PSY 120 Purdue Exam #1 Questions With Complete Solutions

What is psychology? correct answer: scientific study of behavior and mind Clinical psychologist correct answer: diagnose and treat psychological problems ex: depression, anxiety, etc, work in clinics or practices, applied psychologist correct answer: extend principles of scientific psychology to practical problems research psychologist correct answer: conduct basic research to discover the principles of behavior and mind mean correct answer: average of a set of scores median correct answer: middle point in set of scores mode correct answer: most frequently occurring score range correct answer: top score - bottom score confounding variable correct answer: uncontrolled variable that changes along with the independent variable, ex: giving an ad to people, must give them same exact ad, time to read it, time of day, etc, in order to have NO confounding variables dependent variable correct answer: behavior that is measured in an experiment ex: how much aggression someone has after they watch something independent variable correct answer: aspect of the environment that is manipulated in an experiment, must consist of two conditions ex: the level of violence in the thing the person watches placebo correct answer: inactive substance that resembles an experimental substance ex: they give people a fake drug in an experiment correlational research correct answer: stats that indicate whether two variables vary together in a systematic way, from +1.00 to -1.00 experimental research correct answer: technique in which the investigator manipulated the environment to observe its effect on the behavior ex: change of external (temperature), internal (mood), or social (presence of someone) quasi-experimental research correct answer: used when people cannot be randomly assigned to experimental groups (bad because you don't know what had manipulation on DV) operational definition correct answer: procedures used in a study to get at (measure) variables ex: intelligence as how well you do on a test resting potential correct answer: created by the presence of electrically charged atoms and molecules called ions its a specific time electric charge inside/outside the cell action potential correct answer: all or none electrical signal that travels down a neuron's axon synaptic gap correct answer: small gap between cells, typically between the terminal buttons of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another neurotransmitters correct answer: chemical molecules that spill out into the synapse and interact chemically with the cell membrane of the next neuron autonomic system correct answer: collection of nerves that controls the more automatic needs of the body (heart rate, digestion, blood pressure); part of the peripheral system sympathetic division correct answer: triggers the release of chemicals, creating a state of readiness parasympathetic division correct answer: calms the body down by slowing heart rate and lowering blood pressure (helps increase the body's supply of stored energy) hindbrain correct answer: sits right where the spinal cord and brain merge, acts as the basic life-support system for the body, and is the oldest part of the brain medulla and pons correct answer: in the hindbrain, associated with heart rate, breathing, sneezing, vomiting, reflexes specifically sensitive to drugs and alcohol reticular formation correct answer: in the hindbrain network of neurons and nerves linked to the control of general arousal, sleep, and consciousness cerebellum correct answer: base of the brain, motor skills midbrain correct answer: middle portion of the brain, containing the tectum, superior colliculus, and interior colliculus, serve as neural relate stations and help coordinate reactions to sensory events forebrain correct answer: outer portion of the brain, including the cerebral cortex and the structures of limbic system cerebral cortex correct answer: outer layer of the brain, seat of higher mental processes, problem solving, thalamus correct answer: close to the midbrain, important in gathering point for input from various senses hypothalamus correct answer: lies just below the thalamus, important in motivation, particularly regulation of eating, drinking, body temp, sexual behavior limbic system correct answer: several interrelated brain structures, amygdala and hippocampus amygdala correct answer: motivational and emotional behaviors, (fear, aggression, and defensive actions) hippocampus correct answer: formation of memories, especially personal events frontal lobes correct answer: act as brain's executive in charge of planning and coordinating voluntary behavior and decision making, problem solving, some remembering, personality, socialization motor cortex correct answer: voluntary muscle movements parietal lobe correct answer: contains somatosensory cortex (experience sensations of touch, temperature, and pain) temporal lobes correct answer: lie on either side of the cortex, process auditory information occipital lobes correct answer: where most visual processing occurs right lobes correct answer: artistic, spatial tasks, emotions left lobe correct answer: mathematical, verbal tasks, speech germinal period correct answer: sperm meets egg and fertilizes it zygote period correct answer: fertilized egg period embryonic period correct answer: once successful implantation occurs this begins, can tell whether its a girl or boy fetal period correct answer: 9th week, bones and muscles develop, increase in size, systems develop teratogens correct answer: any substance/agent that causes abnormal prenatal development infant's vision correct answer: Frantz's Visual Preference Test (show female and male and see which one they look at), depth perception test also, they have 20/400 vision habituation correct answer: decline to responsiveness to repeated events same thing over and over until they get bored sense of smell correct answer: more sensitive than adults, (test by facial expression and preference), extremely sensitive to lemon, sugar, and salt taste correct answer: "sweet tooth", sugary taste, they like it cause they like calories piaget's four stages correct answer: sensorimotor (birth - 2 years) - revolve