fzw ap psych final; sem 1

koch 22-23 final questions and possible answers

which philosopher is well known for theorizing that the mind at birth is *tabula rasa* or a “blank slate”

john locke (or willhelm wundt)

why is wilhelm wundt often considered the first scientific psychological researcher?

established the first psychology laboratory (specializing the scientific study of immediate conscious experience of sensation)  in leipzig germany in 1881, is considered the father of psychology

what was the focus of functionalism?

sought to explain the mental processes in a more systematic and accurate manner. they focused on the purpose of consciousness and behavior. the function of the purpose of the conscious (the adaptation of living organisms to their environment), explored how mental and behavioral processes functions

who would be most likely emphasize the role of the unconscious affecting behavior?

sigmund freud

which approach is most directly concerned with assessing the relative impact of nature and nurture on our psychological traits?

humanistic (or biopsychosocial)

while reading your AP Psychology textbook, you scan section headings, noticing how the units are organized, and form questions to answer while reading.  according to the text, your strategy best reflects…

sqr3, survey question read recite receive. active processing of the material

according to your grandfather, Adolf Hitler’s emotional instability made it clear from the beginning days of his international conflicts that Germany would inevitably lose WWII.  what concept does your grandfather’s claim best illustrate?

hindsight bias (i knew it all along phenomenon)

what are questions that exemplify the scientific attitude?

what do you mean? how do you know? who conducted the studies? is there credibility? why is this important?

what is a theory?

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors and events

what process best enables you to assess the reliability of findings?

replication

what is a case study?

a descriptive technique in which 1 individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal truths

Iin order to learn about the political attitudes of all students enrolled in a university, you randomly select students to complete a questionnaire.  what is the term used for all of the students in the university in this example?

population

what is the range for correlation coefficients and where are they strongest?

\-1 to 1, strongest at -1 and 1

if psychologists discovered that more intelligent parents have smarter children than less intelligent parents, what would this demonstrate?

positive correlation

what is the most foolproof way of testing the true effectiveness of a newly introduced method of psychological therapy?

experimentation

researchers are interested in studying the relationship between poor prenatal nutrition and cognitive development.  because of ethical concerns, which research method would be most appropriate for researchers to use?

observational study (or survey)

which technique most clearly minimizes the likelihood that any outcome differences between the experimental and control conditions can be attributed to age or personality differences in research participants?

random assignment

how does the experimental group differ from the control group of an experiment?

the experimental group doesn't receive a placebo they get the actual drug or whatever you’re experimenting with

how is mode determined?

the number that occurs the most amount of times

how is mean calculated?

add all the numbers together then divide them by the amount of numbers present

how do you find the median?

find the middle number

* put numbers in numerical order then find the middle number

describe a sample size that makes finding statistical significance most likely.

the larger the sample size, the more specific and regulated the data is

what is the connection between psychology and biology?

the structure of a person (biology) dictates how a person functions (psychology)

what is it called when one neuron sends a message to another neuron?

action potential (or neurotransmission)

differentiate between agonists and antagonists.

* agonists: a molecule that by binding to a receptor site stimulates a response


* antagonists: a molecule that by binding to a receptor site inhibits or blocks a response.

agonists help a response to happen and antagonist block a response from happening

what kind of neurons communicate messages from your body to your central nervous system?

motor neurons

what kinds of neurons are found in the pns?  in the cns?

* pns - motor (efferent) neurons, sensory (afferent) neurons
* cns - interneurons

differentiate between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems

* sympathetic - division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations (flight, fight, freeze)


* parasympathetic - the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy (rest and digest)

describe neural networks and what it is they make possible.

neural networks are a network of neurons connected to each other, and allows messages to impulses to travel throughout the body. are used to detect patterns in data or to represent complicated interactions between inputs and outputs

what hormone is produced by the adrenal glands when one becomes nervous?

epinephrine aka - adrenaline (possibly - cortisol)

list the brain regions from the evolutionarily oldest to newest.Brain stem, limbic system, cerebral cortex

brain stem, limbic system, cerebral cortex

what is the function of the occipital lobes?  temporal lobes?

