University of California, Berkeley

Department of Psychology

Psychology W1
Summer Session 2013

Final Examination

Scoring Key and Item Analysis

In the scoring key that follows, correct answers are marked with a double asterisk (**).

Initial scoring of the exam yielded a mean score of 54.77 (55%), which is a little low. 

The statistical analysis of this exam revealed 16 "bad" items, as defined in the Exam Information page: relatively low pass percents and low item-to-total correlations: #3, 7, 12, 18, 21, 24, 31, 36, 57, 64, 65, 66, 78, 93, 96, 97. 

When these items were rescored correct for all responses, the average score rose to 66.37 (66%), SD = 15.46.  the reliability of the exam was an exceptionally good .94. 

The mean score on the rescored exam is still a little low by my standards, but may have been suppressed by a test-taking strategy especially prominent in Summer Session: a large proportion of students take the course Pass/Fail, and accumulate only as many points as they need to get a C.

In this feedback, I provide the percentage of the class that got each item correct and the item-to-total correlation (r_pb) for each item, as well as commentary on why the right answer is right, and the others wrong.

Choose the best answer to each of the following 50 questions. Questions are drawn from the text and lectures in roughly equal proportions, with the understanding that there is considerable overlap between the two sources. Usually, only one question is drawn from each major section of each chapter of the required readings; again, sometimes this question also draws on material discussed in class. Read the entire exam through before answering any questions: sometimes one question will help you answer another one.

Most questions can be correctly answered in one of two ways: (1) by fact-retrieval, meaning that you remember the answer from your reading of the text or listening to the lecture; or (2) inference, meaning that you can infer the answer from some general principle discussed in the text or lecture. If you cannot determine the correct answer by either of these methods, try to eliminate at least one option as clearly wrong: this maximizes the likelihood that you will get the correct answer by chance. Also, go with your intuitions: if you have actually done the assigned readings and attended the lectures, your "informed guesses" will likely be right more often than they are wrong.

A provisional answer key will be posted to the course website tomorrow, after the window for the exam has closed. The exam will be provisionally scored to identify and eliminate bad items. The exam will then be rescored with bad items keyed correct for all responses. Grades on the rescored exam will be posted to the course website. A final, revised, answer key, and analyses of the exam items, will be posted on the course website after grades are posted.

Choose the best answer to each of the following 100 questions. Questions are drawn from the text and lectures in roughly equal proportions, with the understanding that there is considerable overlap between the two sources. Usually, only one question is drawn from each major section of each chapter of the required readings; again, sometimes this question also draws on material discussed in class. Read the entire exam through before answering any questions: sometimes one question will help you answer another one.

Most questions can be correctly answered in one of two ways: (1) by fact-retrieval, meaning that you remember the answer from your reading of the text or listening to the lecture; or (2) inference, meaning that you can infer the answer from some general principle discussed in the text or lecture. If you cannot determine the correct answer by either of these methods, try to eliminate at least one option as clearly wrong: this maximizes the likelihood that you will get the correct answer by chance. Also, go with your intuitions: if you have actually done the assigned readings and attended the lectures, your "informed guesses" will likely be right more often than they are wrong.

Print your name at the top of each page and return the exam with your answer sheet.

Students taking the exam on campus should use the red Scantron sheet.

Students taking the exam off campus should use the provided answer sheet.

1. Recent research using the habituation technique with infants suggests that __________.

a.	Piaget's observations of infant behavior were incorrect; infants do search for hidden objects
b.	the inferences Piaget drew from his observations of infant behavior were wrong; infants have some concept of objects as independent, unitary entities ##
c.	infants develop object permanence later than Piaget thought
d.	the development of object permanence is very much as Piaget described it

72% of the clas got this item correct; item-to-total r_pb = .38.The habituation procedure is a method for studying infant perception. Infants that are exposed to a stimulus for a while become habituated to it and stop paying attention to it. If the infant shows renewed interest when presented a new stimulus, it reveals that the infant regards the new stimulus as different from the old one. Piaget argued that infants who see partially occluded objects (e.g., a person standing behind a gate that reaches up to their waist) won't realize that the person exists as a whole, with part of their body occluded by the gate. Instead, he argued that babies perceive the top half of the person and the bottom half of the person, which is occluded by the gate, as different. After the baby was initially presented an occluded stimulus, Piaget would predict that the baby would show renewed interest in the whole object than in the broken object. Gaze studies indicate that this was wrong. Infants who are exposed to an occluded object, allowed to habituate to it, and then exposed to both the whole object and a picture of the object in pieces do not show increased interest in the whole object, providing evidence that the infant perceived the stimulus as an independent unitary entity, even though part of it was initially occluded. Chapter 14.

2. Attachment patterns are most likely to change when:

a. the child is initially classified as anxious/avoidant.

b. the child is initially classified as anxious/resistant.

c. two parents share parenting responses equally.

d. there are major changes in the child's environment. ##

85% correct; r_pb = .13.  Attachment bonds between a caregiver and child are both strong and enduring emotional bonds that some psychologists consider the basis for relationships later in life. Attachment difference were assessed using the “strange situation” paradigm, in which a mother and child are in a room together, with toys for the child to play with. A stranger then enters the room, and the mother leaves, leaving the child alone with the stranger for a brief amount of time, which is a stressful event for the child. The mother then re-enters the room and reunited with the child after the stressful event. Ainsworth classified the infants' attachment towards the mother as being either secure, anxious/resistant, anxious/avoidant, and disorganized based on their behavior throughout the scenario. While attachment pattern tend to remain consistent throughout infancy and even into adulthood, major change in the child' circumstances, including illness or the loss of a parent's job, can lead to changes in attachment patterns. Chapter 14

3. With respect to the influence of peers on adolescent behavior, peers most often encourage adolescents to be __________.

a. antisocial

b. abnormal

c. different ##

d. prosocial

25%; -.06.  A bad item.  As adolescents develop their social identity, they exhibit a desire to identify more with their on generation. As a result, adolescents' actions are increasingly influenced by their friends, especially since adolescents care a great deal about being accepted by their peers. Generally, most peer influences are aimed at neither good nor bad behavior, but at behaviors that are different from the previous generation, like styles of clothing, hair styles, and colloquial use of language (slang). Chapter 14.

4. Which of the following statements is FALSE?

a.	Everyone who lives long enough will eventually get Alzheimer's disease. ##
b.	A decline in kidney function may lead to a loss in mental functioning.
c.	Circulatory problems may contribute to cognitive decline.
d.	Physical exercise may help to preserve mental functioning in the elderly.

82%; .15.  A decline in kidney function will have an impact throughout the body, but because of the brain's metabolic needs, the kidney problem will have an impact on mental functioning well before other symptoms appear. Likewise, circulatory problems will diminish the quantity and quality of the brain's blood supply, and can contribute to cognitive decline. Evidence has made it clear that genetic factor can increase someone's risk of Alzheimer's, but its causes remain unclear. Physical exercise has been shown to be good for the body and mind, and in many cases, can help preserve mental functioning in the elderly. Chapter 14.

5. For the trait of “mimsitude”, the correlation between monozygotic twins is .55. From this we can infer that:

a. there is a substantial genetic contribution to mimsitude.

b. the shared environment has a big effect on individual differences in mimsitude.

c. the nonshared environment has a big effect on individual differences in mimsitude. ##

d. Nothing can be inferred about the sources of mimsitude without corresponding data from dizygotic twins.

47%; .30.  If a trait were wholly inherited, we'd expect to see a perfect correlation between identical twins, a correlation coefficient of 1.0. Recall from the lecture that on each of the big five personality traits, monozygotic identical twins are more alike than dizygotic fraternal twins. The simple fact that monozygotic twins are more alike than dizygotic twins strongly suggest that there's a genetic component to these individual differences, but the correlations for monozygotic twins are far from the 1.0 that we would expect if a trait were wholly inherited. So it's very clear that genes aren't the only forces that are determining individual differences in personality. Because monozygotic twins are genetically identical, we can infer that differences in personality are a result of environmental differences between the two twins. Likewise, in this example, because the correlation for “mimsitude” between monozygotic twins is only .55, we know that the nonshared environment has a significant effect on it. Lecture 33.

6. First-born children tend to score higher on extraversion than latter-borns. This fact illustrates the _____ effect of within-family differences:

a. child-driven.

b. relationship-driven

c. parent-driven

d. family-context ##

48%; .49.  Family context effects relate to what the sociologist would call, the children's micro environments within a family. One of the most controversial family contexts involves birth order, which is the possibility that there are systematic differences in personality between first born and latter born siblings in a family. Remember that besides identical twins and identical triplets, there are no systematic genetic differences between first born and latter born children. All brothers and sisters share a random 50 percent of their genes in common. Any systematic differences between first born and latter born children have to be due to their position in what's known as the family constellation. Frank Sulloway, has argued that, in Darwinian terms, siblings compete with each other for their place in the family environment, just like species and organisms compete for their environmental niches in nature. From Sulloway's point of view, latter born children are born to rebel. First-born children tend to be more extroverted, more assertive, more likely to exert leadership in groups. And that is, of course, exactly what they do in families, take a leadership position among the siblings. Lecture 34.

7. In gender dimorphism, the “phyletic imprimatur”

a. stops with the genes and the chromosomes

b. stops with the prenatal hormones

c. begins with the onset of puberty.

d. continues after puberty. ##

15%; .10. A bad item.  John Money of John Hopkins University and Anke Ehrhardt of Columbia University, in their book titled Man and Woman, Boy and Girl, trace the complex interaction between genetic and biochemical processes, what they call the phyletic imprimatur. The phyletic imprimatur endows the fetus with characteristically male or female reproductive anatomy. At birth, the program for gender dimorphism passes from the genes and the hormones to the social environment. The phyletic imprimatur and the sex hormones come back at least twice more during an individual's life span, once in adolescence and again in old age. Lecture 35.

8. The “theory of mind”

a. marks the transition from philosophical psychology to a full-fledged scientific psychology.

b. includes the ability to recognize mental states in other people. ##

c. is an example of a false belief.

d. holds that, as children become experts in various domains, they abandon their intuitive concepts.

63%, .68.  As children develop, they come into possession of a theory of mind. This term was coined by David Premack and Guy Woodruff, and popularized by Simon Baron Cohen. Theory of mind is the ability to input mental states to ourselves and to others. It includes knowledge of our own minds, and knowledge of other minds. With respect to knowledge of our own minds, we mean understanding that we have mental states, that we perceive things and feel thing, and the realization that our experiences are our own. Knowledge of other minds, by contrast, entails the understanding that our mental states may differ from those of other people. That is, we are aware that other people have different minds, and thus different experiences. Our knowledge of other minds entails an ability to make inferences about what other people think, feel, and want. Lecture 36.

9. Which of the following statements is false?

a.	Memory retrieval often takes place without conscious awareness.
b.	The term cognitive unconscious can be used interchangeably with the Freudian term unconscious. ##
c.	Studying behaviors that are done automatically can improve our understanding of consciousness.
d.	Some people are unaware that they can see.

47%, .30.  The cognitive unconscious is the set of mental support processes that occur outside our awareness and make our perception, memory, and thinking possible. It is important not to confuse the cognitive unconscious with the idea that many people have of the unconscious mind, which is derived from the thinking of Sigmund Freud. In contrast to the cognitive unconscious, Freud argued that the unconscious mind is an adversary to the conscious mind, and is constantly trying to assert itself, while the conscious is constantly on guard to prevent this from happening. Chapter 6.

