Exact Questions From The First Test

Front 1

***** Robert Tryon bred two strains of rats based on their "errors" in a maze. Over a number of generations, the difference in "error" rates between the two strains grew greater and greater. Why was it a mistake to label (and think of) these rats as "bright" and "dull"? Propose a more appropriate set of labels for the two strains of rats.

Back 1

The labels "bright" and "dull" suggest that it was some rather general intelligence that was being selected for, when, in fact, it was a very specific behavior--more or less turning--in a specific maze. The researchers assumed that not moving as quickly and directly as possible to the food reward was indicative of less intelligence (rather than, as plausibly, indicative of more or less tendency to explore). Subsequent research found, in fact, that the supposedly "dull" rats did just as well or better than the "bright" rats on other learning tasks. So better labels would be much more precise descriptions of the behavior, without introducing assumptions about the underlying psychology. For example, "Low-turners" and "High-turners."

Front 2

A __________ experimental design is one in which neither the experimenters nor subjects know who has been assigned to the control group and the experimental group.

Back 2

double-blind

Front 3

***** Why are the results of Dutton and Aron's "Scary Bridge" study a problem for Introspectionism?

Back 3

Valid introspection on our mental processes relies on the notion that the motivations of our behavior are available to consciousness. The scary bridge study demonstrated that heightened fearfulness resulted in men making more phone calls to the female researcher, an influence on their behavior of which they were not conscious. It is unlikely that these men would have accurately introspected and identified this heightened fear as the cause of their phoning behavior.

Front 4

The ___________ nervous system, which is one part of the autonomic nervous system, prepares the body for action.

Back 4

sympathetic

Front 5

***** Neuroscientists have recently discovered in humans and in some nonhuman primates organized systems of neurons that facilitate imitation. They are referred to as _________ neurons.

Back 5

mirror

Front 6

The process of reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behavior is known as ________ .

Back 6

shaping

Front 7

***** The __________ connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Back 7

corpus callosum

Front 8

There are two major fallacies that tend to crop up in thinking about the influence of evolution and genes on our behavior. Name them and briefly describe them.

Back 8

Deterministic fallacy: the idea that our behavior is basically set--determined--by our genes and there's little difference made by the environment.

Naturalistic fallacy: the idea that evolved traits or behaviors must be morally correct, must reflect the "proper" state of nature.

Front 9

***** Explain why a study with 40 genetically-identical mice raised in an identical, very interesting, stimulating environment, supports UVa professor Eric Turkheimer's theory of why identical twins often do not end up with identical personalities.

Back 9

Turkheimer's idea is that small, random events that happen to one twin but not the other, sometimes start in motion different behavioral feedback loops, resulting in the development of different personalities over time. The study with mice is important because it controlled the genetics--all identical, just like human twins--and it controlled the environment by raising them all in the same, spacious cage, so they could not have been systematically treated differently. Still, the mice did not all end up with the same "personalities"; e.g., they varied in how much exploratory behavior they displayed, apparently because of random different experiences with their early exploratory attempts.

Front 10

It is called _____________ when animals show a conditioned response not just to the original conditioned stimulus, but also to new stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus.

Back 10

generalization

Front 11

Kristen continues to break her curfew, so her parents decide to take her cell phone away for 2 weeks. In the language of operant conditioning, what would this type of disciplinary approach be called?

Back 11

negative punishment

Front 12

*****According to the empiricists, the most basic operating principle of mental processes is the law of __________ .

Back 12

association by contiguity

Front 13

What are two key pieces of evidence supporting the idea that many human emotional facial expressions are examples of species-typical behaviors?

Back 13

Universality: people in very different cultures, including ones with little contact with others, make and recognize the same basic emotional expressions identified by Ekman and Friesen.People blind from birth make the same expressions, indicating that the expressions are biologically-prepared and not learned by observation.

Front 14

The two broad theories that explain altruistic behavior, ultimately, in terms of self-interest are __________ and ___________ .

