Psychology Midterm Review-ReeRoi

Information is stored in short-term memory for about:

20 seconds

On an average, each complete cycle through the stages of NREM sleep and REM sleep lasts about:

90 minutes

Which of the following BEST defines a neurotransmitter?

A chemical messenger that crosses the synaptic gap between neurons.

Which of the following is the BEST definition of heuristic?

A problem-solving strategy that involves following a general thumb to reduce the number of possible solutions.

Consistently occurring abnormal sleep patterns that cause subjective distress and interfere with a person's daytime functioning is a definition of:

A sleep disorder

According to George Miller, the capacity of short-term memory is:

About seven items at one time.

When Andrew had his hearing tested, some sounds were too soft for him to detect. These sounds were below his ____ threshold for hearing.

Absolute

Positive reinforcement is to negative reinforcement as:

Addition of a reinforcing stimulus is to removal of an aversive stimulus.

Wechsler's intelligence test (the WAIS) was specifically designed to test ____ rather than ____.

Adults; children

______ developed the first systematic intelligence test.

Alfred Binet.

Which of the following is a test used to measure brain activity?

All of the above (PET scan, EEG, fMRI)

The word psychology has Greek origins with the word parts psych and logia. The word part psych refers to _____.

All of the above (soul, breath, spirit).

When LaToya got her new computer, she carefully followed the steps described in the manual, and by the end of the evening, her new computer was up and running. LaToya used:

An algorithm.

While searching online for a new TV, you see one advertised for sale on Amazon. The original price was listed at $799 and the sale price is $399. Even though the actual price of the TV was always $399, the seller is using which cognitive bias to influence your purchasing decision?

Anchoring

During World War I, the U.S. military developed the _____ to screen millions of recruits.

Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests.

____ is the capacity to selectively focus senses and awareness on particular stimuli or aspects of the environment.

Attention

The sense of hearing is also known as:

Audition

Which of the following statements best captures the basic idea of operant conditioning?

Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

As you are reading this question, you are awake and alert. This means that your brain is generating ____ brain waves.

Beta

The ___ perspective emphasizes studying the physical bases of human and animal behavior, including the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.

Biological

This structure connects the spinal cord to the brain and is responsible for controlling all vital functions.

Brainstem

Professor Nichols is interested in child prodigies. For example, she followed the development of a 3-year-old child who already spoke 6 languages, taught herself how to play the piano, flute, and violin, and composed music that most experienced adults are unable to do. Which type of research is most likely used by Professor Nichols in this scenario?

Case Study.

In combination, the brain and spinal cord make up the ____ nervous system.

Central

Jamie found the ISBN of the book she wanted to order in the Books in Print Catalog. To remember the 11-digit number, 19772552901, she thought of the number as the year her best friend was born (1977) and her aunt's phone number (255-2901). Jamie was using the strategy of ______ to help her remember the ISBN number.

Chunking

The term used to describe the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge is:

Cognition

Kahal has very conservative political beliefs, and he prefers listening to radio talk shows and reading magazines that are consistent with his views. Kahal's tendency to search only for information and evidence that support his perspective illustrates the:

Confirmation bias.

According to _____ theory, we forget memories because we don't use them and they simply fade away over time as a matter of normal brain process.

Decay

What units are used to measure the loudness of sound?

Decibels

The graphic record of brain activity produced by an electroencephalograph is called a(n):

Electroencephalogram or EEG.

The limbic system is critical for learning, memory, and ____.

Emotional control

We transform information into a form that can be entered and retained by the memory system. This process is known as:

Encoding

On a visit to his mother's home, Steve's mother introduced him to her new next door neighbor. After chatting with the neighbor for a few minutes, Steve realized that he could not remember the new neighbor's name. The MOST likely example for Steve's forgetting the neighbor's name is.

Encoding failure.

Brandon vividly remembers when he had to go to the emergency room for stitches on his left thigh. This is an example of which type of long-term memory?

Episodic memory.

A theory is a set of ideas that intends to explain something based on ____.

Evidence from research.

A correlational study:

Examines how strongly two variables are related to one another.