10. What is an important function of workspace neurons?

a.	They play an important role in working memory. ##
b.	They assist in the shifting of visual attention.
c.	The form the primary center for visual processing.
d.	They are the primary center for auditory processing.

65%, .21.  The global workspace hypothesis holds that specialized neurons, called workspace neurons, give rise to consciousness by allowing us to link stimuli or ideas in dynamic, coherent representations. Workspace neurons glue bits of information together, creating a unified experience and allowing the exchange of information from one module of the brain to the next. Workspace neurons allow us to maintain a mental representation in an active state for an extended period of time, so we can continue thinking about a stimulus or an idea, even if we're not directly presented with it. This allows us to link the workspace to a form a memory known as working memory, which allows us to keep ideas in mind while they're being worked on. Chapter 6.

11. Neville has entered his first episode of REM sleep. If Neville is a typical adult, how many more episodes of REM sleep should he experience on a typical night?

a.	No more; typical adults only show one episode per night.
b.	3 to 4 more, for a total of 4 to 5 episodes per night ##
c.	2 more, for a total of 3 episodes per night
d.	9 more, for a total of 10 episodes per night

68%, .15.  REM sleep, also known as rapid eye movement sleep, is characterized by rapid eye movements, EEG pattern similar to wakefulness, speeded heart rate and respiration, near paralysis of skeletal muscles, and highly visual dreams. The first period of REM sleep is the shortest, and people move back into lighter stages of sleep toward deeper stages of sleep. In another 90 – 100 minutes, a second REM period ensues, and this alternating pattern of REM and non-REM sleep periods continues throughout the night, recurring on average 4 - 5 times in total throughout the night. Chapter 6.

12. Which is the best conclusion regarding the debate between psychological dependence versus physiological dependence?

a.	These are two very separable and definable states.
b.	The distinction between the two is very difficult to determine. ##
c.	The distinction is easy to make when the substance is a drug, but difficult to determine when the addiction is an activity.
d.	These are really just different names for the same body reaction.

28%, .11.  A bad item.  Some writers make a distinction between psychological dependence and physiological dependence on a substance or activity. The general idea is that psychological dependence refers to the intense mental or emotional craving for the addictive substance while physical dependence refers to the medical symptoms observed during withdrawal. This distinction can be problematic. For example, the so-called psychological dependence creates feelings of stress, which shows up in many bodily systems. On this basis, the cravings associated with psychological dependence cause physical symptoms. This example, among others, undermines our effort to distinguish between these forms of dependence. Chapter 6.

13. David has found that the somatogenic hypothesis has worked again and again in identifying a physical cause for a mental disorder. However, David found that the somatogenic hypothesis is not helpful in explaining which disorder?

a.	hysteria ##
b.	general paresis
c.	mania
d.	schizophrenia

45%, .49.  The somatogenic hypothesis holds that mental disorders result from bodily causes. This approach cannot explain all disorders. More than a hundred years ago, scholars realized this approach was not appropriate for the disorder known as hysteria. Patients with hysteria typically showed odd symptoms that seemed to be neurological, but lacked any neurological damage. Their symptoms were understood not to be the result of a bodily injury, but in terms of a psychogenic hypothesis, which holds that symptoms arise via psychological processes. Chapter 16.

14. Alan is training his psychology supervisees in clinical interviewing and how to acquire information about a patient. In doing so, he explains the distinction between symptoms and signs, which is that __________.

a.	symptoms are complaints by the patient, while signs are behaviors or physiological measures that accompany the symptoms ##
b.	signs are complaints by the patient, and symptoms are behaviors or physiological measures that accompany the signs
c.	signs are complaints by the patient, while a symptom is a recurring pattern of signs
d.	none of the above

68%, .41.  Throughout a clinical interview, the clinician pays attention to the patent's set of complaints, or symptoms. For example, a patient may tell the clinician that she hears voices or always feels nervous. The clinician also looks for any objective signs, what the clinician observes about a patent's physical or mental condition. For example, the same patient may also shake visibly or fixate on an object in the office, indicating signs that parallel the reported symptoms. Chapter 16.

15. A blood–injection–injury phobia is different from other specific phobias because the phobic stimulus causes __________.

a.	panic instead of a parasympathetic response
b.	a feeling of disgust and drop in blood pressure rather than feelings of fear with increased blood pressure ##
c.	both a panic response and a parasympathetic response
d.	neither panic nor a parasympathetic response

60%, .37.  For most phobias, an encounter with the phobic stimulus produces panic responses: quick pulse, elevated blood pressure, sweating, and tremor. These are all emergency reactions produced by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. For the blood-injection-injury phobia, the reaction is the opposite. The pulse slows, the blood pressure drops, the muscles go slack, and the person can fall to the ground in a faint. In addition the treatment for this phobia differs from others. In the case of other phobias, the sufferer is told to relax, while in the case of blood-injection-injury phobias, the sufferer must learn to keep up her blood pressure. Chapter 16.

16. Tai lives in China, and as a result of some recent losses and problems he has become depressed. Compared with someone in a similar situation in the United States, Tai's depressive symptoms will tend to be __________.

a.	more severe
b.	less psychological and more bodily in nature ##
c.	more sudden, often emerging over the course of an hour or so
d.	easier to treat

40%, .39.  Depression occurs in all cultures, and the WHO ranked depression fourth among all causes of disability from one country to the next. Depression is much less commonly diagnosed in China, Taiwan, and Japan than in the West, however, and the symptoms of depression in these countries are more likely to be bodily and less likely to be psychological. One hypothesis that might explain this occurrence is that display rules for emotion in each country influence the presentation and diagnosis of depression. In addition, people in these Asian countries may differ in how they understand and experience their own symptoms, which can also influence diagnosis. Chapter 16.

17. After Dan was diagnosed with schizophrenia, his psychiatrist wanted him to start taking antipsychotic medications. These medications would have what effect?

a.	They disable the frontal lobes.
b.	They block dopamine receptors. ##
c.	They enhance serotonin.
d.	They disable the amygdala, a brain structure sometimes referred to as the “fear center.”

65%, .61.  The dopamine hypothesis asserts that the brains of people with schizophrenia are oversensitive to the neurotransmitter dopamine. The strongest line of evidence for this hypothesis comes from the use of a number of medications known as classical antipsychotics. These drugs block receptors for dopamine and relieve many of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Chapter 16.

18. Travis has been diagnosed with ADHD and is seeing a physician for the first time to inquire about taking medication. His doctor will most likely prescribe a stimulant such as methylphenidate, which has the effect of __________.

a.	enhancing the release of dopamine and norepinephrine to active inhibitory circuits ##
b.	block the release of serotonin to reduce the anxiety that interferes with concentration
c.	block the reuptake of GABA so that increased neurological activity can overcome the excessive stimulation seeking
d.	activate excitatory centers that promote cross-hemispheric integration

38%, .08.  A bad item.  ADHD is usually diagnosed in young children, and is characterized by impulsivity, difficulty staying focused on a task, and a range of behavioral problems. ADHD is often treated using the stimulant methylphenidate, a stimulant that enhances the release of norepinephrine and dopamine, which activate inhibitory circuits that guard against impulses that might be triggered by the person's environment. Chapter 16.

19. Significant transformation in the treatment of those with mental disorders occurred as the result of the efforts of figures such as Philippe Pinel and Dorothea Dix. The unifying theme of their efforts was __________.

a.	an insistence on biomedical explanations for mental disorders
b.	the dignity and rights of the mentally disordered ##
c.	the need to focus on psychological rather than biological contributions
d.	an emphasis on the spiritual dimensions that contributed to mental disorders

57%, .53.  Philippe Pinel was put in charge of the Parisian hospital system during the French Revolution, and wanted to remove the inmates' shackles and give them exercise and fresh air. In the United States, Dorothea Dix, a retired schoolteacher became an advocate for the appropriate treatment of the mentally ill. Dix wrote, “I come as the advocate of the helpless forgotten, insane, and idiotic men and women, of beings sunk to a condition from which the most unconcerned with a real horror. I proceed… to call to your attention to the present state of the Insane Persons confined within the Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens…” Dix's work was an impetus to the dramatic growth of state-supported institutions for mental care during the latter part of the 19^th century. Chapter 17.

20. Katie is being instructed in how to identify her automatic thoughts and to dispute her illogical and self-destructive thinking patterns. What form of therapy is she likely involved in?

a.	existential
b.	interpersonal
c.	cognitive ##
d.	emotional defusing

75%, .52.  Cognitive therapy is an approach to therapy that tries to change some of the patient's habitual modes of thinking about herself, her situation, and her future. The core insight of cognitive therapy is that dysfunctional cognitions play a key role in the development of mental disorders. Aaron Beck, who developed cognitive therapy, held that depressed people have negative beliefs about themselves, the world, and the future. These beliefs are supported by distorted thought processes such as overgeneralization and emotional reasoning. To challenge these thought processes, Beck used cognitive restructuring, which is a set of cognitive therapy techniques for changing a person's maladaptive beliefs or interpretations through persuasion and confrontation. Chapter 17.

21. New atypical antidepressants such as Wellbutrin are now flooding the marketplace. This particular drug is popular because, according to its manufacturer, it __________.

a.		has no negative sexual side effects
b.		curbs nicotine cravings
c.	is super-potent as a serotonin potentiator
d.	both a and b ##

47%, -.20.  A bad item.  Most people went for A alone, which is true, but B is also true, which makes Welbutrin especially popular.  Early treatments for antidepressants such as Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclics worked by increasing the amount of norepinephrine and serotonin available for synaptic transmission. Later drugs acted as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, and were engineered to act minimally on norepinephrine and dopamine, and maximally on serotonin. Atypical drugs such as Wellbutrin work in various ways on serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Wellbutrin has none of the nefative sexual side effects associated with some of the other antidepressants, and many patients report heightened sexual interest and response. It is also generally stimulating, and can be used to curb nicotine cravings and treat adults with ADHD. Chapter 17.

22. Mary is taking an atypical antipsychotic called Clozaril because of its advantages over earlier antipsychotics. Clozaril is different from classical antipsychotics like Thorazine in which way?

a.	Only atypical antipsychotics treat positive symptoms.
b.	Only classical antipsychotics treat negative symptoms.
c.	Only atypical antipsychotics treat both positive and negative symptoms. ##
d.	Only classical antipsychotics treat both positive and negative symptoms.

88%, .45.  Most common antipsychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, by blocking dopamine receptor in key brain pathways. These drugs are effective in removing the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as thought disorder and hallucination. The atypical antipsychotic medications work to address negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as flat affect and the inability to feel pleasure, by altering the neurotransmission of serotonin as well as working to block dopamine receptors. Chapter 17.

23. One problem with before and after assessment of a particular form of treatment is that it ignores the possibility of __________.

a.	spontaneous improvement ##
b.	drug interactions
c.	clinician bias
d.	unmatched samples

65%, .45.  Before and after assessment ignores the possibility of spontaneous improvement. With some disorders, many patients get better on their own, whether they receive treatment of not. Therefore, if patients are indeed better off after taking medication or receiving treatment than they were before, their improvement might simply reflect spontaneous improvement, and have nothing to do with the treatment. In addition, even with spontaneous improvement most disorders fluctuate in their severity, and it seems likely that patients will seek treatment when they are feeling particularly bad. If this is the case, it seems likely that the normal ups and downs of the disorder will make the patients look better a few weeks later. If they have been receiving treatment, we might be inclined to assume that the treatment led to improvement, rather than realizing that this recovery reflects the differing patterns of severity associated with the disorder. Chapter 17.

