psych study questions

Rather than increase food prices, manufacturers sometimes imperceptibly decrease the amount of food in a package. Acme Foods wants to raise the price of peanut butter but still sell each jar for $2.89. The current jar contains 16 oz. of peanut butter. Assume the Weber fraction for felt weight is 0.05. Which size jar is the SMALLEST that will still feel the same as the 16-oz. jar to most people?

15.2 oz.

Nar is a Chinese citizen who was raised in the United States. Both her parents speak to her in English; she also attended a U.S. school. When she participated in a counting experiment in which she was supposed to hand the experimenter 26 blocks, she MOST likely handed the experimenter:

26 single blocks, as did the U.S children in the experiment.

A newborn's ability to see something 20 feet away is equivalent to an adult looking at something about _____ feet away.

600

Thirteen-month-old Jack is distraught when his mother leaves him; however, when she comes back and tries to comfort him, Jack squirms and refuses to allow her to calm him. Attachment theorists would MOST likely claim that Jack has a(n) _____ attachment style.

Ambivalent

Which type of attachment style does a child typically develop when the caregiver is inconsistent in his or her responses to the child's signs of distress?

Ambivalent

A researcher asked participants to report the time at which they consciously made a decision to throw a ball, while simultaneously monitoring their brain activity. The researcher is MOST likely to find that the participants':

Brain shows activity before their conscious decision to act.

With respect to the study of social development, duckling is to infant monkey as _____ is to _____.

Konrad Lorenz; Harry Harlow

Based on letter identification experiments, such as those performed by Anne Treisman and Hilary Schmidt, which alternative most accurately describes the effect of limiting participants' attention?

Limiting attention should increase the prevalence of illusory conjunctions.

Jamal thinks he got a woman pregnant. Jamal knows they had sex 7 weeks ago. The doctor told Jamal that the organism is at the fetal stage of development. Is Jamal responsible for the pregnancy?

No the fetal stage is 9 weeks after conception

Can babies control the movement of their hands before their elbows?

No, this breaks the proximodistal rule.

Which statement about self-consciousness and mirrors is NOT true?

People are more aggressive after seeing themselves in a mirror.

According to the text, what does current research suggest about Lawrence Kohlberg's three stages of moral development?

People may use different stages for different circumstances.

A person in Lawrence Kohlberg's _____ stage of moral development would avoid an action because it would result in punishment.

Preconventional

Pablo is standing on the beach and the sea is choppy. He observes that the crests of distant waves appear not only smaller, but also higher in his field of vision than do the crests of waves nearer the beach. This example illustrates the monocular depth cues of:

Relative size and relative height

Clem is missing the _____-cones. Clem is likely to have trouble perceiving _____.

S; blue

Jody is a recovering methamphetamine addict. She picked up her 90-day chip at a local Narcotics Anonymous meeting yesterday. Jody's clean date is the day she learned she was several weeks pregnant. Jody knew that methamphetamine might harm her developing fetus; that is, she knew that "meth" is probably a:

Teratogen

A child who is 5 months old is shown a plausible event and then is shown an implausible event. The child will MOST likely:

The child will stare longer at the implausible event.

A dog with a red mark painted on the fur on its forehead would MOST likely show which reaction if placed in front of a mirror?

The dog would bark at the mirror as if the reflection were another dog

Brian has been diagnosed with visual-form agnosia. He has probably suffered damage to the:

Ventral stream of visual processing

Which factor is the LEAST likely to dominate a person's consciousness?

a final research paper due in two months

A person can detect a single drop of perfume diffused in an area the size of a one-bedroom apartment in half of a set of trials. This is a(n) _____.

absolute threshold

One process in perception is the _____ problem. When this process fails, errors called illusory conjunctions may result.

binding

The _____ problem of perception is concerned with how humans perceive unified objects rather than free-floating features.

binding

The area where the optic nerve leaves the retina is referred to as the:

blind spot

During surgery, _____ is monitored to measure consciousness.

brain activity

As a property of consciousness, selectivity refers to the:

capacity to include some objects and not others.

