University of California, Berkeley

Department of Psychology

Psychology W1
Summer Session 2013

Midterm Examination 2

Scoring Key and Item Analysis

In the scoring key that follows, correct answers are marked with a double asterisk (**).

The initial scoring of the exam yielded a mean score of 31.52 (63%), which is a little low by my standard of 65-70%.  The reliability of the exam was .79, which was quite respectable.

The statistical analysis of this exam revealed five "bad" items, as defined in the Exam Information page: relatively low pass percents and low item-to-total correlations: #7, 9, 28,47, ad 49.  These items were rescored correct for all responses.

After rescoring, the mean score rose to 35.08 (standard deviation = 6.61), or 70%.  The median score was 35.5.  There were two modes, at 34 and 41, but otherwise the distribution was pretty much the normal, bell-shaped curve that we have come to expect.   

Students' scores on the rescored exam have been automatically entered into the gradebook on Angel.

In this feedback, I provide the percentage of the class that got each item correct and the item-to-total correlation (r_pb) for each item, as well as commentary on why the right answer is right, and the others wrong.

Choose the best answer to each of the following 50 questions. Questions are drawn from the text and lectures in roughly equal proportions, with the understanding that there is considerable overlap between the two sources. Usually, only one question is drawn from each major section of each chapter of the required readings; again, sometimes this question also draws on material discussed in class. Read the entire exam through before answering any questions: sometimes one question will help you answer another one.

Most questions can be correctly answered in one of two ways: (1) by fact-retrieval, meaning that you remember the answer from your reading of the text or listening to the lecture; or (2) inference, meaning that you can infer the answer from some general principle discussed in the text or lecture. If you cannot determine the correct answer by either of these methods, try to eliminate at least one option as clearly wrong: this maximizes the likelihood that you will get the correct answer by chance. Also, go with your intuitions: if you have actually done the assigned readings and attended the lectures, your "informed guesses" will likely be right more often than they are wrong.

A provisional answer key will be posted to the course website tomorrow, after the window for the exam has closed. The exam will be provisionally scored to identify and eliminate bad items. The exam will then be rescored with bad items keyed correct for all responses. Grades on the rescored exam will be posted to the course website. A final, revised, answer key, and analyses of the exam items, will be posted on the course website after grades are posted.

1. The "primacy effect" refers to the fact that __________.

a.	the most important items in a list are more likely to be remembered than less important items
b.	the first-presented items in a list are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list ##
c.	the items presented most recently in a list are more likely to be remembered than items presented earlier
d.	those items in a list that have the greatest emotional impact are those with the greatest likelihood of recall

97% of the class got this item correct; item-to-total r_pb = .16.  The primacy effect is the tendency for people to recall words that appear at the beginning of a list. (p. 304) The primacy effect stems from the words being recalled from long-term memory, rather than working memory. When people remember words on a list, they are able to pay more attention to earlier words on a list, because these early words receive undivided attention, and reduced attention to each additional word that is added to the list, because one's attention is split between the older and newer words. This increased attention leads to the early words being more likely to be well-established in long-term memory, and is responsible for the primacy effect. Chapter 8

2. Paula received a severe blow to the head in a car accident. What is the most reasonable explanation for her amnesia of what led up to the accident?

a.	The information was not yet consolidated in long-term memory. ##
b.	Working memory interfered with the long-term memory storage.
c.	Semantic memory has been disrupted.
d.	She has lost the use of her hippocampus; that is, she is like H. M. but not as severely impaired.

78% correct; r_pb = .48.  Getting information into long-term memory takes both time and effort. Different aspects of an event are likely to be stored in distinct brain regions, with one region containing the visual element, another containing our emotional reaction to the event, and a third containing our conceptual understanding of the event. Memory traces aren't created instantly, and a period of time is needed, after each new experience, for the record of that event to become established in long-term memory. During this period of time, memory consolidation is taking place, and this process can take several hours, during which memories are transformed from a transient and fragile status to a more permanent and robust state. People who experience blows to the head can develop retrograde amnesia, in which they suffer memory loss for events that occurred before the brain injury (p. 312-313). Chapter 8