around babies sense and motory abilities preoperational(2 - 7) - can think about absent options, can use one object to stand for another concrete operational (7 - 11) - can verbalize, visualize, and mentally manipulate objects formal operational (11 - adulthood) can abstract think, become wise conservation correct answer: children at pre operational stage fail to understand this, its conservation of an object assimilation correct answer: process through which we fit into new experiences that are existing in life change blindness correct answer: we see everything - something is clearly in front of you and you don't see it test - show to pictures and one has something different, find the difference stages of sleep correct answer: N1 sleep - return to waves that are a bit lower in amplitude and slightly more irregular (theta waves) N2 sleep - change in the waves, the theta waves are interrupted by sleep spindles (short bursts of activity) and K-complexes (sudden, sharp, intermittent waveforms) N3 sleep - final stage, slow-wave brain patterns (delta activity) REM correct answer: rapid eye movement and low amplitude irregular EEG patterns resembling those found in the waking brain (ass. with dreaming) sleep cycle correct answer: cycle through at 4/5 times, N1N3N1REM, takes 90 minutes, nightmares correct answer: frighting and anxiety-arousing dreams that occur primarily during REM stage of sleep night terrors correct answer: occur mainly in children, terrifying experiences which occur mainly in children, in which the sleeper awakens suddenly in an extreme state of panic habituation - orienting response correct answer: slow or stop responding to an event that has become familiar through repeated presentation sensitization - orienting response correct answer: increased responsiveness, to an event that has been repeated stimulus generalization correct answer: responding to a new stimulus in a way similar to the response produced b an established CS extinction correct answer: presenting the CS repeatedly after conditioning, without the US which results in a loss of responding spontaneous recovery correct answer: recovery of an extinguished response after not seeing the CS for a while taste aversion correct answer: eat something, have a bad experience (sick), you don't wanna eat it or at the place again operant cond. correct answer: instrumental conditioning, procedure for studying how organisms learn about the consequences of their own voluntary actions positive reinforcement correct answer: an event that when presented after a response, increases the likelihood of that response negative reinforcement correct answer: an event that, when removed after a response, increases the likelihood of that response occurring again positive punishment correct answer: an event that when presented after a response, lowers the likelihood of that response occurring again negative punishment correct answer: an event that, when removed after a response, lowers the likelihood of that response occurring again reinforcement correct answer: response consequences that increase the likelihood of responding in a similar way punishment correct answer: consequences that decrease the likelihood of responding in a similar way again schedule of reinforcement correct answer: rule that is used to determine when particular responses will be reinforced fixed-ratio correct answer: schedule in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is fixed and does not change fixed-interval correct answer: schedule in which the reinforcement is delivered for the first response that occurs following a fixed interval of time variable ratio correct answer: schedule in which a certain number of responses are required for reinforcement, but the number of required responses typically changes variable interval correct answer: schedule in which the allotted time before a response will yield reinforcement varies from trial to trial radical behaviorism correct answer: all behavior is a result of reinforcement history encoding correct answer: how memories are formed storage correct answer: how they are kept overtime sensory memory correct answer: exact replica of an environmental message, usually lasts for a second or less short term memory correct answer: working memory, limited-capacity system that we use to hold information after it has been analyzed for period lasting less than a minute or two short term memory capacity correct answer: memory span, about 7 plus or minus 2 numbers, depends on rehearsal or not and chunking rearrangement long term memory correct answer: used to maintain information for extended period of time flashbulb memory correct answer: memories for significant events that happen in life, (what exactly were you doing at one moment, 9/11) memory accuracy correct answer: people were tested by flashbulb memories episodic memories correct answer: a memory for a particular event or episode that happened to you personally, such as remembering what you ate for breakfast primacy effect correct answer: better memory at beginning of list recency effect correct answer: better memory of end of list amnesia correct answer: forgetting caused by physical injury retrograde correct answer: memory loss for events prior to brain injury anterograde correct answer: memory loss for events that happen after point of physical injury sensory neurons correct answer: cells that carry environmental messages towards the spinal cord and brain interneurons correct answer: transfer info from one neuron to the other no contact with outside world motor neurons correct answer: carry info away from central nervous system to muscles and glands that produce behavior dendrites correct answer: fibers that extend outward from a neuron and receive info from other neurons soma correct answer: main body of the cells axon correct answer: tail-like part of a neuron, serves as cells transmitter terminal buttons correct answer: tiny swellings at the end of the axon that contain chemicals important to neural transmission resting potential correct answer: tiny electrical charge in the place between the inside and outside of resting neuron how does information travel down a neuron correct answer: dendrites soma axon terminal buttons