A1.1.1 Basic Psychology Flashcards
Digit span test is administered to a patient with suspected cognitive impairment. Normal reverse digit span in a working age adult is
Select one: 10 ± 2 digits 7 ± 1 digits 7 ± 2 digits 5 ± 2 digits 4 ± 3 digits
Normal forward span is 7 ± 2 digits; while the normal reverse span is 5 ± 2 digits.
The correct answer is: 5 ± 2 digits
Skinner’s operant conditioning is based on which of the following principles?
Select one:
An association is learnt without overt behavioural expression
A response gets paired with a consequence
A response gets paired with its probability
A response gets paired with an inernal stimulus
A stimulus gets paired with a response
Skinner believed that the best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.
The correct answer is: A response gets paired with a consequence
Situation specific amnesia may arise in all of the following situations except
Select one: Post traumatic stress disorder Adjustment disorder Being the victim of an offence Being the victim of childhood sexual abuse Committing an offence
Situation specific amnesia has not been reported in patients with adjustment disorder. Offenders as well as victims of crimes commonly claim amnesia regarding the offence. Cross sectional studies have found that in 25-45% of homicides, 8% of other violent crimes and a small percentage of non-violent crimes, offenders claim for the offence (Kopelman 2002a). Amnesia for an offence can also occur in alcohol intoxication, substance misuse and acute psychosis but purely psychological amnesia occurs most commonly in crimes of passion. In people with PTSD Anterograde memory dysfunction has been demonstrated in people with PTSD and there are claims that they have a loss of hippocampal volume on MRI (Bremmer 1999), which has been attributed to effects of glucocorticoids (Markowitsch 1996). (Excerpt from Psychogenic amnesia, http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/15/2/152 (accessed April 13, 2015)).
The correct answer is: Adjustment disorder
All of the following are deficiency needs except
Select one: Aesthetic needs Safety needs Physiological needs Love and belonging needs Esteem needs
Maslow identified deficiency needs called D motives and growth needs (being) needs called B motives. He proposed a hierarchy of human needs with phylogenic and ontogenic evolution through the hierarchy. The needs become less biological as one ascends through the hierarchy. He described six sets, often represented by a pyramid, with physiological needs at the bottom and self actualization needs at the apex. Physiological needs, Safety needs, Love and belonging needs and Esteem needs are referred to as deficiency needs. The higher needs come into focus only when the lower needs are satisfied, at least to some extent.
The correct answer is: Aesthetic needs
Wechsler Adult intelligence scales (WAIS-R) are for people
Select one: Aged 15 and over 7 to 16 year olds Aged 18 and over 3 to 7 year olds Aged 16 and over
Wechsler Adult intelligence scales-R is for those aged 16 and over. Wechsler Adult intelligence scales for children is for those aged 7 to 16 years. Wechsler preschool and primary intelligence is for 3 to 7.5 year old children.
The correct answer is: Aged 16 and over
In studies on arousal levels related to different emotions, which emotion produces the maximum rise in temperature compared to all other emotions;
Select one: Sadness Disgust Anger Love Fear
Anger- maximum rise in temperature. Fear and Disgust- drop in temperature. Studies on emotions have shown that the heart rate increase produced by sadness is usually greater than that produced by happiness.
The correct answer is: Anger
In the alcoholic blackouts, the following type of memory loss is seen:
Select one:
Anterograde amnesia due to failure to consolidation
Retrograde amnesia
Dissociative amnesia
Anterograde amnesia due to failure to recall
Both retrograde and anterograde amnesia
A disruption in normal activity of hippocampus under the influence of alcohol can result in temporary failure of memory consolidation leading to anterograde amnesia for circumscribed periods. This is called as alcoholic blackout.
The correct answer is: Anterograde amnesia due to failure to consolidation
Which of the following is true regarding processes that govern formation of various types of memory?
Select one:
Attention allows decoding long term memory store
Lack of attention leads to forgetting
Attention allows short-term memory to enter long-term memory store
Attention allows sensory memory to enter short term memory store
Lack of attention leads to delay in recall
Attention is a key process that enables sensory memory traces to enter into short term memory.
The correct answer is: Attention allows sensory memory to enter short term memory store
Which conditioning is involved in the aetiology of both agoraphobia and of obsessional rituals?