3. Melissa is going on a sea cruise for the first time in seven years. She cannot remember much about her first Caribbean voyage before setting sail on her new trip, but as soon as she feels the ship roll and she smells the salty air, she recalls several details about her original trip. The rolls and smells have acted as __________.

a.	mnemonic devices
b.	autonomic nervous system stimulants
c.	retrieval cues ##
d.	episodic memories

91%; .36.  Retrieval cues are hints or signals that help one to recall a memory (p. 314). An important factor in determining whether these cues lead to recall is whether they help to recreate the context of the initial memory. In this case, being back on the ship and smelling the sea air helps recreate the context of her earlier cruises, leading to memory retrieval. Chapter 8

4. Recall Bartlett's research with stories taken from the folklore of other cultures. Bartlett's results suggest that if subjects are asked to recall meaningful verbal material, they are likely to __________.

a.	recall details as being similar to events they are familiar with ##
b.	report images rather than meanings
c.	make errors in terms of acoustic confusions
d.	show an inability to chunk information

86%, .25.  Bartlett presented Native American folk-lore to British research participants and later asked them to recollect these stories. The participants' recollections either omitted or reinterpreted the elements of the folklore that were unusual or unfamiliar to the participants. In trying to understand these stories, the participants fit the unusual elements into their already existing schema, or mental representations of knowledge. This process of fitting new information into existing schema led the participants to more easily recall and understand the stories, but also caused them to be unable to keep track of which elements of the story were told to them, and which were associated with the story via their understanding of it (p. 321). Chapter 8

5. Which pattern describes the curve of long-term forgetting for such things as memory for a foreign language?

a.	The curve falls off quickly and then levels off. ##
b.	The curve falls off gradually during its entire course.
c.	The curve falls off slowly at first, then quickly thereafter.
d.	The curve shows that all learners achieve the same baseline after many years have passed.

58%, .35.  Recall of a memory decreases and forgetting increases as the retention interval, or time that elapses between learning and retrieval, grows longer. Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve indicates a steep initial drop-off in memory occurs early on, followed by a gradual reduction over time. The effect of the retention interval is driven by both decay, or the forgetting that is associated with the passage of time, and new learning, which can disrupt old information that was already in storage. Chapter 8

6. In the "early selection" model of attention:

a. perceptual analysis occurs before semantic analysis. ##

b. semantic analysis occurs before perceptual analysis

c. perceptual analysis and semantic analysis occur simultaneously.

d. perceptual analysis prevents semantic analysis from occurring.

68%, .35.  According to early selection theories, attentional selection occurs relatively early in the sequence of information processing before meaning analysis can occur. In early selection theories, attentional selection is based on an analysis of the physical and spatial properties of the stimulus. After attention

has selected some objects based on their physical properties, only then are those attended objects given any semantic analysis, or analysis of meaning (slide 26). Lecture 17

7. The subjects in Ebbbinghaus's experiments probably remembered nonsense syllables as well as they did because:

a. they engaged in maintenance rehearsal.

b. they engaged in elaborative rehearsal. ##

c. they engaged in organizational activity.

d. the retention intervals were relatively short.

16%, .06.  A bad item.  There are two different kinds of memory rehearsal -- maintenance rehearsal, or rote repetition, and elaborative rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal maintains traces of memory in an active state, similar to short-term or working memory. Elaborative rehearsal links new items to preexisting knowledge already stored in long term memory, and is critical to laying down a lasting memory trace (slide 20). Ebbinghaus thought that memory was a function of sheer repetition, but we now know that maintenance rehearsal, which maintains an item in active state in working memory, isn't enough for encoding into long-term memory.  For that, we need elaborative reherasal.  So why, if maintenance rehearsal isn't sufficient for LTM, was Ebbinghaus able to remember his lists from days later.  The secret is found in elaborative rehearsal -- apparently, he couldn't help engaging in "effort after meaning", and this was enough elaborataion to encode his nonsense syllables in LTM.  Lecture 18

8. Which factor most likely accounts for forgetting from long-term memory?

a. Decay.

b. Displacement.

c. Consolidation failure.

d. Interference. ##

75%, .32.  Decay and displacement reflect processes of forgetting in short term memory. Forgetting in long-term memory is sometimes mediated by consolidation failure, but is most often mediated by interference. Memory mostly diminishes with time by virtue of interference among competing memories. There is both retroactive interference, in which memories encoded recently interfere with the retrieval of memories that have been coded earlier, and proactive interference, in which memories that have been encoded earlier interfere with the retrieval of memories that have been encoded recently (slide 18).Lecture 19

9. The associative memory illusion is produced by:

a. schematic processing from forward associations.

b. priming of backward associations ##

c. proactive interference

d. verbal overshadowing.

