Answers at the End of the Exam

Pennebaker/Gosling Introductory Psychology Class

Exam 2 October 2, 2006

1.	On the topic of taste, an example of absolute threshold would be
	a.	The maximum saturation of a taste that our neurons will react to
	b.	The minimum intensity of a taste that can be detected
	c.	The most robust taste that we can tolerate
	d.	The maximum number of flavors that will be detected
	e.	The average number of neurons that will fire in response to a flavor

2.	Which of the following would NOT help you determine depth?
	a.	Shadow
	b.	Binocular Disparity
	c.	Motion Parallax
	d.	Absorption
	e.	Linear Perspective

3.	A parallel distributed process is a model for
	a.	Long-term potentiation
	b.	Neural networks
	c.	NMDA receptor action
	d.	Vagus nerve stimulation
	e.	Token economies

4.	Jack and Jill used to go up a hill to fetch a pail of water everyday. Then bottled water was popularized, and so for years now, they do not fetch water at the top of the hill anymore. However, they still occasionally hike up the hill. Just the other day, Jill went up the hill for a leisurely stroll, and immediately began to fill a pail with water. Even though Jill was not thirsty, she felt she had to fill a pail with water is an example of:
	a.	Spontaneous recovery
	b.	Preventing forest fires
	c.	Automatic implicit priming syndrome (AIPS)
	d.	Extinction
	e.	Shaping

5.	The fact that Little Albert learned fear toward not only a white rat but also a ball of wool and a Santa mask represents the phenomenon of
	a.	Second-order conditioning
	b.	Generalization
	c.	Discrimination
	d.	Reconditioning
	e.	Cry baby

6.	The study of children’s play habits with the “Bobo” doll provided evidence that
	a.	Boys can play with dolls even though it is counter-stereotypical
	b.	Memory based learning can be transmitted observationally in boys but not girls
	c.	Aggression is an innate unconditioned response with Bobo dolls
	d.	Intracranial self-stimulation can activate reward circuits
	e.	Aggressive behavior can be learned through observation

7.	According to the Opponent Process Theory, if you were to stare at a red Ferrari for about 40 seconds and then look at the concrete, what color will this concrete momentarily appear?
	a.	The color of the concrete will always appear the same
	b.	Red
	c.	Green
	d.	White
	e.	Black

8.	If you wanted to speed up the time it took for a pain signal to reach your brain, you would hypothetically
	a.	Take 2 Tylenols
	b.	Increase your vitamin C intake
	c.	Try to relax when you felt pain
	d.	Hold your breath
	e.	Add myelin to the axon

9.	If your dog had object agnosia what would she experience?
	a.	She couldn’t find a verbal label for her ball
	b.	She couldn’t feel her ball
	c.	She couldn’t recognize her ball
	d.	She would no longer like her ball
	e.	She would treat her ball as a living object.

10.	If you were to travel inside the retina, you would see that as you moved toward the periphery of the retina the percentage of rods _____ and as you move toward the fovea the percentage of cones _____.
	a.	Stays the same; increases
	b.	Decreases; decreases
	c.	Increases; increases
	d.	Increases; decreases
	e.	Decreases; stays the same

11.	Why would winning money in a gambling game cause dopaminergic activity?
	a.	Money is a natural reinforcer.
	b.	Receiving any object (such as money, chips, or even pieces of wood) from another human activates the dopamine system because dopamine is a social hormone.
	c.	Gambling always activates the dopamine system.
	d.	Secondary reinforcers can activate the dopamine system.
	e.	Money is a primary reinforcer.

12.	What is the main difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
	a.	Classical: reward-based learning; operant: caused by reflexive actions
	b.	Classical: caused by reflexive actions; operant: requires cognitive evaluation
	c.	Classical: learning two events are related; operant: behavior leads to a consequence
	d.	Classical: behavior leads to a consequence; operant: caused by reflexive actions
	e.	Classical: punishment-based learning; operant: reward-based learning

13.	On the good old family road trip Dad takes the back country road, which is horrendously curvy. What is causing your nausea and dizziness?
	a.	Your eyes are trying to compensate for the quick changes in direction
	b.	The fluid in your ears bend hair cells in a direction that is opposite to the direction indicated by your visual cues
	c.	Your brain is sloshing from side to side, increasing the blood to the main vessels
	d.	The area in the back of your eyes swells up, creating the sensation of feeling ill
	e.	The smells on the back country road, causing your olfactory bulb to swell

