AP psychology test Flashcards

Julie is interested in developing a test to measure achievement levels of middle school students. Which of the following domains of psychology is most applicable to Julie's interest?

a) personality

b) counseling

c) biological

d) industrial-organizational

e) psychometric

Samantha experienced a traumatic brain injury and afterward began to exhibit bizarre symptoms that no one had ever documented before. The best research method to study Samantha would be

a) an experiment

b) a correlational study

c) a case study

d) a survey

e) naturalistic observation

A researcher was interested in studying the effects of a new medication on depression. One group received the new medication and another group received a standard medication for depression. The researcher asked participants to answer a series of questions rating their mood levels before and after six weeks of taking the medications. Which of the following is the control condition in this study?

a) the group receiving the new medication

b) the group receiving the standard medication

c) the rating of the participant's mood levels

d) the series of questions

e) the participants

What is the primary advantage of conducting a survey rather than using other types of research methods?

a) surveys can gather information from a diverse representation of and a large number of people

b) surveys can demonstrate cause & effect

c) surveys can provide an in-depth analysis of a unique individual or group

d) surveys collect more descriptive data than other research methods do

e) surveys allow the researcher to control the variables in a study

Dr. Sampson follows the structuralist school of thought. Her techniques would most likely include

a) presenting a participant with an ambiguous stimuli, such as a picture of an older woman looking over the shoulder of a younger woman, and then asking the participant to make up a story about what is going on in the picture

b) asking a participant to describe whatever thoughts come to mind, without censorship

c) presenting a participant with an object, such as a can of soda, and having the subject report his or her perceptions or experience of the can

d) encouraging a client to reevaluate distorted or unhelpful thoughts and work on coping strategies

e) rewarding a student with a sticker every day that the student does not talk in class and with an extra ten minutes of recess after the student accumulates ten sticker

Kara records that the dogs that were trained with her old methods obey her 80 percent of the time and those that were trained with the unique methods obey her 90 percent of the time. Kara concludes that the unique methods work better. Kara can best improve her experimental design by

7, 5, 10, 4, 4

What is the median of the numbers above?

a) 4

b) 5

c) 6

d) 7

e) 10

Which of the following is true of the American Psychological Association?

a) it addresses a number of ethical guidelines for the practice of psychology

b) it determines whether studies that are going to be conducted at an institution are ethical

c) it regulates animal welfare in research

d) it regulates laws about psychological issues

e) it is home to one of the largest medical research centers

Audra is working on a puzzle book and comes across the following figure. The Gestalt law that would affect Audra's perception of the picture above is influenced by the law of

a) closure

b) similarity

c) proximity

d) continuity

e) transference

Deception can be used in research when

a) it is appropriate for what is being studied

b) participants are debriefed before the experiment

c) the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approves it

d) it is more expensive to use other methods

e) the subjects in the experiment are college students

The advantage of an experiment is that it allows a researcher to

a) infer cause and affect

b) test a large number of people

c) see how people behave in their natural environment

d) gain an in-depth knowledge of a person or small group of people

e) find the relationship between two variables

2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16

What is the range of the numbers above?

a) 2

b) 4.98

c) 7.73

d) 8

e) 14

Ms. Li, a principal, is interested in the differences in student behavior between two of the third-grade classrooms at her school. She asks the teachers, Mr. Williams, whose class meets at 9:00, and Ms. Walsh, whose class meets at 1:00, to record over a week the number of times students in their classrooms act out. Mr. Williams' class has 31 students, and Ms. Walsh's class has 32 students. "Acting out" is defined as students speaking without raising their hand or getting out of their seats without being given permission. At the end of the week, Mr. Williams reports that on average, his students acted out 73 times a day, and Ms. Walsh reports that, on average, her students acted out 27 times a day. Ms. Li decides that the students in Ms. Walsh's classroom act out more often than those in Mr. William's class. The results of this study are inconclusive because

a) the sample size is too small to draw valid conclusions

b) the number of students in the classrooms is unequal

c) Ms. Li did not use random assignment

d) Ms. Li did not use random selection

e) the time of day was a confounding variable

When seeking approval to conduct an experiment using participants from her college psychology course, a student researcher should

a) ask her professor

b) request permission from the dean of the department

c) get consent from students' parents

d) apply to the institutional review board at the university

e) apply to the IACUC at the university

The benefit of using inferential statistics is that it allows a researcher to

a) describe the data

b) find the measures of central tendency

c) find the spread of the data

d) make generalizations about a population

e) visualize the raw data

Mr. Gregg wants to help his second-grade students improve their reading skills. He tests the students with 20 reading comprehension questions at the beginning of the year. Every week throughout the year he gives the students 30 minutes of reading comprehension tips. He tests the students at the end of the year with 20 reading comprehension questions that are similar in difficulty to those on the original test. He finds that the students' reading comprehension has increased and concludes that his tips worked. Which of the following describes the most significant problem with Mr. Gregg's study?

