Psychology Final

A student plays the role of "class clown" in one class and the role of "brain" in another class. This approach explains it by examining a student's interpretations of how well the student assesses his/her own abilities in each subject.

Cognitive

Who coined the term "tabula rasa" to help explain the impact that experience has on shaping an individual?

John Locke

Epigenetics might best be explained by which of the following?

Lisa and Eloise are identical twins; only one develops schizophrenia

Which of the following statements about the perception of taste is true?

Older adults frequently experience decreases in the sense of smell that make it more difficult to perceive the flavor of food

One reasons that identical twins might show slight differences at birth is

One twin's placenta may have provided slightly better nourishment

The purpose of random assignment is to

Reduce potential confounding variables

An individual experiences brain damage that produces a coma. Which part of the brain was probably damaged?

Reticular formation

Which of the following is used only in correlation studies?

Scatterplot

Which neurotransmitters are most likely in undersupply in someone who is depressed?

Serotonin and norepinephrine

The biggest influence on personality is a person's friend group.

Social Cultural

Which of the following is sometimes referred to as the brain's sensory switchboard, because it directs incoming sensory messages (with the exception of smell) to their proper places in the brain?

Thalamus

Which of the following might result from a disruption of your vestibular sense?

Dizziness and a loss of balance

Aggression is influenced by genetic predisposition. It was an advantageous trait that helped our ancestors acquire food and mates.

Evolutionary

Which of the following statements is best explained by research on depth perception using the visual cliff?

Human infants are born with an innate sense of depth

Which of the following would be mostly alike?

Identical twins raised in the same environment

Which of the following phrases describes top-down processing?

The effect that our experiences and expectations have on perception

The view from Narmeen's left eye is slightly different than the view from her right eye. This is due to which depth cue?

retinal disparity

When Jane has a cold, she cannot taste the flavor of her pizza. Which of the following psychological terms describes Jane's inability to taste?

sensory interaction

Which of the following is most likely to be a function of the left hemisphere?

speech

The purpose of the myelin sheath is to

speed the transmission of information within a neuron

CT scans provide what type of information?

structual

Which of the following is produced by perceptual set?

surprise at hearing an Oklahoma cowboy speak with a British accent

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

Surgical stimulation of the sensory cortex might result in the false sensation

that someone is tickling you

A PET scan best allows researchers to determine

the functions of various brain regions

By seeking to measure the "atoms of the mind", who established the first psychology laboratory?

Wilhelm Wundt

Brain plasticity refers to the

ability of brain tissue to take on new functions

Awareness of ourselves and our environment best describes

consciousness

What do we call the transparent, protective layer that light passes through as it enters the eye?

cornea

According to Weber's Law, if two light bulbs must go out in a room in which twenty are burning to make the room noticeably dimmer, then a room in which forty are burning will become noticeably dimmer when __________ bulbs go out.

four

Which of the following does the endocrine system rely on to communicate?

hormones

Which of the following dream theories states that dreams help us sort through the day's events and consolidate our memories?

info- processing

The peripheral nervous system

is the part of the nervous system that does not include the brain and the spinal cord

A what absolute threshold describes someone with MORE sensitive sensory systems

lower

Breathing and heartbeat are controlled by the

medulla

The basic building block of the nervous system is the

neuron

Negative afterimages are explained by

opponent-process theory

What do we call a mental predisposition that influences our interpretation of a stimulus?

perceptual set

The pineal gland's role in sleep involves

the production of melatonin

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 flawed because

the researcher has incorrectly inferred causation from correlation

If the electrical charge of the neuron changes to about -55 millivolts, the neuron will reach its ________ for firing.

threshold

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

Our rods and cones _____________ electromagnetic energy into neural messages

transduce

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

transfer sound information from the tympanic membrane to the oval window

According to John Watson, introspection was:

unscientific

When asked, "Do you think the United States should allow public speeches against democracy?" 62% said no. However, when asked, "Do you think the United States should forbid public speeches against democracy? 46% said yes. This is an example of:

wording effect

Which part of the brain is not fully developed until around age 25?

frontal lobes

When a mother's egg and father's sperm unite, each contributes

23 chromosomes

Which of the following best represents absolute threshold?

A cook can just barely taste the small amount of salt she has added to her soup

Jane is washing her hands, and she adjusts the faucet handle until the water feels just slightly hotter than it did before. Jane's adjustment until she feels the change in temperature is an example of

A difference threshold

When looking at why a person chooses to behave a particular way, I will examine the brain chemistry and hormonal issues of the person

Biological

Which part of the brain receives messages from the hair-like receptors that are involved in the vestibular sense?

