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Psychology > Exam: Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 > Flashcards

Exam: Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 Flashcards

1
Q

How can critical thinking help you evaluate claims in the media, even if you’re not a scientific expert on the issue?

A

Critical thinking is smart thinking. When evaluating media claims (even about topics you might not know much about), look for scientific evidence. Ask the following questions in your analysis: Are the claims based on scientific findings? Have several studies replicated the findings and confirmed them? Are any experts cited? If so, are they from a credible institution? Have they conducted or written about scientific research? What agenda might they have? What alternative explanations are possible?

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2
Q

(mc) As scientists, psychologists

A

are willing to ask questions and to reject claims that cannot be verified by research.

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3
Q

In 1879, in psychology’s first experiment, _______ and his students measured the time lag between hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a key.

A

Wilhelm Wundt

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4
Q

(mc) William James would be considered a(n) ____.

Wilhelm Wundt would be considered a(n) _____.

A

functionalist

structuralist

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5
Q

(mc) In the early twentieth century, _____ redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behaviour.”

A

John B. Watson

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6
Q

(mc) Nature is to nurture as

A

biology is to experience.

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7
Q

(mc) Which of the following is true regarding gender differences and similarities?
a) Differences between the genders outweigh any similarities.
b) Despite some gender differences, the underlying processes of human behaviour are the same.
c) Both similarities and differences between the genders depend more on biology than on environment.
d) Gender differences are so numerous that it is difficult to make meaningful comparisons.

A

b

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8
Q

_____ _____ is the principle that our mind processes information on two tracks at the same time - one with our full awareness and the other outside of our awareness.

A

Dual processing

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9
Q

(mc) A psychologist treating emotionally troubled adolescents at a local mental health agency is most likely to be a(n)

A

clinical psychologist

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10
Q

A mental health professional with a medical degree who can prescribe medication is a _______.

A

psychiatrist

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11
Q

Martin Seligman and other researchers who explore various aspects of human flourishing refer to their filed of study as _____ _____.

A

positive psychology

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12
Q

_____ _____ refers to our tendency to perceive events as predictable and obvious after the fact.

A

Hindsight bias

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13
Q

A theory-based predication is called a(n) _____.

A

hypothesis

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14
Q

(mc) Which of the following is NOT one of the descriptive methods psychologists use to observe and describe behaviour?
a) A case study.
b) Naturalistic observation.
c) Correlational research.
d) A phone survey.

A

c

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15
Q

For your survey, you need to establish a group of people who represent the country’s entire adult population. To do this, you will need to question a _____ sample of the population.

A

random (representative)

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16
Q

A study finds that the more childbirth training classes women attend, the less pain medication they require during childbirth. This finding can be stated as a _____ (positive/negative) correlation.

A

negative

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17
Q

(mc) Knowing that two events are correlated provides

A

a basis for prediction.

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18
Q

To explain behaviours and clarify cause and effect, psychologists use _____.

A

experiments

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19
Q

To test the effect of a new drug on depression, we randomly assign people to control and experimental groups. Those in the control group take a pill that contains no medication. This pill is a _____.

A

placebo

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20
Q

(mc) In a double-blind procedure,

A

neither the participants nor the researchers know who is in the experimental group or the control group.

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21
Q

A researcher wants to know whether noise level affects workers’ blood pressure. In one group, she varies the level of noise in the environment and records participants’ blood pressure. In this experiment, the level of noise is the _____ _____.

A

independent variable

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22
Q

(mc) The laboratory environment is designed to

A

re-create psychological forces under controlled conditions.

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23
Q

(mc) In defending their experimental research with animals, psychologists have noted that

A
  • animals’ biology and behaviour can tell us much about our own.
  • animal experimentation sometimes helps animals as well as humans.
  • animals are fascinating creatures and worthy of study.
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24
Q

The neuron fiber that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles and glands is the _____.

A

axon

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25
Q

(mc) The tiny space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another is called the

A

synaptic gap.

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26
Q

(mc) Regarding a neuron’s response to stimulation, the intensity of the stimulus determines

A

whether or not an impulse is generated.

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27
Q

In a sending neuron, when an action potential reaches an axon terminal, the impulse triggers the release of chemical messengers called _____.

A

neurotransmitters

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28
Q

(mc) Endorphins are released in the brain in response to

A

pain or vigorous exercise.

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29
Q

(mc) The automatic nervous system

A

controls the glands and the muscles of our internal organs.

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30
Q

The sympathetic nervous system arouses us for action and the parasympathetic nervous system calms us down. Together, the two systems make up the _____ nervous system.

A

autonomic

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31
Q

The neurons of the spinal cord are part of the _____ nervous system.

A

central

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32
Q

(mc) The most influential endocrine gland, known as the “master gland,” is the

A

pituitary

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33
Q

The _____ _____ secrete(s) epinephrine and norepinephrine, helping to arouse the body during times of stress.

A

adrenal glands

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34
Q

(mc) The part of the brainstem that controls heartbeat and breathing is the

A

medulla.