Back 14

kin selection theory

reciprocity theory

Front 15

Robert Trivers theorized that differences between species in courtship and mating patterns could be largely explained by sex differences in ____________ .

Back 15

parental investment

Front 16

Adolescents should not be held to the same standards as a 30-year old when it comes to taking responsibility for poor planning or decision making. This is because the _________ lobe, which controls the ability to plan and synthesize information, does not fully develop until the mid-20s.

Back 16

frontal

Front 17

The ____________ facilitates the electrical transmission of axons. Deterioration of these structures has been implicated in multiple sclerosis.

Back 17

myelin sheath

Front 18

A coffee shop gives customers a free coffee coupon after they buy 10 coffees. This is an example of a ______ ______ schedule of reinforcement.

Back 18

fixed ratio

Front 19

In the video clip from “The Office”, Dwight’s behavior of reaching for the Altoid is an example of operant conditioning; Dwight’s dry mouth after the sound of the computer is an example of _________ conditioning.

Back 19

operant, classical/pavlovian

Front 20

The ________ is referred to as a “relay station” that receives and routes sensory input.

Back 20

thalamus

Front 21

***** Assume you have a set of scores on some variable. What does the standard deviation tell us? Explain in simple, but concrete, practical terms.

Back 21

Each score has a deviation--the difference between it and the mean for the group of scores. A standard deviation is basically the average deviation, the average amount that scores on the variable, measured for some group, differ from the mean for that group.

Front 22

what kind of a study design is the comparison of facial photos and a photo of a small patch of skin?

Back 22

correlational

Front 23

Neonate mimicry of adult tongue protrusion is consistent with the ideas of __________

Back 23

Immanuel Kant

Front 24

what didRescorla demonstrate?

Back 24

A conditioned stimulus becomes only a predictor of the unconditioned stimulus. That is, it does not become intrinsically feared or desired just like the original unconditioned stimulus.

Front 25

Functionalist explanations (specifying survival and reproductive adaptiveness) for particular behaviors or traits may not always be necessary. What are three viable non-functionalist explanations for the existence of some traits?

Back 25

traits are vestigial

traits survive just by chance

traits are by-products of natural selection for other traits

Front 26

Which historical "school" of philosophy or psychology is most consistent with Scott and Fuller’s findings about fearfulness in basenji and cocker spaniel dogs?

Back 26

nativist

Front 27

The Literacy Digest’s poll of U.S. voters in 1936 failed to predict the presidential election. The Digest’s poll showed Alfred Landon would beat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the election, but it turned out that Roosevelt won by a landslide. This failure of prediction was due to:

Back 27

Biased samples

Front 28

Which of the following measures of a variable's central tendency is most affected by outliers?A.quartile

B.mean

C.median

D.mode

Back 28

mean

Front 29

The bridge study conducted by Dutton and Aron was a quasi-experiment. What change would be necessary in order to turn this study into a true experiment?

Back 29

Randomly assign male participants to the scary bridge condition or the safe bridge condition.

Front 30

Greenwald et al. (1991) studied the effects of audiotapes that were claimed to subliminally improve either memory or self-esteem. Greenwald randomly assigned participants to listen to a tape that was labeled as either memory- or self-esteem enhancing, regardless of what the supposed content was. What does the graph of the results if Greenwald measured participants' perceptions of their self-esteem improvement look like? (Words in each bar indicate the supposed content of the tape)

Back 30

Front 31

what numbers indicate a perfect correlation?

Back 31

-1 and 1

Front 32

Which of the following is NOT true for Descartes’s version of dualism?

A. Human thoughts derive from the brain.

B. Reflexes illustrate that bodily movements can occur without the soul.

C. The soul is a non-material entity.

D. The soul acts on the body at a particular location in the brain.

Back 32

A. Human thoughts derive from the brain.

Front 33

Which of these general modern understandings of mental functioning were demonstrated by Broca's and Wernicke’s work on aphasias? [Select all that are correct]

A. Physical basis of mental functioning

B. Long-term potentiation

C. Contralateral organization

D. Modularity of brain function

Back 33

A. Physical basis of mental functioning

D. Modularity of brain function

Front 34

Which of the following would most likely produce the strongest classical conditioning?

