Introductory Psychology (PSY301, 2:00-3:30pm) – Test 1

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

 

1. Which of the following is most necessary for successful hypnosis?

a.

The person hypnotizing is a trained physician.

d.

The person being hypnotized is under emotional distress.

b.

The person being hypnotized is unconscious.

e.

The person being hypnotized is highly suggestible.

c.

The person hypnotizing is more intelligent than the person being hypnotized.

 

 

 

2.                  Which of these is true of lesion studies?

a.

They require expensive fMRI equipment.

d.

They show that the lesioned area is involved in the behavior of

interest.

b.

They do not cause damage to research subjects.

e.

They can be done with humans.

c.

They have perfect precision.

 

 

 

3.                  Which explanation best describes why the cortex is wrinkled?

a.

The cortex is wrinkled so that the skull is small enough to fit through the vaginal opening during birth.

b.

The cortex is wrinkled because the interstitial fluid enlarges the areas of the brain that need the most nutrients.

c.

The cortex is wrinkled so that the neurons can form faster connections by using the folds as high speed pathways.

d.

The cortex is wrinkled to protect the inner structures from damage.

e.

The cortex is wrinkled to reduce overheating.

 

 

4.Dana is interested in examining whether working at a job while attending school affects grade point average (or GPA). She collects data from students on the number of hours they work and their GPA. What type of study is Dana doing?

a.

experimental

b.

third variable

c.

case study

d.

double secret probation method

e.

correlational

 

 

5.                  What allows the movement of sodium and potassium ions to the inside and the outside of the neuron to cause firing?

a.

changes in membrane thickness

b.

changes in the charge of the ions

c.

refraction

d.

changes in the chemical structure of the ions

e.

gating mechanisms

 

 

6.                  Which of the following is something that hypnosis can do?

a.

Improve memory

d.

Make people do things they don’t want to do

b.

Breathe underwater

e.

Inhibit pain

c.

Give you special powers

 

 

 

7.                  Why are humans typically able to remain in the bed during sleep?

a.

Your body remains still throughout the night.

b.

You typically fall out of bed.

c.

Spackleton’s theory of ambulatory insomnia.

d.

The brain is still processing information about its surroundings.

e.

You are consciously aware of the bed’s boundaries at all times.

 

 

 

8.                  Which of the following is false about correlational designs?

a.

It indicates direction of cause-effect relationship

d.

A correlation of zero suggests that there is no relationship between the variables

b.

A negative correlation is when one variable decreases as another variable increases

e.

It does not indicate causality

c.

It allows you to determine the strength of relationships between variables

 

 

 

9.                  When you burn your finger, _____ neurons carry the message to the spinal cord and _____ neurons instruct the muscles in your arm to retract from the flame.

a.

inter; motor

b.

motor; inter

c.

sensory; motor

d.

efferent; afferent

e.

afferent; autonomic

 

 

10.                You decide to change your roommate’s messy behaviors by rewarding him every time he does any housekeeping chore. This strategy is in keeping with the principles of

a.

behaviorism.

b.

structuralism.

c.

psychoanalysis.

d.

information processing.

e.

Gestalt psychology.

 

 

11.                If the neuron is a telephone, which of these is a dendrite?

a.

The cord

d.

The handle

b.

The receiver

e.

The amplifier

c.

The speaker

 

 

 


12.                During this test, it is likely that while your answers are coming from actions in your central nervous system, at the same time, the activity of taking the test has activated the _____ system.

a.

parasympathetic

b.

pathetic

c.

sympathetic

d.

enteric

e.

spinal cord

 

 

13.                Dr. Bennett is conducting an experiment on a new teaching strategy that is hypothesized to aid memorization. He selects two groups from a class of students. One group will be exposed to the new method, the other to the traditional method. Why is it important that the participants be randomly assigned to the groups?

a.

to ensure that the groups are generally equal in abilities that may be related to memory

b.

to discourage them from knowing anything about the study before it begins

c.