Cerebellum

Which of the following is least likely to occur as a result of good sleep habits?

Decreased concentration

Professor Jane is studying which brain regions are involved in learning to correctly navigate a maze task. She randomly assigns half of a group of mice to get a lesion in one area of the brain. The other half does not get a lesion. Based on the following graph, where in the brain is the most likely site of the lesion?

Hippocampus

The Gestalt psychologists were interested in

How an organized whole is formed out of its component pieces

As children, we need nurturing, unconditional positive regard (acceptance without anything in return) in order to grow up and become healthy, self-actualized adults.

Humanistic

The dual-processing model refers to which of the following ideas?

Incoming information is processed by both conscious and unconscious tracks

Which of the following most accurately characterizes the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the regulation of sleep?

It acts with the eyes and the pineal gland to regulate circadian rhythms

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief.."

John Watson

Which of the following is the correct sequence of parts of a neuron firing?

dendrites, soma, axon, vesicles, neurotransmitters

Which stimulant causes high energy, emotional elation, dehydration, and damage to serotonin producing neurons?

ecstacy

Morphine elevates mood and eases pain, and is most similar to which of the following?

endorphines

Damage to which of the following could interfere with the ability to plan for the future?

frontal lobe

What type of correlation do you expect exists between playing football and concussions?

positive correlation

Frequency theory relates to the

rate at which the basilar membrane vibrates

When there is a negative charge inside an axon and a positive charge outside of it, the neuron is

said to have a resting potential

To walk across a street, a person would rely most directly on her

somatic nervous system

MRI: fMRI

structure: function

Depression is the result of early childhood trauma and unresolved, unconscious conflicts

Psychodynamic

Why is an operational definition necessary when reporting research findings?

An operational definition allows others to replicate the procedure

The most noticeable difference between human brains and other mammalian brains is the size of the

Association areas

Teachers will often get some students to study more by offering extra credit.

Behavioral

When parents use punishment to change their child's behavior, they are using a technique from this perspective.

Behavioral

Which of the following statements can be made about a normal distribution without knowing specific information about the data set?

Eighty-four percent of the population will score at or below a +1 standard

Jane and Bob are in a dance competition. It is easy for spectators to see them against the dance floor because of

Figure-ground relationships

PET scans, EEGs, and lesioning studies provide what type of information?

Functional

Which neurotransmitter inhibits central nervous system activity in order to calm a person down during stressful situations?

GABA

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

If I survey students and ask them whether or not they got at least 6 hours of sleep last night (a yes/no question), is this quantitative data or qualitative?

Quantitative. Yes/no questions can be encoded as 0 for no and 1 for yes.

A researcher interested in determining the size of a particular area of the brain would be most likely to use a(n)

MRI

Stimulation of which of the following may cause a person to involuntarily move their arm?

Motor cortex

After two nights without sleep, which of the following can be expected? An increase in

REM rebound

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

Perceptual constancy

What do we call the illusion of movement that results from two or more stationary, adjacent lights blinking on and off in quick succession?

Phi phenomenon

What effect do neurotransmitters from one neuron have on the next neuron?

They may excite or inhibit neighboring neurons

As Bob reads his psychology textbook, he is able to convert the light waves into signals that his brain can interpret due to the concept of

Transduction

Which of the following represents perceptual constancy?

We know that the color of a printed page has not changed as it moves from sunlight into shadow

If you flashed a picture of a spoon to the left visual field of a person whose corpus callosum had been severed (so it was transmitted to her right hemisphere), she would

be able to draw a spoon with her left hand but would not be able to say she had seen a spoon

If you flashed a picture of a duck to the right visual field of a person whose corpus callosum had been severed (so it was transmitted to her left hemisphere), she would

be able to tell you she had seen a duck

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

bipolar and ganglion

Which of the following is most important when conducting survey research?

choosing a representative sample

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 purpose of the pupil is to

allow light into the eye

A brief electrical charge that travels down an axon is called a(n)

action potential

A drug that has the effect of intensifying or mimicking a particular neurotransmitter can be characterized as

an agonist, because it intensifies the effects of a particular neurotransmitter

Slowed reactions, slurred speech, and decreased skill performance are associated with abuse of

alcohol

The extent to which variation among members of a group can be attributed to genes is called

heretability

After taking a psychoactive drug for many years, Jane stops taking it. She finds withdrawal to be physically painful, because the drug that she had been taking caused her brain to stop producing its own endorphins. Which drug was she taking?

heroin

A what absolute threshold describes someone with less sensitive sensory systems.

higher