Psychology Midterm

Which of the following statements is true of observational learning?

It takes place when a person notices and imitates another's behavior

Pavlov's dog salivated to the sound of a bell because the bell had become

associated with food

Melanie is learning how to read Spanish by speaking aloud one letter at a time. Melanie is engaging in

bottom-up processing

Aaron wants to study the association between sleep deprivation and the number of hours spent on a computer every day. He is not keen to establish causation, but would like to determine whether and how the increase or decrease in one variable is related to the increase or decrease in the other variable. Which of the following research methods is likely to be most effective for Aaron's study?

correlational research

Which of the following attitudes are central to the scientific approach to psychology?

critical thinking, curiosity, skepticism, and objectivity

Which of the following is subdivided into episodic and semantic memory?

explicit memory

Cognitive psychology is the study of

mental processes

Professor Stenson is examining the effects of color on patients' anxiety levels. She randomly assigns patients to either a room painted white or a room painted black, and then she records their blood pressure. In this case, the independent variable is the

room color

Which of the following is a function of the myelin sheath?

speed up the transmission of nerve impulses

In the context of Albert Bandura's observational learning model, seeing a model being punished for an activity makes an observer less likely to repeat the behavior. This process is called

vicarious punishment

________ is most often regarded the "founding father" of modern psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt

Plasticity best reflects which of the following characteristics of the nervous system?

adaptability

The ________ approach emphasizes the scientific study of observable actions and/or responses and their environmental determinants.

behavioral

________ refers to the process by which information gets into memory storage.

encoding

A prototype is a

representation of the average or ideal member of a concept

A person's knowledge about the world is known as ________ memory.

semantic

Which of the following is the best example of an unconditioned response?

sneezing after sniffing pepper

Which of the following is an example of behavior?

two people holding hands in a park

________ refers to the soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment.

validity

Watson and Rayner used a ________ along with an unconditional stimulus in order to condition fear in little Albert.

white rat

A six-year-old child with a mental age of 6 would have an IQ of

100

Which of the following is an advantage of conducting psychological research in a laboratory?

A laboratory is a controlled setting with many of the complex factors of the real world removed

______ is the initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired.

Acquisition

The ________ has developed ethics guidelines for its members, and the ________ evaluates the ethical nature of research conducted at their colleges and universities.

American Psychological Association (APA); Institutional Review Board (IRB)

According to American linguist Noam Chomsky, identify a true statement about language universals.

Children learn language without an awareness of its underlying logic

Which of the following is true of concepts?

Concepts provide clues about how to react to a particular object or experience

In the context of memory processes, which of the following scenarios best illustrates the process of encoding information?

Deborah is watching a movie in the theater

_______ refers to auditory sensory memory, whereas ________ refers to visual sensory memory.

Echoic memory; iconic memory

Which of the following is true of algorithms and heuristics used for solving real-life problems?

Heuristics are shortcut strategies

According to ________ there are three forms of intelligence, whereas according to ________ there are nine types of intelligence.

Sternberg's triarchic theory; Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

________ states that memory storage involves three separate systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

The Atkinson-Shiffrin theory

Which of the following statements is true about algorithms?

They come in different forms, such as formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions

Which of the following is a potential problem of using correlational studies in psychological research?

They fail to establish a clear causal relationship between variables

Which of the following principles states that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different?

Weber's Law

Ellie has recently experienced irregular mood swings. Her energy level has decreased, and she seems to have greater difficulty coping with stress. Based on her symptoms, it seems as though Ellie may have problems with her ________ glands.

adrenal

You are listening to a lecture. Then the bell rings in the hallway. In order to hear this stimulus, ________ nerves must carry electrochemical messages from your ears to your brain.

afferent

In the United States, intelligence is generally defined as

an all-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience

Lucy sustained a brain injury in a car accident. Although Lucy's memories of her life before the accident are intact, she is no longer able to form new, long-term memories. Every night when she goes to bed, her memories of what she had done that day are lost. Lucy suffers from

anterograde amnesia

Marshall's cerebellum was damaged in a car accident. Marshall is likely to have problems with

balance and muscle coordination

Dr. Okawa is interested in studying the effect that neurological trauma can have on short-term memory. Firstly, he collects detailed information from a small number of individuals who have experienced brain damage. Using information provided by medical records, interviews, and observations, he attempts to create an in-depth portrait of each individual. What type of research method was used in this study?

case study

The ________ approach to psychology views the mind as an active and aware problem-solving system. This view contrasts with the ________ outlook, which portrays actions as controlled by external environmental forces.