a) Mr. Gregg should have had someone else test the children in case he was showing experimenter bias

b) Mr. Gregg should have tested his students every month so he could more accurately track their progress

c) It was unethical of Mr. Gregg to test the children without their parents' consent

d) Mr. Gregg should have used the same test to ensure reliability

e) Mr. Gregg failed to account for changes in the students' maturity

e) Mr. Gregg failed to account for changes in the students' maturity

Dr. Wilson, who

Dr. Rodriguez is interested in finding out if stress levels throughout the year have a relationship with students' grades. The research method she most likely used is

a) a case study

b) a cross-sectional study

c) naturalistic observation

d) en experiment

e) a correlational study

Dr. Wilson, who teaches engineering classes, is interested in learning about how lack of sleep affects performance. What would be the best way to ensure that her findings are generalizable to all the students at her university?

a) randomly assigning half the students in one of her classes she teaches at into a condition where they are told to sleep four hours a night and other half a condition in which they are told to sleep eight hours a night

b) surveying every tenth student listed in the university directory about their sleep habits

c) surveying all students in the classes she teaches

d) studying 40 students over time, from the freshman year through their senior year, to see differences as the students mature

e) asking friends who teach at other universities to collect and share data on their students

Ruth and Debbie are identical twins who were raised by the same family. Vince and Frankie and identical twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families. According to research on the heritability of personality traits, Ruth's and Debbie's personalities are statistically...

a. More likely to be similar to one another than are Vince's and Frankie's personalities

b. Likely to be as similar and dissimilar to one another as are Vince's and Frankie's personalities

c. More likely to be dissimilar to one another than are Vince's and Frankie's personalities

d. Less likely to match on the personality dimensions of agreeableness and extraversion than are Vince and Frankie but not on other personality dimensions

e. Less likely to match on the personality dimensions of openness and neuroticism than are Vince and Frankie but not on other personality dimensions

Johnny often hits his brother event though his brother does not do anything to antagonize him. Johnny's aggression is most likely due to a combination of...

a. his genetic makeup, the fact that aggression can be evolutionary adaptive, and a lack of neuroplasticity

b. developmental delays, the fact that aggression can be evolutionary adaptive, and a lack of neuroplasticity

c. the environment he grew up in, developmental delays, and the fact that aggression can be evolutionary adaptive

d. his genetic makeup, developmental delays, and a lack of neuroplasticity

e. his genetic makeup, the environment he grew up in, and the fact that aggression can be evolutionary adaptive

Madeline has previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She has an identical twin sister, Josephine, and a nonidentical sister, Abigail. Neither of Madeline's sisters have previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder . Which of the following statements is true of Madeline's sisters?

a. Because their sister has been diagnosed, it is likely that both sisters will be diagnosed with major depressive disorder at some point in their lives

b. Neither sister is likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder because it is rare for family members to be diagnosed with the same disorder

c. The sisters are equally likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder in response to a stressful or traumatic event

d. Josephine is less likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder than Abigail in response to a stressful or traumatic event

e. Abigail is less likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder than Josephine in response to a stressful or traumatic event

Which hormone is released when a person is under stress?

a. Progesterone

b. Testosterone

c. Estrogen

d. Oxytocin

e. Cortisol

A person whose body is not producing enough testosterone is most likely to exhibit

a. overly aggressive behavior

b. fatigue

c. memory loss

d. increased hunger

e. increased thirst

The hormone most associated with the fight or flight response is...

a. oxytocin

b. epinephrine

c. testosterone

d. estrogen

e. dopamine

A neuron sends a signal along its...

a. dendrite

b. optic chiasm

c. axon

d. neurotransmitter

e. nucleus

The medulla oblongata is a part of the...

a. cerebellum

b. prefrontal cortex

c. occipital lobe

d. brain stem

e. corpus callosum

The fatty casing that helps speed up the neural transmissions of a neuron is called the...

a. medulla

b. myelin sheath

c. cerebrum

d. soma

e. corpus callosum

Which of the following describes what happens when a neuron sends a signal?

