question

Dr. Vargas can remember hundreds of students' names from his twenty-five years of university teaching, but has difficulty remembering the new three digit area code for his home phone number. This is one illustration of

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the paradox of memory

question

Evidence regarding facial expression in different cultures suggests that

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facial expressions are to some extent innate.

question

Pam just set her best friend Olivia up on a blind date with her brother. According to the two-factor theory, what might she do to enhance the likelihood that Olivia will find her brother desireable?

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Give them tickets to a scary movie. Correct. A scary movie will raise the general level of arousal, increasing the chances of desirability.

question

The research by Lloyd and Margaret Peterson suggests that the duration of short-term memory is about 15 seconds, but some have proposed that it may be as short as 5 seconds. These other theorists have suggested that some of the participants in the Petersons' study were able to silently rehearse the letters they were shown, thus appearing to have a longer short-term memory duration. This alternate explanation for the Petersons' findings demonstrates which principle of critical thinking?

answer

Ruling out rival hypotheses Correct. This attempt to explain the findings from a different perspective demonstrates the principle of ruling out rival hypotheses

question

Which of the following emotions would be most difficult to read from facial expression alone?

answer

Envy

question

Who is most likely to obtain the top score on his or her vocabulary test?

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Ryan, who has drawn a picture to illustrate each word. Correct. Ryan is engaging in elaborative rehearsal, which involves linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way. It generally helps us to improve our retention of information.

question

Demonstrating the phenomenon of ________, Zajonc found that cockroaches will run faster when ________.

answer

social facilitation; other cockroaches are present

question

John and Allison have been married for 10 years. Which of the following is the best description of how the two would likely describe their honeymoon?

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Both would remember the overall experience, but the memory would also include some best guesses about what they did. Correct. We actively reconstruct our memories using the cues and information available to us. Our memories for events are not recorded exactly how the event happened.

question

Val has a crush on Ilene. What is one thing he might do to make himself more desirable?

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Stop by every day to say hello. Correct. The mere exposure effect suggests that repeated exposure to a stimulus (in this case Val) makes us view the stimulus more favorably.

question

Steve just joined a fraternity. He was introduced to 55 new "brothers." If asked to recall all of their names, which ones would he be most likely to struggle with?

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The names of brothers in the middle of the group Correct. We tend to remember information at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) and at the end of a list (recency effect) better than information in the middle.

question

The approximate number of people that each of us knows reasonably well is

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150

question

After presenting groups of research participants words like thread, eye, pin, syringe, sewing, sharp, and thimble, a memory researcher asks the participants whether they remember seeing the word needle. The fact that many participants do is an example of

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memory illusion.

question

The levels-of-processing model proposed by Craik and Lockhart has been criticized because it is really impossible to determine how deeply a memory has been processed, so there is no way to truly and scientifically prove or disprove the theory. This should remind you of which principle of critical thinking noted in your text?

answer

Falsifiability Correct. Remember, in order for a theory to be useful, it must be capable of being disproved.

question

When driving down the highway, Caesar could not help but notice the young-looking teenager who seemed to be driving in a reckless manner. He immediately assumed that he was one of those defiant, careless, and irresponsible teens who really did not deserve a license. Caesar just made a(n)

answer

dispositional attribution. Correct. Caesar is blaming the enduring personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence on the teenager's bad driving habits.

question

The way we each affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others and are, in turn, affected by others is the study of __________.

answer

social psychology

question

According to the research on the primacy effect, if your father read you a list of 10 items to pick up at the hardware store you would most easily recall those items

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from early in the list. Correct. The primacy effects suggest that you will recall information that is presented at the beginning of a list.

question

While driving her children, Adriana's car broke down. She called her husband on the cell phone for the number of a towing company. If the children's behavior prevents her from repeating the number to herself, most likely Adriana will need to dial the phone number within the next __________ or she will forget the number.

answer

15 seconds Correct. Without rehearsal, short-term memory is time limited to 10 or 15 seconds.

question

According to the discrete emotions theory, emotions are ________.

answer

to serve evolutionary functions Correct. Advocates of the discrete emotions theories suggest that each emotion we experience is associated with a set of distinct biological roots and evolutionary functions.

question

Which of the following provides the best explanation for why your history teacher can remember 14 random historic dates, while you can only recall about 7?

answer

Chunking Correct. Chunking material into meaningful units helps us to extend our memory capacity beyond what it would normally be. The history teacher's broad knowledge base of dates and events would help him or her to remember more randomly provided dates than the average person.

question

When asked to recall single-digit numbers presented in various digit span sizes, the typical adult starts to encounter difficulty once they get past approximately ________ digits.

answer

7

question

As he was just learning how to play tennis, Dave did worse when in the presence of others in a phenomenon known as

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social disruption. Correct. His performance worsened

question

Coworkers in one office building noticed a foul odor outside and suspected it might be a terrorist plot using a biochemical weapon. Soon, a number of reporters covered the story and reports of foul odors were popping up everywhere. Despite the mayor and the sewer department stating that a line in the sewer had burst, workers were convinced of the possible attack. This phenomenon is better explained by

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mass hysteria. Correct. This is an example of an outbreak of irrational behavior that spreads.

