AP psych final

In high school, it did not seem to make a difference how much Clive studied Spanish; he always earned poor grades. Now that Clive is in college, he is required to take Spanish again. According to the concept of learned helplessness, which of the following statements can be most expected from Clive as he starts the new Spanish class?

"Why study? There isn't anything I can do to improve my Spanish skills."

The idea that the explanation for prejudice lies in children's modeling of their parents' prejudicial beliefs, emotions, and behaviors is most closely aligned with the theories of which of the following?

Albert Bandura

Xander can no longer stomach the taste of sushi after he vomited from eating a spoiled serving of it. However, the appearance of sushi does not make him sick. Which of the following best accounts for why Xander becomes sick upon tasting sushi but not seeing sushi?

Biological predisposition, because this example illustrates taste aversion.

What is the best way to ensure that results of a study are generalizable to a population?

By using a random selection of people in that population

Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding the difference between classical and operant conditioning

Classical conditioning involves the formation of associations between two stimuli, whereas operant conditioning involves the formation of associations between responses and their consequences.

Which procedure can reduce problems associated with the use of deception by a researcher?

debriefing

Which of the following is an example of shape constancy?

Even though the angle from which she viewed the table had changed, Elise still perceived the table as rectangular.

Which of the following groups of characteristics best describes the REM sleep stage?

Fast breathing, relatively high heart rate, relatively high blood pressure

Jeff lives in the United States, and he recently flew to Spain. Even after sleeping for several hours on the flight, he still felt lethargic for a few days. If Jeff has not caught an illness, which of the following is the most likely explanation for his physical response?

His circadian rhythm has been disrupted.

What is the dependent variable in this study?

Incidence of aggressive behavior

According to the ethical guidelines set by the American Psychological Association (APA), which of the following is true of psychological research in which animals are used as subjects?

It should conform to all APA ethical guidelines for animal research.

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 scenarios best demonstrates a context effect?

Jeannette does better on her exam when she takes it in the same room where she studies.

Which scenario below best depicts insight learning?

Laramie suddenly realized that he could put some of his groceries in a cabinet after repeatedly failing to fit them into a pantry.

All of the following are American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for researchers EXCEPT

Research may not involve deception.

Luis constructed a flip-book with 30 different still images of a cartoon cat. When Luis quickly flipped through successive images of the cat, the cat appeared to move. Which of the following concepts does the example illustrate?

Stroboscopic movement, because the book is a series of images presented at separate time intervals.

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.

Julia is practicing her trumpet and produces a loud sound. Which of the following is the best explanation for the loudness of the sound?

The sound has a high-amplitude sound wave.

A cancer patient becomes nauseated following chemotherapy treatments. After a few treatments, the patient begins having a sick feeling whenever entering the treatment room. The treatment room has become

a conditioned stimulus

When a child behaves well for an entire day, the child earns a star. After acquiring fifteen stars, the child is allowed to pick a prize from a toy chest. The star is best described as

a secondary reinforcer

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

accommodation

Sally says that her dream about going to a circus is just her brain attempting to make sense of random stimulation from the brain stem. Sally's explanation is consistent with which of the following theories of dreaming?

activation-synthesis

A dog retrieves the newspaper every day because in the past it received a food reward for this behavior. The dog's behavior is an exam which of the following?

an operant response

Ethical principles developed by the American Psychological Association help ensure that human participants in psychological research

are protected from physical and psychological harm

Although people can acquire phobias to almost any object or situation, certain phobias (e.g. those to snakes, spiders, heights) are much m common than others. This finding can best be explained by which of the following concepts?

biological preparedness

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

both an unconditioned and a conditioned response

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

Clinical researchers are interested in gaining insight into the causes of abnormal behavior. One way that they do this is to delve deeply into the histories of patients with a common diagnosis, interviewing family. friends, teachers, therapists, physicians, babysitters, and others who can provide rich details about the patients' lives. Then, researchers try to see if there are any common themes in the information gathered. What research method does this strategy represent?

case study

The biological clock that operates in human beings to adjust their functioning to night-and-day periodicity is referred to as

circadian rhythm

Maria was never afraid of spiders until a spider bit her when she was eight. Today, even the sight of a plastic spider upsets her. Which of the following learning processes best explains Maria's fear of spiders?

classical conditioning

The Gestalt principle that refers to an individual's tendency to perceive an incomplete figure as whole is called

closure

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

A mental image of a spatial layout is called

cognitive map

Firefighters are often required to walk through local buildings and drive trucks around the areas they serve as part of their training The most likely purpose of this type of training is to develop

cognitive map

People who are color blind most likely have deficiencies in their

cones

Which of the following refers to the photoreceptors responsible for color vision?