a. The neuron goes from being positively charged to briefly being negatively charged, and finally returns to being positively charged again. The magnitude of the negative charge is fixed regardless of strength of the input signal it receives

b. The neuron goes from being negatively charge to briefly being positively charged, and finally returns to being negatively charged again. The magnitude of the negatively charge is fixed regardless of strength of the input signal it receives

c. The neuron goes from being negatively charged to briefly being positively charged, and finally returns to being negatively charged again. The magnitude of the positive charge varies depending on the strength of the input signal it receives

d. The neuron goes from being positively charged to briefly being negatively charged, and finally returns to being positively charged again. The magnitude of the negative charge varies depending on the strength of the input signal it receives

e. The neuron goes from being negatively charged to being, and then it remains at that level until it fire again. The magnitude of the positive charge varies depending on the strength of the input signal it recterm-10eives

If a body does not have enough potassium, how might that affect neuronal firing?

a. The neurons will fire too easily because there will not be enough negatively charged ions to maintain a negatively charged resting state

b. The neurons will fire too easily because there will not be enough positively charged ions to maintain a positively charged resting state

c. The neuron will struggle to fire because there will not be enough positively charged ions to trigger the firing of the neuron

d. The neurons will struggle to fire because there will not be enough negatively charged ions to trigger the firing of the neuron

e. The neurons will struggle to fire because potassium binds the receptors and inhibits neuronal firing

At a synapse, neurotransmitters released by the sending neuron do which of the following?

a. They combine with neurotransmitters released by the receiving neuron

b. They combine with neurotransmitters released by other sending neurons

c. They pass through channels into the receiving neuron

d. They bind receptors at the receiving neuron, which opens ion channels

e. They bind ions in the synapse, which creates a chemical reaction that causes the receiving neuron to fire

Antagonist function by...

a. mimicking neurotransmitters that bind to neural receptors to cause neural firing

b. blocking receptors to prevent other neurotransmitters from binding to the neural receptors

c. prompting the production of neurotransmitters

d. strengthening the connections between neurons

e. raising the threshold at which the neuron will fire

A drug that is used to treat seizures functions by preventing inhibitory neurotransmitters from returning to the presynaptic neuron. This slows the rate of neurons firing by increasing the amount of the inhibitory neurotransmitter in the synapse. The drug is most likely to be classified as a...

a. GABA reuptake inhibitor (GRI)

b. selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)

c. hallucinogen

d. stimulant

e. beta blocker

What effect do agonists have?

a. They decrease the likelihood that a person will get a good night's sleep.

b. They stimulate the gastric system, leading to increased hunger.

c. They decrease the likelihood that a postsynaptic neuron will fire.

d. They increase the likelihood that a postsynaptic neuron will fire.

e. They lead to a decreased sex drive.

The parietal lobe is most involved in...

a. processing sensory information

b. storing information in long-term memory

c. coordinating complex motor movements

d. regulating emotions

e. triggering the fight-or-flight response

Carl Wernicke discovered the region of the brain that is responsible for...

a. visual perception

b. sense of balance

c. memory consolidation

d. language comprehension

e. language production

Which of the following best describes a major role of the thalamus?

a. It regulates body temperature.

b. It regulates hunger.

c. It regulates the autonomic nervous system.

d. It relays most sensory signals to the cortex.

e. It relays olfactory signals to the cortex.

The phenomenon of declining physiological effects of taking a drug after sustained use is referred to as...

a. endorphin release

b. withdrawal

c. long-term potentiation

d. tolerance

e. a relapse

Michael Gazzaniga is best known for...

a. showing that cats can learn to escape puzzle boxes

b. conditioning Little Albert to be fearful of rats

c. studying attachment styles in children

d. studying false memories

e. studying split-brain patients

The idea that there is a part of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness but still drives a person's thinking and behavior is most directly attributable to...

a. William James

b. Edward Thorndike

c.Margaret Floy Washburn

d. Sigmund Freud

e. Paul Broca

An adult with a healthy sleep cycle is most likely to enter REM sleep

a. immediately after falling asleep

b. after the dream stage is completed

c. after cycling through the NREM sleep stages

d. only as necessary to prevent waking

e. soon after falling asleep and then remain there for the majority of the night

The psychodynamic theory of dreaming would postulate that...

a. time spent dreaming helps with problem solving and creativity

b. people sleep more after they have engaged in strenuous physical activity

c. dreams are the brain's way of making sense of random neural activity

d. dreams fulfill unconscious wishes

e. lions sleep more than deer

Waking up frequently, loud snoring, silent pauses in breathing, and sleepiness during the day are symptoms of...

