1. A psychologist identifies a new characteristic of personality, which she (with a nod to Lewis Carroll) names slithyness. A twin study of slithyness finds a correlation of .40 between monozygotic twins. From this result, we can infer that:

a. variance in slithyness has a substantial genetic component.
b. the nonshared environment accounts for most population variance. ##
c. genetic factors are more important than environmental factors in determining individual differences in slithyness.
d. nothing can be concluded about the sources of population variance in slithyness without comparative data from dizygotic twins.

36% of the class got this item correct; item-to-total r_pb = -.01, a bad item. Monozygotic twins share 100% of their genetic material, which is their shared environment. Since slithyness accounts for .40, or 40% of the variance of this trait, the majority of the variance, or 60%, would have to come from the non-shared, non-genetic environment. This does not demonstrate that genetic factors are more important, and indeed they have less explanatory power than the non-shared environment does. Lecture 33

2. Compared to laterborns, early-born siblings tend to be:

a. less “neurotic”.
b. less extraverted.
c. more conscientious. ##
d. more agreeable.

51% correct; item-to-total r_pb = .36. Research by Sulloway and others have shown that birth order can play a role in personality development, where the environment each child is in differs, and the influence it has differs (everyone has a different number of older and younger siblings, and everyone gets a different relationship with their parents). Early-born children tend to uphold parents’ values and identify with the status quo. They uphold rules, are responsible and tend to be high achievers. Laterborn children tend to be more rebellious, more inventive, and can be iconoclastic. In terms of the “big 5,” laterborn children have a profile of being more open to experience, more agreeable, and more extraverted. Early-born children are more conscientious and more neurotic. Lecture 34

3. Twin studies of individual differences in gender role find that:

a. masculinity-femininity is largely determined by the genes, along with other primary and secondary sex characteristics.
b. gender-role differentiation begins at puberty, and continues through adolescence.
c. individual differences in masculinity-femininity are importantly shaped by interactions with the environment. ##
d. masculinity-femininity differentiates according to gender identity and sexual orientation.

74%; .46. Twin studies help us determine how much of the variance of a given trait is attributable to genetic influence and how much is attributable to environment. Identical twins share the same genes, and so if a trait is mainly genetically influenced, identical twins should show strong similarities on that trait, but if the trait is mainly environmentally influenced, identical twins would show more variability. Twin studies show us that individual differences in gender roles are strongly shaped by the environment, with genes accounting for less than half of the variance. Lecture 35

4. Passing the “false beliefs” task indicates that the child:

a. has the capacity to determine when someone else is lying.
b. knows the difference between being wrong and being untruthful.
c. has acquired expertise in problem-solving and decision-making.
d. understands that others’ beliefs may be different from one’s own. ##

64%, .39. The false beliefs task involves showing a child something unexpected, like candy in a crayon box, and then asking what the child thinks a new person seeing only the box would expect to see. A child of age 3-4 would say a new person would think there was candy in the box, because the child cannot yet envision that other people don’t have the same beliefs he does, and he knows about the unusual contents. But a child of 4-5 can pass the false belief test and will answer that the new person will think there are crayons in the box. He is now old enough to understand that his beliefs and others’ will not necessarily be the same, and that people can be fooled Lecture 36

5. Prenatally, the decrease in the number of neurons in the brain is most dramatic __________.

a. in the final trimester
b. 2 to 4 months after conception
c. 4 to 6 months after conception ##
d. in the first month after conception

13%, .03, a bad item. I think this was just too detailed: the really important point is that neural loss occurs even before birth, as the brain organizes itself into networks of neurons. As the brain is growing in utero, it produces far more neurons than it will end up needing. This explosion of neurons happens very early, and then anything that is not getting used, or that is redundant, will be “pruned,” or will die out. The first major stage where this happens markedly is between 4 and 6 months after conception, although there will be some pruning still happening over the rest of the developmental process. Chapter 14

6. What is known about infants’ responsiveness to human faces?

a. They prefer male to female faces.
b. They look longer at schematic faces than at faces that are scrambled. ##
c. They look more at faces, but they can’t yet imitate.
d. They prefer faces that are symmetrical to faces that are not.

41%, .37. In the earliest days of life, infants seem predisposed to look at human faces, and even newborns just a few minutes old look longer at schematic faces than at a scrambled face. This demonstrates that they aren't just attracted to the elements of a face, but to the face itself, assembled normally. Infants also tend to imitate faces, sticking their tongues out or opening their mouths as their models do. They do not demonstrate any preference for gender or symmetry. Chapter 14

7. Carol Gilligan has suggested that men and women have different moral orientations. Which of the following statements forms the basis of her argument?

a. Women focus on human relationships and compassion. ##
b. Men focus on practical realities
c. Women focus on abstract principles such as justice.
d. Men focus on human relationships and compassion.

87%, .20. Carol Gilligan felt that Kohlberg’s tests applied more to males’ moral reasoning than to womens’. In her view, men tend to see morality as a matter of justice, based on abstract principles rooted in fairness. Women, she says, see morality more in terms of compassion, relationships and responsibilities to whose we are connected to. Chapter 14

8. Maura and Trish are eighth graders who have been caught smoking. Maura’s parents yell at her, ground her for a month, and take away her television and Internet privileges for 2 months. Trish’s parents talk to her about their disappointment and concern; in addition, they make her spend every afternoon for a week at the library researching the dangers of smoking and discuss her findings with them each night at dinner. Most likely, Maura’s parents are __________ and Trish’s are __________.

a. permissive; authoritative
b. authoritarian; permissive
c. authoritarian; authoritative ##
d. authoritative; permissive

59%, .63. Authoritative parenting is marked by high demands from the parents, but also high responsiveness in kind, with clear rules but also emotional warmth. Authoritarian parenting is marked by high demand but low responsiveness, with power assertion and firm rules, but low warmth and low autonomy. Permissive parenting is marked by low demand and high responsiveness, where there are few guidelines, and lots of freedom for the child. Maura received punishments, and harsh treatment by her parents, while Trish received an explanation of why her behavior was disappointing and an assignment to learn from her choices. This is indicative of authoritarian and authoritative parenting, in order. Chapter 14

9. Which of the following is NOT a defining characteristic of adolescence?

a. physical maturation
b. emotional turbulence ##
c. separation between the adolescent and his parents
d. experimentation with different social roles

28%, .28. Adolescence is a time of transition between childhood and adulthood. The boundaries are not specific, but it involves physical changes including growth and the attaining of sexual maturity, cognitive changes in the area of abstract thought, socioemotional changes as we try on different roles and develop romantic attachment, and increased independence from our parents. Emotional turbulence can be experienced, but it is far from universal, with many adolescents, especially those with authoritative parents, are cheerful and cooperative, as well as socially skilled and confident. Chapter 14

10. As compared to other periods in the life span, how prevalent are emotional crises during one’s forties?

a. Emotional crises are less common in one’s forties than during other periods.
b. Emotional crises are about as common in one’s forties as during other periods. ##
c. Emotional crises are slightly more common in one’s forties than during other periods.
d. Emotional crises are much more common in one’s forties than during other periods.

21%, .16, a bad item. Contrary to conventional accounts, depression, anxiety, and emotional instability do not appear to change throughout the 40s. People do have emotional crises at various points in life, including in their 40s, but they are not more likely in the 40s than at any other point in the lifespan. Chapter 14

11. Studies of implicit learning show that:

a. consciousness is not necessary in order for us to acquire and use new semantic and procedural knowledge. ##
b. consciousness is required for learning, but not for using what we have learned.
c. consciousness is not required for learning, but is necessary for us to use what we have learned.
d. semantic and procedural memories must be consciously accessible to affect our behavior, though episodic memories can affect us unconsciously.

