AP Pyschology SP Test

Which of the following is the correct order of structures light passes through in the eye?

cornea, iris, pupil, lens, retina

The pitch of a sound is determined by what?

the frequency of the sound wave

Our lips are more sensitive than our knees to sensations of touch due to which of the following?

A larger area of the sensory cortex is associated with our lips.

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

Absolute threshold

A brief electrical charge that travels down the axon of a neuron is called the

Action Potential

Which of the following brain structures is most associated with the emotion of fear?

Amygdala

Hair cells line the surface of the

Basilar membrane

The amplitude of electromagnetic waves determines the ________ of light.

Brightness

Research participants picked one of two photographed faces as more attractive. When researchers cleverly switched the photos, participants readily explained why they preferred the face they had actually rejected. Their behavior illustrated

Choice blindness

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

Cochlea

A focus on how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information is most relevant to the ____________ perspective.

Cognitive

Even though it was nearly dark outside, Kaci could still tell that the basketball she was playing with was orange. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?

Color constancy

Even though the banana seemed to change color as the lighting in the room changed, Jane knew that the color of the banana was not actually changing. This is due to

Color constancy

People who are color blind most likely have deficiencies in their

Cones

Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk used a visual cliff with a glass-covered drop-off to examine behavior in crawling infants. Even when coaxed by their mothers to crawl out onto the glass covering, most infants refused to do so, indicating that they had developed which of the following?

Depth Perception

Which of the following refers to the just-noticeable difference between two stimuli?

Difference threshold

Some people are better than others at detecting slight variations in the tastes of various blends of coffee. This best illustrates the importance of

Difference thresholds

Which cognitive neuroscience term reflects the idea that "much of our everyday thinking, feeling, and acting operates outside our conscious awareness"?

Dual Processing

You are aware that a dog is viciously barking at you, but you are not aware of the type of dog. Later, you are able to describe the type and color of the dog. This ability to process information without conscious awareness best exemplifies which of the following?

Dual Processing

In the figure above, what letter corresponds to the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain?

E

What do we call the specialized neurons in the occipital lobe's visual cortex that respond to particular edges, lines, angles, and movements?

Feature Detectors

One of the ways we perceive images is by organizing stimuli into an object seen against its surroundings. What is this perceptual tendency called?

Figure-ground

Which of the following is the best example of sensory interaction?

Finding that food tastes bland when you have a bad cold

The psychological experience of pitch is related to a sound wave's

Frequency

Martin fell off his skateboard and badly bruised his elbow. He immediately began rubbing the area around the bruise until the pain subsided. This method of reducing pain can be explained by which of the following?

Gate-control theory

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

Gestalt principles of closure and continuity

Latisha noticed that in the early evening she begins to have difficulty seeing the vibrant colors in her artwork. Which of the following best explains her difficulty?

Her cones cannot detect color well in dim light.

Dilation and constriction of the pupil are controlled by the

Iris

Hyrum is at a concert when a flute player hits a very high note at the end of a song. Which of the following best explains why the pitch of the note sounds so high?

It has a short wavelength and high frequency.

The convergence of parallel lines provides the distance cue known as

Linear perspective

Which chemical is most closely associated with sleep?

Melatonin

Sound wave vibrations are transmitted by three tiny bones located in the

Middle ear

After staring at a green, black, and orange "American flag" for about a minute, an individual will see a red, white, and blue flag afterimage. Which of the following explains this phenomenon?

Opponent-process theory

You friend tells you that a cloud looks like your math teacher; you look up and agree. Which principle explains why this is so?

Perceptual set

In which of the following techniques do researchers inject a harmless, radioactive substance into the living human brain to examine activity?

Positron-emission tomography (PET)

Which technique involves repeating the essence of an earlier research study with different participants and in different circumstances?

Replication

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

Selective Attention

After spending hours in her kitchen preparing dinner, Rebecca no longer notices the strong smell of garlic until her guests arrive and mention the smell. Her failure to notice the smell of garlic illustrates

Sensory Adaptation

Although textbooks frequently cast a trapezoidal image on the retina, students typically perceive the books as rectangular objects. This illustrates the importance of

Shape Constancy

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

Top-down processing

Which of the following is the best example of your kinesthetic sense?

Touching your nose with your eyes closed

Which of the following refers to the transformation of stimulus energy into neural impulses?

Transduction

Anything that contributes to the results of a research study is called a

Variable

Who was the American philosopher who authored a textbook in 1890 for the emerging discipline of psychology?

William James

Sensation is to ________ as perception is to ________.

detection; interpretation

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

Many researchers believe that pleasing tastes attracted our ancestors to energy- or protein-rich foods that enabled their survival. Such researchers are most likely

evolutionary psychologists.

You begin seeing a therapist to cope with a number of stressful life events. The therapist does not focus on your childhood or on any learned behaviors, but rather she emphasizes the importance of your need for love and acceptance. Which school of thought does she belong to?

humanistic psychology

In the dark, an object is more clearly seen when viewed in peripheral vision than when viewed directly. This phenomenon occurs because the rods located in the retina are

more sensitive in the dark than cones and are not found in the fovea

The chemical messengers released into the spatial junctions between neurons are called

neurotransmitters

Although he was wearing a pair of glasses that shifted the apparent location of objects 20 degrees to his right, Lars was still able to play tennis very effectively. This best illustrates the value of

perceptual adaptation.

After a small section of his basilar membrane was damaged, Jason experienced a noticeable loss of hearing for high-pitched sounds only. Jason's hearing loss is best explained by the ________ theory.

place

A cochlear implant would be most helpful for those who suffer

sensorineural hearing loss.

Olfactory receptor cells are essential for our sense of

smell

The thalamus processes information for all of the following senses EXCEPT

smell

Research has shown that a major reason for poor performance while multitasking is that while multitasking, people

switch their attention rapidly from task to task, so they miss critical information associated with a task that is not receiving their attention

On the day she is to be interviewed for an important new position, Ariel awakens with a severe toothache. During the interview she feels no pain; not until 30 minutes later does she become aware again of the troublesome toothache. Ariel's experience is best explained by

the gate-control theory.

Experiencing a green afterimage of a red object is most easily explained by

the opponent-process theory.

Which basic taste attracts us to protein-rich foods?

umami