As you are taking this exam, you are actively retrieving information that you have learned and stored in your long-term memory. The information that you are able to consciously recall is an example of which subsystem of long-term memory.

Explicit memory

Critical thinking supports us believing everything we see on the internet and other media outlets.

False

Flashbulb memories tend to be more accurate than normal memories.

False

Naturalistic observation is a type of research design where researchers remove participants form their natural environment and place them in a re-creation of that environment in a lab setting.

False

Psychologists are limited to only a select few areas of study that are available to them.

False

B. F. Skinner strongly advocated the use of punishment to modify behavior.

False.

Automatic processing is to ____ as controlled processing is to ____.

Fast and unconscious; slow and conscious.

According to one important perceptual principle when we look at a scene we automatically tend to separate the elements of that scene into an object and its background. this principle is called;

Figure-ground relationship

Being fully immersed in a task tot he point where hyper-focus is achieved, time is distorted, and a feeling of energy is preset refers to what kind of state?

Flow

Because attention is limited in capacity, we tend to:

Focus on information that is most relevant to our immediate or long-term goals.

The inability to recall information that was previously available to memory is called:

Forgetting

Essay tests are to _____ as matching tests are to _____.

Free recall; cued recall

Although disproved, phrenology was valuable in:

Generating interest in the idea of cortical localization.

Taste is also referred to as:

Gustation

Why is Wilhem Wundt considered the father of psychology?

He established the first psychology lab.

What was William Jame's major contribution to the field of psychology?

He published the first key textbook for the field.

Which one of the following psychologists is most likely to agree with the idea that there are "multiple intelligences" that are independent and distinct?

Howard Gardner

____ is defined as a cooperative social interaction in which one person responds to another person's suggestions which changes in perception, memory, and behavior.

Hypnosis

What happens to the neurotransmitters that fail to attach to a receptor site?

In a process called a reuptake, they are reabsorbed by the sending neuron and recycled.

Thomas was distracted as he was cooking, and he inadvertently touched a very hot dish. Instantaneously, he jerked his hand back, a reflexive action that was processed:

In his spinal cord.

Negative reinforcement ____ the likelihood of a behavior being repeated, and positive punishment ____ the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.

Increases; decreases

Positive reinforcement ______ the likelihood of a behavior's being repeated. Negative reinforcement _____ the likelihood of a behavior's being repeated.

Increases; increases

The primary function of the myelin sheath is to:

Insulate the axon and increase the speed at which neurons convey their message.

A measure of general intelligence that is derived by comparing an individual's score to scores of others in the same age group is a definition of:

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

Punishment is most effective if:

It consistently follows the operant.

Who discovered the basic process of classical conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

Behaviorism was an early school or approach to psychology that was founded by:

John B. Watson.

In psychoanalytic theory, the disguised, psychological meaning of dreams is called the ____ content.

Latent

The receptor cells for vision are sensitive to what kind of stimulus?

Light

Which type of research design examines the same participants over an extended number of years?

Longitudinal studies

Merely repeating information over and over is called _____, while focusing on the meaning of the information to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory is called ______.

Maintenance rehearsal; elaborative rehearsal

Elaine remembers a dream in which a car parked in front of her house and a man with a baseball bat kept getting in and out of the car. According to Sigmund Freud's theory, the specific dream details that Elaine remembers are called the ____ content.

Manifest

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows that:

Much of what we learned is forgotten very quickly.

After Fernanda buys stock in a "hot" new start-up company, the company fails and she loses all of her money. Fernanda no longer invests in start-up companies. This is an example of:

Negative punishment

To avoid losing any data on his computer, Tom consistently backs up his computer data to a second hard drive. Using operant conditioning terms, Tom behavior of backing up his data to a second hard drive is an example of:

Negative reinforcement by avoidance

After she realized that the mosquito had bitten her and her hand was starting to itch, Akai rubbed some cortisone cream on the swollen spot, and the itching stopped. The next time a mosquito bit her, she applied cortisone cream immediately to relieve the itching. Using operant conditioning terms, this is an example of:

Negative reinforcement by escape

The brain's ability to change function and structure is referred to as:

Neuroplasticity.

