New York University PSYCH-UA 111 Exam 1 | Complete Questions and Answers Updated 2025.

1. Which of the following statements about the brain is FALSE? a. We are capable of using only a fraction of our brain. b. The brain is organized in a hierarchical fashion that reflects how it evolved. c. The brain's outermost layer, the cortex, is responsible for complex thought. d. Different parts of the brain are specialized to do different tasks. 2. Which one of the following is TRUE about mental representations of reality? a. They do not always match what is in the external world b. Every human has the same perceptual experience of reality. c. They are formed in a way that matches with the realist perspective. d. They are guided exclusively by bottom-up processes. 3. Some years ago, a young child by the name of Cameron Mott made headlines across the U.S. because surgeons had to remove the right side of her brain in order to control horrible seizures she was experiencing. When she woke up after the surgery, Cameron experienced paralysis in the left side of the body. But after four weeks of physical therapy, she could move about almost normally and showed no deficits in IQ. She even said she wanted to grow up to be a ballerina! This example, where the brain is able to recover from damage, illustrates the phenomenon of... a. Dualism b. Neural plasticity c. Synaptic pruning d. Hemispatial neglect 4. SunYoung recently suffered damage to a part of her brain and surgeons had to remove this portion. After the surgery, SunYoung has difficulties forming new memories of events that happen in her life. Based on this information, which part of SunYoung's brain was likely removed during surgery? a. Hypothalamus b. Basal ganglia c. Gustatory cortex d. Hippocampus 5. Henry is using heart rate to measure stress levels in NYU students that are caused by their morning commute to campus using the crowded subway. His colleague Mari points out to him that a person's heart rate is also influenced by factors completely unrelated to stress, such as the copious amounts of caffeine NYU students consume in the morning. In other words, his colleague Mari is pointing out that... a. The measure of stress might not be valid in this context. b. The measure of stress might not be reliable in this context. c. The measure of stress might be affected by reactivity in this context. d. The measure of stress might be influenced by demand characteristics in this context. 6. Julia is listening to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” and cannot, for the life of her, understand the lyrics. She keeps hearing “got a long list Starbucks lovers” and has concluded that that’s what Taylor must be saying. This is an example of . She later learns that the lyrics are actually “got a long list of ex-lovers.” Now that she knows that, she only ever hears the correct lyrics. This is an example of . a. Top-down processing; bottom-up processing b. Bottom-up processing; top-down processing c. Ventral stream; dorsal stream d. Dorsal stream; ventral stream 7. The binding problem in sensation & perception is about: a. How we sometimes mix up different features of an object (mis-perceive the color or shape) if we’re not paying attention. b. How different features of an object (like color, shape, and movement) are combined to create a single perception. c. How language and thinking are related. d. How our decisions are affected by cognitive biases. 8. Bill hypothesizes that all kindness witnessed in humans can be explained by the existence of invisible creatures called orks. He says that these creatures possess humans and cause them to become kind. Bill states that when you observe people being kind to others, this counts as evidence for the existence of orks. As a scientist, why would you doubt Bill's claim about the existence of orks? a. The claim for their existence is not falsifiable b. The claim for their existence is not based on direct empirical observation c. The claim for their existence is not testable d. All of the above 9. Sam is studying the effect of processed foods on anxiety. The hypothesis is that processed foods are comforting, so a diet high in processed foods will help alleviate anxiety. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups: processed foods diet or whole foods diet. Every day, participants fill out a food journal in which they report what they ate as well as an anxiety symptom inventory. What is the independent variable (IV) and the dependent variable (DV)? a. IV = foods they write down; DV = group assignment (processed vs whole) b. IV = group assignment (processed vs whole); DV = whether they stuck to the assigned diet c. IV = group assignment (processed vs whole); DV = anxiety symptoms d. IV = anxiety symptoms; DV = group assignment (processed vs whole) 10. A researcher wants to study the development of shyness. She defines shyness as being more inhibited around strangers than familiar adults. To assess shyness, she decides to compare the number of words that children produce when doing a structured activity with their mother to the number of words produced when doing