Introductory Psychology – October 9, 2007

Gosling/Pennebaker 2:00 Class – Test 2

1. Which of the following is most true of sexual orientation?

a.	People can choose whether they are basically homosexual or heterosexual.
b.	Research suggests that sexual orientation is influenced very strongly by biological and genetic factors.
c.	People are born without a true sexual orientation but ultimately become homosexual or heterosexual based on early childhood experiences.
d.	Sexual orientation can only be determined once a child reaches the abstract reasoning stage in Piaget’s model because of the complexity of the decision.
e.	All people are both homosexual and heterosexual and can change their sexual orientation depending on the settings they are in.

2. In a laboratory experiment, what is the best way to make a female rat homosexual?

a.	Expose it to exclusively female rats after birth, increasing sexual interest in females over time.
b.	Expose it to exclusively male rats after birth, decreasing sexual interest in males over time.
c.	Expose it to high androgen levels during puberty, resulting in biological changes during this critical period.
d.	Expose it to high androgen levels in the uterus, resulting in biological changes during this critical period.
e.	Expose it to large amounts of otoacoustic emissions in the uterus, resulting in biological changes during this critical period.

3. In a laboratory experiment, researchers give men and women a glass of “Oklahoma okeberry juice” which is really made from cranberry, bitter quinine water, and a small amount of pure alcohol. People can’t taste the alcohol at all. The researchers then ask the men and women how they are feeling. On average, how will they respond?

a.	Men will report feeling much more dizzy and lightheaded than women.
b.	Men will feel somewhat depressed; women will feel nervous.
c.	Women will feel dizzy and lightheaded; men will feel completely sober
d.	Men will feel hungry; women will feel thirsty.
e.	Neither the men nor the women will be affected by the drink.

4. Most women say that they would be more upset over their husband falling in love with another woman than having sex with another woman. Most men say the opposite. According to evolutionary psychology theories, this is because:

a.	Men and women differ in parental investment.
b.	Women are more emotionally sophisticated than men.
c.	Men and women have different definitions of love.
d.	Men are more analytical than women.
e.	Men and women differ in the nature of their orgasms.

5. Mary lives the first 20 years of her life in a room without sound. She has no physical disability, there is just no sound in her environment. She learns about the world by reading books and watching subtitled television. On her 21^st birthday, Mary goes outside, where her mailman says hello. Which of the following happens?

a.	She experiences complete silence.
b.	She says hello back.
c.	She understands him but cannot speak.
d.	She hears the sound but cannot understand it.
e.	She understands him but cannot tell where the sound is coming from.

6. For 60 seconds you stare at an image of the Japanese flag (a red circle against a white background). You then immediately stare at a blank wall. Over the next few seconds, you see a green circle against a black background. This demonstrates:

a.	opponent process theory
b.	trichromatic theory
c.	that you are color blind
d.	that your cones are not working properly
e.	that your rods are not working properly

7. Predatory animals, like lions, tigers, and wolves, generally have eyes that are closer together than non-predatory animals, such as cows, turtles, and whales. Which of the following depth cues does this enhance?

a.	Motion parallax
b.	Accommodation
c.	Binocular rivalry
d.	Convergence
e.	Binocular disparity

8. Your roommate and you are relaxing in the park laying on the grass staring up at the clouds on a lazy afternoon. To you, the clouds just look white and fluffy. Then, your roommate points to one of them and tells you that it looks like Homer Simpson. Afterward, you cannot look at the picture without seeing Homer. This illustrates:

a.	The influence of bottom-up processing.
b.	The influence of top-down processing.
c.	The influence of transduction.
d.	The influence of Ponzo neurons.
e.	The influence of psychophysics.

9. If you were to slowly move a green pen by the side of your roommate’s face so that he could just barely see it out of the corner of his eye, he would be startled because the in the periphery of his retina would quickly detect the _.

a.	Cones; movement of the pen but not it’s color
b.	Cones; color of the pen but not it’s movement
c.	Rods; movement of the pen but not it’s color
d.	Rods; color of the pen but not it’s movement
e.	Eyelashes; changes in air pressure

10. Which of the following is FALSE about classical conditioning?

a.	Classical conditioning occurs in virtually all animals.
b.	The conditioned response is always the same as the unconditioned response.
c.	The unconditioned stimulus always brings about the unconditioned response.
d.	The unconditioned stimulus initially brings about the unconditioned response.
e.	The neutral stimulus initially does not bring about the conditioned response.

