Final Examination Chapter 3

Chapter 3 10. As you age, your ___________ should continue to increase as you learn new information. A. IQ score *B. crystallized intelligence C. fluid intelligence D. unit intelligence % Correct: 51 Your IQ tends to be fairly consistent throughout your life since it represents your mental abilities in comparison to your peers. Your unit intelligence is a term that was entirely made up. Your fluid intelligence involves your ability to learn and adapt to the cognitive challenges that you face. Just like IQ, it is fairly set. Your crystallized intelligence, how much you know, should inevitably be increasing all the way until your late adulthood years. 11. Language researchers contend that encounters of ambiguous sentences are often overcome by focusing on A. the prepositions used in the sentence. B. the surface structure of the sentence. *C. the context surrounding the statement. D. the phonemes of the statement. % Correct: 81 None of the options above can help you decipher the meaning of a sentence when it is either ambiguous or poorly structured except for answer C. Knowing the sentences or the situation surrounding the sentence in question can provide context and ultimately make it possible to understand even the most unusual or ambiguous of statements. 12. Martin Seligman was able to explore the topic of “learned helplessness”, which was discussed in both the learning and clinical psychology areas of the class, through *A. his research that involved the shocking of dogs in controllable and uncontrollable environments. B. his studies of children that found themselves in environments to which there was no escape. C. his studies with rats that ran in mazes that had either had solutions or no solutions. D. his self-reflection process that he created, which became a commonly used technique across a variety of different fields. % Correct: 60 Seligman’s controversial research on dogs was discussed several times in class and in the book. In his research, he did indeed shock different groups of dogs through a shock plate on the ground. In some cases, the dogs could escape this shock by moving, in other cases, nothing that they did could prevent them from being shocked. He first used this research in the field of behaviorism, but many of his results have been applied to the area of clinical psychology in recent decades. 13. When studying the heritability of different behaviors or cognitive abilities, we discussed how birth order would be labelled as a ____ in the heritability formula. A. T B. G C. ES *D. ENS % Correct: 66 This was a question that tested your ability to recognize the key element to heritability and the symbol used to represent that element. The correct answer was non-shared environment, and it is represented by developmental psychologists by the symbol ENS. 14. Which of the following senses listed below is the only one of the senses that does not first travel to the thalamus (our mental filter) before reaching the neocortex? A. vision B. hearing C. touch *D. smell % Correct: 42 This was an interesting topic explored in the sensation and perception portion of class. All of our senses except for smell do indeed travel through the thalamus before heading off to their respective locations in the cerebral cortex. Researchers have argued that this primarily occurs in order to allow our mind to filter the “important” and “unimportant” stimuli that we are encountering in our environment. 15. Theo is really upset that his friends did not invite him out to a movie. To try to make himself happy, he decides to look in the mirror and smile at himself for 10 minutes. Research on manipulated emotion expressions (primarily with facial gestures) would suggest that A. this will never work, Theo will stay mad. *B. this actually might work. C. Theo might be able to counter his bad mood, but he will never be happy. D. unless Theo is low on a need for cognition, this will not work. % Correct: 92 As was mentioned in the end of person by behavior lecture, our behaviors do indeed have a large impact on or experience of emotions and thoughts. It might seem a little awkward to try to do something like cheer yourself up while you are mad by doing this, but there is considerable evidence to show that your intentional generation of an outward expression of a smile can indeed over time start to impact your internal experience of different emotions and thoughts to eventually cheer you up. 16. If Elaine is looking for individuals that score below or above 95% of a population of individuals on a new aggressiveness test, she is looking for people that fall *A. beyond about 2 standard deviations from the mean. B. within about 1 standard deviation from the mean. C. beyond about 1 standard deviation from the mean. D. beyond about 3 standard deviations from the mean. % Correct: 66 This was a statistics based question. Standard deviations represent the average spread of scores about the mean of a normally distributed collection of scores. For someone to be that far above average (being better than 95% of people is DEFENITELY above average), they need to be about 2 standard deviations above the average. Someone one standard deviation above the average is in the 68th percentile, and someone 3 standard deviations above the average is over the 99th percentile. 