43%, .05.  A bad item.  The associative memory illusion is an illusion in which people have false memory for items that are related to items that they have studied. For example, if you are asked to study a list of items that are related to the word "needle", including "thread" and "thimble." When you are presented with the word "needle", you will remember "thread", etc. This is a forward association. Backward associations occur when the words "thread," "pin," etc. make you think you saw the word "needle" on the original list, even though you did not. Because each word on the list makes you think of "needle", you may eventually come to believe "needle" was on the original list, even though it was not (slide 63). Lecture 20

10. Research subjects are asked to estimate the distance between a city on the East Coast of the United States and one on the West Coast of the United States, and next a city on the East Coast of the United States and one in the Midwest. What will the results show?

a.	Subjects take about the same amount of time to make each judgment and are more accurate for the first judgment.
b.	Subjects take about the same amount of time to make each judgment and are more accurate for the second judgment.
c.	Subjects take slightly longer for the second judgment than the first.
d.	Subjects take slightly longer for the first judgment than the second. ##

79%, .43.  This is about propositional vs. imagistic forms of mental representation. We think in terms of sentence-like propositions, but we also think in terms of picture-like images. And it turns out that when subjects mentally scan their mental image of, say, a map, the amount of time it takes them to shift their attention from one point on the mental map to another is proportional to the distance between the two points -- just as it would be if they were inspecting a real map. This classic experiment by Stephen Kosslyn is often taken as proof that mental images are real, and that we really store knowledge in analog as well as propositional form. (p. 344) Chapter 9

11. "You always clam up when I ask you what's wrong," Iris tells her boyfriend. Iris is probably making this frequency judgment because she can remember a few times that her boyfriend wouldn't tell her what was bothering him. Iris is using the __________ heuristic.

a.	representativeness
b.	availability ##
c.	confirmation
d.	frequency

70%, .53.  The availability heuristic is a strategy used for judging how frequently something happens based on how easily examples of it come to mind. (p. 349) Typically, this is a good strategy because events that occur frequently in the world are likely to occur frequently in one's own daily occurrences. However, this strategy can be misleading at times, particularly if an event stands out because of its distinctiveness. For example, car crashes occur more frequently than plane crashes, however plane crashes tend to be much more distinct and stand out more in our memories. Thus, we may be likely to overestimate the probability of a plane crash and underestimate the probability of a car crash. Chapter 9

12. Judgment involves drawing conclusions from our experiences, whereas reasoning entails deriving specific implications from our beliefs. By these definitions, judgment is similar to __________; reasoning resembles __________.

a.	induction; induction as well
b.	induction; deduction ##
c.	deduction; deduction as well
d.	deduction; induction

53%, .07.  Induction involves the drawing of conclusions or general laws from a series of instances, which is equivalent to judgment (p.348). Deduction involved the process of deriving assertions from assertions, laws, or principles that are already in place. This process is equivalent to reasoning. (p. 354) Chapter 9

13. Dr. Terwilliger asks a sample of undergraduates how they think they would feel after receiving a low grade on a test or assignment and how they think they would feel after receiving a high grade on a test or assignment. She then has the students record the nature and intensity of their feelings each time they receive a test or assignment grade for the remainder of the semester. Based on affective forecasting, which pattern of results should Dr, Terwilliger find?

a.	The students accurately predicted that they would feel bad after a low grade and good after a high one, but they overestimated how bad or good they would feel. ##
b.	The students accurately predicted that they would feel bad after a low grade and good after a high one, but they underestimated how bad or good they would feel.
c.	The students accurately predicted that they would feel bad after a low grade and good after a high one, and they accurately predicted how bad or good they would feel.
d.	The students inaccurately predicted both the nature and intensity of their feelings after either low or high grades.