49%, .53. Explicit learning gives you conscious access to the knowledge gained, whether it is semantic or procedural, but implicit learning is unconscious, and can be any effect of a new knowledge on your behavior, experience or thought. The fact that learning can be implicit demonstrates that there is no need for consciousness in the process of acquiring knowledge. We can learn new things, and can use those new things, and the entire process can be below our awareness. Lecture 37

12. Which of the following is NOT a limitation of our introspections?

a. Introspections are sometimes wrong.
b. Introspections are not always easily communicated.
c. We may misappropriate the cause of our introspections.
d. Introspections are never able to be studied scientifically. ##

77%, .33. Introspection is the process of looking within, to observe one’s own thoughts, beliefs and feelings. We are not always accurate in what we find when we look at our thoughts and feelings, and have to be prepared for those inaccuracies, and it also can be difficult to explain what we feel, putting thoughts into words that convey concepts accurately, while also easy to confuse the connections between our thoughts and their real causes. However, the very origins of psychology, psychophysics and everything that comes after, assumes that introspections can be studied scientifically. The very fact that we know that introspections are sometimes wrong, that they're sometimes hard to communicate, and that we don't always understand where they come from -- all these facts have been discovered precisely because introspections can be studied scientifically. Chapter 6

13. A subject sits in front of a screen in which one picture is presented to one eye while an entirely different picture is presented to the other eye. What experience will the person report?

a. the picture shown to the dominant eye
b. the picture shown to the left eye
c. the picture shown to the right eye
d. an apparent flip-flop of the images ##

67%, .31. In a phenomenon known as binocular rivalry, two images are presented one to each eye for processing. The visual system cannot handle both stimuli at once nor can it fuse the two images into one single perception; instead it flop-flops between them. The person will be aware of one picture, then aware of the other picture, but not aware of both at the same time. The stimuli don’t change, but the conscious experience does. Chapter 6

14. Which of the following is NOT one of the hypotheses regarding why animals sleep?

a. Sleep is restorative.
b. Sleep may allow important brain circuits to remain activated.
c. Sleep may allow consolidation of memories.
d. Sleep creates a time period in which animals can be safe from predators. ##

77%, .29. Sleep has many functions for animals. Sleep is a time when clear our bodies of cell waste and promote repair to our tissues. It can reset us emotionally, causing us to be less reactive than when sleep deprived, and reset stimulated neurons, resting them. Sleep can help us consolidate our memories, and decide what of the day should be kept and what should be forgotten, as well as improve our performance of learned tasks. Using sleep as a shelter from predators is possible, but it is not likely that this is why we sleep, but instead is a side benefit. We may just be using the downtime to digest and rest, so we can require fewer calories. Chapter 6

15. Before the publication of DSM-IV in 1994, the psychiatric syndromes were considered to be:

a. a random collection of signs and symptoms.
b. classical sets, characterized by defining signs and symptoms. ##
c. appropriate for psychoses but not for neuroses.
d. consequences of organic brain dysfunction.

59%, .14. Prior to 1994, psychiatric diagnoses were thought of in sets, with each syndrome associated with a set of signs and symptoms that were singly necessary and jointly sufficient to define the specific illness. The problem with this view is that very few actual patients resemble the descriptions of these syndromes, with many having only subsets of symptoms, or a blend of several, leading to ever more classifications and divisions. Fuzzy sets then replaced the more restrictive proper, or classical sets. Lecture 38

16. Experimental research on schizophrenia shows that “anhedonia” affects mostly:

a. positive but not negative emotional states. ##
b. both positive and negative emotional states.
c. physiological but not facial expressions of emotion.
d. both physiological and facial expressions of emotion.

26%, .03, a bad item. Schizophrenia involves both cognitive and emotional deficits. Anhedonia is an affective disturbance in which patients aren't emotionally responsive. Many patients show flat affect, or blunted affect, and some show inappropriate affect. Anhedonia, however, seems to mainly affect the positive emotional states, where those will be blunted or lessened, but doesn’t seem to affect negative states, which are not blunted typically. Anhedonia is related to the experience of emotions, not the facial expression of them. Lecture 39

17. Beck’s “depressogenic triad” can be thought of as a:

a. biological diathesis for depression.
b. psychological diathesis for depression. ##
c. somatic stressor for depression.
d. environmental stressor for depression.

54%, .26. Beck argued for a cognitive theory of depression characterized by three ways of thinking that many depressed patients had in common: negative view of the world, of the self and of the future. Being depressed might cause you to have these thoughts, but Beck thought that it was the thoughts themselves that provided a cognitive predisposition that, combined with an external event, caused depressive episodes. This makes the thoughts themselves into the diathesis, rather than in other examples it being an internal, medical, vulnerability. Lecture 40

18. Cognitive-behavioral therapies are generally superior to psychodynamic therapies in terms of:

a. efficacy.
b. specificity.
c. efficiency.
d. all of the above. ##

64%, .14. All psychotherapies are not created equal. Cognitive-behavioral therapies have been shown to be highly effective, and generally superior to other major therapeutic approaches in how effective they are at bringing about improvement, and how quickly they can do so, due to their practical approach to behavior. Since they take less time, they also are more economical for the patient. Cognitive-behavioral therapies are also able to be targeted at specific adjustment issues or realms of dysfunction, where psychodynamic approaches are looking at broader patterns and fundamental unconscious assumptions that affect the whole person. Lecture 41

19. The stigma of mental illness is particularly harmful because:

a. it serves as a trigger for relapse.
b. it justifies coercive treatments such as the token economy.
c. diagnostic labels tend to lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. ##
d. they slow the pace of de-institutionalization of the mentally ill.

64%, .16. One serious problem with getting help with mental illness is the issue of stigma. A stigma is an attribute of a person that is deeply discrediting, turning a whole person into a tainted one, viewed as undesirable. Labels can easily influence a person, causing someone who is vulnerable to see themselves the way others in authority are seeing them, emphasizing in themselves the diagnosis they receive, leading to self-fulfilling prophesies. Lecture 42

20. Researchers believe that severe fear reactions suffered in childhood cause a certain mental disorder. A new discovery shows that the disorder is really caused by the lack of a specific enzyme. The disorder will now change in classification from what to what?

a. somatogenic to psychogenic
b. hysterical to psychoanalytic
c. psychoanalytic to pathological
d. psychogenic to somatogenic ##

64%, .52. Somatogenic means that the problem is sourced in the body itself, and psychogenic means that the problem is sourced in the psychological experiences. Answer A cannot be correct because this disorder moves from psychological to physical, which is what answer D is describing. Chapter 16

21. Matt carefully listens to what his new girlfriend says she sees in the shapes of different clouds, how she interprets the meaning of an ambiguous fortune cookie, and what she says about an abstract painting in a museum. Knowing that Matt has had experience with projective tests, we can assume that Matt is __________.

a. interested in finding out her beliefs about different topics
b. interested in identifying her values and priorities
c. interested in what her responses say about her unconscious wishes and motives ##
d. planning to recommend that his new girlfriend start psychoanalysis

85%, .31. Projective tests are tests which provide ambiguous stimuli and garner reactions that are assumed to have deeper meaning for the test-taker, revealing hidden emotions or internal conflicts. Matt’s girlfriend is providing information as to what she sees in the abstract and ambiguous objects and events around her, and Matt is using those statements as projective of her unconscious wishes and motives. Projective tests do not measure explicit beliefs, values or priorities. Chapter 16

22. All of the anxiety disorders involve some experience of fear or apprehension. However, a feature of generalized anxiety disorder that distinguishes it from the other anxiety disorders is the presence of __________.

a. episodes of irrational panic
b. displacement
c. constant and pervasive worry ##
d. unpleasant physiological arousal

72%, .36. Generalized anxiety disorder is distinct from other anxiety issues in that there is no specific trigger or target of the anxiety. This disorder is characterized by a constant yet vague sense of worry or dread, with no readily identifiable cause. While there may be unpleasant physiological arousal, that would be potentially true of any anxiety disorder and is not specific to generalized anxiety disorder. Panic is more associated with panic disorders. Chapter 16

23. Missy has been having a very bad couple of days at work. According to research on attributions, Missy will be at greater risk for depression if she attributes these bad events to __________ causes.

a. stable, global, and internal ##
b. unstable, local, and internal
c. stable, local, and external
d. stable, global, and external

59%, .33. How you interpret the situations you find yourself in or the events that happen to you strongly affect your attitude and by extension your coping mechanisms and vulnerabilities to depression. If you think that the troubles in your life are mostly or at least somewhat under your control, and are just due to the present situation not something in you personally, you can explain them as part of the natural vagaries of life, changing all the time, and not internalize anything negative and permanent about yourself. If you see events as happening to you without your control, and as a global statement about your abilities and your self, and as stable and unchanging, there is little hope that you can do anything about your circumstances, leaving you at risk for depression. Chapter 16

24. Which of the following could best be classified as a negative symptom of schizophrenia?

a. hallucinations
b. delusions
c. flat affect ##
d. disorganized behavior

46%, .52. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are symptoms that are not present in healthy people, from delusions and hallucinations, to disorganized or unusual behaviors. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia involve a flattening or cessation of behavioral responses. A schizophrenic may express little emotion, say little and withdraw from people, or may just stare vacantly into space. Chapter 16

25. Sam is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with ADHD based in part on observations that he cannot sit still in class, blurts out answers without raising his hand, forgets his homework, and has difficulty completing tasks. Some of his classmates also occasionally forget their homework or blurt out answers but have not been diagnosed with ADHD. This illustrates that __________.

a. disorders are associated with symptoms that cause impaired functioning
b. disorders are associated with symptoms that cause distress to the patient or others
c. the symptoms involved in a disorder may be more extreme manifestations of common behaviors
d. all of the above ##

