Psych Midterm Studying
An individual typically possesses _______ allele(s) for each gene.
2
What is an example of habituation?
A baby glances at a familiar stuffed animal, then stares at a new one.
A 70-year-old woman who is given a touch-screen tablet becomes hopelessly frustrated when she tries to use it. Which of the following best explains her lack of success?
A decline in fluid intelligence keeps her from reasoning abstractly when confronted with an unfamiliar object.
What is the primary difference between a hypothesis and a theory?
A theory is a collection of data based hypoteses
Behaviorist who thought that the study of mental events wasn't psychology
B.F. Skinner
Schizophrenia most often presents itself at what age
Early adulthood, when people begin to face the world on their own.
Studied how dogs and cats escape puzzle boxes
Edward Thorndike
_______ is best suited to monitoring the activation of synapses.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Which theory outlines a series of stages that occur throughout the lifespan and involve tension between conflicting ways of interacting with others?
Erikson's psychosocial theory
On an empathy questionnaire, Group 1 had a mean score of 117 with a standard deviation of 14. Group 2 had a mean score of 96 with a standard deviation of 23. Therefore, _______ scored higher on average and their scores were _______ spread out than scores from _______.
Group 1; less; Group 2
Which of the following is a myth of psychology?
Heritable traits cannot be altered by experience
How is natural selection related to psychology?
Humans behave as they do in part because that behavior promotes survival.
What is an example of a valid gene-environment interaction on behavior?
Identical twins adopted by different families often display behaviors typical of their adoptive families.
What is the key difference between twin studies and adoption studies?
In adoption studies, twins are separated at birth, adopted, and raised apart.
When the U.S. Supreme Court was deliberating on whether to require schools to integrate black children and white children, their decision to strike down laws permitting segregated schools was greatly influenced by the "Doll Test," conducted by
Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark
The effects of PKU are epigenetic because
PKU is harmful only if a child ingests significant amounts of phenylalanine.
The procedure by which researchers test whether a child has developed a theory of mind is called the
Sally and Anne test
What is a conclusion from twin studies of schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is more likely to materialize in a twin who experiences extreme stress.
What state was featured in the video on healthy aging?
Utah
The year 1879 might be thought of as the beginning of psychology as a science because that is the year
Wilhelm Wundt developed and opened the first psychology laboratory.
A research team was investigating the impact of stereotypes on performance. In one group, women read a magazine article about why the structure of men's brains makes them better at math. In the second group, women read a magazine article saying there are no biological differences in the mathematical abilities of men and women. All women in the study then took a challenging math test. Researchers scored the number of items women answered correctly. In this study, which of the following was the dependent variable?
Women's scores on the math test
To which pair of siblings would the term "dizygotic" apply?
a brother and sister born at the same time
Which of the following constitutes a gene?
a length of DNA
A professor wanted to learn more about the body image concerns of young teenage girls. She randomly selected 200 girls from local middle schools to complete her questionnaire. These girls were
a representative sample
Which neurotransmitter would you be most likely to find in the synaptic cleft between a motor neuron and a muscle?
acetylcholine
What is the term for a condition in which someone that was previously able to read loses that ability?
alexia
Your uncle tells you about an interesting magazine article explaining that humans use only 10 percent of their brains. As a student of psychology, your response should be:
almost all the brain is continuously active
Gerard's mother has noticed that he becomes very upset when she leaves for work in the morning. When she gets home, he is resistant to her attempts to bond with him. Gerard is displaying
ambivalent attachment
To prove that electrical stimulation can produce intense feelings of anxiety, the mad scientist would stimulate his victim's
amygdala
A neuron with _______ would be expected to have the slowest-moving action potential.
an unmyelinated, thin axon
When a child learns new information about the world that fits with her schema, it is called _______. When a child learns new information that requires her to change her schema, it is called _______.
assimilation; accommodation
A neuron's _______ meets another neuron's dendrite at a(n)_______.
axon; synapse
functionalism
belief that mental processes must serve a practical, adaptive purpose
_______ cues to depth are dependent on information from both eyes.
binocular
In the biopsychological approach to psychology, hormonal influences are part of the ____ influences while family expectations are part of the _____ influences.
biological; social-cultural
Computed tomography (CT) scans show
brain structures but not areas of brain activity.
structuralism
breaks down the human mind into simplest types of experience and how they come together to make complex experiences
The hallmarks of psychology as a science are
careful experimentation and the application of critical thinking.
