General Psychology Midterm Exam, Exams of Psychology

Download General Psychology Midterm Exam and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! General Psychology Midterm Exam The nervous system is directly responsible for all of the following activities except - secreting hormones into the bloodstream. Neurons have some similarities with other cells in the human body. Which of the following characteristics is seen in neurons, but not in most other cells? - The ability to transmit signals to other cells If the myelin sheathing on neurons is absent or removed in a given individual, he or she will exhibit difficulties in speaking, vision, and balance because without myelin the - speed of neural conduction along critical paths will be too slow. Identifying certain types of brain functions (language skills, for instance) as lateralized means that - they are performed most efficiently by one or the other of the two cerebral hemispheres. Which of the following is not one of the three main classes of neurotransmitters used in the nervous system? - hormones An action potential has just sped down one of your motor neurons to jerk your hand off the hot stove. Before an action potential will speed through this neuron again, the membrane of the neuron must become repolarized. The time between the action potentials is called the __________ period. - refractory In the fiber tracts of the central nervous system, you are most likely to find ________ of neurons. - axons Biological psychology is the study of the __________ changes that cause, or occur in response to, behavior and mental processes. - physical and chemical A neurotransmitter is released into a synapse, but it has no effect on a neighboring neuron. Which of the following best accounts for the unresponsiveness of the neighboring neuron? - The neighboring neuron's receptors do not accept this type of neurotransmitter. Which of the following is the most accurate statement about the hindbrain? - It is a continuation of the spinal cord The fact that a neuron fires in an all or nothing manner means that - a neuron either fires a full action potential or fires none at all. The most basic unit of communication in the human nervous system is the ________, which begins with dendrites and ends at axon terminals. - neuron The right hemisphere gets information from the __________ side of the body and has better __________ abilities than the left hemisphere. - left; spatial Damage to the locus coeruleus has been linked to all of the following except - memory loss Neurons communicate across the synapse by means of neurotransmitters, which bind to special proteins on the postsynaptic membrane, like a key fitting into a lock. In this analogy, the neurotransmitter is the key and the __________ is the lock. - receptor The main divisions of the peripheral nervous system are the __________ and the __________. - somatic; autonomic Use a double-blind design. Psychology is best defined as the - science that studies behavior and mental processes and applies that study to improve human welfare. Animals in psychological research typically experience - ethical treatment. Participants may be exposed to risk or discomfort during research - only when minimal risk and discomfort are outweighed by the benefit to the knowledge base and to human welfare. The modern age of psychology was "born" when - Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology research laboratory at the University of Leipzig. Psychologists who focus their research on processes like decision making, problem solving, and imagination would most likely be considered __________ psychologists. - cognitive A major limitation of naturalistic observation in the study of human behavior is that - there is no sure way to know what is causing the behavior being studied. The goals of research in scientific psychology are - description, prediction, control, and explanation. "The whole shape of conscious experience is not the same as the sum of its parts" is a belief proposed by which view of psychology? - Gestalt Which approach to psychology emphasizes decision making, problem solving, and intelligence? - cognitive A psychologist following the __________ approach is most likely to believe that people are driven to actions by unseen behaviors that are locked deep in their unconscious, hidden from their own awareness. - psychodynamic A psychologist with a humanistic approach would state that behavior is driven by - choices A psychologist proposed an experiment in which he would tell participants that their performance on an intelligence test was extremely low (regardless of actual performance) and then measure their self- esteem. What might an Institutional Review Board ethics committee say about such a proposal? - Deception is allowable only if it is revealed afterward and if the emotional distress that it causes is short-lived. Although psychology contains diverse subfields and approaches, two factors provide unity. One of these factors is that - psychologists in every subfield draw on and contribute to knowledge from other subfields. At the trial, the __________ psychologist testified that the defendant fit the profile for the crime committed. - forensic A cognitive psychologist would be most likely to design a study of - what processes are involved in problem solving. Cognitive psychologists are primarily interested in - studying memory, thinking, learning, and other mental processes. A psychologist is looking for a link between aggressive behavior and television violence. She measures the frequency of fighting and television-viewing habits of many twelve-year-old children. The psychologist concludes that children who watch more violent programming also get into fights more often. This is an example of - correlational research Scientific psychology is empirical because it relies on information from - experience and observation. Transduction of auditory information takes place in the - cochlea The __________ theory best explains the phenomenon of afterimages that remain in your visual field after you look away from a visual stimulus. - opponent-process Another name for neural receptors is ________. - sensory receptors The part of the brain that is particularly important in linking smells to memories and emotions is the ________. - amygdala The psychological dimensions loudness and pitch are determined by a sound wave's ________ and _______. - amplitude; frequency Which of the following