11. You want to encourage your roommate to clean more often. Your roommate loves cookies. Which of the following is the best strategy from the perspective of operant conditioning?

a.	Hide your roommate’s cookies until he clean.
b.	Give your roommate a cookie for every fifth cleaning session exactly.
c.	Give your roommate a cookie for every fifth cleaning session on average.
d.	Take away a cookie for every day he does not clean.
e.	Promise your roommate a cookie, but never give it to him.

12. Over time, drug addicts develop a tolerance for their drug of choice; they need to take more to get the same effect. Tolerance is the result of the body compensating for the drugs before they are taken. In conditioning terms, tolerance is which of the following?

a.	Conditioned response
b.	Unconditioned response
c.	Conditioned stimulus
d.	Punishment
e.	Omission

13. Token economies are often successful because:

a.	They shape behaviors of many people through rewarding desired behaviors and ignoring unwanted behaviors.
b.	They employ classical conditioning methods that cause people to avoid tokens of bad behaviors.
c.	Countries with market economies (such as the United States and England) understand the value of capitalism.
d.	Children can learn to read when reading is the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS).
e.	Economies with tokens have been shown to be more rewarding than economies with distokens.

14. Suppose we give you 3 lists of 5 words each. You will read each list once, then say as many words as you can remember. For each word you remember from List 1 and List 2, we will give you a dollar. For each word you remember from List 3, we will give you 25 cents. If you want to make as much money as possible, which of the following is the best strategy for reading the lists?

a.	Read List 1, then List 2, then List 3
b.	Read List 3, then List 2, then List 1
c.	Read List 2, then List 1, then List 3
d.	Read List 3, then List 1, then List 2
e.	Read List 1, then List 3, then List 2

15. You have to remember the following list of letters: J, A, X, F, I, P, Y, O, M. You decide to rehearse them as the following nonsense syllables: “jax”, “fip”, “yom”. This is an example of which of the following?

a.	Reconstructive memory
b.	Primacy
c.	Deep processing
d.	Chunking
e.	Ebbinghaus’s Principle

16. Lily took 4 years of Spanish in high school. In college, she studied abroad in France but every time she tried to think of a word in French, it came out in Spanish. This is an example of:

a.	Chunking
b.	Retroactive interference
c.	Proactive interference
d.	Retrograde amnesia
e.	Drinking too much alcohol

17. You visit a city five weeks after a major hurricane has swept through it doing a great deal of damage. Your friend is surprised that nobody wants to talk about it. Having learned about Dr. Pennebaker’s research, you know:

a.	People are in the inhibition phase and are still thinking about it a lot.
b.	People are in the inhibition phase so they are not thinking about it very much.
c.	People are in the inhibition phase so they will start talking and thinking about it much more once the inhibition wears off.
d.	People are in the emergency phase so they are not yet thinking about it very much.
e.	People are in the emergency phase so they will start talking and thinking about it much more once the inhibition wears off.

18. You were walking home after dinner with some friends and you witness a car crash. According to Elizabeth Loftus’ famous experiment on eyewitness testimony, your memory of the crash will be most accurate if:

a.	You recount what you remember without the police asking you questions
b.	You answer a bunch of questions that the police asked you
c.	You discuss the accident with the other witnesses and the police
d.	You talk to the people in the accident to tell you their version of the story
e.	You watch the evening news to help you remember exactly what happened

19. Billy is playing with Sally. Billy leaves his ball in a toybox before going outside. While he’s gone, Sally moves the ball from the toybox to a cupboard. Billy then comes back. Which of the following is an example of egocentric thought?

a.	Billy thinks Sally has a huge crush on him.
b.	Sally thinks Billy knows where the ball is.
c.	Sally thinks Billy does not know where the ball is.
d.	Billy thinks Sally is selfish.
e.	Billy thinks Sally does not like the ball.

