Psychology Exam 2 Study Guide – Flashcards
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Abel and Junko are both artists, but Abel works in a theater while Junko paints and draws. When working with color, Abel uses light and Junko uses pigment. Abel's art relies on __________ and Junko's on __________.
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additive color mixing; subtractive color mixing
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When Marla first moved to New York City, she could hardly sleep because of all the noise coming from the nearby street. After a month or two, she stopped noticing these noises, and now she feels like she would have a hard time sleeping in a quiet country village. What explains this change?
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sensory adaptation
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Professor Atlas has a dull ache in his lower back, probably from hunching over his philosophy books for the past several weeks. Which nerve fibers are carrying the pain information to his brain?
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Slow fibers
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Howard loves everything about movies, including movie history. He knows that many of the tricks used in special effects have their origins in the research of Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, who conducted experiments on
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stroboscopic motion.
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Moira hardly believed Professor Jaeger when he told her that we all have a blind spot in each visual field. The professor explained that blind spots exist because
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no rods or cones exist on the spot where the optic nerve attaches to the retina
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Basic visual information including orientation, size, and movement of objects is housed in which part of the brain?
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primary visual cortex
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Kristina wants to paint the living room a bright blue. Maya prefers the dark blue paint. In other words, they disagree about the __________ of the light reflecting from the two colors.
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amplitude
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Japhet knows that while rods are spread throughout the retina, cones are concentrated around the fovea. From this knowledge, what might Japhet infer?
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Color is easier to see in the center of the visual field.
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Chris loves this song, because it starts off at a low pitch, but then the lead singer finishes the song at a higher octave. In other words, Chris likes the way the __________ changes over the course of the song.
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frequency
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The start gun goes off to signal the beginning of the race. Before the runners can interpret the meaning of the noise, however, their sensory receptors must translate the sound waves into neural signals the brain can understand in a process called
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transduction
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When our assignment of __________ to an image is ambiguous, we can shift back and forth between seeing two different images in one picture-what we thought was part of the background can also shift to look like the most important part of the picture.
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figure and ground
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Although she and her roommate have the same exact ringtone, Lakisa can always tell when the ringing phone is coming from her side of the room. She can do this because of the difference in time the sound takes to reach her left versus her right ear, and also because the sound reaching the ear closest to the phone is
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more intense
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When Lydia eats her favorite ice cream, taste receptors convert the chemical molecules into signals transmitted to the brain by the __________ in the process of __________.
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facial nerve; transduction
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Jess is skating in a roller derby bout. A referee blows her whistle to signal the end of the jam. In a process called perception,
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Jess's brain processes the signals and constructs a representation of the whistle, which means "stop skating."
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Chef Louise knows that both smell and taste contribute to the experience of
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flavor
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When we detect physical stimuli, such as odors, light, and sound, we call this
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perception
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The myelinated axons of which nerves carry pain information to the brain?
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fast fibers
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Carlos accidentally added an extra tablespoon of sugar into a cake batter. This probably won't matter much, although the same tablespoon of sugar would be noticeable if he put it in his cup of tea. What explains this difference?
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Weber's law
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Every taste experience is composed of a mixture of five basic qualities: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and
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umami
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Which of these is/are located in the cochlea?
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hair cells
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As Fatima gazes out onto the mountain landscape, she is able to tell what is near to her and what is far away by using both __________ cues, like occlusion, relative size, and linear perspective, and __________ cues, like disparity.
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monocular; binocular
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Merlin is getting older and losing his ability to hear. Luckily, his pet owl not only hears well but also can use cues to locate where a sound came from. The owl is able to do this because
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sounds reach the closest ear first, and this small timing difference gives away the location.
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Celeste's new hobby is slacklining, or walking on low ropes loosely strung a few feet off the ground between two trees or poles. To avoid falling, Celeste relies on her __________ sense to maintain balance.
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vestibular
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Jesse has an infection in his middle ear, and through this, he is experiencing firsthand the role that the middle ear plays in hearing. The structures of the middle ear primarily serve which purpose?
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to amplify sound vibrations
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Kaitlyn has three favorite perfumes. One is floral, one is musky, and one has a citrus smell. What is the most likely explanation for how the receptors in her olfactory epithelium transduce these smells for interpretation by the brain?
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A unique pattern of several receptors is stimulated by each perfume, and this pattern is interpreted by the brain.
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The Gestalt psychologists identified several principles that explain how visual grouping works. Which of the following was not one of them?
