UvA Psychology Selection Mock Exam Questions and Answers with complete

In a study using 'blind observers' among children at a primary school in Amsterdam, it was found that those who had been breast-fed had a higher IQ, on average, than those who had not been breastfed. On the basis of this outcome, a journalist wrote an article with the heading: "Breastfeeding leads to higher IQ".What is the main reason that this conclusion stated in the newspaper headline is not justified by the study described above? - Answer-there are other possible explanations for the results of the study. In a stress study among a group of test subjects, the researcher finds a correlation between variable A and variable B that is equal to 0.6.What does this mean? - Answer-The test subjects who score higher on variable A also score higher on variable B, on average. What is a solution to the effect of observer bias? - Answer-A 'blind' study design. A researcher evaluates 20 photographs of people with different facial expressions (e.g., angry, sad, etc.). He puts the photographs into one of two categories: negative facial expressions and positive facial expressions. Unconsciously, he puts photos of people he finds attractive more often in the positive category.What is happening here? - Answer-Observer bias. A researcher would like to know more about the attitudes of the Amsterdam population aged between 18 and 50 years with respect to factory farming. To do this, he positions himself during the morning rush hour at the main entrance of Amsterdam Central Station and asks everyone who happens to pass by whether they live in Amsterdam and whether they would like to answer a few questions about factory farming. What type of random sampling is this? - Answer-convenience sampling. Observer bias occurs when a researcher... - Answer-incorrectly observes the situation being studied. Observer effects occur when the observer... - Answer-...affects the situation being studied. What is an example of an 'unobtrusive measure'? - Answer-A researcher determines the popularity of diet potato chips by looking at how many have been eaten after the end of a birthday party. While a youth football team is training, a scout comes to watch them to select highly talented children for a team of young promising players. The presence of the scout makes some of thechildren nervous to the extent that it affects the level of their play.What is this an example of? - Answer-Observer effect. When people are brought into an environment created by the researcher to determine their behaviour in this particular situation, this is... - AnswerNarcolepsy is a disorder in which ___. - Answer-sudden sleep attacks occur during the day. In a experiment by Johansson et al. participants were shown photographs of two faces. They were asked to choose the more attractive face. The experimenter then only showed the photograph of the face that was chosen and participants were asked to explain why they chose that particular face. Sometimes, the experimenter showed the face that was not chosen.What happened in that case?Participants often did not notice the change ___. - Answer-and simply explained why they chose the photograph shown to them During a typical night's sleep, ___. - Answer-deeper slow wave sleep disappears halfway through the night. When patients with unilateral neglect were shown two drawings of the same house, but one drawing had flames coming out of a left-side window, the patients preferred to live in the other house, although they never mentioned the fire.This finding indicates that... - AnswerResearch on cannabis has shown that ___. - Answer-it is highly addictive. In an experiment, participants were first conditioned to show a stress response whenever a target word appeared. Later on, these participants were instructed to perform a dichotic listening task and selectively attend to words spoken in one ear.What happened when a target word was presented in the other ear? - Answer-Participants showed the stress response but were not able to report the target word. This finding was interpreted to favor response selection models of attention. When looking at an ambiguous figure like a Necker cube, the two different interpretations of the figure alternate for your mind's eye. This is a prime example of the ___ of consciousness. - Answertransience During REM sleep, ___. - Answer-the motor cortex is activated but spinal neurons running through the brainstem inhibit the expression of motor activation.Research has shown that hypnosis can have a stronger pain reduction effect than morphine.When does this happen? It happens ___. - Answer-in people who are hypnotically suggestible