74%, .22.  Affective forecasting is the process of predicting our emotional responses to upcoming events (p. 361). People tend to be accurate about predicting the valence of their future affective states; that is, they are often correct about whether an event will make them feel good or bad. People tend to be inaccurate about predicting the intensity of their future states, however, and often tend to over-predict how intensely they will feel about a situation. Chapter 9

14. The use of an analogy __________.

a.	is automatic; people use analogies in problem solving whenever they are available
b.	is not always useful unless the problem solver is aware that the analogy is pertinent to the task at hand ##
c.	works much better for novices than for experts
d.	works better if there is only one potential analogy in memory than if there are two or more

79%, .45.  The use of analogies in problem-solving entails recalling a previous similar problem that one has encountered in the past, and using the solutions to and conclusions drawn from the previous problem to aid in solving the current problem. Analogies tend to be most useful when one focuses on the underlying dynamics of the problem, rather than its superficial features. Thus, if the problem solver is unaware of the underlying dynamics of the problem, or is unaware as to how the analogy is pertinent to the task at hand, the analogy will not be useful. Chapter 9

15. Dr. Williams has developed a paper-and-pencil test to assess fear of heights. He gives the test to 50 research subjects, whose scores range from 0 (no fear) to 100 (intense fear). He finds that scores on the test have a correlation of only --0.25 with physiological measures of fear. Two months later, subjects take the paper-and-pencil test again. The correlation between scores on this second paper-and-pencil test and scores on the first paper-and-pencil test is 0.95. This information suggests that Dr. Williams' test is __________.

a.	reliable and probably valid
b.	valid and therefore reliable
c.	unreliable and not valid
d.	probably not valid but reliable ##

37%, .25.  Reliability refers to how consistent a measure is in its results, and is usually evaluated using test-retest reliability. In this case, because the correlation between the first sitting and the second sitting is so high the test is likely to be reliable; in other words, because people who scored highly on the first test also scored highly on the second test, the test is consistent in its measurement. Validity refers to whether a test is actually measuring what it claims to be measuring. One way to assess this is by evaluating a test's predictive validity, or the extent to which the test correlated with other relevant criteria. Because this test has a small, negative correlation with other measures of fear, it is unlikely to be valid. (p. 427-428). Chapter 11

16. You studied car mechanics in high school and spent a lot of time helping out at your dad's garage. Your replacing a blown gasket relies primarily on your __________.

a.	fluid g
b.	crystallized g ##
c.	cumulative g
d.	mach g

80%, .53.  Crystallized g refers to the knowledge that one acquires over time. Crystallized g includes one's verbal knowledge and repertoire of skills. Crystallized g represents the well-practiced routines that one can bring to bear on a problem. Thus, your skills as a car mechanic become routinized and crystallized, allowing you to draw on this skill to replace the blown gasket (p. 432). Chapter 11

17. Your text suggests that mental speed and working memory capacity contribute to __________ intelligence.

a.	fluid ##
b.	crystallized
c.	tacit
d.	practical

70%, .56.  Fluid intelligence involves the deliberate and controlled use of mental operations and is the form of intelligence needed when no well-practiced routines or skills can be used to solve a problem. The text describes mental speed and working memory capacity as the ability to work through problems, detect new patterns, and keep track of multiple mental tasks and steps. The processes involved in mental speed and working memory are related to those exhibited by fluid intelligence, which is deliberative in nature, as opposed to crystallized intelligence, which tends to focus on well-remembered and rehearsed events and processes. Chapter 11

18. Scores on measures of practical intelligence are only weakly related to __________.

a.	academic success ##
b.	career success
c.	either academic or career success
d.	Actually, practical intelligence scores are highly related to both academic and career success.