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35
Q

(mc) The thalamus functions as a

A

sensory control center.

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36
Q

(mc) The lower brain structure that governs arousal is the

A

reticular formation.

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37
Q

The part of the brain that coordinates voluntary movement and enables nonverbal learning and memory is the _____.

A

cerebellum

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38
Q

(mc) Two parts of the limbic system are the amygdala and the

A

hippocampus.

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39
Q

A cat’s ferocious response to electrical brain stimulation would lead you to suppose the electrode had touched the _____.

A

amygdala

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40
Q

(mc) The neural structure that most directly regulates eating, drinking, and body temperature is the

A

hypothalamus.

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41
Q

The initial reward center discovered by Olds and Milner was located in the _____.

A

hypothalamus

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42
Q

(mc) If a neurosurgeon stimulated your right motor cortex, you would most likely

A

move your left leg.

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43
Q

(mc) Which of the following body regions has the greatest representation in the somatosensory cortex?
a) Upper arm.
b) Toes.
c) Lips.
d) All regions are equally represented.

A

c

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44
Q

The “uncommitted” areas that make up about three-fourths of the cerebral cortex are called _____ _____.

A

association areas

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45
Q

Judging and planning are enabled by the _____ lobes.

A

frontal

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46
Q

(mc) The flexible brain’s ability to respond to damage is especially evident in the brains of

A

young children

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47
Q

An experimenter flashes the word HERON across the visual field of a man whose corpus callosum has been severed. HER is transmitted to his right hemisphere and ON to his left hemisphere. When asked to indicate what he saw, the man says he saw _____ but his left hand points to _____.

A

ON

HER

48
Q

(mc) Studies of people with split brains and brain scans of those with undivided brains indicate that the left hemisphere excels in

A

processing language.

49
Q

(mc) Damage to the brain’s right hemisphere is most likely to reduce a person’s ability to

A

make inferences.

50
Q

Failure to see visible objects because our attention is occupied elsewhere is called _____ _____.

A

inattentional blindness

51
Q

Inattentional blindness is a product of our _____ attention.

A

selective

52
Q

(mc) Sensation is to _____ as perception is to _____.

A

bottom-up processing

top-down processing

53
Q

The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called _____.

A

perception

54
Q

(mc) Subliminal stimuli are

A

below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

55
Q

Another term for difference threshold is the _____ _____ _____.

A

just noticeable difference

56
Q

(mc) Weber’s law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by

A

a constant minimum percentage.

57
Q

(mc) Sensory adaption helps us focus on

A

important changes in the environment.

58
Q

(mc) Our perceptual set influences what we perceive. This mental tendency reflects our

A

experiences, assumptions, and expectations.

59
Q

The characteristic of light that determines the colour we experience, such as blue or green, is _____.

A

wavelength

60
Q

The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of _____.

A

brightness

61
Q

(mc) The blind spot in your retina is located where

A

the optic nerve leaves the eye.

62
Q

(mc) Cones are the eye’s receptor cells that are especially sensitive to _____ light and are responsible for our _____ vision.

A

bright

colour

63
Q

(mc) Two theories together account for colour vision. The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains _____, and Hering’s theory accounts for the nervous system’s having _____.

A

three types of colour receptors

opponent-process cells

64
Q

The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called _____ _____.

A

feature detectors

65
Q

The brain’s ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called _____ _____.

A

parallel processing

66
Q

(mc) In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of

A

figure-ground.

67
Q

(mc) Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called

A

grouping.

68
Q

(mc) The visual cliff experiments suggest that

A

crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth.

69
Q

(mc) Depth perception underlines our ability to

A

judge distances.

70
Q

Two examples of _____ depth cues are interposition and linear perspective.

A

monocular

71
Q

(mc) Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of

A

perceptual constancy.

72
Q

(mc) After surgery to restore vision, adults who had been blind from birth had difficulty

A

recognizing objects by sight.

73
Q

In experiments, people have worn glasses that turned their visual fields upside down. After a period of adjustment, they learned to function quite well. This ability is called _____ _____.

A

perceptual adaption

74
Q

The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the _____.

A

cochlea

75
Q

(mc) The gate-control theory of pain proposes that

A

small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals, but large-fiber activity can close access to those pain signals.

76
Q

_____ is your sense of body position and movement. Your _____ _____ specifically monitors your head’s movement, with sensors in the inner ear.

A

Kinesthesia

vestibular sense

77
Q

(mc) Which of the following types of ESP claims is supported by solid, replicable science evidence?
a) Telepathy.
b) Clairvoyance.
c) Precognition.
d) None of these claims.

A

d

78
Q

(mc) Two forms of associative learning are classical-conditioning, in which we associate _____, and operant conditioning in which we associate _____.

A

two or more stimuli

a response and its consequence

79
Q

(mc) Two forms of associative learning are classical-conditioning, in which we associate _____, and operant conditioning in which we associate _____.

A

two or more stimuli

a response and its consequence

80
Q

In Pavlov’s experiments, the tone started as a neutral stimulus, and then became a(n) _____ stimulus.

