Practice Test for Units 1-3

Practice Test for Units 1-3

Multiple Choice

Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

____1.Introspection was the basic research tool used by ______in order to study people's inner sensations and mental images.

a. / John Watson
b. / Charles Darwin
c. / Edward Titchener
d. / B. F. Skinner
e. / Mary Calkins

____2.The unreliability of introspection contributed to the waning popularity of

a. / structuralism.
b. / psychiatry.
c. / empiricism.
d. / behaviorism.
e. / functionalism.

____3.Who was a student of William James and the first female president of the American Psychological Association?

a. / Jean Piaget
b. / Francis Bacon
c. / Rosalie Rayner
d. / Mary Calkins
e. / Margaret Washburn

____4.Lissette wonders whether personality differences between her African-American and Asian-American friends result from biological or cultural influences. In this instance, Lissette is primarily concerned with the relative contributions of

a. / biology and cognition.
b. / nature and nurture.
c. / behavior and mental processes.
d. / conscious and unconscious thoughts.
e. / introspection versus structuralism.

____5.Mark believes that people are genetically predisposed to dislike bitter-tasting foods because this has enhanced human survival. His belief best illustrates the ______perspective.

a. / psychodynamic
b. / social-cultural
c. / evolutionary
d. / behavioral
e. / cognitive

____6.The behavioral perspective is most likely to emphasize the importance of

a. / cognition.
b. / observable responses.
c. / introspection.
d. / natural selection.
e. / self-esteem.

____7.A concern with the reasoning processes that contribute to effective problem solving is most characteristic of the ______perspective.

a. / behavioral
b. / evolutionary
c. / social-cultural
d. / cognitive
e. / biological

____8.Dr. Wilson attributes the delinquent behaviors of many teens to the pressures associated with being members of street gangs. Her account best illustrates a(n) ______perspective.

a. / psychodynamic
b. / behavioral
c. / social-cultural
d. / biological
e. / evolutionary

____9.Dr. Robinson conducts basic research on the relationship between brain chemistry and intellectual functioning. Which psychological specialty does Dr. Robinson's research best represent?

a. / social psychology
b. / clinical psychology
c. / biological psychology
d. / industrial-organizational psychology
e. / developmental psychology

____10.Formulating testable hypotheses before conducting research is most directly useful for restraining a thinking error known as

a. / random sampling.
b. / the hindsight bias.
c. / overconfidence.
d. / illusory correlation.
e. / random assignment.

____11.A hypothesis is a(n)

a. / observable relationship between specific independent and dependent variables.
b. / testable prediction that gives direction to research.
c. / set of principles that organizes observations and explains newly discovered facts.
d. / unprovable assumption about the unobservable processes that underlie psychological functioning.
e. / statement of procedures used to define research variables.

____12.The complete set of cases from which samples may be drawn is called a(n)

a. / control condition.
b. / population.
c. / case study.
d. / independent variable.
e. / survey.

____13.Psychologists who carefully watch the behavior of chimpanzee societies in the jungle are using a research method known as

a. / the survey.
b. / experimentation.
c. / naturalistic observation.
d. / the case study.
e. / random sampling.

____14.Which of the following correlations between annual income and education level would best enable you to predict annual income on the basis of level of education?

a. / +0.05
b. / –0.01
c. / +0.10
d. / +0.50
e. / –0.001

____15.To determine whether the strength of people's self-esteem is related to their income levels, researchers would most likely make use of

a. / case studies.
b. / correlational research.
c. / experimentation.
d. / naturalistic observation.
e. / double-blind.

____16.Which of the following scatterplots represents the weakest relationship?

(Drawings 1-4 taken from ac. nz/~teachers/2003/regression/classnotesfilledin.doc)

a. / 1
b. / 2
c. / 3
d. / 4
e. / 5

____17.Researchers are interested in studying the relationship between poor prenatal nutrition and early cognitive development. Because of ethical concerns, which research method would be most appropriate for researchers to use?

a. / survey
b. / case study
c. / experimentation
d. / correlational
e. / naturalistic observation

____18.Random sampling is to ______as random assignment is to ______.

a. / correlational studies; case studies
b. / surveys; experiments
c. / illusory correlation; control group
d. / replication; correlation
e. / description; prediction

____19.In a group of five individuals, two report annual incomes of $10,000, and the other three report incomes of $14,000, $15,000, and $31,000, respectively. The mode of this group's distribution of annual incomes is

a. / $10,000.
b. / $15,000.
c. / $16,000.
d. / $31,000.
e. / $80,000.