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opponent-process
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In addition to pain receptors, there are five types of __________ at the base of hair follicles and throughout the skin.
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pressure receptors
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Brenda is a sales clerk restocking sweaters on shelves. Because it is winter, the sweaters are not on sale and are marked at full price. However, Brenda places the entire inventory of sweaters on the "half-off" shelves. In signal detection theory, this would be considered a
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miss
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Lorraine just got a new puppy, and she wants to train it to go through the flap in the back door. Every third time the puppy goes through the flap, Lorraine gives him a doggie treat. Lorraine is using a __________ schedule of reinforcement to train the puppy.
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fixed ratio
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Fred's sister just got a cat. Fred is allergic to the cat, and whenever it gets near him, Fred sneezes. Fred's sister puts a collar with a bell on the cat, so Fred will know when it is nearby. Soon, whenever Fred hears the bell, even from far away, his nose begins to itch. In this situation, Fred has experienced classical conditioning, where the unconditioned response is the
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sneezing
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Poor baby Ezra was born with a very specific type of brain damage: he has no mirror neurons in his brain. The lack of mirror neurons will most likely affect Ezra's ability to learn through
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observation
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In a study on the biological bases of learning, lab rat A is given a drug that blocks dopamine activity in its brain. Thereafter, the rat is placed in an operant chamber where a lever-pressing task is shaped through positive reinforcement. We should expect that:
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the rat will have more difficulty learning the task than a normal rat.
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On the first day of Jake's summer job at the fish market, he was so overwhelmed by the smell that he was concerned about being able to stay on. What form of non-associative learning would lead us to predict that Jake will not have to quit due to the smell?
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habituation
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After a large balloon burst loudly and suddenly at her birthday party, Cindy showed a fear of balloons. In terms of the acquisition phase of classical conditioning, the balloon is the ____ and her fear of balloons is the ____.
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CS; CR
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Doris works in a factory where she is paid $10 for every toy she assembles. Given that she is on a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement, which pattern of behavior can we generally expect from her?
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She would likely be more productive than someone paid by the hour.
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After getting a bad sunburn, before heading out for a day at the beach, Stanley slathers on sunscreen to avoid getting sunburned. In this case, Stanley's use of sunscreen has likely been acquired by way of ____________.
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negative reinforcement
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Gustavo watched a cooking show on television demonstrating how to make chicken Parmesan. Even though he has never made chicken Parmesan, he explains to a friend how to make it. Gustavo's knowledge of cooking chicken Parmesan is best explained by
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observational learning
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Dave observed that after returning from the vet, whenever he took his dog Smooches near his car, she began to shake and whine. Which of the following types of learned response was Smooches exhibiting?
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classical conditioning
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Bri is a new student at a community college. This term, she has classes in the A Wing, C Wing, and D Wing, but not in the B Wing. However, she has to walk through the B Wing all the time to get to her classes. Next term, Bri has a class in the B Wing, and she knows exactly where the room is, which is best explained by
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a cognitive map
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It is generally considered to be a bad idea to text while driving. A bit of knowledge such as this that can be passed from one person to another is known as a __________.
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meme
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During the winter Olympics, a skier had a terrible fall. The observers all cringed. It was as if they had fallen themselves and were able to feel the pain of the fallen athlete. According to the biological basis of observational learning, the action of ______________ might underpin the observers' behavior.
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mirror neurons
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The concept of biological ______________ can partially explain why 2-year-old Jason quickly acquired a fear of fire and did not show any fear of his mother's shoes.
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prepardness
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After she gets a speeding ticket, Susan's parents take her driver's license away for a month. This is an example of ____________.
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negative punishment
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A sudden puff of air in his left eye caused Bill to blink. In terms of classical conditioning, the air puff was a/an ______________ and the blink was a/an ______________.
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US;UR
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Teenager #1 returned home late from a date and his parents grounded him for a month. Teenager #2 also arrived home late, but his parents told him that if he is home on time on subsequent dates, he will get an increase in his allowance. Which teen should we expect to be on time on later dates?
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Teen #2
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A 5-year-old observes his father yelling at his older brother, who dropped and broke his dinner plate while removing it from the table. Thereafter, due to ______________, the 5-year-old is very cautious when removing his own plate.
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vicarious conditioning
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A child has learned to avoid his father in the morning because his father is always grouchy at that time. Generally, being able to learn what stimuli predict pleasure or pain is consistent with Pavlov's belief that ______________.
