Psych MCAT Practice Questions
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1. An individual is a very vivid dreamer and has trouble remembering whether
some of the memories they have are real or fictional. The individual is having
trouble with what aspect of memory?: Source monitoring
2. A person is studying for the MCAT, and tends to remember more information
when she takes practice tests in the same room in which she studies. This is an
example of what effect?: Context effect
3. Which kind of memorization involve envisioning yourself walking through a
place and associating each stop within that place with a term?: Method of loci
4. Which kind of memorization involves associating each item in a list with a
rhyming number?: Peg word system
5. Which kind of memorization involves grouping things together in a context
that makes more sense?: Chunking
6. An individual is doing flashcards for the MCAT and slowly, with repetition,
turns their short term memory trace into a long-term memory. The person is
experiencing what phenomenon?: Long term potentiation
7. An individual remembers a time when they played with their dog, which
triggers them to think about a series of memories of them playing with their
other pets. What phenomenon is this person experiencing?: Spreading activation
8. A man had a stroke, and now has trouble recognizing people. What kind of
amnesia is this man experiencing?: Agnosia
9. An individual telling a fun fact begins with "I forget where I heard this but...".
What is this kind of amnesia called?: Source amnesia
10. A raccoon is trained to put coins into a piggy bank. After a few times doing
this successfully, the raccoon then starts dipping the coins in the piggy bank
and pulling them back out, in a similar way by which he washes his food
before he eats it. This confusion between a learned and instinctive behaviour
is called:: Instinctive drift
11. A baby feels a stimulus on their cheek and turns their head towards it. What
reflex is this?: Rooting reflex
12. An infant feels as though they are falling, and they instinctively fling their
arms out and begin crying. Which reflex is this?: Moro reflex
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
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13. An individual finds they remember things best when they relate it to their
own lives. What is the effect called that supports this?: Self-reference effect
14. An individual is attempting to learn something new. They recognize it re-
lates to something they learned in their chemistry class, so they link this new
information to the chemistry concepts they have already stored. What kind of
encoding is this?: Elaborative encoding
15. An individual learns a new fact, and recognizes how it relates to their life in
a meaningful way. They are quickly able to remember the fact, and associate
it with this context each time. What kind of encoding did this individual per-
form?: Semantic encoding
16. A rat is exposed to a constant shock until they press a blue lever. The rat
learns to press the lever and the stimulus stops. The rat is experiencing what
kind of learning?: Escape learning
17. A rat is exposed to a constant shock at a certain area in their cage until
they press a blue lever to make it stop. Though the rat begins by pressing the
blue lever to stop the shock, over time it learns to stay out of that area of the
cage to prevent the shock in the first place. What kind of learning is the rat
experiencing?: Avoidance learning
18. A dog hears the word "treat" which it associates as an indicator that a reward
may be nearby. What kind of stimulus is the word "treat"?: Discriminative stimulus
19. A researcher uses positive punishment in a mouse, using a shock stimulus
to discourage a certain behaviour. Which term most closely resembles positive
punishment?: Aversive conditioning
20. An individual experiences a traumatic brain injury and sustains damage to
their lateral hypothalamus. What would be the expected effect in this individ-
ual?: Lack of hunger
21. A monkey watches an adult perform an action, and subsequently performs
this action themselves. This observational learning is aided by which kind of
neurons?: Mirror neurons
22. As an individual learns more, old connections that have not been rehearsed
recently begin to deteriorate to make way for new information. This effect is
labeled as:: Synaptic pruning
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
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23. A dog is trained to associate the ringing of a bell with the presentation of
a treat, which causes him to salivate upon hearing a bell. The use of classical
conditioning to turn this neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus is called:-
: Acquisition
24. A bird performs a specific whistle, and every time the bird performs this
whistle, it is rewarded. What kind of reinforcement is this?: Continuous reinforcement
(a kind of fixed ratio)
25. A child is given a treat when they say "Mama" three times in a row. What kind
of reinforcement schedule is this?: Fixed ratio
26. A rat presses a lever, and is rewarded every 30 seconds after the lever is
pressed. What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Fixed interval
27. A mouse is given a treat when it presses a lever a certain number of times,
with the number changing each time (but the average presses remaining
constant). What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Variable ratio
28. A man wants to train his new dog. Which reinforcement schedule should the
man select for the most effect?: Variable ratio
29. A rat is rewarded after an amount of time passes after he presses a lever. The
rat is first rewarded after 30 seconds, then upon the next press he is rewarded
after 45 seconds, then upon the next press he is rewarded after 15 seconds.