30%, .28.  Robert Sternberg argued for distinguishing between analytic intelligence and practical intelligence. Analytical intelligence is typically measured by intelligence tests, and is important for academic success. Practical intelligence is the ability to solve everyday problems through skilled reasoning that relies on tacit knowledge, or the practical "how-to" knowledge accumulated from everyday experience. (p. 437). Chapter 11

19. If all of the children born this year could be raised in absolutely identical environments, the variability in their intelligence scores in 10 years' time would probably __________.

a.	equal 0
b.	be considerably reduced ##
c.	be considerably increased
d.	not be affected

62%, .23.  Nature and nurture both have intertwined and have an important effect on intelligence. The nature aspect of intelligence is related to an individual's genetic heritage, while the nurture aspect of intelligence is related to an individual's developmental environment. Thus, nature and nurture work together to affect intelligence (nurture sculpts what nature endows.) In this situation, however, we are removing the effect of the environment on intelligence, because every child will be raised in the same environment. Thus, we are removing a significant source of variability in intelligence, will likely see reduced variability in intelligence scores (p. 444). Chapter 11

20. Which of the following represents a single phoneme?

a.	f ##
b.	s
c.	ing
d.	ed

51%, .40.  Phonemes are the smallest significant unit of sound in a language. Phonemes typically correspond to the letters of the alphabet. Although there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are 40 phonemes used in the English language. Therefore, some letters can represent different phonemes. For example, in choice (b) s, can sound like a soft s as in the word "hiss" or like a z as in the word "players." The choices for options (c) and (d) are phoneme sequences made up of multiple phonemes. Thus, only choice (a) represents a single phoneme (p. 381). Chapter 10

21. What is true of the prototype theory of meaning?

a.	A prototype embodies the single feature that is necessary and sufficient to define something as a member of a class.
b.	A prototype embodies many but not necessarily all of the features that characterize a class. ##
c.	A prototype allows us to form a mental image of all of the features necessary to characterize a class.
d.	A prototype is an internal representation of all of the features necessary to characterize a class.

69%, .31.  The prototype theory of meaning holds that concepts or word meanings are formed around average or typical values (p. 387). Under this theory, the meanings of many words are described as a set of component features, but not a necessary or sufficient set of them. The concept of a prototype is held together under a family resemblance structure, which is an overlapping set of semantic features shared by members of a category, such that no members of a category need to have all of the features, but all members of a category have at least one of them. For example, a robin may be closer to the prototype you use to define the concept of a bird than a penguin, but penguins also fit into this concept, without having many of the features that a robin does. Chapter 10

22. Why do young children learn whole objects words (e.g., cat) before they learn related, superordinate words (e.g., animal) and subordinate words (e.g., Persian)?

a.	Generally, whole object words tend to be shorter than superordinate and subordinate words.
b.	Parents and teachers use whole object words more frequently than they use subordinate and superordinate references.
c.	Generally, whole object words tend to be easier to pronounce than superordinate and subordinate words.
d.	Children are predisposed to learn words in that order. ##

38%, .35.  Young children learn the basic-level words for whole objects before learning their parts, superordinate, or subordinate categories. For example, a child with a family dog might call any type of animal a dog. These overgeneralizations convert the interpretation from a specific name to the basic level of categorization, which is the most natural level for carving up experiences. Investigations of children's early vocabularies show that they learn words for whole objects before they acquire words for the objects sizes, parts, or material composition. (pp.401-402) Chapter 10

23. __________ contact with others must minimally occur for one to learn language.

a.	Verbal
b.	Visual
c.	Auditory
d.	Social ##

73%, .51.  Children whose parents deprived them of human contact have no language and below-normal cognitive development. However, when some of these children are brought into normal environments, they can pick up language quickly, and can sometimes speak at a similar level of proficiency as their peers. The cases of children who are deprived social contact provide support for the existence of a sensitive developmental period for language learning during which it is most easily acquired. (pp. 405-406). 10

24. How does human language differ from language in chimpanzees?

a.	Only humans can communicate with others.
b.	The ability to solve problems is unique to humans.
c.	Animals are unable to emit communicatory sounds, while humans can.
d.	Humans have rules for arranging sounds into meaningful combinations, while chimpanzees do not. ##

94%, .28.  Animals communication has some similarities to human communication, and animals may have different sounds to indicate specific concepts, such as different calls of alarm for different predators. Animals' production of sound, however, is very limited, and animal signals do not combine together to enlarge the number of messages that can be conveyed. Humans link their words in new and structured ways to express new thoughts, a skill that our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees, lack. (p. 414) Chapter 10

