Psychology 101- McNamara Fall ‘99 Exam 1

Part I: Multiple Choice Choose the BEST answer for each of the following. Mark your answers on the scantron sheet provided. Use a #2 pencil only.

1. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mind. For modern psychology, the basic difference between behavior and mind lies in:

1. Mind is subjective experience and behavior is objective and measurable.
2. Mind refers to thought process and behavior is just overt actions.
3. Mind and behavior are complementary.
4. Behavior is created by mind.

2. In the following, what does a psychologist usually NOT do?

1. Diagnose and treat abnormal behavior.
2. Extend the principles of scientific psychology to practical and daily problems.
3. Do research to understand how physical or genetic factors influence and determine behavior.
4. Prescribe clinical drugs to his / her clients for their psychological problems.

3. Jenn is a graduate student whose major area of interest is neuropsychology. You should expect that she is most interested in

1. Understanding underlying anatomic and physiological mechanisms for mental process and behavior.
2. Exploring neuro-logic of mind and behavior such as memory and learning.
3. Observing how people relate to each other and influence each other.
4. Understanding the internal factors that lead people to act consistently across various situations.

4. In the statistical description of a psychological experiment, which of the following measures can tell us about the variability of the data?

1. Mean
2. Mode
3. Median
4. Standard deviation

5. Mathematical techniques that help researchers decide whether recorded behaviors are representative of a population or whether differences among observations can be attributed to chance are called

1. Correlation research
2. Descriptive research
3. Descriptive statistics
4. Inferential statistics

6. Which of the following is true of the case-study method of research?

1. Lack of detailed information about individual people.
2. May have poor external validity.
3. Absence of an historical perspective.
4. Does not provide descriptive data.

7. Regarding the correlation coefficient, which of the following statements is true?

1. Correlation coefficients can be greater than 1.
2. A value of -1.0 indicates a perfect relationship between two variables.
3. The correlation coefficient assesses the variability among collected observations.
4. A positive correlation is good evidence of a causal relationship between two variables.

8. "Correlational research" is to "experiment" as

1. "internal validity" is to "external validity."
2. "random assignment" is to "selection."
3. "inferential" is to "descriptive."
4. "prediction" is to "causation."

9. If researchers want to know whether an activity, such as watching violence on TV, causes a change in behavior, they can conduct an experiment. In doing so, the aspect that the experimenter manipulates to change or influence behavior is called the

1. Independent variable
2. Dependent variable
3. Confounding variable
4. Expectancy variable

10. A technique ensuring that each participant in an experiment has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the conditions in the experiment is called:

1. single blind assignment
2. double blind assignment
3. expectancy study
4. random assignment

11. With respect to strengths and weaknesses of experiments, what is FALSE in the following statements?

1. Experiments are controlled investigations.
2. Experiments tend to establish cause and effect relationships.
3. Generalizability of experimental results to individuals or real-world situations is unlimited.
4. Confounding variables often make experiments less informative.

12. In psychological research, the cornerstone of ethical conduct is the principle of informed consent. Which statement about informed consent is best?

1. Participants in any form of research or therapy must be informed of any significant factors that could affect their willingness to participate.
2. Physical and emotional risks should be explained, as well as the general nature of the research project.
3. Once informed, participants can then willingly give their written consent agreeing or choosing not to participate.
4. All the above are true statements about informed consent.

13. In response to the Cartesian Impasse, Leibniz attempted to resolve the mind-body problem by proposing psychophysical parallellism which stated that

1. God is the only true cause and that mind and body had no influence on each other.
2. nothing exists independent of mind.
3. nothing exists independent of matter (body).
4. mind and body are separate entities existing in perfect synchrony.

14. Current fossil evidence that bipedalism developed in hominids well before the use of tools and social cooperation

1. contradicts Darwin’s original hypothesis about the evolution of the human brain.
2. supports Darwin’s original hypothesis about the evolution of the human brain.
3. contradicts a "synergistic" view of human brain evolution.
4. supports a "synergistic" view of human brain evolution.

15. Recent theories discussed in class about the evolution of the human brain draw a connection between brain size and

1. artistic expression.
2. eating meat.
3. tool use.
4. bipedalism.

16. About the central and peripheral nervous system, choose the correct statement in the following.

1. The central nervous system consists of only the brain.
2. The peripheral nervous system includes a part of spinal cord.
3. The peripheral nervous system includes autonomic and somatic subsystems.
4. The central nervous system receives information through efferent nerve pathways.

17. The neuron is a basic component of the nervous system. What does a neuron include?

1. Dendrites
2. Soma
3. Axon
4. All the above

18. When a neuron generates an action potential,

1. the electrical potential inside the cell needs to become less positive with respect to the outside.
2. the movement of positive ions into the cell sends the electrical potential from negative toward zero.
3. Sodium channels in the cell membrane shut down, not allowing sodium ions to flow inward.
4. The cell membrane potential becomes hyperpolarized.