56%, .25. It can often be difficult to classify someone has having a mental illness, often due to the fact that many symptoms of a particular syndrome can be experienced to varying degrees in healthy people. This makes it hard to be definitive. Still, if the symptoms being experienced are extreme, are intruding on one’s successful functioning and are causing distress to themselves and those around them, then diagnoses can be made. Many dysfunctions are just extreme versions of common behaviors, magnified to the point of disruption and disturbance. Chapter 16

26. In choosing a form of therapy, the best strategy is to focus on what works. In fact, as current practice reveals, __________.

a. problems rooted in biological dysfunction can be treated effectively with psychotherapy ##
b. problems that are situational cannot be treated effectively with drugs
c. the prognosis is worst when patients are allowed to dictate the form of therapy
d. both a and b are correct

18%, .22. There are many forms of therapy, and although some have better efficacy rates than others in general, the one to choose is the one that works the best for a given patient. One does not have to address physical dysfunction only with medical intervention and situational issues with talk therapy; indeed, even dysfunctions that have biological elements can be affected by going to a therapist. There isn’t as much separation of the body and the mind as people sometimes assume! Chapter 17

27. A therapist explains to a client, “Dizziness occurs when there is a sudden drop in blood pressure. The shortness of breath you feel is the result of a slight biochemical change in your body. These physical changes occur when you overemphasize the importance of making a good impression.” This therapist seems to be using __________ to explain a panic attack to client.

a. the medical model
b. systematic desensitization
c. a biological therapy
d. cognitive therapy ##

26%, -.02, a bad item. Cognitive therapy is one that challenges a patient’s irrational or ingrained beliefs, substituting them with healthy, rational, undistorted ones. As people come to understand what is happening to them in a new way, and how they are interpreting their reactions (in this case physical), they can form new habits and thought processes that help them reframe their issues and respond differently. Systematic desensitization is the gradual exposure to a trigger so as to practice being calm at simple levels, moving up to difficult levels of exposure. Chapter 17

28. The theory behind why antipsychotic drugs seem to work focuses on which neurotransmitter system?

a. GABA
b. dopamine ##
c. acetylcholine
d. norepinephrine

56%, .44. Antipsychotics reduce the major positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as thought disorder and hallucination, apparently by blocking dopamine receptors in key brain pathways. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that regulates excitability, but doesn’t seem to be implicated in antipsychotics. Acetylcholine is involved in movement, and norepinephrine has multiple roles throughout the body. Neither of these are presumed affected. Chapter 17

29. Why was psychology once considered to be an “impossible science”?

a. Mental states were considered to be not amenable to physical measurement. ##
b. We did not have an adequate understanding of brain function.
c. It was focused exclusively on animal behavior.
d. It was dominated by philosophers and theologians, as opposed to naturalists.

100%, .00 (you can't calculate a correlation of there's no variance in one variable). Psychology is a science of mental processes, and at its inception the prevailing thought was that the mind and the body were entirely separate. Unlike today, no inferences about the mind were made from behavior. Philosophers (such as Kant) thought that since science is based on measurement, and mental states aren't measurable, and mental states weren't available for study, that psychology could never be a science. Lecture 43

30. Which of the following is not a characteristic of emotional memory?

a. Emotional memory is mediated by activity in the medial geniculate nucleus and other parts of the thalamus. ##
b. The effects of emotion on memory can be regulated by cognitive activity.
c. Children’s memories are less susceptible to emotional influences, because their emotional states are relatively undeveloped.
d. Emotional influences reflect the “hard wiring” of the human nervous system, and so do not vary from culture to culture.

10%, .10, a bad item. Emotional memory, as you encountered in the first chapter of the book, has a neural basis, an evolutionary basis, a cognitive basis, a social basis, a cultural basis and a developmental basis. Emotional memories are mediated, however, by the amygdala, our alarm system. It detects whether a event’s content is emotionally significant and it passes it off for further processing in the hippocampus. The thalamus is not specifically indicated in emotional memory processing. Prologue

31. Psychologists explain behavior in terms of:

a. activity in the brain and other parts of the nervous system.
b. the individual’s physiological state.
c. what the individual thinks, feels, and wants. ##
d. the presence and activities of other people.

69%, .31. There are many ways to view the behavior of our species. We can analyze ourselves in terms of groups, and through the social behavior we demonstrate when in groups, like sociologists. We can analyze ourselves biochemically and physiologically, like biologists. We can analyze ourselves in terms of brain activity, like neurologists. But psychologists examine human behavior at the level of what an individual person feels and thinks and wants, and how that affects their behavior throughout their lives. Lecture 1

32. A brother and sister born from the same parents __________.

a. are highly likely to share the same set of 46 chromosomes
b. are unlikely to share any of the same 46 chromosomes
c. Will share approximately 50% of the same chromosomes ##
d. will have identical chromosomes except for the sex chromosomes

85%, .22. Siblings are people who have the same mother and father, and as such, they each get half of their chromosomes from one parent and the other half from the other parent. They will not get the same chromosomes from each parent, thereby being clones of each other, nor will they get none of the chromosomes, since that would be biologically impossible. Siblings share roughly 50% of their chromosomes with each other, and 50% of their chromosomes with each parent. Chapter 2

33. Which of the following best describe Charles Darwin’s two main ideas?

a. natural selection and common ancestry ##
b. natural selection and genetic evolution
c. genetic evolution and common ancestry
d. behavioral evolution and genetic evolution

31%, .13, a bad item. Darwin wasn’t aware of the genetic mechanism by which evolution happened, with no knowledge of genes and how they functioned, even though he and others were able to observe traits passing down through generations. That means b, c an d cannot be correct. Common ancestry is the idea that all organisms now alive on earth and all present day fossils trace back to one or a few “original progenitors.” Therefore, if a trait is shared by two species, that is strong evidence that they have an ancestor in common. Chapter 2

34. A social smile is characterized by __________.

a. expression only when around others
b. changes in the shape of the mouth but not the eyes
c. use as a greeting
d. all of the above ##

87%, .12. The behavior of smiling is found across cultures and across species. Smiling has many functions, and we smile when alone and with others. The social smile, produced when in social interactions with other people, is comprised of changes of shape of the mouth and eyes (other smiles may use the mouth only), and among other things, is used to signal conflict avoidance and submission upon greeting. Chapter 2

35. Which of the following is not one of the actions of agonists and antagonists?

a. mimicking a neurotransmitter
b. blocking the receptor site, thus disabling the neurotransmitter
c. counteracting the cleanup enzyme that breaks down the neurotransmitter
d. altering the size of the action potential ##

64%, .32. Action potentials work by an “all or nothing” principle, where they’re either firing or at rest. While the rate that they fire can vary, their strength, or size of the action potential, is always the same and cannot be altered. Agonists and antagonists mimic neurotransmitters by either fitting into the receptor site and blocking a neurotransmitter’s access to that receptor, or they interfere with “reuptake,” or the breaking down and repackaging of a the neurotransmitter in the synaptic gap, leaving it there for extended use. Chapter 3

36. What’s wrong with the accompanying diagram?

a. It fails to show the corpus callosum.
b. It shows Broca’s area in the right hemisphere.
c. The labels for the frontal and occipital lobes should be reversed.
d. The auditory area is shown in the wrong lobe of the brain. ##

64%, .45. This is a view of the left hemisphere, so b cannot be correct. The corpus callosum is the fibrous communication pathway between hemispheres, and would not be able to be seen from this view, so a cannot be correct. The frontal and occipital lobes are correct, as this diagram is facing left. The auditory areas of the brain, however, are in the temporal lobe, not the parietal lobe. Chapter 3

37. A patient lights a match and then puts it in his mouth, rather than using it to light a cigarette, as he was asked to do. This sort of disorder of action is called an __________.

a. aphasia
b. agnosia
c. apraxia ##
d. abulia

44%, .26. Aphasia is a language impairment ranging from difficulty remembering words to an inability to speak. Agnosia is the loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, etc., usually affecting only one modality. Abulia is the lack of will or initiative, or of pronounced apathy or inability to make decisions. Apraxia is a disorder of motor planning, characterized by a loss of the ability to execute or carry out purposeful movements. Chapter 3

38. What may be the advantage of stem cells in comparison to “adult’ cells in terms of neurogenesis?

a. Stem cells have not yet begun to specialize or differentiate, and thus may be more flexible. ##
b. Stem cells have already specialized and differentiated, so they may be used to quickly restore function.
c. Stem cells are naïve and thus have more ability to learn without bias.
d. Stem cells are safer because they don’t have the potential for disease or bacteria.

90%, .25. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body. They have not yet begun the differentiation process and so can potentially be used for neurogenesis in the adult brain. This could potentially repair damage caused by injury, or restore function impaired by disease or age. They still, however, have the potential for disease or bacteria, and are not safer in that regard. Chapter 3

39. Lateralization of function:

a. means that language functions are performed primarily by the left hemisphere, while mathematical computations are performed primarily by the right hemisphere.
b. does not occur in nonhuman animals.
c. can be observed even in premature human infants. ##
d. makes evolutionary sense, given that most people are right-handed.