a. somnambulism

b. sleep apnea

c.narcolepsy

d. circadian rhythm sleep disorders

e. insomnia

Which of the following concepts refers to the diminished sensitivity to a stimulus that occurs due to constant exposure to that stimulus?
A) Perceptual set
B) Difference threshold
C) Absolute threshold
D) Transduction
E) Sensory adaptation

Q2 - Which of the following is the process of detecting environmental stimuli and converting them into signals that can be detected by the nervous system?
A) Perception
B) Sensation
C) Top-down processing
D) Difference threshold
E) False alarm

Q3 - Which of the following is the best definition for absolute threshold?
A) The lowest strength of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time
B) The highest strength of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time
C) The smallest change between two stimuli that a person can detect
D) The largest change between two stimuli that a person can detect
E) The difference between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time

Q4 - Which of the following best illustrates the most predictable effort of schemas on perception?
A) Roberto sees trees that are higher up in a painting as being farther away than lower trees.
B) Lindsey recognizes that her shirt's color has not changed in the dim light, even though the color is less brilliant.
C) Grant has more difficulty recognizing a penguin as a bird than he does a blue jay.
D) Doris sees a shape as a five-pointed star, even though one of the points is blocked from her vision.
E) Erick has more difficulty understanding a speech made by someone with a British accent than by someone with an American accent.

Q5 - Orville is talking with his friends at a cafeteria table when suddenly he is distracted by hearing his name at a neighboring table. Orville's shift of attention most clearly illustrates which psychological concept?
A) Inattentional blindness
B) Gestalt psychology
C) The phi phenomenon
D) The cocktail party phenomenon
E) Stimulus desensitization

Q6 - Helena did not recognize her English teacher when she unexpectedly saw him while traveling in Paris, even though she knew him well back in the classroom. The fact that Helena can recognize her teacher back home more easily than in Paris best demonstrates what concept?
A) Perceptual set
B) Change blindness
C) Synesthesia
D) Functional fixedness
E) Extrasensory perception

Q7 - Which of the following is the correct order of the eye-to-brain pathway of vision?
A) Retina, thalamus, optic nerve, occipital lobe
B) Retina, optic nerve, thalamus, occipital lobe
C) Optic nerve, retina, thalamus, occipital lobe
D) Occipital lobe, retina, optic nerve, thalamus
E) Optic nerve, thalamus, occipital lobe, retina

Q8 - Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the opponent-process theory of color vision?
A) Manuel sees the color yellow when the EE note is played.
B) Conrad can identify specific features in his environment, such as color.
C) Kayla sees afterimages of opposing colors when she stares at a poster for a long time.
D) Randy is able to process many aspects of a visual scene simultaneously.
E) Russell is able to differentiate between dark green and light green.

Q9 - Which of the following scenarios is the best example of synesthesia?
A) Susie sees afterimages of opposing colors when she stares at a poster for a long time because light that stimulates one half of an organized pair of cones inhibits the other half.
B) Kara sees afterimages of opposing colors when she stares at a poster for a long time because the optic nerve sends impulses to the occipital lobe.
C) Manuel sees swirls of color when he hears music because his retina contains three types of color receptors.
D) Anastasia sees swirls of color when she hears music because stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to the experience of another sensation.
E) Rufus sees swirls of color when he hears music because only his cones are stimulated.

Q10 - Kimmie stood on the sidewalk rather than crossing the street because she saw that the approaching car was quite close to her. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?
A) Gestalt
B) Figure-ground relationship
C) Closure
D) Depth perception
E) Color constancy

Q11 - Which of the following examples best illustrates the concept of interposition?
A) Because the tree was higher than the bush in Jane's field of vision, she perceived the tree as being farther away than the bush.
B) Because Miranda stared at the burger restaurant sign as she drove by it, the restaurant behind the sign looked like it was moving backward.
C) Because the chair partially obscured his view of the sofa, Brendan perceived the chair as being closer than the sofa.
D) Because the train tracks had a large angle of convergence, Miko perceived them to go quite far into the distance.
E) Because all of the zucchini she had seen in the past were green, Candice continued to perceive a zucchini held under a black light as green.

Q12 - Bryan perceived a duck instead of other animals when viewing an ambiguous image because he watched a documentary about ducks the previous night. Which of the following best explains why Bryan perceived a duck?
A) Bottom-up processing, because he constructed the image of the duck piece by piece, starting with his sensory receptors.
B) Bottom-up processing, because his perception of the duck was influenced by past experience.
C) Top-down processing, because he constructed the image of the duck piece by piece, starting with his sensory receptors.
D) Top-down processing, because his perception of the duck was influenced by past experience.
E) Color constancy, because his perception of the duck was not affected by different illuminations.