to make sure people feel random thoughts while participating

d.

to be certain that participants in the study are as intelligent as the larger population

e.

to make the study less boring

 

 

14.                If a patient’s body temperature and blood pressure are rising, which brain structure is in charge of regulating the person back to normal levels?

a.

the hypothalamus

b.

the amygdala

c.

the thalamus

d.

the forebrain

e.

the hippocampus

 

 

15.                The _____ variable depends on what happens when the _____ variable is manipulated.

a.

independent; dependent

b.

operational; theoretical

c.

experimental; control

d.

control; experimental

e.

dependent; independent

 

 

16.                Compared to neurotransmitters, hormones are

a.

slower to act and longer lasting.

b.

chemically different.

c.

unable to bind to target receptors.

d.

less complex

e.

less important for the body’s functioning.

 

 


17.                Schizophrenia is an example of a disorder that

a.

is understood to result from decreased levels of specific neurotransmitters throughout the brain.

b.

is now best understood as resulting from the inseparable interaction of nature and nurture.

c.

was originally thought to be caused entirely by biological factors and now is known to be caused largely by environmental factors.

d.

was originally thought to be caused entirely by environmental factors and now is known to be caused largely by biological factors.

e.

is understood to result from increased levels of specific neurotransmitters throughout the brain.

 

 

18.                An amputee feels a sensation in his lost hand as an experimenter stimulates his cheek. This phenomenon could be the result of

a.

amount of times the amputee used to touch his face with the hand.

b.

misaligned growth of the severed spinal neurons.

c.

temporary psychosis the amputee experiences after the stress of losing a limb.

d.

splintering of neurons from too much pain during amputation.

e.

fact that neurons in the unemployed hand are recruited by the face.

 

 

19.                Which of the following is an operational definition of intelligence?

a.

Years spent in school

d.

Number of words in vocabulary

b.

Adapts well to the environment

e.

Being quick-witted

c.

Having good mathematical skills

 

 

 

20.                Consider the theory that asserts that the moon is made of an edible substance, such as green cheese. Why might scientists state that the green cheese theory is a better theory than Freud’s theory that dreams represent wish fulfillment?

a.

The green cheese theory is testable and wish fulfillment is not.

b.

Freud’s theories have been refuted because they are all about sexuality.

c.

Theories in the natural sciences are better than social science theories.

d.

A good theory has a basis in common sense.

e.

Green cheese theory is subject to random assignment but Freud’s theory is not.

 

 

21.                If someone has damage to their occipital cortex, they may suffer from a

condition called blindsight.  If someone suffered from a similar condition

after damage to the somatosensory area of their parietal cortex, and you

pinched one of their arms, what would happen?

a.

They would not consciously feel anything, but could guess which arm was pinched.

d.

They would feel an especially intense pinch.

b.

They would pass out.

e.

They would feel the pinch somewhere other than where it happened.

c.

They would consciously experience the pinch as a loud, high-pitched sound.

 

 

 


22.                Which of the following scenarios would increase the size of your hippocampus the most?

a.

lifting weights and jogging 3–4 days per week

b.

counting to one thousand every morning

c.

learning to speak at an early age because the hippocampus stops growing by age 3

d.

becoming a tour guide

e.

increasing daily doses of vitamin A and vitamin C

 

 

23.                If Drs. Gosling and Pennebaker wanted to study the influence of stress on decision-making, stress would be their _____________ and decision-making would be their ____________.

a.

Dependent variable; confound

d.

Dependent variable; Independent variable

b.

Independent variable; Dependent variable

e.

Independent variable; confound

c.

Confound; control

 

 

 

24.                If a newborn kitten was brought up in a completely dark cave where there was no visual stimulation at all for one month, what might happen to its visual cortex?

a.

The kitten would be able to see only certain key items in its environment.

b.

The kitten would only be able to see in black and white.

c.

The kitten would be blind because it would have passed the critical period of development.

d.