31%, -.09, a bad item. Lateralization of function refers to the specialization of certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each kind of activity. This specialization is found in all vertebrates, and is seen early in the developing human brain. In humans, both language and mathematical functions are performed primarily in the left hemisphere, however. Lateralization occurs in all humans, regardless of hand dominance patterns. Module 2

40. When Bill Gates, the Microsoft mogul, walks into a bar and orders a drink, what happens to the distribution of income among the patrons?

a. The mean will change, but not the median. ##
b. The median will change, but not the mode.
c. The median will change, but not the mode.
d. The variability will change, but not the central tendency.

33%, -.12, a bad item. It didn't help that options (b) and (c) were identical, but since neither of them was the correct answer, it shouldn't have mattered. The mean income of a population (same as the average) is responsive to outliers. If there is one score that is far beyond the cluster of other scores, the mean will be pulled in that direction. When Bill Gates’ income is considered with the income of everyone else in the room, he is an extreme outlier (well, depending on the bar he walks into) and thus pulls the mean income much higher. The median, however, doesn’t change, since that separates one half of the incomes from the other half, and Gates is then just one data point in one of the halves. The mode also doesn’t change, since that is the number that appears most often in the data set, and one can assume that there aren't many multi-billionaires in the bar. Module 3

41. The variability of one’s data set refers to the __________.

a. central tendency of the data
b. degree to which individual values differ from one to the next ##
c. size of the sample
d. kind of sample the researcher is using

87%, .26. Variability is the degree to which scores in a frequency distribution depart from the central value. The central value, or the average, is what each score is measured against to see how much your data set varies. There is always some amount of variability regardless of the size, or kind, of one’s sample, because human behavior is always variable. Chapter 1

42. Which of the following can be a significant problem for correlational studies?

a. It is nearly impossible to find an effect in most studies.
b. It can be hard to tell which factor is causing the other. ##
c. Demand characteristics can be a significant problem.
d. Placebo effects can be a significant problem.

79%, .22. You’ve probably heard many times that “correlation is not causation.” When two factors correlate, it means that they vary together, either both going up, both going down or one going up and one going down. It does not mean that one going up causes the other to go up. For example, both crime and ice cream consumption goes up in the summer, but eating ice cream doesn’t cause crime. Correlational studies help us see relationships between variables, but they don’t speak to the nature of that relationship. Other studies, ones that help establish causation, are necessary follow-ups. Demand effects and placebo effects are problems for experiments. Chapter 1

43. Research confirming a particular hypothesis leads to __________.

a. acceptance of the results of the study as fact
b. the sharing of the findings with other researchers to allow for discussion and replication ##
c. discontinuation of all study related to that hypothesis
d. both a and c

92%, .43. The most we can do in science is to confirm (or disconfirm) a particular hypothesis, by collecting and analyzing data. We can never prove an idea correct or factual. Also, any one study is not enough to cause widespread acceptance of the idea, since any study can be flawed. Only a body of consistent work aimed at a specific question can approach acceptance, and even then only provisionally until new evidence comes in. Science is never discontinued, and must remain open to new information that modifies current thinking. What does happen, however, is the sharing of findings through publication and presentation, and the promotion of discussion, replication and further thought about how this line of research reflects on other findings. Chapter 1

44. In a study of rhesus monkeys, Mineka found that observational learning of fear responses was possible with snakelike stimuli, but not with flowers. This outcome violates the _____ assumption of traditional stimulus-response theories of learning.

a. association by spatiotemporal contingency.
b. arbitrariness or equipotentiality. ##
c. the passive organism.
d. the Law of Readiness.

59%, .43. Arbitrainess (or equipotentiality in a non-neural sense) assumes that any stimulus can be connected to any response equally, or more specifically, that the fear response to flowers would be the same response as to a garden hose, if conditioned in the same fashion. Any arbitrary stimulus should be conditionable. However, this is not the case. Monkeys are far more able to be conditioned to fear garden hoses than they are to fear flowers, due to their evolutionary history and the likely dangers in their environment. Snakes can be legitimately dangerous, but flowers far less so. The Law of Readiness says that an organism learns only when it is physically and mentally ready to learn. Module 4

45. A human research subject is touched on the shoulder immediately before he receives an electric shock. This pairing occurs over many trials. Subsequent tests show that he will give a more vigorous galvanic skin response when touched on the shoulder, less vigorous when touched on the lower back, still less vigorous when touched on the thigh, and least when touched on the calf. The results are plotted with the galvanic skin response on the y-axis and the parts of the body on the x-axis. What is the resulting curve called?

a. an acquisition curve
b. an excitation gradient
c. a spread of inhibition curve
d. a generalization gradient ##

41%, .46. The research subject is generalizing his response to the electric shock, by showing a skin response to touching in many locations and not just the location that was paired with the shock, but showing decreasing skin response the further he is touched from that location. This is the generalization gradient, where different stimuli elicit the same response, but in different amounts. Chapter 7

46. Pavlov’s dogs learned that it was the metronome and not other events in the laboratory that were associated with meat powder. According to a contingency view of classical conditioning, this is not only because the CS preceded the US but also because the __________.

a. experiments were well controlled and there were no other stimuli near the dog
b. dog was unable to make responses other than salivation because it was held in a harness
c. absence of the metronome predicted the absence of meat ##
d. all of the above

51%, .55. To understand relationships between events, you need to see that when A is present, B will happen, but to complete your understanding, you also need see that when A isn't present, B won't happen. This shows that these two events are contingent upon one another, not just co-occurring in time, or coincident. Chapter 7

47. You check your cell phone repeatedly for a message from someone you’re interested in dating. It’s impossible to know in advance how many times you need to check before the message arrives (assuming it even does!), therefore your checking behavior is maintained according to a __________.

a. variable-ratio reinforcement schedule ##
b. fixed-ratio reinforcement schedule
c. variable-interval reinforcement schedule
d. fixed-interval reinforcement schedule

36%, .16, a bad item. Your checking is maintained by a variable ratio schedule. A fixed schedule, of either kind, would mean that a message would specifically come in either after a certain amount of time passed or a certain number of checks had happened. This is not how messaging works. A variable schedule works according to averages, with a ratio schedule rewarding you after a certain average number of responses and an interval schedule rewarding you after a certain average amount of time has gone by. You will eventually be rewarded after a certain number of responses, but you cannot say how many, so your behavior is maintained with a variable ratio schedule. Chapter 7

48. Andrew argues that a cat can be taught to press a lever in order to get any possible incentive or to avoid any possible punishment. Apparently, Andrew believes in the concept of __________.

a. preparedness or belongingness
b. contiguity or contiguity
c. biological or psychological association
d. equipotentiality or plasticity ##

46%, .42. Option (b) should have read "contiguity or contingency", though that wasn't the right answer (nor, frnakly, does it make any sense). Preparedness or belongingness means that each species has biological constraints on learning, governing what can be easily learned and what can be learned only with difficulty. They are predisposed to form some associations and not others, and not all behaviors and incentives will be simple to connect. Believing that any association can be made with any two variables in any species is believing in the equipotentiality of all variables and contingencies to be learned equally, and is what Andrew is asserting. Chapter 7

49. In a signal-detection experiment, a relatively low number of “catch trials” will be expected to:

a. increase the observer’s sensitivity.
b. increase the observer’s tendency to say “Yes, the signal was present”. ##
c. increase the observer’s response bias.
d. induce a conservative response bias in an uncertain observer.