The branch of science that is concerned with the study of the nervous system, especially the brain, is called:

Neuroscience.

Synaptic vesicles contain:

Neurotransmitters

You see the following news item: "Actor Nicolas Cage can be dangerous to your health. Professor Kettle at UCLA has found a strong positive correlation between the number of people who drown in pools each year and the number of films that the actor appears in." All data in the correlation is in fact accurate. Should you take it seriously.

No

Which psychologist established the first psychology lab in the United States and also founded the American Psychological Association (APA).

None of the above.

John B. Watson believed that psychology should focus on the study of:

Observable behavior.

Standing at an arrival gate, you scan the faces of the passengers as they walk off the plane as you look for you friend. This visual information is being processed in your ____ lobe.

Occipital

Smell is also referred to as:

Olfaction

Like other people afflicted with ____, actor Michael J. Fox takes a medication that increases ____ levels to help control symptoms of the disease.

Parkinson's disease; dopamine.

What is one of the biggest weaknesses of surveys?

People may be dishonest in their answers.

An employee wears jeans to work and is reprimanded by his supervisor for dressing inappropriately. From then on, the employee wears formal suit to work. This is an example of:

Positive punishment

You make a comment in your workgroup meetings, and a coworker responds with a sarcastic remark. You no longer speak during your workgroup meetings. This is an example of:

Positive punishment.

Trail and error is defined as a:

Problem-solving strategy that involves attempting different solutions and eliminating those that do not work.

Implicit memory is to ______ as explicit memory is to ______.

Procedural information; episodic and semantic information.

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes refers to:

Psychology

During which stage of sleep do dreams occur?

REM sleep

Classical conditioning involves ____, while operant conditioning involves ____.

Reflexive behaviors; voluntary behaviors

Classical conditioning is to operant conditioning as _____ are to _____.

Reflexive, involuntary responses; nonreflexive, voluntary responses.

When evaluating research claims it is important to engage in ____, which involves actively questioning results and repeating studies.

Replication.

Problem solving is defined as:

Resolving or overcoming obstacles to reach a desired goal.

_____ is the process of accessing information stored in long-term memory.

Retrieval

Prospective memory refers to remembering to do something in the future: Problems with this type of memory are often due to:

Retrieval cue failure.

Which of the following statements best captures the essence of Thorndike's law of effect?

Rewarded behaviors are more likely to be repeated, while unrewarded behaviors are less likely to be repeated.

The amount of information that can be held in long-term memory:

Seems to be limitless.

Your general knowledge of words, facts, names, definitions, and other assorted trivia reflects which type of long-term memory?

Semantic memory

In order to answer this test item, you must read the words on this page. Detecting the black marks on the page relies on the process of ____, and the ability to interpret these black lines and curves as letter and words involves the process of ____.

Sensation; perception.

Jill runs a hot bath. She starts to get into the tub, but the water feels extremely hot. She stands in the hot water for few minutes, then slowly sits down, easing the rest of her body into the water. After a few minutes, she feels quite comfortable; the water no longer feels too hot to her. This decline in sensitivity to a constant stimulus that Jill has experience is called:

Sensory adaptation

Because she didn't have a piece of paper handy, Mary mentally repeated the long-distance phone number over and over. Mary was trying to keep this information in her _____ memory.

Short-term

The primary organ associated with touch is the ____ which weighs approximately ____ pounds.

Skin; 6

_____ is the process of retaining information in memory so that it can be used at a later time.

Storage

Motivated forgetting of a painful or embarrassing memory because we don't want to consciously remember the information called:

Suppression

What is the cognitive penalty we face when changing between multiple tasks?

Switching costs

Communication between two neurons occurs at the :

Synapse

During the middle of a test, your instructor announces that there's a typographical error on one of the questions. As you listen, the auditory information is being processed in your ____ lobe.

Temporal

Functional fixedness is defined as the:

Tendency to view objects as functioning only in their usual or customary way.

