Psychology Scenarios

Little Albert developed a conditioned emotional response to:

A white rat

Caffeine is an antagonist that blocks the action of the neurotransmitter:

Adenosine

While crossing a busy street, Aadhya was nearly hit by a bus. For a moment, she saw her life flash before her eyes, her heart raced, and her palms began to sweat. In dangerous situations like this, the _____ is activated and the nervous system orchestrates Aadhya's physiological and emotional reaction of fear.

Amygdala

The somatic nervous system initiates voluntary muscle activity, and the _______ nervous system regulates involuntary activity

Automatic

_____ are a type of _____.

Barbiturates; depressant

Aria is deciphering a cryptic clue in a difficult crossword puzzle. An EEG of her brain would indicate _____ waves.

Beta

Researchers have helped the large Australian lizard called the floodplain goanna learn to avoid eating invasive, poisonous cane toads by exposing them to baby cane toads that cause nausea rather than death. Saving this endangered species has been accomplished using:

Classical Conditioning

_____ are branchlike fibers extending in from the neuron's cell body that receive signals from other neurons.

Dendrites

_____ are painkillers that are naturally produced by the body, whereas _____ are painkillers that are found or synthesized outside the body.

Endorphins; opiates

Lilliana took a drug-laced sugar cube that not only alleviated her pain but also made her see an array of colorful lights and flowers that did not actually exist. The drug was a:

Hallucinogens

Darnell underwent surgery to remove a tumor that was causing severe epilepsy. Now Darnell cannot form new memories of his experiences, although he does remember events in the past. All of the tissue removed from Darnell's brain was damaged. However, based on Darnell's symptoms, his surgeon suspects that some of the damaged tissue removed was part of the:

Hippocampus

In Neisser's classic study, the majority of participants did not notice an image of a woman superimposed on a video of men passing a basketball around.

Inattentional blindness

Dr. Thomas is preparing to conduct a research study on individuals with traumatic brain injuries. In order to document the extent of injury, subjects will undergo brain imaging at the start of the study. If Dr. Thomas is interested in documenting structural damage to the brain, which imaging technique should she use for the study

MRI

Sometimes patients who have been in a terrible car accident look more or less unharmed, but they are unable to breathe on their own and require a cardiac stimulator to keep their heart beating. If a person were an emergency first responder, it's likely they would know that damage to the _____ could cause these types of symptoms.

Medulla

How does the action of methamphetamine differ from that of cocaine?

Methamphetamine stays in the body longer that cocaine does.

The role of _____ is to protect and insulate the axon and to speed up the neural message.

Myelin sheath

_____ is believed to result from the loss of a specific type of neuron that regulates sleep-wake patterns. The symptoms are explained by occurrences of _____ sleep in the midst of wakefulness.

Narcolepsy;REM

Specialized cells that communicate with each other through electrical and chemical signals are called

Neurons

Dr. Gain is a physician in an emergency room. She has treated several patients who have reported taking a drug called Wonderwow. While Dr. Gain does not know exactly what Wonderwow is, she will classify it in her report as a hallucinogenic if it:

Produces distorted perceptions

_____ is characterized by movement during REM sleep and _____ is characterized by movement during non-REM sleep.

REM sleep behavior disorder; sleepwalking

One reason Carlos continues to work at his job is the pay check he receives every two weeks. Carlos' paycheck is a(n) _____ reinforcer, because it is associated with his ability to feed himself.

Secondary

Lena tells her friend she is feeling a bit sad. Her friend might suggest getting some exercise since physical activity may boost _____ activity.

Serotonin

The process of teaching complex behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior is called:

Shaping

A stroke damaged a portion of Broca's area in Joelle's will probably experience deficits in

Speech production

Tammy and Maureen enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. After the meal, each woman has a cigarette with a cup of coffee. How many psychoactive drugs have each of these women consumed?

Three

Operant conditioning applies to _____ behavior and involves associations between _____.

Voluntary; behavior and consequences

In classical conditioning, the neutral stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus during the _____ phase.

acquisition

Erin is under stress: She has only a few minutes to make a connection at a large, busy airport—and the gate is in another terminal! Which of her glands is probably releasing stress hormones?

adrenals

Nicotine mimics acetylcholine and causes the same activation. In contrast, curare blocks acetylcholine receptors. Nicotine is an acetylcholine _____ while curare is an acetylcholine _____.

agonist; antagonist

It's not possible to fire a gun softly or flush a toilet halfway. Like an action potential, gunfire and a toilet's flush follow the _____ law.

all-or-none

In one company, a team of associates is selling a consumer product over the telephone. For every tenth sale, associates receive a $100 cash bonus. The bonus is delivered on a _____ reinforcement schedule.

fixed-ratio

Eduardo is studying how dogs react to a loud banging noise. At first the dogs startle intensely in response to the noise, but after hearing the noise multiple times, their startle response becomes much less intense. This is an example of:

habituation.

Negative reinforcement is designed to _____ a behavior, and punishment is designed to _____ a behavior.

increase; decrease

After an action potential, the neuron:

is restored to resting potential.

If students who are late to class on exam day are not allowed to use their notes when taking the exam, this would be an example of:

negative punishment

In a Skinner box, a rat escapes painful electric shock by pressing a lever. The rat's bar-pressing behavior is conditioned through:

negative reinforcement

Tracy is a permissive parent and is often too busy to discipline her son. Instead, when her son whines, she gives him whatever he wants. At first, her son would whine for a few minutes. Now Tracy has to endure her son's incessant whining for hours before eventually giving in. Tracy's behavior is being maintained by _____ reinforcement, and her son's whining is being maintained by _____ reinforcement.

negative; positive

On the way home from the library, Mark was frightened by people hiding in a tree as part of a prank. Now that he is home safe, activation of Mark's _____ nervous system is causing him to feel hungry.

parasympathetic

Dr. Zhuo is a developmental psychologist talking to parents about the issue of children viewing violent media. Dr. Zhuo's take home message to parents is that according to research,:

parents should limit and supervise the amount of time children spend with electronic media

An undesired behavior is decreased by:

positive punishment and negative punishment.

A talent competition judge tells a contestant that her audition was "one of the best." The judge's praise is most likely an example of:

positive reinforcement

The two major divisions of the peripheral nervous system are the _____ and _____ divisions.

somatic; autonomic

When people suffer from obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea, they:

stop breathing periodically due to their airway passage closing off.

REM sleep is also called paradoxical sleep because:

the brain is active, but voluntary muscles are not

Operant conditioning applies to _____ behavior and involves associations between _____.

voluntary; behavior and consequences