Psychology

Question 1

What is a dependent variable in an experiment?

Answer 1

A dependent variable is the behavior or response from participants that is measured in an experiment and is dependent on the independent variable​

Question 2

What is an independent variable in an experiment?

Answer 2

The independent variable is the factor manipulated by the experimenter, such as giving participants caffeine or no caffeine​

Question 3

What is operationalization in psychology experiments?

Answer 3

Operationalization involves turning theoretical concepts into specific, measurable variables for experiments​

Question 4

What is a control variable?

Answer 4

A control variable is a factor that is kept constant across experimental groups to ensure that differences in results are due to the independent variable

Question 5

What is ecological validity?

Answer 5

Ecological validity refers to how well an experiment reflects real-world scenarios, such as testing a theory about caffeine’s effect on perception in a driving simulation instead of a simple button-press task

Question 6

What is the primacy effect in memory?

Answer 6

The primacy effect occurs when items presented at the beginning of a list are remembered better than those in the middle​

Question 7

What is the recency effect in memory?

Answer 7

the recency effect is the tendency to remember items at the end of a list better than those in the middle​

Question 8

What is reaction time in cognitive psychology?

Answer 8

Reaction time is the time taken for a participant to respond to a stimulus, often used in tasks like detecting or recognizing an image​

Question 9

What is a mental rotation task?

Answer 9

A mental rotation task involves rotating a mental representation of an object, like a letter “R,” to determine if it’s facing the correct way​

Question 10

What is free recall in memory tasks?

Answer 10

Free recall is when participants are asked to remember and list items without prompts or visual aids​

Question 11

What is recognition memory?

Answer 11

Recognition memory involves identifying previously encountered items from a list, typically leading to better performance than free recall​

Question 12

What is the Stroop task?

Answer 12

The Stroop task involves naming the color of words, which can interfere with automatic reading processes, leading to slower or incorrect responses​

Question 13

What is the role of EEG in psychological experiments?

Answer 13

EEG (electroencephalography) measures electrical activity in the brain, providing information about brain processes with high temporal precision​

Question 14

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?

Answer 14

TMS is a method of stimulating brain regions using magnetic fields, which can influence motor responses like hand movements​

Question 15

What is the readiness potential in EEG studies?

Answer 15

The readiness potential is a rise in brain activity detected by EEG, showing the brain preparing for a movement before the person is consciously aware of their decision​

Question 16

What does the Benjamin Libet experiment suggest about free will?

Answer 16

The Libet experiment suggests that brain activity preparing for an action occurs before a person is consciously aware of deciding to perform the action​

Question 17

What is John Dylan-Haynes’ fMRI study about decision-making?

Answer 17

John Dylan-Haynes’ study showed that brain activity could predict a person’s decision to press a button up to 5 seconds before they were consciously aware of making the decision

Question 18

What is fMRI used for in cognitive psychology?

Answer 18

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) provides precise spatial localization of brain activity, though with slower temporal resolution compared to EEG​

Question 19

What is the difference between EEG and fMRI?

Answer 19

EEG has high temporal precision but poor spatial localization, while fMRI provides excellent spatial resolution but slower temporal accuracy​

Question 20

What is the concept of randomization in experiments?

Answer 20

Randomization involves randomly assigning participants to different experimental conditions to control for potential biases​

Question 21

What is the role of replication in scientific experiments?

Answer 21

Replication ensures that an experiment’s results can be reliably reproduced by other researchers under similar conditions​

Question 22

What is response competition in cognitive psychology?

Answer 22

Response competition occurs when two potential responses compete to drive behavior, often leading to slower or incorrect actions​

Question 23

What is automaticity in cognitive tasks?

Answer 23

Automaticity refers to actions that become automatic through repetition, like reading words in the Stroop task, which can interfere with deliberate responses

Question 24

What is dual-task interference?

Answer 24

Dual-task interference occurs when performing two tasks simultaneously, which can reduce performance on both tasks due to competing cognitive resources​

Question 25

What is the role of a dependent measure in cognitive experiments?

Answer 25

A dependent measure is the specific outcome or response that researchers assess in an experiment to determine the effect of the independent variable

Question 26

What is temporal resolution in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 26

Temporal resolution refers to how precisely a method like EEG can measure brain activity in relation to time, often within milliseconds​

Question 27

What is spatial resolution in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 27

Spatial resolution refers to how precisely a technique like fMRI can localize brain activity within specific regions of the brain​

Question 28

What is the go/no-go task in cognitive psychology?

Answer 28

A go/no-go task involves responding to a target stimulus (like pressing a button for the letter “X”) and withholding a response for non-targets (like other letters)​

Question 29

What is a detection task in cognitive psychology?

Answer 29

A detection task requires participants to simply indicate when they detect a stimulus, often used to measure basic reaction times​

Question 30

What is response selection in psychology experiments?

Answer 30

Response selection is the process of choosing the appropriate response from multiple competing options, often leading to slower reactions when choices conflict​