Select one: Classical conditioning Forced conditioning Backward conditioning Operant conditioning Avoidance conditioning
The term aversive conditioning refers to situations in which behavior is motivated by the threat of an unpleasant stimulus. There are two main categories of behavior under aversive control: avoidance behavior and escape behavior. Escape conditioning occurs when the animal learns to perform an operant to terminate an ongoing, aversive stimulus. It is a “get me out of here” or “shut this off” reaction, aimed at escape from pain. The behavior that produces escape is negatively reinforced (reinforced by the elimination of the unpleasant stimulus). For example, the jump of a rat from electrified platform onto a bowl of water is an escape behavior. Escape conditioning is converted into avoidance conditioning by giving a signal before the aversive stimulus starts. If the animal receives a cue or signal that an aversive stimulus is coming, then after one or two occurrences of the punishing stimulus the cue will trigger an avoidance behavior. This kind of learning occurs quickly and is very durable. For example, if you sounded a tone before you electrified the platform, after one or two trials the rat would respond to the tone by jumping into the water. It would not wait for the shock. Avoidance behaviors are very persistent even when there is no longer anything to avoid. The reason is that as a result of an avoidance reaction, one never experiences the aversive stimulus. But this serves as a negative reinforcement, providing a sense of relief. Because of this, avoidance behavior is self-reinforcing. (Excerpt from Avoidance and Escape Learning, Chapter 5: Conditioning, http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/avoidance_and_escape_learning.html (accessed April 13, 2015))
The correct answer is: Avoidance conditioning
A 24 year old woman develops significant fear of driving after having a relatively trivial road traffic accident. She avoids using cars even as a passenger. She has no symptoms of PTSD. Which of the following therapies is best suited for her needs?
Select one: Brief focal dynamic psychotherapy Cognitive analytic therapy Interpersonal therapy Behaviour therapy Psychoanalytic therapy
This is simple phobia for driving and not PTSD. So behaviour therapy is the correct option.
The correct answer is: Behaviour therapy
In Pavlov’s original classical conditioning experiments on dogs, which of the following served as the conditioned stimulus?
Select one: Food Saliva Bell Hunger Dog
Pavlov’s dogs, restrained in an experimental chamber, were presented with meat powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or merely by a clicking bell nuise produced by the device that distributed the meat powder. (Excerpt from Classical Conditioning (Pavlov) | Learning Theories, http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html).
The correct answer is: Bell
Tip of the tongue state is a well investigated example of
Select one: Context dependent memory Blocking Encoding failure Failure of prospective memory State dependent memory
Sometimes people may have the experience that we know the answer we are seeking but cannot quite find it and this feeling is known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, also abbreviated as TOT phenomenon. This is a well investigated example of Blocking, which is one of the ‘retrieval failure’ theories of forgetting. Blocking is said to occur when the subjects are unable to access information that they know exists in their memory despite great efforts at recalling even in the presence of retrieval cues. TOT states may last for few seconds or for a few days.
The correct answer is: Blocking
People can only attend to one physical channel of information at a time’-Which theory of attention states this?
Select one: Broadbent's filter theory of attention Cocktail party phenomenon Dichotic listening experiments Attenuator model of selective attention Shiffrin and Schneider's divided attention theory
Dichotic listening experiments show that alternative information is simultaneously processed and can be attended to if required. Here one kind of information is selected for attention and it is called as selective or focused attention. Broadbent conducted dichotic listening experiments and he suggested that “our mind can be conceived as a radio receiving many channels at once”. He supposed that in brain there exists a type of audio filter in our brain that selects which channel we should pay attention to from the many kinds of sounds perceived. Broadbent proposed that the filter lies between the sensory buffer and short-term store (what is now called working memory) that prevents overloading memory. This is called Broadbent’s filter theory.
The correct answer is: Broadbent’s filter theory of attention
A clinical psychologist performed digit span test and immediately asked the patient to count a three digit number backwards. What is this procedure called as?
Select one: Brown Paterson Task Primacy effect Recency effect Baddeley and Hitch Task Cohen and Squire experiment
Under normal situations, the duration for which information is held in short term memory is usually 15 to 20 seconds. STM is also very fragile and information is lost quickly. Brown Paterson demonstrated that by 15 seconds the original material is completely forgotten. Brown Paterson task involves introducing distraction (such as counting a three digit number backwards) immediately after the digit span test in order to prevent rehearsal.
The correct answer is: Brown Paterson Task
Which of the following is not a component of the Big Five Theory of personality?
Select one: Capacity Agreeableness Openness Neuroticism Extraversion
The Big Five are five broad factors (dimensions) of personality traits. They include 1. Extraversion which encompasses more specific traits as talkative, energetic, and assertiveness. 2. Agreeableness which includes sympathtic, kind and affectionate approach. 3. Conscientiousness that includes traits such as being organized, thorough, and planful. 4. Neuroticism which includes traits like being tense, moody and anxious. 5. Openness to Experience which includes traits like having wide interests, being imaginative and insightful.(In short, the Big Five includes five traits, each beginning with the alphabets of the word OCEAN)
The correct answer is: Capacity
Biofeedback can mainly modify which of the following functions?
