PSY 2012 EXAM 2 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSY 2012 EXAM 2 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 Psychology - Answers The scientific study of behaviors and mental processes. The Scientific Method - Answers Follows six steps: 1) Identify a question 2) Formulate a hypothesis 3) Test via research designs 4) Collect and analyze data 5) Draw conclusions 6) Theory Development Operational Definition - Answers A precise definition that defines variables of interest in terms of how they are measured. Descriptive Research Design - Answers Describes phenomena without manipulation Correlational Research Design - Answers Establishes associations between variables. Positive correlation means variables change in the same direction.; Negative means they change in opposite directions. Correlation does NOT equal causation Experimental Research Design - Answers Allows for casual conclusion by manipulating an Independent Variable to see its effect on a Dependent variable Minimizing Bias - Answers Includes using Random Assignment to ensure participants have an equal chance of being in experimental or control groups Ethics - Answers Key principles include privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, and minimal harm Neurons - Answers The nervous system's messengers Dendrites - Answers receive messages from other cells Axons - Answers Carry impulses away from the cell body Types of neurons - Answers sensory, motor, interneurons Central Nervous System (CNS) - Answers consists of the brain and spinal cord PNS (peripheral nervous system) - Answers the sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) - Answers a set of nerves that carries involuntary and automatic commands that control blood vessels, body organs, and glands Hindbrain - Answers Medulla (survival functions), Pons (sleep/arousal), Reticular Formation (alertness), and Cerebellum (motor movement/balance). Limbic System - Answers Amygdala (emotion) and Hippocampus (memory consolidation). Cerebral Cortex - Answers Four lobes including the Parietal Lobe (processes touch) and Frontal Lobe. Broca's area - Answers Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech. Neuroplasticity - Answers the ability within the brain to constantly change both the structure and function of many cells in response to experience or trauma Corpus Callosum - Answers a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain. Sensation - Answers the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment Perception - Answers the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events Wernicke's area - Answers controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe Vicarious Learning - Answers learning the consequences of an action by watching others being rewarded or punished for performing the action Episodic Memory - Answers the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place Semantic Memory - Answers a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world Procedural Memory - Answers a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits Emotional Conditioning - Answers classical conditioning in which the CR is an emotional reaction Misinformation effect - Answers incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event Misattribution effect - Answers also called source amnesia - occurs when one has a memory correct, but the origin of the memory wrong Classical conditioning - Answers a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events Operant Conditioning - Answers a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher Primary reinforcement - Answers an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need Secondary reinforcement - Answers Something that you have learned to value, like money. Transduction - Answers The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity Differential threshold - Answers the ability of a sensory system to detect changes in or differences between two stimuli Absolute threshold - Answers the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time Sensory adaptation - Answers diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation Behaviorism - Answers the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only Vision & Hearing - Answers Rods/cones are for vision; hair cells inside the cochlea are receptors for hearing. Slow fibers - Answers Sensory receptors in skin, muscles, organs, and membranes around both bones and joints; these unmyelinated fibers slowly convey intense sensory input to the brain, where it is perceived as chronic, dull, steady pain. Fast fibers - Answers Sensory receptors in skin, muscles, organs, and membranes around both bones and joints; these myelinated fibers quickly convey intense sensory input to the brain, where it is perceived as sharp, immediate pain. Gate control theory - Answers the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain. Bottom-up processing - Answers analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information Top-down processing - Answers the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole Gestalt Principles - Answers ways for the brain to infer missing parts of a picture when a picture is incomplete Proximity effect - Answers the social, psychological, cultural, or physical distance between a decision maker and those affected by his or her decisions unconditioned stimulus - Answers A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning unconditioned response - Answers In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth. neutral stimulus (NS) - Answers in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning condtioned stimulus - Answers a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place conditioned response - Answers in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)