cones

Which of the following is a term for a variable that researchers do not control and that can affect the results of a study?

confounding variable

Sergio's little brother tangled several pairs of identical headphones into one giant mass. To get them free, Sergio had to find the end of one cord and then with his eyes follow that cord throughout the mass as he untangled it. Sergio's ability to see the cord he wanted as a single object is an example of

continuity

Which of the following scenarios is most likely to result in impairment of the kinesthetic sense?

damage to cerebellum

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

Dorothea Dix was known for

documenting the poor conditions of mental asylums, which eventually led to their reform

A researcher is studying the effect of caffeinated drinks on the activity level of ten-year-old children. Half of the children in the study drank caffeinated soda, and half drank noncaffeinated soda. Neither the research team nor the children knew which drinks had caffeine and which drinks did not. The researchers were using

double-blind design

An industrial-organizational psychologist would be most likely to study the

effectiveness of management training

Of the following, a behavioral psychologist is most likely to study the

effects of token economies on establishing social skills among children with emotional disturbances

A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. Which type of research does the scenario describe?

experimental

A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. This research method is best characterized as

experimental

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

A subliminal stimulus is a stimulus that

falls below the threshold for conscious detection

While attending a concert, Anthony finds that he can clearly recognize the melody coming from the lead violin above all the other instruments playing in the orchestra, even though the other instruments may be louder. Gestalt psychologists would explain Anthony's ability using the principle of

figure-ground

In order to get more audience participation, a radio show offers a prize to the first person to call the show at the beginning of every hour. The show is using which of the following schedules of reinforcement?

fixed interval

For every twenty cell phones that Tom sells, he will get a $50 bonus. The bonuses are an example of which of the following types of reinforcement schedules?

fixed ratio

Cognitive theorists emphasize the

formation and modification of schemas

The perceived pitch of a tone is largely determined by its

frequency

Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for

gaining insight into unconscious motives

Ahmet is allergic to dogs. While in the toy store he sees a stuffed toy dog and has an allergic reaction. Ahmet's reaction to the toy best demonstrates the process of

generalization

The ability to see a cube in the diagram above is best explained by which of the following?

gestalt principles of closure and continuity

John moves to a new job in a large urban area. For the first few days, John is continuously distracted by the sounds of traffic and street noise. By the end of the first week, John barely notices the sounds of the city. Which of the following has occurred?

habituation

There is a strong positive correlation between ice cream sales and instances of snakebites. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for this correlation?

hot weather is related to both ice cream sales and snake activity.

Sleep paralysis typically occurs in people who are

in REM sleep

What field of psychology is most appropriate to analyze the efficiency of businesses in their hiring, basic training, and management leadership skills training?

industrial-organizational

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

In the early years of psychology, a research participant might have been asked to observe carefully and systematically his conscious experiences. What method would the participant be using?

introspection

When Mary was young, her father was trying to learn how to speak German and would listen to German tapes for hours in her presence. Mary paid very little attention to the tapes. Many years later, when Mary was in Germany, she was able to say a few German words in order to make herself understood. This is an example of

latent learning

In a two-phase study. participants were randomly assigned to either group A or group B. All participants were subjected to a series of irritating air puffs directed at the face. In the first phase of the study, participants in group A pressed a button that stopped the air puffs. Participants in group B pressed a button that had no effect on the air puffs. In the second phase of the study. both groups had buttons that pressed, would stop the air puffs. The study most directly explores the concept of

learned helplessness

Ana injured her eye in an accident and has to wear a patch over the eye while it heals. Which of the following cues would she best be able to use to make judgments about the distance objects are from her?

linear perspective

The fovea has the greatest visual acuity in bright light primarily because the fovea is

made up of only cones

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

maturation

A particular group of brain cells seems to provide a basis for observational learning. Researchers call these specialized cells

mirror neurons

Convergence is a binocular depth cue that is based on the

muscular tension that leads to the lens changing shape

Rafael has a sleep disorder for which he takes medically prescribed amphetamines. For which of the following sleep disorders is Rafael most likely being treated?

narcolepsy

Jane Goodall lived among wild chimpanzees intermittently for decades, studying their social and family systems while keeping her interaction with the chimpanzees to a minimum. Her research method can most accurately be described as

naturalistic observation

Dylan has difficulty solving a physics problem in class. The next day, he suddenly thinks of a solution to the problem as he is watching a friend play the guitar. The thought process that Dylan experienced is an example of

negative reinforcement

Elizabeth picks up the clothes from her bedroom floor and puts them away to avoid her mother's repeated nagging. Elizabeth's behavior is being influenced by

negative reinforcement

After Sharon stares at a patch of saturated green color for a brief period of time, she looks at a white surface and sees a red patch of color. This perceptual phenomenon is best explained by

opponent-process theory

A disadvantage of longitudinal studies is that

participants who drop out during the course of the study may be different in important ways from ones who do not drop out