24. How does implicit memory differ from implicit learning?

a. In implicit memory, the prime occurred in the past; in implicit learning, the prime occurs in the present.

b. In implicit memory, the prime occurs in the present; in implicit learning, there is no prime.

c. In implicit memory is an expression of episodic memory; implicit learning is an expression of semantic and procedural knowledge. ##

d. Implicit memory occurs automatically; implicit learning is a product of controlled processes.

33%, -.03.  A bad item.  Implicit memory is defined in contrast to explicit memory. Explicit memory is the conscious recollection of a past event, as indicated by performance on recall or recognition tasks. Implicit memory refers to the effect of a past event on some task, which does not require conscious recollection, like priming effects. Implicit memory refers to any effect of a past event on the individual's thought, experience, or action. Implicit learning is defined in contrast to explicit learning. We define explicit learning in terms of the person's conscious access to knowledge that he or she has acquired through experience, whether that knowledge is semantic knowledge like the meanings of words or some historical fact; or procedural knowledge, some skill or rule that has been learned. Implicit learning refers to any effect of this new knowledge, acquired through experience, on the person's experiences, thoughts or actions, even though the person has no conscious awareness of that knowledge. Lecture 37.

25. In contrast to the organic brain syndromes, the developmental disorders:

a. are marked by abnormal development since birth. ##

b. typically remit before the onset of puberty.

c. have no long-lasting effects once the patient has reached adulthood.

d. are diagnosed in terms of biological markers rather than overt symptoms.

62%, .43.  Organic brain syndromes are those in in which there are gross impairments in mental function that result from known, insult, injury, or disease in the brain or some other portion of the central nervous system. Alzheimer's disease is an example of an organic brain syndrome. The patient suffers memory loss and other aspects of dementia, resulting from plaques and tangles in cortical tissue. In the developmental disorders, there is an abnormal case of development affecting one or more mental functions from the time of birth. Autism is an example of a developmental disorder in which an individual is unable to communicate with or relate to other people. Lecture 38.

26. With respect to anhedonia, the “flat”, “blunted”, or “inappropriate” affect laboratory studies show that, compared to normal, patients with schizophrenia:

a. show reduced facial expressions of emotion. ##

b. show reduced physiological reactivity to emotional stimuli.

c. actually report feeling more emotion.

d. show a different pattern of responses to positive and negative events.

47%, .64.  Anhedonia, is an affective disturbance that characterizes schizophrenia in which patients simply don't seem to be emotionally responsive. Many schizophrenic patients show flat affect, blunted affect, or no affect at all. They show some emotional response, but not as much as normal individuals. And still other schizophrenic patients will show inappropriate affect – they'll laugh at something that's sad; they'll cry at something that's pleasant. In a study by Ann Kring and John Neale, schizophrenics were shown emotional film clips and had their reactions recorded. They found a kind of disjunction; where the schizophrenics show less emotion in terms of their overt behavior, their facial expressions, but more emotions in terms of their covert physiology, skin conductance reactivity. They also asked the patients how they felt when they were viewing each of the films. They found that, by and large, the schizophrenics reported feeling as much emotion as the normal participants did. They felt positive emotion when viewing the positive film and negative emotion when viewing the negative film. Lecture 39.

27. Studies of the environmental contributions to schizophrenia find that:

a. low socioeconomic status contributes to the onset of schizophrenia.

b. schizophrenia leads to a “drift” to lower socioeconomic status. ##

c. schizophrenia leads to a “drift” to higher socioeconomic status.

d. the incidence of schizophrenia is independent of socioeconomic status.

52%, .55.  Socioeconomic status is correlated with schizophrenia. The best evidence suggests that the correlation between schizophrenia and socioeconomic status reflects social drift, not social genesis. It's not that low socioeconomic status causes schizophrenia, but rather that an episode of schizophrenia can cause an individual to fall or drift from one level of socioeconomic status to a lower level. Lecture 40.

28. Studies of the effectiveness of psychotherapy show that:

a. psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapies are equally effective.

b. psychodynamic therapies are more effective than cognitive-behavioral therapies.

c. psychodynamic therapies are less effective than cognitive-behavioral therapies. ##

d. humanistic therapies are more effective with patients with personality disorders.

62%, .47.  Psychotherapy attempts to alter the mind directly by arranging learning experiences that change how the patient thinks, feels, desires and behaves. Psychodynamic oriented psychotherapy such as Freudian psychoanalysis is the oldest of these different kinds of psychotherapy. In this technique therapist helps the patient to gain insight into unconscious conflicts that presumably lie at the root of his or her symptoms. Cognitive therapy, on the other hand attempts to alter the patient's behaviors, whether overt behaviors or covert behaviors, by changing the patient's cognitions. In a study on the effectiveness of therapy, Smith and his colleagues calculated effect sizes for each of the various forms of therapy. When they calculated the averaged affect size for different types of therapies, all forms of therapy were shown to have at least moderate sized effects, which is consistent with the dodo bird verdict (everybody wins). However, the effect sizes associated with the cognitive and behavioral therapies were much larger than those associated with the psychodynamic and humanistic forms of treatment. Lecture 41.

29. Among the effects of the stigma of mental illness is:

a. patients with neurotic disorders are likely to drift toward psychosis.

b. neurotic patients are more likely to be treated with psychotropic drugs.

c. patients are less likely to perceive themselves as mentally ill.

d. patients' ambiguous behaviors will be perceived by others as abnormal. ##

58%, .45.  One factor that subtly keeps the mentally ill sick is the self-fulfilling prophecy. Almost inevitably, the diagnosis of mental illness creates expectations concerning the patient. These expectations can lead to behavior on the part of other people that will in turn elicit abnormal, rather than normal, behavior from the patient. Even the patient' normal behavior, or behavior that is ambiguous, will be interpreted by other people as being abnormal. In either case, whether by virtue of behavioral confirmation processes or perceptual confirmation processes, the patient's behavior is going to be taken as confirming the diagnosis of mental illness. Lecture 42.

30. Diathesis-stress theory illustrates the interaction between:

a. mind and body.

b. cognition and emotion.

c. the person and the situation. ##

d. genes and environments.

37%, .21. The theme of interaction has been one of the central features of this course. Interaction has been most prominent in the study of personality and social psychology, where we know that aspects of the situation will shape the person and his or her behavior but the person is also a part of the situation to which he or she responds. People create their own environments through processes of avocation, selection, behavioral manipulation and cognitive transformation. We also see the role of interaction in psychopathology. Mental illness emerges as a product of the interaction between two kinds of factors, diathesis factors and stress factors. We now understand that the diathesis can be either biological or psychosocial in nature (reflecting the influence of the person) and so can the stress factor be biological or social in nature (reflecting the influence of the situation). Lecture 43.

31. What made psychology seem like an “impossible science”?

a. The difficulty in understanding how the brain worked.

b. Descartes' philosophical doctrine of dualism. ##

c. The difficulty in teaching apart the effects of nature and nurture.

d. The difficulty in understanding how language could have evolved through natural selection.

28%, .19.  A bad item.  While the term “psychology” has referred to the study of the mind since the 18^th century, psychology was not considered a science, but instead part of the humanities. The roots of this view can be traced to Rene Descartes, who espoused the philosophy of substance dualism. Substance dualism held that bodies and minds were composed of different substances. Physical bodies were considered to be composed of material substance, while minds, like the soul or spirit, were considered to be composed of immaterial substance. Based on this reason, Kant argued that psychology could never be a full science, since science is based on measurement, and the measurement of immaterial substances is impossible. Lecture 1.

32. A gene is said to be dominant. What is the likelihood that the trait controlled by that gene will be expressed?

a.	The trait has a high likelihood of being expressed. ##
b.	The trait has a low likelihood of being expressed.
c.	The trait will be expressed only if its paired gene is identical.
d.	The trait cannot be expressed.

93%, .28.  A dominant gene is one that directs the development of a particular characteristic, even when the corresponding gene on the other chromosome is different. For example, dimples are a trait that is largely determined by variation in just one gene. The gene for dimples is dominant, such that if someone inherits an allele that favors dimples from one or both parents (i.e., the allele pair for this gene is DD or Dd) then the person is very likely to have dimples. They are only likely to not have dimples if they inherit the recessive allele that does not lead to dimples, from both parents (i.e., the allele pair for this gene is dd). Chapter 2.

33. Why is the environment that was in place when a trait was evolving considered important?

a.	The environment in which a trait evolved is predictive of future environments.
b.	The trait can only develop if a correct environment is in place at the time.
c.	The evolutionary process depends on whether an organism's traits will be useful in future environments.
d.	The evolutionary process depends only on whether an organism's traits helped it to survive and reproduce in its current environment, and not its future environment. ##

85%, .26.  Darwin's conception of evolution is based on three principles: there must be variation among the individuals within a population, certain of these variants must survive and reproduce at a higher rate than others, and traits associated with this superior survival and reproduction must be passed from parents to their offspring. Darwin recognized that there were variations among different individuals within a species, but he didn't understand why this occurred. Our modern understanding of genetics can easily explain this, however, through the concept of mutations. While DNA replication is usually very accurate, there are occasionally errors in replication that can confer an advantage for survival and reproduction (note, though, that many mutations have no effect on an individual, and that some can also be harmful). If organisms' specific traits confer an advantage for survival and reproduction within a given environment, we call the process that confers this reproductive advantage natural selection. The environment that was in place as a trait was evolving is considered important because it is within this particular environment that the trait developed to confer a survival advantage. Chapter 2.

34. Which of the following is not one of the events that can happen to neurotransmitters released from the presynaptic neuron?

a. Some or all of the neurotransmitter may be sucked back into the presynaptic neuron.

b. Cleanup enzymes may destroy some or all of the neurotransmitter.

c. Some or all of the neurotransmitter may attach to receptor sites at the postsynaptic receptor.

d. Some or all of the neurotransmitter is taken back up into the postsynaptic neuron. ##

48%, .64.  Communication between neurons (communication across the synapse) is a chemical process by which a neuron on he “sending” (presynaptic) side of the synapse releases certain molecules that drift across the synapse and trigger a response on the “receiving” (postsynaptic) side.  The process begins in the axon terminals of the presynaptic neuron. Within these axon terminals are tiny sacs known as synaptic vesicles that are filled with neurotransmitters. When the presynaptic neuron fires, some of the vesicles will burst, ejecting their contents into the gap separating the presynaptic neuron from the postsynaptic neuron. The neurotransmitters diffuse across the gap and latch onto the receptors on the membrane of the postsynaptic cell. After the transmitter molecules have affected the postsynaptic neuron, they can't stay where they are. Some transmitters are inactivated shortly after they're discharged. “Cleanup” enzymes break these transmitters up into their chemical components. More commonly, though, neurotransmitters are reused; a process known as synaptic reuptake causes the neurotransmitter molecules to be ejected from the receptors and be vacuumed back into the presynaptic axon terminals and repackaged into new vesicles. Chapter 3.

35. Although the cortex makes up 80% of the volume of the human brain, it is only 2 to 3 millimeters thick. This is possible because of its numerous __________.

a.	separate layers
b.	spirals
c.	distinct pockets, or “compartmentalization”
d.	convolutions and fissures ##

73%, .33.  The cerebral cortex is the largest part of the forebrain, which itself, is the largest part of the human brain. The cortex is a thin covering on the outer surface of the brain (cortex comes from the Latin word for “tree bark”). Despite this, there is a great deal of cortical tissue, which is estimated to make up 80% of the brain's volume.) This large volume is made possible by the fact that the cortex consists of a very large sheet of tissue that is crumpled up and jammed into limited space in the skull, causing the wrinkles and convulsions that cover the brain's outer surface. Chapter 3.

