Answers at the end of the test

Introductory Psychology – Test 3

Pennebaker/Gosling 10/31/2006

1.	You are on vacation by yourself in a busy marketplace in Hawaii. You are bargaining with a merchant over the price of a coconut, but there is a lot of chatter amongst the villagers. As you are engaged in the coconut pricing conversation, you all of a sudden look around when you hear someone say “Hook ‘em horns!”. This is an example of
	a.	The cocktail party effect.
	b.	Monochromatic listening.
	c.	One track mind.
	d.	Decision making under uncertainty.
	e.	The Stroop effect.

2.	Alicia told Hans her biggest secret, but she told him not to tell anyone else. According to the lecture on secrets, how many other people will probably hear about Alicia’s secret?
	a.	None. Hans will not tell anyone
	b.	1-2 people
	c.	7-9 people
	d.	13-15 people
	e.	Over 20 people

3.	Your boss is telling you a really offensive joke that she clearly thinks is the funniest joke of all time. You’ve originally come to her to ask for a promotion, and so you try your best to laugh at the joke. Based on research on emotions and the body, what might you do to try to convince your boss as if you are really happy about the joke?
	a.	Try to make your facial expression as asymmetric as possible.
	b.	Try to make your body movements as asymmetric as possible.
	c.	Try to make your facial and body movements as asymmetric as possible.
	d.	Try to move the muscles around your mouth and eyes into a smile.
	e.	Try to move the muscles around your mouth and chin into a wide smile.

4.	The following is a passage from a patient with brain damage: "Yes... it was on that ... and me... My... is at... before Wednesday, at … o'clock... and it is going to be... ten o'clock with her... too... and with her... and is going someplace else.” What part of this patient’s brain is likely to be damaged?
	a.	Broca’s area.
	b.	Wernicke’s area.
	c.	Linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC).
	d.	Chomsky’s nucleus.
	e.	Whorffian lobe.

5.	Izzie has just been through a very traumatic experience, but she doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it. What would you recommend according to the research on emotion regulation?
	a.	She should keep it to herself if that’s what she wants
	b.	She should be forced to speak with a therapist
	c.	She should wait to tell anyone, even if this means years of keeping it to herself
	d.	She should smile and sit up straight, which has long-term effects of treating depression
	e.	She should write about her experience

6.	Guilt is to ___________, as hostility is to _______________.
	a.	Cancer; diabetes.
	b.	Heart disease; cancer.
	c.	Constipation; diarrhea.
	d.	Stomach pains; heart attacks.
	e.	Type A; Type B.

7.	From analyzing the speech and emails in the past week of Mingmei and Fatima, it was found that Mingmei uses less first person singular pronouns, more positive emotion words, and more future tense verbs than does Fatima. According to Dr. Pennebaker’s research on language use, what might we infer about Mingmei and Fatima?
	a.	Mingmei has a bigger vocabulary than does Fatima.
	b.	Mingmei has a much bigger Wernicke’s area than does Fatima.
	c.	Mingmei is more depressed than Fatima.
	d.	Mingmei is older than Fatima.
	e.	Mingmei is more honest than Fatima.

8.	Yesterday, Lourdes took part in a dichotic listening task. She was told to shadow the information presented to her right ear, which included lyrics to new songs by her favorite rap artists. She was also told to ignore the information presented to her left ear, which included a few questions and the correct answers to this test that you are taking right now. After the task, Lourdes could not report what information was being played to her left ear. How do you think Lourdes’s dichotic listening task experience will influence her performance on this test today?
	a.	The listening task will not help her performance on this test since she said that she couldn’t remember what information was being played to her left ear.
	b.	The listening task will hinder her performance on this test; she will only be able to think about the new songs by her favorite rap artists during this test.
	c.	The listening task will not help her performance on this test since she was trying not to pay attention to the information presented in her left ear.
	d.	The listening task will very slightly help her performance on this test since information in the unattended ear during dichotic listening tasks is unconsciously processed.
	e.	The listening task will help her to get all the questions correct on this test from mere exposure to the correct answers.

9.	Vervet monkeys use specific vocal alarm calls to alert their monkey friends when they spot different kinds of predators (e.g. leopards, eagles, snakes). Vervet monkey friends that hear the specific calls respond appropriately to the alarm call. Why would the linguist Noam Chomsky say that this is not an example of monkeys having language?
	a.	The monkeys do not use semantics.
	b.	The monkeys do not use syntax.
	c.	The monkeys do not use words.
	d.	The monkeys do not use perception.
	e.	The monkey friends don’t call back to the monkey who first sounded the alarm.