17. What does signal detection research suggest with subliminal perception of stimuli that are introduced at a level that does not pass the threshold of conscious perception? A. subliminal perception does not actually work B. subliminal perception only works for children *C. subliminal perception does indeed exist for all of us, but is not as impactful as conscious perception D. subliminal perception is actually more impactful on our behavior than conscious perception and needs to be researched further to ensure that it is not occurring a lot in our environment % Correct: 87 Though research on subliminal signal detection has provided us with undeniable evidence that we can perceive stimuli or changes in stimuli before we can conscious identify these perceptions, the impact that these perceptions have on our action is minimal at best. In other words, McDonalds might increase your chances of buying a hamburger a little by flashing a picture of their logo on the movie screen for a fraction of a second, but it would be much more effective for them to just keep that logo on the screen long enough for it to reach your conscious level of perception. 18. Which of the following stages of memory is said to have the smallest capacity? A. sensory memory *B. short term memory C. long term memory D. all three have infinite capacity % Correct: 61 Though our short-term memory is critical for us to intertwine our past experiences, present environment, and thoughts into a coherent collection of information that we can deal with, the amount of things that we can store in this stage of memory is very limited—usually we contend that it is somewhere between 5 and 9 pieces of information. 19. A person defined as having a very “high sensitivity” to a stimulus would display a very ________________ in a stimulus detection test. *A. high hit rate and low false alarm rate B. low hit rate and a high false alarm rate C. high hit rate and equally high false alarm rate D. low hit rate and equally low false alarm rate % Correct: 54 If you have a high sensitivity to a stimulus, it means that you’re identifying the stimulus correctly very well. For this to take place, you need to identify the stimulus every time it is presented (a high hit rate), while avoiding inaccurate identification of the stimulus when it is not present (low false alarm rate). Though high sensitivity might feel like we’re just indicating that we identified a stimulus over and over, regardless of whether or not it is actually present, this is not how the term is used in signal detection research. 20. George learns a story about a rabbit, in which some of the facts of the story are irrelevant, others are schema congruent, and others and schema incongruent. Which set of information about the rabbit would George likely remember the best? *A. the schema congruent information B. the schema incongruent information C. the irrelevant information D. this would entirely depend upon how much George knew about rabbits % Correct: 44 Though we remember schema incongruent information much more than we remember irrelevant information, we remember schema congruent information much better than we remember either of the other types of information. Though answer D looked really enticing, it had nothing to do with the topic, and no research has suggested that this would matter in this case. 21. Specific nerves extending from the body would be classified at the ___________ level of neural organization when examining them uniquely. A. cellular *B. tissue C. organ D. system % Correct: 39 This question referenced the hierarchy of research that we can utilize when attempting to explain human behavior. Since nerves and nuclei are the terms we use for collections of cells that combine to make up our structures and organs in the nervous system, these cells are placed in the tissue level of neural organization— right between the cellular and organ level. 22. Brent has learned to pair the shaking of the ground on his street to inevitable loud shrill screech of a train that is about to pass by and force him to cringe. As a result of this, Brent has started cringing right after the ground begins to shake. Behaviorists would call this reaction to the ground shaking A. an unconditioned response. B. an unconditioned stimulus. C. a conditioned stimulus. *D. a conditioned response. % Correct: 89 This was a question that referenced the topic of classical conditioning—a concept conceived by the famous behaviorist Ivan Pavlov. Since we are looking at a new response that is evoked after a learned pairing of one stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) with another stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) in this situation, we call this new response the conditioned response. 23. The behaviorist linked to the topic of and terminology related to operant conditioning was *A. BF Skinner. B. Ivan Pavlov. C. Edward Thorndike. D. John Watson. % Correct: 45 Ouch! Though this question didn’t fall below threshold, this was a surprisingly difficult question. There’s an entire section AND lecture that details the operant conditioning research of the famous behaviorist BF Skinner. Be sure to memorize this name when studying for your GREs and other knowledge based exams. He’s up there on the top of the list of big names in psychology that students who took the class should be able to identify. 