20. Bobby and Jane are babies at a nursery. The caregivers give Bobby a toy truck to play with and they give Jane a toy pony. This is best described as an example of:

a.	Innate preferences of males and females
b.	Limited supply of toys at the nursery
c.	The influence of social norms on gender identity
d.	The biological basis of social behavior
e.	Gender differences in the Piagetian stages

21. Maria is happily playing with her mother when her mother suddenly leaves. After a few minutes, her mother returns. Maria is initially nervous when her mother leaves and keeps looking at the door. When her mother returns a few minutes later, Maria excitedly runs to her mother, then continues to play. This is an example of:

a.	Concrete operations
b.	Ambivalent attachment
c.	Rooting reflex
d.	Secure attachment
e.	Sociality reflex

22. You show a child two rows of candy. Each row has five pieces, but the top row’s pieces are spaced further apart. If the child has mastered Piaget’s concept of conservation, what will he or she think?

a.	The rows have the same amount of candy.
b.	The top row has more candy.
c.	The bottom row has more candy.
d.	The candy in the top row is not as good
e.	The candy in the bottom row is not as good.

23. The second writing assignment was on interpersonal perception, a hot topic in psychology that is concerned with how people form impressions of others. Based on the information you received after you submitted the writing assignment, under which of the following circumstances would it be MORE DIFFICULT to judge the traits of someone else?

a.	If the person you are judging is an extravert
b.	If there is an interaction between information and RAM
c.	If you had access to the person’s personal website
d.	If there is an interaction between RAM and WAM
e.	If the person you are judging is an introvert

24. You are hiking in the woods with two friends. You round a curve and come within a few feet of a black bear. Both you and the bear are startled, and each runs away in fright. Later, when safely at home, you suddenly remember exactly what the trail looked like when you saw the bear. This demonstrates

a.	that you remember the least useful things during scary events.
b.	the processing of fear by the frontal lobe.
c.	the role of the amygdala in tagging the event for the future.
d.	how everything is processed equally by the cortex.
e.	the role of the occipital lobe in tagging scary events for the future.

25. Which of the following would be a primary reinforcer?

a.	a new set of china
b.	money
c.	a car
d.	water
e.	a vacation

26. During a heated game of trivial pursuit, one player seems to know every answer. However, after the game the group goes on a bike ride, and the same know-it-all trivial pursuit player keeps tipping over because she hasn’t ridden a bike in a while. She must have good _ memory but poor _ memory.

a.	semantic; implicit
b.	episodic; semantic
c.	semantic; procedural
d.	episodic; procedural
e.	implicit; procedural

27. Evidence for observational learning in nonhumans is present in all of the following except

a.	monkeys learning to wash the dirt off potatoes in the ocean to remove sand.
b.	dogs learning helplessness when they have no control over electric shocks administered to their cages.
c.	sea gulls learning how to open a box of crackers after seeing humans open them.
d.	lab-raised monkeys becoming fearful of a snake after watching a wild monkey’s reactions.
e.	animals who injure rather than kill their prey in order to teach their young how to hunt.

28. If you were a computer how would you set up your hard drive to best mimic a human form of memory?

a.	Organize the information by size to conserve space.
b.	Put each bit of information in a separate compartment so the bits don’t mix.
c.	Organize the information into a hierarchy of different files.
d.	Organize the information in one large storage unit so that anything can be pulled up at any time.
e.	Organize the information alphabetically so that you can search for things in an orderly fashion.

29. By one year of age most babies are babbling using consonants and syllables. If you listened to this babble you would be

a.	able to predict the infant’s future language competence.
b.	able to predict the number of languages the infant could learn.
c.	struck by how similar the sounds are across languages.
d.	able to infer something about the language being spoken by adults during the baby’s development.
e.	able to predict the age at which the child would begin using language.

30. University of Texas Professor David Buss studied 37 cultures in regard to mate choice and found that

a.	the characteristics preferred in mates show no common trends across cultures.
b.	men play a larger role in mate choice than do women.
c.	the characteristics preferred in mates show no differences between cultures
d.	independent of the culture they are born into, women tend to marry older men.
e.	in Western cultures women place attractiveness ahead of the financial resources of a mate while just the reverse is the case in Asian cultures.

31. You wish to classically condition your dog to fear skunks so he doesn’t get sprayed again. This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a houseplant because

a.	the dog has high intelligence.
b.	the dog is biologically conditioned to fear houseplants.
c.	the dog is biologically conditioned to fear skunks.
d.	the dog’s mind cannot physically be trained to fear plants.
e.	the dog is biologically prepared to fear certain types of objects.

