PSYC 3520 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSYC 3520 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 amygdala - Answers an area of the brain that is involved in emotional reactions clinical interview - Answers a procedure in which questions are adjusted in accord with the answers the interviewee provides cognitive development - Answers the development of thinking and reasoning continuous development - Answers the idea that changes with age occur gradually, in small increments, like that of a pine tree growing taller and taller control group - Answers the group of participants in an experimental design who are not presented the experience of interest but in other ways are treated similarly correlation - Answers the association between two variables correlational designs - Answers studies intended to indicate how two variables are related to each other cross-sectional design - Answers a research method in which participants of different ages are compared on a given behavior or characteristic over a short period cumulative risk - Answers the accumulation of disadvantages over years of development dependent variable - Answers a behavior that is measured to determine whether it is affected by exposure to the independent variable direction-of-causation problem - Answers the concept that a correlation between two variables does not indicate which, if either, variable is the cause of the other discontinuous development - Answers the idea that changes with age include occasional large shifts, like the transition from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly epigenetics - Answers the study of stable changes in gene expression that are mediated by the environment experimental control - Answers the ability of researchers to determine the specific experiences of participants during the course of an experiment experimental designs - Answers a group of approaches that allow inferences about causes and effects to be drawn experimental group - Answers the group of participants in an experimental design who are presented the experience of interest external validity - Answers the degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the research genome - Answers each person's complete set of hereditary information hypotheses - Answers testable predictions of the presence or absence of phenomena or relations independent variable - Answers the experience that participants in the experimental group receive and that those in the control group do not receive internal validity - Answers the degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing interrater reliability - Answers the amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behavior longitudinal design - Answers a method of study in which the same participants are studied twice or more over a substantial length of time meta-analysis - Answers a method for combining the results from independent studies to reach conclusions based on all of them methylation - Answers a biochemical process that influences behavior by suppressing gene activity and expression microgenetic design - Answers a method of study in which the same children are studied repeatedly over a short period naturalistic observation - Answers examination of ongoing behavior in an environment not controlled by the researcher nature - Answers our biological endowment; the genes we receive from our parents neurotransmitters - Answers chemicals involved in communication among brain cells nurture - Answers the environments, both physical and social, that influence our development questionnaire - Answers a method that allows researchers to gather information from a large number of participants simultaneously by presenting them a uniform set of printed questions random assignment - Answers a procedure in which each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each group within an experiment reliability - Answers the degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent scientific method - Answers an approach to testing beliefs that involves choosing a question, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion sociocultural context - Answers the physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that make up any child's environment socioeconomic status (SES) - Answers a measure of social class based on income and education stage theories - Answers approaches proposing that development involves a series of large, discontinuous, age- related phases structured interview - Answers a research procedure in which all participants are asked to answer the same questions structured observation - Answers a method that involves presenting an identical situation to each participant and recording the participant's behavior test-retest reliability - Answers the degree of similarity of a participant's performance on two or more occasions third-variable problem - Answers the concept that a correlation between two variables may stem from both being influenced by some third variable validity - Answers the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure variables - Answers attributes that vary across individuals and situations, such as age, sex, and popularity amniotic sac - Answers a transparent, fluid-filled membrane that surrounds and protects the fetus Apgar score - Answers method for evaluating the health of the newborn immediately following birth based on skin tone, pulse rate, facial response, arm and leg activity, and breathing apoptosis - Answers genetically programmed cell death cephalocaudal development - Answers the pattern of growth in which areas near the head develop earlier than areas farther from the head colic - Answers excessive, inconsolable crying by a young infant for no apparent reason conception - Answers the union of an egg from the mother and a sperm from the father developmental resilience - Answers successful development in spite of multiple and seemingly overwhelming developmental hazards dishabituation - Answers the introduction of a new stimulus rekindles interest following habituation to a repeated stimulus does-reponse relatation - Answers a relation in which the effect of exposure to an element increases with the extent of exposure (prenatally, the more exposure a fetus has to a potential teratogen, the more sever its effect is likely to be embryo - Answers the developing organism from the 3rd to 8th week of prenatal development embryonic stem cells - Answers embryonic cells, which can develop into any type of body cell epigenesis - Answers the emergence of new structures and functions in the course of development fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) - Answers the harmful effects of maternal alcohol consumption on a developing fetus. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) involves a range of effects, including facial deformities, intellectual disabilities, attention problems, hyperactivity, and other defects. Fetal alcohol effects (FAE) is a term used for individuals who show some, but not all, of the standard effects of FAS. fetus - Answers the developing organism from the 9th week to birth fraternal (dizygotic) twins - Answers twins that result when two eggs happen to be released into the fallopian tube at the same time and are fertilized by two different sperm; fraternal twins have only half their genes in common gametes (germ cells) - Answers reproductive cells—egg and sperm—that contain only half the genetic material of all the other cells in the body habituation - Answers a simple form of learning that involves a decrease in response to repeated or continued stimulation identical (monozygotic) twins - Answers twins that result from the splitting in half of the zygote, resulting in each of the two resulting zygotes having exactly the same set of genes infant mortality - Answers death during the first year after birth low birth weight (LBW) - Answers a birth weight of less than 51⁄2 pounds (2500 grams) meiosis - Answers cell division that produces gametes (egg and sperm) mitosis - Answers cell division that results in two identical cells neural tube - Answers a groove formed in the top layer of differentiated cells in the embryo that eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord non-REM sleep - Answers a quiet or deep sleep state characterized by the absence of motor activity or eye movements and more regular, slow brain waves, breathing, and heart rate phylogenetic continuity - Answers the idea that because of our common evolutionary history, humans share many characteristics, behaviors, and developmental processes with non-human animals, especially mammals (smell) placenta - Answers a support organ for the fetus; it keeps the circulatory systems of the fetus and mother separate, but a semipermeable membrane permits the exchange of some materials between them (oxygen and nutrients from mother to fetus, and carbon dioxide and waste products from fetus to mother) premature - Answers any child born at 35 weeks after conception or earlier (as opposed to the normal term of 38 weeks) rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - Answers an active sleep state characterized by quick, jerky eye movements under closed lids and associated with dreaming in adults sensitive period - Answers the period of time during which a developing organism is most sensitive to the effects of external factors small for gestational age - Answers babies who weigh substantially less than is normal for whatever their gestational age state - Answers level of arousal and engagement in the environment, ranging from deep sleep to intense activity sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - Answers the sudden, unexpected death of an infant less than 1 year of age that has no identifiable cause swaddling - Answers a soothing technique, used in many cultures, that involves wrapping a baby tightly in cloths or a blanket teratogen - Answers an external agent that can cause damage or death during prenatal development umbilical cord - Answers a tube containing the blood vessels connecting the fetus and placenta zygote - Answers a fertilized egg cell alleles - Answers two or more different forms of a gene arborization - Answers formation of new dendritic trees and branches association areas - Answers parts of the brain that lie between the major sensory and motor areas and that process and integrate input from those areas axons - Answers neural fibers that conduct electrical signals away from the cell body to connections with other neurons behavior genetics - Answers the science concerned with how variation in behavior and development results from the combination of genetic and environmental factors carrier genetic testing - Answers genetic testing used to determine whether prospective parents are carriers of specific disorders cell body - Answers a component of the neuron that contains the basic biological material that keeps the neuron functioning cerebral cortex - Answers the "gray matter" of the brain, consisting of four distinct lobes cerebral hemispheres - Answers the two halves of the cortex cerebral lateralization - Answers the specialization of the hemispheres of the brain for different modes of processing chromosomes - Answers molecules of DNA that transmit genetic information; chromosomes are made up of DNA corpus callosum - Answers a dense tract of nerve fibers that enable the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate crossing over - Answers the process by which sections of DNA switch from one chromosome to the other; crossing over promotes variability among individuals dendrites - Answers neural fibers that receive input from other cells and conduct it toward the cell body in the form of electrical impulses DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) - Answers molecules that carry all the biochemical instructions involved in the formation and functioning of an organism dominant allele - Answers the allele that, if present, gets expressed endophenotypes - Answers intermediate phenotypes, including the brain and nervous systems, that do not involve overt behavior (mediate the pathways between genes and behavior)