CHS Psych Final Exam

Functionalism was a school of psychology that focused attention on the

adaptive value of conscious thoughts and emotions.

In its early years, psychology focused on the study of \________, but from the 1920s into the 1960s, American psychologists emphasized the study of \________.

mental life; observable behavior

Humanistic psychologists focused on the importance of

healthy growth potential.

Which perspective is most relevant to understanding the impact of strokes and brain diseases on memory?

Biological

Dr. Kozak has concluded that the unusually low incidence of alcohol dependence among citizens of a small African country can be attributed to strong fundamentalist religious influences in that region. This belief best illustrates a(n) \________ perspective.

Social-cultural

Dr. Tiao conducts basic research on the effects of head injuries on people's problem-solving and abstract-reasoning skills. Which psychological specialty does her research best represent?

biological psychology

Dr. Karima conducts basic research on the relative effectiveness of massed practice and spaced practice on a person's ability to remember information. Dr. Karima is most likely a \________ psychologist.

Cognitive

The psychologist who would be least likely to participate in devising ways to improve teaching and learning in a classroom would be a(n) \_______ psychologist.

experimental

Robert wants to pursue a degree in a field in which he could help people learn how to change their lives, such as determining what career best suits them. The subfield that is most applicable in this area is

counseling psychology.

Alexandra is told that research supports the value of cosmetic surgery for boosting self-esteem. Belinda is told that the esteem-enhancing value of cosmetic surgery has been refuted by research. Both women would consider the findings to be common sense. This best illustrates the power of

the hindsight bias.

Thinking that she had outperformed most of her classmates, Glenda was surprised to receive just an average grade on her psychology test. Glenda's experience best illustrates

overconfidence.

Professor Trinh contends that parents and children have similar levels of intelligence largely because they share common genes. His idea is best described as a(n)

theory

Dr. Wescott hypothesized that students in a classroom seating 30 would get higher course grades than students seated in an auditorium seating 300. In this example,

classroom size has been operationally defined.

Professor Mata was skeptical about the accuracy of recently reported research on sleep deprivation. Which process would best enable her to assess the reliability of these findings?

replication

In 1953, H.M. underwent surgery to control his seizures. Doctors removed tissue from the hippocampus. As a result H.M.'s memory was severely impaired. Psychologists studied H.M.'s memory function until his death in 2008. Which research method did the psychologists utilize in this situation?

case study

If the correlation between the physical weight and reading ability of children is +0.85, this would indicate that

better reading ability is associated with greater physical weight among children.

Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the strongest degree of relationship between two variables?

-0.67

To study the effects of noise on worker productivity, researchers have one group of subjects work in a noisy room and a second group work in a quiet room. To ensure that any differences in the productivity of the two groups actually result from the different noise levels to which the groups are exposed, the researchers would use

random assignment.

In the hypothesis "Students who study a list of terms in the morning, just after waking up, will recall more terms than students who study the list just before falling asleep", what is the dependent variable?

number of terms remembered

Seven members of a boys' club reported the following individual earnings from their sale of cookies: $2, $9, $8, $10, $4, $9, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings

the median is less than the mean and greater than the mode.

Professor Teruya noticed that the distribution of students' scores on her last biology test had an extremely small standard deviation. This indicates that the

students' scores tended to be very similar to one another.

One function of the glial cells is to

provide nutrients to interneurons.

The depolarization of a neural membrane can create a(n)

action potential.

With regard to the process of neural transmission, a refractory period refers to a time interval in which

dendrites transmit more electrical signals to axons.

Molecules that are similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind to its receptor sites on a dendrite and block that neurotransmitter's effects are called what?

Antagonists

The peripheral nervous system is to sensory neurons as the central nervous system is to

interneurons

Messages are transmitted from your spinal cord to your digestive system's stomach muscles by the

sympathetic nervous system.

Information travels from the spinal cord to the brain via

interneurons

Hormones are the chemical messengers of the

endocrine system.

The sequence of brain regions from the evolutionarily oldest to newest is

brainstem; limbic system; cerebral cortex.

After Kato's serious motorcycle accident, doctors detected damage to his cerebellum. Kato is most likely to have difficulty

playing his guitar.

If Professor Freeborn lesions the amygdala of a laboratory rat, the rat will most likely become

less aggressive.

