psych midterm
The endocrine system consists of:
glands
As the airplane descended for a landing, the pilot saw several beautiful islands that appeared to float in a vast expanse of blue ocean water. In this instance, the ocean is a:
ground
Loudness is to pitch as brightness is to:
hue
Surgical destruction of brain tissue is called a(n):
hypothalamus
Two individuals are most likely to share similar personality traits if they are ________ twins who were reared ________.
identical: together
The monocular depth cue in which an object blocking another object is perceived as closer is:
interposition
Which of the following cues do artists use to convey depth on a flat canvas?
interposition
The amount of light entering the eye is regulated by the:
iris
The perceptual tendency to fill in gaps in order to perceive disconnected parts as a whole object is called
closure
neural networks refer to
functionally interconnected clusters of neurons in the central nervous system
Of the four distinct skin senses, specialized receptor cells have been identified for the sense of:
pressure
The sense of touch includes the four basic sensations of:
pressure, pain, warmth, and cold.
The experience of auditory hallucinations by people with schizophrenia is most closely linked with the activation of areas in their:
temporal lobes
The organizational principles identified by Gestalt psychologists best illustrate the importance of:
top down processing
The sensory cortex is most critical for our sense of:
touch
The local fire department sounds the 12 o'clock whistle. The process by which your ears convert the sound waves from the siren into neural impulses is an example of:
transduction
Mr. and Mrs. Klostreich have six children aged 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, and 16. The mean age of the Klostreich children is
8
During the past year, Zara and Ivan each read 2 books, but George read 9, Ali read 12, and Marsha read 25. The median number of books read by these individuals was:
9
The best way to detect enlarged fluid-filled brain regions in some patients who have schizophrenia is to use a(n):
MRI
Identical twins originate from the fertilization of ________ egg cell(s) by ________ sperm cell(s).
a single; a single
During a hearing test, many sounds were presented at such a low level of intensity that Mr. Antall could hardly ever detect them. These sounds were below Mr. Antall's:
absolute threshold
Taste receptors are located: a. on the roof of the mouth. b. on the sides of the tongue. c. in all of the above places :d. on the top of the tongue
all of the above
Your sensitivity to taste will decline if you: a. consume large amounts of alcohol. b. do any of the above c. grow older. d. smoke heavily.
any of the above
If images of distant objects are typically focused at a point in front of the retina, a person will:
be nearsighted
The central nervous system consists of:
brain and spinal cord
The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem is called the:
cerebellum
Your conscious awareness of your own name and self-identity depends primarily on the normal functioning of your:
cerebral cortex
Although a few keys on the piano were broken, Shana couldn't prevent herself from mentally filling in the missing notes of the familiar melodies. This best illustrates the principle of:
closure
As a rock musician who has experienced prolonged exposure to high-amplitude music, Rodney is beginning to lose his hearing. It is most likely that this hearing loss involves problems in the:
cochlea
Which of the following is a binocular cue for the perception of distance?
convergence
An undersupply of serotonin is most closely linked to:
depression
Hormones are the chemical messengers of the:
endocrine system
José has just played a long, bruising football game but feels little fatigue or discomfort. His lack of pain is most likely caused by the release of
endorphins
Opiate drugs occupy the same receptor sites as:
endorphins
Neurosurgeons have severed the corpus callosum in human patients in order to reduce:
epileptic seizures
Because several rods share a single bipolar cell, rods are less sensitive to ________ than are cones
fine detail
The cochlea is a:
fluid-filled tube in which sound waves trigger nerve impulses
The motor cortex is located in the ________ lobes.
frontal
Jody's horse looks just as black in the brilliant sunlight as it does in the dim light of the stable. This illustrates what is known as
lightness constancy
As the farmer looked across her field, the parallel rows of young corn plants appeared to converge in the distance. This provided her with a distance cue known as:
linear perspective
A time lag between left and right auditory stimulation is important for accurately:
locating sounds
Cocking your head would be most useful for detecting the ______ of a sound.
location
The barn owl's right ear opens slightly upward while its left ear opens slightly downward. This asymmetry is most useful for enabling the owl to detect the ________ of a sound.
location
Many hard-of-hearing people like sound compressed because they are still sensitive to ___
loud
The vibrations of the eardrum are amplified by three tiny bones located in the:
middle ear
The constant quivering movements of our eyes are necessary in order to:
minimize sensory adaptation
Information is carried from the central nervous system to the body's tissues by:
motor neurons
Damage to the basilar membrane is most likely to result in:
nerve deafness
Genes are composed of:
nucleotides
Which of the following would play a role in quickly alerting you to a gas leak in your home?
olfactory receptors
the ability to simultaneously process the pitch, loudness, melody, and meaning of a song best illustrates
parallel processing
The human ability to outperform computers in speedily recognizing familiar objects best illustrates the value of:
parallel processing.