structures in your ear would vibrate in response to listening to your favorite music on the radio? - The tympanic membrane On which auditory accessory structure would you be most likely to wear the beautiful diamond earring that you were given as a birthday gift? - the pinna Which neurotransmitters, created inside of the body, are responsible for blocking pain signals from being sent to the brain? - Endorphins Which of the following statements about culture, experiences, and perception is false? - As cultures become more Westernized, research on cross-cultural perceptual differences will become easier. Sensation is to perception as - collection is to interpretation The main question behind the study of depth and motion perception is - how the brain converts two-dimensional sensory input into three-dimensional perceptions. The largest single organ in your body is your - skin The visible part of the ear that can be seen on the side of your head is your ________. - pinna Alcohol and heroin are similar in that both - slow down mental and physical activity. Duncan is addicted to heroin and has to keep increasing his dosage to get the same effects. This effect of addiction is called - drug tolerance When your mental processes are sufficiently different from normal waking experience that you or an observer notice significant changes in how you function, you are in a(n) __________ state of consciousness. - altered Long-term users of barbiturates, such as sleeping pills, may experience all of the following symptoms except - extreme weight gain. After reading about meditation in psychology, you decide to try it. Which of the following benefits is most likely to result from your regular practice of meditation? - Decreased anxiety Jules just invented a new drug that acts as an acetylcholine antagonist. This means that Jules's new drug will - block the acetylcholine receptors so acetylcholine will have no effect. Dr. Kosmo van Nostrand studies how psychoactive drugs affect the brain by crossing the blood-brain barrier. This is known as the study of - psychopharmacology When people are deprived of __________ sleep, they compensate for the loss directly and show a rebound effect to recover from the loss - REM Vanessa desperately wants to end her addiction to alcohol. Her doctor suggests that she start taking a drug that prevents neurotransmitters associated with alcohol to bind to receptors and have their usual effect. The doctor is suggesting a(n) - antagonist What is the primary difference between a person in REM sleep and one in stage N3 sleep? - N3 sleep includes vivid dreams, while REM sleep is not a dream stage. The active ingredient in ________ is THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. - marijuana When Rapunzel was locked in a tower, she used cocaine every day. Now, although she has escaped from the tower and can function without the drug, she still feels that she needs cocaine for her sense of well- being. Rapunzel is experiencing - psychological dependence. Which of the following conditions, if left untreated, would you be most likely to detect in one of your instructors if your only contact with your instructor was in class? - Narcolepsy The process by which the brain can process visual information while a person is unaware of the experience of seeing a stimulus is called - blindsight REM behavior disorder has been found to be predictive of which condition that emerges later in life? - Parkinson's disease How do opiates compare with CNS stimulating and CNS depressant drugs? - Opiates depress activity in parts of the cerebral cortex and create excitation in other parts. In REM sleep, the EEG resembles that of a person who is awake and mentally active, but - the person's muscle tone decreases to the point of virtual paralysis. REM sleep is beneficial because the locus coeruleus is __________ during that sleep stage, and this improves the functioning of neurons that use __________ in the brain. - After being hypnotized in a therapy session, Juan says that he can't remember what went on. This phenomenon is known as - posthypnotic amnesia. People who experience posttraumatic stress disorder are at high risk of experiencing __________, which occur(s) during REM sleep and may be treatable with imagery therapy. - nightmares Bart awoke screaming, shaking, and sweating, and his heart was beating rapidly. Homer and Marge, being good parents, had Bart hooked up to an electroencephalograph. Checking Bart's EEG, they noted that Bart was in stage N3 sleep just before he awoke. From this information, they felt confident in saying that Bart had just experienced - sleep terror disorder. Which of the following is not a characteristic of REM sleep? - Lowered blood pressure compared to other stages of sleep Which of the following is not a theory of why we sleep? - Sleep provides time alone, away from social interaction. This theory postulates that dreams are meaningless random by-products of REM sleep. - Activation-synthesis Which of the following is true of sleep? - One passes through all stages of sleep, including REM, several times in a normal night. Betsy wants to train her dog to perform several tricks. She checks out a book on dog training that includes a chapter on how to use classical conditioning. Betsy learns that a dog is least likely to learn a conditioned response when the - conditioned stimulus predicts many different stimuli. Psychologists have defined learning as - a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to experience. Grasping how to perform a complex action sequence, such as driving a car, pitching a baseball, or playing the harmonica, is referred to as - skill learning. When an organism uses insight, it - thinks through possibilities, and then reaches a sudden understanding. Which of the following statements about cultural differences in scholastic achievement is true? - The significance of cultural differences in learning and teaching is not yet clear. Chuck works on the assembly line at Widgets, Inc. Because he is a union employee, he is paid $10 for every fifteen widgets he makes. His coworker, Sally, is a nonunion worker and is paid only when the company makes money, which averages out to be two times per month. Chuck is reinforced on a __________ schedule, while Sally is reinforced on a __________ schedule. - fixed-ratio; variable-interval The kind of reward schedule that is least resistant to extinction is ________ reinforcement. - Continuous