The occipital lobes are to \________ as the temporal lobes are to \________.

seeing; hearing

If a blind person uses one finger to read Braille, the brain area dedicated to that finger expands as the sense of touch invades the visual cortex. This is an example of

brain plasticity.

The ability to recognize faces with the right hemisphere but not with the left hemisphere best illustrates

lateralization.

Someone skilled at word processing thinks several letters ahead while typing, whereas a beginner must focus on one letter at a time. A novice is most likely using \_________ to complete the task.

conscious sequential processing

Studies of identical twins who had been reared apart most clearly highlight the importance of \________ in personality development.

genetic predispositions

The prevalence of genetically predisposed traits that have a reproductive advantage is best explained in terms of

natural selection.

Evolutionary psychologists would be most likely to predict that

children are more likely to be valued by their biological fathers than by their stepfathers.

Evolutionary psychologists are most likely to emphasize that human adaptiveness to a variety of different environments has contributed to human

reproductive success.

Because she was listening to the news on the radio, Mrs. Schultz didn't perceive a word her husband was saying. Her experience best illustrates

selective attention.

If an adult develops cataracts, his or her

absolute threshold for light is likely to increase.

The horizon Moon appears to shrink in size if it is viewed through a narrow tube that eliminates the perception of distance cues. This best illustrates the importance of

context effects.

Which process allows more light to reach the periphery of the retina?

dilation of the pupil

Rods are

more light-sensitive and less color-sensitive than are cones.

The ability to simultaneously process the pitch, loudness, melody, and meaning of a song best illustrates

parallel processing.

The principles of continuity and closure best illustrate the importance of

top-down processing.

Which of the following is most helpful in perceiving the distance of objects far away from you?

monocular cues

The steadily increasing size of the retinal image of an approaching object is especially important for perceiving the object's

motion.

Which of the following circumstances is most likely to contribute to conduction hearing loss?

misuse of Q-tips (cotton swabs) in cleaning your ears

The mechanical vibrations triggered by sound waves are transduced into neural impulses by

hair cells.

Which of the following best explains why we have difficulty locating sounds that are directly overhead?

When the sound is directly overhead, it reaches both ears simultaneously.

Taste and smell are both what kind of senses?

Chemical

Receptor cells for kinesthesis are located in the

joints, tendons, bones, and ear.

The ability to detect whether your body is in a horizontal or vertical position depends most directly on

the vestibular sense.

The green-colored ham and eggs had such a strange appearance that they tasted terrible to Sam. This illustrates the importance of

sensory interaction.

Until reading this question you were unaware that your shoes are pressing against your feet. This focusing of your conscious attention, or selective attention, illustrates that

conscious awareness is one part of the dual processing that occurs in our two-track minds.

Cindi prefers to take exams in the late afternoon rather than during the morning, because her energy level and ability to concentrate are better at that time. Her experience most likely reflects the influence of the

circadian rhythm.

Forty-year-old Lance insists that he never dreams. Research suggests that he probably

would report a vivid dream if he were awakened during REM sleep.

The circadian rhythm is influenced by light-sensitive retinal proteins that trigger signals to the

suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Chronic sleep debt is most likely to promote

obesity.

Nightmares are to \________ as night terrors are to \________.

REM sleep; NREM-3 sleep

Greg remembered a recent dream in which his girlfriend suddenly grabbed the wheel of his speeding car. Greg's therapist suggested that the dream might be a representation of the girlfriend's efforts to avoid sexual intimacy. According to Freud, the therapist was attempting to reveal the \________ of Greg's dream.

latent content

The best indication that dreaming serves a necessary biological function is provided by the fact that

most mammals experience REM rebound.

The change in brain chemistry that offsets the effects of a psychoactive drug is called

neuroadaptation

After drinking three cans of beer, Akiva felt less guilty about the way he mistreated his wife and children. Akiva's reduced guilt most likely resulted from the fact that his alcohol consumption has

reduced his self-awareness.

A sea slug learns to withdraw its gill after repeatedly being squirted by water. After repeated squirting, the withdrawal response lessens. Which term would learning theorists use to describe this reaction?

habituation

An organism learns associations between events it does not control during the process of

classical conditioning.

To assess whether Mrs. Webster had Alzheimer's disease, researchers conditioned her to blink in response to a sound that signaled the delivery of a puff of air directed toward her face. In this application of classical conditioning, the sound was a

CS.