14.	It is possible that humans communicate with each other unconsciously through chemical signals called
	a.	ESP
	b.	The fourth dimension
	c.	The haptic sense
	d.	Pheromones
	e.	Bad breath

15.	If you trained a rat to fear a blue light by pairing it with a painful electric shock, what would be your conditioned stimulus?
	a.	The reward
	b.	Electric shock
	c.	Fear
	d.	Extinction
	e.	Blue light

16.	The amygdala is an important neural structure in which long term potentiation plays a role in learning. Since the amygdala is part of the limbic system, which of the following is most likely mediated by LTP-related learning in the amygdala?
	a.	Fear learning resulting in freezing behavior
	b.	Orienting response resulting in fight or flight behavior
	c.	Anger initiation resulting in an adrenaline release
	d.	Defensive reaction resulting in an opiate release
	e.	Falling in love resulting in a dopaminergic release

17.	Which of the following biological factors may be involved with observational learning?
	a.	Acquisition neurons
	b.	The pineal gland
	c.	The limbic cortex
	d.	Mirror neurons
	e.	Bobo dolls

18.	Pitch is determined by the _____ of the wave, whereas the loudness is determined by the _____ of the wave.
	a.	Amplitude; frequency
	b.	Basilar membrane; cochlea
	c.	Frequency; amplitude
	d.	Cochlea; basilar membrane
	e.	Vibrations; pressure

19.	Getting $1 for every correct answer on this test would be a form of
	a.	Positive punishment.
	b.	Negative reinforcement.
	c.	Positive reinforcement.
	d.	Negative punishment.
	e.	Dreaming.

20.	In comparison to your cheek, how many neurons are devoted to your back in the somatosensory cortex?
	a.	Many more in the back because backs are physically larger than cheeks
	b.	Many less in your back because the cheek needs to be more precise in locating stimuli
	c.	The exact same because the somatosensory cortex supports equal representation of body parts
	d.	Twice as many in your back, because we need to be able to perceive danger from behind
	e.	The exact same, because the cheek and the back are equally important

21.	Tonya remembers exactly where she was and how she felt when she first found out that the World Trade Center had been destroyed. Tonya has an imprinted _____ memory for this account.
	a.	Implicit
	b.	Semantic
	c.	Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
	d.	Flashbulb
	e.	Elaborative

22.	Latisha and Manuel are in a relationship. Sometimes Latisha feels suffocated by Manuel and often volunteers to go on business trips at work to get away from being in a committed relationship.  At other times, even while on business trips, Latisha has warm and fuzzy feelings when she thinks about the companionship and good loving that Manuel provides. According to Attachment Theory, what kind of attachment style would characterize Latisha?
	a.	Avoidant
	b.	Detached
	c.	Preoccupied
	d.	Anxious
	e.	Ambivalent

23.	Large cross-cultural studies by people in evolutionary psychology on mate choice find that
	a.	The characteristics preferred in mates show no common trends across cultures
	b.	Although there are differences between wealthy and poor cultures, women tend to marry older men
	c.	In Western cultures women place attractiveness ahead of the financial resources of a mate while just the reverse is the case in Asian cultures
	d.	Men play a larger role in mate choice than do women
	e.	The more a culture uses Internet dating sites, the fewer the errors in mate choice, since the computer can compute your perfect mate

24.	Imagine that there were two sets of identical twins in your graduating class from high school, one female set and one male set. You later discover that one member of each set is homosexual. In which pair is the other sibling more likely to also be homosexual?
	a.	In both since the genetic component for sexual orientation is coded on the X chromosome, which both females and males possess.
	b.	In neither since there is no genetic basis for sexual orientation.
	c.	In the male set because the genetic component of homosexuality appears to be stronger in males than in females.
	d.	No prediction is possible without knowing the sexual orientation of the parents.
	e.	In the female set since females are more influenced by the sexual orientation of their siblings.

25.	Eyewitness testimony is
	a.	Only a dramatized technique used on television
	b.	Not a good method for accurate identification of crime suspects
	c.	Found to be the most accurate form of identification
	d.	Not used any more; judges use circumstantial evidence only
	e.	A very powerful and often correct method of conviction

26.	People have false memories because
	a.	Everyone has memory loss and will eventually develop Alzheimer’s.
	b.	People have dreams that are so vivid that they feel real
	c.	The memory is not really false; a person just changes the memory so he or she will look like a better person.