Because Carmella, Jorge, and Gail were all sitting behind the same bowling lane, Ruth perceived that they were all members of the same bowling team. This best illustrates the organizational principle of:
proximity
The function of dendrites is to
receive incoming signals from other neurons
Humans experience the longest visible electromagnetic waves as the color ________ and the shortest visible waves as ________.
red; blue-violet
A simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus is called a:
reflex
Hair cells are to audition as ________ are to vision.
rods and cones
Which cells are located closest to the back of the retina? a. feature detectors
rods and cones
A bank teller was so distracted by the sight of a bank robber's weapon that she failed to perceive important features of the criminal's physical appearance. This best illustrates:
selective attention
Which of the following play the biggest role in our feeling dizzy and unbalanced after a thrilling roller coaster ride?
semicircular canals
After listening to your high-volume car stereo for 15 minutes, you fail to realize how loudly the music is blasting. This best illustrates:
sensory adaptation
Which theory would suggest that watching a horror movie late at night could lower your absolute threshold for sound as you subsequently tried to fall asleep?
signal detection theory
Because the two teams wore different-colored uniforms, Cheri perceived the ten basketball players as two distinct groups. This best illustrates the principle of:
similarity
Which of the following senses is best described as a chemical sense?
smell
News about the supposed effects of briefly presented messages on moviegoers' consumption of popcorn and Coca-Cola involved false claims regarding:
subliminal stimuation
Sir Charles Sherrington observed that impulses took more time to travel a neural pathway than he might have anticipated. His observation provided evidence for the existence of:
synaptic gaps
The sequentially flashing Christmas tree lights appeared to generate pulsating waves of motion. This best illustrates:
the phi phenomenon
The minimum level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse is called the:
threshold
When there is a conflict between bits of information received by two or more senses, which sense tends to dominate the others?
vision
The feature detectors identified by Hubel and Weisel respond to specific aspects of ____
visual
The surgical removal of a large tumor from Dane's occipital lobe resulted in extensive loss of brain tissue. Dane is most likely to suffer some loss of:
visual preception
Giulio's bag of marbles is twice as heavy as Jim's. If it takes 5 extra marbles to make Jim's bag feel heavier, it will take 10 extra marbles to make Giulio's bag feel heavier. This best illustrates:
weber's law
Evidence that some cones are especially sensitive to red light, others to green light, and still others to blue light is most directly supportive of the ________ theory.
young helmholtz
The somatic nervous system is a component of the ________ nervous system.
peripheral
Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the weakest degree of relationship between two variables?
-.12
Which of the following is the strongest correlation?
-.90
Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable?
. Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment
On a test, the mean score for a class of 100 students is 80 and the standard deviation of the scores is 10. The professor who gave the test then realizes that she made a scoring error, which she corrects by adding 5 points to each student's score. The standard deviation of the student's new scores is
10
In a group of five individuals, two report annual incomes of $10,000, and the other three report incomes of $14,000, $15,000, and $31,000, respectively. The mode of this group's distribution of annual incomes is:
10,000
During the last Central High School basketball game, the starting five players scored 11, 7, 21, 14, and 7 points, respectively. For this distribution of scores, the range is:
14
Researchers have found a negative correlation between income and dental problems. What conclusion can correctly be drawn from this statement?
As income increases, the likelihood of dental problems decreases.
The two major divisions of the nervous system are the central and the ________ nervous systems.
peripheral
Which of the following results of correlational studies implies that environment contributes to the determination of IQ?
Correlations for children and their adoptive parents are statistically significant and positive
An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the surface of the brain is called a(n):
EEG
In a normal distribution, which of the following statements is true about the area that falls between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean?
It contains the middle 68% of the distribution
In order to identify which of Lucy's brain areas was most active when she talked, neuroscientists gave her a temporarily radioactive form of glucose and a(n): Selected:
PET scan
To identify which specific brain areas are most active during a particular mental task, researchers would be most likely to make use of a(n):
PET scan
All of the following are American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for researchers EXCEPT:
Participants must be offered alternative activities if research participation is a course requirement.
