psych practice quiz 1

Braden is a strict vegetarian. He is always on the alert in case a meal he eats at a restaurant might contain some meat. Last night he became convinced that a dish contained meat even when it did not. Which alternative best expresses this example in signal detection terms?

Braden has an extreme response bias, yielding many false alarms.

Among American college students, Dr. Figueredo finds that problem-solving success increases participants' self-esteem scores. His colleague, Dr. Guo, finds the same result among a sample of Chinese students in Hong Kong. Based on this information, which of the following statements is most accurate?

Dr. Guo performed a replication. His results support the external validity of Dr. Figueredo's research.

Regarding the spinal cord's control of behavior, which of the following is true?

The spinal cord can control some simple reflexes without the brain's help.

To test someone's hearing, an audiologist plays a variety of tones to identify the faintest tone that someone can hear with 50 percent accuracy. This kind of test assesses a person's ________ threshold.

absolute

When Zoey puts on a new sweater first thing in the morning, she can't stop thinking about how itchy it feels, but by the end of the day, she doesn't even notice the itchiness anymore. What is this an example of?

adaptation

The difference between the image of a scene received by the right eye and that received by the left eye can serve as a depth cue termed

binocular disparity

Which part of your ear is responsible for the popping sensation that accompanies change in air pressure, such as those experienced when flying in a plane or diving deep underwater?

eardrum

The use of ________ differentiates psychological science from pseudoscience.

empirical evidence

Compare your forearm, hand, and fingers to a neuron where the action potential moves toward your shoulder. In such an analogy, the dendrites would be your:

fingers

In his study on self-esteem and social media, Chris believes that people with lower levels of self-esteem will post less frequently on social media. What does Chris's belief represent?

hypothesis

which of the following is the best example of naturalistic observation?

inconspicuously monitoring peoples behaviors during a party

Professors Chase and Sanborn are conducting an experiment on the effects of caffeine on memory. Participants are randomly assigned to a caffeine or a no-caffeine group and their recall of items on a word list is later assessed. Which pair correctly identifies a variable in this experiment?

independent variable; caffeine

The amygdala is to emotion as the hippocampus is to:

memory

Bryan decides to start running a half-marathon. He moves his feet and swings his arms as he starts to go faster and faster. Which neuron type is most likely responsible for his running actions?

motor neurons

Dr. Quinones studies the achievement motivation of junior high-school students. He asserts that such motivation mainly reflects the parenting and educational practices the students have experienced. This statement is most directly related to the _____ question; Dr. Quinones' position is toward the _____ end of the continuum.

nature vs. nurture; nurture

Examine her data. Nikki observes that as a job stress scores increase, marital satisfaction scores decrease. That is, there is a ____ relationship between job stress and marital satisfaction in Nikki's data.

negative

Left-handers appear to excel in abilities associated with the _______ hemisphere in the brain, illustrating the principle of ________ control

right; contralateral

Dr. Anderson studies how we change our behavior to match that of other people. Dr. Anderson is best described as a _____ psychologist.

social

Glenn sees certain shapes in his mind when he listens to music. For instance, horns and trumpets sound triangular to him. Glenn's example illustrates _________.

synesthesia

After getting hit on the side of the head with a football, Nicola is having trouble hearing. He did not previously have any problems with his hearing. Based on this information, he most likely sustained damage to which part of his brain?

temporal lobe

Andrea is reading a general, comprehensive explanation of the causes of human aggression in the introduction to a research report in psychology. Andrea is reading a(n):

theory