Gestalt psychology is concerned primarily with understanding which of the following?

perception

After his friend said a new movie was the funniest he had seen in years, Willard found himself laughing throughout the viewing, even though the movie was not very funny. What concept is Willard demonstrating?

perceptual set

Which of the following are involved in regulating circadian rhythms?

photoreceptors, hypothalamus, pineal glands

After each bar press, a laboratory rat receives electric stimulation to its brain. The rate of bar pressing increases. This is an example of

positive reinforcement

Barney is a somewhat distractible second-grade student who finds schoolwork a bit boring. After a couple of minutes of working silently, Barney often starts to misbehave until his teacher, Ms. Skinner, calls his name and scolds him. However, he enjoys this attention from her and continues to misbehave. With respect to Barney's misbehavior, Ms. Skinner's attention serves as

positive reinforcement

The belief that human behavior is the result of unconscious drives and conflicts represents which of the following theoretical perspectives?

psychoanalytic

The notion that human behavior is greatly influenced by unconscious thoughts and desires is most consistent with which of the following psychological approaches?

psychodynamic

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

red-green system

A psychologist gives the same test to a class of students at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the school day. The extent to which test scores are similar across the two administrations demonstrates which of the following test properties?

reliability

In developmental psychology, one advantage of cross-sectional over longitudinal studies is that cross-sectional research

requires comparatively little time

In vision, transduction occurs within the

retina

Ana is instructed by her doctor to wear a patch over one eye while an infection heals. While wearing the patch, Ana will lose her ability to use which of the following depth perception cues?

retinal disparity

Standard deviation is a measure of how much

scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

Money most often modifies people's behavior because it is a powerful

secondary reinforcer

An individual's ability to focus on a particular conversation in a noisy and crowded room is called

selective attention

Jason is attending a parade that features the local high school band. Jason's friend Brent plays the trombone in the band. It is difficult for Jason to hear Brent play at the parade. Which of the following would best allow Jason to hear Brent's trombone?

selective attention

Balance is influenced by the

semicircular canals

Laura arrives at a park that is located very close to a factory that produces cookies. She immediately notices the strong odor of chocolate chip cookies, but after a while she no longer detects the smell of the cookies. This can best be explained by which of the following?

sensory adaptation

The first time four-year-old Savannah attempted to make her bed, her father praised her for covering the pillow with a blanket. After a few times, her father began praising Savannah for covering the pillow and tucking in the corners of the sheet. Finally, Savannah's father praised her when she covered the pillow, tucked in the corners of the sheet, and smoothed the blanket. The process described in this scenario is known as

shaping

During the night, Alicia stops breathing repeatedly, frequently gasps for air, and snores loudly at regular intervals. Alicia is most likely suffering from which of the following conditions?

sleep apnea

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

social learning theory

A monkey's choosing a circle from an array of geometric shapes in order to be rewarded with a banana is an example of

stimulus discrimination

A child whose family owns a dog may refer to any four-legged animal as "dog." In learning theory, such behavior is known as

stimulus generalization

In a recent report, a developmental psychologist who studied peer pressure in middle schools obtained data from a large, representative sample of adolescents across the United States. This research most likely involved a

survey

An evolutionary psychologist would explain that humans desire social interaction, social acceptance, and social affiliation due to a need for

survival

Domingo has just hit Play to begin listening to a new song he bought. Based on the structure of the ear, what will the sound waves contact first after moving through Domingo's auditory canal?

the eardrum

Sara had an argument with her coworker, Adam. That night, Sara had a dream that she was shopping at a mall and Adam was in every store in which she shopped. A psychoanalyst would say that Adam's being at the mall in her dream was an example of which of the following?

the manifest content

Karl goes to see Dr. Norton to help him overcome his fear of cats. Karl's fear began in childhood when he petted a cat and someone slammed a door. Every time Karl petted the cat, the door slammed. Now whenever Karl sees a cat, he becomes very anxious. In the development of Karl's fear of cats, what was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) ?

the slamming of the door

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.

Luz, a math major, sees the drawing above as a Venn diagram. Her brother, an art major, sees it as two circles. The difference in perception is an example of

top-down processing

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 process of converting incoming physical energy into a neural code that can be processed is called

transduction

What is the independent variable in this study?

type of television program viewed

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

variable ratio