GRE Psychology Subject Test with
Correct Answers
Ablation - ✔ A surgically induced brain lesion.
Absolute refractory period - ✔ The period that follows the onset of an action potential.
During this period, a nerve impulse cannot be initiated
Absolute threshold - ✔ The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory
system.
Accommodation - ✔ A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It occurs
when cognitive structures are modified because new information or new experiences do
not fit into existing cognitive structures.
Acetylcholine - ✔ A neurotransmitter found in both central and peripheral nervous
systems linked to Alzheimer's disease and used to transmit nerve impulses to the
muscles, respectively.
Acrophobia - ✔ A specific phobia that is an irrational fear of heights.
ACT model (Adaptive Control of Thought) - ✔ A model that describes memory in terms
of procedural and declarative memory.
Actor-observer effect - ✔ The tendency of actors to see observer behavior as due to
external factors (situational factors) and the tendency of observers to attribute actors'
behaviors to internal characteristics (dispositional characteristics).
Adrenaline - ✔ A hormone that increases energy available for "fight or flight" reactions
(also known as epinephrine).
Afterimages - ✔ A visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to
a stimulus.
Agnosia - ✔ Impairments in perceptual recognition.
Agoraphobia - ✔ An irrational fear of being in places or situations where escape might
be difficult.
All-or-none law - ✔ A law about nerve impulses stating that when depolarization
reaches the critical threshold (-50 millivolts) the neuron is going to fire, each time, every
time.
,Alternate-form method - ✔ In psychometrics, it is the method of using two or more
different forms of a test to determine the reliability of a particular test.
Altruism - ✔ A form of helping behavior where the person's intent is to benefit someone
else at some cost to him- or herself.
Amnesia - ✔ A dissociative disorder where individuals are unable to recall past
experience, but this inability is not due to a neurological disorder.
Analogy of inoculation - ✔ McGuire's analogy that people can be psychologically
inoculated against the "attack" of persuasive communications by first exposing them to
a weakened attack.
Analyses of Variance (anovas) - ✔ A statistical method to compare the means of more
than two groups by comparing the between-group variance to the within-group variance.
Anchoring - ✔ A cognitive term (a heuristic) that refers to the tendency of people to
make decisions based on reference points, or standards used to make judgements.
Anima (animus) - ✔ An archetype from Jung's theory referring to the feminine
behaviors in males, and the masculine behaviors in females.
Anorexia nervosa - ✔ An eating disorder characterized by a refusal to maintain a
minimal normal body weight.
Anterograde amnesia - ✔ Memory loss for new information following brain injury.
Anti-social personality disorder - ✔ A personality disorder characterized by a pattern of
disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Aphagia. - ✔ An impairment in the ability to eat.
Aphasias - ✔ Language disorders, which are associated with Broca's and Wernicke's
areas in the brain.
Apparent motion - ✔ An illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different locations
on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot.
Apraxia - ✔ An impairment in the organization of voluntary action.
Archetypes - ✔ The building blocks for the collective unconscious referred to in Jung's
theory of personality.
Assimilation - ✔ A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It is the
process of understanding new information in relation to prior knowledge, or existing
schemata.
,Association area - ✔ Areas in the brain that integrate information from different cortical
regions
Atkinson-Shiffin model - ✔ A model of memory that involves three memory structures
(sensory, short-term and long-term), and the processes that operate these memory
structures.
Attachment bond - ✔ Evidence of a preference for the primary caregiver and a
wariness of strangers.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/HD) - ✔ A disorder characterized by
developmentally atypical inattention and/or impulsivity-hyperactivity.
Attribution theory - ✔ Fritz Heider's theory that people tend to infer the causes of other
people's behavior as either dispositional (related to the individual) or situational (related
to the environment).
Authoritarian parenting style - ✔ A parenting style tending to use punitive control
methods and lacking emotional warmth.
Authoritative parenting style - ✔ A parenting style tending to have reasonably high
demands for child compliance coupled with emotional warmth.
Autism - ✔ A disorder whose essential features are lack of responsiveness to other
people, gross impairment in communication skills, and behaviors and interests that are
repetitive, inflexibly routined and stereotyped.
Autokinetic effect - ✔ An illusion that occurs when a spot of light appears to move
erratically in a dark room, simply because there is no frame of reference.
Availability heuristic - ✔ A decision-making short-cut that people tend to use when
trying to decide how likely something is based upon how easily similar instances can be
imagined .
Aversion therapy - ✔ A behavioral therapy of pairing unpleasant stimuli with
undesirable behavior.
