Download Review Session for Review Test #1

Review Session
#1
History, Approaches, Methods,
Biological Influences,
Learning, & Cognition
AP Psychology
Andover High School
History & Approaches
Question #1
Research in the area of evolutionary psychology might rely heavily on
research from which of the following psychological schools of thought?
A.Psychoanalytic
B.Humanistic
C.Behavioral
D.Gestalt
E.Biological
E– Evolutionary Psychology necessarily involves discussions of
genetics and how genes are passed from one generation to another.
Biological psychologists are also involved in this area of research.
History & ApproachesQuestion #2
Modern psychologists might criticize Freud’s original
psychoanalytic theory for which of the following?
A. Freud focused on mild to moderate mental illnesses and avoided patients
with potentially serious problems.
B. Psychoanalytic theory did not progress quickly because he experimental
data needed to support the theories relied on slower research methods,
such as longitudinal studies.
C. The issues psychoanalysts focused on were intellectually interesting to
philosophers and theorists but did not have practical applications for real
world problems.
D. Psychoanalytic theories and hypotheses were not falsifiable based on
experimental data.
E. Freud based the theory on extensive biological evidence, which was difficult
for most psychologists to understand.
D. Some of Freud’s ideas about the connection between personality
and human behavior (such as the id, ego, and superego) were
difficult to establish or falsify with empirical data.
History & Approaches
Question #3
Most experimental psychology research in the
1940s through 1960s was based on which
psychological perspective?
A.Structuralism
B.Behaviorism
C.Cognitive Neuroscience
D.Developmental
E.Psychoanalysis
B. Although Freudian psychoanalysis was still relatively common in the
psychological community, it was never commonly used by experimental
psychologists (primarily because Freudian psychoanalysis was never
well-suited to experimental validation). Behaviorist studies, such as
operant conditioning studies involving rats or pigeons performing
behaviors for positive reinforcement, dominated experimental
psychology during this time period.
History & Approaches
Question #4
What was the major difference between Wilhelm
Wundt’s ideas about thinking and behavior and the
thinking of earlier philosophers?
A.Wundt wrote and published his theories in his role as a professor
at a recognized University.
B.Earlier philosophers were almost exclusively concerned with
human behavior, rather than thinking.
C.Wundt’s philosophical technique involved thought experiments
and hypotheses, which contrasted with earlier thinkers.
D.Philosophers before Wundt’s time focused on questions of
morality rather than explanations of thought processes.
E.Wundt gathered empirical data in a laboratory using experimental
methods, and based conclusions on this empirical data.
E. The primary difference between Wundt and the earlier thinkers who
investigated human thought and behavior was that Wundt tried to
establish his theories with empirical evidence gathered in a laboratory
setting.
Methods- Question #5
Dr. Shiffrin theorizes that stress in children can be
caused by excessive levels of homework. If she were to
test this idea, what would be her dependent variable?
A. The age of the students.
B. The teachers the students have.
C. The amount of homework assigned.
D. The schools the students attend.
E. The children’s stress levels.
E – According to the hypothesis, the amount of stress children
experience depends upon how much homework they are assigned;
hence, stress is the dependent variable. The amount of homework
assigned is the independent variable. The age, teachers, and schools
of the students are all extraneous variables that would ideally be
controlled for in an experiment.
Methods- Question #6
If you were interested in getting an inside look at how
teenagers behave when they go to the mall, what would
be the best type of study to use?
A. Lab experiment
B. Naturalistic observation
C. Field experiment
D. Correlational student
E. Content analysis
B – In naturalistic observation, the researcher watches behavior
unobtrusively so as not to influence it thus yielding a picture of the
behavior that is ideally untainted by participant biases. Experiments,
whether they take place in the lab or the field, have many advantages
as do surveys but are typically unable to provide as honest a reflection
of behavior. Content analysis is not used to study behavior.