According to the Freakonomics video, why did people believe that ice cream caused polio?
cases of polio increased in the summer and so did ice cream sales
Neurotransmitters influence the polarization of a neuron by
causing receptor channels to open, allowing positively charged sodium ions to flow into the neuron.
Which part of the brain plays the greatest role in controlling higher mental functions?
cerebrum
The term "plasticity" is used to describe the human brain as
changeable
After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Kaela had her thyroid removed. The effects of this are likely to include
changes in metabolism
Which age group has the most plastic brains?
children
Each of our _______ consists of tightly coiled DNA.
chromosomes
What is the term in psychology for simultaneously holding two views that are at odds with each other?
cognitive dissonance
What is the therm in psychology for simultaneously holding two views that are at odds with each other?
cognitive dissonance
sensory input->participant processing information->report, press button, etc.
cognitive psychology
Walker and Lewine's observations of twin babies who later became discordant for schizophrenia revealed that the twin who developed schizophrenia
commonly showed more disorganized behavior
A doctor needs a brain imaging technique that shows brain structure but not brain function. Which technique should the doctor choose?
computed tomography
Twins who share a certain physical or behavioral trait are _______ for that trait.
concordant
The photoreceptors we need to appreciate a blue sky on a sunny day are the _______, whereas the photoreceptors we use to detect the stars outside at night are the _______.
cones; rods
Cases of spurious correlations are typically explained in terms of _______ variables that are _______ two correlated variables.
confounding; affecting
Piaget's theory of development has been referred to as _______ because in his view, children adapt to the world by actively building and organizing their experiences.
constructivism
An unethical experimenter wants to test the relationship between discomfort and aggression. On a hot day, she turns off the air conditioning in one dorm and leaves it on in another, then has her research assistants count occurrences of verbal aggression in common areas of the buildings. Students in the air-conditioned dorm would be the _______, and students in the overheated dorm would be the _______.
control group; experimental group
Ivan Pavlov
described classical conditioning
Dr. McGaugh, of UCI, studied Jill Price, a woman with an amazing memory. He found that she could accurately remember every day of her life since she was about twelve years old. Which type of research method was he using in this study?
descriptive
Before the mechanisms behind PKU were known to science, infants that inherited the genes for the disorder almost always
developed mental impairments
During neural development, the nervous system generates more cells than it ultimately needs. Over half of the extra cells
die through a natural process before birth
Twins who do not share 100 percent of their genes are called
dizygotic
In the experiment with dull and bright rats, Cooper and Zubek demonstrated a gene—environment interaction by showing that when navigating the maze
dull rats raised in enriched environments eventually performed as well as bright rats.
Preoperational children are often described as _______ because they do not understand that different people can have different points of view.
egocentric
After a skydiving accident, an MRI showed damage to Rose's cerebellum. She is most likely to have difficulty with
exercise
Which approach would be most appropriate for testing the hypothesis that taking practice tests improves learning more than studying alone does?
experimental research
Parents who agree with John Locke's notion of tabula rasa would most likely
expose their children to a rich variety of sensory experiences
In terms of which genes cells use to make particular proteins, differences among cells are due to differences in gene
expression
Gestalt psychologists such as Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler
focuses on how people think, remember, store, and use information.
The sensory receptors in your skin that are specialized to report information about changes in temperature are the
free nerve endings
The motor cortex is located in the _______ lobe of the brain.
frontal
A researcher plans to study changes in patients' brain activity as Alzheimer's disease progresses by detecting changes in blood flow and oxygen content. The appropriate brain imaging technique to use is
functional magnetic resonance imaging
A researcher would most likely use _______ to investigate which brain areas are active during speech?
functional magnetic resonance imaging
Which of the following perspectives argues that human behavior develops in certain ways because it serves a useful purpose?
functionalism
The process by which a cell directs a gene to make a certain protein is called
gene expression
_______ play the greatest role in regulating the strength of the connection between two neurons.
glial cells
In the final stages of synaptogenesis, neurons
grow dendrites and axons
Dizygotic twins
grow from separate zygotes
Which factor is most closely associated with the eventual onset of schizophrenia?
growing up in a big city
A group of researchers is most likely to conduct a meta-analysis if an experiment has
had widely replicated results and has undergone extensive variation
The receptor cells that are specialized to detect vibrations along the cochlear membrane are called
hair cells
According to René Descartes, the very fact that he is thinking proves that
he exists
cognitive psychology focuses on
how people think, remember, store, and use information.