the same activity with an unfamiliar researcher. In this example, “being more inhibited around strangers than familiar adults” is the: a. Operationalization of shyness b. Confounding variable of shyness c. Manipulation of shyness d. Hypothesis of how people become shy 11. During a heated game of trivial pursuit, one player seems to know every answer. However, after the game the group goes on a bike ride, and the same know-it-all player keeps tipping over because she hasn’t ridden a bike in a while. She must have good memory but poor memory. a. semantic; procedural b. implicit; procedural c. episodic; semantic d. semantic; explicit 12. In anterograde amnesia, which of the following is true? a. Old episodic memories are lost. b. Old episodic memories are retained. c. New episodic memories cannot be created. d. Both B & C 13. “Animals” would be a category to “kangaroos.” a. Superordinate b. Basic c. Subordinate d. Atypical 14. Before Jeremy’s trip to Hawaii, he created a “vacation playlist” that only included songs he was not familiar with. After his trip, whenever he listened to that playlist, he felt like he was back in Hawaii—there was a strong association between those songs and how he felt listening to them in Hawaii. He then plans a trip to Iceland and decides to make an “Iceland playlist,” but instead of including new songs, he only includes songs he listened to when he was in highschool. When he listens to the “Iceland playlist” it does not bring him back to Iceland the way the original vacation playlist brought him back to Hawaii. Which conditioning concept best explains why this is? a. Spontaneous Recovery b. Extinction c. Latent Inhibition d. Blocking 15. If you chew gum every time you study for this class, then you might consider chewing gum while taking this exam. Why? a. Priming b. Levels of Processing c. Encoding Specificity d. State Dependency Effects 16. When I think of the word “dog” a specific pattern of neurons fire. When I think of the word “cat” a slightly different pattern of neurons fire. Some of these neurons overlap because of semantic similarities between both concepts (dogs and cats have fur, are often pets, etc). The process in which similar concepts elicit unique neural patterns that have some overlap is called: a. Distributed Representation b. Context Dependency c. Implicit Memory d. Spontaneous Recovery 17. The experimental method is used in psychological science because… a. It is the easiest way to evaluate a hypothesis. b. It can establish causal relationships among variables. c. It is the only way data can be collected. d. It proves the researchers’ hypothesis. 18. Identify each of the following events as an example of A. episodic, B. semantic, C. procedural, or D. priming memory. 1) remembering the time you hit a home run in your baseball game episodic 2) remembering how to throw a curveball procedural 3) remembering what a noun is semantic 4) you watch a movie where the protagonist drinks a lot of La Croix, and later you choose La Croix over other beverages without realizing why priming 5) remembering how to write the letter “A” procedural 6) remembering that the unicorn is the official national animal of Scotland semantic 7) remembering that embarrassing moment where you thought someone was waving at you and you waved back, but they were actually waving to the person behind you episodic 8) remembering how to shuffle a deck of cards procedural 9) you hear a song on the radio, and later in the day, you find yourself humming the tune without consciously thinking about it priming 19. Identify the following features as belonging to either A. sensory memory, B. working memory, or C. long-term memory. a. Can help you calculate a 20% tip B b. Can remember what the room looks like after I turn the lights off, but doesn’t last more than a few seconds A c. Can remember what the word “unicorn” means C 20. Will just read that men developed the sexual overperception bias (i.e., tendency to perceive others as sexually interested when they’re not) as a result of evolution. Will states that because this is something men evolved to do, men cannot help themselves but overperceive women’s behavior as flirting. Women should therefore stop complaining about men who can't take a hint that they are not interested in them and accept that sexual overperception bias is something men have no control over. Which mistake has Will committed in reaching this conclusion? a. Naturalistic fallacy b. Deterministic fallacy c. Teleology d. Conjunction fallacy 21. After learning about the recent Boeing incidents (door plug fell off mid-flight; several plane crashes involving their 737 Max plane), Naia refuses to book a flight on a Boeing plane. This decision is influenced by which of the following: a. Representativeness heuristic b. Availability heuristic c. Gambler’s fallacy d. Conjunction fallacy 22. Tom remembers paying $2 for a gallon of gas a few years ago and now refuses to pay $4, even though all prices have increased. His decision is influenced by which heuristic? a. Temporal discounting b. Presentism c. Comparing to the past d. Availability heuristic