Methods- Question #7
In Milgram’s obedience study, the dependent
variable was operationally defined by
A. Whether the participant was assigned the role of teacher or learner
B. How many times the participant went along with the incorrect
answers of the group
C. The highest level of shock the participant delivered
D. The participant’s initial level of hostility toward the experimental
confederate
E. The number of times the participant questioned the experimenter’s
directions.
C – The dependent variable in Milgram’s obedience study was
obedience, and it was measured by looking at how far the participant
was willing to go in terms of shocking (remember, there really were no
shocks) a person he/she had never met before just because he was
asked to by the experimenter.
Methods- Question #8
Dimitri invents a new way to assess personality that
involves describing the images one sees in a
carefully selected set of photographs of clouds.
Which type of psychologist is most likely to find such
an assessment useful?
A. Humanistic
B. Cognitive
C. Behavioral
D. Trait
E. Psychoanalytic
E – Dimitri’s cloud test is an example of a projective test. Similar to the
TAT and Rorshach tests, it is likely based on the idea that what
people project onto ambiguous stimuli provide insight into their
personalities.
Methods- Question #9
Correlations are typically graphed using a(n)
A.Scatter Plot
B.Histogram
C.Box and Whiskers plot
D.Frequency Distribution
E.Line graph
A – Correlations are typically graphed using
a scatter plot, where one variable is plotted
on each axis.
Methods- Question #10
Arshia and Alain are assigned to observe a group of nursery school
students to see how they negotiate sharing at the block table. Each
independently codes the behavior of each student and then they compare
their findings to make sure they agree. This process most directly shows a
concern for
A.External validity
B.Generalizability
C.Accuracy
D.Reliablity
E.Internal validity
D – The reason to have the raters compare their ratings is to get a measure
of the extent to which they agree or their inter-rater reliability. Even if the
raters do agree, it is possible that their coding reflects a low level of validity
or accuracy – in other words, they may agree but in fact be measuring
something other than sharing.
Methods- Question #11
Which study would pose the greatest challenge to the ethical
guideline that participation in research be voluntary?
A. A study in which high school participants were offered candy in return for
filling out a survey about cafeteria food.
B. An experiment in which sick, economically disadvantaged residents of
federal housing projects were offered free medication in return for enrolling in
an experimental drug trial.
C. A laboratory experiment in which parents of preschool age children were
asked to play with their children in a controlled environment while researchers
videotaped the interaction.
D. A case study of how a small group of mildly anxious people responded to
cognitive-behavioral therapy.
E. A survey of adults entering a large supermarket about their drug and alcohol
use.
B – Given that sick people need medication and that medication can be very
expensive, the use of free medication as a carrot to tempt people into a drug trial
may be unethical. People who need the medication may not feel free to refuse
enrolling in the drug trial, and being in that drug trial could put them at risk of harm.
Typically, small incentives (like candy) are not considered to pose a threat to
informed consent.
Methods- Question #12
Arvind compared the speed of two groups of rats running through a
maze using a t test. Which p value would allow Arvind to conclude with
the greatest degree of certainty that the groups of rats performed
differently?
A. .01
B. .05
C. .10
D. .50
E. .99
A – p stands for the probability that a result occurred by chance; thus,
the lower the p value, the greater degree of certainty about one’s
results. While .05 is the accepted cutoff for statistically significant
results (a.k.a. results that are unlikely to have occurred due to chance),
a p value of .01 allows even greater certainty that the results reveal an
actual difference between groups.
Methods- Question #13
Cynthia has a group of students take a creativity test. What statistical
measure would be most useful to her if she wants to describe how the
scores in the distribution compare to one another?
A. Mean
B. Mode
C. Range
D. Standard Deviation
E. Median
D - The standard deviation is essentially a measure of the average
distance of all the scores in a distribution from the mean. The range is
also a measure of the variability of scores, but a very rough measure
that merely gives the difference between the highest and lowest value
with no attention given to the other scores in the distribution. The mean,
mode, and median are all measures of central tendency whose values
only yield information about how best to categorize the midpoint of a
distribution and no information about how the scores in the distribution
vary from one another.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #14
A teratogen is most likely to influence the development of which
of the following?