10.	In the weeks after September 11^th, 2001, many people dramatically overestimated the likelihood of being in a plane crash. This is an example of
	a.	The availability heuristic.
	b.	The representativeness heuristic
	c.	Using an algorithm.
	d.	The referential heuristic.
	e.	The normative heuristic.

11.	The 10 basic emotions discussed in class (joy, interest/excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, guilt) each fulfill these criteria EXCEPT:
	a.	They can all be reliably associated with a characteristic facial expression, whether or not this expression is displayed at the time of the emotional experience.
	b.	They are all associated with a characteristic physiological response.
	c.	They are all associated with a distinct psychological experience.
	d.	They can all become associated with a set of eliciting conditions, even if those conditions are different across cultures.
	e.	They are all displayed in all babies since birth.

12.	Katy is talking to Mandeep about her views on child-rearing. As she is talking, Mandeep starts to back away and crosses his arms in front of him. Katy starts to move closer and finally Mandeep excuses himself from the conversation. What advice would you give Katy regarding future conversations with Mandeep?
	a.	She should attend to nonverbal cues of the listener in order to understand how her viewpoints are being received
	b.	She should not discuss childrearing views with males
	c.	She should focus her attention on the distance between her and the other person, making sure to keep it as close as possible.
	d.	She should always make eye contact and convey her viewpoints nonverbally as well as verbally
	e.	She should manipulate her nonverbal cues to be more threatening to Chris until her face is touching his face.

13.	Carlos and Isabel are twins who are now 30 years old. They are reflecting on the how different they were when they were about 18-20 years old. According to the research on emotions and testosterone, what might some of these differences be between their older and younger selves?
	a.	Carlos and Isabel were more facially expressive at 18-20 than at 30 because 18-20 is when most people peak in testosterone levels.
	b.	Carlos, but not Isabel, was less facially expressive at 18-20 than at 30 because 18-20 is when most males peak in testosterone levels.
	c.	Both Carlos and Isabel were less facially expressive at 18-20 than at 30 because 18-20 is when most people peak in testosterone levels.
	d.	Isabel, but not Carlos, was less facially expressive at 18-20 than at 30 because only females’ emotions change in response to testosterone levels.
	e.	Carlos, but not Isabel, was more facially expressive at 18-20 than at 30 because 18-20 is when most males peak in testosterone levels.

14.	Cecily wants to create a really scary movie for her film class but she is not sure how she wants to create the final scene, which should be the scariest moment of the film. What would the best way to scare her audience?
	a.	She should allow the audience to figure out what will happen during the scary scene because the anticipation will thrill them
	b.	She should create a mood with light music so that the audience doesn’t know something bad is about to happen
	c.	She should allow the viewer to guess that something bad is about to happen, show a horrifying scene and then go back to a scene without any new information so that they have time to attend to their own physiological arousal
	d.	She should allow the viewer to guess that something bad is about to happen, show a horrifying scene, and then continue showing the viewer frightening information so that they attend to environmental cues
	e.	She should keep the viewer guessing as to when something scary will happen; that way the audience cannot predict the scary scenes and they don’t have time to attend to biological cues

15.	Botox is an injectable substance used to limit the action of facial muscles that cause frown lines. If Gertrude were to get Botox injections to drastically reduce her face’s ability to exhibit a frowning expression, according to Paul Ekman’s research on facial expressions and emotions, what might happen to Gertrude’s emotions?
	a.	Because she could not express sadness, she would misattribute her feels as happy rather than sad when in truly sad situations.
	b.	Gertrude would be depressed.
	c.	Gertrude would be unable to interpret that she is feeling sad in all situations.
	d.	Gertrude would experience a greater intensity of sadness in sad situations than before the injections.
	e.	Gertrude would feel relatively less sad in sad situations than before the injections.

16.	You are shown a number of photographs, some of which elicit a negative emotional response in you and some that are neutral. A week later you are shown a series of photographs and asked to identify the ones you have seen before. You will remember
	a.	More of the neutral photographs.
	b.	The neutral and negative photographs equally well.
	c.	Very few of either type since negative affect serves to repress memory.
	d.	That some of the photographs were negative but not be able to identify them accurately.
	e.	More of the negative photographs.