41%, .37. A small proportion of catch trials means that the observer has an adequate sensitivity for the stimulus and is detecting when the signal is on, but that he also has a lower criterion for that signal, or a liberal bias toward saying “yes,” since he sometimes gets caught saying the signal is on when it is off. A conservative bias would lead him to say that he has heard the signal when it is on, and not often saying so when it is off, but because he has set a higher criterion and is “making sure” that the signal is really on, it leads him to also say no when there really was a signal on. Module 5

50. We smell a rotten egg only because the hydrogen sulfide molecules in the air flow over the sensory cells in our nasal cavities. In this example, what is the distal stimulus?

a. our nasal cavities
b. the air
c. the rotten egg ##
d. the hydrogen sulfide

56%, .32. Distal stimuli are stimuli that are furthest away and are the physical objects or events in the outside world. The proximal stimulus is the energy from that outside object that physically interacts with our sense organs. The hydrogen sulfide molecules interact with the receptors in our nasal cavities, and thus are the proximal stimuli, and the rotten egg is the source of those molecules, the object in the environment. Our nasal cavities are not considered a stimulus, and in this example of smelling the egg, the air itself, with no odor, is also not causing our sense organ receptors to fire. Chapter 4

51. A research subject can just discern the difference between 50 and 51 candles burning in an otherwise darkened room. According to Weber’s law, how many lit candles would have to be added to 300 already-lit candles before a subject could just notice the difference in illumination?

a. one additional candle, for a total of 301 candles
b. three additional candles, for a total of 303 candles
c. six additional candles, for a total of 306 candles ##
d. ten additional candles, for a total of 310 candles

92%, .33. Weber’s law says that the size of the different threshold (of detection) is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus, or, the change in intensity divided by the intensity is the change needed. In this case, the difference is 2% (51-50 divided by 50), and so 2% of 300 is 6, making the answer 306. Chapter 4

52. An auditory neuron responds __________.

a. most to a preferred pitch, but to most pitches to some degree ##
b. either to high or to low pitches only
c. to all pitches equally
d. to only a single pitch

77%, .14. The auditory system works by vibrations being passed from the oval window to the basilar membrane of the cochlea. As it vibrates, the hair cells bend, triggering a neural response. Some regions vibrate more than others, with higher frequencies vibrating a different region than lower frequencies. This information is part of what the brain uses to interpret sound. The other part is the firing rate of the cells in the auditory nerve, which match the frequency of the sound wave. These two pieces of information are combines and are interpreted by your brain as pitch. Each auditory neuron responds most to its preferred pitch, but has some activation to most pitches. Chapter 4

53. In some cases of brain damage, the patient fails to recognize faces, yet can point out individual components of the face such as the eyes and nose. What do patients such as these seem to be having trouble with?

a. segregating figure (facial features) from ground (the whole face)
b. compensating for their own eye movements
c. seeing the gestalt ##
d. binocular disparity

44%, .54. Seeing each individual feature instead of its “wholeness” is failing to see the gestalt of the perception. Gestalt emphasizes the organized whole in perception, which is greater than just the sum of the component parts, and an ability to interpret a form in an organized way. Figure-ground involves being able to separate an object from its background, not integrate the pieces together. Binocular disparity problems would result in depth perception issues, and eye movement compensation should not come into play when perceiving faces. Chapter 5

54. As it turns out, we can actually perceive depth with one eye closed. How?

a. through cues known as interposition (superposition) and texture gradients ##
b. through the cues provided by texture gradients and retinal disparity
c. through aerial perspective and convergence
d. both a and b

28%, .56. Binocular cues help us see depth, but they aren't the only cues available to us. Monocular cues also help us perceive depth. Some helpful monocular cues are interposition, or relying on the fact that nearer objects will obscure farther objects, linear perspective, or knowing that parallel lines will tend to converge as the get farther away from the perceiver, and texture gradients, which says that objects should appear less textured as they recede. Retinal disparity is the slight difference in the picture each eye sees that is then integrated into a whole by the brain, but is a binocular cue and depends on using both eyes. Arial perspective and convergence are also not monocular cues. Chapter 5

55. Animated neon signs seem to move even though there is no actual physical movement. Of what is this illusion an example?

a. induced movement
b. apparent movement ##
c. motion parallax
d. all of the above

33%, .28. Apparent movement is the perception of movement produced by stimuli that are stationary but are presented first at one position, then at an interval, presented at a different position. Though no actual movement has occurred, the brain perceives this as indistinguishable from movement. Neon signs do not move, but do flash their lights in a specific pattern as to appear to move. Induced movement is the perception of movement of a stationary object by the movement of the frame around it, and motion parallax is when nearby objects appear to move more quickly than objects far away. Chapter 5

56. In one study, research subjects watched a video screen on which one group of players, dressed in white shirts, were tossing a ball back and forth. Mixed-in with these white-shirted players, and clearly visible on the same video screen, was a group of black-shirted players, also tossing around a ball. When subjects were asked to focus on the white-shirted players only, __________.

a. they could not do so; they kept getting distracted by what the black-shirted players were doing
b. they quickly shifted their attention back and forth between the black-shirted and the white-shirted players
c. they ended up seeing something that never really happened: white-shirted players tossing the ball with black-shirted players
d. they failed even to notice when someone in a black gorilla suit strolled through the middle of the scene ##

77%, .34. When the subjects focused on the white-shirted players, they completely failed to notice that a person in a gorilla suit walked through the scene, beating his chest, and walking back out. This demonstrates the limits of attention, and how we cannot take in and process all the features of a scene that our eyes can take in. The concentration it takes to focus solely on the white-shirts excludes irrelevant information not matching the target (therefore anything with a “black” shirt). Chapter 5

57. What factor most likely accounts for the time-dependency of long-term memory?

a. Decay.
b. Displacement.
c. Consolidation failure.
d. Interference. ##

38%, .38. Memory is subject to many different time-based forces that can cause it to fail. Memories can decay, or fade with time; they can be displaced when new memories being encoded push out old information; memories can fail to be consolidated, or be stored correctly, in the first place, and can be lost before the process of encoding is complete; and memory can be disrupted or interfered with upon retrieval by what we have previously learned or by what we will learn in the future. Short-term memories are most affected by decay and displacement, but long term memory issues are more likely affected by interference. Consolidation failures are more associated with trauma. Module 6

58. As you work on a complex multiplication problem in your head, the numbers you are manipulating are in your __________ memory, and the multiplication tables you are drawing on are in __________.

a. working; long-term memory ##
b. working; recognition memory
c. long-term; working memory
d. long-term; recognition memory

82%, .19. Working memory is a term for the thoughts that are currently activated, currently being thought about, ideas you are “working on.” Your multiplication tables, presumably learned previously in life, are stored in long-term memory and are being retrieved from that storage to be used. Chapter 8

59. According to depth-of-processing models of memory, which of the following study techniques would enhance memory best?

a. highlighting important passages in the text
b. reading aloud important passages in the text
c. focusing on the meaning of important passages in the text ##
d. visualizing pages from the text, then “reading” the material they contain

90%, .15. Processing of information to put in memory can occur at different levels of engagement. You can process at a surface level, noting the features of the words or even letters in the text, or you can process deeply, engaging with the meaning of the text and relating to the information personally. Just highlighting important passages is helpful, whether reading aloud or visualizing, but not as helpful as focusing on meaning. Chapter 8

60. Attempting to recall an unusual word, Arturo experiences the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Which of the following statements is most likely FALSE regarding Arturo’s experience?

a. He is able to recall information related to the word.
b. He knows what the word sounds like.
c. He would recognize the word if he saw it in a list of possibilities.
d. He does not know how many syllables the word contains. ##

44%, .24. The tip of the tongue phenomenon is a condition in which one remains on the verge of retrieving a word or name but continues to be unsuccessful. People can often recall many features of the word, including what it may sound like, what the word begins with or how many syllables it has, even if they can't quite recall the word itself. The word is in their memory and they can easily pick it out of a list (recognition memory), but just are failing to actually completely retrieve it. Chapter 8

61. Which of the following is a big disadvantage to schema-based memory?

a. The main concepts are often forgotten.
b. Schema-based memory requires substantially more processing capacity than does more data-driven memory.
c. Schema-based memory is more subject to interference than is more data-driven memory.
d. Memory for details is often faulty. ##

46%, .51. Schemas simplify our processing and memory by codifying the broad strokes of a concept but not incorporating the details. This process relieves us of some processing effort, simplifying the task much more than the data-driven approach. Schema-based memory is less subject to interference with the focus being on the larger themes and not the details. Chapter 8

62. Framing effects violate the assumptions of normative rationality because:

a. people are likely to take risks under conditions of uncertainty.
b. choices should depend solely on abstract representations of the problem. ##
c. people do not choose based on a principle of optimality.
d. rational choices should ignore losses, and be based on the probability of gain.

26%, .31. Framing effects tell us that people’s judgment will vary according to how the problem is presented or how it is worded. This violates normative rationality because a rational choice is determined by an abstract representation of the problem, which wording shouldn’t affect. Judgment shouldn’t depend on how something is worded if the elements of the problem are consistent. However, since we are subject to framing effects, it violates the principles of normative rationality. Module 7

63. A TV satellite weather map that shows cloud cover and the outlines of bodies of water could be called a(n) __________ representation.

a. mental
b. hypothetical
c. analogical ##
d. symbolic

51%, .47. Mental representations are contents of the mind that stand in for an object or event, but are created solely in the mind. Something that is hypothetical does not exist, but is just proposed. An analogical representation shares some of the actual characteristics of the object it represents whereas a symbolic representation does not resemble the object it is representing (words are symbolic representations, for example). Since the outlines of the bodies of water and the graphic showing some cloud cover are characteristics of the objects themselves, this representation is analogical. Chapter 9

64. Research shows that we use two different systems of reasoning when trying to reach conclusions: System I is faster and more automatic, and System II is slower and more effortful. Which of the following statements CORRECTLY identifies another difference between the two systems?

a. People are more likely to use System I when tired or pressured. ##
b. People rely on System I when asked to think about frequencies, and System II when asked to think about probabilities.
c. System II relies more on unconscious processing than does System I.
d. System II, on average, leads to more errors than does System I.