A. The potential conditioned stimulus follows the unconditioned stimulus.

B. The potential conditioned stimulus occurs both before the unconditioned stimulus and also at other times.

C. The potential conditioned stimulus only occurs just before the unconditioned stimulus.

D. The potential conditioned stimulus is added to an already established conditioned stimulus.

Back 34

C.The potential conditioned stimulus only occurs just before the unconditioned stimulus.

Front 35

Which of these was a flaw in the "Ankle-Shoulder Squeeze" experiment we conducted in class? [Select all that are flaws]

A. Five trials in each condition instead of simply one per condition.

B. Participants were aware of the hypothesis.

C. The same participants were in each condition.

D. Participants' eyes being closed.

E. Experimenter controlled the measurement of time.

F. One order of conditions: ankle squeezing first, shoulder squeezing second.

Back 35

B. Participants were aware of the hypothesis.

E. Experimenter controlled the measurement of time.

F. One order of conditions: ankle squeezing first, shoulder squeezing second.

Front 36

Which of the following was a new proximate explanation offered by Durante et al. (2012) for ovulating women's increased interest in "sexy cads"?

Back 36

The "sexy cads" were perceived as better fathers.

Front 37

The characteristic of food-aversion learning that makes it distinct from classical conditioning learning is ...

Back 37

there must be a delay between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (a few minutes or longer)

Front 38

Imprinting is best considered an example of ...

Back 38

a specialized learning ability.

Front 39

Which of these responses would be expected of a typical split-brain patient when a noun is flashed in the left visual field? [Select all that are correct]

A. be able to say the word aloud.

B. claim to see nothing.

C. be able to draw a reasonably accurate picture of the item with the left hand.

D. be able to draw a reasonably accurate picture of the item with the right hand.

Back 39

B. claim to see nothing.

D. be able to draw a reasonably accurate picture of the item with the right hand.

Front 40

Which lobe of the cortex develops most quickly in humans?

Back 40

occipital

Front 41

In men, the somatosensory and primary motor cortices devote the most tissue to which of the following body parts:

A. penis

B. knee

C. lips

D. hip

E. elbow

Back 41

C. lips

Front 42

Peterson conducted a PET study to discover which brain areas are activated for various language-related tasks. Which of the following is a correct pairing between task and brain area?

A. seeing words & frontal lobe

B. hearing words & temporal lobe

C. generating words & parietal lobe

D. repeating words & occipital lobe

Back 42

B. hearing words & temporal lobe

Front 43

Rats are exposed to a high-pitch noise that is irritating. If they push a lever, the noise stops. As a result, they quickly press the lever whenever the noise occurs. In the language of operant conditioning, what would this type of behavior modification approach be called?

Back 43

negative, reinforcement

Front 44

Research has demonstrated that rats raised in more enriched environments have a greater number of neurons especially in the brain structure, __________, that is most linked to memory and learning.

Back 44

hippocampus

Front 45

Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment is best known for demonstrating ___________.

Back 45

observational learning

Front 46

Which of the following is NOT true for action potentials?

A. The rate of action potentials produced by a given neuron can vary.

B. The strength of the impulse is constant.

C. Their transmission is bidirectional.

D. Their firing is all-or-nothing.

Back 46

Their transmission is bidirectional.

Front 47

what is the name of the process that records brain activity electrically by placing electrodes on a person’s scalp?

Back 47

EEG

Front 48

According to UVa neuroscientist Jim Coan, increased activity in which region of the brain tends to be associated with increased risk for anxiety and depression problems?

Back 48

right hemisphere

Front 49

Most drugs used to change a person’s mood or behavior work by altering…

Back 49

synaptic transmission processes.

Front 50

What initially caused sickle-shaped blood cells?

Back 50

Mutation.