24. The cerebral cortex is often divvied up by researchers examining it by its _____ lobes and _____ hemispheres. A. 8; 2 *B. 4; 2 C. 3; 3 D. 12; 4 % Correct: 96 Apparently this question was too easy. We do indeed have four lobes in our cerebral cortex; the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. And we do indeed have two hemispheres to our cerebral cortex; the left and right. 25. Timothy just found out that he has an IQ of 95. Which of the following facts is true about this IQ score? A. Timothy has an IQ that is just a little higher than the average person. B. Timothy’s IQ score is just below the top 95th percentile. C. Timothy’s IQ score is actually above the 95th percentile. *D. Timothy is performed slightly below average on the intelligence test. % Correct: 74 The average score that is universally assigned to each IQ test is 100. Timothy’s score of 95 is less than 100. This would indicate that his intelligence level indicated in the test is slightly below the average. He isn’t significantly below the average, in fact, he’s somewhere around the 40th to 45th percentile. But he is below average. 26. According to the first theory of emotions proposed by James and Lange *A. our emotions are evoked by our physiological responses. B. our emotions change our physiological responses. C. our physiological responses determine our emotions, while our cognitions determine the strength of those emotions. D. our cognitions determine our emotions, while our physiological responses determine the strength of those emotions. % Correct: 48 Though many theorists and researchers over the years have examined the interaction between our cognitions and bodily reactions when studying emotions, the first researchers to take a stab at this topic were William James and his colleague Lange. They proposed something very intriguing at the time. Namely, that our emotions, which we thought were either separate from the body, or caused the body to change, might actually come from our assessment of our body’s current activities. 27. The six “basic” emotions that we experience were thought to be proven to be “basic” when researchers looked across cultures, species, and ages and found universal A. brain activities. *B. facial expressions. C. words used for specific emotions. D. sounds produced when we experience specific emotions. % Correct: 89 Though people have attempted to explore the topic of “basic” emotions through several mediums in recent years, the first researchers exploring the question of universal emotions looked to the face to see if we all (across cultures, ages, and generations) expressed ourselves similarly when faced with situations that should produce specific emotions. When we found this universal overlap, it was considered strong evidence that maybe some emotions were indeed innate—or “basic”—within us. 28. Experimental psychologists have found that individuals with schizophrenia have _________ levels of the neurotransmitter ________ in their brain. Indicating that this might be related to the symptoms of the disorder. A. increased; serotonin *B. increased; dopamine C. decreased; serotonin D. decreased; dopamine % Correct: 54 Information on this question could be found in the experimental psychopathology lecture and the readings on schizophrenia in the book. In both, it is described how the neurotransmitter dopamine has been strongly linked to the disorder. However, unlike with most disorders where the problems people face result from a lacking concentration of a neurotransmitter, it appears that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia often have extremely elevated levels of dopamine in their nervous system—implying that their neurons using this neurotransmitter are overactive. 29. Researchers examining the impact of the environment and biology on the emergence if different mental disorders and abnormal behaviors are exploring it through what Dr Kihlstrom called the _____________ model of mental disorders. *A. diathesis and stress B. environment and situation C. ebb and flow D. cause and correlation % Correct: 86 This was a terminology check question. Though all other term pairs might look good for this question, people studying this field often use the terms “diathesis and stress” when discussing the interaction between biology and the environment in the development of different disorders. 