The failure to detect alterations in the details of a visual scene is termed _____.

change blindness

While driving his car, Matt sees a partially covered billboard for MacDonald's. Matt completes the gaps in his vision of the billboard and is able to identify that the billboard is for MacDonald's. This example illustrates the Gestalt principle of:

closure

Sydney deciphers a complex wiring diagram under the bright glare of her desk lamp. Sydney is mainly using her photoreceptors known as:

cones

Awareness of the environment and one's own mind is one definition of:

consciousness

In a dichotic listening study, participants heard different messages in each ear but were asked to focus on and repeat one message. The results of this study did NOT suggest that participants:

could focus on one statement but can recall details from both.

_____ refers to a state of consciousness in which a seemingly purposeless flow of thoughts comes to mind.

daydreaming

Research on how people change physically, mentally, and socially across the life span is MOST often conducted by _____ psychologists.

developmental

Monocular depth cues rely on the relationship between _____ and _____.

distance and size

In vision, the _____ pathway includes not only the occipital and temporal lobes but also the parietal lobes.

dorsal

With respect to visual processing, the "how" pathway is to the "what" pathway as:

dorsal is to ventral

Tori tells Mark that she is four weeks pregnant. Tori is at the _____ stage of development, in which _____ can be distinguished.

embryonic; body parts

In the Ames room, the parallel lines formed by the edges of interlocking black tiles seem to converge toward the back of the room. This illustrates the depth cue of _____.

familiar size

A disorder that results in malformations of face, brain abnormalities, and cognitive deficits after exposure to a teratogen is called _____ syndrome

fetal alcohol

Sam tells his mother that he thinks it is unfair that people are persecuted for crimes that they did not commit, and gives several reasons why he thinks it is unfair. Sam is in the _____ stage of cognitive development.

formal operational

Michelle turned her head to look directly at an unusual butterfly that her friend spotted in the garden. In doing so, Michelle ensures that the insect's image falls on her _____, which gives her the best visual acuity.

fovea

Which 2-week stage of development begins at conception?

germinal

What do developmental psychologists seek to understand?

growth and change across the life span

Research suggests that, if Karin reaches to pick something up:

her conscious awareness of deciding to reach occurred because of her brain activity.

Snakes can detect infrared waves radiated by the bodies of their prey. Compared with humans, snakes can see _____ waves.

higher-wavelength

The moon appears larger when it is on the horizon than when it is overhead, though in "reality" it is the same size in both cases. This is an example of a(n) _____.

illusion

A participant is shown a black "8" and a gold "6." When asked to describe the visual display, she responds that she saw a gold "8" and a black "6." This may illustrate a(n) _____, primarily caused by _____.

illusory conjunction; lack of focused attention

Sometimes, eyewitnesses to a crime fail to notice the perpetrator's face because they are paying attention to the perpetrator's weapon. This "weapon focus effect" is an example of:

inattentional blindness

In an experiment, colored letters flash briefly on a computer screen. On each trial, participants are asked to report the letters in their correct colors and to rate their confidence in their responses. In one condition, participants are required simultaneously to monitor the screen for the appearance of a particular digit. Whether participants must watch for a digit is a(n) _____ variable in this experiment.

independent

Becky believes that no matter how she behaves, she will not get her mother's attention. Therefore, Becky refuses to try and does not feel like she has a relationship with her mother. This is an example of Becky's:

internal working model

For a given stimulus dimension, such as weight, the _____ is a constant proportion.

just noticeable difference

Dorothy is off to see the Wizard of Oz. She perceives that the Yellow Brick Road converges to a point way off in the distance because of the depth cue of:

linear perspective

A massive, long-term study by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in 2008 found that spending time in day care has:

little or no effect on attachment.