77%, .46. People are more likely to use system I thinking when asked to think about probabilities, and system II when thinking about frequencies, which require more effort. System II is a conscious process, while system I is more automatic and unconscious, which means that system I thinking is more prone to errors. When under pressure, or when tired, it becomes difficult to engage in effortful thinking, and so we rely on system I in those times. Chapter 9

65. Research on framing indicates that people are most likely to __________.

a. gamble when they are losing in hopes of diminishing the loss ##
b. gamble only to increase gains
c. carefully weigh the losses against the gains
d. make irrational choices when on a winning streak

59%, .56. Loss aversion is the strong tendency to regard losses as considerably more important than gains of comparable magnitude – and with this is a tendency to take steps (including risky steps) to avoid possible loss. Therefore, when people are gambling and have lost, framing makes us take more risks in order to reduce this loss. When people are gambling and winning they will take fewer risks to try for the same amount of money. Chapter 9

66. Making several minor household repairs, Alyssa uses a shoe as a hammer and a butter knife as a screwdriver. Which of the following statements best characterizes Alyssa’s problem solving?

a. She is constrained by a powerful mental set.
b. She has been released from a conventional mental set. ##
c. She is using means-end analysis.
d. She is in a period of incubation.

56%, .23. Alyssa is using non-conventional items as tools, in a creative and unique way, for solving her problem. This indicates that she is not constrained by the limitations of a mental set (shoes are for foot protection, knives are for spreading food onto other food), but instead free from them and able to imagine other uses for the items she has at hand. Chapter 9

67. If intelligence is a unitary phenomenon, rather than a diverse collection of specialized abilities, then one might expect __________.

a. a good deal of variability in scores across the different components of an IQ test
b. little variability in scores across the different components of an IQ test ##
c. low average scores on an IQ test
d. high average scores on average test

82%, .29. Some researchers have assumed that intelligence is a general capacity that would provide an advantage on any mental task, whether it’s solving a puzzle, writing a paper or performing mathematical computations. If this were true, all components of an IQ test would be improved in a similar manner, thus showing little variability from component to component. If instead there is no such thing as general intelligence then each component would have a score reflective of the level of achievement attained by the test-taker, and a reflection of individual talents. Chapter 11

68. Which of the following activities is likely to involve more fluid than crystallized intelligence?

a. driving a car
b. completing a crossword puzzle with a familiar theme
c. repairing a toilet with a bobby pin ##
d. balancing a checkbook

64%, .50. Fluid intelligence refers to a person’s ability to deal with new and unusual problems, whereas crystallized intelligence refers to a person’s accumulated knowledge, including the strategies learned. Driving a car is a skill with no new challenges, so leans on accumulated knowledge. Completing a crossword or balancing a checkbook are not unusual problems, and so will not need fluid intelligence. Repairing a toilet with a bobby pin involves a non-standard use of a tool to solve an unusual problem, and is more likely to rely on fluid intelligence. Chapter 11

69. Which of the following is inconsistent with the idea that there is a hereditary component in the development of intelligence?

a. more highly correlated intelligence scores for identical than fraternal twins
b. greater similarity of intelligence scores between adopted children and their biological parents than with their adoptive parents
c. more highly correlated intelligence scores for full siblings than half-siblings who share only one parent
d. a positive correlation between intelligence scores of adopted children and their adoptive parents ##

79%, .31. One way to determine if there is a genetic component to a given trait is to look at correlations of the trait in people who are more, and less related to each other. Identical twins share 100% of their genetic material, while fraternal twins share 50%. If intelligence is heritable, then identical twins’ scores should correlate more highly than fraternal, and so answer A is consistent. Adopted children share genetic material with their biological parents and not with their adoptive parents, so their scores should correlate more highly with their biological parents, so answer B is consistent. Full siblings are more closely related than half siblings, and so should be more highly correlated, thus answer C is consistent. Adopted children and their adoptive parents share no genetic material, however, and so their scores correlating would be inconsistent with a heritable theory of intelligence. Chapter 11

70. In one study, researchers asked subjects to memorize strings of nonsense words. Some strings were short, such as rix and jag. The short strings were not made up of function morphemes. Other strings were longer, but were constructed in such a way so as to include function morphemes such as ing, ly, and est (e.g., rixing, jagly). What were the results of this study?

a. The longer strings with the function morphemes were easier to memorize. ##
b. The shorter strings without the function morphemes were easier to memorize.
c. Both strings were equally difficult to memorize, but when asked, the subjects said they drew meaning from the strings that included function morphemes.
d. Both strings were equally difficult to memorize, but when asked, the subjects said they were confused by the addition of function morphemes to nonsensical words.

46%, .45. While logic might indicate that shorter strings would be easier to memorize than longer strings, it turns out that adding meaning helps give the strings context, and that improved subject’s memory for these strings. When you add meaning, you add a dimension that makes encoding and retrieval easier. Adding function morphemes like ing and ly turns the nonsense syllables into familiar “words” and helps us remember them. Chapter 10

71. What evidence is consistent with the prototype theory of meaning?

a. Research subjects are able to identify the single feature that is necessary and sufficient to define something as a member of a class.
b. Research subjects find it easier to list words that are similar in meaning (wicked–evil) than words that are opposite in meaning (wicked–good).
c. Research subjects are easily able to list words that define a particular member of a category.
d. Research subjects judge some members of a category to be more representative than others. ##

41%, .61. Prototypes are individual instances of a category of objects that are representative of the entire category. For instance, when asked to think about the concept of “bird,” we may imagine a blue jay, or a robin, as the prototype of “bird.” However, not all category members are equally as representative as other members. A parrot might not be a representative of the category for all people, nor might penguin, or ostrich. Chapter 10

72. Consider the following sentence: Children’s stools are useful for garden work. This sentence is ambiguous at a __________ level.

a. syntactic
b. phonological
c. pragmatic
d. semantic ##

44%, -.04, a bad item. There is no phonological ambiguity here, since there are no alternate pronunciations for any of the words in the sentence. There is no syntactic ambiguity here, since the grammar here is straightforward with no alternate way the words could be grouped together. There is no pragmatic ambiguity here, since knowing more about the speaker, the context or their intent wouldn’t change the meaning of the sentence. There is semantic ambiguity here, however, because the word “stool” has two meanings, and each meaning changes the sentence drastically. Chapter 10

73. According to the cognitive-evaluation theory of emotion:

a. emotion biases subjects toward negative evaluations.
b. physiological arousal occurs in response to a violation of expectancies. ##
c. we become aroused by events after we pay attention to them.
d. the pattern of physiological arousal is determined by the perception of the situation.

21%, .29. The cognitive-evaluation theory of emotion says that arousal is a response to a perceived discrepancy in one’s expectations, an interruption of our intentions, or a disruption of our habitual behavior. This arousal then elicits one’s attention, and then the emotion is decided on cognitively. This theory states that arousal would be general, and not different for each emotion. Since the order is violation, arousal, then evaluation, answer C cannot be correct. Module 8

74. What does the “thrifty gene” hypothesis propose?

a. Those predisposed to obesity would have survived better in the world of our ancestors than would those predisposed to thinness. ##
b. Those predisposed to thinness would have survived better in the world of our ancestors than would those predisposed to obesity.
c. Those predisposed to obesity are better suited to today’s affluent cultures than are those predisposed to thinness.
d. Those predisposed to obesity and those predisposed to thinness are equally well suited to today’s affluent cultures.

82%, .54. The thrifty gene hypothesis says that out ancestors likely lived in times of unpredictable food supplies and frequent shortages, and thus selection favored the easy storage of fat. This better prepares an individual for lean times and provides a fitness advantage. Today, someone predisposed to obesity would have survived well in a world where food was unpredictable, better than someone who doesn’t easily store fat, who wouldn’t have enough stored to last through a food shortage. Today’s culture of abundant food works better for those whose metabolisms don’t easily store fat. Chapter 12

75. One form of violence that organisms engage in is called predation. Such predatory attacks seem to be an outgrowth of __________.

a. dominance hierarchies
b. hormonal imbalance
c. intense arousal
d. the hunger motive ##

64%, .53. Aggression and predation are two forms of violence that organisms display, and they are very different from each other. Aggression is a social act, where an animal acts in defense, or in asserting its power and dominance over others. Predation is part of the food-gathering sequence, and as such is distinct in its profile and its triggers. Predation is always, however, related to hunger, and is controlled by the same brain areas as eating. Chapter 12

76. Some people believe that homosexuality is a choice and that gay or lesbian parents or teachers may exert a harmful influence on children. To what extent is the empirical evidence consistent with these claims?

a. It is wholly inconsistent with these claims. ##
b. It is somewhat inconsistent with these claims.
c. It paints a mixed picture with respect to these claims.
d. It is largely consistent with these claims.