A. Broca’s aphasia
B. Down syndrome
C. Alzheimer’s disease
D. Fetal alcohol syndrome
E. Split-brain patients
D- Fetal alcohol syndrome is the only outcome listed that is likely
to be influenced by a chemical that passes from the mother to a
developing fetus and impacts development (in this case,
alcohol).
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #15
A group of researchers selectively breed a group of rats for
aggression. Which area of the rat’s brains might the researchers
likely focus on when examining the relationship between
aggressive behavior and brain anatomy?
A. Brain stem
B. Amygdala
C. Thalamus
D. Medulla
E. Hippocampus
B – The amygdala controls basic, primal emotions like
aggression, so it is a likely structure for researchers to target for
this kind of research.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #16
Which sentence most accurately describes the process of neural
transmission?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Neural messages jump the synaptic gap using a series of
electrical impulses.
Electricity is generated within the cell, triggering neurotransmitters
to be released into the spaces between cells.
Neurons work in combination with hormones to transmit chemical
signals to the nuclei of neighboring neural cells.
Chemical levels build up within the cell, triggering electrical
transfer between adjacent neurons.
Groups of neurons fire in sequence, creating neurotransmitters
that are sent through the spinal cord to communicate with the rest
of the body.
B - Neural transmission is an electro-chemical process, involving an
electrical charge that travels within a neuron and chemicals that
pass between neurons across synaptic gaps.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #17
Which type of scan would provide a psychiatrist with the
most information about whether a stroke damaged
communication between the left and right hemisphere?
A. PET
B. MRI
C. CAT
D. EEG
E. fMRI
E - In order to investigate communication in the brain, the psychiatrist would
need to use a scan that provides detailed information about which specific brain
areas are active during specific tasks. The fMRI scan is most able to provide this
kind of data.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #18
Antipsychotic drugs most directly impact which of the
following biological systems?
A. Hormonal system via the glands
B. Emotional system via the amygdala
C. Cognitive system via the thalamus
D. Neural system via neurotransmitters
E. Cerebral system via axons
D – Antipsychotic drugs most directly impact emotions, thinking, and
behavior through changing neurotransmitter levels or neurons’ abilities
to absorb and use neurotransmitters.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #19
Wolfgang quickly grabbed his cell phone as it fell
towards the floor. Which part of his nervous system most
directly allowed him to perform this behavior?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Somatic
Limbic
Parasympathetic
Autonomic
Sympathetic
A - The somatic nervous system controls our voluntary, skeletal muscles, and is most
responsible for this kind of voluntary muscle reaction. The other systems involved
may also be activated during this situation, but it is the somatic nervous system that
most directly controls this grabbing behavior.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #20
A person who suffers a stroke and can no longer see objects in
their left field of vision might have suffered damage to which part
of their brain?
A. Left frontal lobe
B. Central fissure
C. Right frontal lobe
D. Right occipital lobe
E. Left occipital lobe
D – Objects in our field of vision are normally detected on the right halves of
our retinas. This visual information is carried via the optic nerve to our right
occipital lobes, so damage in this area might leave us “blind” to objects in our
left field of vision.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #21
Which of the following sentences accurately describes a difference between the
left and right hemispheres?
A. The right hemisphere silences the left hemisphere during creative tasks and
the left hemisphere silences the right hemisphere during logical tasks.
B. The left hemisphere contains the thalamus and the right hemisphere
contains the hypothalamus.
C. The left hemisphere is responsible for spoken language in most people.
D. The right hemisphere is responsible for dream states in most people.
E. The right hemisphere develops early in gestation before the left hemisphere
develops during the third trimester.
C - Few generalizations can be accurately made about differences between the
hemispheres because both hemispheres are normally active during almost all
cognitive tasks. One of the well established differences between the
hemispheres is that the left hemisphere is primarily responsible for spoken
language.
