Psychology Semester Test Study Guide

The ________ of a neuron contains ________ that house neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers of the nervous system.

dendrites; synaptic vesicles

What is the main idea of social learning theory?

One can learn new behaviors by observing others.

When you watch the teacher at the front of the room, you are easily able to distinguish her from the white board (or chalk board) behind her. This demonstrates the Gestalt principle of ________.

a figure-ground relationship

The two major divisions of the nervous system are the ________ and ________.

autonomic; somatic nervous systems

Which of the following is an example of instinct: unlearned knowledge that involves complex patterns of behavior?

baby seeking food by rooting and suckling

Which of the following brain processes is not a function of the cerebral cortex?

breathing

Which psychological perspective might advance the argument that our sleep patterns evolved as an adaptive response to predatory risks, which are higher during periods of darkness?

evolutionary

What do psychologists call a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience?

learning

Research shows that people who smoke cigarettes are more likely to get lung cancer than those who do not smoke. This research alone demonstrates that

there is a relationship between smoking and lung cancer

What is the main idea of operant conditioning?

Behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: reinforcements and punishments.

What is this Gestalt principle?

Closure, Proximity, Continuation

Which school of thinking in psychology includes the following concepts: figure-ground relationship, law of continuity, and principle of closure?

Gestalt

Which theory of dreams suggested that they do not, in fact, have any meaning at all but rather are simply the brain's attempt to make sense of random neural firing that occurs while we sleep?

The activation-synthesis model

Why did Zimbardo and his collaborators (1982) have to terminate their Stanford Prison Study?

The prisoners increasingly showed signs of individual and group disintegration.

Inter-rater reliability

assesses the consistency of observations by different observers.

In the initial period of learning, ________ describes when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

acquisition

Most people are awake during the day and asleep at night because their ________ cycles are aligned with the outside world.

circadian

When a child works on a "connect the dots" puzzle, she can often see the completed work before she has finished all of the dots. Once there is enough visual information present, she's able to perceive the completed picture even though it is still incomplete. Which Gestalt principle does this demonstrate?

closure

Grace whistles while tickling Khaleel with a feather. Eventually, Khaleel starts to squirm and giggle every time Grace whistles, even when he is not being tickled. In this example, squirming and giggling is a(n) ________.

conditioned response

Stanley was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to undergo several months of chemotherapy. During this time he would become very nauseated as a side effect, and unintentionally came to associate that nausea with his favorite grilled cheese sandwich. Now, years later, even thinking about a grilled cheese sandwich makes him sick. In this example, Stanley's nauseous reaction to a grilled cheese sandwich is the ________.

conditioned response

Molly attempts to condition her puppy to greet her when she enters the house. She repeatedly pairs her entry to the house with a treat for the puppy. The puppy eventually acquires this ability, and Molly realizes how irritating it is for the puppy to run up to her every time she enters the house. She attempts to make the puppy stop, and eventually the puppy no longer feels motivated to greet her when she enters the house. The puppy no longer greeting her when she enters the house is an example of ________.

extinction

The effects of neurotransmitters tend to be ________, whereas the effects of hormones tend to be ________.

faster; longer lasting

attrition

is a reduction in the number of research participants as some drop out of the study over time.

Tariq depends on cigarettes to relieve his stress, though he smokes so frequently that he experiences no significant, noticeable physical symptoms when he is not smoking. What does this exemplify?

psychological dependence

In order to maximize the chances that experimental groups represent the population of interest, researchers should conduct ________ and ________.

random sampling; random group assignment

Crack is regarded as more addictive than cocaine because it is ________.

smokable, so it reaches the brain more quickly

Gestalt psychology is base on the principle that:

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts