CLEP Psychology Practice Test 1 Q&A

Psychologists who are interested in behavioral similarities and differences between species are a. biological psychologists. b. experimental psychologists. c. comparative psychologists. d. animal psychologists. e. physiological psychologists. C Employee morale and staff cooperation would be the concern of a(n) a. clinical psychologist. b. forensic psychologist. c. social psychologist. d. industrial and organizational psychologist. e. business psychologist. D To determine if people are coming to a full stop at an intersection with a new stop sign, the best research method would be a(n) a. naturalistic observation. b. experiment. c. case study. d. correlation. e. survey. A If a researcher wished to determine whether heat causes an increase in aggression, the best approach would be to a. observe people in a public park on hot and cold days. b. compare and cross-reference weather reports with crime statistics. c. recruit participants to a university study, put half in a cold room and half in a hot room, and then observe their behavior. d. compare crime rates in countries that are hot vs. cooler. e. ask people if they feel irritable and prone to aggression in the hot weather. C. The only way to determine whether one variable causes another is to do an experiment. Non-experimental methods yield correlational results only. Researchers cannot make causal statements from correlational results. In an experiment, subjects given various amounts of alcohol drive a course marked by orange pylons. The independent variable in this experiment is the a. various amounts of alcohol. b. subjects' driving ability before alcohol consumption. c. subjects' driving ability after alcohol consumption. d. the number of orange pylons hit. e. speed through the obstacle course. A Scientists use replication in order to a. increase validity. b. increase research grants. c. show cause and effect. d. become more confident about their conclusions across a variety of situations. e. satisfy ethics requirements. D The psychological perspective which includes the assumption that people are often unaware of the real motives behind their behavior is a. psychoanalysis. b. trait theory. c. behaviorism. d. cognitive psychology. e. humanistic psychology. A The theorist who claimed that he could make any dozen healthy babies into anything he wished through conditioning was a. Wilhelm Wundt. b. Sigmund Freud. c. Carl Rogers d. B. F. Skinner. e. John Watson. E. Watson was an extreme behaviorist. The primary job of most brain cells is a. transmitting messages. b. picking up sensations from the environment. c. thinking and reasoning. d. providing the brain with nutrients. e. maintaining homeostasis. A The neuron's "senders" are the a. myelin sheaths. b. dendrites. c. axon terminal buttons. d. pons. e. receptor sites. C Activity within a nerve cell is _____; activity between nerve cells is _______. a. positive; negative b. electrical; chemical c. chemical; electrical d. electrical; electrical e. chemical; chemical B The spinal cord is part of the a. peripheral nervous system. b. cerebellum. c. central nervous system. d. reticular activating system. e. parasympathetic system. C The brain's relay station which receives incoming sensory messages and passes them on to the cerebral cortex is the a. corpus callosum. b. hypothalamus. c. limbic system. d. thalamus. e. basal ganglia. D The part of the brain chiefly responsible for emotion is the a. limbic system. b. reticular activating system. c. thalamus. d. corpus callosum. e. hippocampus. A The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system is MOST likely to be activated when you are a. sleeping. b. frightened. c. studying. d. talking to a good friend. e. dreaming. B The association area of the cortex which seems to play a role in planning and problem solving is located in the a. amygdala. b. frontal lobes. c. temporal lobes. d. occipital lobes. e. parietal lobes. B Sarah and James both have brown eyes, but their daughter has blue eyes. What is the MOST likely explanation for this? a. The child is adopted. b. James is not the child's father. c. Eye color is not determined by the dominant-recessive principle. d. The child's eye color will change when she is older. e. Both James and Sarah carry a recessive gene for blue eyes. E The minimum amount of stimulus energy required to stimulate a receptor is the a. just noticeable difference (j.n.d). b. wavelength. c. absolute threshold. d. pattern theory. e. stimulus-receptor prompt. C Which of the following is TRUE about perceiving objects? a. Sensory adaptation allows us to focus on one stimuli among many. b. Our eyes must continuously quiver in order to counteract the effects of sensory adaptation. c. Weber's law is another term for the absolute threshold. d. Perception occurs independently of expectations. e. Perception is the same as sensation. B Cones, unlike rods, will respond to a. movement but not color. b. color but not movement. c. movement but not brightness. d. brightness but not movement. e. both movement and color E The LEAST efficient of the human senses is a. taste. b. touch. c. hearing. d. vision. e. smell. A Movements of the head are detected by a. rods and cones. b. the semicircular canals. c. free nerve endings. d. Krause end bulbs. e. the ear bones in the middle ear. B Todd is shown a card with the stimuli AAABBBCCC and is asked to report what he sees. Todd states that there are three groups of different letters. This illustrates the rule of perceptual organization known as a. similarity. b. gestalt. c. closure. d. continuation. e. proximity. A Binocular vision provides clues regarding a. depth and distance. b. brightness and hue. c. timber and pitch. d. color and size. e. complexity and shape. A Delirium tremens are associated with a. addiction to any drug. b. Parkinson's disease. c. withdrawal from alcohol. d. anxiety disorders. e. withdrawal from stimulants. C Which of the following is TRUE about hypnosis? a. Under hypnosis, people can be forced to do things that violate their morals. b. Everyone can be hypnotized. c. Psychologists generally agree that hypnosis is indeed a divided state of consciousness. d. Hypnosis has enabled some people to go through surgical procedures without anesthetic. e. Recovered memories retrieved under hypnosis are usually reliable. D. Not everyone can be hypnotized, but for those who can, hypnosis can provide remarkable results. Caution should be exercised about accepting the validity of recovered memories, and hypnosis remains a controversial topic in psychology. "Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior" is an incomplete definition of learning because it does not include the role of a. growth. b. conditioning. c. cognition. d. experience. e. reinforcement. D When a child learns not to use swear words in front of his parents, but does so in front of friends, the child is exhibiting the principle of a. stimulus discrimination. b. classical conditioning. c. stimulus generalization. d. selective extinction. e. response generalization. A. The child has learned to tell apart (discriminate) between his parents and his friends. It is often suggested that classically conditioned responses are _____, whereas operantly conditioned responses are _____. a. voluntary, involuntary b. aversive, appetitive c. aversive, reflexive d. reflexes, voluntary e. appetitive, aversive D A psychology student is training a rat to climb a ladder. She first rewards the rat for any movement it makes toward the ladder, and then only when the rat actually makes contact with the ladder. Eventually, the rat must successfully climb the ladder in order to obtain the reward. This student has used the behavioral technique of a. shaping. b. stimulus discrimination. c. negative reinforcement. d. positive reinforcement. e. modeling. A. Shaping is a technique of gradually changing behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the behavior (closer and closer to the target behavior). In general, learning takes place more rapidly with a. continuous reinforcement. b. partial reinforcement. c. random reinforcement. d. no reinforcement. e. intermittent reinforcement. A Systematically applying principles of operant conditioning to influence and change behavior is referred to as a. observational learning. b. mind control. c. classical conditioning. d. psychotherapy. e. behavior modification. E