Biological Bases of BehaviorQuestion #22
A drug that acts as an antagonist for acetylcholine would
most likely have what effect?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
An increase in insomnia and daytime fatigue.
Pupil dilation and arousal of the autonomic nervous system.
Interference with muscle control
Neurotransmitter release.
Auditory hallucinations.
C. One of the primary functions of acetylcholine is muscle
movement, so a drug acts as an antagonist for this
neurotransmitter could dramatically impact muscle
control.
Learning- Question #1
Young animals learn many behaviors from watching their mothers and
imitating those behaviors. This kind of learning is known as…
A.Instinctive learning
B.Classical conditioning
C.Instrumental learning
D.Modeling
E.Reproductive conditioning
D– Modeling is another name for observational learning. Modeling
involves exactly what is described in the question- watching another
member of ones species perform a behavior and then attempting to
copy it.
Learning- Question #2
Ali became sick with the stomach flu shortly after eating a
piece of fried eggplant at a party. Since then, Ali has
avoided fried egg plant. What likely explains the rapid
acquisition of this behavior?
A. People have to develop a taste for eggplant
B. Given the current emphasis on healthy food, many people are trying
to reduce their consumption of fried foods.
C. It is easier to develop an aversion to vegetables than to meat
D. People are biologically predisposed to link unfamiliar tastes with
nausea.
E. Because the result of eating the eggplant was unpleasant, it is easy
to learn to avoid it.
D – Research has indicated that people and animals seem predisposed
to link certain types of stimuli with certain kinds of consequences. As
shown by Garcia and Koelling, novel tastes are easily associated
with nausea but not with electric shock while loud noises and
flashes of light are more easily associated with shock than with
nausea.
Learning- Question #3
Alfred’s sister Rosie is very serious when she practices her cello
and often yells at him for interrupting her, which makes Alfred
feel nervous. Alfred has recently started exhibiting signs of
anxiety whenever he hears any string instrument. This situation
best illustrates..
A.Generalization
B.Instinctive drift
C.Spontaneous recovery
D.Secondary conditioning
E.A biological predisposition
A – Alfred has generalized his anxiety to the sound of his sister
practicing cello to the sound of any string instrument. Generalization in
this classical conditioning example is when on exhibits a conditioned
response to stimuli that are similar, but not identical to the conditioned
stimulus. In this case, the conditioned stimulus is the sound of his sister
playing cello, and the response of fear or anxiety has generalized to
occur to similar sounds.
Learning- Question #4
Mr. Cohen wants to encourage his kids to clean up their rooms.
Every time they do so, he takes them out for dinner. As time
goes on, Mr. Cohen’s children clean their rooms increasingly
less frequently. What does this situation demonstrate?
A.The Premack Principle
B.Latent learning
C.Higher-order conditioning
D.Discrimination
E.Observational learning
A – The Premack Principle essentially explains that one person’s
reinforce may be another person’s punishment. While Mr. Cohen may
view taking his children out for dinner as a treat for them, they may not
see it the same way. Reinforcers and punishments are defined by the
effects they have on behavior. Given that taking his kids out to dinner
results in less of the desired behavior, that consequence is defined as a
punishment.
Learning- Question #5
Which of the following is the best example of negative reinforcement?
A. A teacher praises a child for answering a question in class.
B. A teacher keeps a student from recess after she has been disruptive
during a lesson.
C. A teacher brings bagels to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
D. A teacher has a student wash all the classroom desks after he is
caught writing on his desk.
E. A teacher cancels a homework assignment after the whole class
scores well on a test.
E – Negative reinforcement is when something aversive (in this case a
homework assignment) is removed in order to reinforce desired behavior (the
strong performance on the test). A common mistake is to assume that the
negative in negative reinforcement refers to punishment- the addition of
something aversive. However, the definition of a reinforcer is something that
makes a behavior more common: thus, the negative in this case refers to fact
that the behavior is being reinforced through the removal of something
unpleasant (negative reinforcement) as opposed to the addition of something
pleasant (positive reinforcement).