36. When shown a simple oral thermometer, Betty described shiny glass, little red lines, a silvery bulb, and said, “Of course, it's a whatchamacallit . . . a small machine.” Which brain diagram is most likely to show the location of Betty's stroke?

a.		a.
b.		b.
c.	c.
d.	d. ##

20%, -.18.  A bad item.  I think a lot of people forgot the landmarks of the cerebral cortex -- particularly the central and lateral fissures, which separate the frontal lobe from the others.  Betty is suffering from a visual agnosia, a problem in which patients are able to see, but unable to recognize what they are seeing. Visual agnosia is usually produced by damage to the occipital cortex or the rearmost part of the parietal cortex. Each of these structures is located in the rear of the brain, and thus, answer choice (d) is the correct answer. Chapter 3.

37. You see the brain scans from a healthy longtime New York cab driver. Based on your knowledge of the study conducted with London cab drivers, what would you expect to see on the New York driver's scan?

a.	a larger visual cortex
b.	larger memory areas in the cortex
c.	enlarged motor cortex
d.	enlarged hippocampal cortex ##

23%, .21.  A study on brain plasticity and cortical reorganization was carried out on London cabdrivers. These drivers needed sophisticated navigation skills to find their way around London, and they become more skillful as they gain experience. The development of this skill is reflected in the brain structure; the cabdrivers were found to have enlarged hippocampi. The hippocampus is crucial for navigation; interestingly, the degree of hippocampal enlargement was related to the length of experience as a cabdriver. Chapter 3.

38. The most distinctive feature of the human brain, compared to the brains of other animals is:

a. its sheer size.

b. a large prefrontal cortex. ##

c. the volume of the occipital cortex.

d. the topographic arrangement of the primary somatosensory area.

67%, .32.  As babies and children mature, their brains grow larger in size. The cerebral cortex gets larger relative to other CNS structures, and as the brain matures, more folds appear to allow the greater amount of cortical tissue fit inside the skull. The prefrontal cortex, which is associated with complex executive functions, is much larger proportionally in both humans and chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, than in any other animals. Lecture 2.

39. The plasticity of the nervous system is greatest:

a. early in biological development. ##

b. following the acquisition of language.

c. in adulthood.

d. after portions of the cerebral cortex have been ablated.

85%, .35.  The immature brain has a great deal of equipotential associated with it. Equipotential means that various parts of the brain can perform many different functions. Brain tissue is equipotential, or has a great deal of plasticity, early in development. This allows one brain part to perform lots of different functions, even though it will eventually fix on just one function. Lecture 5.

40. Which of the following is most relevant to a study's external validity?

a.	the degree to which the study's subjects reflect the greater population ##
b.	the degree to which the study is measuring what it claims to be measuring
c.	the fact that the study is conducted outdoors
d.	the degree to which the study's subjects are different from the greater population

65%, .25.  External validity is the degree to which a study's participants, stimuli, and procedures adequately reflect the world as it actually is. One of the ways in which we work to ensure external validity is by including a sample of participants in our study that is representative, or reflects, the broader population. Chapter 1.

41. Compute the median of the following distribution:

10 7 9 8 15 9 8 7 6 9

a. 9.0

b. 8.8

c. 8.5 ##

d. None of the above.

87%, .10.  The median of a series of data points is the sequential midpoint of the data series. That is, if you organize the data points in numerical order, the median is the middle data point. Because there are 10 data points here, an even number, you calculate the median as the average of the 5^th and 6^th data points. The 5^th and 6^th sequential data points in this series are 8 and 9. Their average is 8.5. Lecture 6.

42. An envelope drawn around the points in a scatterplot is almost perfectly circular. This suggests that the correlation between the two variables is:

a. nearly zero. ##

b. nearly perfect.

c. positive.

d. negative.

78%, .08.  Remember that a scatter plot of data points that exhibit a positive correlation tend to run from the bottom left corner of the graph to the top right corner of the graph. Conversely, data points that exhibit a negative correlation tend to run from the top left corner of the graph to the bottom right corner of the graph. If the data points are arranged in a circular pattern, this indicates there is no linear association between the X & Y variables you are looking at. Thus, the correlation is at or nearly 0. Lecture 6.

43. What phenomenon is a rat most likely to exhibit when he is initially rewarded for lever pressing in one operant box, but then is moved to a new, but highly similar, operant box?

a.	generalization behavior ##
b.	intrinsic motivation
c.	insight learning
d.	behavioral contrast

72%, .46.  Stimulus generalization, or generalization behavior, is the tendency for stimuli similar to those used during learning to elicit a reaction similar to the learned response. For example, a dog might be conditioned to respond to a tone of a particular pitch. When tested later on, the dog will respond most strongly to a tone that is the same pitch, but the dog will also respond, albeit less strongly, to a tone of a slightly higher pitch. Similarly, a rat that has learned to press a lever in one operant box will likely respond similarly to a lever in a new, highly similar operant box. Chapter 7.

44. In order to shape performance of a response, all but one of the following procedures should be followed. Which procedure is not appropriate?

a.	Provide a clear signal for the arrival of reinforcement.
b.	Present the reinforcement immediately after the response is performed.
c.	Initially reinforce approximations to the desired response.
d.	Begin by reinforcing the most difficult component in the response sequence. ##

70%, .39.  Shaping is the process of eliciting a desired response by rewarding behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired response. Shaping is accomplished by using the method of successive approximation. First, we reinforce the animal for walking into the general area where the desired behavior is to be performed. The animal will learn to remain in the vicinity of that area. Next, we increase our demand by only reinforcing the animal when they are looking in the proper direction of a desired behavior, or when they are more closely approximating the desired response. We follow this process understanding that the animal will exhibit natural variation in behavior, and by only rewarding the specific behaviors that lead to the desired response. We gradually move towards only reinforcing the completed desired response. Chapter 7.

45. According to the preparedness principle (also known as “belongingness”), which of the following would be the most difficult to do?

a.	training a pigeon to peck a key to avoid shock ##
b.	training a cat to rub your legs to get you to open a can of cat food
c.	training a rat to avoid a certain flavor of ice cream with a mild poison as punishment
d.	training a rat to jump over a hurdle to avoid shock

33%, .55.  The principle of belongingness in learning refers to the idea that each species seems predisposed to form some associations and not others. The predispositions put biological constraints on that species' learning, governing what the species can learn easily and what it can learn only with difficulty. Similarly, the concept of preparedness in learning refers to learning that occurs without extensive training because of an evolved predisposition to a behavior. For example, humans learned to associate shocks with snakes more quickly than they did to associate shocks with pictures of flowers. This provides evidence that humans learn to naturally associate snakes with danger. On page 294, the book indicates that pigeons can easily be taught to peck a lit key to receive food or water, but that it's extremely difficult to train a pigeon to peck a key to avoid a shock. Pecking is not part of the pigeon's innate defense pattern, so it's difficult for the pigeon to learn pecking as an escape response. Chapter 7.

46. Discrimination learning:

a. promotes the acquisition of a conditioned response.

b. provides a check on stimulus generalization. ##

c. facilitates spontaneous recovery.

d. retards savings in relearning.

63%, .56.  Discrimination learning allows an animal or person to learn specific instances in which a stimulus will elicit a response. For example, a pigeon may learn to hop on a platform to receive a pellet of foo when a light is turned on. The pigeon may generalize this response to hop on the platform when any color light is turned on. The pigeon may also be taught to discriminate between different colors or light. For example, an experimenter may decide to only reward a pigeon for hopping on a platform when a green light is turned on, but provide no reward for hopping on a platform when a red light is turned on. Pigeons are capable of swiftly learning that pattern, and learn to discriminate between the two stimuli. The pigeon will then only hop on the platform in the presence of the green light and not in the presence of the red light. Chapter 7.

47. Classical conditioning is worst when the CS and the US are:

a. contingent and contiguous.

b. contiguous but not contingent. ##

c. contingent but not contiguous.

d. none of the above.

52, .42.  Contiguity is the concept that the CS occurs sequentially before the US, causing them to become associated. Mere contiguity, however, is unlikely to produce a strong response because there can be many other potential stimuli at the same time as the CS and US are paired. For example, a dog that is trained to associate the sound of a metronome with food might also hear a click ticking or voices in the background, and also associate those with the food, because these stimuli occurred just as the food was being presented. Thus, we rely on the concept of contingency. The concept of contingency holds that the CS provides information about the US's arrival. In the example presented here, the metronome beat is contingent because it only occurs before the food is presented, and never between trials, as the other ambient noises might. In studies with rats, the contingency, and not contiguity of a CS and US were essential for the greatest amount of learning. Chapter 9.

48. At low frequencies (e.g., below 50 hertz), the entire basilar membrane deforms almost equally, posing a problem for the place theory of pitch. What other mechanism accounts for our ability to sense these low-frequency sounds?

a.	the frequency of neural impulse firing ##
b.	the dilation of the inner ear
c.	the activation of the semicircular canals
d.	all of the above

33%, .65.  The place theory of pitch perception holds that the nervous system is ale to identify a sound's pitch simply by registering where the movement is greatest along the length of the basilar membrane. At frequencies below 50 hertz, the movement produced by a sound stimulus deforms the entire membrane equally. Therefore, if we were using the location of the basilar membrane's maximum movement as our cue, we'd be unable to tell apart any of these low frequencies. Humans have another means of sensing pitch, which is tied to the firing rate of cells in the auditory nerve. For lower-pitched sounds, the firing is synchronized with the peaks of the incoming sound waves. Consequently, the rate of firing ends up matched to the frequency of the wave, measures in crests per second. This coding is then related to the higher neural centers that interpret this information as pitch. Chapter 4.

49. One unusual person was red-green color blind in one eye but had normal color vision in the other eye. She was able to describe what she saw with the defective eye by using the color language she had learned to use with her good eye. As she described it, with the color-blind eye she saw only __________.

a.	gray
b.	yellow and gray
c.	grays, blues, and yellows ##
d.	browns

77%, .27.  For a long time, it seemed impossible to answer the question as to what the world looked like to someone who is colorblind. However, researchers discovered a woman who was red-green color-blind in one eye but had normal color vision in the other. She was able to describe what she saw with the defective eye by using the color language she had learned to use with her other eye. With her color-blind eye, she saw only grays, blues, and yellows. Red and green hues were altogether absent, as if one of the opponent process pairs were missing. Chapter 4.

50. The binding problem focuses on how __________.

a.	movement is perceived
b.	all the elements of a stimulus detected by separate systems are integrated ##
c.	depth is perceived
d.	an object is identified

80%, .28.  The binding problem refers to the problem confronted by the brain of recombining the element of a stimulus, given the fact that these element are initially analyzed separately by different neural system. Chapter 5.

51. Suppose you look out over a football stadium. You can see the people nearby as individuals, but in the distance you see only a solid “sea” of blue and gold. This example shows how we use __________ to judge distance.

a.	shape constancy
b.	linear perspective
c.	texture gradients ##
d.	interposition

75%, .49.  Texture gradients are an example of pictorial cue. Pictorial cue are patterns that can be represented on a flat surface in order to create a sense of a three-dimensional object or scene. An additional example of a texture gradient might be looking at cobblestones on a street, The retinal projection of the cobblestones show a pattern of continuous change in which the elements of texture grow smaller and smaller as they become more distant. Similarly, as you look out further away into a football stadium, you see less of the individual elements of texture, and more of the solid sea of blue and gold. Chapter 5.