Balance theory - ✔ Fritz Heider's consistency theory that is concerned with balance
and imbalance in the ways in which three elements are related
Behavioral contracts - ✔ A therapeutic technique that is a negotiated agreement
between two parties that explicitly stipulates the behavioral change that is desired and
indicates consequences of certain acts.
, Behavioral-stimulants - ✔ A class of drugs that increase behavioral activity by
increasing motor activity or by counteracting fatigue, and which are thought to stimulate
receptors for dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.
Békésy's traveling wave theory - ✔ Proposed by Von Békésy, the theory holds that high
frequency sounds maximally vibrate the basilar membrane near the beginning of the
cochlea close to the oval window and low frequencies maximally vibrate near the apex,
or tip of the cochlea.
Between-subjects design - ✔ An experimental design whereby each subject is exposed
to only one level of each independent variable.
Binocular disparity (stereopsis) - ✔ A cue for depth perception that depends on the fact
that the distance between the eyes provides two slightly disparate views of the world
that, when combined, give us a perception of depth.
Bi-polar disorders - ✔ A mood disorder characterized by both depression and mania.
Boomerang effect - ✔ In theories of attitude persuasion, it is an attitude change in the
opposite direction of the persuader's message.
Borderline personality disorder - ✔ A personality disorder characterized by an instability
in interpersonal behavior, mood and self-image that borders on psychosis.
Bottom-up processing (data-driven processing) - ✔ Information processing that occurs
when objects are recognized by the summation of the components of incoming stimulus
to arrive at the whole pattern.
Brightness - ✔ The subjective impression of the intensity of a light stimulus.
Brightness contrast - ✔ In brightness perception, it refers to a when a particular
luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when
surrounded by a lighter stimulus.
Broca's aphasia - ✔ Impairments in producing spoken language associated with
lesions to Broca's area.
Bulimia nervosa - ✔ An eating disorder that involves binge eating and excessive
attempts to compensate for it by purging, fasting, or excessive exercising.
Bystander effect - ✔ It is the reluctance of people to intervene to help others in
emergency situations when other people also witness the situation.
Cannon-Bard theory - ✔ A theory of emotions stating that awareness of emotions
reflects our physiological arousal and our cognitive experience of emotion.
Correct Answers
Ablation - ✔ A surgically induced brain lesion.
Absolute refractory period - ✔ The period that follows the onset of an action potential.
During this period, a nerve impulse cannot be initiated
Absolute threshold - ✔ The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory
system.
Accommodation - ✔ A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It occurs
when cognitive structures are modified because new information or new experiences do
not fit into existing cognitive structures.
Acetylcholine - ✔ A neurotransmitter found in both central and peripheral nervous
systems linked to Alzheimer's disease and used to transmit nerve impulses to the
muscles, respectively.
Acrophobia - ✔ A specific phobia that is an irrational fear of heights.
ACT model (Adaptive Control of Thought) - ✔ A model that describes memory in terms
of procedural and declarative memory.
Actor-observer effect - ✔ The tendency of actors to see observer behavior as due to
external factors (situational factors) and the tendency of observers to attribute actors'
behaviors to internal characteristics (dispositional characteristics).
Adrenaline - ✔ A hormone that increases energy available for "fight or flight" reactions
(also known as epinephrine).
Afterimages - ✔ A visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to
a stimulus.
Agnosia - ✔ Impairments in perceptual recognition.
Agoraphobia - ✔ An irrational fear of being in places or situations where escape might
be difficult.
All-or-none law - ✔ A law about nerve impulses stating that when depolarization
reaches the critical threshold (-50 millivolts) the neuron is going to fire, each time, every
time.
,Alternate-form method - ✔ In psychometrics, it is the method of using two or more
different forms of a test to determine the reliability of a particular test.
Altruism - ✔ A form of helping behavior where the person's intent is to benefit someone
else at some cost to him- or herself.
Amnesia - ✔ A dissociative disorder where individuals are unable to recall past
experience, but this inability is not due to a neurological disorder.
Analogy of inoculation - ✔ McGuire's analogy that people can be psychologically
inoculated against the "attack" of persuasive communications by first exposing them to
a weakened attack.
Analyses of Variance (anovas) - ✔ A statistical method to compare the means of more
than two groups by comparing the between-group variance to the within-group variance.
Anchoring - ✔ A cognitive term (a heuristic) that refers to the tendency of people to
make decisions based on reference points, or standards used to make judgements.