Learning- Question #6
Mr. Lopez wants his kindergarten students to come into class
and go directly to the seats. Which type of reinforcement
schedule would likely yield the most rapid acquisition of this
new behavior?
A. Fixed Ratio
B. Fixed Interval
C. Variable Ratio
D. Variable Interval
E. Continuous Reinforcement
E - Typically, continuous reinforcement is most effective in teaching a
new behavior because the consistent association of the reinforcer
with the behavior will make the link easiest to learn. While a fixed
ratio schedule of FR-1 would be equivalent to continuous
reinforcement, the term fixed ratio is usually employed to refer to the
practice of rewarding every x behaviors, where x is a larger number
than 1.
Learning- Question #7
At Central High School they ring a bell to end every class period.
Sometimes, by mistake, they ring the bell in the middle of a class
period and teachers find that many of their students get up to leave not
realizing that only about half of the class time has gone by. The
students have learned this behavior via
A. Operant Conditioning
B. Classical Conditioning
C. Insight Learning
D. Abstract Learning
E. Observational Learning
B - The ringing of the bell is a conditioned stimulus associated with the
unconditioned stimulus of being dismissed from class. Leaving class is
both the conditioned and unconditioned response.
Learning- Question #8
Rescorla’s contingency model of classical conditioning modifies Pavlov’s
original model by
A. Describing the role of natural, inherent predispositions in facilitating
certain connections
B. Creating a standard apparatus in which to test the law of effect
C. Suggesting the role of cognition in influencing how well a response is
learned
D. Showing how learning can occur in the absence of reinforcement
E. Predicting a particular curve for spontaneous recovery
C – Rescorla’s contingency model theorizes that learning will happen
more quickly and effectively when a conditioned stimulus (CS) reliably
predicts an unconditioned stimulus (US). This idea builds upon Pavlov’s
contiguity model which proposed that conditioning was typically linked
to the number of times a CS was paired with a US. Rescorla suggested
that given the same number of pairings, acquisition would occur more
quickly in the absence of additional presentations of the CS and/or US
which would weaken the cognitive connection the learner would
establish between the two.
Memory -Question #9
A researcher investigating the effectiveness of different methods of
memorizing lists is likely to be most interested in which of the following
memory concepts?
A.Implicit memory
B.State-dependent memory
C.Long-Term potentiation
D.Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
E.Serial Position Effect
E. The serial position effect describes the impact of the position of items on a
list on recall. Items early in the list are likely to be remembered (primacy effect)
and items last on a list or likely to be remembered (recency effect).
Memory - Question #10
Why are recognition tasks usually easier than recall
tasks?
A.Memories retrieved through recognition are stored in long term
memory which is easier to access
B.Recognition involves more recent memories, while recall involves
events that occurred father in the past
C.The process of recognition involves matching an event to
something already stored in memory
D.The recall process takes place in more primitive, basic areas of
the brain
E.The recognition process relies on sensory memory, which quickly
encodes sensory stimuli we encounter
C - Recognition involves matching current stimuli to what we already
have stored in memory, which is an easier process than recall.
Memory - Question #11
Which of the following two memory-related concepts
are most similar?
A.Chunking and syntax
B.Mood-congruent and state-dependent memory
C.Prototypes and rehearsal
D.Primacy effect and relearning effect
E.Belief bias and availability heuristic
B - Both mood-congruent and state dependent
memory describe similar phenomena that impact the
probability a memory will be recalled.
Memory - Question #12
In the information processing model, encoding takes place
between which steps in the model?
A.Between semantic and episodic, and between episodic and
procedural
B.Between sensory and short term, and between short term and
long term
C.Between retrieval and recognition, and between recognition
and recall
D.Between retroactive and proactive, and between proactive and
interference
E.Between convergent and divergent, and between divergent
and heuristic
B- The three box model consists of sensory, short term, and long
term memory. Memories are encoded from sensory to short term
memory and from short term to long term memory.