Q13 - Denise has damaged her auditory nerve and now has difficulty understanding what people are saying. Which of the following descriptions explains how that damage impairs her hearing?
A) Sound messages fail to be transmitted directly to the brain.
B) The hair cells fail to vibrate sufficiently to transmit the message.
C) The ear components fail to amplify the sound to render it sufficiently detectable.
D) The brain receives the sound message, but it is unable to process the sound.
E) Sound vibrations are not strong enough to stimulate middle-ear activity.

Q14 - Tracey was in pain from an ear infection, which her doctor said was in her inner ear. Which of the following is the most likely location of the infection?
A) The pinna
B) The cochlea
C) The eardrum
D) The anvil
E) The hammer

Q15 - Marlene had an infection that led to deafness in her left ear. Which of the following will be the most likely impact of losing her hearing in her left ear?
A) She will have trouble locating the source of sounds.
B) She will not be able to hear high pitches.
C) She will show less activity in her left temporal lobe.
D) She will not be able to detect harmony in music.
E) Her hearing overall will improve.

Q16 - In a study on taste, what would researchers need to do to test participants' ability to distinguish umami from similar sensations?
A) Blindfold the participants and ask them to distinguish between the smell of pork and the smell of a lemon.
B) Blindfold the participants and ask them to distinguish between the smell of a rose and the smell of a honeysuckle.
C) Blindfold the participants and ask them to distinguish between the taste of pork broth and the taste of beef broth.
D) Place disks soaked in MSG on the participants' tongues. Then replace those disks with disks that have been soaked in water. Compare the participants' reactions.
E) Place disks soaked in lemon juice on the participants' tongues. Then replace those disks with disks that have been soaked in water. Compare the participants' reactions.

Q17 - Dr. Ramen recruited 100 adults to participate in her study. The taste buds of each participant were measured, and the participants tasted a number of foods. She found there was a relationship between the size of a participant's taste buds and the number of foods that a participant could taste. What research method did Dr. Ramen use, and what was she most likely studying?
A) Correlational; sensitivity to the taste of umami
B) Correlational; the sensitivity of supertasters
C) Correlational; sensitivity to the taste of salt
D) Experimental; sensitivity to the taste of umami
E) Experimental; the sensitivity of supertasters

Q18 - A researcher wants to study the human sense of taste over a life span. The researcher has a group of participants taste foods that are salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami. Which study would best allow the researcher to test the sensation of taste as people age, and what is the likely outcome?
A) The researcher follows the same group of people over the course of 40 years. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds throughout the 40 years. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste diminishes and their number of taste buds decreases.
B) The researcher follows the same group of people over the course of 40 years. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds throughout the 40 years. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste remains the same because as their number of taste buds decreases, each taste bud becomes more sensitive.
C) The researcher tests a group of 50 ten to twenty-five year olds, 50 twenty-six to fifty year olds, and 50 fifty-one to seventy-five year olds at the same time. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds for each group. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste diminishes and their number of taste buds decreases.
D) The researcher tests a group of 50 ten to twenty-five year olds, 50 twenty-six to fifty year olds, and 50 fifty-one to seventy-five year olds. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds for each group. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste remains the same because as their number of taste buds decreases, each taste bud becomes more sensitive.
E) The researcher tests a group of 50 ten to twenty-five year olds, 50 twenty-six to fifty year olds, and 50 fifty-one to seventy-five year olds. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds for each group. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste remains the same because as their number of taste buds increases, each taste bud becomes less sensitive.

Q19 - Human tactile sense is actually a mix of which of the following distinct skin senses?
A) Pressure, warmth, tickle, pain
B) Warmth, cold, wet, dry
C) Pressure, pain, wet, dry
D) Pressure, pain, tickle, wet
E) Pressure, warmth, cold, pain

Q20 - According to the gate control theory of pain, which of the following contains a neurological gate that controls the transmission of pain messages to the brain?
A) Nerve cells
B) Skin tissues
C) The spinal cord
D) Nociceptors
E) Muscles and organs

Q21 - Which of the following anatomical structures is involved in the vestibular sense?
A) Semicircular canals
B) Olfactory bulb
C) Nociceptors
D) Taste buds
E) Retinas

Which of the following is the best example of social learning?
A) Rita is a passenger in her friend's car every day on the way to work. One day her friend is sick so Rita has to drive herself. She is able to navigate with no problem.
B) Jezabeth was scratched by a cat, so now she is afraid of cats.
C) Delilah was mildly shocked when she tried to remove her smoke detector batteries, so now she flinches whenever she has to change the smoke detectors batteries.
D) Sydney starts using the same word choices and vocal inflections as members of the popular group at her school.
E) Jerome gives his dog a treat every time his dog does not jump on guests, and eventually the dog stops jumping on guests even without treats.

