Psych Practice Questions

Exam 2

What is a binocular depth perception cue?

Retinal Disparity

Larry went to an art show and noticed a picture of a woman. When he got closer, he realized it was made of many small dots on a canvas, which look like one image because they are so close together. Which Gestalt principle is Larry noticing?

Proximity

Jane opens the fridge to grab a bottle of water and is surprised when the bottle she grabs is room-temperature. Assuming that water in the fridge is cold is an example of what?

Perceptual set

Tilly is riding in the car and looking out the window at a building in the far distance. Tilly feels as if it’s going to take forever to reach the building because it barely gets closer as they drive. However, pedestrians and shops down the road seem to zoom past the car at a fast speed. This is describing:

Relative motion

The process of sensation can be described as:

Our sensory receptors and nervous system are receiving and representing stimuli from our environment

What is the process called by which sensory receptors convert physical energy into neural signals?

Transduction

Noah is at a museum when he notices a particular painting. The painting shows a black cup on a white background, but when Noah focuses on the white background, he sees two white faces staring at each other with a black background. This is an example of what Gestalt principle?

Figure and ground

At Olivia’s house, there is a clock that continually ticks. Since the clock is constantly ticking, Olivia does not notice the noise anymore. What is this called?

Sensory adaption

Michael is presented with an image of 3 circles with triangular chips missing. The missing parts of the circles make it appear as if an illusory triangle blocks us from seeing the whole circles. In this example, Michael uses ______ to fill in missing gaps to create a complete, whole object.

Closure

How can motivational state influence perception?

Motivation can bias perception

Jake has difficulty distinguishing between red and green. Tests reveal that one type of cone in his retina is missing. His condition is an example of _____.

Color blindness

Amelia is playing guitar and talking to her friend. Her friend, Pedro, says “give me a chord”. Amelia plays a C major chord and then Pedro says, “no, I meant a charger for my phone”. Because Amelia was playing guitar, she didn’t anticipate he was talking about a charger. She was basing her assumption of her personal experience and context. This is an example of ____.

Top-down processing

You stare at a bright red square on your phone for way too long, and then when you look at a white wall, you suddenly see a green version of the square, even though it’s not actually there. What is this an example of?

Afterimage effect

When you stare at a blue square for a long time and then look at a white wall, you see a yellow afterimage. What is responsible for this?

Opponent-process cells

A hungry person is walking along the side of the road, and they see a blurry sign. Because they are hungry, they see the blurry word as “cake” even though it says “take”. What concept explains this phenomenon?

Perceptual set

Watching a movie feels realistic because the dialogue matches the actors’ lip movements. This is best explained by?

Multisensory integration

How do humans perceive a wide range of colors if we only have three types of cones?

The brain interprets different combinations of the cone’s activity

What is a good example of bottom-up processing?

Jumping when someone beside you claps loudly with no warning

A red apple looks red whether you see it at noon outside or under dim indoor lighting. This ability is called:

Color constancy

Tom yells at his dog when he pees on the carpet. What type of behavior is Tom exemplifying?

Positive punishment

What is a good illustration of classical conditioning?

A dog salivates when it hears a food bag opening

Corey used to hate eating asparagus until his mom started cooking asparagus with bacon wrapped around it. This helped him start eating it, and as time went on, his mom slowly started cooking asparagus without bacon wrapped around it. Now, Corey finds that the smell of asparagus alone can make him hungry. Getting hungry in response to the asparagus smell is the _________ ______

Conditioned response

A dog has been trained to know that it is getting a treat every time it hears a bell, and so his stomach starts growling when the bell rings. Which kind of learning is this?

Classical conditioning

Every time Lucas has to take his dog to the vet, he gave him a scoop of peanut butter beforehand. The first couple times the dog was excited over the peanut butter, but eventually when Lucas got peanut butter out, the dog ran away and became really timid because he knew he was going to the vet. What is the peanut butter an example of?

Conditioned stimulus

Lebron wants to teach his son that hard work pays off. If Lebron takes away his sons car keys because he misses basketball practice, what type of learning is this?

Negative punishment

Christian bought his dog Otis some chew toys. When Otis shredded the toys and left a huge mess, Christian got frustrated and decided to take the toys away. What is Christian’s response an example of?

Negative punishment

If you show Peter a donut, his stomach growls. When Lois brings home the box, Peter’s stomach starts growling before he even sees the donut. What is the donut in this situation?

Unconditioned stimulus

A teenager receives praise from their coach every time they practice after school. As a result, the teen starts practicing more consistently. What is this an example of?

Positive reinforcement

In Pavlov’s famous experiment in which he taught the dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by pairing the bell sound with food, what was the unconditioned stimulus?

the food

Leyla just got home from school and has a piercing headache. She decides to take medication to decrease the headache. It works, so the next time she has a headache, she will take that medication again. What is this an example of?

Negative reinforcement

A toddler loves riding around the park in her stroller, but the last time she went, the park geese chased her and scared her. The next time her mom gets her stroller, the toddler instantly gets scared about heading to the park. What is the conditioned stimulus?

The stroller

Ivan Pavlov’s experiment where he rang a bell before he fed a dog, resulting in the dog drooling with the chime of a bell, is an example of what?