Select one: Gastrointestinal function Cardiovascular function Musculoskeletal function Respiratory function Central nervous system function
Biofeedback involves the transmission to subjects of information about biological functions. It can modify cardiovascular function and is a useful method of reducing muscle tension. It is a technique for controlling physiological responses by receiving information about these responses as they occur. Monitoring devices track physiological responses such as heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension and provide the person with feedback in the form of light or tone whenever they change the response in the desired direction. With practice, a person can learn to control all sorts of bodily functions predominantly through relaxation (Excerpt retrieved from http://www.abahe.co.uk/biofeedback-definition.html).
The correct answer is: Cardiovascular function
Which of the following is not a part of the Big Five personality traits?
Select one: Carefulness Openness Agreeableness Neuroticism Conscientiousness
Big Five traits (McCrae and Costa 1992) include OCEAN - Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. This has provided a unified framework for trait research. NEO decreases with age; AC increases with age.
The correct answer is: Carefulness
The principle of combining separate pieces of information into one meaningful combination is called
Select one: Encoding Primacy effect Chunking Sensory storage Recency effect
Chunking is a method of increasing the capacity of short-term memory by combining units or information (usually numbers) into chunks. By doing so, impressive feats of memory can result. For example the numbers 1,5,2,3,5.2,5,8,5,3,7,8 would normally overload our short term memory but if they are arranged into chunks 152, 352, 585, 378, they become a lot more manageable. The capacity of STM according to Miller is 7+/- 2, as evident while testing digit span. By chunking, larger information could be sorted into 7+/- 2 items and effectively stored.
The correct answer is: Chunking
In a scientific experiment, a neutral stimulus (a bell) is paired with a stimulus (food) that produces an autonomic response (salivation). Which of the following learning mechanisms has been employed?
Select one: Systematic desensitization Shaping chaining Operant conditioning Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a basic form of learning. It was first described by Ivan Pavlov working on the conditioned reflex. He was able to take an autonomic reflex (e.g., salivation to food) that was thought to be unconditioned and demonstrated that it could be conditioned to respond to a new stimulus (e.g., a bell) if the new stimulus was presented along with or prior to the unconditioned stimulus (food). After a number of such presentations, the new stimulus (bell) would elicit the autonomic unconditioned response.
The correct answer is: Classical conditioning
The strategies to improve encoding includes all except
Select one: Using imageries Mnemonics Using primacy-Recency effects Cueing Chunking
Strategies to improve encoding include - order and sorting info, chunking, mnemonics, using imageries, adding importance and salience to the info and using primacy-Recency effects. Retrieval can be helped by cueing and reinstatement of learning context. The more similar the retrieval situation is to the encoding situation, the better retrieval. This is called encoding specificity principle.
The correct answer is: Cueing
The most important and common bedside test that is used in demonstrating age-associated memory impairment would be;
Select one: Delayed recall Orientation to time and place Immediate recall Naming objects Attention and calculation
40% of individuals aged 65 and over show AAMI. Cognitive testing has demonstrated that memory for non-verbal material seems to be more affected by aging than memory for verbal material, and delayed recall is more affected than immediate recall. Here the subject is given a list of 20 words and then ask him or her to recall as many as possible in 20 minutes. Finally, the score is compared with standardised scores for the given age.
The correct answer is: Delayed recall
Learned helplessness has been invoked to explain the aetiology of;
Select one: Obsessive compulsive disorders Psychosomatic disorders Anxiety disorders Psychotic disorders Depressive disorders
Learned helplessness: This is the tendency of an organism to give up trying to avoid or escape from an unpleasant stimulus because in the past all their attempts at so doing had been frustrated. Dogs were given electric shocks and prevented from escaping but after repeated shocks the dogs would no longer try to escape, even when a fairly obvious means of escape was made available and this was invoked to explain the etiology of depression.
The correct answer is: Depressive disorders
A 45-year-old man was admitted to the acquired brain injury unit with severe memory impairment. Which of the common clinical tests can be used to test his immediate memory?
Select one: Recall of last meal Recall of distant personal events Recall of items after 5 minutes Recall of recent topics in news Digit span
The terms used in psychology and psychiatry are somewhat different which could lead to some confusion. The terms used in psychology are short term memory (immediate memory in psychiatry) and long-term memory (recent memory and remote memory in psychiatry). Digit span tests immediate memory (STM). Recollection of a name and an address after 5 minutes is seen as a test of recent memory (which, in fact, is a part of LTM and should not be considered as a test of STM)
The correct answer is: Digit span
Which is a form of negative reinforcement used in the treatment of alcohol dependence?