Which of the following scenarios most accurately describes biofeedback?
A) Taneesha became sick after eating funnel cake at the fair, so now she gags every time she smells funnel cake.
B) Rune conditioned his dog to salivate to a buzzer. He then paired the buzzer with a light flash, and his dog eventually began to salivate to the light flash.
C) Julie's employer stopped paying her, so she stopped coming to work.
D) Stacy participated in an experiment in which she wore a heart-rate monitor, watched the readout of her heart rate, and received points based on how many beats per minute she reduced her heart rate.
E) Meike stopped giving her dog treats from the dinner table. Eventually, Meike's dog stopped begging. Two months later, the dog started begging again.

Lynda stayed out past her curfew. As a result, her parents revoked her driving privileges. Which of the following statements is true of Lynda's parents?
A) Lynda's parents are using negative reinforcement to decrease her behavior of staying out past curfew.
B) Lynda's parents are using positive reinforcement to decrease her driving behavior.
C) Lynda's parents are using positive punishment to increase her good behavior.
D) Lynda's parents are using negative punishment to decrease her behavior of staying out past curfew.
E) Lynda's parents are using negative reinforcement to increase her driving behavior.

Molly is potty training her daughter, Mia. Every time Mia begins to urinate in her diaper, Molly says the word "bathroom" in the hope that Mia will begin to urinate when she hears this word while sitting on the toilet. Molly's efforts most resemble the studies of
A) B. F. Skinner, who studied operant conditioning.
B) Edward Tolman, who studied latent learning.
C) Sigmund Freud, who studied psychodynamic effect.
D) Ivan Pavlov, who studied classical conditioning.
E) Stanley Milgram, who studied obedience.

Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the acquisition of a fear of snakes?
A) Randolph's brother frequently startled Randolph whenever he approached a snake, which caused Randolph to develop an intense fear of them.
B) Tim used to be afraid of snakes, but after a number of harmless interactions with them, his fear subsided.
C) Faye's fear of snakes went away when she had a few pleasant encounters with them, but after a period of time, the fear returned.
D) Vivian's long-held fear of snakes only applied to ones that were striped.
E) Chester received a painful bite from a snake years ago, and ever since he has feared not only snakes but also worms and caterpillars.

Which of the following statements is true regarding the application of operant conditioning to learning?
A) Punishment is the most effective way to increase good study habits, because students do not want to get punished.
B) Immediately reinforcing correct responses hurts students' ability to learn new material, because they learn new material better when their correct responses are reinforced later.
C) Negative reinforcement decreases student focus, because students do want to get negatively reinforced.
D) Modeling good study habits enhances student learning, because students benefit from observing others' study habits.
E) Immediately reinforcing correct responses enhances student learning, because immediate reinforcement has shown to be most effective with regard to learning.

Which of the following scenarios demonstrates stimulus generalization?
A) Martin's brother screams at him when he starts to pet a cat, and now Martin is terrified of cats.
B) Tabitha used to be afraid of flying on airplanes, but after flying often for work she is no longer afraid of flying.
C) Craig's fear of public speaking went away after he gave a good presentation last semester, but his fear of public speaking has returned during the current semester.
D) Julia is scared of golden retriever dogs but not Chihuahua dogs.
E) Markus was stung by a wasp, and now he is scared of not only wasps but also bees.

Gayle's teacher wants to increase effective study habits in her students by using negative reinforcement. Gayle's teacher would most likely enforce this by
A) removing an unpleasant stimulus
B) removing a pleasant stimulus
C) introducing an unpleasant stimulus
D) introducing a pleasant stimulus
E) rewarding successive approximations of effective study habits

The best example of a biological predisposition to learning is which of the following?
A) After Ted got sick from eating sushi from the deli, he became nauseous whenever he thought of eating sushi.
B) Little Cardi gets in her toy car and imitates the way her mother drives a real car.
C) By using shaping techniques, a researcher can teach a chicken to play tic-tac-toe.
D) Rats can learn to run complex mazes even without food rewards present.
E) After getting kicked by a donkey, Sarah developed a fear of not only donkeys but also horses.