30. Harry Harlow’s research with spider monkeys, Freud’s instinct theories, and Murray’s needs research all suggest that some motivators might come from A. a need for homeostasis. B. opponent-processes. *C. instinctual drives. D. the two process (A and B) approach. % Correct: 59 Each one of these researchers focused their attention on the topic of motivation, needs, or what could be called, instinctual drives. Harlow studied the need for intimacy, Freud studied the more primal sexual needs, and Murray examined a slew of basic needs (power, affiliation, achievement, etc.) throughout his career. None of the other topics above were examined by the researchers—and D is simply a made up term. 31 Harold is trying to remember his chemistry course information by associating the compounds that he is learning about to different experiences that he had during his childhood. We would link Harold’s attempt to retain this information to the *A. depth of processing effect. B. encoding specificity model. C. rote rehearsal model. D. state dependency model. % Correct: 46 This is a prime example of the depth of processing model—something I strongly suggest that all students take advantage of when studying. State dependency is a type of encoding specificity. Both involve replicating the environment that you were in when you encoded information when attempting to recall that information. Rote rehearsal, a favorite of many struggling students, just involves studying a phrase or definition over and over again until it sticks in your head. The depth of processing model relates tying new information to more tangible ideas and concepts when encoding the information. 32. All things being equal, in which memory test do people perform the best? A. free recall B. cued recall *C. recognition D. savings % Correct: 62 Though each test of memory can be valuable, the recognition test is the easiest tests to take when you have only traces of memories for a topic. This is why almost all students prefer multiple choice exams over fill in the blanks. If the answer is placed in front of you and you have even a weak memory of that answer, you can usually identify it correctly in a recognition test. 33. Researchers supporting the “doctrine of situationism” would most likely be a ____________ psychologist. *A. social B. personality C. clinical D. developmental % Correct: 88 The doctrine of situationism is a philosophical approach to studying human behavior by looking at the surrounding environment of the person committing the behavior. This is what almost all social psychologists are examining in their research. The other group of researchers that are strongly linked to this doctrine are behaviorists—a group that was intentionally left off of the list to avoid any confusion. 34. The bystander effect, a topic explored by social psychologists—which was mentioned in the book and presentations—indicates that A. people often don’t notice individuals that are present in our periphery. B. we are often drawn to help others when we see them in need of aid. *C. we are less likely to have someone come to our aid when we need help and there are multiple people around instead of only a few people. D. people often take joy in the pain and suffering of others, but if they know that person intimately, this feeling cannot be experienced. % Correct: 94 The bystander effect became a topic of great interest after the Kitty Genovese case—a topic covered in detail in the readings. Many researchers have studied this phenomenon over the years, two of the more popular figures being Bibb Latane and John Darley. For most studying the topic, their objective is always the same, to study why the bystander effect—the fact that we are less likely to have someone come to our aid when we need help and there are multiple people around instead of only a few people—occurs. 35. Raven is seeing a therapist that encourages her to explore her own “selves”. Her therapist also tries to create a very welcoming and supportive environment in each therapy session, often just mirroring back what Raven decides to bring up during the therapy session. This type of psychotherapy stems from the *A. humanistic approach. B. psychodynamic approach. C. social cognitive approach. D. behavioral approach. % Correct: 83 Any time a therapist starts discussing the concept of selves, especially when they are extremely welcoming and positive, the knee jerk reaction should be to tie this therapist to the famous psychologist Carl Rogers. Rogers not only used his theory, which he called the humanistic approach, in therapy, but he also used it in his attempts to examine the topic of personality psychology. 36. A person struggling with an aphasia related struggle would be experiencing impairments specifically associated with A. memory. B. emotions. *C. language. D. movement. % Correct: 70 This was a terminology based question. Aphasia is the term used for individuals struggling with some sort of language deficit. These deficits can come in a variety of forms (reading, speaking, comprehending, etc.), but they always have something to do with language impairments. 