Classical conditioning

A child completes their homework, and their mom gives them a sticker as a reward. The mom’s response is ______.

Positive reinforcement

A coach pulls a player from the game every time she shows poor effort on defense. Over time, the player starts hustling more to avoid being benched. The coach’s strategy is best described as what?

Negative punishment

Molly noticed her dog has stopped sitting on command for a few months because she stopped giving him treats for it. However, one day she says “sit” and he sits again out of the blue. This is an example of what?

Spontaneous recovery

A group of friends are at a comedy show. One of the friends volunteer to help the comedian with a joke. The comedian dumps a bucket of water on the friend and asks the crowd who wants to go next. No one volunteers. What kind of learning took place?

Observational learning

A kid always drools when he sees ice cream. After a while, he also starts drooling from hearing the ice cream truck music, even though he cannot see the ice cream yet. What is the conditioned stimulus?

The ice cream truck music

When in class, a student misbehaves and consequently gets in trouble. The other children learn from the kid how NOT to act, unless they wish to receive the consequences. What kind of learning is this?

Observational Learning

After watching her older sister calmly resolve conflicts by talking through it, Maya begins doing the same with her friends. This is an example of?

Behavioral modeling

A child who is bitten by their neighbor’s large dog later becomes afraid of all large dogs. This is an example of?

Generalization

A dog learns to sit only when its owner says sit, but not when other people say it. This demonstrates:

Discrimination

Slot machines are especially resistant to extinction because they use which type of reinforcement schedule?

Partial

A trainer rewards a dog first for looking at a ball, then for moving toward it, and finally for picking it up. This process is called?

Shaping

If a child’s temper tantrums no longer receive attention from parents and gradually decrease, this is an example of?

Extinction

The serial position effect suggests that people remember which items from a list best?

The items at the beginning and at the end of a list

Kate is taking a test for her biology class and is having a hard time remembering most answers for the questions until she gets to a question about the name of a bone, which she immediately knew was a fibula from where she broke her fibula back in high school. What factor of long term memory was Kate experiencing?

Self-reference effect

Which memory system allows you to read a sentence, hold the beginning in mind, and understand it by the end?

Short term/working memory

A person feels anxious hearing a song that once played during a stressful event, even though they don’t consciously think about the event. This is an example of?

Implicit memory

Learning how to ride a bike and being able to do it years later without thinking about each step reflects?

Procedural memory

What task best measures explicit memory?

recalling a list of words from earlier in the experiment

What task best measures implicit memory?

Completing word stems with previously seen words without realizing it

According to the depth of processing approach, which type of processing leads to the best long term memory?

Thinking about the meaning of a word

Julio was asked by his friend to remember a list of 12 things. Julio was able to easily remember the first 4 things and the last 3 things but was having trouble remembering the items in the middle. This is an example of what?

Serial position effect

A witness remembers the general idea of a crime but fills in missing details without realizing it. This demonstrates which characteristic of memory?

Memory is reconstructed

Stacy’s mom reads off a grocery list that she needed Stacy to pick up from the store. As Stacy was driving to the store, she could only remember the first few items that she needed to pick up. What is this an example of?

Primacy effect

While taking an exam, Maya struggles to remember material she studied while listening to loud music. She studied with noise but is testing with silence. This mismatch is hurting her recall due to what?

Encoding specificity

How long does sensory memory last for?

2 seconds

Mariah has just arrived at the hospital after a car accident. It appears that there was some significant trauma to her head. When Mariah wakes up, she seems to be fine, but after some further questions from the doctors, they found that she cannot recall any memories from around a week before the accident. What is this an example of?

Retrograde amnesia

Taylor reads a list of words and tries to remember all the words. She ends up remembering the words at the end of the list better. Why?

The words are in her short term memory

Temporal grading in retrograde amnesia refers to the finding that:

recent memories are more impaired than older memories

The hippocampus plays a critical role in…

Consolidating long-term memories

A classmate listed off 15 words to her other classmate Lisa. When Lisa was asked to recall these 15 words immediately after, she could only remember the first few on the list. Why is this?

The words are in her long term memory

Being able to recite the pledge and list the capital of the state you live in classifies as what type of memory?

Semantic

You reflect on your third birthday and remember the exact moment your mom revealed that she had made you an Elmo cake. Which form of long term memory store did this come from?

Episodic memory

Sam is given a list of 12 grocery store items to remember. She can only hold 7 items in her mind at a time before she starts forgetting. This limitation illustrates a key property of _____

Working/short term memory

Semantic memory falls under which type of memory?

Explicit

How does damage to the hippocampus help explain retrograde amnesia?

Older memories no longer rely on the hippocampus as much as recent ones

Which is an example of procedural memory?

Remembering how to ride a bike

Jalen is trying to remember a phone number long enough to type it in later, but after 10 seconds, he forgets it because he has too much going on in his head. What type of memory was he using when he was trying to remember the number?

Working memory

Which is recognized as the learning stage of memory?

Encoding

Why does hippocampal damage often lead to anterograde amnesia?

The person cannot form new, long term explicit memories