Anima (animus) - ✔ An archetype from Jung's theory referring to the feminine
behaviors in males, and the masculine behaviors in females.
Anorexia nervosa - ✔ An eating disorder characterized by a refusal to maintain a
minimal normal body weight.
Anterograde amnesia - ✔ Memory loss for new information following brain injury.
Anti-social personality disorder - ✔ A personality disorder characterized by a pattern of
disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Aphagia. - ✔ An impairment in the ability to eat.
Aphasias - ✔ Language disorders, which are associated with Broca's and Wernicke's
areas in the brain.
Apparent motion - ✔ An illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different locations
on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot.
Apraxia - ✔ An impairment in the organization of voluntary action.
Archetypes - ✔ The building blocks for the collective unconscious referred to in Jung's
theory of personality.
Assimilation - ✔ A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It is the
process of understanding new information in relation to prior knowledge, or existing
schemata.
,Association area - ✔ Areas in the brain that integrate information from different cortical
regions
Atkinson-Shiffin model - ✔ A model of memory that involves three memory structures
(sensory, short-term and long-term), and the processes that operate these memory
structures.
Attachment bond - ✔ Evidence of a preference for the primary caregiver and a
wariness of strangers.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/HD) - ✔ A disorder characterized by
developmentally atypical inattention and/or impulsivity-hyperactivity.
Attribution theory - ✔ Fritz Heider's theory that people tend to infer the causes of other
people's behavior as either dispositional (related to the individual) or situational (related
to the environment).
Authoritarian parenting style - ✔ A parenting style tending to use punitive control
methods and lacking emotional warmth.
Authoritative parenting style - ✔ A parenting style tending to have reasonably high
demands for child compliance coupled with emotional warmth.
Autism - ✔ A disorder whose essential features are lack of responsiveness to other
people, gross impairment in communication skills, and behaviors and interests that are
repetitive, inflexibly routined and stereotyped.
Autokinetic effect - ✔ An illusion that occurs when a spot of light appears to move
erratically in a dark room, simply because there is no frame of reference.
Availability heuristic - ✔ A decision-making short-cut that people tend to use when
trying to decide how likely something is based upon how easily similar instances can be
imagined .
Aversion therapy - ✔ A behavioral therapy of pairing unpleasant stimuli with
undesirable behavior.
Balance theory - ✔ Fritz Heider's consistency theory that is concerned with balance
and imbalance in the ways in which three elements are related
Behavioral contracts - ✔ A therapeutic technique that is a negotiated agreement
between two parties that explicitly stipulates the behavioral change that is desired and
indicates consequences of certain acts.
, Behavioral-stimulants - ✔ A class of drugs that increase behavioral activity by
increasing motor activity or by counteracting fatigue, and which are thought to stimulate
receptors for dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.
Békésy's traveling wave theory - ✔ Proposed by Von Békésy, the theory holds that high
frequency sounds maximally vibrate the basilar membrane near the beginning of the
cochlea close to the oval window and low frequencies maximally vibrate near the apex,
or tip of the cochlea.
Between-subjects design - ✔ An experimental design whereby each subject is exposed
to only one level of each independent variable.
Binocular disparity (stereopsis) - ✔ A cue for depth perception that depends on the fact
that the distance between the eyes provides two slightly disparate views of the world
that, when combined, give us a perception of depth.
Bi-polar disorders - ✔ A mood disorder characterized by both depression and mania.
Boomerang effect - ✔ In theories of attitude persuasion, it is an attitude change in the
opposite direction of the persuader's message.
Borderline personality disorder - ✔ A personality disorder characterized by an instability
in interpersonal behavior, mood and self-image that borders on psychosis.
Bottom-up processing (data-driven processing) - ✔ Information processing that occurs
when objects are recognized by the summation of the components of incoming stimulus
to arrive at the whole pattern.
Brightness - ✔ The subjective impression of the intensity of a light stimulus.
Brightness contrast - ✔ In brightness perception, it refers to a when a particular
luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when
surrounded by a lighter stimulus.
Broca's aphasia - ✔ Impairments in producing spoken language associated with
lesions to Broca's area.
Bulimia nervosa - ✔ An eating disorder that involves binge eating and excessive
attempts to compensate for it by purging, fasting, or excessive exercising.
Bystander effect - ✔ It is the reluctance of people to intervene to help others in
emergency situations when other people also witness the situation.
Cannon-Bard theory - ✔ A theory of emotions stating that awareness of emotions
reflects our physiological arousal and our cognitive experience of emotion.