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conditioning is how we adapt to our environments
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After struggling with a complex math problem, Stacey takes a short break. While making herself a cup of tea, she suddenly comes up with a solution. "Aha!" moments such as this are a form of ______________ learning that occurs in the apparent absence of reinforcement.
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insight
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When Ibrahim was six years old, he became terrified when the family's parrot flew at him and bit him on the nose. Since then, he's been afraid of all birds. Ibrahim's bird phobia illustrates the classical conditioning process of ______________.
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generalization
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Seven-year-old Michelle used to use her mother's perfume all the time, but Michelle's mother would yell at her when she found out. Based on these experiences, Michelle has learned to not use the perfume. Michelle's learning is most likely the result of __________ in the brain.
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long-term potentiation
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Employing a process known as ______________, when Brice was first training his dog to do a "high five" he gave it a treat for any behavior, such as lifting its paw, that approximated the desired end-goal behavior of a "high five."
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shaping
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Thomas is a 10 year old in treatment for his phobia of dogs. His therapist gives Thomas his favorite treats whenever he can be near a dog without crying. Now Thomas can be in the same room with a dog without being afraid. The therapist successfully treated Thomas's phobia through the use of
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counterconditioning
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Your younger daughter watches your older daughter mow the lawn. Later, your younger daughter attempts to mow the lawn. According to the principles of ______________, your older daughter has acted as a ______________.
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observational learning; model
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Anya was taking some medicine that upset her stomach. Later that day, when she drank orange juice, she became violently ill. Since then, Anya feels sick to her stomach if she even thinks about orange juice. One day when Anya is out with friends, the waitress puts a glass of grapefruit juice near her. Anya immediately feels sick to her stomach. Anya's nausea to the grapefruit juice is most likely the result of
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stimulus generalization
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Maurice is taking a class in which he is tested every two weeks. He decides to "cram" for the first test and receives a poor grade. According to the "Law of Effect," the probability of Maurice cramming before the second test has likely been ______________.
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reduced
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Your parents want to teach your little brother to stop whining. Your mother proposes taking away his toys whenever he whines. In this example, your mother wants to use __________ to reduce your brother's whining.
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negative punishment
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When she was little, Melanie ate corn nuts right before riding a roller coaster. The ride made her motion sick, and she threw up. Since then, Melanie has never wanted to eat corn nuts, even though the corn nuts did not cause her to be sick. Which type of implicit memory is at play?
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classical conditioning
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Sandy has a huge crush on Casey. When he is nearby, Sandy doesn't pay attention to anything or anyone else. Psychologist Donald Broadbent explained that we selectively attend to the most important information in this model he developed.
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filter theory
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After Suzi's purse got stolen, the police asked her to look at mug shots to try to identify the perpetrator. After looking at several images, Suzi felt that they became blurred together in her mind-she no longer felt confident that she would be able to identify the man who stole her purse. In fact, she could no longer recall whether he had a moustache or not. The suggestibility of memory raises serious questions about using __________ for courtroom evidence.
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eyewitness testimony
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Mrs. Nieto always takes the time to make lessons meaningful for her students. She doesn't ask them to memorize lists of information without giving her students background and context for each item. She is hoping that _______ encoding based on semantics will allow her students to remember the information better in the future.
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deep
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Krista's best friend has a huge crush on a guy in their physics class. When Krista hears he is now single, she immediately tells her friend. A few days later, though, her friend tells her the same news-as if she hadn't heard it from Krista in the first place! What type of distortion error has Krista's friend made?
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misattribution
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Joaquin worked really hard to write his first history paper. He went to the library and took thorough notes about everything he read. But he mistakenly thought that some of his notes represented his own original ideas rather than those of other scholars, so without realizing it, Joaquin plagiarized the work of others by making a source attribution error called
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cryptomnesia
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Having limited _______ helps us to function in the world, because otherwise, we would be swamped with irrelevant information.
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attention
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According to this type of theory, seeing a hammer might also partially activate memories for related items, such as nails, screwdrivers, and wrenches.
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spreading activation models
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Vikranth takes pride in being able to memorize long strings of letters very quickly. His trick is to see each group of letters as the initials of people he knows. That way, instead of remembering 20 letters, he only has to remember a group of seven friends. What is the name for Vikranth's technique?
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chunking
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Patient J.B. suffered an injury and now has memory problems. He remembers his childhood, past events, and knowledge he has previously learned, but he does not form new explicit memories. Luckily, he can still learn new implicit tasks. What disorder does J.B. have?