cognitive; behavioral

Andrea, a psychologist, conducts a study to determine the effect of students' ages on their college grades. She divides a class into two groups: Below Age and Above Age. Members of the Below Age group are less than 18 years of age, whereas members of the Above Age group are 18 years of age or above. In this scenario, which of the following illustrates the dependent variable?

college grades

People's decisions are likely to be biased because they tend to seek out and listen to others whose views confirm their views while they avoid those with dissenting views. This is a characteristic of

confirmation bias

Emily selects a new paint color for her bedroom. She notices a difference between sky blue and midnight blue. Emily's ability to distinguish between these two colors can best be explained by the concept of

difference threshold

In the country of Calibria, men prefer to date women with wide hips because they believe that these women are able to reproduce better. This scenario most likely illustrates the ________ to psychology.

evolutionary approach

In the context of psychological research methods, which of the following refers to a carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable?

experiments

The ________ is the principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out and those that are left over.

figure-ground relationship

Carolina uses a prior strategy to solve her problems and fails to look at them from a fresh, new perspective. Which of the following is exemplified in this scenario?

fixation

Samuel, a line worker in a factory, is required to produce 50 units to be paid $10. In the context of the schedules of reinforcement, this scenario most likely exemplifies a

fixed-ratio schedule

Which of the following is the best example of a primary reinforcer?

food

Which of the following describes the trait of a critical thinker?

grasping the deeper meaning of things

Fifteen-year-old Matt and his father are in an electronics store looking at video game systems. Matt gives his father a complete breakdown of the pros and cons of each of the different video game systems on display. According to research on encoding processes, Matt is able to accurately recall all this information because he

has deeply processed this information

Working memory

holds information temporarily while cognitive tasks are being performed

The chemical messengers produced by the endocrine glands are known as

hormones

According to evolutionary psychologists,

human behavior is traceable to problems early humans faced in adapting to their environments

According to the principle of ________, all participants must know what their participation will involve and what risks might develop.

informed consent

A person suffering from retrograde amnesia will

lose past memories and the ability to acquire new memories will remain unaffected

The removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior is called

negative reinforcement

Which of the following types of cells in the nervous system handle the information-processing function?

neurons

Which of the following goals of science does the empirical method best fulfill?

objectivity

Lilly, who has just given birth, is able to provide nourishment for her baby and loves her newborn unconditionally. Which of the following neurotransmitters is said to play an important role in this case?

oxytocin

In the context of the autonomic nervous system, the ________ calms the body.

parasympathetic nervous system

The somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system are components of the

peripheral nervous system

________ is a language's sound system.

phonology

Multiple choice exams involve testing a student's ________ abilities, whereas essay exams involve testing ________ abilities.

recognition; recall

Mateo, a waiter at a restaurant, usually takes food orders from customers. On his way back to the kitchen, he consciously repeats the orders in his mind so that he does not forget them. In the context of short-term memory, Mateo applies the technique of ________ to remember the orders.

rehearsal

The process by which a stimulus or an event following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again is called

reinforcement

You are taking both a Spanish and a French course this semester. As you study the vocabulary words for your French test, you realize that the French words are disrupting the memory of the Spanish vocabulary words you studied last week. This is an example of

retroactive interference

Your knowledge of the alphabet and multiplication tables is most likely to be stored in your ________ memory.

semantic

You arrive at your friend's apartment for a big party at the end of the college semester. When you first arrive, the music is so loud that it almost hurts your ears. After a couple of hours, even though the music is still as loud, it no longer bothers you or seems loud. This change in your sensations describes the process of

sensory adaptation

According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin theory, which of the following memory systems has a time frame of up to 30 seconds?

short-term memory

Dr. Badal, a psychologist, is studying achievement motivation among groups of African American, Latino, and Asian American people. In this scenario, Dr. Badal is most likely practicing the ________ approach to psychology.

sociocultural

If you were a psychologist who adopted the structuralism approach, you would be interested in the ________ of the mind, using ________ as your primary research method.

structures; introspection

If a person needs to run away from a dangerous situation, the ________ nervous system sends blood to the person's extremities to prepare him or her for taking off.

sympathetic

In operant conditioning,

the consequences of behavior produce change in the probability of the behavior's occurrence.

Maya burns her fingers while cooking dinner. Which of the following divisions of the nervous system will be primarily responsible for the pain she feels?

the somatic nervous system

One of gestalt psychology's main principles is that

the whole is different from the sum of its parts

In classical conditioning, the ________ is unlearned, but the ________ is learned.

unconditioned response; conditioned response