One of the most pervasive psychological myths is that
humans only use ten percent of their brains
Inhibitory synapses
hyper polarize neurons
Which single gene effect do men display more often than women?
inability to distinguish red from green
Xander has taken a medication that is an endorphin antagonist. Which side effect is most likely?
increased pain sensitivity
In experimental research, which of the following variables is controlled by the researcher?
independent
Which type of neuron is most common in the brain?
interneuron
A researcher presents his participant with a series of flashing lights at varying intervals. After each presentation of a light, he asks the participant to fully describe her internal experiences, a method known as
introspection
When administered to subjects in an experiment, a placebo is a treatment that
is believed to be free of medical effects
A scientist has inserted an electrode into the frontal lobe of a monkey. Electrical stimulation would most likely cause the monkey to
kick
The action potential of a neuron is best compared to
liquid starting to spill over the rim of a cup when just enough force is applied.
A correlation of −0.80 between meditation and anxiety symptoms would indicate
meditation predicts lower levels of anxiety
The hippocampus plays the most significant role in
memory
Which is the correct order of measures of central tendency, from lowest to highest, for a positively skewed distribution
mode, median, mean
Because neurons are full of proteins that tend to be _______ charged, they tend to attract _______ charged ions.
negatively; positively
Neural development begins with rapid division of nerve cells in a process called
neurogenesis
The study of the nervous system is called
neuroscience
A _______ is most likely to study the brain activities that underlie human behavior.
neuroscientist
A patient has a dangerously low heart rate and is having difficulty breathing. The neurotransmitter that would be most helpful to him is
norepinephrine
Lila is 18 months old and is no longer surprised when her mother hides her ball, only to reveal it again in a different position in front of her. What cognitive milestone is Lila displaying?
object permanence
After her stroke, Mei was able to hear, smell, and taste normally. However, she had difficulty with her vision. She most likely experienced damage to her
occipital lobe
The olfactory system routes information directly to the _______ of the brain.
olfactory bulb
Which is true of twins who are discordant for a certain trait?
one of them has the trait and the other does not
In a typical controlled experiment designed to test the effects of a new drug, _______ will be administered to the _______ group.
only the placebo; control
The _______ theory of color vision is the idea that color vision is based on a system of paired opposites of color.
opponent-process
Tiny bones called _______ transmit vibrations to the inner ear.
ossicles
One reason dysfunctional alleles can have such specific effects on the workings of our sensory systems is that
our sensory systems rely on the functioning of more than one protein.
Endorphins have the most significant impact on
pain
The main function of nociceptors is to sense
pain
Gestalt psychology
perception is more than a sum of parts
The term for the brain's ability to reorganize its resources is
plasticity
A technique that tracks blood flow to measure brain activity is
positron emission tomography
Following a head injury, Maria experienced a dramatic personality change. She now gambles heavily, swears and yells at work, and has difficulty planning ahead. She most likely experienced damage to her
prefrontal cortex
Individuals with Huntington's disease possess an allele that causes severe symptoms by
producing certain abnormal proteins
The study of how physical events, such as lights and sounds, affect our senses is called
psychophysics
Positron emission tomography (PET) uses _______ to show how the brain works.
radioactive markers
Kohlberg constructed his theory of moral reasoning by asking people to decide how a fictional character, Heinz, should respond to a moral dilemma. Kohlberg was most interested in the
reasoning by which people reached their decisions
A _______ is the region of space where stimuli affect the activity of a cell in a sensory system.
receptive field
In Plato's cave allegory, a prisoner was temporarily unchained and allowed to see the fire at the mouth of the cave. When he returned to the chains, the other prisoners
refused to believe him
In order for our visual system to work properly, the lens must focus light onto the
retina
Two reflexes that help an infant receive nourishment are the _______ reflex, or the turning of the head in response to a brush of the cheek, and the _______ reflex, primarily for intake of breast milk.
rooting; sucking
Detection of the sound of a bell ringing is referred to as a _______. Once you interpret the stimulus as the sound of your alarm clock, it is referred to as a _______.
