PSYC 101 Unit 2

Which of the following is the best definition of hypnosis?

A form of relaxation in which focus is diminished and suggestibility is increased

Which of the following best explains the concept of "levels of awareness" in respect to consciousness?

Awareness is a continuum that includes both high and low awareness

In order to study the brain wave activity of different areas of the brain, researchers use which of the following techniques?

EEG (electroencephalogram)

____ conditioning can contribute to the development of anxiety disorders such as phobias and panic disorder.

Fear

Which of the following is a cost of low awareness?

It can be influenced by subtle factors

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" (PEMDAS) is a popular way for math teachers to help their students remember the order of operations (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction). This is an example of

Mnemonic devices

Which of the following statements accurately presents a major difference between operant and classical (Pavlovian) conditioning?

Operant addresses voluntary behaviors while Pavlovian addresses reflexive responses

Research suggests that sleep functions include

Physical and brain development improved performance on tasks strengthening memories

True or False: Both positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood of a response.

True

Research suggests that media violence may increase viewer's aggressive behaviors through a variety of ways. Which of the following is correct?

Viewers learn new aggressive behaviors through modeling. Viewers come to believe that aggression is usually rewarded. Viewers become desensitized to violence.

____ explains why a person in a quiet room is more startled by the ringing of a telephone than a person who is already in a noisy room.

Weber's law

The smallest intensity at which you are able to detect a stimulus refers to the _____ threshold.

absolute

The electrical current that travels down the axon of a neuron is known as what?

action potential

The _______ division of the peripheral nervous system controls the involuntary movements of the heart, glands, lungs, and other organs.

autonomic

If a person was in an accident in which she suffered mild brain damage to her visual cortex, but still received visual signals through V5 activation, she might suffer from "cortical blindness." Her symptoms could include

being able to see but not having any conscious awareness of sight

The difference in the visual image of an object projected to each eye provides an important cue for depth that is referred to as

binocular disparity

The single most basic part of the human brain - a part that is seen in other, less-evolved animals - is the ___. This essential area helps to regulate such critical functions as breathing, digestion, and the beating of your heart.

brainstem

The two main parts of the nervous system are

central and peripheral

13-year old Laila is taken to her doctor when her parents recognize that she is having symptoms related to her movement and posture. The doctor sends her to a neurologist, who orders an MRI of her brain. The doctor is not surprised to find out that Laila has a small growth on her ___, and speaks to the parents about how this will be treated so that Laila's symptoms will resolve.

cerebellum

Higher mental functions that distinguish humans from other species are localized in the brain's

cerebral cortex

The sense of smell is sometimes referred to as a "chemical" sense because

chemical stimuli are transformed in electrical signals.

"What's your ID number?" the associate asks over the phone. "Seven, six, four . . ." you begin. After a brief pause, you continue, "seventy-two . . . sixteen thirty-eight." To ease the burden on the associate's short-term memory, you are giving the number in ______ rather than as individual digits.

chunks

The cone is responsible for which type of sensation?

color

Dr. Robins is a psychologist with an interest in photography. She wants to see if she can train people to salivate when they look at photographs. In her research, participants look at photographs of trees while lemonade crystals are placed on their tongues. The lemonade causes them to salivate. Over the course of many trials, people start to salivate to the photographs alone. In this situation, the photographs serve as the

conditioned stimuli

Caitlin loves to get email from her friends back home. Her computer makes a "boing" noise every time an email arrives. Before she got this computer, the "boing" noise meant nothing to her, but now she really loves that noise. The "boing" on her computer has become, for Caitlin, a(n)

conditioned stimulus

Your psychology professor calls on you during class. The first thought that goes through your mind is, "Why me?" This thought could be characterized as

consciousness

Cathy carefully walks down the aisle of the dark movie theatre. After hesitating a few times, she finds an empty seat. After a short while she can distinguish her friend Suzy sitting a few rows ahead of her. Cathy has experienced the phenomenon known as

dark adaptation

The ______ threshold refers to the smallest amount of stimulation required to discriminate one stimulus from another.

difference

Rods are related to vision in _____ situations.

dimly lit

Which principle describes when an unusual event, typically in the context of similar events, will be recalled and recognized better than uniform events?

distinctiveness

Cocaine appears to produce its pleasurable effects by acting on the brain's level of

dopamine

Thinking about the meaning of the information to be reviewed and trying to form associations with information already in memory is called _____.

elaborative rehearsal

What type of signal directs the synaptic vesicles to release their neurotransmitters into the synapse?

electrical

When you tell your roommate about what happened on the way to class, that information is retrieved from _____ memory.

episodic

Stimulants are drugs that

have an arousal effect on the central nervous system, causing a rise in heart rate, blood pressure, and muscular tension.

Darcey is in a relaxed state with decreased self-consciousness. In this state she is open to suggestion. Which state is Darcey in?

hypnosis

The body's ability to regulate balance in temperature and nutrition is related to the

hypothalamus

Jules was recently in a motorcycle accident that damaged portions of her limbic system, particularly the hippocampus. You would not be surprised if Jules experienced a(n)

inability to consolidate new memories

Alcohol exerts its effects on the body by

increasing the inhibitory effect of GABA

The dorsal pathway allows your brain to compute

information about the self, objects, and motion allowing you to avoid obstacles

In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is

initially neutral

The _____ jointly controls a variety of basic function including emotions and self-preservation.

limbic system

The perception associated with the amplitude of a sound wave is

loudness

When people are deprived of REM sleep, they show which of the following behaviors when they can rest without disturbance?

more REM sleep than normal.