37. Renee is solving a word problem by going through a set of steps that he has learned to use to always get him to a correct answer—even if it takes him some time. This approach of Renee’s is called a(n) *A. algorithm. B. framing technique. C. heuristic. D. anchoring effect. % Correct: 85 This was a definition based question. When someone approaches a problem with a set of steps that might take a very long time to finish but will ultimately lead to a solution to said problem, we call this approach an algorithm. When there is limited time, or no clear solution, or no clear path to a solution, people use heuristics. Heuristics are tricks that don’t always lead to a correct answer, but can sometimes be of great use. 38. The most common set of traits that personality psychologists study these day are called the “big ___”. A. three *B. five C. seven D. sixteen % Correct: 99 This was apparently too easy. Yes, the most commonly studied set of traits in personality psychology today is the “Big 5”. There are other researchers studying different trait sets, and some that believe that each topic should require us to use a new set of appropriate traits for that situations. However, in academia, when most researchers want to link traits to a specific topic—as was the case in our lectures for this class—we more often than not resort to using the Big 5. 39. Which perceptual cue for depth requires two eyes? *A. retinal disparity B. accommodation C. relative size D. superposition % Correct: 61 This was a test of your knowledge of all of the terms listed above. Accommodation involves measuring depth by accessing the amount of bend that your lens had to do to focus on an object. Relative size involves our use of familiar objects and the size of them when they hit our retina to determine the size of adjacent items. Superposition can allow us to determine size—but more often proximity—by using the object that occludes another object to guess that the blocked object is further than the blocker. Each of the techniques listed above just require one eye to use. Retinal disparity, our use of the two different images hitting our retina, is the only cue that requires both of our eyes to use in order to determine depth. 40. In his very famous line study, the social psychologist Solomon Asch was able to show A. that people can be convinced to wait in lines for hours if there is enough incentive. B. our emotions aroused can often make the tracing of lines very difficult. C. we often get into lines at grocery stores that will take us longer than others, simply because of who is in front of us. *D. people can incorrectly identify the length of lines, something that should be easy to do, simply because others are doing the same. % Correct: 76 This was an identification question. Asch, one of many researchers to examine the topic of conformity, was able to show that he could get over ¾ of his participants to go with the incorrect line judgment responses of their peers at least once during their line judging sessions—getting them to go with the group 40% of the time overall. You needed to know the design of his study to get this question right. 41. Which statement about observational learning research is FALSE? A. Albert Bandura showed in his Bobo doll experiments that children can learn aggressiveness through observing an adult actor B. Mineka and others showed that fear of snakes can be learned in monkeys when they see another monkey react with fear to a snake C. Many species of animals have now been found to display what is called vicarious learning *D. Almost all forms of observational learning that take place with other species involve basic avoidance reactions (e.g. developing a fear of something) % Correct: 57 This is a research study on vicarious learning identification question. Answers A, B, and C all detailed either individual studies or collections of studies that have examined the topic. The one topic listed above that has not been discovered through research is answer D. Indeed, several studies discussed in class did involve learning avoidance from other animals, but there were many others mentioned in the book and presentations that had nothing to do with developing a fear through vicarious learning. 42. Biological sex in humans is determined by A. a combination of genes and the environment. B. a mother’s environment within her would during the first week of gestation. C. a combination of genes in chromosomes throughout the body. *D. genes located on the 23rd chromosome. % Correct: 89 The class did very well on all of the sex and biology based questions. Indeed, our 23rd chromosome pair determines our sex. There is no evidence that our environment in-utero or out of it has any impact on our biological sex. Gender, the sexual group that we identify as, is a completely different story. 43. Projective tests like the Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Test are all attempting to get at _________ motives of an individual. A. repressed B. explicit *C. implicit D. counter-attitudinal % Correct: 90 The Rorschach, where people are asked to report what they see in ambiguous ink stains, and the TAT, where people are asked to come up with stories for ambiguous photographs of individuals, both are designed to test implicit motives of a person. The Rorschach has admittedly been used to detect other things over the year, but the TAT is used only for implicit motives. There is a lot of controversy surrounding whether or not these devices are really measuring anything. 