What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Variable interval
30. A dog sits, a behaviour which was learned naturally without a reward. How-
ever, when the owner presents a dog with a treat, the dog immediately sits
down. This spontaneous behaviour is called: Latent learning
31. An individual practices juggling while drunk. When they attempt to juggle
while sober, they struggle, but when they are intoxicated once again, they can
juggle without a problem. This example demonstrates what effect?: State-dependent
effect
32. An individual is trying to learn how to do long division, but their previous
lessons in multiplication keep interfering with their ability to learn this new
task. This is an example of what kind of priming?: Negative priming
33. An individual is learning how to do long division, and the previous lessons
they have had in division are improving their ability to understand and process
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
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the new information in the lesson. This is an example of what kind of priming?-
: Positive priming
34. An individual has Korsakoff's syndrome, described as a deficiency of thi-
amine creating a series of amnesia-related symptoms, both anterograde and
retrograde. When examined, it is demonstrated that the individual has created
a series of false memories in order to bridge the gaps in their memory caused
by the syndrome. This individual is performing what process?: Confabulation
35. As one ages, they tend to forget memories to make room for new ones.
Which term best describes this process of natural memory loss over time?: Decay
36. A child caring for their mother with Alzheimer's notices that her mother's
symptoms/dysfunction tends to get worse in the evening. What term is pre-
scribed to this phenomenon?: Sundowning
37. An individual has had two experiences skydiving, once with friends and once
alone. When describing the experience of skydiving with friends, the person
incorrectly states that the place they went skydiving with friends is the place
they went alone, incorporating a false detail into the memory due to mixing up
the two experiences. What term best describes the error performed?: Intrusion
error
38. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize
them all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall
the words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words,
but forgets most of the words in the middle of the list. The participant is
experiencing what effect?: Serial position effect
39. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize them
all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall the
words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words, but
forgets most of the words in the middle of the list. What effect best describes
the ability of the participant to remember the first three words?: Primacy effect
40. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize them
all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall the
words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words, but
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_dhkqeu
1. An individual is a very vivid dreamer and has trouble remembering whether
some of the memories they have are real or fictional. The individual is having
trouble with what aspect of memory?: Source monitoring
2. A person is studying for the MCAT, and tends to remember more information
when she takes practice tests in the same room in which she studies. This is an
example of what effect?: Context effect
3. Which kind of memorization involve envisioning yourself walking through a
place and associating each stop within that place with a term?: Method of loci
4. Which kind of memorization involves associating each item in a list with a
rhyming number?: Peg word system
5. Which kind of memorization involves grouping things together in a context
that makes more sense?: Chunking
6. An individual is doing flashcards for the MCAT and slowly, with repetition,
turns their short term memory trace into a long-term memory. The person is
experiencing what phenomenon?: Long term potentiation
7. An individual remembers a time when they played with their dog, which
triggers them to think about a series of memories of them playing with their
other pets. What phenomenon is this person experiencing?: Spreading activation
8. A man had a stroke, and now has trouble recognizing people. What kind of
amnesia is this man experiencing?: Agnosia
9. An individual telling a fun fact begins with "I forget where I heard this but...".
What is this kind of amnesia called?: Source amnesia
10. A raccoon is trained to put coins into a piggy bank. After a few times doing
this successfully, the raccoon then starts dipping the coins in the piggy bank
and pulling them back out, in a similar way by which he washes his food
before he eats it. This confusion between a learned and instinctive behaviour
is called:: Instinctive drift
11. A baby feels a stimulus on their cheek and turns their head towards it. What
reflex is this?: Rooting reflex
12. An infant feels as though they are falling, and they instinctively fling their
arms out and begin crying. Which reflex is this?: Moro reflex
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_dhkqeu
13. An individual finds they remember things best when they relate it to their
own lives. What is the effect called that supports this?: Self-reference effect
14. An individual is attempting to learn something new. They recognize it re-
lates to something they learned in their chemistry class, so they link this new
information to the chemistry concepts they have already stored. What kind of
encoding is this?: Elaborative encoding
15. An individual learns a new fact, and recognizes how it relates to their life in
a meaningful way. They are quickly able to remember the fact, and associate
it with this context each time. What kind of encoding did this individual per-
form?: Semantic encoding
16. A rat is exposed to a constant shock until they press a blue lever. The rat
learns to press the lever and the stimulus stops. The rat is experiencing what
kind of learning?: Escape learning
17. A rat is exposed to a constant shock at a certain area in their cage until
they press a blue lever to make it stop. Though the rat begins by pressing the
blue lever to stop the shock, over time it learns to stay out of that area of the
cage to prevent the shock in the first place. What kind of learning is the rat
experiencing?: Avoidance learning
18. A dog hears the word "treat" which it associates as an indicator that a reward
may be nearby. What kind of stimulus is the word "treat"?: Discriminative stimulus
19. A researcher uses positive punishment in a mouse, using a shock stimulus
to discourage a certain behaviour. Which term most closely resembles positive
punishment?: Aversive conditioning
20. An individual experiences a traumatic brain injury and sustains damage to
their lateral hypothalamus. What would be the expected effect in this individ-
ual?: Lack of hunger
21. A monkey watches an adult perform an action, and subsequently performs
this action themselves. This observational learning is aided by which kind of
neurons?: Mirror neurons
22. As an individual learns more, old connections that have not been rehearsed
recently begin to deteriorate to make way for new information. This effect is
labeled as:: Synaptic pruning
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_dhkqeu
23. A dog is trained to associate the ringing of a bell with the presentation of
a treat, which causes him to salivate upon hearing a bell. The use of classical
conditioning to turn this neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus is called:-
: Acquisition
24. A bird performs a specific whistle, and every time the bird performs this
whistle, it is rewarded. What kind of reinforcement is this?: Continuous reinforcement
(a kind of fixed ratio)
25. A child is given a treat when they say "Mama" three times in a row. What kind
of reinforcement schedule is this?: Fixed ratio
26. A rat presses a lever, and is rewarded every 30 seconds after the lever is
pressed. What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Fixed interval
27. A mouse is given a treat when it presses a lever a certain number of times,
with the number changing each time (but the average presses remaining
constant). What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Variable ratio
28. A man wants to train his new dog. Which reinforcement schedule should the
man select for the most effect?: Variable ratio
29. A rat is rewarded after an amount of time passes after he presses a lever. The
rat is first rewarded after 30 seconds, then upon the next press he is rewarded
after 45 seconds, then upon the next press he is rewarded after 15 seconds.
What kind of reinforcement schedule is this?: Variable interval
30. A dog sits, a behaviour which was learned naturally without a reward. How-
ever, when the owner presents a dog with a treat, the dog immediately sits
down. This spontaneous behaviour is called: Latent learning
31. An individual practices juggling while drunk. When they attempt to juggle
while sober, they struggle, but when they are intoxicated once again, they can
juggle without a problem. This example demonstrates what effect?: State-dependent
effect
32. An individual is trying to learn how to do long division, but their previous
lessons in multiplication keep interfering with their ability to learn this new
task. This is an example of what kind of priming?: Negative priming
33. An individual is learning how to do long division, and the previous lessons
they have had in division are improving their ability to understand and process
, Psych MCAT Practice Questions
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_dhkqeu
the new information in the lesson. This is an example of what kind of priming?-
: Positive priming
34. An individual has Korsakoff's syndrome, described as a deficiency of thi-
amine creating a series of amnesia-related symptoms, both anterograde and
retrograde. When examined, it is demonstrated that the individual has created
a series of false memories in order to bridge the gaps in their memory caused
by the syndrome. This individual is performing what process?: Confabulation
35. As one ages, they tend to forget memories to make room for new ones.
Which term best describes this process of natural memory loss over time?: Decay
36. A child caring for their mother with Alzheimer's notices that her mother's
symptoms/dysfunction tends to get worse in the evening. What term is pre-
scribed to this phenomenon?: Sundowning
37. An individual has had two experiences skydiving, once with friends and once
alone. When describing the experience of skydiving with friends, the person
incorrectly states that the place they went skydiving with friends is the place
they went alone, incorporating a false detail into the memory due to mixing up
the two experiences. What term best describes the error performed?: Intrusion
error
38. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize
them all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall
the words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words,
but forgets most of the words in the middle of the list. The participant is
experiencing what effect?: Serial position effect
39. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize them
all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall the
words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words, but
forgets most of the words in the middle of the list. What effect best describes
the ability of the participant to remember the first three words?: Primacy effect
40. A participant of a study is given a list of words and asked to memorize them
all and repeat them back to the researcher. When attempting to recall the
words, the participant most accurately states the first 3 and last 3 words, but