52. Aristotle was apparently wrong. We have at least _____ sensory modalities.

a. five

b. six

c. nine ##

d. eleven.

43%, .36.  The Greek philosopher Aristotle gave the traditional answer -- that there are five special senses: vision, the sense of seeing; audition, the sense of hearing; olfaction, the sense of smelling; gustation, the sense of tasting; and then touch, the tactile sense, the sense of feeling. However, modern psychology tends to identify 9 different sensory modalities, or general domains in which sensation occurs. Exteroception refers to sensations that arise from stimulation of sensory receptors on or near the surface of the body, from external stimuli, and includes three subcategories. The first subcategory, the distance senses, include vision and audition (hearing). The second subcategory, the chemical senses, includes gustation (taste) and olfaction (smell). The third subcategory, skin senses, includes the sense of touch, or the tactile sense, the sense of temperature, or the thermal sense, and the sense of pain, or nociception. Proprioception refers to sensations that concern the position and the motion of the body, and there appear to be two different kinds of proprioception. Kinesthesis, is the sensation of the motion of the body and the position of various body parts. In equilibrium, also known as the vestibular sense, there's a sense of up and down or sense of balance. Finally, there is interoception, which receives stimulation from internal tissues and organs like, the viscera and the blood vessels. These sensory mechanisms are important in regulation of bodily processes like hunger and thirst. Lecture 11.

53. A signal-detection experiment has a high rate of “catch” trials. This is expected to make the observer:

a. more liberal in his response bias.

b. more conservative in his response bias. ##

c. more acute in his sensitivity to information.

d. less acute in his sensitivity to information.

37%, .46.  In the basic signal-detection experiment a stimulus or signal is presented against a background of noise. Some trials present both signal and noise -- that's where the signal is on. Others present just noise -- that's when the signal is off: these are known as catch trials. When a signal is actually present, and a subject says “yes”, that's a hit. When it's present, but the subject says “no”, that's a miss. When the signal is actually absent, on what is known as a catch trial, but the subject says “yes” anyway, says the signal is present, that's known as a false alarm. And when the signal is off, and the subject says “no”, there's no signal, that's called a correct rejection. Suppose we've got 70% catch trials and only 30% trials where the stimulus is really on. The subject picks up on this, so he has now become very conservative in his responding. There's a very conservative response bias here. The subject has a very high threshold for saying yes, with the result that he misses a lot of the times the stimulus is on. Lecture 13

54. The depth-of-processing approach __________.

a.	assumes that the longer material is in working memory the more deep will be its memory traces
b.	is primarily concerned with a type of memory called procedural
c.	suggests that actively thinking about material leads to better memory than does maintenance rehearsal ##
d.	holds that meaningless material produces greater depth of processing than does material that can easily be fitted into meaningful contexts

65%, .58.  The depth of processing approach distinguishes between deep processing and shallow processing. Shallow processing is an approach to memorization that involves focusing on the superficial characteristics of the stimulus, such as the sound of a word or the typeface in which it's printed. Deep processing is an approach to memorization that involves focusing on the meaning of the stimulus. Study techniques that emphasize understanding are likely to payoff with good memory later on. Mechanical memory strategies, such as repeating items over and over without much thought, may not produce a benefit to memory. Chapter 8.

55. “Have we met before? I swear I know you from somewhere!” Nina remarks to Owen at a cocktail party. Nina's experience illustrates __________.

a.	the distinction between semantic and episodic memory
b.	the influence of schemas on memory
c.	the distinction between primacy and recency effects
d.	the distinction between familiarity and recollection ##

80%, .14.  Familiarity is a general sense that a certain stimulus has been encountered before. Recollection is the context in which a certain stimulus was encountered. These two types of memory can be distinguished in several ways. First, they feel different, and people can tell whether they remember a prior event (recollection) or don't remember it, but know that it happened (familiarity). These types of memory are promoted by different types of strategies, some approaches to a stimulus or event are helpful for establishing a sense of familiarity while other strategies are needed for establishing the sort of memory that will later on lead to recollection. Chapter 8.

56. In one condition of a memory experiment, the items are read out loud at a fairly rapid pace; in another condition, they are read more slowly. This manipulation would be expected to affect the:

a. primacy effect. ##

b. recency effect.

c. transfer from the sensory registers to short-term memory.

d. the amount of information stored in precategorical form.

38%, .63.  The primacy and recency effects in memory are provided as evidence for a distinction between long-term and short-term memory. The primacy effect occurs when an individual remembers earlier items that have been presented on a list better than the middle items. The primacy effect appears to reflect retrieval from long-term memory. The recency effect occurs when an individual remembers later items that have been presented on a list better than the middle items. The recency effect appears to reflect retrieval from short-term memory. When items are read quickly, and then read again more slowly, increasing the interval between adjacent items, this increases the amount of rehearsal each item can receive. This leads to an increase in the primacy affect, but has no effect on recency. The idea is that by giving the item more opportunity for rehearsal, we increase the likelihood that it will be transferred to long-term memory. Lecture 17.

57. Alice is an expert ornithologist. When asked to recall facts about particular birds, we may expect her to:

a. show decreased response latencies compared to novices, especially about birds that she knows particularly well.

b. decreased tendency to organize her knowledge into subcategories.

c. increased response latencies, especially about birds that she knows particularly well. ##

d. decreased availability, but increased accessibility, of her semantic knowledge about birds.

33%, -.30. A bad item.  This describes the paradox of interference. The more one knows about a topic, the harder it is to retrieve any particular item of information about that topic. While this may seem counter-intuitive, it follows from the principle of interference. An example of this effect is a study by John Anderson. He had his subject learn a list of simple facts about people and their locations. For example, the doctor is in the bank; the fireman is in the park; the lawyer is in the church; and the lawyer is in the park. There's only one fact about the doctor; and only one fact about the bank. But there are two facts about the lawyer, and two facts about the park. The experimenter varied the number of facts learned about each person and each location. The subjects memorized the list until they could recall it perfectly. They were then given a recognition test in which they were asked to distinguish between targets that they had actually studied, like the doctor is in the bank, and similar-sounding lures that were not on the study list, such as the doctor is in the park. The response latencies for both true and false facts varied according to the number of facts they had learned about each person and each location. If they knew only one fact about a target, or about a location, they responded pretty quickly, but if they knew two facts or three facts, it took them correspondingly longer to respond. Lecture 19.

58. Propositions __________.

a.	can't be said to be either true or false
b.	relate a subject and a predicate ##
c.	are analogical representations
d.	are combinations of concepts by association

63%, .56.  A proposition is a statement that relates a subject (the item about which a statement or claim is being made) and a claim about that subject (also known as a predicate – what's being asserted about that subject). An example of a proposition might be “Jacob lives in Poland.” The word “Jacob” alone or the phrase “lives in Poland” are not propositions. The first is a subject without a predicate, and the second is a predicate without a subject. Chapter 9.

59. Research shows that people are more likely to judge a conclusion as valid if that conclusion strikes them as __________.

a.		surprising
b.		unlikely
c.	plausible ##
d.	personally relevant

57%, .17.  Research on syllogisms show that people tend to make errors in judgment if they believe a conclusion is plausible. A syllogism is a logic problem containing two premises and a conclusion; the syllogism is valid if the conclusion follows logically from the premises. Importantly, the validity of the conclusion is only related to the premises of the syllogism, not whether the conclusion seems plausible. Still, across syllogisms, mistakes are made very frequently. People who make mistakes tend to focus on whether a conclusion is plausible on its own, regardless of the premises of the syllogism, and if it is, they will judge the syllogism valid. Chapter 9.

60. Donna and her friend Esther both receive D's on a Calculus midterm. Donna becomes depressed and seems to give up on her studies for some time thereafter. Esther, however, becomes driven to learn more about Calculus and earn a better grade on the next test. Which of the following statements best describes the mind-sets of Donna and Esther?

a.	Donna has a growth mind-set, whereas Esther has a fixed mind-set.
b.	Donna has a fixed mind-set, whereas Esther has a growth mind-set. ##
c.	Donna and Esther have fixed mind-sets.
d.	Donna and Esther have growth mind-sets.

95%, .12.  In her research on an individual's view of their own ability, Carol Dweck distinguishes between fixed and growth mindsets. People who have fixed mindsets are likely to believe that their success is based in innate ability; thus, Donna's reaction reflects a fixed mindset, as she likely sees herself as unable to improve in Calclus. People who have growth mindsets are likely to believe that hard work and training are likely to allow their abilities to grow or improve; thus, Esther's reaction reflects a growth mindset, as she is likely to believe that by studying and practicing, she will be able to improve on the next exam. Chapter 11.

61. With regard to the role of the environment in influencing intelligence scores, which of the following statements is FALSE?

a.	Spending a longer time in an impoverished environment leads to a lower IQ score.
b.	Spending a longer time in an enriched environment leads to a higher IQ score.
c.	The Flynn effect cannot be explained genetically.
d.	The correlation between brothers' IQ scores does not vary with the separation in age of the brothers. ##

70%, .31.  A Norwegian study examined a data set that included intelligence scores for 3340,000 pairs of brothers. The researchers found that the correlation between the brothers' intelligence scores as smaller for brothers who were more widely separated in age. This result makes sense on environmental grounds. The greater difference in age between the brothers, the more likely the family's circumstances have changed in the years between the birth of one brother and the other's. Chapter 11.

62. Which issue poses a problem for the definitional theory of meaning?

a.	Relationships can be explained in terms of groups of semantic features.
b.	We have relatively few words that describe elementary concepts.
c.	The words wife, sister, and daughter all contain the concept of female.
d.	Some members of a meaning category fit the category far better than do other members. ##

82%, .42.  The definitional theory of meaning is the theory that mental representations of words consist of a necessary and sufficient set of semantic features. According to this theory, each words can be understood as a bundle of meaning atoms. The representation of apple, for example, might be round, edible, sweet, red, and juicy. But, certain kinds of apples might fit this representation better. For example, while a red delicious apple might fit this description well, a granny smith apple might not because granny smith apples tend to be green and tart, rather than red and sweet. Chapter 10.

63. What were the findings from studies of deaf children who had hearing parents but were not taught ASL?

a.	Without auditory contact, complex language skills will not develop.
b.	The children invented their own gestural language. ##
c.	The children would not use their hands to gesture, but they did learn to read lips.
d.	The children never exhibited basic language skills.

77%, .44.  Many types of sign language exist. These systems are often not derived by translation from the spoken languages around them, but are independently created by and within communities of deaf people. Researchers found six children who were deaf, but who had hearing parents that did not use ASL. These language-isolated children invented a language of their own, developing a sizable number of gestures that were easily understood by others. Their spontaneously developed communication system showed many parallels to ordinary language. Chapter 10.