19. What is the primary neurotransmitter that motor neurons release for muscle cells?

1. Dopamine
2. Acetylcholine
3. Serotonin
4. Glutamate

20. In the case of a flame touching your finger, the nervous system can produce a largely automatic body reaction to withdraw your hand, which is a reflex. Which of the following is true about reflexes?

1. The brain directly controls reflexes.
2. A reflex requires much input from the brain.
3. Reflexes primarily involve spinal cord pathways.
4. When a reflex happens, information travels via a motor neuron to the spinal cord.

21. The main characteristic of hormone regulation of the endocrine system is that is

1. localized and fast.
2. widespread and long-lasting.
3. localized and long-lasting.
4. without specific targets and throughout the body.

22. In the "fight-or-flight" response, the whole-body reactions are created by signals from the brain that lead to increased activity of the endocrine system. In this response process, the

1. hypothalamus stimulates the drenal gland directly.
2. pituitary gland secretes hormones that stimulate the adrenal glands.
3. pituitary gland secretes such hormones as norepinephrine and epinephrine that produce energizing effect.
4. adrenal gland decreases secretion of such hormones as norepinephrine and epinephrine.

23. What brain area is closely related to basic life support?

1. Forebrain
2. Midbrain
3. Hindbrain
4. Hippocampus

24. About the lobes of the cerebral hemispheres, choose the correct functional correspondence.

1. Frontal lobe : somatosensory processing
2. Parietal lobe: abstract reasoning
3. Temporal lobe : motor cortex
4. Occipital lobe : visual processing

25. Our brain areas can be localized with some specific functions. If a man who recovered from a stroke could repeat a spoken sentence aloud with perfect diction and control but not understand a word of it at all. Most likely, for him what brain area was damaged?

1. Hippocampus
2. Broca’s area
3. Wernicke’s area
4. Amygdala

26. What important thing does the tragic case of Phineas Gage tell us?

1. The frontal lobe can be only related to controlling voluntary body movement.
2. The frontal lobe can be related to sensation and perception.
3. The frontal lobe can be involved with higher functions such as personality and social behaviors.
4. The frontal lobe can be specialized to language function.

27. In a classic study of "split-brain" patients, as described in the video presentation, a variety of objects were presented visually either to left or to right visual fields. The results of this demonstration showed that

1. when an object was shown to the right visual field, the object could be easily named.
2. when an object was shown to the left visual field, the object could be easily named.
3. when an object was shown to the left visual field, the left hand could not point to it.
4. when an object was shown to the left visual field, the right hand could point to it.

28. According to the research on hemispheric specialization, the two hemispheres have different functional roles. What tends to be related to specialization of the left hemisphere?

1. Verbal tasks such as reading and writing.
2. Orienting oneself spatially in an environment.
3. Fitting together the pieces of a puzzle.
4. Interpreting and understanding emotions.

29. Psychologists sometimes try to disentangle the relative influences of genes and the environment by conducting twin studies. What statement in the following is true about twin studies?

1. Identical twins may not share 100% of genes.
2. Fraternal twins and normal siblings share, on average, 30% of genes
3. If identical twins are raised in different environments, they won’t tend to show similar traits at all.
4. Most of identical twins show more similar traits than fraternal twins do, even when environmental factors are taken into account.

30. If people did not have size constancy, objects would appear to

1. shrink as they moved close to us.
2. be the same size, no matter how far away they were.
3. grow in size as they moved closer to us.
4. change color as they moved away from us.

31. Perception refers to the

1. elementary features or building blocks of experience.
2. collection of processes used to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of an experience.
3. process of translating external messages into neural impulses.
4. physical properties of stimuli in the environment.

32. Sam broke his nose and had to have it packed for 10 days. During this time, Sam most likely found that

1. food tasted better because his sense of taste was enhanced to make up for the missing sense of smell.
2. food had little taste because much of what we experience as flavor depends on our sense of smell.
3. he had problems with his balance and sense of equilibrium.
4. he was somewhat forgetful because signals to his hippocampus were blocked.

33. Our visual acuity will be best when a ganglion cell

1. has a large receptive field.
2. has a small receptive field.
3. transmits its neural signal directly to visual cortex.
4. fires more than two action potentials.

34. While driving his car, Brent decides to listen to the radio. When he turns it on, he cannot hear anything and begins to turn it up. The moment at which Brent can hear the music represents the ___________ for that stimulus.

1. absolute threshold
2. relative frequency
3. absolute frequency
4. absolute sensitivity

35. Emma thinks that being able to see something depends as much on a person's motivation to see and the "environmental noise" as on the intensity of the stimulus. Without knowing it, Emma is describing

1. Weber's law.
2. the just noticeable difference.
3. sensory adaptation.
4. signal detection theory.

36. The JND is a measure used in psychophysical ____________ tasks.

1. detection
2. discrimination
3. reactivity
4. response bias

37. When Ricardo first went to work in the stock yard, he could hardly stand the smell. By the end of the first day, however, he couldn't even notice the pungent odor. This is an example of

1. response bias.
2. Weber's law.
3. sensory adaptation.
4. receptive fields.

