Deck 18: Psychology: Sensory Processing, Conditioning, Memory, and Biases

Question 1

The only research design that allows one to make cause-and-effect inferences is the ________ design.

A)case study
B)naturalistic observation
C)experimental
D)correlational

Answer 1

experimental

Question 2

Some parents of children with autism strongly believe that vaccines cause autism.They claim that the child was perfectly normal until the child received vaccines.Which is the best evaluation of these claims,from a psychological science perspective?

A)These parents are probably right.Psychological research strongly suggests that the world is exactly as we see it.
B)These parents are probably right.Psychological research strongly suggests that everyday intuition is almost always correct.
C)Although these parents may be right,a greater number of parents would have to make this claim in order to validate that vaccines cause autism.
D)Although these parents may be right,an illusory correlation could be responsible for the perceived link between vaccines and autism.

Answer 2

Although these parents may be right,an illusory correlation could be responsible for the perceived link between vaccines and autism.

Question 3

According to your authors,the discipline of psychology is best thought of as

A)a field of self-help principles to eliminate mental problems.
B)a science of human behaviour and mental processes.
C)a mixture of anecdotes and personal intuition about human behaviour and mental processes.
D)a process for encouraging people to reach their ultimate potential.

Answer 3

a science of human behaviour and mental processes.

Question 4

Correlational research designs are not appropriate for purposes of

A)prediction.
B)description.
C)causation.
D)random sampling.

Question 5

When participants pick up cues regarding what they think the experiment is about and how the experimenter may want them to act,they may alter their behaviour accordingly.This is known as

A)the experimenter expectancy effect.
B)demand characteristics.
C)the nocebo effect.
D)an illusory correlation.

Question 6

According to the authors,much of the knowledge from popular psychology sources

A)is not able to be studied empirically.
B)is consistent with the results of psychological research.
C)is of no or very little interest to psychologists.
D)is contradicted by what psychological research has demonstrated.

Question 7

Drs.Parks,Barkley,and Judds all assess the same client regarding the level of psychopathic traits that he demonstrates using a standardized test called the Psychopathy Checklist.Each professional scores the client very similarly,and all diagnose the client as psychopathic.In this example,the Psychopathy Checklist would be said to have

A)high test-retest reliability.
B)low external validity.
C)high interrater reliability.
D)high internal validity.

Question 8

A psychologist is often skeptical of claims suggesting

A)that a person's future behaviour is often difficult to predict accurately.
B)a particular behaviour is the result of a single causal factor.
C)people are influenced by others' thoughts and behaviours.
D)a person's culture is a strong influence on his or her everyday thoughts and behaviours.

Question 9

The most important factor to ensure that one's results apply to other people in other settings is to use

A)random assignment.
B)extremely large sample sizes.
C)random selection.
D)extremely small sample sizes.

Question 10

If you were to do a presentation on "Psychology's Great Debates," which of the following would be one of your key points?

A)Research indicates that most people possess a remarkable insight into the underlying cause(s)of their behaviour.
B)Psychologists consider the "mind" to be nothing more than brain and nervous system activity.
C)Evidence suggests that free will is illusory to some extent.
D)Different human behaviours result from levels of nature and nurture influences.

Question 11

Darwin hypothesized that populations of organisms,rather than individuals,change by selective breeding with other organisms possessing some apparent advantage.This is known as

A)brain evolution.
B)natural selection.
C)behavioural genetics.
D)behavioural adaptation.

Question 12

In order to protect their ideas from being falsified,psychics and palm readers will often claim that their abilities cannot be tested in the laboratory because the skeptical "vibes" of the experimenters interfere with their abilities.Which warning sign of pseudoscience does this example demonstrate?

A)Lack of self-correction
B)Use of psychobabble
C)Overuse of the ad hoc immunizing hypothesis
D)Overreliance on anecdotes

Question 13

Mobombi had completed about a quarter of the distance in the marathon in which he was a participant.Suddenly,he stumbled and fell.Despite feeling a sharp pain initially,he got up and continued to run until he completed the race.Upon crossing the finish line,he fell down writhing in pain.When checked out,it was discovered that Mobombi had broken his leg.He was able to run the remainder of the marathon relatively pain-free due to the release of

A)endorphins.
B)monoamines.
C)neuropeptides.
D)amino acids.

Question 14

Prosopagnosia is thought to result from damage to the temporal lobe,and __________ in particular.

A)the cingulate gyrus
B)basal ganglia
C)the fusiform gyrus
D)Wernicke's area

Question 15

The term statistical significance implies that the results are

A)extremely meaningful.
B)not likely due to chance.
C)valid.
D)important.