64. In the classical view of categories, “singly necessary” means that:

a. the feature is found in every example of a category.

b. there are sharp vertical boundaries between subsets and supersets.

c. there are sharp horizontal boundaries between adjacent categories.

d. All of the above. . ##

30%, -.24.  A bad item.  Most of you went for A only.  According to the view of categories as proper sets, the objects in a category all share the same set of defining features, which are singly necessary and jointly sufficient to define the category. Singly necessary means that every instance of the category possesses that feature. The feature must be present for the object to belong in a particular category. Jointly sufficient, means that every entity that possesses the entire set of defining features is an instance of the concept. The entire set of defining features is all you need to identify an object as part of a category. Categories can be arranged in a hierarchal system that represents the vertical relations between categories producing a distinction between high-level superordinate categories and low-level subordinate categories, sometimes known as supersets and subsets. These hierarchies are characterized by perfect nesting, which means that subsets possess all the defining features of their supersets. We create subsets by adding one or more defining features to the set of features that define a superset. In this case, subsets contain all of the defining features of super sets, plus new defining features. Within each level of the vertical hierarchy, there are also horizontal relations between adjacent categories, or between subcategories. These horizontal relations between adjacent categories are governed by an all-or-none principle. Because category membership is determined by a finite set of defining features, and an object either has the features or it doesn't have them, then an object is either in a category or not. Lecture 21.

65. The utterances of linguistic novices:

a. exaggerate the boundaries between verb phrases and noun phrases.

b. vary from one dialect to another within a language.

c. illustrate the psychological reality of deep structure. ##

d. generally take an attitude of “focus on the object”.

20%, .10.  another bad item.  There's a difference between the surface structure of a sentence and its deep structure. The linguist Noam Chomsky identified transformational grammar -- a set of rules that can generate many equivalent surface structures, and can also uncover the “kernel of meaning” that's common to many different surface structures. This “kernel of meaning” is what Chomsky called the deep structure of the sentence. The deep structure of a sentence can be represented by its basic propositional meaning, the basic thought underlying the sentence. The utterances of novices in a language, such as infants or immigrants, who are just learning the language, tend to mimic the kind of deep structures that Chomsky hypothesizes. For example, "I no go sleep.” Lecture 25.

66. Which of the following is NOT among the shortcomings of instinct approaches to motivation?

a.	Instinct approaches can account only for physiological motivations, not psychological ones. ##
b.	Instinct theorists identified too many different instincts for the theory to be useful.
c	Instinct theorists disagreed on the precise instincts guiding behavior.
d.	Instinct approaches merely describe behavior; they fail to explain it.

28%, .11.  And another one!  Early theorists emphasized the biological roots of our motivations, describing our motivational states as arising from genetically endowed instincts. Unfortunately, different theorists came up with vastly different lists of instincts, and over time, 5,000 instincts were proposed by one scholar or another. This meant that instinct theory as at best, inelegant, but worse, commentators increasingly wondered what work their theories were doing. Moreover, instinct theory could not describe behavior, but instead, provided new jargon that offered no new information. Chapter 12

67. Dustin has successfully reinterpreted a stressful experience as a challenging learning opportunity. What has probably happened in his brain?

a.	Activity in the prefrontal cortex has increased, and activity in the amygdala has decreased. ##
b.	Activity in the prefrontal cortex has increased, and activity in the amygdala has increased.
c.	Activity in the prefrontal cortex has decreased, and activity in the amygdala has decreased.
d.	Activity in the prefrontal cortex has decreased, and activity in the amygdala has increased.

75%, .49.  Cognitive reappraisal is a form of emotion regulation in which an individual changes her or his emotional response to a situation by altering her or his interpretation of that situation. In one study, researchers showed participants neutral or negative emotion eliciting slides during an fMRI study. Participants were asked to view the negative emotion-eliciting slides, or to reappraise them by altering their meaning. Participants who reappraised the meaning of the slides reported less negative emotion than those who did not. Reappraisal also led to increased activation in the prefrontal region in the brain, and decreased activation in the amygdala and other area associated with negative emotion. Chapter 12.

68. Facial expressions of emotion illustrate:

a. cross-cultural differences in the recognition of emotion.

b. how mental processes affect somatic processes.

c. how bodily states can affect mental states. ##

d. the central problem with the James-Lange theory of emotion.

40%, .54.  The emotion theories of Tomkins, Ekman, Leventhal, and others make a case for the embodiment of mind. By this we mean that mental representations and processes are grounded in their physical context. This physical context includes both the physical situation and, especially, the physical body. Embodiment affects cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and language, but it is especially prominent in the case of emotion. To a great extent, our emotions are derived from our perceptions of our bodily processes, and they are expressed in bodily form by facial expressions, posture, and other gestures. Lecture 26.

69. The neurotransmitter most involved in the brain's “reward system” is:

a. dopamine. ##

b. serotonin.

c. epinephrine.

d. cholinergen.

72%, .08.  All drugs of abuse, and even processed food, target the brain's “reward pathways”, centered on the limbic system, and including the ventral tegmental area at the top of the brainstem, the medial forebrain bundle, nucleus accumbens, and portions of the prefrontal cortex. In 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner discovered that electrical stimulation of this “mesolimbic” area of the brain is rewarding, and that rats will actually work to get it – leading this area to be called the “pleasure center” of the brain. Activation of the ventral tegmentum releases dopamine, which has been called the brain's “pleasure chemical”, and which targets the nucleus accumbens. Lecture 27.

70. Recent studies show that TV watching seems to be genetically related, but that makes very little sense. Therefore researchers have suggested that TV watching actually reflects the influence of the more general trait of __________.

a.	sensation-seeking
b.	introversion
c.	openness to experience
d.	extraversion ##

3%, .23. A really difficult item, but it didn't meet the criterion for "bad".  Most stuents went for A or B.  Neither are bad guesses.  The Big Five dimension of personality are five crucial dimension of personality measured through factor analysis of trait terms. The five dimensions are: extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Studies investigating the link between genes and personality have identified genetic influence for very specific traits, such as television watching and traditionalism. The genetic influence on these kinds of traits may reflect the operation of the more general personality dimensions of the Big Five. Television watching, for example, may be associated with extroversion, while traditionalism may be associated with conscientiousness. Chapter 15.

71. Dana is struggling with the decision to place her mother in a nursing home, and wants her mother to enjoy her time and remain active as much as possible. Based on research in social-cognitive concepts, which of the following nursing homes would likely be the best choice?

a.	one that offers a long list of activities for the residents to choose from every hour
b.	one that has residents in charge of minor daily tasks and offers some degree of control over the timing of their activities ##
c.	one that provides a fixed, prescribed schedule of activities with no need to make choices
d.	one that takes care of their every need without requiring any effort by the residents

70%, .36.  The social-cognitive concept of control is related to the desire people have to control the circumstances of their lives, and the benefit from feeling that they have such control. A widely cited illustration of this concept involves elderly people in a nursing home. Patients on one floor were given small houseplants to care for, and were asked to choose at what times they wanted to participate in nursing home activities. Patients on another floor were given plants, but these were cared for by the staff, and were told when certain activities were to occur. The results show that according to both the nurses' and the patients' reports, the patients who tended their own plants and schedules their own activities were more active and felt better than the patients who lacked this control; these results were still apparent even a year later. Chapter 15.

72. Lindsey knows that he will be trying to persuade an intelligent and attentive listener in a setting that is free from distraction, and so he plans to utilize the central route to persuasion. This means that he will be relying on __________.

a.	reasoned thought ##
b.	emotional responses
c.	behavioral change
d.	all of the above

52%, .63.  An almost-perfect item, psychometrically speaking.  Psychologists make a distinction between two types of persuasion. One is the central route to persuasion, in which we carefully track the information we receive and elaborate its arguments with considerations of out own. We take this route if the issue matters to us and if we are not diverted by other concerns. In this case, we are keenly sensitive to the credibility and trustworthiness of the message's source. We pay close attention to the content of the persuasive message, and strong, reasoned arguments will be more effective in changing our minds. On the other hand, the peripheral route of persuasion relies on superficial factors, such as the charisma of the person presenting the argument. We use this mode of processing information if we do not care much about the issue, or if we are distracted. In the prompt above, Lindsey will need to use the central route to persuasion, and rely on reasoned thought to persuade the listener. Chapter 13.

73. Zajonc's theory of social facilitation assumes that the presence of others __________.

a.	increases the variability of the performer's responses
b.	enhances well-practiced responses ##
c.	increases the strength of relatively weak (nondominant) responses.
d.	increases the performer's concentration

38%, .37.  Zajonc proposed that the presence of others increases out level of bodily arousal, which strengthens the tendency to perform highly dominant, well-practiced responses, which tend to come automatically. When the dominant response is the correct one, social presence should help. When the task gets harder, the dominant response is often incorrect, leading to decreased performance in the presence of others. Chapter 13.

74. George and Martha are subjects in an experiment on interpersonal dominance. On a 1-10 scale, George scores a 4 in a small group setting, but an 8 in a large-group setting. Martha, for her part, scores a 6 in both groups. A finding such as this:

a. shows that George is more dominant than Martha.

b. shows that George's dominance behavior is more predictable than Martha's.

c. illustrates the person-by-situation interaction. ##

d. illustrates the dialectic between the environment and behavior.

73%, .39.  Neither traits nor situations are the primary determinants of behavior. Because situations are as much a function of the person, as the person's behavior is a function of the situation. Interactionism agrees that people's behaviors are influenced by the situations in which they find themselves but it views people as part of their own environment and it holds that personal factors can still play an important role in behavior by changing the environment in which the behavior takes place. One way to think about this interactionist perspective is to argue that different kinds of people show different patterns of response across different situations. For example, anybody can smile at a friend. It takes a really friendly person to smile at a stranger, though. Put another way, really friendly people might discriminate less between the two situations that unfriendly people would. This situation is known as a person by situation interaction. Likewise, George tend to score 6 points on average, but he may be more comfortable in large groups than he is in small groups, and this, in turn, might affect his performance. Martha, on the other hand, might also tend to score a 6 on average, but might not differentiate between the effect of large groups and small groups, which should have no impact on her performance. Lecture 28.

75. The automaticity of social behavior illustrates the role of _____ in the person-situation interaction.

a. evocation ##

b. selection

c. behavioral manipulation

d. cognitive transformation

52%, .49.  Social psychologists have focused on another aspect of environmental influence, the automaticity of social behavior. Cognitive psychologists make a distinction between two kinds of processes, automatic processes and controlled processes. Automatic processes have four characteristic features. The first of these features is, inevitable evocation. An automatic process is inevitably evoked by the appearance in the environment of some specific stimulus. Once evoked. Automatic processes run incorrigibly to completion, and cannot be stopped. Lecture 31.

76. Most modern researchers suggest that—contrary to Piaget's claims—infants do actually believe that objects continue to exist even when hidden in a new location. Why, then, don't they reach for such objects and retrieve them?

a.	They lack hand–eye coordination.
b.	They habituate to the object when it goes out of sight.
c.	They have a hard time overriding a dominant action. ##
d.	They lack visual discrimination ability.

28%, .47.  Object permanence is the conviction that an object exists, even when it is out of sight. Piaget believed infants didn't develop this level of understanding until at least eight months. Recent evidence has shown that Piaget underestimated the intellectual capacities of infants. Modern investigators suggest that infants do understand that objects continue to exist when they're out of sight, but that they lack a full understanding of how to deal with those objects. Evidence making use of the A-not-B effect, in which infants tend to reach for a hidden object where it was previously hidden (A), rather than where it was hidden most recently while the child watched (B), finds that if the infant reaches towards the previous place multiple times (A), this response becomes well-primed and is dominant. Thus, in order to reach towards the new hiding place (B), the infant must slowly override this new habit. The infant knows where the toy is (B), but is unable to inhibit the potent drive to reach towards the original hiding spot (A). Chapter 14.