____20.For which of the following distributions of scores would the median most clearly be a more appropriate measure of central tendency than the mean?

a. / 16, 28, 4, 8, 24
b. / 9, 6, 9, 12, 9
c. / 8, 9, 12, 10, 16
d. / 6, 18, 4, 5, 2
e. / 3, 4, 3, 4, 2

____21.During the last Central High School basketball game, the starting five players scored 11, 7, 21, 14, and 7 points, respectively. For this distribution of scores, the range is

a. / 7.
b. / 11.
c. / 12.
d. / 14.
e. / 21.

____22.Which of the following is a measure of the degree of variation among a set of events?

a. / mean
b. / scatterplot
c. / standard deviation
d. / median
e. / correlation coefficient

____23.In 1920, behaviorist John B. Watson conditioned an 8-month-old infant, Albert. He was turned over to Dr. Watson without permission. This violates which ethical principle developed by the American Psychological Association?

a. / coercion
b. / confidentiality
c. / debriefing
d. / informed consent
e. / protection from harm

____24.The movement of positively charged ions across the membrane of a neuron can produce a(n)

a. / action potential.
b. / synapse.
c. / neurotransmitters.
d. / myelin sheath.
e. / interneuron.

____25.A synapse is a(n)

a. / chemical messenger that triggers muscle contractions.
b. / automatic response to sensory input.
c. / neural network.
d. / junction between a sending neuron and a receiving neuron.
e. / neural cable containing many axons.

____26.Transferring messages from a motor neuron to a leg muscle requires the neurotransmitter known as

a. / dopamine.
b. / epinephrine.
c. / acetylcholine.
d. / insulin.
e. / endorphin.

____27.Opiate drugs occupy the same receptor sites as

a. / acetylcholine.
b. / serotonin.
c. / endorphins.
d. / dopamine.
e. / epinephrine.

____28.Hormones are the chemical messengers of the

a. / action potential.
b. / autonomic nervous system.
c. / endocrine system.
d. / peripheral nervous system.
e. / central nervous system.

____29.The concentration of glucose in active regions of the brain underlies the usefulness of a(n)

a. / MRI.
b. / brain lesion.
c. / EEG.
d. / PET scan.
e. / hemispherectomy.

____30.Your ability to experience the physical pleasure of a hot shower is most likely to be disrupted by damage to your

a. / corpus callosum.
b. / angulargyrus.
c. / hippocampus.
d. / amygdala.
e. / thalamus.

____31.Your conscious awareness of your own name and self-identity depends primarily on the normal functioning of your

a. / cerebellum.
b. / amygdala.
c. / hypothalamus.
d. / sympathetic nervous system.
e. / cerebral cortex.

____32.The surgical removal of a large tumor from Dane's occipital lobe resulted in extensive loss of brain tissue. Dane is most likely to suffer some loss of

a. / muscular coordination.
b. / language comprehension.
c. / visual perception.
d. / speaking ability.
e. / pain sensations.

____33.The parietal lobes are to ______as the occipital lobes are to ______.

a. / hearing; speaking
b. / sensing touch; seeing
c. / sensing pleasure; sensing pain
d. / tasting; smelling
e. / speaking; seeing

____34.Our lips are more sensitive than our knees to sensations of touch due to which of the following?

a. / More neurotransmitters are released when the lips are touched.
b. / A larger area of the sensory cortex is associated with our lips.
c. / The dendrites connected to the lips are especially sensitive.
d. / The medulla routes impulses from the lips directly to our brainstem.
e. / Our lips are directly connected to the sensory cortex, but our knees are not.

____35.Which brain area is primarily involved with understanding and producing meaningful speech?

a. / sensory cortex
b. / angular gyrus
c. / association areas
d. / Wernicke's area
e. / hypothalamus

____36.The localization of a function such as speech production to the right or left side of the brain is called

a. / neurogenesis.
b. / lateralization.
c. / hemispherectomy.
d. / plasticity.
e. / reticular formation.

____37.Information is most quickly transmitted from one cerebral hemisphere to the other by the

a. / medulla.
b. / corpus callosum.
c. / angulargyrus.
d. / limbic system.
e. / reticular formation.