44. In the lectures, it was discussed how cases of Aphasia, Korsakoff’s syndrome, and Alzheimer’s disease all indicate that some abnormal behavior and cognitions can come from and be labelled as *A. organic brain syndromes. B. neuroses. C. personality disorders. D. developmental disorders. % Correct: 70 These are all indeed examples of organic brain syndromes. Losses in functioning that are a direct result of the degeneration of the brain. They do not qualify as developmental disorders because they are not present at or near birth. Some might produce symptoms that would be called neuroses, but the list of malfunctions are not labelled as such on their own. 45. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are defined specifically as those that *A. the person with schizophrenia possesses/displays that are NOT typical in most individuals. B. the person with schizophrenia is NOT possessing/displaying that ARE typical in most individuals. C. are impacting the person’s life in a NEGATIVE manner. D. are impacting the person’s life in a POSITIVE manner. % Correct: 73 This was a definition based question. Though positive symptoms of schizophrenia seem like they would be things that a person with schizophrenia still is doing well, they actually are defined as things that the person with schizophrenia possesses/displays that are NOT typical in most individuals. 46. On the list of complaints about the use of drugs to treat disorders, which of the following was NOT discussed in the book and lecture? *A. there is a lack of evidence that drugs help impact most symptoms B. lack of specificity (one drug is often used for many disorders) C. side effects that sometimes can result from many of the drugs used D. drugs almost never cure the mental illness % Correct: 46 This was admittedly a difficult list identification question. That being said, this was a really big point that Dr Kihlstrom was trying to get across in the clinical psychology lectures. There is indeed issues with drugs being used as a panacea for numerous symptoms. There are also side effects issues, and the major concern is that even though drugs have shown to reduce symptoms of different disorders, there is little to no research that any drug can help “cure” a mental illness. The only answer that is not true is answer A. Though there are many concerns about drugs used to treat disorders, there is no denying the fact that they can have an effect. 47. The first doctrine of specific nerve energies proposed that all of our senses are experienced as a result of *A. the stimulation of sensory organs and their connected sensory nerves. B. the properties of the proximal stimulus in the environment. C. areas of the brain that are active when sensation occurs. D. the person’s expectations of the properties of the stimuli that the body encounters. % Correct: 61 This was one of the first doctrines used to attempt to explain where our experience of sensations comes from. Eventually, this theory was replaced by one that contends that our experience of sensations came directly from the actions in our brain. However, in the early years when people were exploring this topic through more philosophy than research, the doctrine of specific nerve energies was very popular. It suggested that our entire experience of our sensations come from the cells located on our sensory organs. 48. Walter Mischel’s famous delay of gratification studies involved *A. children attempting to resist the temptation of a marshmallow so they could earn a second one. B. college students avoiding the temptation to cheat on an exam that he intentionally made difficult to accomplish without cheating. C. children being placed in a room that had toys that they were told not to play with. D. infant monkeys that were given the option of a bottle or a cloth that they could play with. % Correct: 89 In this question, you just had to identify what Walter Michel’s famous delay of gratification studies— something mentioned a few times in the lectures and the book—examined. Though he did eventually study delay of gratification skills in a number of forms, his original study examined the variations in how easily children could resist the temptation of a marshmallow. He also examined the different competencies that they displayed in their attempts to resist the temptation. 49. Kim is a researcher studying the human genome and creativity. Based on this information, we could assume that Kim most likely is taking the _________ perspective when studying her topic of creativity. A. humanistic B. comprehensive *C. nature D. nurture % Correct: 93 Anyone developmental psychologist studying genes is looking at biology’s role in the development or presence of different characteristics. We use the term “nature” to describe biology’s role in the development or presence of different characteristics. 50. The constructivist view of perception is linked to which of the following terms/concepts? *A. top-down processing B. bottom-up processing C. interactive processing D. the ecological view of perception % Correct: 26 This question related to the cognition topic. It required knowledge of the difference between the constructivist and the ecological views of perception. It also required knowledge of the difference between top down and bottom up processing. Apparently this was not clear enough in the lecture or the question connected things that too many people didn’t connect when studying. Either way, everyone ended up getting credit for this question based on the low success rate.