Select one: Apomorphine treatment Aversion therapy using electric shock Covert sensitization Disulfiram Alcoholics anonymous
The use of disulfiram - a deterrent agent (also called alcohol-sensitizing drug) - is a form of behavioural modification with negative reinforcement used in the treatment of alcohol dependence.
The correct answer is: Disulfiram
All of the following are true with respect to coping process when faced with a life stressor except
Select one:
In emotion-focused coping the individual alters his emotional self-appraisal to the stressful situation
During primary appraisal the individual evaluates his resources to cope
In problem-focused coping the individual attempts to change the stressful situation
Individuals employ a variety of different strategies to cope
There is no universally best strategy for coping
Primary appraisal - the individual evaluates the stressor. Secondary appraisal - the individual evaluates his resources and options available to manage the stressful situation.
The correct answer is: During primary appraisal the individual evaluates his resources to cope
Which of the following theorists proposed six basic emotions?
Select one: Ekman Lorenz Cannon and Bard James and Lange Ainsworth
According to Paul Ekman, the six basic emotions are sadness, happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. These emotions combine in different ways to form other emotions, including compassion, boredom, embarrassment, rage, hunger, and more.
The correct answer is: Ekman
Information is held in the long term memory by the process of
Select one: Rote rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal Maintenance rehearsal Recency effect Displacement of older memories
Rehearsal is supposed to be the transient control process that can aid maintenance of STM and transfer to LTM. Other control processes include encoding, retrieval strategies and decision to remember. Rehearsal may be maintenance/rote rehearsal or elaborative rehearsal where encoding is semantically elaborated or changed. Maintenance rehearsal is simple and refers to the repetition of items in one’s mind and occasionally by verbal repetition (e.g., trying to remember a telephone number). Elaborative rehearsal involves more extensive understanding of the meaning of the material, a process involving long-term memory. It is proposed that rehearsal can take place at three levels of processing. Shallow processing where surface features are only rehearsed, phonemic processing where sound features are rehearsed or semantic processing where deeper encoding and meaning related associations are made. A higher level of processing depends on time available and nature of the material processed.
The correct answer is: Elaborative rehearsal
Which of the following refers to the formation of initial memory traces?
Select one: Retention Forgetting Retrieval Storage Encoding
In all operations involving memory, three different processes are thought to occur. Encoding; It leads to the formation of initial memory traces and receives information from the outside. The encoding is acoustic in short term memory and semantic in long term memory. Storage: Retention of information and maintenance. Retrieval; Accessing and recovering information from memory stores.
The correct answer is: Encoding
Amnesic syndrome is characterised by a marked impairment in
Select one: Procedural memory Working memory Episodic memory Semantic memory Implicit memory
The term amnesia refers to episodic memory loss.
The correct answer is: Episodic memory
Which one of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs represents the need to develop a sense of personal worth and competence and the need for recognition by others?
Select one: Aesthetic and cognitive needs Physiological needs Self actualisation needs Esteem needs Motivation needs
Esteem needs- the need to develop a sense of personal worth and competence and the need for recognition by others. Aesthetic and cognitive needs- These are growth needs involving knowledge, understanding, beauty and symmetry. The need for self-actualisations is the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.. According to Maslow, the following characters are seen in self-actualizing people. They are Spontaneous in their ideas and actions, Creative. Interested in solving problems, Appreciate life, Have a system of internalized independent morality and can view all things in an objective manner.
The correct answer is: Esteem needs
A reinforced operant response weakens when the reinforcement is ceased. This is called
Select one: Stimulus decoupling Stimulus sensitisation Extinction Stimulus discrimination Stimulus incubation
Extinction is typically studied within the Pavlovian fear conditioning framework in which extinction refers to the reduction in a conditioned response (CR; e.g., fear response/freezing) when a conditioned stimulus (CS; e.g., neutral stimulus/light or tone) is repeatedly presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US; e.g., foot shock/loud noise) with which it has been previously paired.
The correct answer is: Extinction
Which one of the following is a way of measuring personality along the dimensions of extroversion-introversion and neuroticism-stability?
Select one: Rorschach ink blot test Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory Draw a person test Thematic apperception test Eysenck Personality Inventory
EPI is a way of measuring personality along the dimensions of extroversion-introversion and neuroticism stability. The inventory also includes a lie scale.