____38.A picture of a dog is briefly flashed in the left visual field of a split-brain patient. At the same time a picture of a boy is flashed in the right visual field. In identifying what she saw, the patient would be most likely to

a. / use her left hand to point to a picture of a dog.
b. / verbally report that she saw a dog.
c. / use her left hand to point to a picture of a boy.
d. / verbally report that she saw a boy.
e. / communicate that she saw a picture of a boy with a dog.

____39.Research on left-handedness suggests that

a. / genes or prenatal factors play a role in handedness.
b. / a greater proportion of women than men are left-handed.
c. / left-handers generally demonstrate less artistic competence than right-handers.
d. / most left-handers process language primarily in their right hemisphere.
e. / left-handers live longer than right-handers.

____40.Which cognitive neuroscience term reflects the idea that “much of our everyday thinking, feeling, and acting operates outside our conscious awareness”?

a. / dual processing
b. / cerebral cortex
c. / reticular formation
d. / interneurons
e. / limbic system

____41.Research into dual processing provides partial evidence for levels of consciousness similar to the levels first described by which psychologist?

a. / B. F. Skinner
b. / Wilhelm Wundt
c. / Sigmund Freud
d. / Mary Calkins
e. / Edward Titchener

____42.The threadlike structures that contain genes are called

a. / synapses.
b. / hormones.
c. / neurons.
d. / chromosomes.
e. / genomes.

____43.A human sperm cell contains

a. / 23 chromosomes.
b. / 23 genes.
c. / 46 chromosomes.
d. / 46 genes.
e. / 92 DNA strands.

____44.Adopted children are more likely to demonstrate levels of agreeableness and extraversion, more similar to that of their biological parents than their adoptive parents. This finding suggests that personality traits are more strongly influenced by

a. / genes than by heredity.
b. / home environment than by genes.
c. / environmental relatives than by genetic relatives.
d. / nurture than by nature.
e. / genes than by the home environment.

____45.The diversity of human traits is enabled by our shared

a. / individualism.
b. / chromosomes.
c. / natural selection.
d. / adaptive capacity.
e. / genome.

____46.Which kind of researcher is most likely to examine chromosomal differences between a fraternal twin who experiences a learning disability and one who doesn't?

a. / developmental psychologist
b. / molecular geneticist
c. / evolutionary psychologist
d. / psychometrician
e. / learning theorist

____47.How do evolutionary psychologists explain why pregnant women from cultures across the world tend to avoid bitter, strongly flavored foods?

a. / Most cultures educate women about the dangers of certain foods on a developing fetus.
b. / Women and men have genetic differences in taste preferences.
c. / Bitter tastes can be an indication of foods toxic toward a developing baby, so this preference developed through natural selection.
d. / Pregnant women tend to associate with one another and they acquire similar food preferences through social conformity.
e. / Historical preferences toward or against certain tastes tend to change as cultures change.

____48.Research suggests that young men prefer older women, mid-twenties men prefer women their own age, and older men prefer younger women. Based on this finding, evolutionary psychologists suggest that men

a. / view sex as being more relational.
b. / are attracted to women with peak fertility.
c. / prefer mates who are interested in long-term relationships.
d. / have a higher threshold for perceiving warm responses as sexual.
e. / are less concerned with sending their genes into the future.

____49.According to opinion polls, how do scientists and nonscientists react differently to the idea of evolution?

a. / Scientists are mostly (66%) agreed that evolution is a valid theory, and most nonscientists believe evolution describes the natural world well.
b. / There is widespread consensus among scientists that evolution is scientific fact, but half of U.S. adults do not believe in evolution.
c. / Most “hard” scientists, like physicists and chemists, think that evolutionary theory is unnecessarily complex, and most nonscientists agree.
d. / Scientists and most nonscientists agree that evolutionary theory describes animal development well, but not human development.
e. / Belief in evolutionary theory is split along religious lines among scientists and nonscientists.

____50.Mamie is terrified of spiders. She tells her best friend, “Everybody in my family is afraid of spiders, so it must be genetic. ” Using the biopsychosocial approach to understanding her behavior, Mamie should

a. / reduce her experiences with spiders to her immediate sensations and feelings.
b. / focus on possible unconscious motivations for her fears.
c. / examine additional psychological and social-cultural influences on fear.
d. / examine how fear is adaptive and has contributed to her ancestors' survival.
e. / explore how her perceptions affect her fear of spiders.