The primary communication link between the left and right cerebral hemisphere is called:

The Corpus Callosum

Which part of the neuron receives messages from other neurons.

The dendrite

In psychology, the term sensation formally refers to:

The detection of external stimuli and its transmission to the brain.

Which of the following best defines neurogenesis?

The development of new neurons

In contrast to sensation, the term perception is formally defined as the:

The process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensory data.

Generating hypotheses, designing experiments, obtaining results, and drawing conclusions are part of a cyclical pattern associated with which of the following?

The scientific method.

Insight is defined as:

The sudden realization of how a problem can be solved.

The term cognitive refers to what:

Thinking or thought processes.

Why was the split-brain operation first performed?

To help control recurring epileptic seizures

When there is a limited range of possible solutions, _____ can be a useful problem-solving strategy.

Trail and error.

The process by which physical energy, such as light, is converted into a coded neural signal that can be transmitted to and interpreted by the brain is calledP

Transduction

In terms of multitasking, our brain can really only do one complex task at a time.

True

Psychologists formally define learning as a process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior as a result of experience.

True

Research on taste aversions demonstrated that classical conditioning can occur with a single pairing.

True

Stereotypes are mental schemas specific to certain groups of people.

True

Studies show that we can selectively focus our attention to tune out unimportant information. But we must still process that information on some level to determine it is unimportant.

True

The Activation Synthesis Model posits that dreams are the random side effect of neurons finding.

True

The mental concept of a cat may include many of tis key characteristics, such as small in size, whiskers, fur, and meowing.

True

The process of classical conditioning was accidentally discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who was studying the role of saliva in digestion.

True

The right side of your brain controls movements on the left side of the body and vice-versa.

True

The study of psychology has its roots in philosophy.

True

Whenever Margaret has personal problems, she confides in two co-workers who listen very attentively and offer her emotional support. The amount of time that Margaret spends discussing her personal problems with co-workers has steadily increased. Positive reinforcement is occurring in this example.

True

You take two aspirins to remove a headache. Thirty minutes later, the headache is gone. You are now more likely to take aspiring to deal with bodily aches and pain in the future. In other words, negative reinforcement by escape has occurred.

True

A hypothesis is a testable predication or question.

True.

Ethical codes guide researchers in protecting the dignity and welfare of participants.

True.

Exposure to uncontrollable aversive events from which you cannot escape can produce passive behavior, called learned helplessness.

True.

The study of psychology has its roots in physiology.

True.

To ensure that a research sample better represents the overall population, you should do the following when selecting participants:

Use random selection.

According to ____, whether we can detect a change in the strength of a stimulus depends upon the intensity of the original stimulus.

Weber's Law

In a study by Elizabeth Loftus, subjects watched a film of an automobile accident, then answered a series of questions, including one asking them to automobile accident, then answer a series of questions, including one asking them to estimate the speed of cars. What factor affected the subjects' estimate of how fast the cars in the film was traveling?

Whether the word contacted, hit, bumped, collided, or smashed was used in the quesitons.

____ is considered the father of American Psychology.

William James

Qualitative research expresses data in ____ while quantitative data expresses data in ____?

Words; numbers

In research, the term sample refers to a(n):

a selected individuals from the larger group that is to be studied.

The best candidates for hypnosis are people who:

can easily become immersed in fantasy and imaginary experiences.

Insomnia is characterized as:

complaints about the quality or duration of sleep, the difficulty in going to sleep or staying asleep, or the waking before it is time to get up.

Phantom limb pain occurs when a person experiences pain:

in an absent body part which is removed by amputation.

Prior to conditioning, a dog does not salivate to the sound of a ringing bell. At this point, the ringing bell is a(n):

neutral stimulus

Narcolepsy is characterized by:

overwhelming bouts of excessive daytime sleepiness and brief, uncontrollable episodes of sleep, which are called microsleeps or sleep attacks.

REM is an acronym that stands for:

rapid eye movement.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease that involves:

the degeneration of patches of the myelin sheath that causes the transmission of neural messages to be slowed or interrupted.