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After a couple of cars were broken into, neighbors began to believe that there was a crime spree occurring in their neighborhood. In fact, many were reporting minor dings and scratches on their cars to the police, claiming that criminals had tried to break in and steal their cars. The police believed that the original crimes were isolated incidents carried out by teenagers as nothing was stolen. Which of the six principles of scientific thinking does this example best fit?

answer

Occam's Razor Correct. The simplest explanation is often the best.

question

According to the James-Lange theory, the conscious experience of emotion __________ physiological arousal.

answer

A) follows Correct. This theory suggests that physiological arousal precedes our conscious experience of emotional stimulation.

question

One of the key themes in Milgram's paradigm is the ________ the psychological distance between the teacher/participant and the experimenter, the ________ the obedience.

answer

greater; less

question

Zimbardo concluded from his Stanford prison study that prisoners and guards adopted their designated roles more easily than anyone might have imagined because of

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deindividuation. Correct. The prisoners and guards engaged in uncharacteristic behavior.

question

According to the ________, seeing a crocodile in the swamp would lead simultaneously to both the emotion fear and running away at the same time. However, the ________ would suggest that people are afraid because they run away.

answer

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion; James-Lange theory of emotion Correct. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that physiological responses and emotional experiences occur, while the James-Lange proposes interpretations of physiological responses lead to emotional experience.

question

Skip has a big test tomorrow and has studied late into the night. If Skip falls asleep and takes the test first thing in the morning, which of the following would best explain any information he forgets?

answer

Decay Correct. Decay involves information fading from memory.

question

According to the levels-of-processing model, which pair of words should be the easiest to remember?

answer

Clinton - Nixon Correct. Information encoded by meaning is more likely to be remembered than information encoded by appearance or by sound.

question

Which two different terms best describe Schachter and Singer's theory of emotion?

answer

arousal and context Correct. In Schachter and Singer's theory of emotion, first there is arousal, which is followed by contextual labeling.

question

When we attempt to explain the cause of someone's behavior, we are utilizing

answer

attributions.

question

Which facial expression would you be surprised to see your newborn baby exhibit?

answer

smirk Correct. All but the smirk reflect a primary emotion; the smirk would be too complex for a newborn baby.

question

The emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking is called

answer

groupthink.

question

A(n) ________ attribution is made when we blame an individual's behavior on the situation; a(n) ________ attribution is made when we blame the individual's behavior to his or her personality or other personal characteristics.

answer

external; dispositional

question

A key theme that has emerged from the memory research literature is that

answer

active reconstruction of events alters our memory of the important and unimportant events of our lives.

question

People with low self-esteem are prone to conformity; however, ________ are also more likely to conform than ________.

answer

Asians; Americans

question

According to the authors, our memory is most like

answer

melting wax. Correct. Memories can change over time, which is why they are thought of as melting wax rather than hardened metal

question

In the text, the authors discussed the astounding memory capabilities of Rajan. He could recall the digits for the number pi starting from nearly any place in the sequence. His amazing ability is due, in part, to his use of

answer

chunking.

question

According to the __________, repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to increased liking of the stimulus.

answer

mere exposure effect

question

Gianna was coming home from work and could not help but notice the young woman who seemed to be driving in a reckless manner. She immediately wondered if the girl was in an emergency or if something important was going on to make her drive like that. Gianna just made a(n)

answer

internal attribution. Correct. Gianna is appropriately considering the situational influences on one's behavior.

question

The Magic Number of short-term memory is

answer

seven plus or minus two.

question

The overwhelming majority of U.S. prison guards during the Iraqi War did not engage in abuse, so the reasons for such abuse don't lie entirely in the _____________, but in the _____________ of the guards.

answer

situation, disposition Correct. The situation is not the entire story here; the guards themselves may have underlying issues.

question

All of the following conclusions were reached based on the Milgram study EXCEPT

answer

Americans were more likely to obey the experimenter's commands than non-Americans.

question

Ekman's research proposed that there are __________ distinct emotions across cultures.

answer

seven

question

A three-month old baby named Bryan smiles even when he is alone. Scientific research has suggested that his smile should be attributed to ________.

answer

his innate motor programs from birth Correct. The fact that some emotional expressions emerge even without direct reinforcement suggests that they may be by-products of innate motor program.

question

When Jacob's girlfriend and her friends stopped by his house during a basketball game with his friends, Jacob's performance increased slightly due to what Zajonc calls

answer

social facilitation. Correct. His performance was enhanced by the presence of his girlfriend.

question

Which of the following researcher's work was the most influential in shaping our understanding of conformity?

answer

Solomon Asch

question

You get on an elevator. Everyone is facing to the right. You turn and also face to the right. This is an example of

answer

conformity. Correct. You are conforming to the actions of the group.

question

The order of the basic memory processes in which information enters the memory system and is later used is

answer

encoding, storage, and retrieval.

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