77. With respect to moral reasoning, broad ideals are to social relationships as ________ is to _________.

a.	preconventional; postconventional
b.	conventional; postconventional
c.	unconventional; conventional
d.	postconventional; conventional ##

52%, .47.  Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral reasoning, divided into three pairs, called preconventional, conventional, and postconventional moral reasoning. Preconventional moral reasoning leads to moral judgments focused on avoiding getting punished (a child might say, “if you hurt your brother, you'll get in trouble.”) Conventional moral reasoning is focused on social relationships, conventions, and duties (someone might say, “if you hurt your brother, your family will think you're bad for hurting him.”) Finally, postconventional moral reasoning is concerned with ideals and broad moral principles (someone might say, “hurting people is wrong.”) Chapter 14.

78. Which two components of environmental variance belong in the same category?

a. Family and Birth Order.

b. Parental Interactions and Extrafamilial Networks. ##

c. Neighborhood and Gender.

d. School and Sibling Interaction.

22%, -.09.  Studies of the effects of nature versus nurture highlight the evident power of the environment. Crucially, the effect of non-shared environment between siblings on their development is extremely important. The finding that the effect of non-shared environment on children is more important than the effect of shared environment is often misinterpreted to mean that patents have no effect on their children. Instead, this means that parents don't have the same effects on each of their children. Parents can have tremendous influence on their kids, but they don't have the same influence on each and every one of them. An additional component of environmental variance that is related to non-shared environment is the child's network outside the family. Peer groups and peer cultures may be the most powerful social forces impinging on a child. Lecture 33.

79. Stern and Terman calculated IQ in terms of the ratio between a subject's “mental age” and his or her chronological age. This exemplifies the notion of development as:

a. quantitative changes along a continuum. ##

b. qualitative changes from one discrete stage to another.

c. characterized by the achievement of certain “landmarks”.

D the child as “tabula rasa”.

63%, .41.  The earliest theories of psychological development focused on problems of maturation and learning. In general these theories offered a view of the child as what you might call a short, stupid adult who grows smarter as he or she grows bigger. Viewed in this way there is a continuum between childhood and adulthood, a quantitative difference with no abrupt qualitative changes. The intelligence quotient, as it was originally calculated, was the child's mental age divided by his actual age, multiplied times 100. This view assumed that as children aged, they should continually acquire new cognitive abilities to match their increased age. Thus, a child who had the mental ability of a 9 year old at the age of 10 had an IQ of 90, while a child who had the mental ability of an 11 year old at the age of 10 had an IQ of 110. This model assumed that a child's mental ability and actual age continually increased at about the same rate. Lecture 36.

80. What is true of processes such as blindsight and automatization?

a.	They confirm Freud's basic ideas about the role of anxiety in repression.
b.	They are independent ways of substantiating what Freud meant by the term unconscious.
c.	They demonstrate that complex processes can be inaccessible to consciousness. ##
d.	All of the above answers are correct.

37%, .58.  Blindsight is the ability of a person with a lesion in the visual cortex to reach toward of correctly guess about objects in the visual field, even though the person reports seeing nothing. Likewise, automatization represents the idea that people are completely unaware of the process by which they perform certain acts, while still remaining conscious of the products of these processes. For example, you may be able to recall a past event, but you have no reason to worry about the automatic process through which you're gaining that information. The unconscious process provides you with the information you need while keeping the supporting machinery in the background. Each of these processes highlights the extent to which our mental lives can go forward without conscious experience. Chapter 6.

81. Peter experiences a dream, but he reports that it was very patchy, like he was thinking about something and the dream contained very few details. He most likely experienced this dream during which stage of sleep?

a.	stage 1 sleep
b.	stage 2 sleep
c.	slow-wave sleep ##
d.	REM sleep

47%, .42.  Slow-wave sleep is a term that is used to describe both stage 3 and stage 4 sleep. Slow-wave sleep is characterized by slow, rolling eye movements, low cortical arousal, and slowed heart rate and respiration. While we're in slow-wave sleep, we're in a state of diminished awareness. While dreams are most associated with REM sleep, about half of the people who are awakened from slow-wave sleep report that they have just been dreaming. Contrary to reports of dreams that occur during REM sleep, which are highly pictorial, tend to include the dreamer as a character, and seem more or less real as they are occurring, dreams that are reported from slow-wave sleep tend to be only sparse summaries and tend to include reports that they were only “thinking about something” or that the dreams were “boring.” Chapter 6.

82. Michael was diagnosed with bipolar disorder several years ago. This means that he will experience mood states that include which of the following?

a.	mania and normalcy
b.	depression and normalcy
c.	depression, mania, and normalcy ##
d.	aggression and mania

73%, .52.  Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic and depressive episodes, with normal periods interspersed. These episodes may be as short as a few hours or as long as several months, and they need not alternate. Some patients with bipolar disorder rarely have manic episodes, while others have a large number. These episodes are also known to co-occur, in which symptoms exhibit signs of both tearfulness and pessimism, combined with grandiosity and racing thoughts. Chapter 16.

83. Sociological studies in many countries have found that the incidence of schizophrenia is __________.

a.	greatest in the upper classes
b.	greatest in the middle classes
c.	greatest in the lower classes ##
d.	the same in every socioeconomic class

68%, .14.  Epidemiological studies revealed a link between schizophrenia and socioeconomic status (SES). One study suggested that low-SES individuals are nine times more likely to develop schizophrenia than are high-SES individuals. Part of this relationship is likely produced by the daily stress associated with poverty, inferior status, and low occupational rank. But, someone who suffers from schizophrenia is also less likely to do well in school, and less likely to get or hold a good job, leading to a downward drift. This means the disease produces problems, which, in turn, put schizophrenics into a lower social class. In this case, the relationship between schizophrenia and SES is bidirectional, poverty is a risk factor for schizophrenia, but schizophrenia is also a risk factor that makes poverty more likely. Chapter 16.

84. When a patient who fears bridges is asked to drive over a real bridge by himself, this form of treatment is referred to as __________.

a.	in vivo desensitization ##
b.	systematic desensitization
c.	aversion therapy
d.	contingency management

57%, .55.  In vivo desensitization is a key step in the behavioral treatment of a phobia. The patient is gradually exposed to the phobic stimulus over time. For example, someone who is afraid of height might be asked to actually visit a tall building, rather than merely thinking about it, and someone who is afraid of bridges might be asked to drive over a real bridge on his own. This process may also take place with a therapist present, but exposure to the stimulus itself is a key ingredient in therapeutic success. Chapter 17.

85. Benjamin has been taking classical antipsychotics for his schizophrenia, and these drugs have been somewhat effective in reducing the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, as with most patients they do not seem to effectively __________.

a.	reduce negative symptoms ##
b.	reduce hallucinations
c.	reduce disorganized behavior
d.	reduce disorganized speech

83%, .46.  The classic antipsychotic medications, many of which were developed in the 1950s, reduce the major positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as thought disorder and hallucination. These medications work by blocking dopamine receptors in key brain pathways. These drugs are less effective in treating negative symptoms such as flat affect and the inability to feel pleasure. The most common versions of these antipsychotic drugs include Thorazine, Haldol, and Stelazine. Chapter 17.

86. The diagnosis of mental retardation depends on:

a. deviance from statistical norms. ##

b. deviance from social norms.

c. personal distress.

d. evidence of brain insult, injury, or disease.

62%, .42.  Deviations from normality can be defined in various ways. Perhaps the easiest is deviance from statistical norms. By statistical convention, a score is abnormal if it lies more than two standard deviations above or below the population mean. This frequency criterion is certainly objective but it has some problems attached to it. One of these problems is the difficulty in estimating population means for all the various mental characteristics on which people might deviate. An I.Q. less than 70 is more than two standard deviations away from the mean I.Q. of 100. If other factors are also present, this can lead an individual to be classified with a form of mental illness known as mental retardation. An IQ of 131, is also more than two standard deviations from the mean, and can lead an individual to be classified as a genius. But while we consider mental retardation to be a form of mental illness, we usually don't think of genius that way. A further problem is that even negative deviations are not necessarily signs of mental abnormality or mental illness. For example a person, who is more than two standard deviations below the mean on extroversion, might be merely shy. Lecture 38.

87. In the hopelessness theory of depression, the psychological diathesis is a tendency to make _____ attributions about negative events.

a. stable, external, global.

b. variable, internal, global.

c. stable, internal, global. ##

d. external, variable, specific.

57%, .49.  In a diathesis-stress, model, diathesis refers to an individual's internal disposition, while stress refers to environmental factors. The hopelessness theory of depression holds that some people are predisposed to becoming depressed. The hopelessness model, developed by Abramson and Elloy, was extended from the work of Seligman, which indicated that people became depressed because they were exposed to an environment that presented them with uncontrollable and unpredictable aversive events. Abramson and Elloy noticed that not everybody who was exposed to such an environment became depressed. Some became angry. The difference between the two groups was that those who became depressed approached the world with a depressogenic attributional style. These attributions tend to be stable, in that they reflect some unchangeable state of the world, internal, in that they reflect something about the person themselves, and global, in that the factors regarding an attribution apply to a great variety of situations, rather than just the one at hand. Someone with such an attribution style who fails a test might react by saying, “I'm just not smart enough.” Lecture 40.

88. What is not true of emotional memory?

a. Emotional memory is regulated by the hypothalamus. ##

b. A special memory system for emotional events may aid “survival of the fittest”.

c. Emotiondirects attention.

d. Negativeemotion tends to impair memory.

33%, .37.  The amygdala, not the hypothalamus, seems to function as an alarm system, evaluating the content of various inputs and detecting whether that content is emotionally significant. If emotional content is detected, various processes inside the amygdala activate other brain sites, including sites within the hippocampus, which are crucial for establishing emotional memories. A special memory system for emotional memories might aid survival of the fittest, in that encounters with dangerous predators were likely to fill our ancestors with fear, such that these encounters would be considered worth remembering, and help our ancestors avoid facing the predator again. Finally, the role of attention is evident in the fact that emotional memory tends to be uneven – some aspects are well remembered while others are neglected. Our attention is directed to the core meaning of the event, and we are less likely to pay attention to our own circumstances, or other, non-central aspects of the event. Negative emotion may impair memory for positive events, but it seems to enhance memory for negative events, as in mood-congruent encoding and retrieval. Prologue.

89. The last area of scientific psychology to develop was the study of:

a. emotion and motivation.

b. “higher” mental processes such as categorization.

c. personality and social interaction. ##

d. psychopathology.

17%, .22.  Wilhelm Wundt, who developed the world's first psychology lab believed that scientific psychology was limited to the study of immediate experience, of sensation and perception. Beginning in the 1880s, a number of psychologists began to prove Wundt wrong by investigating learning and memory. In the 1920s, Clark Hull demonstrated that concept formation could also be understood scientifically. In the early 20^th century, William Cannon began expanding the purview of psychology to include the study of emotional and mental life. At around the same time, psychologists began to study the nature of psychopathology. Psychologists quickly became interested in the study of individual differences in mental function and personality. In 1898, Triplet conducted the first social psychology experiment. In the 1930s, Sherif studied the effect of social influence on perception. The study of personality and social interaction developed last, integrating the understanding of the effects of individual and situational factors on behavior. Lecture 1.