17.	Andrew is wearing his Calvin Klein jeans while sitting in a seat on the dirtiest bus in town. Andrew comes home, takes off his Calvin Klein jeans, and yet he claims that he won’t sit on his bed sheets with his boxer shorts that were underneath his jeans (and have not touched any surface of the dirtiest bus in town) because he doesn’t want to contaminate the clean bed sheets with dirty bus germs. This is an example of
	a.	Logical morality.
	b.	Sympathetic magic.
	c.	Rational elicitation.
	d.	Sterilized thinking.
	e.	Forbidden disgust.

18.	You are at Starbucks with a person you are extremely attracted to and want to have a romantic relationship with. According to research on emotions, what should you order for your date?
	a.	A triple espresso.
	b.	Low-fat steamed milk.
	c.	Decaf coffee.
	d.	Organic juice.
	e.	Water.

19.	As a practical joke, Laura has marinated and deep-fried relatively tasteless cockroaches into delicious chocolately-tasting desserts in front of her 1-year old daughter, Hiroko. Just before the desserts are packed up, Hiroko, who loves chocolate, quickly snatches a piece and eats what she knows full well are deep-fried chocolately cockroaches. What will Hiroko’s reaction be when she puts the dessert in her mouth?
	a.	Hiroko will vomit because she is so disgusted with herself.
	b.	Hiroko will enjoy the dessert since she is not yet disgusted by the thought of eating cockroaches and likes the taste of chocolate.
	c.	Hiroko will spit out the dessert since cockroaches are universal core disgust elicitors.
	d.	Hiroko will spit out the dessert since the dead cockroach reminds Hiroko of her own future death.
	e.	Hiroko will enjoy the dessert with only a little bit of disgust since the disgust she feels due to the dead cockroach has been diluted by Hiroko’s trust in her mother.

20.	Comparisons between how children acquire spoken versus signed languages indicate that
	a.	Signed languages follow entirely different grammatical rules from those of spoken language.
	b.	Signed language is acquired much more slowly than spoken language
	c.	Both develop at about the same pace.
	d.	Signed language is acquired more efficiently if the child’s parents speak, whereas the acquisition of spoken language isn’t affected by whether the parents speak or sign.
	e.	Signed languages are acquired only if 2 other people in the family are able to sign, whereas there is no minimum number of supporting members for spoken language.

21.	Aaron was just scared by a grizzly bear. He described his heart pounding, which caused his feeling of fear. What theory of emotion would support his description?
	a.	James-Lange Theory
	b.	Cannon-Bard Theory
	c.	Schacter-Singer Theory
	d.	Dutton-Aron Theory
	e.	Cindy Meston Theory

22.	Kaitlin is really mad at Indira but doesn’t want her to know it. Whenever she sees Indira she smiles and waves, but inside she is thinking very bad thoughts about what she really thinks of her. This is an example of:
	a.	Emotion Suppression
	b.	Emotion Interpretation
	c.	Biological Response
	d.	Anchoring
	e.	Interpersonal Functioning

23.	Professional wine tasters have very complex linguistic ways to describe the taste of wine. This is a great example of:
	a.	The representative heuristic, in that wine tasters are noting similarities in wines
	b.	Wine tasters using an algorithm to make general strategies referring to wine
	c.	The Whorf hypothesis regarding the influence of language on the ability to perceive
	d.	The Sapir Hypothesis that wine labels (rather than the wine itself) will determine categories
	e.	The syntax of a language influencing the use of words

24.	Juan is in a bad mood and feeling depressed. Christin really wants him to feel better, even if it is only temporary. What should she tell him to do according to Body Feedback Theory?
	a.	Slide on the floor like a snake
	b.	Sit up straight and smile
	c.	Slouch over and focus on a black and white photograph
	d.	Place a pen between his nose and mouth and hold it there for 10 seconds
	e.	Cross his arms in front of his body

25.	You’ve just broken up with your high-school sweetheart of five years. Of the following statements, which is the WORST way to deal with the heartbreak?
	a.	Write about your deepest thoughts and feelings about the breakup.
	b.	Talk to your close friends about your thoughts and feelings about the breakup.
	c.	Write about your deepest thoughts and feelings about revenge against your ex.
	d.	Talk to your close family members about your thoughts and feelings about the breakup.
	e.	Finger-write about your deepest thoughts and feelings about the breakup.