sensation; perception
Vision researchers have shown that a person will fail to develop visual perception abilities if light does not stimulate the eye early in development. This is evidence of _______ during development.
sensitive periods
The area of the brain that allows us to feel a breeze against our skin is the
sensory cortex
Vision and hearing are different
sensory modalities
what type of research was Booee first used in?
sign language
dopamine is most directly involved in
signaling pleasure
Which confounding variable is teased out when psychologists study the traits of identical twins?
similar environments shared by relatives
Which statement reflects a reasonable attitude for a good student of psychology to have toward any claim about human behavior?
skepticism is advisable until an idea is proven right
The peripheral nervous system is divided into the _______ nervous system and the _______ nervous system.
somatic; autonomic
Genes regulate protein synthesis by
specifying which amino acids will be joined together, and in what order..
What is an example of a measure of central tendency?
standard deviation
At about eight months of age, as a part of normal attachment development, infants begin to show
stranger anxiety
Which of the following approaches to psychology did Edward Titchener advocate in the late 1800s?
structuralism
A news organization wanted to predict who would win the next U.S. presidential election. They sent an opinion poll to every fiftieth person on a list of students enrolled at a nearby college. Which of the following is the study population?
students at the college
To identify the most popular exhibits at a science museum, visitors were asked every day for six weeks to rate how much they enjoyed each exhibit. The data were analyzed to look for age and sex differences in exhibit preferences. This was an example of
survey research
Thinning of the top layer of the cortex in adolescence is a good indicator of the neurodevelopmental process called
synapse rearrangement
Neuron's don't actually touch each other. They are separated by the
synaptic gap
The idea that children are born with no knowledge or "content" whatsoever and are "filled" by life experiences is called
tabula rasa
Any substance that can potentially harm the fetus during birth is called a
teratogen
The term for an agent that causes birth defects is
teratogen
behaviorism
the belief that psychologists should only study observable behaviors
Alzheimer's disease is dementia that is characterized by
the build-up of amyloid in and outside of acetylcholine neurons.
Why are dominant, yet harmful, alleles like the huntingtin gene so rare in our genomes?
the carrier doesn't survive long enough to pass it on
A child finds a five-dollar bill beside her teacher's desk. Which scenario describes the application of preconventional moral reasoning?
the child acts out of fear of getting in trouble
Heritability estimates tell us
the degree to which variations in a population can be attributed to genetics.
The sensation of a fly landing on your arm is weaker than the sensation of being hit with a dodgeball because
the dodgeball triggers more action potentials per second from each sensory neuron.
Epigenetics is the most concerned with
the expression of a particular gene as influenced by external inputs.
Twin studies of the heritability of schizophrenia show that
the heritability of schizophrenia is about 50 percent.
psychology is best defined as the study of
the mind and behavior
Which developmental milestone characterizes menarche?
the onset of menstruation
The part of the brain damaged in Gage's accident, which controls executive functions, is ___.
the prefrontal cortex
A psychological test designed to measure creativity is considered a reliable tool based on whether
the same subjects would score consistently over time
cognitive psychology
the study of how we acquire and process information and gain knowledge
In Schachter's affiliation experiment, what was the independent variable?
the subject's anxiety level
The estimated heritability of 48 percent for neuroticism in the population supports the claim that
the variability in neuroticism is due partly to genetic variability in the population.
The reason that we have blind spots in our visual fields is that
there are no photoreceptors on the optic disc
What is the role of vesicles?
they empty neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft
a good scientific hypothesis is
tied to observable phenomena
The ability of humans to see a variety of colors based on the combinations of three primary colors is
trichromatic vision
Plato's allegory of the cave indicates that
truths are not always obvious
Alda's brain showed the strongest reaction to items he rated as
uncool
The primary reason that confounding variables pose problems for researchers is because they tend to
vary along with one another
According to the social brain hypothesis, each of us can deal effectively with social interactions with roughly 150 people. This implies that
we are capable of maintaining social networks of up to 150 people throughout our lives.
The Tuskegee syphilis study raised serious concerns about ethical research because the researchers
withheld information from test subjects about their condition
Why was the woman able to discriminate between the two sounds, while the man was not?
women process speech in both hemispheres of the brain
Size constancy refers to
your perception that an object remains the same size, even as you get closer or farther away.