The kitten would have enhanced vision because the visual cortex would have had more time to develop.

e.

The visual cortex would go back to normal when the eyes were reopened.

 

 

25.                Instead of a normal sleep schedule, a person takes several short naps a day at regular intervals.  After observing the pattern of their brain waves, which of the following is the best conclusion?

a.

Sleep is not important.

d.

REM sleep is most important.

b.

All stages of sleep are equally important.

e.

Deep sleep is most important.

c.

All stages of sleep occur in a single nap.

 

 

 

26.                MacLean’s triune brain theory proposes that the human brain is broken down into three separate brains. What are they?

a.

Primitive brain, limbic system, and cerebral cortex

d.

Homer’s brian, Maggie’s brain, Lisa’s brain

b.

Occipital lobe, Parietal lobe, and Frontal lobe

e.

Amygdala, secondary cortex, primary cortex

c.

Spinal chord, midbrain, and prefrontal cortex

 

 

 

27.                Dr. Pennebaker made contact between a battery and his cell phone, displaying this action on the projector screen.  This incident could be described at many different levels. Which of the following is the highest level of analysis of this action?

a.

Force transferred from the phone to the battery.

d.

Dr. Pennebaker hit the battery with the phone.

b.

Dr. Pennebaker broke his phone.

e.

Dr. Pennebaker caused the battery to move.

c.

Dr. Pennebaker taught the class a lesson about describing phenomena.

 

 

 

28.                In discussing your study of sleep deprivation on test performance, you discover that some people study until 5 a.m. and then get a couple hours sleep before their exam, while others sleep a bit and then get up at midnight and study all night until the test. You decide it doesn’t really matter at which point your participants sleep as neither group has had much total sleep. In fact, time of sleep does have an effect. In this experiment time of sleep is an example of a(n)

a.

outcome variable.

b.

correlated variable.

c.

confound.

d.

observer bias.

e.

experimental definition.

 

 

29.                In class, a student who thought he was in Physics stood up and walked out of the room during the lecture. Later, we attempted to reconstruct what the student looked like, what he said, and tried to infer what he was thinking and feeling. This demonstration was an example of how:

a.

Case studies cannot be generalized to an entire population

d.

Experimental designs need a good control condition

b.

Physics students are often confused about where they are

e.

The scientific study of behavior is a futile endeavor

c.

Behavioral observation is subject to observational bias

 

 

 

30.                Why are polygraphs not used in courts?

a.

They don't respond when people are lying.

d.

They indicate that people are lying when they aren't.

b.

They only respond to lies about recent events.

e.

They only respond to relatively small lies.

c.

They are very expensive.

 

 

 

31.                Which of the items below is not a behavior in the sense in which psychologists use this term?

a.

smiling and nodding agreement during a candidate’s speech

b.

putting up a campaign poster

c.

voting in an election

d.

wearing a campaign button

e.

remembering and thinking about a quote made by a candidate

 

 

32.                You have discovered two new mammal species in the Amazon, the zornips and the

glunks.  Relative to their body size, the zornip's frontal lobe is ten times

larger than the glunk's.  What can you infer about these species?

a.

The zornip has more precise vision.

d.

The glunk is better at finding food.

b.

The zornip is better at controlling its impulses.

e.

The glunk has a better sense of smell.

c.

The zornip has better hand-eye coordination.

 

 

 

33.                Sometimes, correlational research is more appropriate for answering a question than is experimental research.  What would be the best example of this?

a.

There are few participants available.

b.

The data is best visualized in a scatterplot.

c.

The research hypothesis cannot be tested on humans.

d.

The variable of interest cannot be manipulated.

e.

There are only two variables.