One of the most difficult problems for any teacher is a child who consistently disrupts class. Researchers have shown that giving attention in the form of scolding to a disruptive child actually increases the child's misbehavior. In the terms of operant conditioning, the scolding is a - positive reinforcer Learned helplessness involves learning that - there is no relationship between one's behaviors and their consequences. A natural tendency to link certain stimuli with other stimuli (or responses) is called ________. - biopreparedness In Melody's class, she takes attendance on average every five to ten days, and students who are present receive extra points. Sometimes she will take attendance two or three days in a row, but she never lets the students know when this will happen. This is an example of what type of reinforcement schedule? - Variable-interval When administering punishment, it is not useful for the punishment to be - delayed, allowing the child to reflect on her behavior prior to punishment. Although punishment has several drawbacks, it is most effective when - the punisher identifies and reinforces more appropriate behavior. Hailey thinks that it doesn't matter how hard she studies for her classes. Sometimes she studies and other times she doesn't, but her grades are always the same. Soon, Hailey never studies because she doesn't see any reason to do so. Hailey is experiencing - learned helplessness. One day while Ted was cleaning his aquarium, he noticed the heater was still plugged in. He reached down with a wet hand and tried to unplug the cord. As a result, Ted received a shock. After that experience, Ted has never attempted to unplug an electrical cord with a wet hand. The effect the shock had on Ted's behavior is known as - positive punishment. Which of the following is true about the relationship between violence and watching violent TV? - Watching violent TV and violent behaviors are positively correlated. The most critical component of skill learning is - practice Which of the following statements best sums up the role of stimulus discrimination and stimulus control in operant conditioning? - present verbal and performance tasks separately. One of the criteria for a diagnosis of intellectual disability (or what the DSM-5 calls intellectual development disorder) is an IQ that has been assessed at or below around _____. - 70 Which of the following is still a problem faced by modern IQ tests? - Many test items are still drawn from the vocabulary and experiences of the dominant middle-class culture. Researchers are in the process of developing a new college entrance exam. They want to ensure that wherever the test is given, it will be administered, scored, and interpreted in the same manner. In other words, the researchers are concerned with - standardization. Which of these statements concerning language acquisition is true? - Humans must be exposed to speech before a certain age to learn complex features of language. A member of a natural concept that possesses all or most of its characteristic features is called a(n) ________. - prototype If intelligence were determined solely by heredity, the correlation of the IQ scores of identical twins would be - +1.00. Which of the following is found in Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence? - Creative intelligence Which of the following does not support Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences? - Modern intelligence tests have both verbal and performance scales. Group differences in IQ scores can be attributed to nongenetic factors. All of the following are noted as significant environmental influences except - geographic location. Ebony took the Aptitude to Succeed in College (ASC) test when she was a high school senior and scored very low. She went to college anyway and graduated with an A average. For kicks, she took the ASC again during her senior year in college. Again, she scored very low on it. The ASC has good statistical __________ but poor statistical __________. - reliability; validity If you wanted to use logic to reason through a solution to a social dilemma, you would likely use - a series of if-then statements. The best choice to test divergent thinking would be to - ask a subject to describe what would happen if all modern transportation methods were suddenly unavailable. Which of the following is a proposition? - Karla likes ice cream According to the textbook, most psychologists agree that the definition of intelligence includes all of the following except the ability to - perform well on standardized tests of intelligence. Which of the following situations is an example of using an algorithm to solve a problem? - Considering all the possibilities before moving a chess piece According to the textbook, it is difficult to define intelligence because - there is no universally agreed-upon definition. According to Terman's concept of intelligence quotient (IQ), a ten-year-old child with an IQ of 50 has - a mental age that is lower than her or his chronological age. When evaluating psychological research, it is important to scrutinize whether the collected data support or refute the original hypothesis. Which of the following errors is an experimenter most likely to make? - Ignoring conflicting data and seeing only that which supports the hypothesis Software programs receive information, represent that information with symbols, and then manipulate those representations. Such software constitutes a(n) - information-processing system. A computer programmer wants to study human thought processes using a computer information- processing model. He already knows that information-processing systems do all of the following except - rely on long-term memory only. Sternberg's triarchic theory emphasizes three different types of intelligence. Which of the following is not one of the three types? - Fluid Although they are all correct answers, which of the following would be the least effective example of a prototype for the concept of "fruit"? - Olive The first step in the "circle of thought" described in your textbook is to ________, while the last step is to ________. - describe; act To understand the sequence of commands necessary to edit, save, and retrieve a computer file, people may use a __________ that consists of propositions such as "Pressing the F10 key stores the file in a place on the disk," "Each file must have its own name," and so on. - mental model