26.	You are playing 20 questions with a friend on the topic of “people you both know” and your first question is “Is he a bachelor?” The answer is yes. In the end, the person is your 14-year-old cousin. A probable reason that this person did not spring into your head is because you don’t typically think of young boys bachelors. In this sense your cousin is not a _____________ model of a bachelor.
	a.	Untypical
	b.	Categorical
	c.	Likely
	d.	Script
	e.	Prototypical

27.	While a child watches, you hide a Cheerio under one of two cups in front of her. The first three times you hide it under the blue cup and the fourth time under the red cup. She still looks for the Cheerio under the blue cup. Piaget would say that this child has not yet fully comprehended
	a.	Differences in color.
	b.	Assimilation.
	c.	Accommodation.
	d.	Object permanence.
	e.	Magic tricks.

28.	You are attempting to explain what a shovel is to your three-year-old niece. She is confused at your definition so you tell her it is a large version of a spoon that you can use outside. Your niece smiles and appears to understand this explanation. What technique did you use to ease the confusion?
	a.	Analogical representation
	b.	Creative description
	c.	Inductive reasoning
	d.	Availability heuristic
	e.	Dumb-down technique

29.	A male friend and female friend saw the same scary movie and are discussing it with you afterward. Who would you expect to be most expressive, both verbally and nonverbally, concerning their reactions?
	a.	The woman would be more expressive verbally and nonverbally, because females are generally more emotionally expressive than are males.
	b.	The male would be verbally more expressive than the female, but the female would be more expressive nonverbally.
	c.	They would be equally nonverbally expressive, but the male would be more verbally expressive.
	d.	The woman would be more emotional because men are not easily frightened.
	e.	If you are male, you would consider the male to be more expressive; if you are female, you would consider the female to be more expressive because we tend to perceive more expressiveness in same-sex peers.

30.	Though it would be odd, you could use a stool as a table and an end-table as a chair, but because of ____________, most people would choose to sit very high on the stool trying to eat from an end-table.
	a.	Functional fixedness
	b.	Human stubbornness
	c.	Object permanence
	d.	Utility fixedness
	e.	Low-quality thinking

31.	Your roommate, who is very overweight, has an identical twin whom you have never met and who lived with an adoptive family while growing up. Given what you know about genetic and environmental factors in weight status, you would
	a.	Hesitate to guess the weight status of the twin.
	b.	Want to know the weight status of the members of the adoptive family.
	c.	Ask for more information on the attitudes of the adoptive parents toward being overweight.
	d.	Guess that the twin would also likely be overweight.
	e.	Guess that the twin is not very overweight since the number of very overweight people in the overall population is low.

32.	Rachel is a healthy 7-month old baby who cries when anybody tries to pick her up, except when her mom holds her. She is probably experiencing
	a.	Princess syndrome.
	b.	Separation anxiety.
	c.	Caretaker comfort stage.
	d.	Formal operational stage.
	e.	Object permanence.

33.	Jorge fell off his bike without a helmet and injured his frontal lobe. If he were to take an intelligence test, what aspect would be impaired?
	a.	His fluid intelligence
	b.	His crystallized intelligence
	c.	His formalized intelligence
	d.	His safety intelligence
	e.	His bike riding intelligence

34.	Your partner in a dating relationship appears motivated to make you jealous through disclosing a possible relationship she may have with another person. David Buss’ research on the adaptive value of jealousy suggests that this behavior may be a function of her
	a.	Wanting to get out of the relationship with you.
	b.	Masochistic tendencies to elicit disdain and rejection from people close to her.
	c.	Wanting to test your commitment to the relationship with her.
	d.	Wanting to avoid taking responsibility for the breakup of a relationship she no longer enjoys.
	e.	Wanting to boost her perceptions of her own physical attractiveness.

35.	It is a common observation that when families move to a new culture, their children master the new language more quickly and thoroughly than do the parents. A psychological argument consistent with this observation is
	a.	The notion of a “sensitive period” for the acquisition of language.
	b.	That the over-learning of one cognitive skill inhibits the learning of others.
	c.	That across languages, mastery of one grammar makes it difficult to learn another grammar.
	d.	Children learn language from peers, not from parents.
	e.	Parents are less open to learning about new cultures.

36.	Some studies have shown that athletes are actually happier with winning an Olympic bronze medal than a silver medal. Why might this be, according to the counterfactual reasoning hypothesis?
	a.	In much of the world, bronze is a more valuable material than gold.
	b.	Finishing second is considered bad luck in at least 100 countries.
	c.	People do not like the pressure of being in the top two ranks.
	d.	In the Olympics, a bronze medal signifies first place rather than a gold medal.
	e.	Finishing second carries too much regret for not winning first.