* occipital - receive information from the visual fields
* temporal - receive information from the opposite ear. an auditory area, responsible for visual identification of objects

what type of region of the cerebral cortex enables you to recognize people when you see their faces?

association area in temporal lobe

define lateralization.

specialization of the right and left cerebral hemispheres for particular functions

where are chromosomes located?

within the nucleus

differentiate between fraternal and identical twins.

* fraternal - dizygotic, genetically the same as siblings. twins that develop from separate fertilized eggs
* identical - monozygotic, genetically identical and only same sex. twins that develop from a single fertilized egg split in two

what do evolutionary psychologists suggest about the finding that young men prefer older women, mid-twenties men prefer women their own age, and older men prefer younger women?

men are attracted to women with peak fertility

how would you describe a fear of spiders from a biopsychosocial approach?

* bio - venom will kill you
* psycho - you know where spiders live and hang out so you limit the activities you do that involve that area
* social - everyone knows at least one person that is scared of spiders so its reasonable that I’m scared of spiders

what is the process of receiving and representing stimulus energies through the nervous system?

sensations

differentiate between sensation and perception.

* sensation - the process by which our sensory receptors receive and represent stimulus energies from our environments
* perception - the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

sensation helps us sense the existence of a stimulus while perception interprets the information from the environment so we can identify the meaning.

differentiate between top-down and bottom-up processing.

* top-down - using models, ideas and expectations to interpret sensory information. information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions, drawing on our experiences and expectations
* bottom-up - taking sensory information and then assembling it and integrating it. analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

top down processing uses background knowledge and the expectations we have about something to interpret what we see, bottom up processing is allowing the stimulus to shape our perception of the stimulus

define selective attention.

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus and blocking out others

* ex- hearing only your friend in a loud restaurant

define sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

* ex - clothes on body

what is the study of phenomena such as clairvoyance and telepathy?

parapsychology (esp)

define size constancy.

within a certain range, people's perception of one particular objects size won't change

* ex: a car will always be the same size even if you’re looking at it from 2 or 20 feet away

how do digital hearing aids produce compressed sound?

it amplifies the soft sounds not the loud ones

how are you able to detect the location of a sound?

the detection is dependent on which ear the sound hits first and where we recognize the sound to be coming from

what is it that transmits pain-triggering signals to your cns when you burn your finger?

sensory (afferent) neurons

what kind of senses are taste and smell?

chemical

what sense plays the biggest role in balance?

vestibular sense

describe the mcgurk effect.

perceptual illusion that occurs when visual and auditory perception meet (lips moving and the sound of words)

explain the concept of dual processing.

the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

what is a circadian rhythm?

a biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (temperature, wakefulness) that occurs in a 24 hour cycle

describe what happens physiologically during REM sleep.

* brain waves become rapid and saw toothed


* heart raises, breathing becomes rapid and irregular
* eyes dart around every half minute or so in momentary bursts of activity

how is the hypothalamus involved in sleep?

secretes melatonin from the pineal gland

define sleep apnea.

characterized by temporary cessations (5-10 sec) of breathing during sleep and repeated awakenings (at least 5 times/hr)

describe the effects of barbiturates.

first prescribed to induce sleep and reduce anxiety. barbiturates reduce nervous system activity. they can impair memory and judgment, death

who did the first experimental studies of associative learning?

ivan pavlov

who introduced the term *behaviorism*?

john watson

describe what happens in classical conditioning.

a neutral stimulus comes to elicit an unconditioned response when that neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that normally causes an unconditioned response

what did pavlov’s research of classical conditioning demonstrate?

how dogs (and likely humans) can be conditioned to salivate (or do something else) if it was repeatedly presented at the same time the dog was given food (or other stimulus)

what did john watson contribute to the study of learning?

hes most known for his research on the conditioning process, discovered that children could learn to fear a previously neutral stimulus (little albert)

* behaviorism which is a school of learning.

what is a variable-ratio schedule?

reinforcement that occurs after a varying number of responses

* ex: a lottery ticket

what is an event that decreases the behavior that precedes it?

punishment (maybe - negative reinforcement)

What do BF Skinner’s critics claim?

That he dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions. He overemphasized the importance of external consequences

is accidental reinforced behavior likely to be repeated

yes

explain learned fears from a biopsychosocial approach.