59%, .27. Research has demonstrated that sexual orientation isn't subject to external influences such as the orientation of the parents or the educational approach. The rate of occurrence of homosexual children to homosexual and heterosexual parents is the same, indicating that sexual orientation isn't influenced by the orientation of the parents. Sexual orientation has a strong genetic component, with identical twins being more likely than fraternal twins to share a homosexual orientation, and it has a possible hormonal component, with shifts in prenatal androgens influencing orientation. Chapter 12

77. Schachter and Singer investigated physiological concomitants of emotion. In general, their results suggest that __________.

a. different amounts of epinephrine produce different emotions
b. the same state of arousal is interpreted as the same emotional experience across different situations
c. different attributions yield different emotional experiences from the same state of arousal ##
d. different arousal patterns underlie different emotional experience

59%, .46. Schachter and Singer’s bridge study demonstrated that we can attribute our general arousal to different causes depending on what we see around us. Their participants misattributed their fear-provoked arousal for sexual attraction, when influenced in that direction by circumstances. In studies it has been shown that different emotions can sometimes have different arousal patterns, but this is not reflected in Schachter and Singer’s work. Chapter 12

78. A psychologist measures subjects’ level of happiness on a 10-point scale. Dick scores 4 out of 10 “happiness points” when at home, and 8 out of 10 when at his cabin by the lake. Jane scores 6 of 10 in both situations. This pattern reveals a:

a. main effect of the person but not of the situation.
b. main effect of the person and a person-situation interaction. ##
c. main effect of the situation but not a person-situation interaction.
d. person-situation interaction, but not main effect of either the person or the situation.

46%, .23. There is a main effect of person, because both people score significantly differently in the same situations. There is no main effect of situation, because while Dick scores differently in each situation, Jane does not. If there were a main effect of situation, it would apply to both of them. There is an interaction because the reported score depends both on whether it is Dick or Jane, AND what situation is measured. If you plot this on a graph, you will see that the lines cross, which always indicates an interaction of the variables. Module 9

79. Which of the following would be termed a strong situation?

a. a court hearing ##
b. being home alone
c. playgrounds
d. a casual restaurant

90%, .26. Situations affect human behavior, and they can have a weak effect or a strong effect. We are a social species, and being with other people can be very influential, but we are also subject to situational factors that influence our behavior as well. Eating at a casual restaurant is social, since others are there, but the effect would be moderate. Playing in a playground is social, and since it involves social rules and many interactions the effect would be somewhat stronger, but there is still much behavioral flexibility. The weakest environment would be just being home alone, with no social effects and less environmental effect since there are few expectations of what you will have to be doing. Sitting a court hearing carries with it strong expectations of your behavior and compliance, and exerts the strongest influence of the 4 choices. Chapter 15

80. The part of the mind, according to Freud, whose contents are not presently in focal awareness and yet are also not repressed is called the __________.

a. unconscious
b. id
c. collective unconscious
d. preconscious ##

33%, .30. The preconscious, according to Freud’s theories, is the state between the conscious and the unconscious, where things are easily brought to conscious, but aren't there all the time. The id resides in the unconscious, and governs the most primitive aspects of personality. Collective unconscious is a concept belonging to Jungian psychology, and is not Freudian. Chapter 15

81. Adaptation to stressful circumstances __________.

a. is inconsistent with the tenets of positive psychology
b. keeps people from being happy
c. causes us to grow accustomed to events and return to our happiness "set point" ##
d. is a weak force in humans

92%, .06. Research in positive psychology shows that people adapt to the situations they are in over time and keep a consistent set point of happiness. People who win the lottery report greater happiness temporarily, but within 3 months have returned to their set point of happiness, adapting to their newfound fortune. Similarly, stressful events can negatively influence our reports of happiness, but we then adapt and return to our set point again over time. Chapter 15

82. The central route to persuasion __________.

a. is more likely to be used if the issue involved is important to us
b. is more likely to be used if we are not distracted by other concerns
c. relies primarily on the source and context of the message rather than on its content
d. both a and b ##

67%, .09. The central route involves active processing of the persuasive argument, and is effortful. It is engaged most often when we are not distracted or tired, and when the issue at hand is an important one to us. When we are not engaged actively, find the issue peripheral to our interests or are otherwise under cognitive load, we are more persuaded by how an argument is presented and less by the facts of the argument. Indeed, this is how much of advertising works. Chapter 13

83. The results of a standard Asch line-judgment task compared to one in which the lines are difficult to distinguish indicate that __________.

a. a dissenting minority cannot withstand the opinion of the majority
b. social comparison is especially important in ambiguous situations ##
c. uncertainty increases emotional disturbance
d. the greater the ambiguity of stimuli, the greater the rigidity of responses

33%, .33. When we are sure of our perceptions and opinions, we are more likely to be able to stand up to a group that thinks differently. In ambiguous situations, we are much more likely to change our behavior to go along with the group. In the Asch line study, if the participant was sure the line was longer due to it being unambiguous, he was more able to contribute that answer even if he had to stand alone. If the lines were only slightly different, participants were much more likely to doubt their perceptions and go with what the group said. Chapter 13

84. Which of the following factors makes groupthink more likely?

a. a highly cohesive group ##
b. a group in constant communication about their discussions with people outside of the group
c. a group structured to require the examination of all sides of each issue
d. all of the above

46%, .52. In groupthink, dissenting opinions are suppressed for the maintenance of harmony, and factors of the group itself make groupthink more likely to occur. A group will tend to have like-minded people who share and enhance their opinions through internal discussion, thus polarizing and becoming more extreme through the process. Groups develop group norms and enforce them, and those who don’t conform can be rejected. This results in a highly cohesive group that has reduced influence from outside members. Chapter 13

85. Congenital hypothyroidism, a deficiency of thyroid hormone, can be successfully treated by the oral administration of a daily dose of thyroxine. Nevertheless, parents of such children can be very overprotective, making it difficult for their children to “grow up” and become independent. According to Judith Rich, this illustrates a ______ effect of the nonshared environment.

a. child-driven ##
b. relationship-driven
c. parent-driven
d. family context

10%, .29. Judith Rich poses that within-family environmental differences have a strong effect on a child’s development. The effects can be child, parent or relationship driven. In the above example, it is the child’s physical issue that provokes the parent to treat them a certain way, which would make this a child-driven effect. An example of a relationship-driven effect would be a mismatch of temperament or looks, while a parent-driven effect would be what the parent thinks of the child due to him being unplanned, or “difficult,” affecting their parenting choices. Family context effects include birth order and genetic differences. Module 10

86. Object permanence refers to the child’s awareness that __________.

a. a variety of actions can be coordinated into one organized schema
b. the mass of an object does not change despite transformations in the shape of the object
c. objects exist independent of one’s direct perception of or actions on them ##
d. certain motor patterns can become permanently associated with specific environmental objects

64%, .36. Object permanence is the knowledge that objects continue to exist even if they cannot be seen. Young infants seem to think that an object ceases to exist if they can no longer see it, but do develop the capacity to represent the object after it is gone. This can be demonstrated by hiding a toy under a cloth and letting the infant will move the cloth to once again see the toy. If they thought the toy disappeared, they would not move the cloth to look under it, but if they do, it may be because they have a sense that the object is still there even though they can't see it. Chapter 14

87. Why do preschool children fail to conserve, according to Piaget?

a. They are too egocentric.
b. They have not yet begun to accommodate schemas to experience.
c. They lack object permanence.
d. They can’t interrelate different dimensions of an experience. ##

36%, .35. Conservation, or the understanding that a certain quantity of liquid will remain constant even if it changes shape or size from being in different containers. To understand this, children need to integrate several different elements of knowledge about the properties of liquid and the properties of space. Piaget believed this developed in the concrete operations stage, between 7 and 12 years of age, and that before that kids would be unable to envision the physical transformation necessary for understanding conservation. Chapter 14

88. Harlow studied the role of surrogate mothers in comforting the infant monkey during times of danger or stress. He found that __________.

a. neither the wire mother nor the cloth mother was effective in comforting the infant during times of stress
b. the cloth mother, but not the wire mother, was effective in comforting the infant during times of stress ##
c. both the wire mother and the cloth mother comforted the infant during times of stress, but the cloth mother was more effective
d. only the mother that had furnished nourishment to the infant, whether wire or cloth, was effective in comforting the infant during times of stress

54%, .59. It was previously thought that an infant’s attachment to its mother was mediated by her being a food source, but Harlow was able to demonstrate that infant monkeys preferred to cling to cloth mothers when scared, even if they were fed solely on the wire mothers and never fed on the cloth ones. It was the cloth mothers that provided the comfort and security needed during times of stress, and the wire ones were never used that way when a cloth mother was available. Chapter 14

89. What is a responsible conclusion to reach about the relationship between the use of childcare and the eventual effect of that childcare on children?

a. Parenting quality matters much more than does childcare. ##
b. The quality of childcare does not seem to make any difference, surprisingly enough.
c. A child’s social responsiveness has nothing to do with the quality of childcare he receives.
d. The use of childcare harms children in a number of ways.