38. Steve is an avid bowler. Malcolm is a less talented bowler who wishes to sabotage Steve’s game by substituting a new ball for Steve’s 15 pound ball. Suppose that through his repeated participation in psychology demonstrations, we know that Steve’s JND, starting with a 12 pound weight is 1 pound. Based on your understanding of Weber’s law, will Steve detect it if Malcolm gives him a 16 pound ball in place of his 15 pound ball?

1. Probably not, because the JND will increase with increasing weight.
2. Probably not, because the JND must be at least 10% of the starting weight.
3. Yes, because the JND is constant for weight.
4. Yes, because the JND for weight is 1 pound.

39. Rods are to cones as

1. night vision is to color vision.
2. fovea is to retina.
3. vision is to audition.
4. central is to peripheral.

40. When Mel drops some chocolate chips onto a plate, he notices that the chips that land near each other appear to form their "own little unit". This is an example of the Gestalt principle of

1. common fate.
2. good continuation.
3. proximity.
4. closure.

41. _________ constancy best explains why a casino dealer "perceives" a card as an unaltered rectangle despite seeing it from many angles.

1. Lightness
2. Movement
3. Size
4. Shape

42. After getting off the "tilt-a-whirl" ride at the fair, Billy Bob is dizzy. Because he understands human anatomy, Billy Bob knows that his current lack of balance is due to activity in his ________ canal.

1. auditory
2. kinesthetic
3. somethesis
4. semicircular

43. REM sleep is called "paradoxical" because

1. people are often in stage 3 sleep when it occurs.
2. in REM sleep your eyes move but you are not dreaming.
3. although it is sleep, it doesn't seem to involve replenishing the body of key neurochemicals.
4. though you are asleep, your EEG appears as though you are awake.

44. When deprived of REM sleep for an extended period of time, most subjects

1. will demonstrate a 20 hour circadian rhythm pattern.
2. display extreme passivity and calmness.
3. will increase the percent of sleep spent in REM when allowed to sleep.
4. suffer from extreme hallucinations during wakefulness.

45. In the video shown in class on sleep and dreaming, sleep researchers found that subjects who where awakened during REM sleep

1. were faster at judging word associations.
2. were faster at recalling nonsensical letter strings.
3. formed fewer long term memories of their dreams.
4. were more sensitive to mildly painful stimulation.

46. According to the ________________ hypothesis, dream content is simply a byproduct of periodic neuroelectric activity in the brain.

1. latent content
2. activation-synthesis
3. paradoxical
4. manifest content

47. For which of the following would hypnosis be effective?

1. Making someone less suggestible.
2. Getting someone to do something they don't want to do.
3. Improving memory.
4. Treating pain.

48. In Ivan Pavlov's most famous research design, salivation served as

1. just the unconditioned stimulus.
2. both the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus.
3. just the conditioned response.
4. both the unconditioned response and the conditioned response.

49. Dr. Monroe is attempting to get her subjects to associate country music with a nauseating odor. When she initially pairs the music with the odor, she is in the __________ phase of classical conditioning.

a. extinction

b. spontaneous recovery

c. generalization

d. acquisition

50. In standard classical conditioning, the researcher presents the _____________ just prior to the __________.

1. conditioned response; unconditioned response
2. unconditioned stimulus; conditioned stimulus
3. conditioned stimulus; unconditioned stimulus
4. unconditioned response; conditioned response

51. Spontaneous recovery

1. follows extinction.
2. precedes acquisition.
3. precedes initial extinction.
4. is synonymous with extinction.

52. In classical conditioning, stimulus discrimination is to stimulus generalization as

1. specific is to broad.
2. negative is to positive.
3. conditioned is to unconditioned.
4. punishment is to reinforcement.

53. Instrumental conditioning is based on the premise that responses are primarily determined by

1. genetics.
2. consequences.
3. observation.
4. modeling.

54. If getting kicked in the shin increases the probability that you will study hard for your next exam, then, concerning studying, a shin kick represents a(n)

1. avoidant stimulus.
2. punisher.
3. reinforcer.
4. blocker.

55. While working as a car salesperson, Dave receives a $1000 commission for every five cars he sells. On which schedule of reinforcement in this commission based?

1. fixed ratio
2. fixed interval
3. variable ratio
4. variable interval

56. When designing a safety device switch for the space shuttle, Mark says, "It is very important that the shuttle pilot pushes the launch key at this point, so let's have an obnoxious alarm go off that will not terminate until the launch key is depressed." If this alarm system leads to more key pressing behavior, it represents a

1. negative reinforcer.
2. positive reinforcer.
3. negative punisher.
4. positive punisher.

57. Acquiring a response that ends an aversive stimulus defines ___________ learning.

1. primary
2. escape
3. avoidance
4. negative