In which scenario does sunblock serve as a conditioned stimulus?
A) Ernesto received a free lifetime supply of sunblock when he won a trivia contest.
B) Sophia broke out in a painful rash when she spread sunscreen on her skin because she is allergic to an ingredient in it.
C) Helen pictures sunblock on her mantle to help her remember to buy some at the store.
D) Lowell feels relaxed when he smells sunblock because it reminds him of his vacations at the beach.
E) Sarah avoids sunblock because people compliment her on her tan when she goes without it.

Sebastian wants to earn an "A" in his biology course but finds it difficult to stay motivated to study every night. His teacher recommends that he surround himself with peers who study regularly to increase his studying behavior. Sebastian's teacher made her recommendation based on the learning concept of
A) acquisition
B) classical conditioning
C) modeling
D) generalization
E) discrimination

Rogelio has a number of health problems and would like to avoid medication as much as possible. He is considering biofeedback as an alternative form of treatment. Biofeedback would most benefit which of Rogelio's health problems?
A) Obesity, because Rogelio can use the cues from biofeedback to control his eating
B) Arthritis, because Rogelio can use the cues from biofeedback to learn to relax
C) Tension headaches, because Rogelio can use the cues from biofeedback to learn to relax
D) Depression, because Rogelio can use the cues from biofeedback to keep him from having depressive thoughts
E) Indigestion, because Rogelio can use the cues from biofeedback to control his indigestion

Short-term memory is best described as

A. memory of how to perform an activity, such as riding a bike
B. memory of facts and general knowledge
C. memory that can hold only a small amount of information
D. memory of specific events
E. memory of a surprising event

Which of the following psychologists is best associated with studying the function of memory?

A. Mary Whiton Calkins
B. Hermann Ebbinghaus
C. Erik Erikson
D. Carl Rogers
E. Carl

Which of the following statements about automatic processing or effortful processing is true?

A. Effortful processing does not require conscious awareness
B. Effortful processing makes other processing more difficult.
C. Automatic processing requires little mental effort.
D. Automatic processing does not improve with practice.
E. Effortful processing is affected by intelligence.

An example of using elaborative encoding to improve memory is

A. Sam remembering which tree is the ginkgo by using the phrase "stinko ginkgo" because the fruit of the ginkgo tree smells bad
B. Trevor remembering to buy milk at the grocery store by putting a note on the refrigerator
C. Emilia remembering a new acquaintance's name by silently repeating the name after learning it
D. Arthur remembering to pick up a cake before leaving work by asking a coworker for a reminder at the end of the workday
E. Diego remembering the meanings of Spanish vocabulary words by creating flash cards and studying them

David was studying some important historical dates for a test. He noticed that the day and month of one of the dates was the same as his own birthday, and he tried to use that fact to help him remember the date for his test. What is David using to enhance his memory?

A. Method of loci
B. Self-reference
C. Retroactive interference
D. Overlearning
E. The recency effect

A teacher asks Yvonne to go to another classroom to get a student whom Yvonne has never met. As she walks, she repeats the student's name to herself over and over to help her remember. Yvonne is boosting her memory by using

A. elaborative rehearsal
B. distributed learning
C. maintenance rehearsal
D. a mnemonic device
E. imagery

Jeanette is curious to see how many numbers she can hold in her mind at once. She asks her friend to test her on lists of random digits to see how many she can remember. Based on what is known about the average limits of short-term memory capacity, what is the most likely number of digits Jeanette will be able to remember?

A. Two
B. Seven
C. Ten
D. Eleven
E. Twelve

The fact that Lori finds herself thinking about dogs and other pets after seeing a cat is evidence that human memory is organized into

A. an association network
B. a hierarchy
C. a mental set
D. a schema
E. mnemonics

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using

A. distributed learning
B. the method of loci
C. maintenance retrieval
D. echoic memory
E. lateral inhibition

Which of the following illustrates the primacy effect?

A. Jason remembers the last two digits of his doctor's phone number but not any other digits.
B. Susam left his grocery list at home and can remember only the first two items on the list.
C. Frederick thinks people are paying attention to him when they actually are not.
D. Paul gets a reward every time he gets on the bus for school on time.
E. When his son Fekru cries because he wants a candy bar, Mr. Debebe gives the boy the candy to stop him from crying.

An example of state-dependent memory is

A. Tommy finding it easier to remember the materials on an exam while taking it because he was sad while studying for the exam
B. Jeremy saying he knew his favorite football team was going to lose all along after they lost the game
C. Josef remembering only the first five linking verbs during his English exam despite studying to remember the entire list
D. Wilda believing she is always sad when it rains despite her being sad sometimes when it is sunny
E. Geoff liking Francine more than when he had met her the first day of class after sitting next to her in class each week

If Jess has a type of amnesia that affects the formation of explicit memories but not implicit ones, which of the following will she be most likely to remember?