Frank has been frustrated all day because he cannot stop thinking about the B he received on his final paper, especially because he feels he deserved an A. Frank is tired of feeling frustrated, so he is trying to change his train of thought and think about the other good grades he received this semester. Frank is trying to exercise

mental control

Sally is explaining to her psychology students that although the mind and the brain are intimately tied to each other, particular patterns of activation may not only be associated with one thing. The issue of relating the physical body with the mind is referred to as the _____ problem.

mind and body

After a stroke, Kevin has difficulty perceiving motion. The stroke MOST likely damaged brain area _____, part of the _____ stream of visual processing.

mt dorsal

Kessa has been prescribed glasses so that images are no longer focused in front of the retina. Kessa is:

myopic, or nearsighted

According to the feature integration theory, focused attention is:

necessary to build perceptions of unified objects.

The image of the television screen on the wall moves from place to place on John's retina as he turns his head from one friend to another during a conversation. Yet he does not perceive the television as sliding back and forth across the wall. Later, John perceives Susanna as walking toward the kitchen even though he keeps her image stable on his fovea by moving his head as she walks. These examples indicate that the movement of an object's image across the retina is _____ for the perception of motion.

neither necessary nor sufficient

Specific behavior patterns that are triggered by specific stimuli are called:

reflexes

Based on Jean Piaget's theory, which term BEST describes the moral reasoning of adolescents?

relative

In a landscape painting, artists often paint distant objects, such as trees, closer to the top of the canvas than nearby objects such as flowers. This is an example of the use of a distance cue known as:

relative height

Juanita notices a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye as she hurries down a dim alley late at night. Kirsten deciphers a complex wiring diagram under the bright glare of her desk lamp. Juanita's vision is driven mainly by her _____, while Kirsten is mainly using her _____.

rods; cones

Matthew tripped in the school cafeteria and was very embarrassed because everyone saw him fall. This embarrassment was a product of his:

self consciousness

Jackson was just touched on his cheek. The pressure is registered in his brain as a(n) _____.

sensation

The registration of light, sound, pressure, odor, or taste as the human body interacts with the physical world is called _____.

sensation

Carlos was just touched on his cheek, which is a(n) _____. In order for Carlos to know if he was kissed or slapped, Carlos needs a(n) _____.

sensation; perception

An advertisement for an air freshener states that "You think your living room smells fine, but your guests smell this." The scene cuts to a room occupied by a giant litter box and dozens of cats. "You've gone noseblind," the voiceover continues. "Going noseblind" in this way is a good example of:

sensory adaptation

When Juan puts on a hat in the morning, he notices that it is there. As the day goes on, he forgets that he is wearing it. This demonstrates the process of:

sensory adaptation

Janice tells her little brother that, pigs, cows, goats and chickens are all farm animals. Janice is using a variation of the Gestalt grouping rule of:

similarity

According to research cited in the textbook, ______ women and _____ men do not like to be alone with their thoughts.

some ; most

After two unsuccessful interviews, Anjelica actively tried not to think about her job search efforts. Based on the textbook's discussion, Anjelica's thought _____ should _____ the likelihood that Anjelica's job search will cross her mind.

suppression; increase

Rachel has been reading about consciousness in her psychology class. She has been thinking about how it is impossible to really know if those around her are really conscious and feel things in the same ways that she does. This is known in psychology as the:

the problem of other minds

Jessie has been playing softball for a few months with a new team, and for some reason, she always seems to swing the bat too early and hits foul balls. She is trying very hard to be conscious of her form when she swings the bat. However, by putting all this thought and caution into it, she seems to be hitting even more foul balls. This can be explained by:

the theory of ironic processes of mental control.

Pam understands that Peter has different knowledge than she does. Pam has acquired:

theory of mind

According to Jean Piaget's theories on moral development, when children move from realism to relativism, they move from:

thinking only in terms of right and wrong to the understanding that rules can be adopted or abandoned.

Joanna hears the local fire department's 12 o'clock whistle. The process by which her ears convert the sound waves from the siren into neural impulses is an example of:

transduction

Samantha opens her eyes in the morning to see flowers by her bedside. At that point, her eyes are receiving light energy, which they change into neural messages for the brain to process. This conversion of one form of energy into another is called:

transduction

Children with autism have difficulty:

understanding other people's thoughts.