* bio - genetically predisposed, nature v nurture
* psycho - phobias developed over time
* social - people around you have the same fears/ “implanting” fears in others

describe the effects of having an internal locus of control.

believing in yourself and holding yourself accountable for your actions; your actions lead to your accomplishments

describe the effects of having an external locus of control.

believing that fate and destiny controls you and you might hold others accountable for your actions and not yourself

what is the function of mirror neurons?

frontal lobe neurons that fire when __performing certain actions__ or when __observing others performing actions__. this is the brains mirroring of another's actions may enable imitation and empathy

relate the findings about television and observational learning.

sometimes watching tv can be educational for children because of observational learning, can teach life lessons

* kids and adults who watched violence on tv were more likely to practice violent acts or think violence is acceptable.

define memory.

the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

define encoding.

the process of getting information out of the short term memory stage,

\- ex: by extracting meaning

define retrieval.

the locating and recovering of information from memory, bringing a piece of information out from working memory to use in the moment

describe echoic memory.

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3-4 seconds

what is the spacing effect?

* massed practice v distributive practice.

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

differentiate between implicit and explicit memories.

* implicit- nondeclarative, a type of memory that's not consciously recalled. Allows people to form habits, skills, and automatic behaviors (automatic processing)
* explicit- declarative memory, the memory of facts and events and refers to those memories that can be consciously recalled (effortful processing)

implicit memories employ automatic processing of events, so what you know, you remember basically forever __(like breathing)__ . explicit memories employ effortful processing habits l__ike studying and such to remember certain thing__s like when you take a test

what are flashbulb memories?

a highly detailed exceptionally vivid snapshot of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential news was heard

what is imagination inflation?

telling a false story so much that you eventually believe it to be true

how does damage to the left parietal lobe affect intelligence testing?

convergent thinking (a mode of thinking used for problems that have just one correct solutions) required for intelligence test scores would be affected.

* Can cause right-left confusion, difficulty with writing, and math.

what are algorithms?

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. contrasts with the usually speedier- but also more error prone use of heuristics.

\- aex - formulas, math

what is insight?

a sudden realization of a problems solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions (like algorithms)

what is the representative heuristic?

judging a situation  based on how similar the aspects are to the prototype in __your__ mind.

* judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

provide examples of representative heuristics.

blondes aren't smart, wearing glasses makes you nerdy

what is a phoneme?

in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

* ex - b a t means bat

differentiate between receptive and productive language.

* receptive - a child’s ability to understand what is said to and about them


* productive - a child's ability to produce words, this matures after their receptive language (after 4 months).

receptive is a childs ability to understand what is said to and about them, productive is the ability to produce sounds and eventually words

factor analysis has been used to assess whether…..

Intelligence is a single trait or a collection of distinct abilities

who would have been most enthusiastic about the value of a single intelligence test score as an index of an individual's mental capacities?

charles spearman

those who score above average on tests of mathematical aptitude are also likely to score above average on tests of verbal aptitude. according to spearman, this best illustrates the importance of

g factor

what have the characteristics of savant syndrome been used to support?

gardners argument for multiple intelligences

according to howard gardner the concept of intelligence includes what?

linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist

robert sternberg distinguished among analytical, creative, and … intelligence.

practical

although nicole scored well above average on the SAT, she frequently loses her temper and needlessly antagonizes even her best friends. Her behavior best illustrates a low level of

emotional intelligence

the lower region of which lobe is a center for processing mathematical and spatial information?

parietal

is brain size (adjusted for body size) correlated with intelligence? Is the speed of taking in perceptual information is correlated with intelligence?

yes,brain size is correlated with intelligence. yes, the speed of taking in perceptual information is correlated with intelligence.

five-year-old wilbur performs on an intelligence test at a level characteristic of an average 4-year-old. wilbur's mental age is

4

for the original version of the stanford- binet, iq was defined as

mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100

* ma/ca\*100

selective breeding of highly intelligent people would have been most likely to encourage what movement?

eugenics movement

the final exam in a calculus course would be an example of an … test.

achievement

molly has just taken a test of her capacity to learn to be a computer programmer. This is an example of an … test.

aptitude