An instructor conducted an experiment to determine the effects of two different methods of study on the amount students learned in introductory physics. The results showed that the average amount learned by the group using one method was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Which of the following is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn?
There is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occurred by chance
Which of the following best describes the response of members of the American Psychological Association to ethical issues in research?
They have developed codes of ethics for research with both human participants and animal subjects.
Alzheimer's disease is most closely linked to the loss of neurons that produce:
acetylcholine
Botulin poisoning from improperly canned food causes paralysis by blocking the release of:
acetylcholine
A drug that mimics the effects of a particular neurotransmitter or blocks its reuptake is called a(n):
agonist
Increasing excitatory signals above the threshold for neural activation will not affect the intensity of an action potential. This indicates that a neuron's reaction is:
all or none response
To demonstrate that brain stimulation can make a rat violently aggressive, a neuroscientist should electrically stimulate the rat's
amygdala
The perception that seemingly infertile couples who adopt a child are subsequently more likely to conceive a child themselves best illustrates:
an illusory correlation
The personalities of adopted children: Selected:
are not very similar to the personalities of their adoptive parents.
The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls glandular activity and the muscles of internal organs is called the:
autonomic nervous system
If the correlation between the physical weight and reading ability of elementary school students is +.85, this would indicate that:
better reading ability is associated with greater physical weight among elementary school students.
Endocrine glands secrete hormones directly into:
bloodstream
The reticular formation is located in the:
brainstem
The part of the cerebral cortex that directs the muscle movements involved in speech is known as
broca's area
A person displays a set of rare behaviors that psychologists had not known about previously, because nobody had ever shown them before. The best strategy to investigate the nature of those behaviors is
case study
In order to study the effects of loud noise on worker productivity, Dr. McDuffee had one group of research participants work in a noisy room and a second group work in a quiet room. Those who worked in the quiet room were exposed to the ________ condition.
control
Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and the strength of a relationship between two variables?
correlation coefficient
If those who watch a lot of TV violence are also particularly likely to behave aggressively, this would not necessarily indicate that watching TV violence influences aggressive behavior because:
correlation does not prove causation
A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which changes in one factor are accompanied by changes in another is called a(n):
correlational coefficient
In order to determine whether the strength of people's self-esteem is related to their income levels, researchers would most likely make use of:
correlational research
In transmitting sensory information to the brain, an electrical signal within a single neuron travels from the:
dendrites to the cell body to the axon
Schizophrenia is most closely linked with excess receptor activity for the neurotransmitter
dopamine
A statistically significant difference between two sample groups is not likely to be:
due to chance variation within and between and the sample group
Jason's painful withdrawal symptoms following heroin use were probably due in part to a reduction in his body's normal production of:
endorphins
In a research study, informed consent is a concern of
ethics
Which of the following research approaches would be best for testing the hypothesis that the presence of certain odors causes people to gamble more?
experimental
The American Psychological Association and British Psychological Society have developed ethical principles urging investigators to:
explain the research to the participants after the study has been completed
Dopamine injections have proven ineffective in the treatment of Parkinson's disease because dopamine:
fails to pass through the bloodstream into the brain.
Seven members of a boys' club reported the following individual earnings from their sale of cookies: $2, $9, $8, $10, $4, $9, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings, the median is ________ the mean and ________ the mode
greater than; less than
In an experimental study of the effects of anxiety on self-esteem, anxiety would be the ________ variable.
independent
Which of the following is a statistical approach concerned with forming conclusions about the effect of the independent variable on variations in the dependent variable?
inferential
A sample average can be used to estimate a population average with greater precision if the sample is
large
An action potential is generated by the movement of:
lions
Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research
may reveal a casual relationship
Which measure of central tendency is used to calculate your grade-point average?
mean
A slap on the back is more painful than a pat on the back because a slap triggers
more frequent neural impulses.