25. Which of these processes is the use of language LEAST likely to influence?

a.	rehearsal in short-term memory
b.	visual perception ##
c.	decision making
d.	overt, voluntary behavior

61%, .14.  We have seen in Chapter 8 that language plays a key role in rehearsal, which leads to improved short-term or working memory, for example, in memorizing lists of words. Moreover, we know that language affects decision making, for example, when somebody yells out "fire!" in a crowded room. If this occurs, the language influences the listener to realize that she or he needs to get out of the way of the fire, quickly and unconsciously. Moreover, we also know that language can affect over, voluntary behavior, as in advertisements of suggestions. Each of these examples represents the ways in which language affects thought, which the book details on pages 416-421. Language is less likely to affect visual perception than thought. Chapter 10

26. The classical, prototype, and exemplar views of categorization are alike in that they all:

a. view categories as proper sets.

b. focus on singly necessary and jointly sufficient defining features.

c. view instances of a category as bound together by similarity. ##

d. organize concepts by an intuitive theory of the domain in question.

69%, .29.  Aristotle put forth the classical view of categorization, arguing that categories are proper sets, and members of specific categories share a set of defining features. The prototype view of categories as fuzzy sets holds that categories are not proper sets, and that there's only a probabilistic relationship between possessing a feature and being a member of a particular category. Finally, the exemplar view of categorization holds that categories are held together by lists of their members -- members may share a set of features, but the features themselves don't make them part of the category. What matters for categorization in the exemplar view is that members are examples of the category. Lecture 21

27. "Counterfactual" emotions like frustration and regret are often produced by the _____ heuristic.

a. representativeness

b. availability

c. simulation ##

d. anchoring and adjustment

69%, .41.  The simulation heuristic is similar to the availability heuristic, except that it also allows us to make judgments about causality. In using this heuristic, people make judgments based on the ease with which a plausible scenario can be constructed. These simulations can lead to the feelings of frustration and regret because they allow you to compare what actually happened with what could have happened. For example, if you may feel frustrated if you miss your flight by five minutes because you can easily run through simulations in your mind in which you saved five minutes on your trip to the airport, and made your flight in time. Lecture 22

28. According to the prospect theory of Kahneman and Tversky:

a. people base their decisions on risky prospects.

b. objective values outweigh subjective utilities.

c. judges tend to exaggerate high and low probabilities. ##

d. decision-makers fail to employ reference points when evaluating normative values.

11%, -.16.  A really bad item. Most students went for A, but "risky prospects" just means that there's some risk, or probability, attached to the outcome: it's not a sure thing.  So people don't base their decisions on risky rospects; they make decisions under conditions of uncertainty.  One of the key features of prospect theory is the probability weighting function that applies when people choose between outcomes. Prospect theory holds that when people evaluate the likelihood of an outcome under uncertainty, they do not base their decisions on the objective probabilities assigned to an outcome. Instead, people tend to employ a psychological concept of probability that over weights both high and low probabilities. Thus, probable gains look better than they really are, while probable losses look worse than they really are. Another is that people are risk-averse, but only in the context of risky losses.  Yet another is that "losses loom larger than gains".  Lecture 23

29. A "culture fair" test would focus on assessing ____ intelligence.

a. general, fluid ##

b. general, crystallized

c. practical, fluid

d. practical, crystallized

58%, .37.  Raymond Cattell assumed that performance on any kind of task was a component of three processes: fluid intelligence, education, and motivation. Crystallized intelligence is assessed by standard intelligence tests. For example, these tasks test vocabulary, which is acquired through education. Cattell argued for "culture fair" tests to assess fluid intelligence and a person's general, content-free ability, to perceive relationships, which wouldn't be distorted by the person's particular cultural, educational, or social experiences. Lecture 24

30. "Body language"

a. reveals the "kernel" or "gist" of a communication.

b. is a component in the surface structure of language.

c. illustrates the psychological reality of deep structure.

d. helps listeners disambiguate communications. ##

54%, .23.  When speaking, gesture and body language can be important in helping the listener to clarify our meaning. A popular theory on the evolution of language holds that early language may have been based on gestures, and that signals involving the hand and face, as well as grunts and cries, were used to convey emotion. We can use our body to convey emotions through our hands, facial expressions, and postures. Lecture 25

31. What is homeostasis?

a.	a theory of need reduction
b.	a built-in tendency to regulate bodily conditions ##
c.	the psychological representation of a need
d.	the diffusion of fluids in a cell

100%.  Claude Bernard noted that every organism has both a internal and external environment. He further observed that despite large fluctuations in an organism's external environment, it's internal environment remained relatively unchanged. The maintenance of this internal equilibrium involves a process known as homeostasis, which is the body's tendency to maintain the conditions of its internal environment by various forms of self-regulation. (pp. 463-463) Chapter 12

32. Where is the sensing mechanism for the homeostatic control of temperature located?

a.	in an endocrine gland other than the pituitary
b.	in the hypothalamus ##
c.	in the pituitary
d.	in the cerebrum

93%, .19.  Thermoregulation is the process by which organisms maintain a constant body temperature. This process is governed by the autonomic nervous system, which has two parts, the sympathetic nervous system, which functions to "rev up" the body in preparation for action and keen help heat up the body, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which functions to "cool down" the body after the action has been completed. The ANS itself s governed by the hypothalamus, a crucial brain region that sits at the base of the forebrain, which among many other features, contains a mechanism that senses when the body is too cold or too hot. (pp. 464-465) Chapter 12

33. Twelve pairs of male identical twins were fed 1,000 calories above the amount needed to maintain initial weight. Also, during the experiment, the twins were not allowed to exercise. The results? All men gained weight. But even more interesting was this:

a.	Each twin in a twin pair gained different amounts of weight.
b.	The twins gained weight in different areas of the body: For some, it was the abdomen, and for others it was the rear end.
c.	The twins gained weight in the same areas of the body. ##
d.	There was actually a negative correlation between the amount of weight one twin in a pair gained and the amount the other twin in the pair gained.

67%, .39.  This study provides evidence for a genetic predisposition to obesity. The twins were followed for 100 days, and over this time the different pairs of twins gained from 10-30 pounds. The amount of weight each twin gained was statistically related to the weight gain of his twin, and the twins deposited the weight in the same place. If one twin deposited the weight in his waist or thighs, the other twin was likely to do so as well. (p. 472) Chapter 12

34. According to Abraham Maslow, a major prerequisite for becoming self-actualizing is having __________.

a.	all of one's lower-order needs fulfilled ##
b.	a major altruistic streak
c.	a very selfless nature
d.	suffered in the past so you can truly appreciate the good aspects of life

88%, .19.  Maslow suggested a hierarchy of needs, in which the lower order, physiological needs, are at the bottom of the hierarchy, and the higher order, psychological needs, are at the top of the hierarchy. Maslow believed that lower order needs must be fulfilled before people begin striving for higher order needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in ascending order, contains: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, and self-actualization needs. Chapter 12

35. Christie shows male and female subjects sad movie scenes. Subjects view some scenes alone and some in the company of an experimental confederate. She covertly records subjects' facial expressions in both conditions. What is the dependent variable? What might she predict?

a.	The dependent variable is whether the scenes were viewed in public or in private. She might predict that both the males and the females will display the same amount of sadness in public as in private.
b.	The dependent variable is whether the scenes were viewed in public or in private. She might predict that the males but not the females will display less sadness in public than in private.
c.	The dependent variable is facial expressions. She might predict that both the males and the females will display the same amount of sadness in public as in private.
d.	The dependent variable is facial expressions. She might predict that the males but not the females will display less sadness in public than in private. ##

73%, .35.  Display rules are cultural guidelines that govern the expression of emotion. When in public, display rules are in effect, while in private, expression is less likely to be governed by these rules. In Western cultures, women are more likely to express their emotions and men are more likely to suppress them, particularly in the case of sadness. (pp. 492-493)Chapter 12

36. According to cognitive-appraisal theories, emotion is determined by

a. violations of expectations, habits, and intentions elicit undifferentiated arousal. ##

b. the degree of autonomic arousal.

c. the perceived source of a discrepancy. ##

d. innate neural programs that generate primary emotions.

