PSY100 Practice Questions for Test #1
1. A weatherman is standing outside in a terrible hurricane, when the wind launches a giant
piece of metal into the side of his head, above his right ear. This likely damaged his:
a. Temporal lobe
i. hearing
b. Occipital lobe
i. visual
c. Parietal lobe
i. touch
d. Frontal lobe
i. Cognitive and movement
2. Damage to this area of the weatherman’s brain (see previous the question), would likely
lead to problems with:
a. Vision
b. Object recognition
c. Hearing
d. Touch
3. In class, Prof. Waggoner Denton described a research study in which a number of social
psychologists joined a doomsday cult (“the Seekers”) in order to see what would happen
when the world did not actually end. This was an example of:
a. A correlational study
b. The experimenter expectancy effect
c. Descriptive research
d. A self-report measure
4. In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper’s character takes a drug commonly referred to as
a nootropic. This drug made him “sharper,” increasing his ability to maintain attention
levels and focus. It also enhanced his ability to plan his actions several steps ahead. In
which brain areas did this drug most likely enhance activity?
a. The reticular activating system, the occipital lobes, and the spinal cord
b. The frontal lobes, the reticular activating system, and the thalamus
c. The thalamus, the temporal lobes, and the hypothalamus
d. The lateral geniculate nucleus, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum
5. Something that can be measured or manipulated by an experimenter is considered:
a. a variable
b. a descriptive statistic
c. a confound
d. a subject/participant
, 6. Samir is conducting a correlational study, and he cannot determine whether one variable
causes another. One reason is that the additional variables that he did not study could
influence the variables he did study. This reflects the:
a. directionality problem
b. the third variable problem
c. response accuracy
d. the occurrence of random error
7. What structure allows neurons to communicate over longer distances?
a. dendrites
b. terminal buttons
c. schwann cells
d. Axon
i. the axon lets neurons comunicate long distance
8. When researchers document that a phenomenon is real by repeating a study done by
another scientist, they are engaging in:
a. meta-analysis
b. replication
c. experience sampling
d. correlational research
9. A psychologist wants to create two groups that are as similar as possible at the beginning
of an experiment. To do this, she should use:
a. random sampling
b. participant assignment
c. a double-blind study
d. random assignment
10. The cross-sensory experience of tasting a visual image or seeing particular words in
colour is called:
a. The Stroop effect
b. Somatothesia
c. Synesthesia
d. Multimodal integration
11. A motor neuron ________, whereas a sensory neuron ________.
a. communicates electrically; communicates chemically
b. is efferent; is afferent
c. communicates chemically; communicates electrically
d. is afferent; is efferent
1. A weatherman is standing outside in a terrible hurricane, when the wind launches a giant
piece of metal into the side of his head, above his right ear. This likely damaged his:
a. Temporal lobe
i. hearing
b. Occipital lobe
i. visual
c. Parietal lobe
i. touch
d. Frontal lobe
i. Cognitive and movement
2. Damage to this area of the weatherman’s brain (see previous the question), would likely
lead to problems with:
a. Vision
b. Object recognition
c. Hearing
d. Touch
3. In class, Prof. Waggoner Denton described a research study in which a number of social
psychologists joined a doomsday cult (“the Seekers”) in order to see what would happen
when the world did not actually end. This was an example of:
a. A correlational study
b. The experimenter expectancy effect
c. Descriptive research
d. A self-report measure
4. In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper’s character takes a drug commonly referred to as
a nootropic. This drug made him “sharper,” increasing his ability to maintain attention
levels and focus. It also enhanced his ability to plan his actions several steps ahead. In
which brain areas did this drug most likely enhance activity?
a. The reticular activating system, the occipital lobes, and the spinal cord
b. The frontal lobes, the reticular activating system, and the thalamus
c. The thalamus, the temporal lobes, and the hypothalamus
d. The lateral geniculate nucleus, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum
5. Something that can be measured or manipulated by an experimenter is considered:
a. a variable
b. a descriptive statistic
c. a confound
d. a subject/participant
, 6. Samir is conducting a correlational study, and he cannot determine whether one variable
causes another. One reason is that the additional variables that he did not study could
influence the variables he did study. This reflects the:
a. directionality problem
b. the third variable problem
c. response accuracy
d. the occurrence of random error
7. What structure allows neurons to communicate over longer distances?
a. dendrites
b. terminal buttons
c. schwann cells
d. Axon
i. the axon lets neurons comunicate long distance
8. When researchers document that a phenomenon is real by repeating a study done by
another scientist, they are engaging in:
a. meta-analysis
b. replication
c. experience sampling
d. correlational research
9. A psychologist wants to create two groups that are as similar as possible at the beginning
of an experiment. To do this, she should use:
a. random sampling
b. participant assignment
c. a double-blind study
d. random assignment
10. The cross-sensory experience of tasting a visual image or seeing particular words in
colour is called:
a. The Stroop effect
b. Somatothesia
c. Synesthesia
d. Multimodal integration
11. A motor neuron ________, whereas a sensory neuron ________.
a. communicates electrically; communicates chemically
b. is efferent; is afferent
c. communicates chemically; communicates electrically
d. is afferent; is efferent