Memory
Question #29
Compulsive gamblers frequently recall losing
less money than is actually the case. Their
memory failure best illustrates:
A. Serial Position Effect
B. Next-In-Line Effect
C. Motivated Forgetting
D. Source Amnesia
E. Proactive Interference
C – Motivated forgetting is a concept that arose in early theories of psychology, and many
might better associate it with repressed memories. The essential idea is that the ability
to recall a memory may be influenced by feelings, by a need to protect the self, or by
distorted perception. Freud suggested that people frequently have imperfect or no
memory recall of traumatic events or of things associated with unpleasant feelings. For
example, a person is highly motivated to forget a doctor’s appointment if he fears the
doctor.
Memory
Question #30
The next-in-line effect best illustrates:
A. Long-Term Potentiation
B. Source Amnesia
C.Encoding Failure
D.Automatic Processing
E. Implicit Memory
C – When you are so anxious about being “next-in-line”
that you fail to remember what the person just before
you has said (no STM or LTM), but you can remember
what other people around you said in terms of
“sensory (echoic) memory”.
Memory
Question #31
You witnessed a murder. Weeks later, you are called to view a
police line up in which you are to pick out the murderer from a line
up. Later you are called to the witness chair during the trial to tell
what you saw. In the police lineup, you are using _______ while in
the trial you are using ________.
A.Recognition, Recall
B.Recognition, Relearning
C.Relearning, Recall
D.Recall, Recognition
E.Relearning, Recognition
A – Recognition is how you respond to a sensory cue. You look at something and your
mind looks to see if what you are seeing in front of you matches anything that has been
stored. If you notice a match, you are recognizing the information. VS. Recall is a way
that you obtain information from your memory without having a cue to prompt the
response. You have to essentially draft the information without any assistance.
Memory
Question #32
Which of the following sequences
represents progressively deeper levels of
processing?
A. Functional, Structural, Semantic
B. Semantic, Phonemic, Structural
C. Structural, Semantic, Phonemic
D. Phonemic, Semantic, Structural
E. Structural, Phonemic, Semantic
E – Two forms of shallow processing: Structural (appearance/”looks
like”) which is when we encode only the physical appearance of
something (e.g. the typeface of a word or how letters look) and
Phonemic (“sounds like”) which is when we encode the way the word
sounds. Deep Processing: Semantic (meaning)which is when we
encode the meaning of a word and make connections to words with
similar meaning.
Cognition- Question #13
Children who do not learn a primary language before adolescence
typically have trouble becoming fluent in any language during the rest
of their lives. This research finding most supports which theory of
language acquisition?
A. Overgeneralization
B. Linguistic relativity hypothesis
C. Semantic network hypothesis
D. Nativist theory
E. Divergent thinking
D - The nativist theory of language acquisition predicts that there is a
critical period of maturation during which human brains are “wired” to
acquire language. If a child passes through this critical period without
acquiring language, it will be difficult for that child to ever acquire
language.
Cognition- Question #14
Wolfgang Kohler’s research involving problem solving and
primates provided valuable empirical evidence supporting which
cognitive concept?
A.Divergent thinking
B.Prototypes
C.Representativeness heuristic
D.Algorithms
E.Eidetic memory
A- Evidence from Kohler’s studies support the idea that
divergent thinking can occur in non-human primates (such as
chimpanzees) and that divergent thinking involves steps such as
experimentation and reflection.
Cognition- Question #15
Which of the following terms is most likely to be used by biopsychologists when discussing how memories are stored?
A.Sensory memory
B.Long-term potentiation
C.Availability heuristic
D.Functional fixedness
E.Information-Processing Model
B – Long-Term Potentiation is the process of the strengthening
of neural connections which bio-psychologists theorize result in
the phenomenon of memory!