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anterograde amnesia
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Mindy had watched her favorite movie nearly a dozen times before she noticed that, in one scene, the color of the leading lady's cardigan changes abruptly. Mindy could hardly believe she had never noticed this in the past, but this phenomenon is known as which of the following?
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change blindness
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You go to the hospital to visit Patient N.L., who has had memory problems following a sports injury three weeks ago. Patient N.L. recognizes his team of doctors, is able to speak, and is able to remember who has visited him that day, but he did not recognize his girlfriend or parents, and he did not remember where he lived or went to school. You're not surprised to learn that he has been diagnosed with
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retrograde amnesia
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Marie kept trying to recall the name of the new movie she wanted to see. Although she'd seen the preview several times, she kept blanking on the title. Which type of forgetting was she experiencing?
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tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
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Once Neal left home for college, he found that the street names of his childhood neighborhood, and even the names of his old classmates, became difficult to recall. What type of forgetting has affected Neal?
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retroactive interference
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Kendra is studying abroad, and realizes that, compared to the local students she has befriended, she sometimes remembers events differently. Perhaps her preexisting _______ are affecting the way she encodes experiences.
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schemas
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After the room went dark, John had a mental image of what everything looked like. But as soon as he tried to recall one specific detail, everything else faded. John was experiencing this type of memory store.
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sensory
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Phyllis hardly remembers any Italian now that she is studying French. Which of the following is this a case of?
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retroactive interference
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Which of the following is most accurate statement about working memory?
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Items can be maintained in working memory as long as the person continues to pay attention to them.
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Damian noticed that a suspicious car had been circling his neighborhood, so the next time it drove past, he looked at the license plate number. Which type of memory allowed him to repeat the number to himself long enough to find a pen and paper and write it down?
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working memory
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Florian could never remember his locker combination until he realized that the three numbers perfectly match his favorite singer's birthdate. Now he has no problem remembering, thanks to which of the following?
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semantic processing
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Patient B.F. has anterograde amnesia. Which of the following will he be able to do?
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all of the answer options are correct
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Carol seems to remember every detail about every conversation she has. She also remembers what everyone has given her for her birthday for the past several years. Which type of long-term memory is Carol known for?
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episodic
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Little does she know it, but while Ileana is having a great time at camp, making new friends and learning new skills, some of her neural connections are growing stronger-especially in her hippocampus-and new synapses have been constructed. What is the name of this process by which experiences become lasting memories?
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consolidation
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After a frustrating day encountering blank stares from her students, Katie reminds them that listening requires not just hearing but also which of the following?
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attention
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Todd put a tiny light on one spoke of each of his bike wheels. When Todd rides at night, other people see the lights as circles, and not just as a single point, until Todd comes to a stop. Which memory system allows for this visual effect?
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sensory storage
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Alexandra and her best friend had a fight and didn't speak for months. Then Alexandra came across a ticket stub from a concert the two girls attended together, and suddenly she recalled happy memories of times she spent with her friend. She then decided it was time to call her friend and try to make up. How did the ticket stub help Alexandra access these memories?
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It served as a retrieval cue that was encoded with the other happy memories.
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Keisha had a memorable night at a close friend's wedding. Between the beautiful scenery, the touching vows, and the dancing, this wedding was epic. While the memories have already been encoded, these two phases of memory will allow Keisha to remember and talk about this night for years to come.
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storage; retreival
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Recently, researchers have shown that during this process, old memories are susceptible to being changed or even erased.
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reconsolidation
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Demetrius, a 10-year-old, is taking the original Stanford-Binet intelligence test. If he consistently answers questions correctly at the level of a 12-year-old, then according to Wilhelm Stern's original scoring method, Demetrius's intelligence quotient is
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120
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Chuck tells his son Jeff that a triangle is "a three-sided figure with three angles in its interior." Chuck has explained this concept in terms of the
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defining attribute model
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Mr. Wong, a high school teacher, tells his class that he thinks boys tend to be less anxious and thus make better speeches than girls do. The girls in his class become apprehensive when preparing and giving speeches in his class. The girls are experiencing a
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stereotype threat
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Ming's computer crashed suddenly the other day. Ming kept trying the same solution that worked the last few times his computer crashed, even though it did not fix his computer. Ming's failure to solve this problem is most likely due to
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a mental set
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Which barrier to problem solving are you failing to overcome when you continue to push on a door to get to the next room when what you really need to do (according to the sign on the door) is pull on it?