90. Pronouncing a visually presented word activates all of the following except:

a. occipital cortex

b. the temporal lobe.

c. the frontal lobe

d. none of the above. ##

45%, .31.  In the new discipline of cognitive neuroscience, neurologists and neuroscientists work very closely with cognitive psychologists to identify various structures in the brain that are involved in performing various kinds of cognitive tasks. And a tremendous amount of progress has been made in this area of research over the past decade or so. Sometimes, though, researchers have gone a little overboard. For example, one researcher has claimed to have identified an area in the temporal lobe that's involved in processing the meaning of visually presented words. But if you think about it for a second, that can't be right, for the simple reason that written language was only invented about 5,000 years ago and that's not been enough time for the brain to evolve a specific structure dedicated to reading written language. Lecture 4.

91. In a “normal” distribution of scores:

a. the median is greater than the mode.

b. the mode is equal to the mean. ##

c. the mean is less than the mode.

d. the mean is greater than both the median and the mode.

72%, .28.  Most psychological measurements follow what is known as the normal distribution. If you plot the frequency with which various scores occur, you obtain a more-or-less symmetrical, more-or-less bell-shaped curve that is symmetrical around the mean, and in which the mean, the median, and the mode are very similar. In a normal distribution, most scores fall very close to the mean and the further you get from the mean, the fewer scores there are. If you have a perfectly normal distribution, the mean, the median, and the mode are identical, but we really don't see that too much in nature. Lecture 6.

92. An important limitation on evolved, innate responses to stimuli is that:

a. they promote the adaptation of the individual organism, but not the species as a whole.

b. the species cannot respond to slow changes in the environment.

c. the individual cannot respond to sudden changes in the environment. ##

d. the stimulus cannot be physically present in order for adaptation to occur.

70%, .46.  In general, there are several limitations on instincts and other innate response patterns. First, the releasing stimulus must be physically present in the current environment. There's no way for the animal to respond to an image, or an idea, or a memory of the releasing stimulus. The stimulus has to be physically present. Second, instincts and similar fixed action patterns only permit responses to be elicited by external stimuli. They don't permit action to be directed by internal goals. Because response patterns are built in over evolutionary time, the organism cannot respond flexibly to any new, or sudden, stimuli that come around -- or quickly generate new behaviors and response to either changed or new stimuli. The stakes are forever. If the evolved, intentional behavior isn't right, in the new or changed environment, the animal isn't going to survive. Lecture 7.

93. Which phenomenon causes the least difficulty for the ecological view of direct perception?

a. Perceptual constancy. ##

b. Pattern recognition of alphanumeric stimuli..

c. Reversible figures.

d. Evidence of “bottom-up” processing in perception.

27%, .15.  A bad item.  Most of you went for D, but Gibson's ecological view almost exemplifies the bottom-up approch, because its focuses on unpacking stimulus information.  Gibson's ecological view of direct perception assumes that all the information needed for perception is present in the stimulus itself, the stimulus being broadly construed. What happens in perception is that the perceptual apparatus extracts this information from stimulation. This means that perception is determined by the whole pattern of proximal stimulus information that's available to the observer in the environment. This view has a couple of problems. One of which is conceptual. It might be possible to show that information about motion or distance or rigidity is available in the stimulus environment, but it's quite another thing to show that the perceiver actually makes use of this information. the ecological view encounters a number of empirical problems -- that is, problems with how people actually perform in perception experiments, and for that matter in the real world, that suggest that the ecological view is not the entire picture of perception. In perceptual constancies, like size constancy and shape constancy, the pattern of proximal stimulation changes. But the perception of the distal stimulus remains constant. Therefore, it would seem that perception is not entirely driven by the stimulus. The retinal image gets larger or smaller, or changes shape in one way or another, but the perception of the distal stimulus remains constant. The object is perceived as getting closer. But the perceived size of the object stays the same. The perceptual constancies are not completely inconsistent with the ecological view. Gibson insisted that it was the entire pattern of stimulation, including figure and ground, which provided the information needed for perception. As you might perceive a lion approaching from some trees, for example, viewed against the background of trees, and other features of the landscape, it's clear that the lion is just coming closer, and not changing in size. The relative size of the lion, compared to the tree, is remaining constant. And it's that relative size that Gibson argues is the real information for the perception of size and distance. Lecture 15.

94. Schematic knowledge has the effect of:

a. increasing memory for schema-irrelevant knowledge.

b. increasing memory for schema-incongruent knowledge. ##

c. decreasing memory for schema-relevant knowledge.

d. decreasing errors in remembering schema-congruent knowledge.

50%, .56.  another almost-perfect item.  When we plot memory for the behaviors as a function of their congruence with the schema, we see an interesting pattern of results, a pattern known as a U-shaped function. Schema relevant behaviors, whether they're schema-congruent or schema-incongruent, are remembered better than schema-irrelevant behaviors. But among the schema-relevant behaviors, schema-incongruent behaviors are actually remembered better than schema-congruent behaviors. This U-shaped relationship between schema-relevance and memory illustrates the schematic illustrating principle, which says that memory for specific events, episodic memory, is a function of the relationship between that event and preexisting schemata, generalized knowledge expectations and beliefs, recorded in semantic memory. Schema-congruent events fit right into our prevailing schemata, our prevailing knowledge, expectations, and beliefs about the target person. And so the schema provides extra cues at the time of retrieval, which are going to make retrieval more likely to succeed. Schema-incongruent events, however, don't fit into our prevailing schemata. They are surprising, they are not predicted by what we know, and therefore we have to explain them. And this explanatory activity in turn, is going to result in more elaborate processing at the time of encoding and therefore better memory at the time of retrieval. Lecture 20.

95. Judgment heuristics:

a. are especially useful under conditions of certainty, where a problem does not require much cognitive effort.

b. in reasoning about utilities as opposed to values.

c. when there is insufficient information available for an algorithm. ##

d. are almost never useful, because they inject error into judgments and decision-making.

50%, .46.  And another one!  There are a set of problems collectively known as conditions of uncertainty. Uncertainty occurs, first, when a problem is ill-defined, when there are many possible representations of the problem, and thus more than one possible solution. Uncertainty can occur under other conditions as well. For example, a problem may be well-defined in some formal sense but you simply don't know what the algorithm is. Or you may know what the algorithm is, but you may have insufficient information to apply the algorithm. Or you may have insufficient opportunity (such as time) to apply the algorithm. These conditions are collectively known as judgment under uncertainty. Under these circumstances, when algorithms can't be applied it appears that people rely on what are known as judgment heuristics - shortcuts or rules of thumb that bypass the logical rules that are represented by problem-solving algorithms. Lecture 22.

96. In the “modularity” account of fear:

a. the same brain system generates subjective experience, physiological response, and behavioral response.

b. different brain systems generate subjective experience, physiological response, and behavioral response.

c. emotional events are processed through the amygdala before reaching the cortex.

d. emotional events are processed simultaneously by the cortex and the amygdala. ##

8%, -.34.  a bad item.  Most of you went for B, which in retrospect isn't a bad response, though it would be more correct that different brain aras generate the different components, and they're all linked into a single system for fear. Joseph LeDoux has proposed that there are separate modules in the brain, or separate systems of modules in the brain, each responsible for a particular emotional state. In his theoretical work, LeDoux has emphasized the role of the amygdala in generating fear responses. LeDoux agrees with Papez that everything begins with the thalamus, the sensory relay station that projects both to the cerebral cortex and to the amygdala. The cerebral cortex creates a conscious representation of the stimulus in working memory. It also retrieves information about the stimulus event stored in long term memory. The amygdala, for its part, generates both the behavioral and the physiological response to the emotional stimulus, to the fear stimulus. The autonomic nervous system prepares the organism for fight or flight, and the skeletal musculature actually engages in flight or fight. The amygdala, in turn, passes information about its activities to the cerebral cortex, which then generates the subjective experience of emotion. In this case, fear. The cortex generates the subjective experience of emotion, but the overt behavioral component of emotion and the covert physiological component of emotion are generated by the amygdala. Lecture 26.

97. People are more likely to agree with persuasive communications if they are offered snacks while they read them. This illustrates the effect of:

a. the person on the situation.

b. the situation on the person. ##

c. the situation on behavior.

d. behavior on the person.

35%, .15.  A bad item.  A lot of students went for C, but attitudes aren't behavior; they're internal characteristics of the person.  The influence of the environment on the person is really just a continuation of the traditional social psychological literature on social influence. There's an extensive social psychological literature on the effects of persuasive communications on attitudes. In one study, Janus and his colleagues asked subjects to read a set of essays on various controversial topics. Half the subjects read essays favoring the various topics, half the subjects read essays opposed to the various proposals. In addition, half the subjects in each group were offered a snack while they read the essays and the other half of the subjects were not. After reading each essay, the subjects were simply asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with the argument being made in the essay. The important finding of the experiment was that subjects who snacked while they read the essays were more likely to agree with the argument in the essays, regardless of the topic. Eating while they read, reflected a feature of the environment, the provision of food. Lecture 32.

98. With respect to the determinants of “liberal” or “conservative” political attitudes:

a. Genetic factors appear to play no role.

b. The nonshared environment is more important than the shared environment. ##

c. The shared environment is more important than the nonshared environment.

d. The shared environment plays a smaller role in attitudes, compared to its effect on the “Big Five” personality dimensions.

42%, .20.  When ti comes to personality and atttudes, the default position is that the nonshared environent is almost always more important than the shared environment, and usually at least as important as the genes.  As part of a Virginia twin study 15k sets of twins (30k individuals total) were administered an attitude inventory, which asked them to endorse their positions on various socio-political issues. School prayer, property taxes, busing to relieve racial segregation, and abortion rights, among other topics. There were 25 of these stated in a more or less liberal way, 25 of these stated in a more conservative way, 28 of the items were expressly political in nature (i.e., had to do with proposing new laws). The subjects were asked to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed or were uncertain about each of these statements. In each case, the correlations for mono-zygotic twins are higher than the correlations for di-zygotic twins.. For both measures of liberalism and conservatism, there was a significant genetic component, accounting for 30% or 40% of the variance. But, once again the contribution of the non-shared environment was again much greater than the contribution of the shared environment (35% or 53% for non-shared environment vs. 22% or 16% for shared environment). Lecture 33.

99. In token economies:

a. the incidence of major mental illness is reduced, compared to capitalist economies.

b. secondary reinforcers are employed to motivate adaptive social behaviors. ##

c. adaptive social learning occurs by virtue of primary reinforcement.

d. confederates are enrolled to model appropriate social behaviors.

53%, .50.  Another almost-perfect item.  In token economies, patients receive tokens such as poker chips or Monopoly money, contingent on their performance of certain actions, such as cleaning their living area or dressing themselves. These tokens may then be exchanged for goods at the hospital canteen, or for other privileges such as day trips. In the language of instrumental conditioning, the tokens are secondary reinforcers. Perhaps as much as medication, these training procedures are known to help chronic mental patients return to their families, and live in their communities, by allowing them to acquire the repertoire of behaviors that they need to live outside the confines of the mental hospital. Lecture 42.

100. A psychological explanation of behavior:

a. describes its underlying biological processes..

b. attributes behavior to the individual's mental state. ##

c. involves reducing “folk psychology” to biochemistry.

d. describes the social context in which the individual's behavior takes place.

82%, .54.  The first and most important theme in psychology is that the mind matters. Human behavior is intelligent. It goes beyond reflexes, taxes, instincts, and conditioned responses. We do not simply respond automatically to environmental stimuli. Rather, we behave in accordance with our internal mental representations of these events. Our actions are based on our perceptions of the present, our memories of the past, and on our expectations for the future. Lecture 43.