37.	Your roommate is achievement oriented, impatient, aggressive, and time urgent. His behavior fits the
	a.	Type A behavior pattern.
	b.	Type B behavior pattern.
	c.	GAS pattern.
	d.	Glucocorticoid pattern.
	e.	Corticosteriod pattern.

38.	Imagine that you are visiting your sister and her one-year old child Mohammed. You note that Mohammed becomes distressed whenever your sister leaves the room, can be easily comforted by you while she is gone if something stressful occurs and ignores your sister when she comes back into the room. Ainsworth would describe Mohammed’s attachment to your sister as
	a.	Distant.
	b.	Secure.
	c.	Anxious-ambivalent.
	d.	Disorganized.
	e.	Avoidant.

39.	No matter how many people are involved in drunk driving accidents, the drivers leaving the bar after a few drinks always think they are fine to drive. Evidently each person is under the assumption that “it won’t happen to me, because I did it last weekend and was fine.” Though statistically it does not make sense to drink and drive, the _____ keeps you from critically thinking about the issue.
	a.	Framing effect
	b.	Confirmation bias
	c.	Calculation bias
	d.	Base rate effect
	e.	Social bias

40.	Imagine that a psychologist tests you every year in regard to your mental processing speed, for example, how long it takes you push a lever when a light comes on. If you age normally you should show
	a.	No reduction in speed of response until after the age of about 60.
	b.	An increase in speed until about the age of 35 and then a slow decline.
	c.	A slight decrease by age 25 that accelerates as you age further.
	d.	An ability to perform this task throughout your life at roughly the same speed as long as your visual acuity is high.
	e.	Show a steady decrease in speed from puberty onwards.

41.	A construction worker suffered a brain injury when dynamite exploded unexpectedly. After the accident he became hostile and engaged in inappropriate social behaviors. The part of the brain most likely to have suffered damage was the
	a.	Amygdala.
	b.	Cerebrospinal fluid.
	c.	Hypothalamus.
	d.	Cerebellum.
	e.	Prefrontal cortex.

42.	Mya and Christopher have just been married. Their parents arranged their marriage. Evidence suggests that arranged marriages:
	a.	Result in higher divorce rates than when marriages are not arranged.
	b.	Produce children who encounter more developmental problems than when they are not arranged.
	c.	Are with couples who never experience the feeling of being in love.
	a.	Are with couples who report low levels of marital satisfaction.
	e.	Are as stable and satisfying as non-arranged marriages.

43.	When trying to decide which movie to see, you notice that there is a Brad Pitt movie. You like all Brad Pitt movies so you decide this would be good. This is an example of what cognitive process?
	a.	Inductive reasoing
	b.	Deductive reasoning
	c.	Detectivity reasoning
	d.	Inferential reasoning
	e.	Explanatory reasoning

44.	A sign in a telephone sales office reads “Smile, the client can hear it in your voice.” This advice is
	a.	Consistent with findings that facial expressions can instigate as well as reflect emotional states.
	b.	Consistent with the fact that smiles cannot be faked and if you are smiling you are necessarily happy.
	c.	Inconsistent with what we know about the relationship between facial expressions and feeling states.
	d.	Probably intended to make workers self-aware since this will make them feel better.
	e.	Probably intended to make workers self-aware since they will speak louder into the phone so that clients can hear the workers better.

45.	Keisha just took the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT. This test can measure people’s
	a.	Needs for achievement, affiliation and power by seeing what themes appear when they write stories about pictures they are shown
	b.	Levels of depression and isolation through an apperception questionnaire which asks how people feel about themselves and why
	c.	Themes of extroversion and introversion based on people’s autobiographical writings
	d.	Thematic apperceptions based on their preferences for books, movies, and art work
	e.	Levels of self awareness through the Stroop perception test where they must call our the colors of words – some of which are self-relevant words and others are not

ANSWERS

1. a

2. c

3. d

4. b

5. e

6. d

7. d

8. d

9. b

10. a

11. e

12. a

13. c

14. c

15. e

16. e

17. b

18. a

19. b

20. c

21. a

22. a

23. c

24. b

25. c

26. e

27. d

28. a

29. a

30. a

31. d

32. b

33. a

34. c

35. a

36. e

37. a

38. e

39. b

40. c

41. e

42. e

43. b

44. a

45. a