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mental set
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Bliss is hooked on a horror television series about serial killers. Based on the number of programs that she has watched, she decides that she is likely to be victimized by a serial killer and purchases an expensive home security system. Bliss is demonstrating
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the availability heuristic.
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Punit is an excellent trumpeter who plays any new music he is given without errors. Punit most likely has exceptional musical intelligence according to which theory of intelligence?
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multiple intelligences
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Jenny's best friend Doris got a bad case of food poisoning after eating at a Mexican restaurant. For weeks afterward, every time Jenny spent time with her, Doris would go on and on about how awful it was. Now Jenny refuses to touch Mexican food, because she thinks she may get sick too. It appears Jenny has fallen prey to the bias in decision making called
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the availability heuristic.
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The sound of the word "cow" is a(n) __________ for a cow, while the sound of the word "moo" is a(n) __________ for the sound a cow makes.
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symbolic representation; analogical representation
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According to the notion of general intelligence, if Cici is very good at math, how would you expect her to do in other subjects, such as writing?
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She would perform relatively as well in writing as she does in math.
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Sarah and Imani strike up a conversation while sitting next to each other on an airplane. Imani thinks Sarah is very intelligent and knowledgeable. When Sarah tells Imani that she works at an elementary school, Imani assumes that Sarah is a teacher, but Sarah is actually the secretary. Imani used which of the following to form her incorrect conclusion?
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the representativeness heuristic
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Your friend Dave has concluded that the rock band U2 is the greatest band of all time. If you carefully consider the information that would test the validity of this claim, you are engaging in a form of thought called
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reasoning
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Dora scored high on an intelligence test. Further testing will possibly find all of the following except
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short-term attention span
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According to Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences, Boris, who is an accomplished dancer, would likely be higher in __________ intelligence, whereas Amber, a successful computer scientist, would probably score high on __________ intelligence.
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bodily-kinesthetic; mathematical/logical
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Karina loves oranges and apples. Both are __________ for the category of __________.
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exemplars; fruit
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Jason is stuck on a math problem that he can't seem to solve even after going over his computations multiple times. He decides to take a break and come back to it after dinner. While eating, the key to the solution suddenly comes to him. This is called
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an insight
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Kim has an IQ of only 85, but can perform amazing feats of memory, such as memorizing the contents of over nine thousand books. People like Kim, who have low IQs but show extraordinary ability in some intelligent process, are known as
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savants
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Terry was making a multilayered wedding cake. While trying to figure out a way to make the cake so it did not collapse, he remembered a bridge he once saw that had an interesting support system. That bridge gave him an idea of how to put the cake together. Terry solved this problem by
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forming an appropriate analogy.
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During a trip to the north, Rodrigo wrote to Larissa about the first time he saw snow falling. To do so, he pictured it in his mind to recall the experience. When he wrote to her, he used the word "snowfall" for the first time. Rodrigo picturing the snow is an example of a(n) __________ representation. In Rodrigo's letter, the word "snowfall" is a(n) __________ representation.
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analogical; symbolic
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Jasmine is very good at identifying and understanding the emotions of others. These skills make her very good at her job as a therapist. Jasmine is probably high in which kind of intelligence?
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emotional
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Coleman is currently 30 years old. He took the WAIS and was told that his score was 110. If the test is __________, when Coleman retakes the same intelligence test again at age 50, his score will likely still be 110.
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reliable
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Butch was recently rear-ended by a woman in a parking lot. Later his best friend tells him that he, too, was recently in an accident in which a woman driver was at fault. Based on these experiences, Butch develops a __________ about female drivers that includes the belief that __________.
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stereotype; all women are bad drivers
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Coleman has an IQ of 130 and tends to do very well in school. This suggests that which of the following is true about IQ tests as measures of intelligence?
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IQ tests are valid.
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Charles Spearman viewed intelligence as having one underlying factor that he called which kind of intelligence?
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general
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Lewis completes a test that assesses his current skills and knowledge. Alice completes a test that assesses her ability to learn in the future. In these examples, Lewis has probably completed an __________ test and Alice has completed an __________ test.
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achievement; aptitude
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Courtney is a highly intelligent person and also a successful attorney. She is thankful that both of her parents not only had very high IQs but also gave her an experience-filled and educationally rich childhood. Generally speaking, Courtney's high intelligence can be attributed to the
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contributions of nature and nurture
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When Kathy thinks of a lemon and imagines biting one, her mouth begins to water. In this example, the picture of the lemon in her mind is an example of a(n) __________ representation.
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analogical