Question 16

People's genetic makeup is their

A)genome.
B)phenotype.
C)genotype.
D)mRNA.

Question 17

The ________ gland is known as the master gland because it controls the other glands in the body.

A)pituitary
B)pineal
C)thyroid
D)adrenal

Question 18

Your friend claims that psychology is a subjective art,and not an objective science.He says that psychology researchers will "see" whatever they want to see in their participants,just to prove a hypothesis.Based upon your textbook readings,you should explain to your friend that

A)he is describing the confirmation bias,but psychologists use a double-blind design or meta-analysis to alleviate this concern.
B)he is describing the availability heuristic,but psychologists use the case study design to alleviate this concern.
C)he is describing the representativeness heuristic,but psychologists use a double-blind design to alleviate this concern.
D)he is describing an illusory correlation,but psychologists use a correlational design to alleviate this concern.

Question 19

In science,a scientific theory is defined as a(n)

A)educated opinion about the natural world.
B)testable prediction about the natural world.
C)personal understanding of natural laws.
D)explanatory device for scientific findings.

Question 20

The _____________ is responsible for processing the vast amount of incoming sensory information and then relaying this information on to other areas of the cortex.

A)thalamus
B)hippocampus
C)hypothalamus
D)basal ganglia

Question 21

Hideki and Thao are reviewing for an exam.Thao asks the following question: "What term refers to how people use information from the past in the present?" Hideki would be most correct if he answered

A)elaborative rehearsal.
B)suggestive memory.
C)encoding.
D)memory.

Question 22

What system of memory has the largest span and longest duration?

A)Long-term memory
B)Flashbulb memory
C)Short-term memory
D)Sensory memory

Question 23

While on a cruise ship,Kevin became sick after eating a seafood dinner.His food poisoning coupled with sea sickness led to a terrible vacation and consequently Kevin shivers at the mere sight of cruise ships.Kevin's behaviour illustrates the process of

A)stimulus discrimination.
B)scapegoating.
C)acquisition.
D)stimulus generalization.

Question 24

One's subjective mental perspective and personal understanding of the world are what psychologists refer to as

A)perception.
B)sensation.
C)motivation.
D)consciousness.

Question 25

Which "club drug" has been associated with a disruption in patterns of brain activity that bring about a unified sense of self and body and results in reports of bizarre out-of-body experiences and feelings of detachment from the physical world?

A)Ecstasy
B)Fentanyl
C)Ketamine
D)Crystal meth

Question 26

For cancer patients,conditioned taste aversions can be very problematic as foods they eat prior to chemotherapy become associated with illness and vomiting.As a result,cancer patients may be asked to _________________ prior to chemotherapy treatments.

A)participate in systematic desensitization
B)engage in behaviours incompatible with illness to combat negative associations.
C)eat an unfamiliar scapegoat food that they aren't fond of
D)refrain from eating to limit conditioned taste aversions

Question 27

In Pavlov's "salivating dogs" studies,the salivation triggered by the sound of the tone was the

A)conditioned stimulus.
B)unconditioned stimulus.
C)conditioned response.
D)unconditioned response.

Question 28

The ability to detect physical energy through our visual or touch systems is known as

A)accommodation.
B)transduction.
C)sensation.
D)perception.

Question 29

What experimental apparatus has been used to study depth perception in infants?

A)Escher lithographs
B)Zener cards
C)The Ames Room
D)The visual cliff

Question 30

________ occurs when people require larger amounts of a drug to experience the same effects experienced during their initial usage.

A)Satiety
B)Physical withdrawal
C)Psychological withdrawal
D)Tolerance

Question 31

The organization and interpretation of olfactory information is one example of

A)transduction.
B)accommodation.
C)perception.
D)sensation.

Question 32

Audience members at hypnosis demonstrations are often amazed by seemingly extraordinary events.They seem to have failed to realize that the persons who are on stage demonstrating the power of hypnosis were selected for their

A)reactivity.
B)suggestibility.
C)gullibility.
D)flexibility.

Question 33

Which of the following describes the main difference between observational learning and operant conditioning?

A)Observational learning uses punishment and reinforcement of models to condition the behaviours of observers.
B)Observational learning uses mainly punishment to condition behaviour as compared to operant conditioning,which uses both reinforcement and punishment.
C)Observational learning uses different schedules of punishment and reinforcement to condition behaviours as compared to operant conditioning.
D)Observational learning uses mainly reinforcement to condition behaviour as compared to operant conditioning,which uses both reinforcement and punishment.

