students in her psychology class to record how many hours of sleep they get every night and what they eat for breakfast. When the class looks at the data, they find that the fewer hours of sleep they get, the more they eat for breakfast. Which of the following is a limitation of self-report research?
Self-report data is subject to the social desirability bias
A survey shows that children who have encyclopedias in their home environment earn better grades in school than children whose homes lack encyclopedias. The researcher concludes that having encyclopedias in the home environment improves grades. Which of the following explains why the researcher has reached an erroneous conclusion?
She inferred causation from correlation.