77%, .26. Research indicates that childcare centers do not harm children in any way. High quality childcare can promote social competence while low quality care may not consistently give these social advantages to children, but whatever the quality of care, the main predictor of child success seems to be the quality of their home life and their parents’ sensitivity. Chapter 14

90. According to the “medical model” of psychopathology:

a. mental illness is analogous to physical illness. ##
b. ultimately, all mental illness has a somatogenic etiology.
c. pharmacological and other medical treatments are more effective than “the talking cure”.
d. as scientific psychopathology progresses, we will gain a better understanding of the role of brain processes in mental illness.

49%, .56. Illnesses are deviations from normal functions, and it is appropriate to think of mental illnesses analogously with physical ones. We have diagnoses, patients, treatment, etc, and use the same approach to both kinds of issues. The model does not say that all mental illness is caused by specific somatic issues, but it does say that there are natural causes rather than moral failing in the individual. Further, research shows talk therapy to be highly effective, especially cognitive-behavioral therapy, doing at least as well as pharmaceutical approaches. Module 11

91. Psychologists in the 19th century were keenly interested in consciousness. Why did this interest wane during most of the 20th century?

a. Psychologists believed that most of the fundamental issues around consciousness were solved, so psychologists began to examine behavior with rigorous experimental methods.
b. Psychologists believed that the conscious experience was too subjective for scientific study. ##
c. There were no methods available with which to study consciousness until neurophysiology discovered how synapses work and how neurons conduct nerve impulses.
d. Computers had not yet been invented, and the data from research on consciousness were simply too voluminous and complex to work with by hand.

49%, .38. Early in the 20th century, psychologists were convinced that the conscious experience could not be studied scientifically, and the psychological community’s interest was in making psychology a science of observable phenomena, distinguishing it from pseudosciences and philosophy. Since they felt they could not measure the conscious experience, it wasn’t open for study. However, new ways of characterizing the issues and sophisticated methods made studying the issues of consciousness possible and much work has now been done in this area. Chapter 6

92. Workspace neurons __________ but do not __________.

a. specify the content of consciousness; integrate neural activity
b. integrate neural activity; specify the content of consciousness ##
c. integrate conscious experiences; specify neural activity
d. specify neural activity; integrate conscious experiences

38%, .25. The global workspace hypothesis proposes that specialized neurons, called workspace neurons, give rise to consciousness by allowing us to link stimuli or ideas in dynamic, coherent representations. They do not specify content, but they help integrate neural patterns together, assembling into one unified whole for processing. Chapter 6

93. Which of the following substances would not be labeled a stimulant?

a. cocaine
b. methamphetamine
c. MDMA
d. THC ##

41%, .30. Stimulants are drugs that have activating or excitatory effects on the brain and body functions. Cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA are all stimulants, raising blood pressure, boosting energy and mood, and decreasing the need for sleep. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana, which is a mild hallucinogen. It relaxes the body, reduces control of impulses and heightens sensations. Chapter 6

94. Comparatively speaking:

a. biological evolution is more powerful than cultural evolution.
b. cultural evolution is faster than biological evolution. ##
c. human intelligence is a product of biological evolution, while the capacity for language is a product of cultural evolution.
d. biological evolution is better suited to take advantage of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

85%, .26. Biological evolution is subject to the physical forces of natural selection and mutation, and its changes accumulate over a long span of time. Human intelligence and the capacity for language are both a product of biological evolution. Cultural evolution is not tied to making physical, biological changes, and as such can move much more quickly, as quickly as an idea can take hold. Module 12

95. Julie’s mother died of lung cancer but Julie is not fearful of cigarettes, and she shocked herself accidentally on a faulty electrical outlet but is not fearful of outlets. However, she has phobias of both snakes and spiders, despite never having been harmed by either. A likely reason for this is that __________.

a. people do not prepare themselves properly when faced with something that frightens them
b. evolution favors those creatures with a built-in fear of dangerous things, like snakes or spiders ##
c. society prepares people to be afraid of dangerous things like snakes
d. none of the above

44%, .48. We are biologically prepared to be able to develop quite easily fears of things in certain categories. The things in that category would be or resemble things that would be dangerous to us during evolution rather than things that only have been created relatively recently. Cigarettes and electricity weren’t around for nearly all of our evolution as a species, but snakes and spiders are plausible dangers to us that have been around in the natural world as long as we have, and longer. Fear of poisonous things is a trait that gets passed on because those genes survive to reproduce, unpoisoned. Chapter 16

96. With respect to the genetic components of mood disorders, it has been shown that __________.

a. concordance rates for both identical and fraternal twins are the same
b. genetic factors play a stronger role in bipolar than unipolar disorder ##
c. mood disorders are generally inherited through matrilinear descent
d. the same genetic factors give rise to both uni- and bipolar disorders

46%, .13. The etiology of mood disorders isn't completely understood, but it is clear that there is a genetic component to them. You are more likely to have a mood disorder if someone related to you has one, and the more related to them you are, the more likely it is (with identical twins having a higher concordance than fraternal twins). However, there are likely separate pathways of inheritance for bipolar disorder and unipolar disorders, with bipolar people being much more likely to have relatives with it than people with unipolar disorders have. There is no evidence that these disorders are inherited maternally. Chapter 16

97. A schizophrenic symptom is called a positive symptom if it __________.

a. involves behaviors not observed in nonschizophrenic individuals ##
b. is associated with a good prognosis for recovery
c. is considered to be an attempt to deal with other symptoms
d. none of the above

59%, .69. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations and disorganized behavior, all of which are not evident in healthy people. Negative symptoms are lack of affect, anhedonia and withdrawal. The prognosis for people with this disorder is discouraging, and is not dependent on the kinds of symptoms evidenced. Chapter 16

98. Dr. Kore is a psychotherapist who stresses the influence of interpersonal and cultural factors in psychotherapy. She also emphasizes the current situation facing her client rather than the past. Dr. Kore believes that understanding comes through insight into unconscious processes. From this description, what type of therapy does Dr. Kore seem to practice?

a. classical psychoanalytic
b. neo-Freudian ##
c. existential
d. cognitive

33%, .64. Classical psychoanalytic therapy would be concerned with a person’s past, their relationships with their parents, and their subconscious drives and conflicts. Cognitive therapy tries to change a person’s habitual ways of thinking and behaving, challenging them to think differently about themselves and their problems. Existential therapy is not concerned with the past, and instead focuses on the conflict between feelings of death, of responsibility and freedom and the meaning of life one seeks to understand. Dr. Kore, since she is concerned with some of the unconscious processes, but also emphasizes current situations and understands cultural factors is practicing a neo-Freudian approach, or an approach influenced by Freudianism but modernized and more eclectic. Chapter 17

99. Glenn is very much captivated by the description of a newer, atypical antipsychotic because it is claimed that, unlike the older classic antipsychotics, the atypical antipsychotics __________.

a. are longer-lasting
b. reduce both positive and negative symptoms ##
c. have zero side effects
d. all of the above

26%, .45. Classic antipsychotics reduce the major positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but are less effective on the negative symptoms. The newer, atypical antipsychotics seem to be effective on both, possibly by also affecting serotonin pathways, or a different subset of dopamine neurons. The classes of drugs do not significantly differ with regard to their side effect profiles, nor in how long they last (all are taken daily). Chapter 17

100. One criticism of the use of randomized control trials is that __________.

a. they inform researchers about the efficacy of a therapy, but do not indicate whether it will work in “real-world” situations ##
b. they are more subject to experimenter bias than case studies are
c. they do not control for placebo effects
d. they fail to consider clinician expertise

51%, -.09. Not a bad item, but just barely. Randomization is used to control subject variables in an experiment, and makes sure that there isn't a bias that could be introduced by having someone assign subjects to groups. Random assignment isn't related to controlling for placebo effects, which potentially come up in subjects just from the fact that they're in a study, even if they are not in the treatment group itself. Controlled drug trials are necessary for determining effectiveness and safety of a given drug, but since many factors affect mental illness, including just the effect of being in a study, or of finally taking steps to get help, little information is discovered about the applications of a given drug in a more real-world setting where the variables that do affect mental illness, are different. Chapter 17