Question 34

One's difficulty in attaining adequate nightly sleep would likely be diagnosed as a psychological disorder

A)if it interferes with daily activities such as work and negatively impacts a person's health.
B)even if it occurs relatively infrequently.
C)only if the person feels that the lack of sleep is causing problems in other areas.
D)when it results from a deliberate choice,such as studying all night for an exam.

Question 35

During lecture each day,a psychology professor may explain four main points he or she wishes the class to retain.However,most students do not think about the material again until the following class period two days later.The forgetting that occurs between classes is most likely the result of

A)bias.
B)interference.
C)decay.
D)suggestibility.

Question 36

Regarding operant conditioning,which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?

A)A student is sent to detention for fighting.
B)A student loses earned free time for playing with lab equipment.
C)A student turns in neater homework when the teacher praises neatness.
D)A student is exempted from a weekly quiz for exemplary homework.

Question 37

Charlie is participating in a psychology experiment where the researcher asks him to listen to noises on a set of headphones.He is administered many test trials,and after each one he is required to respond as to whether he heard a sound or not.Based on signal detection theory,if a sound was presented on the headphones but Charlie responded that there was no sound,this is an example of a

A)true negative.
B)false negative.
C)true positive.
D)false positive.

Question 38

Which of the following sensory difficulties is argued to be the most dangerous?

A)Pain insensitivity
B)Loss of smell
C)Deafness
D)Blindness

Question 39

Which of the following is a misconception regarding the effects of alcohol?

A)Heavy drinking over time is associated with brain damage and memory loss.
B)Mixing diet drinks with alcohol reduces the risk of intoxication.
C)Coordination can be affected for as long as 10-12 hours after drinking.
D)A "blackout" is a loss of memory for a period of time while drunk.

Question 40

Which of the following is correct regarding schedules of reinforcement?

A)Partial reinforcement allows for new behaviours to be learned more quickly as compared to continuous reinforcement.
B)Continuous reinforcement schedules involve reinforcing behaviour based on fixed time interval schedules.
C)Continuous reinforcement of target behaviour leads to greater resistance to extinction than does partial reinforcement.
D)Partial reinforcement of target behaviour leads to greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

Question 41

Your family dog is named "Happy." Anytime your young child sees a dog,she calls out "Happy." This is an example of

A)incorrect word meaning.
B)overextension.
C)comprehension before production.
D)underextension.

Question 42

In answering this,and all other questions for this exam,you are making use of

A)priming.
B)encoding.
C)storage.
D)retrieval.

Question 43

The best predictor of whether someone will achieve fluency in a second language is

A)the simplicity of the second language's structure.
B)motivation.
C)IQ.
D)the age of acquisition.

Question 44

Tristan is trying to hang a picture on his dorm wall and has found a nail but cannot locate a hammer.Although he searches his dorm room,he eventually gives up on hanging the picture because he can't find anything to pound the nail into the wall.What Tristan failed to consider was that he could have used a shoe or his baseball bat to pound the nail into the wall.Tristan has experienced what obstacle to problem solving?

A)Salience of surface similarities
B)Mental set
C)Functional fixedness
D)Availability heuristic

Question 45

Language is

A)a communication system that includes words,but not gestures.
B)rarely ambiguous.
C)a symbolic system of communication.
D)a communication system that requires little implicit processing.

Question 46

Schemas can help us navigate a complex world.Yet our schemas are not always correct.This best illustrates which of the following themes from your textbook?

A)Our intuitions are usually correct,but can occasionally deceive us.
B)Contrary to popular belief,our memories are very poor.
C)Adaptive processes of simplification can sometimes be maladaptive.
D)Our intuitions can help protect us against scientific error.

Question 47

We often take the complexity of language for granted.This is in part because

A)language acquisition requires little practice.
B)language acquisition is easy.
C)humans do not often consider complex phenomena.
D)our use of language is generally automatic.

Question 48

Due to highly publicized terrorist attacks in the past decade,we are more aware of the presence of terrorism and are likely to overestimate the extent to which acts of terrorism actually occur.Which heuristic or bias is the culprit for these errors in thought?

A)representativeness heuristic
B)availability heuristic
C)overconfidence bias
D)hindsight bias

Question 49

The view that language defines our thinking reflects what approach to language?

A)Linguistic determinism
B)Sapir-Wharf hypothesis
C)Linguistic relativity
D)General cognitive processing account

Question 50

Eyewitness testimony has been found to be most accurate when

A)a weapon is used in the commission of a crime.
B)the witness is distracted or must fill in gaps in their memory with stereotyped information.
C)the witness is presented a simultaneous,as opposed to a sequential,line-up.
D)the witness has ample time to observe the person under good viewing conditions.