AP Psych chapter 5 test

A technique that enables a person to control physiological responses that are normally involuntary, such as level of blood pressure, is known as

biofeedback

In a research study, informed consent is a concern of

ethics

Which of the following studies has had the most profound impact on ethical issues in psychological research?

Stanley Milgram's study of obedience

The change in the curvature of the lens that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances is called

accommodation

In operant conditioning, the concept of contingency is exemplified by an "if A, then B" relationship in which A and B, respectively, represent

response, reinforcement

Learned helplessness is most likely to result when

responses have no effect on the environment

The tendency of most people to identify a three-sided figure as a triangle, even when one of its sides is incomplete, is the result of a perceptual process known as

closure

The coiled tube in the inner ear that contains the auditory receptors is called the

cochlea

The primary effect of the myelin sheath is to

increase the velocity of conduction of the action potential along the axon

A study can be regarded as scientific only if

its conclusions can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies

The result of the evolutionary process that preserves traits that enhance the adaptation of an organism and suppresses traits that do not is called

natural Selection

Introspection, a research tool used by early psychologists, is a technique which involves

self-examination of mental processes

Climbing an irregular set of stairs is more difficult for an individual who wears a patch over one eye primarily because

some depth perception is lost

The most common form of color blindness is related to deficiencies in the

red-green system

In order to yield information that is generalizable to the population from which it was drawn, a sample must be

representative of the population

Which of the following provides information regarding brain function by monitoring the brain at work through metabolism of glucose?

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Responses extinguish fastest when they are learned through which type of reinforcement schedule?

Continuous

Visual acuity is best in the

fovea

In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of subjects saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The control group in the experiment is the group that

watched the nonviolent cartoon

Assume that R represents a dominant gene in rats for normal running and that r represent a recessive gene in rats for an abnormal gait called waltzing. Mating a female Rr rat with a male RR rat will produce offspring that are

100% runners

Which of the following responses was most likely acquired through classical conditioning?

A child's fear of dogs after the child has been bitten by a dog

Which of the following accurately describes a major change in perspective in the field of developmental psychology over the past twenty-five years?

A shift from an emphasis on childhood and adolescence to an interest in development over the life span

Which of the following is the best example of shaping?

A teacher rewards a student for sitting quietly for ten minutes on Monday, fifteen minutes on Tuesday, twenty minutes on Wednesday, and thirty minutes on Thursday.

A double-blind control is essential for which of the following?

Assessment of a treatment designed to reduce schizophrenic symptoms

Photoreceptors relay visual information to the brain through which of the following cells?

Bipolar and ganglion

Which of the following allows the examination of living brain tissue visually without performing surgery?

Computerized axial tomography

Because studies of learning show that events occurring close together in time are easier to associate than those occurring at widely different times, parents should probably avoid which of the following?

Delay of punishment

Emiko's cat often meows for food. Emiko decides to eliminate the behavior by feeding the cat only when it does not meow. Over the next few weeks, she sometimes ignores the cat when it meows. Other times, she feeds the cat when it meows. Which of the following is the most reasonable prediction to make about the cat's meowing for food?

It will increase due to a variable schedule of reinforcement.

Which of the following is brain-imaging technique that produces the most detailed picture of brain structure?

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

In their discussions of the process of development, the advocates of nature in the nature-nurture controversy emphasize which of the following?

Maturation

Taking a painkiller to relieve a toothache is behavior learned through which of the following processes?

Negative reinforcement

Which of the following is a genetic disorder that results in a deficiency of a liver enzyme which, if not treated soon after birth, may eventually lead to profound mental retardation?

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

A person with sight in only one eye lacks which of the following visual cues for seeing in depth?

Retinal disparity

The terms "modeling" and "imitation" are most closely associated with which of the following?

Social learning theory

Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable?

Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment

For extinction to occur, which of the following must be true of the conditioned response (CR), the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) ?

The CS is repeatedly presented in the absence of the UCS, and the CR loses strength.

Neurotransmitters are typically stored in which of the following parts of a neuron?

The terminal buttons

The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's

absolute threshold

Which of the following is a partial reinforcement schedule that is most resistant to extinction?

Variable ratio

In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of subjects saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The dependent variable in the experiment is the

amount of aggressive behavior exhibited by the children

John B. Watson is best known as the founder of

behaviorism

When struck by light energy, cones and rods in the retina generate neural signals that then activate the

bipolar cells

The place in the retina where the optic nerve exits to the brain is called the

blind spot

In Ivan Pavlov's experiments in classical conditioning, the dog's salivation was

both an unconditioned and a conditioned response

Robert Rescorla's contingency model of classical conditioning states that

conditioning occurs only when one event reliably predicts another

The debate over whether development occurs gradually, without discernible shifts, or through a series of distinct stages is termed

continuity vs. discontinuity

In an experiment, which of the following variables refers to the outcome that is measured by the experimenter?

dependent

Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues have used the visual cliff to measure an infant's ability to perceive

depth

One major objection to the early Skinnerian approach to psychology is that it

did not take into account internal thoughts and feelings

In experimental psychology, a significant difference refers to a

difference not likely due to chance

A person is asked to listen to a series of tones presented in pairs, and asked to say whether the tones in each pair are the same or different in pitch. In this situation the experimenter is most likely measuring the individual's

difference threshold

Drawing a random sample of people from a town for an interview study of social attitudes ensures that

each person in the town has the same probability of being chosen for the study

An individual's fear of dogs that is lost as the individual is exposed to dogs in nonthreatening situations is referred to by behaviorists as a fear that has been

extinguished

The reversible figure above illustrates the Gestalt organizing principle of

figure-ground

The perceived pitch of a tone is largely determined by its

frequency

If Carmelita stares at a red spot for one minute and then shifts her gaze to a white piece of paper, she is likely to experience an afterimage that is

green

A child who learns that spoons are tableware and then correctly calls forks and knives tableware is demonstrating

imitation training

A survey shows that children who have encyclopedias in their homes earn better grades in school than children whose homes lack encyclopedias. The researcher concludes that having encyclopedias at home improves grades. This conclusion is erroneous primarily because the researcher has incorrectly

inferred causation from correlation

The hypothesis that intelligence is in part inherited is best supported by the fact that the IQ correlation for

pairs of identical twins is greater than for pairs of fraternal twins

The first area of psychology to be studied as a science is known as

psychophysics

Punishment is most effective in eliminating undesired behavior when the

punishment is delivered soon after the behavior

The most distinctive characteristic of the experimental method is that it

seeks to establish cause-effect relationships

The technique of strengthening behavior by reinforcing successive approximations is called

shaping

Studies of learning have shown that animals develop an aversion for tastes associated with

sickness

Individuals who believe that an unpleasant experience is unavoidable and therefore do nothing to change the course of events are exhibiting

the fight-or-flight response

After several trials during which a dog is given a certain kind of food at the same time that a specific tone is sounded, there is evidence of conditioning if the dog salivates when

the tone only is presented

People listening to rock music played backward often perceive an evil message if specifically told what to listen for. That phenomenon best illustrates

top-down processing

The general function of the bones in the middle ear is to

transfer sound information from the tympanic membrane to the oval window