The correct answer is: Eysenck Personality Inventory
Mr. X was seen in the psychiatric outpatient clinic. He complains of absent-mindedness and is failing to take medications and keep appointments. This is due to
Select one: Failure of conditioning Failure of encoding Failure of context dependent memory Failure of prospective memory Failure of State dependent memory
Failure of prospective memory is a common cause of absent mindedness. Prospective memory is the ability to carry out particular actions or perform planned actions and appears to involve the prefrontal lobes of the brain. This is one of the findings/theories of retrieval failure.
The correct answer is: Failure of prospective memory
Which one among the following is not one of the Gestalt principles of perception?
Select one: Similarity Continuity Closure Familiarity Proximity
The Gestalt principles of perception would include proximity, closure, similarity, continuity and symmetry. According to Gestalt principles, we tend to perceive whole objects rather than parts. The perceptual system in our brains employs these principles to enable us perceive unified forms rather than simple collections of unconnected images.
The correct answer is: Familiarity
According to Ebbinghaus curve, there is a sharp drop in forgetting over
Select one: First eighteen hours First seven days First twenty four hours First one month First nine hours
Hermann Ebbinghaus plotted the forgetting curve by plotting proportion of words retained in memory against time. The curve shows a sharp drop over the first nine hours and particularly during the first hour. After nine hours, the rate of forgetting slows and declines little thereafter, even after the lapse of 31 days. The main findings from his and other studies are; Forgetting is maximum in the first few hours and the rate of forgetting gets less with time. Forgetting is never complete and some information is retained over longer periods of time, even for life. Recalling the material during the test period increases the probability of remembering items or events. Continuous motor skills such as cycling and swimming etc show no forgetting at all. But discrete motors kills such as typing are lost more quickly.
The correct answer is: First nine hours
Mr. X mentioned that he has vivid memories of where he was, what he was doing and was even able to remember other fine details, when he heard the news of suicide bombing of the twin towers in 2001. These memories have been termed as
Select one: Selective memory Flashbulb memories Autobiographical memory Procedural memory Semantic memory
Episodic memory is autobiographical, self-focussed spatio-temporal memory. Flashbulb memory is a special episodic memory where people remember clearly where and what they were doing at times of specific global events like September 11, 2001, etc.
The correct answer is: Flashbulb memories
In a behavioural technique, actual exposure to feared stimulus takes place for a substantial amount of time, so the accompanying anxiety response fades away. This is called
Select one: Aversive conditioning Covert reinforcement Covert sensitisation Flooding (in vivo) Implosion (in vitro)
Implosion is ‘in vitro’, - imaginary exposure in behavioural therapy.
The correct answer is: Flooding (in vivo)
In a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm, the bell is ringed before the food is presented. But the bell continued till salivation appeared. This is called
Select one: Backward conditioning Pseudoconditioning Forward conditioning Trace conditioning Simultaneous conditioning
In forward conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is presented before the unconditioned stimulus, and the combined stimuli persist until the unconditioned response is elicited during the pairing.
The correct answer is: Forward conditioning
The brain region thought to be responsible for majority of working memory functions is
Select one: Cerebellum Dorsal thalamus Frontal lobe Hippocampus Temporal lobe
Several event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have found persistent frontal-lobe activity during retention intervals of delayed response tasks (a WM task). The parietal lobe is also important for this function.
The correct answer is: Frontal lobe
A Lotto player thinks that more he loses, the more chances that he wins later. So he keeps playing the Lotto. This is best described as
Select one: Social loafing Base rate fallacy Entrapment Gambler's fallacy Availability heuristics
Gambler’s fallacy: an outcome is due as it has not happened for some time. So a gambler thinks that more he loses, the more chances that he wins later.
The correct answer is: Gambler’s fallacy
Raven’s progressive matrices test is used to assess
Select one: Premorbid intelligence Frontal lobe functions General intellectual ability Visuospatial ability Attentional bias
Raven’s Progressive Matrices (often referred to simply as Raven’s Matrices) are multiple-choice intelligence tests of abstract reasoning that provide culturally unbiased IQ estimates. Rey Osterrieth test comprises of copying a complex figure initially and then reproducing it from immediate and delayed recall that tests both visual memory and constructional ability
The correct answer is: General intellectual ability
Which of the following can test abstract reasoning?
Select one: Digit symbol substitution test Clock drawing test Trail making test n-back test Goldstein's card sorting test
The Goldstein-Scheerer Color Form Sorting Test was initially designed to test abstract reasoning (concept formation rather than the simple identification of abstract rules). Wisconsin card sorting test is a descendant of Goldstein task nd it tests concept identification rather than formation
The correct answer is: Goldstein’s card sorting test