Which of the following is an unconditioned response?

sweating in hot weather

Laurie's thumb sucking has become habitual because she begins to feel less anxious whenever she sucks her thumb. This best illustrates the process of

operant conditioning.

You would be most likely to use operant conditioning to teach a dog to

retrieve sticks and balls.

Jacinda has a glass of wine after work because it relieves her anxiety. Her wine drinking is likely to continue because it is followed by a \________ reinforcer.

negative

Blake is a carpet installer who wants to be paid for each square foot of carpet he lays rather than with an hourly wage. Blake prefers working on a \________ schedule of reinforcement.

fixed-ratio

Compared with apartment dwellers whose landlords pay their electricity costs, those apartment dwellers who pay their own electric bills use less electricity. This most clearly illustrates that consumer electricity usage is influenced by

operant conditioning.

Laura fails to recognize any connection between her unsafe sexual practices and the likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Laura's lack of perceptiveness best illustrates the dangers of

an external locus of control.

An individual who perceives an internal locus of control would most likely show signs of a

strong ego.

The transmission of cultural fads and fashions best illustrates the impact of

observational learning.

Experiments suggest that children exposed to a model who says one thing and does another will

talk in ways consistent with what the model says and act in ways consistent with what the model does.

After prolonged exposure to television violence, viewers became more indifferent to violence when later viewing a brawl, whether on TV or in real life. This finding best illustrates

desensitization.

Students who restudy course material at the end of a semester in order to pass the AP final exam are especially likely to demonstrate long-term retention of the course material. This best illustrates the value of

the spacing effect.

The use of acronyms to improve one's memory of unfamiliar material best illustrates the value of

chunking.

Most Americans still have accurate flashbulb memories of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. This best illustrates that memory formation is facilitated by

the body's release of stress hormones.

The day after Kirsten was introduced to 13 people at a business luncheon, she could recall the names of only the first 4 people to whom she had been introduced. Her effective recall of these particular names best illustrates the impact of

the serial position effect.

Although Ibrahim has looked at his watch thousands of times, he is unable to recall whether the watch features Arabic or Roman numerals. This is most likely due to a failure in

encoding

Harry Bahrick observed that three years after people completed a Spanish course, they had forgotten much of the vocabulary they had learned. This finding indicates that information is lost while it is

in storage

Professor Sharapova has so many memories of former students that she has difficulty remembering the names of new students. The professor's difficulty best illustrates

proactive interference.

In an effort to remember how to spell rhinoceros, Sammie spells the word aloud 30 times. She is using a technique known as

rehearsal

People more easily detect male prejudice against women than female prejudice against men because the former more closely resembles their prejudice

prototype

Business managers are more likely to track the career achievements of those they once hired than the accomplishments of those they once rejected. This best illustrates

confirmation bias

Mistakenly concluding that the forgetful acts of an older person must be indicative of Alzheimer's disease best illustrates the impact of

the representativeness heuristic.

Olivia sold many more raffle tickets when she told potential buyers they had a 10 percent chance of winning a prize than when she told them they had a 90 percent chance of not winning. This best illustrates

framing effect.

At some point during the babbling stage, infants begin to

lose their ability to discriminate sounds they never hear.

Every morning, Krista pages through a picture book with her 12-month-old daughter. For each picture, Krista points to the picture and identifies it by name, such as dog. This example best illustrates the use of which of the following in helping her daughter learn language?

association

Because intelligence is defined according to the attributes that enable success in a culture, psychologists consider intelligence to be

socially constructed.

In 8 to 10 seconds, memory whiz Kim Peek could read and remember the contents of a book page. Yet, he has little capacity for understanding abstract concepts. Kim's mental capacities best illustrate

savant syndrome.

Which of the following persons best illustrates Sternberg's concept of practical intelligence?

Shelley, a newspaper reporter who has established a large network of information sources

Five-year-old Benjy has an IQ of 120 on the original version of the Stanford-Binet. His mental age is

6

Dr. Brofman has administered her new 100-item test of abstract reasoning to a large sample of students. She is presently comparing their scores on the odd-numbered questions with those on the even-numbered questions in an effort to

determine the test's reliability.

In order to qualify for the office manager's job, 55-year-old Mariel must take a series of psychological tests. Her performance on the test of \________ is likely to be poorer than if she had taken it as a 25-year-old.

abstract reasoning