 

 

34.                You are conducting a study for your psychology class on the effects of sleep deprivation on memory for names. You discover another classmate is also studying the same thing. You are defining memory for names as the number of names of famous psychologists a student is able to recall from reading the textbook chapter. Your classmate has defined it as the number of names recalled when viewing the faces of class members. This demonstrates a difference in _____ definitions.

a.

theoretical

b.

experimental

c.

subjective

d.

operational

e.

concrete

 

 

35.                Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter involved in _____; thus depletion of dopamine is implicated in _____.

a.

sociality; autism

b.

memory; Alzheimer’s disease

c.

sleep; insomnia

d.

motor movement; Parkinson’s disease

e.

perception; blindness

 

 

36.                Given what you know about how rats will behave in a situation when pressing a

lever will stimulate dopamine neurons in the nucleus accumbens, what can you

infer about dopamine?

a.

It controls fear responses

d.

Rats have relatively more of it than humans

b.

It is important for the sense of touch

e.

It contains large amounts of sugar

c.

It is critical in developing an addiction

 

 

 

37.                Which of the following is the most likely to have been the correlation coefficient for the data we obtained in class on the relationship between the numbers of letters in

your name the hours of sleep you got the previous night?

a.

-10

d.

0

b.

1

e.

-1

c.

0.5

 

 

 

38.                Part of the nervous system is associated with "fight or flight" responses.

Which of the following is responsible for the opposite processes?

a.

Peripheral nervous system

d.

Parasympathetic nervous system

b.

Sympathetic nervous system

e.

Autonomic nervous system

c.

Enteric nervous system

 

 

 

39.                A split brain patient is shown a frog in her left visual field. She is asked to identify what she sees. She would most likely be able to

a.

point to the frog with her right hand.

b.

point to the frog with her left hand.

c.

remember what she saw only.

d.

say what she saw and then point with her right hand.

e.

say what she saw only.

 

 


40.                Curare has been used in some cultures as a substance to put on the tips of

hunting darts.  Why?

a.

It causes swelling of the spine by increasing the effects of serotonin.

d.

It causes heart rate acceleration by increasing the effects of dopamine.

b.

It causes cell death by blocking the effects of epinephrine.

e.

It causes paralysis by blocking the effects of acetylcholine.

c.

It causes instant explosion by having no effect on glutamate.

 

 

 

41.                Franz Gall developed a theory called Phrenology, which claims to be able to determine personality traits based on bumps on the head. Misguided though he was, he was correct in thinking that:

a.

The brain and the soul interact via the pineal gland

d.

The brain is the executive control center of the body

b.

Brain function is localized

e.

Brain function is distributed

c.

The nucleus accumbens is the brain’s ”sexy area‘

 

 

 

42.                Since nicotine increases acetylcholine (or ACh) functioning we would assume it is

a.

an analogist.

b.

a toxin released by neurons that binds to ACh receptors.

c.

an agonist.

d.

a substance that destroys neurons with ACh receptors.

e.

an antagonist.

 

 

43.                Which of the following is the biggest problem with people recalling previously forgotten memories under hypnosis?

a.

They remember things that they had repressed.

d.

They can only remember very recent events.

b.

They remember things that did not happen.

e.

They can only remember things that happened when they were hypnotized previously.

c.

They cannot remember things in clear detail.

 

 

 

44.                Data are analyzed using statistical methods to determine whether the results are due to

a.

cheating.

b.

inflaboratory inversion processes.

c.

consequences of the dependent variable.

d.

chance.

e.

confounds.

 

 

45.                A group of researchers believe that tall children are more dominant. What problem may be associated with the data they collect on playground behavior?

a.

self-report bias

b.

over-expectancy effect

c.

observer bias

d.

order effect

e.

reactivity

 

 

Answers:

1 e

2 d

3 a

4 e

5 e

6 e

7 d

8 a

9 c

10 a

11 b

12 c

13 a

14 a

15 e

16 a

17 b

18 e

19 d

20 a

21 a

22 d

23 b

24 c

25 b

26 a

27 c

28 c

29 c

30 d

31 e

32 b

33 d

34 d

35 d

36 c

37 d

38 d

39 b

40 e

41 b

42 c

43 b

44 d

45 c