A. The date of her last basketball lesson
B. The name of her basketball coach
C. The location of the gym
D. The arm position to throw the ball
E. The rules of the game

Which of the following describes the concept of schema?

A. Gustav uses the method of loci to study for all of his classes.
B. Marsha thinks the waiter asked her whether she wanted water even though he did not, because she thinks waiters ask patrons whether they want water.
C. Tracy grouped the information she needed to learn into categories that made sense to her.
D. Kevin thinks David is not motivated because he showed up late for a meeting, but actually a traffic jam made David late.
E. Naman makes up a story about the information he has to learn to help him remember the information.

An example of a failure of source monitoring is

A. Amir telling Jorge the same story Jorge told him earlier in the week, because Amir forgot Jorge already told him the story
B. Katie being unable to recall the information for her English exam while feeling anxious when taking it, because she was feeling sad when she studied for the exam
C. Jose forgetting the information he learned in class because he took his final in a different room
D. Hanson confusing his old locker combination numbers with his new locker combination numbers
E. James confusing his new address with his old address

Which of the following is most likely to be a false memory?

A. A young child's memory of a day at the beach
B. A high school student's memory of the prom
C. A person's memory of going to a restaurant after college graduation
D. A job applicant's memory of the clothes the applicant wore to an interview
E. A couple's memory of their first dance at their wedding

Consolidation can be described as the process of

A. long-term memories being formed from short-term memories
B. the body trying to keep itself in a set state of being
C. new information becoming integrated with previous knowledge
D. determining where information is coming from
E. retrieving information from long-term memory

Explicit memories are

A. retrieved from the amygdala
B. created in the thalamus
C. retrieved from the cerebellum
D. created in the hippocampus
E. stored in the basal ganglia

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?

A. Erik and Harry don't like each other when they are first assigned to the same a room during a class trip, but after spending a great deal of time together, they begin to like each other more.
B. When Sruthi first enters a dark room after coming in from outside, she can't see anything, but her eyes adjust after a few minutes.
C. At first, Benjamin needs to drink only a small amount of a caffeinated beverage to feel its effects, but after drinking it regularly for a while, he needs more to feel the same effects.
D. Alan wants to stop studying to go to a party but stops himself by thinking about his future career.
E. The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly

A logical, systematic procedure for solving a problem is known as

A. an algorithm
B. an action potential
C. an analogy
D. a conditioned reflex
E. a heuristic

A mental set is

A. an established way of thinking about or perceiving something
B. a link between two memories in which recall of one prompts recall of the other
C. a strategy in which items are grouped to make them easier to remember
D. a type of learning that happens suddenly during a critical phase of development
E. an ability of the mind to retain information over time

An example of divergent thinking is

A. Reagan brainstorming as many uses of a toothpick as possible in a two-minute period
B. Sharon picking her favorite restaurant from a list
C. Martin drawing a picture of a bicycle from memory
D. Eleni studying for a spelling test by rehearsing the words and their spellings multiple times
E. Dmitry using a map to determine the fastest driving route

John went to the beach for vacation shortly after having watched a documentary film about shark attacks. Overestimating the possibility of encountering a shark in the water, he decided to spend the day sunbathing and reading instead of going for a swim. John's reasoning can be explained through

A. the availability heuristic
B. the gambler's fallacy
C. source monitoring
D. confirmation bias
E. counterfactual thinking

For a person planning to hold a party outside, an example of the predictable-world bias would be

A. hoping the weather will be nice this year
B. believing that nice weather is due this year because it rained a lot the last three years
C. believing the party will be fun outside regardless of the weather
D. remembering only past parties with good weather, not those with bad weather
E. believing the weather can be controlled if one wishes hard enough

Patrick believes his basketball coach doesn't like him and subsequently focuses on all the times the coach criticizes his playing and ignores all the times the coach praises his performance. Patrick's behavior is best explained by the concept of

A. the Flynn effect
B. confirmation bias
C. retroactive interference
D. groupthink
E. overregularization

Keisha performs well in her geometry course in school, and her classmates often ask her for help with understanding word problems and writing formal proofs. Her friends describe her as very rational and analytical. According to Howard Gardner, which type of intelligence is Keisha most likely to possess?

A. Logical-mathematical
B. Bodily-kinesthetic
C. Interpersonal
D. Intrapersonal
E. Verbal-linguistic