32. 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 sib more likely to also be homosexual?

a.	In neither since there is no genetic component to sexual preference.
b.	In the female set since females are more influenced by the sexual orientation of their sibs.
c.	Both will be heterosexual, because sexuality is complimentary.
d.	No prediction is possible without knowing the sexual orientation of the parents.
e.	In the male set because the genetic component of homosexuality appears to be stronger in males than in females.

33. A neurosurgeon is working on the brain of a person who is under anesthesia. a. If she pokes two adjacent areas of the somatosensory cortex, which pair of body parts will most likely react?

a.	arm and leg
b.	arm and hand
c.	fingers and toes
d.	elbow and knee
e.	left elbow and right elbow

34. After transduction, most of the sensory neural information passes through which brain structure?

a.	the hypothalamus
b.	the thalamus
c.	the hypothyroid
d.	the hippocampus
e.	the amygdala

35. If you created a robot to have sensation but not perception then the robot could

a.	construct useful information but be unable to remember it.
b.	process external energy information but be unable to send it.
c.	detect external energy sources but be unable to process them.
d.	understand what things were but be unable to respond to them.
e.	react to light but not to taste, smell, or touch.

36. 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.	fear
b.	blue light
c.	electric shock
d.	extinction
e.	pain

37. You are a squirrel who stores nuts for the winter. What structure will allow you to find them when it snows?

a.	your excellent declarative memory skills
b.	your enlarged hippocampus
c.	your excellent semantic memory
d.	your enlarged eyes
e.	your enlarged parietal neurons

38. Your best friend’s favorite hamster died. You were there to witness the event, and so was a new neighbor. Who will have the most accurate flashbulb memory?

a.	You will because you could step back and take in the entire event.
b.	All three of you will have the same flashbulb memory.
c.	The neighbor will because he is unbiased about the situation.
d.	Flashbulb memories are only formed during shared traumatic events.
e.	The owner of the hamster will because the hamster’s dying was very emotional for her.

39. You present an infant with two stimuli and time how long she looks at each of them. Over a five-minute period the infant looks at each of them for the same amount of time. You can probably conclude that

a.	the child has never seen the stimuli.
b.	the child can see no differences in the two stimuli.
c.	the stimuli are of no interest to the child.
d.	the child has seen the stimuli before.
e.	No conclusions are possible.

40. An important consequence of having a theory of mind is that

a.	it allows us to understand our own intentions.
b.	we think of ourselves as having mental as well as physical capacities.
c.	it makes us more egocentric in our actions.
d.	it allows us to predict how we might behave in various situations.
e.	it allows us to understand that others have intentions.

41. Sensory adaptation is useful for survival because it allows

a.	our brain to block out all stimuli so it can rest and rejuvenate.
b.	us to experience only one sense at a time.
c.	our brain to adapt and perceive new senses.
d.	the brain to continuously react to old and new stimuli equally so we don’t miss any danger.
e.	our brain to be conscious of new and potentially dangerous stimuli.

42. While camping, you hear a creature rustling in the dark. You can pinpoint its exact location because

a.	the sound travels equally to both ears, giving you an exact right triangle that points at the object in question.
b.	the sound hits each ear at a different time with different intensities.
c.	your ears re-tune themselves to listen for quieter and more dangerous sounds.
d.	humans’ night vision improves during stress.
e.	it is hiding in a tree.

43. If your dog had object agnosia what would she experience?

a.	She couldn’t chew her ball.
b.	She couldn’t feel her ball.
c.	She couldn’t think about her ball.
d.	She couldn’t recognize her ball.
e.	She would no longer like her ball.

44. If your mother was emotionally or behaviorally inconsistent with you, you are most likely to have a/an ______ attachment style.

a.	anxious-ambivalent
b.	secure
c.	disorganized
d.	cooperative
e.	avoidant

45. The brain region most important to human sexual behavior is the

a.	hypothalamus.
b.	cerebellum.
c.	cortex.
d.	amygdala.
e.	basal ganglia.

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Answers:

1. b

2. d

3. a

4. a

5. d

6. a

7. e

8. b

9. c

10. b

11. c

12. a

13. a

14. e

15. d

16. c

17. a

18. a

19. b

20. c

21. d

22. a

23. e

24. c

25. d

26. c

27. b

28. c

29. d

30. d

31. e

32. e

33. b

34. b

35. c

36. b

37. b

38. e

39. b

40. e

41. e

42. b

43. d

44. a

45. a