Although, you may think that if you pay close attention to a bright spot, you must be aware of it. But that is not always correct. In the phenomenon, _______, bright discs completely vanish from your awareness in full attention.

motion-induced blindness

Sara's shoes hurt her feet terribly. She took them off and immediately felt relief. She is likely to take off her shoes again when they bother her. This behavior is an example of

negative reinforcement

What is the word for our ability to sense pain?

nociception

A child who learns to play kickball by sitting back and watching is engaged in

observational learning

Soon after the popular people in her group started to smoke cigarettes, Barb started smoking, too. Barb's behavior is an example of what kind of learning process?

observational learning

Patients who have experienced damage to the striate cortex sometimes show a phenomenon known as blind sight. In this case, MOST patients:

often guess correctly in response to where an object is located even though they report they cannot see it.

According to one theory of color vision, colors are signaled in pairs by neurons that fire faster to one color and slower to another color. The theory is known as the

opponent-process theory

Sometimes, after she has been staring at a computer screen for a long time, Jane looks at a blank wall and sees an image of the screen that resembles a photographic negative. Which theory BEST accounts for this visual phenomenon?

opponent-process theory

The ______ is important in that it functions to collect and amplify sound.

outer ear

Elizabeth was walking in the woods when she came across what she thought was a deadly coral snake. Her flight-or-fight response kicked in immediately, but then she realized that this was a harmless king snake that resembled the coral snake. She began to calm down as her ______ system kicked in.

parasympathetic

Sound waves have entered Natalie's ear and traveled through to her auditory nerve. What process that will now take place in which she identifies what the sound is?

perception

During her study of sensation and perception, Wilma notices that one of her classmates is wearing many earrings from her earlobe to the top of her ear. She begins to wonder if having such jewelry attached to one's ________ would cause any significant disruption in their ability to hear sounds.

pinna

If two sounds vary in frequency they are perceived as differing in

pitch

In which part of the brain do we perceive touch, temperature, and pain?

primary somatosensory cortex

The vestibular system is primarily responsible for

processing location and motion; problems would make it difficult to balance

The process by which a consequence decreases the probability of a response that precedes it is known as

punishment

Which of the following is the best definition of priming?

recent exposure to a stimuli increases accessibility to the traits associated with that stimuli

Which of the following is the best synonym for sensation?

reception

The testing effect refers to

repeated self-testing as a way to enhance retention of information

When a neuron is not conducting an electrical message, it has a charge of -70mV known as its

resting membrane potential

When we use the term "remembering" in day-to-day life, we are making reference to the memory process of

retrieval

Conrad took a unit quiz for his psychology class, but he only took it once, although he could take it multiple times. As a result he didn't see all the questions that were available in the quiz-bank. When he eventually studied for that unit exam, he only studied the information that was on the quiz that he had taken earlier. As a result he missed a number of questions. This phenomena is called

retrieval inhibition

If new experiences disrupt recall of old experiences, this is referred to as

retroactive interference

Edward Thorndike's experiments with caged cats showed that

satisfying responses are more likely to be repeated in subsequent situations

When exposed to adults who say one thing and do another, children will tend to

say the same things and do what they observed the adults did

What is the name of the physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs?

sensation

__________ is the activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy.

sensation

Joel was annoyed by the strong perfume his coworker was wearing. After some time, Joel didn't even notice the smell anymore. Joel had experienced ____.

sensory adaptation

When Jeremy first jumped into the pool, he almost jumped back out again because the water was so cold. After a while, the water temperature seemed almost like a warm bath. This is an example of:

sensory adaptation

Which of the following neurotransmitters is known to have an impact on such functions as sleep, hunger, and mood?

serotonin

What is the primary method used to study the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli?

signal detection

Broca's area is primarily responsible for which function?

speech production

In this stage of sleep, the individual is just entering sleep and the EEG closely resembles that of a person who is awake.

stage 1

Brain waves become slower and develop into delta waves during

stage 3 sleep

Which is the best definition of mindfulness?

state of heightened conscious awareness

A major function of the _____ division of the autonomic system is the fight-or-flight response in reaction to a threat.

sympathetic

Elizabeth was walking in the woods when she came across what she thought was a deadly coral snake. Her flight-or-fight response reacted as her blood pressure and pulse increased. This is the _______ division of the autonomic system.

sympathetic

Before they travel across the synapse to bind with receptors on the postsynaptic membrane, chemical messengers are stored in what location on the presynaptic membrane?

synaptic vesicles

About 1 in 200 people experiences a blending of senses such as perceiving a number or a letter as a color (e.g., "1" is seen as red). This is called

synesthesia

The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for which aspect of behavior?

taking care of the body's functions at rest

When Carla was a child, she ate too much cotton candy at the fair and became very ill. For many years she avoided cotton candy and even the smell of it made her sick. This example demonstrates

taste aversion conditioning

The ______ is a relay station in the brain handling information about the senses.

thalamus

The central nervous system (CNS) is composed of:

the brain and the spinal cord

Research on flashbulb memories indicates that

the details of these memories are not very accurate.

Being aware of the influence of hunger or other sources of bias can help people modify their attitudes against these biases. This is called

the flexible correction model

Tyler witnessed an automobile accident and heard one of the bystanders casually mention that the driver was probably intoxicated. Even though the driver had not been drinking and had never crossed the center line, Tyler tells the police officer who is investigating the accident that the car had been "weaving all over the road." Tyler's faulty recall illustrates

the misinformation effect

The fact that cones are most sensitive to either the color red, green or blue supports

the trichromatic theory of color vision

It is difficult to study the specialized abilities of the left and right cerebral hemispheres in the brains of normal individuals because

the two hemispheres share information quickly and completely

The reticular formation

transmits motor information