Psychology GRE - Practice Questions
The ability of a postsynaptic neuron to respond to the presence of a particular neurotransmitter that is
released from a neighboring presynaptic neuron is dependent on which of the following conditions? -
ANS The presence of receptors on the post synaptic neuron that have an affinity for that particular
neurotransmitter
Critics have argued that projective tests are too - ANS Subjective
Organizing the string of letters B-F-J-T-A-V-K-C into JFK-TV-CAB is an example of - ANS Chunking
When persuasive communications follow the peripheral route, they focus on which of the following? -
ANS Emotions
Consider the sentence "the dishwasher is running", which of the following is true? - ANS It can have
more than one deep structure
According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fifth edition - children with
separation anxiety disorder often experience which of the following symptoms in addition to excessive
fear or anxiety over separation from attachment figures - ANS Excessive concern about the safety and
well-being of attachment figures.
Patients with bilateral damage to the hippocampal formation are tested on motor learning tasks such as
the tower of hanoi. Studies show that the patients improve their performance with repeated exposures.
When asked whether they have ever seen the task, even after numerous test sessions with it, they
typically report not having seen it before. Such results have led to which of the following conclusions? -
ANS Although procedural memory may not rely on normal hippocampal functioning, declarative
memory does
Which of the following is chemically similar to opiates, has the ability to reduce pain, and is blocked by
the action of naloxone? - ANS endorphins
,When stress is prolonged, the most likely result is - ANS generalized weakening of the immune system
the bradykinesia, cogwheel ridigity, and tremors that characterize parkinson's disease are a result of the
degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the - ANS substantia nigra
Which of the following best characterizes an infant's object concept at six months of age - ANS the
infant understands objects to be solid bounded entities that take up space and move on continuous
paths
A 40-item vocabulary test was administered to a group of students. A second, similar test of vocabulary
terms was administered to this same group of students approximately one week later. The researcher
reported that the correlation between these two tests was that r=.90. What type of reliability is
represented in this example? - ANS Alternate forms
Which of the following describes the pattern of findings displayed in the graph? (See page 11) - ANS
Men who heard jazz piece and women who heart the operatic piece scored higher on the mood
inventory than those in the two other groups
The researcher concludes from her study that the jazz music positively changes men's moods and
operatic music positively changes womens moods. Which of the following invalidates that conclusion? -
ANS mens and womens moods were not measured before exposures to the two types of music.
Which of the following is the most serious problem with the methodology of this research? - ANS The
singers were not the same gender
The preference for a loosely knit social framework in which individuals are responsible only for the care
of their children and themselves is known as? - ANS individualism
,Over many trials a puff of air aimed at JoAnne's eye is paired with a loud noise and a subtle smell.
Afterward, it is very likely that JoAnne's conditioned eye blink will be under the control of the loud noise
and not the subtle smell. This phenomenon is an example of - ANS Overshadowing
The idea that people cope with stress by moving toward people, away from people, or against people is
most consistent with the views of - ANS Karen Horney
Which of the following is the best example of the categorical perception of human speech? - ANS When
a sound is presented that is intermediate between the phonemes /b/ and /p/, listeners report that they
heard either a distinct /b/ or a distinct /p/
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess described three categories of infants: easy, difficult, and slow to
warm up. These are categories of: - ANS Temperament
Which of the following types of cognitive abilities is LEAST likely to show a decline in late life? - ANS
Semantic memory
Charles Scott Sherrington proposed that rapid stimulation of a specific synapse is likely to produce a
cumulative effect in the post synaptic cell because of: - ANS temporal summation
Which of the following is an atypical development pattern characterized by stereotyped motor
responses and poor communication skills - ANS autism spectrum disorder
The sharing of information about oneself is referred to as - ANS self-disclosure
Research on children's social behaviors shows that relative to young adolescent boys, young adolescent
girls exhibit more of which type of aggression? - ANS Relational
"I runned to the car" is an example of - ANS overregularization
, The visual pathway that tells us what we are looking at is called the - ANS Ventral steam
Which theorist revised sigmund freud's stages of development, replacing freud's psychosexual stages
with psychosocial stages? - ANS Erik Erikson
Using a pendulum apparatus, a participant attempts to derive the physical laws that determine the rate
at which a pendulum swings. The participant's approach to solving this problem is to hold a relevant
factor (x) constant, and to reverse this procedure by holding Y constant and varying X. According to Jean
Piaget, the participant's level of cognitive functioning is most lieky - ANS Formal operational
A child has just developed the ability to lie with the intention of deceiving another person. This new
ability is probably based most directly on a change in the child's - ANS knowledge about mental
representations
The standard deviation of a sample of test scores is a measure of the - ANS variability of individual
scores
Rapid eye movements are most closely associatied with which of the following - ANS dreaming
An investigator interested in the development of children's attitudes toward the police assessed and
compared the attitudes of 250 eight year olds. She matched the three groups with regard to the gender
and socioeconomic background. The investigator's research design is best characterized as which of the
following? - ANS Cross-sectional
If a psychological disorder has a genetic basis, one would expect to find the highest concordance rate for
the illness between which of the following? - ANS identical twins
According to Sigmund Freud, a child who grabs food from another child because of hunger is driven by
the - ANS Id
The ability of a postsynaptic neuron to respond to the presence of a particular neurotransmitter that is
released from a neighboring presynaptic neuron is dependent on which of the following conditions? -
ANS The presence of receptors on the post synaptic neuron that have an affinity for that particular
neurotransmitter
Critics have argued that projective tests are too - ANS Subjective
Organizing the string of letters B-F-J-T-A-V-K-C into JFK-TV-CAB is an example of - ANS Chunking
When persuasive communications follow the peripheral route, they focus on which of the following? -
ANS Emotions
Consider the sentence "the dishwasher is running", which of the following is true? - ANS It can have
more than one deep structure
According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fifth edition - children with
separation anxiety disorder often experience which of the following symptoms in addition to excessive
fear or anxiety over separation from attachment figures - ANS Excessive concern about the safety and
well-being of attachment figures.
Patients with bilateral damage to the hippocampal formation are tested on motor learning tasks such as
the tower of hanoi. Studies show that the patients improve their performance with repeated exposures.
When asked whether they have ever seen the task, even after numerous test sessions with it, they
typically report not having seen it before. Such results have led to which of the following conclusions? -
ANS Although procedural memory may not rely on normal hippocampal functioning, declarative
memory does
Which of the following is chemically similar to opiates, has the ability to reduce pain, and is blocked by
the action of naloxone? - ANS endorphins
,When stress is prolonged, the most likely result is - ANS generalized weakening of the immune system
the bradykinesia, cogwheel ridigity, and tremors that characterize parkinson's disease are a result of the
degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the - ANS substantia nigra
Which of the following best characterizes an infant's object concept at six months of age - ANS the
infant understands objects to be solid bounded entities that take up space and move on continuous
paths
A 40-item vocabulary test was administered to a group of students. A second, similar test of vocabulary
terms was administered to this same group of students approximately one week later. The researcher
reported that the correlation between these two tests was that r=.90. What type of reliability is
represented in this example? - ANS Alternate forms
Which of the following describes the pattern of findings displayed in the graph? (See page 11) - ANS
Men who heard jazz piece and women who heart the operatic piece scored higher on the mood
inventory than those in the two other groups
The researcher concludes from her study that the jazz music positively changes men's moods and
operatic music positively changes womens moods. Which of the following invalidates that conclusion? -
ANS mens and womens moods were not measured before exposures to the two types of music.
Which of the following is the most serious problem with the methodology of this research? - ANS The
singers were not the same gender
The preference for a loosely knit social framework in which individuals are responsible only for the care
of their children and themselves is known as? - ANS individualism
,Over many trials a puff of air aimed at JoAnne's eye is paired with a loud noise and a subtle smell.
Afterward, it is very likely that JoAnne's conditioned eye blink will be under the control of the loud noise
and not the subtle smell. This phenomenon is an example of - ANS Overshadowing
The idea that people cope with stress by moving toward people, away from people, or against people is
most consistent with the views of - ANS Karen Horney
Which of the following is the best example of the categorical perception of human speech? - ANS When
a sound is presented that is intermediate between the phonemes /b/ and /p/, listeners report that they
heard either a distinct /b/ or a distinct /p/
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess described three categories of infants: easy, difficult, and slow to
warm up. These are categories of: - ANS Temperament
Which of the following types of cognitive abilities is LEAST likely to show a decline in late life? - ANS
Semantic memory
Charles Scott Sherrington proposed that rapid stimulation of a specific synapse is likely to produce a
cumulative effect in the post synaptic cell because of: - ANS temporal summation
Which of the following is an atypical development pattern characterized by stereotyped motor
responses and poor communication skills - ANS autism spectrum disorder
The sharing of information about oneself is referred to as - ANS self-disclosure
Research on children's social behaviors shows that relative to young adolescent boys, young adolescent
girls exhibit more of which type of aggression? - ANS Relational
"I runned to the car" is an example of - ANS overregularization
, The visual pathway that tells us what we are looking at is called the - ANS Ventral steam
Which theorist revised sigmund freud's stages of development, replacing freud's psychosexual stages
with psychosocial stages? - ANS Erik Erikson
Using a pendulum apparatus, a participant attempts to derive the physical laws that determine the rate
at which a pendulum swings. The participant's approach to solving this problem is to hold a relevant
factor (x) constant, and to reverse this procedure by holding Y constant and varying X. According to Jean
Piaget, the participant's level of cognitive functioning is most lieky - ANS Formal operational
A child has just developed the ability to lie with the intention of deceiving another person. This new
ability is probably based most directly on a change in the child's - ANS knowledge about mental
representations
The standard deviation of a sample of test scores is a measure of the - ANS variability of individual
scores
Rapid eye movements are most closely associatied with which of the following - ANS dreaming
An investigator interested in the development of children's attitudes toward the police assessed and
compared the attitudes of 250 eight year olds. She matched the three groups with regard to the gender
and socioeconomic background. The investigator's research design is best characterized as which of the
following? - ANS Cross-sectional
If a psychological disorder has a genetic basis, one would expect to find the highest concordance rate for
the illness between which of the following? - ANS identical twins
According to Sigmund Freud, a child who grabs food from another child because of hunger is driven by
the - ANS Id