A

conditioned

81
Q

Dogs have been taught to salivate to a circle but not to a square. This process is an example of _____.

A

discrimination

82
Q

(mc) After Watson and Rayner classically conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat, the child later showed fear in response to a rabbit, a dog, and a furry coat. This illustrates

A

generalization

83
Q

Thorndike’s law of effect was the basis for _____’s work on operant conditioning and behaviour control.

A

Skinner

84
Q

One way to change behaviour is to reward natural behaviours in small steps, as they get closer and closer to a desired behaviour. This process is called _____.

A

shaping

85
Q

Reinforcing a desired response only some of the times it occurs is called _____ reinforcement.

A

partial

86
Q

(mc) A restaurant is running a special deal. After you buy four meals at full price, you will get a free appetizer. This is an example of a ____-_____ schedule of reinforcement.

A

fixed-ratio

87
Q

The partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after unpredictable time periods is a _____-_____ schedule.

A

variable-interval

88
Q

(mc) Which research showed that conditioning can occur even when the unconditioned stimulus does not immediately follow the neutral stimulus?

A

Garcia and Koelling’s taste-aversion studies.

89
Q

(mc) Taste-aversion research has shown that some animals develop aversions to certain tastes but not to sights or sounds. This finding supports

A

Darwin’s principle that natural selection favors traits that aid survival.

90
Q

Evidence that cognitive processes play an important role in learning comes in part from studies in which rats running a maze develop a _____ _____ of the maze.

A

cognitive map

91
Q

Rats that explored a maze without any reward were later able to run the maze as well as other rats that received food rewards for running the maze. The rats that had learned without reinforcement demonstrated _____ _____.

A

latent learning

92
Q

Children learn many social behaviours by imitating parents and other models. This type of learning is called _____ _____.

A

observational learning

93
Q

According to Bandura, we learn by watching models because we experience _____ reinforcement or _____ punishment.

A

vicarious

vicarious

94
Q

(mc) Parents are most effective in getting their children to imitate them if

A

their words and actions are consistent.

95
Q

Some scientists believe that the brain has _____ neurons that enable observation and imitation.

A

mirror

96
Q

(mc) Most experts agree that repeated viewing of media violence

A

is a risk factor for viewers’ increased aggression.

97
Q

(mc) Most experts agree that repeated viewing of media violence

A

is a risk factor for viewers’ increased aggression.

98
Q

The psychological terms for taking in information, retaining it, and later getting it back our are _____, _____, and _____.

A

encoding
storage
retrival

99
Q

(mc) The concept of working memory

A

clarifies the idea of short-term memory by focusing on the active processing that occurs in this stage.

100
Q

Sensory memory may be visual (_____ memory) or auditory (_____ memory).

A

iconic

echoic

101
Q

Our short-term memory for new information is limited to about _____ bits of information.

A

seven

102
Q

Memory aids that use visual imagery or other organizational devices are called _____.

A

mnemonics

103
Q

(mc) The hippocampus seems to function as a

A

temporary processing site for explicit memories.

104
Q

Hippocampus damage typically leaves people unable to learn new facts or recall recent events. However, they may be able to learn new skills, such as riding a bicycle, which is an _____ (explicit/implicit) memory.

A

implicit

105
Q

(mc) Long-term potentiation refers to

A

an increase in a cell’s firing potential.

106
Q

A psychologist who asks you to write down as many objects as you can remember having seen a few minutes earlier is testing your _____.

A

recall

107
Q

Specific odors, visual images, emotions, or other associations that help us access a memory are examples of _____ _____.

A

retrieval cues

108
Q

(mc) When tested immediately after viewing a list of words, people tend to recall the first and last items more readily than those in the middle. When retested after a delay, they are most likely to recall

A

the first items on the list.

109
Q

(mc) When forgetting is due to encoding failure, information has not been transferred from

A

short-term memory into long0term memory.

110
Q

(mc) Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve shows that after an initial decline, memory for novel information tends to

A

level off.

111
Q

Freud proposed that painful or unacceptable memories are blocked from consciousness through a mechanism called _____.

A

repression

112
Q

(mc) One reason false memories form is our tendency to fill in memory gaps with our reasonable guesses and assumptions, sometimes based on misleading information. This tendency is an example of

A

the misinformation effect

113
Q

We may recognize a face at a social gathering but be unable to remember how we know that person. This is an example of _____ ____.

A

source amnesia

114
Q

When a situation triggers the feeling that “I’ve been here before,” you are experiencing _____ ____.

A

déja vu

115
Q

(mc) Children can be accurate eyewitnesses if

A

a neutral person asks nonleading questions soon after the event.

116
Q

(mc) Memory researchers involved in the study of memories of abuse tend to disagree with some therapists about which of the following statements?
a) Memories of events that happened before age 4 are not reliable.
b) We tend to repress extremely upsetting memories.
c) Memories can be emotionally upsetting.
d) Sexual abuse happens.

A

b

Psychology (5 decks)

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