If a genetically based attraction to beautiful people contributes to survival, that trait will likely be passed on to subsequent generations. This best illustrates:
natural selection
Professor Ober carefully monitors and records the behaviors of children in their classrooms in order to track the development of their social and intellectual skills. Professor Ober is most clearly engaged in:
naturalistic observation
If the points on a scatterplot are clustered in a pattern that extends from the upper left to the lower right, this would suggest that the two variables depicted are:
negatively correlated
The chemical messengers released into the spatial junctions between neurons are called
neurotransmitters
The process of replication is most likely to be facilitated by:
operational definitions
Migraine headaches are most closely linked with an _______ of _______.
oversupply; glutamate
After discovering that the shadows outside his window were only the trees in the yard, Ralph's blood pressure decreased and his heartbeat slowed. These physical reactions were most directly regulated by his:
parasympathetic nervous system
Which lobes of the brain receive the input that enables you to feel someone scratching your back?
parietal
At the age of 22, Mrs. LaBlanc was less than 4 feet tall. Her short stature was probably influenced by the lack of a growth hormone produced by the:
pituitary gland
The master gland of the endocrine system is the
pituitary gland
An inert substance that may be administered instead of a drug to see if it produces any of the same effects as the drug is called a
placebo
In a study of the effects of alcohol consumption, some participants drank a nonalcoholic beverage that actually smelled and tasted like alcohol. This nonalcoholic drink was a:
placebo
After Kato's serious motorcycle accident, doctors detected damage to his cerebellum. Kato is most likely to have difficulty
playing his guitar
In order to learn about the TV viewing habits of all the children attending Oakbridge School, Professor DeVries randomly selected and interviewed 50 of the school's students. In this instance, all the children attending the school are considered to be a(n):
population
Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?
precise operational definitions
Which of the following is used to reduce the effects of confounding variables in experiments
random assignments
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is the:
range
If students get approximately the same score on the second administration of a test as they did on the first, then the test is
reliable
A researcher interested in finding a simple way to estimate intelligence decides to evaluate skull circumference as a possible indicator of intelligence. He finds that the size of an adult's skull remains the same from one measurement to the next, but he finds that skull circumference is not a very good predictor of intelligence. In this example, skull circumference as a measure of intelligence is
reliable but not valid
The home environment most clearly has a greater influence on children's ________ than on their ________.
religious beliefs; personality traits
Professor Saxton was very skeptical about the findings of a recently reported experiment on the effects of sleep deprivation. Which process would best enable her to assess the reliability of these findings?
replication
In order to represent graphically the correlation between two variables, researchers often construct:
scatter plot
The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a
scatter plot
Standard deviation is a measure of how much
scores in a group differ from the mean of that group
In order for you to experience the pain of a sprained ankle, ________ must first relay messages from your ankle to your central nervous system.
sensory neurons
Psychologists study animals because:
similar processes often underlie animal and human behavior
Damage to the left cerebral hemisphere is most likely to reduce a person's ability to:
solve arithmetic problems
Evelyn wants to know how consistent her bowling scores have been during the past season. Which of the following measures would be most relevant to this specific concern?
standard deviation
You come home one night to find a burglar in your house. Your heart starts racing and you begin to perspire. These physical reactions are triggered by the
sympathetic nervous system
Auditory stimulation is first processed in the ________ lobes.
temporal
The ability to recognize familiar faces is disturbed by damage to the right ________ lobe.
temporal
Wernicke's area is typically located in the left ________ lobe.
temporal
The brain's electrical oscillations, which slow during sleep, are coordinated by the:
thalamus
Which brain structure receives information from all the senses except smell?
thalamus
After a severe automobile accident, Louis lost his ability to read, even though he could see well, speak fluently, and understand whatever others said. It is likely that his cortex was damaged in:
the angular gyrus
Both the researchers and the participants in a drug-evaluation study are ignorant about which participants have actually received an experimental drug and which have received a placebo. This investigation involves the use of:
the double blind procedure
Which of the following methods is most helpful for revealing cause-effect relationships?
the experiment
If psychologists discovered that intelligent parents have smarter children than unintelligent parents, this would demonstrate that:
the intelligence of parents and children is positively correlated
Illusory correlation refers to:
the perception of a relationship between two variables that does not actually exist.
Heritability refers to the extent to which:
trait differences among individuals are attributable to genetic variations.
The corpus callosum is a wide band of neural fibers that:
transmits information between the cerebral hemispheres.
After Paul's serious snow-skiing accident, doctors detected damage to his cerebral cortex in Wernicke's area. Because of the damage, Paul is most likely to experience difficulty in:
understanding what others are saying
Participants in an experiment are said to be "blind" if they are uninformed about:
which experimental treatment, if any, they are receiving
Surveys indicate that people are much less likely to support "welfare" than "aid to the needy." These somewhat paradoxical survey results best illustrate the importance of: Selected:
wording effect
