psya01h3 midterm possible questions

The refractory period in neural communication refers to:

The brief time when a neuron cannot fire another action potential

Which psychologist is credited with establishing the first psychology laboratory in the British
Commonwealth?

James Mark Baldwin

researcher studies cyberbullying by observing students' online behavior without their knowledge.
This is an example of

Covert naturalistic observation

Why is psychology considered a "hub science" according to Boyack and colleagues' research?

It has strong connections to multiple other scientific disciplines

According to geneticist J.B.S. Haldane's famous statement, he would lay down his life for:

Two brothers or eight cousins

According to the chapter, if each neuron in the human brain represented one second, how long would
it take to count all the neurons?

More than 3,170 years

What was the primary reason that Henry Molaison's (H.M.) case study was so valuable to
psychology?

It provided detailed insights into the relationship between brain structures and memory

Which of the following is NOT one of the three Rs of animal research?

reuse

Which perspective would be most interested in studying how cultural differences affect memory for
personal versus collective events?

Social psychology

According to the chapter, what percentage of Canadians will be aged 65 or older by 2030?

Almost one-quarter

which approach emphasized that people are naturally good and motivated to improve themselves?

Humanistic psychology

Which measure of central tendency would be most appropriate for describing a highly skewed
distribution?

Median

According to functionalism, what is the primary purpose of psychological processes and behaviors?

They contribute to survival and adaptation

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as one of the four main mechanisms of evolution?

Genetic engineering

What was the primary focus of Donald Hebb's contributions to psychology?

the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory

In twin studies, fraternal twins share approximately what percentage of their DNA?

50 percent

Which of the five critical thinking questions asks about alternative explanations for evidence?

Are there other ways that this evidence could be interpreted?

Which of the following cannot be studied via the scientific method?

The existence of ghosts

The concept of epigenetics primarily refers to:

How environmental factors can turn genes on or off without changing DNA sequence

According to evolutionary psychology, intrasexual selection refers to:

Competition between members of the same sex for access to mates

The school of structuralism was heavily influenced by

The periodic table of elements

the "cognitive revolution" in psychology occurred primarily as a reaction against what approach?

Behaviorism's rejection of mental processes

According to the chapter, approximately how many neurons are in the human brain?

100 billion

According to the chapter, what distinguishes scientific observation from everyday "hit-or-miss"
observation?

it’s systematic rather than based only on immediate surroundings

The FoxP2 gene is significant for psychologists because:

it appears to be responsible for spoken language abilities in humans

which early Canadian psychologist co-founded the Journal of Applied Psychology and became
president of the American Psychological Association in 1918?

John Wallace Baird

Which research method would be most appropriate for studying the long-term effects of childhood
trauma on adult mental health?

Longitudinal study

The philosophy of dualism, as proposed by Ren Descartes, suggests that:

the mind is separate and different from our physical being

Which research method provides the best spatial resolution for identifying specific brain regions?

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body. This is an example of

contralateral organization

Camillo Golgi's main disagreement with Santiago Ram n y Cajal was about:

Whether the nervous system was a continuous network or separate cells

 In the study of children's response to bullying involving the serotonin transporter gene (SERT), what
was found about children with the SL genotype?

They showed intermediate levels of emotional problems between SS and LL groups

According to Indigenous science perspectives discussed in the chapter, how does Indigenous
knowledge differ from Western scientific methods?

emphasizes relationships and holistic understanding rather than isolating
variables

What is the main advantage of using random assignment in experimental research?

It helps control for confounding variables and establish cause-and-effect relationships

According to the chapter, what does it mean when scientific knowledge is described as "both stable
and changing"?

Most changes occur slowly at the cutting edges while the core knowledge base remains solid

According to the chapter, why might Indigenous communities be reluctant to participate in genetics
research?

Concerns about privacy, discrimination, and lack of trust due to past unethical research

ccording to Gestalt psychology, why do people see the middle figure as "B" in one context and "13"
in another?

Context and the whole perception matter more than individual elements

Consider two sets of numbers, Set A (10 12 14 16 18) and Set B (2 6 10 14 18). Without doing the
math is should be obvious that Set A has a larger _____ but a smaller ______

mean; Standard Deviation

When discussing the autonomic nervous system, which part of it did Professor Joordens associated
with "being cool"

The parasympathetic branch

According to the chapter, ghrelin is a hormone that:

Makes you feel hungry when your stomach is empty

The Montreal Neurological Institute is significant because it is:

The largest specialized neuroscience research centre in Canada

In a double-blind study, who is unaware of which participants are receiving the treatment?

Both the participants and the researchers administering the treatment

According to Professor Joordens, this form of psychology partly arose as a reaction to Freud's
influence

Gestalt Psychology

According to the replication crisis discussion in the chapter, what was the main finding of the Open Science Collaboration's study?

Only 36% of psychology studies could be successfully replicated

During synaptic transmission, what happens immediately after neurotransmitters are released into
the synaptic cleft?

they bind to receptor sites on the postsynaptic membrane

According to the chapter, Francis Galton believed that:

Nature prevails enormously over nurture

The Neuron Doctrine established that:

The nervous system is made up of separate cells

At several times during the course Professor Joordens has suggested that two parts of the brain often compete to control behaviour. Those two brain areas are the

frontal lobes and the limbic system

What distinguishes evolutionary psychology from other biological approaches?

it examines how behaviors contributed to ancestral survival and reproduction

It emphasizes individual differences in brain structure

10 to 20 percent

What was B.F. Skinner's main contribution to behaviorism?

He focused on how consequences affect the frequency of behaviors

Professor Joordens said that if an alien showed up in our classroom and told us to just act normally, we probably would have trouble doing so. This is an example of

the Hawthorne Effect

Through genetic screening Rob just found out that he has a genetic predisposition to alcoholism, which surprised him. This suggests

Rob is not currently phenotypical

Evelyn saw a car heading towards her granddaughter. She ran to get in front of the car, even at great danger, to stop her grandchild from being struck. This would be considered a case of _____ altruism

genetic

Theoretically, assuming unlimited time, energy and nobody dying, how many genetically unique
children does a given man and woman have the potential to procreate?

Over 64 trillion

According to the chapter, what is the main advantage of adoption studies in behavioral genetics
research?

They allow researchers to separate the effects of shared genes from shared environment

In Crum's milkshake study, participants who thought they were drinking an "indulgent" 620-calorie
shake showed:

steeper decrease in ghrelin levels than those told it was "sensible"

What does it mean when a study has high external validity?

the results can be generalized to other populations and settings

What was the main limitation that led psychologists to move away from using introspection as a
research method?

Results could not be objectively verified by others

Which term describes individuals born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions
of male or female bodies?

intersex