44%, .41.  Schacter and Singer argued that our emotional states are cognitive constructions that depend on our interpretation of the circumstances in which we experience undifferentiated physiological arousal. Mandler explained Schacter and Singer's theory by focusing on the arousal component and asking what leads to emotional arousal in the first place. Mandler argued that arousal is a response to violations of expectations, disruption of habits, and interruptions of intentions. Mandler argued that the autonomic nervous system alerts the body and marks certain objects and events as important. The valence of the emotional state is determined by cognitive evaluation -- the person's perception of the source of the discrepancy.

37. Intrinsic motivation can be undermined

a. by rewards that are promised in advance.

b. by rewards that are delivered unexpectedly.

c. by rewards that are perceived as controlling behavior. ##

d. by rewards that provide information about performance.

40%, .35.  Intrinsic motivation refers to a person's desire to engage in some specific activity without any promise or prospect of reward. Sometimes intrinsic motivation can be undermined by extrinsic motivation. Mark Lepper carried out a study in which children engaged in a task that they normally enjoyed, and promised some children a reward for participating in the task, while promising no reward to the other children. Because the task was intrinsically enjoyable, each child participated in the task. Later on during a free-play time, however, he found that the children who received a reward for participating in the task spent less time on the enjoyable activity than did those who weren't offered a reward. But Lepper didn't distinguish between two types of reward structure. Sometimes rewards are used to control behavior, in which case they really do undermine intrinsic motivation. But in other cases, rewards are used to provide information about performance, in which case they can maintain or even enhance intrinsic motivation. Lecture 27

38. The relationship between schemas and stereotypes is that __________.

a.	schemas arise when group stereotypes are applied to individuals
b.	stereotypes arise when schemas are simplified and applied to groups ##
c.	stereotypes arise when several schemas are combined into a more complex perceptual gestalt
d.	schemas consist of a combination of stereotypes

75%, .29.  Stereotypes are schemas that we use to describe the characteristics of whole groups, which lead us to talk about the groups as if each member is the same. Chapter 13

39. Attitudes differ from beliefs in that __________.

a.	beliefs are more strongly held
b.	attitudes are more strongly held
c.	attitudes include feelings or evaluations ##
d.	attitudes and beliefs are the same

54%, .28. Attitudes are fairly stable evaluations of something as good or bad that make a person think, feel, or behave positively or negatively about some person, group, or social issue. Attitudes differ from other "cold cognitions" in that they are often "hot" in the sense that they have motivational components and can trigger various emotions. (p. 514) Chapter 13

40. The so-called norm of reciprocity rule makes which of the following predictions?

a.	Buyers will void their offers when the seller makes a concession (for instance, by coming down from her original price).
b.	When sellers start out low, buyers are less likely to buy out of fear of deception.
c.	Buyers who "low ball" sellers by starting the bargaining out at a price far below asking price are most likely to prevail.
d.	If I sell my car to your sister at a good price, you are likely to return the favor some day in the future. ##

74%, -.13.  I don't know why this item-to-total correlation was negative, but D is almost the dictionary definition of reciprocity.  The norm of reciprocity holds that the social standard suggests that a favor must be repaid. That is, reciprocity is that the notion of accepting a favor or gift leads to a sense of indebtedness. In answer choice (d), the norm of reciprocity would hold that by my selling your sister a car at a favorable price, you are indebted to me, and "owe" me a favor that should be returned at some point in the future. (p. 526) Chapter 13

41. Evidence suggests that people tend to like those who __________.

a.	are similar to them
b.	live close by
c.	are opposite to them
d.	both a and b ##

67%, .39. Similarity and proximity are two of the strongest factors that determine why people tend to like each other. Proximity effects tend to be related to logistics, in that it is difficult to like somebody that you have never met, and it is much more likely that you are going to meet someone if you live or work nearer to them. Proximity may also increase familiarity, which plays an important role in liking -- people tend to like other people and things that they are used to seeing, or are familiar with. Similarity likewise, plays an important role in attraction, such that people tend to like those who are similar to themselves, across a variety of dimensions, including hobbies, interests, race, and educational level. This provides evidence for homogamy, or the tendency of like to mate with like, in mate selection (pp. 535-536) Chapter 13

42. Studies of how between-family differences and personality development arise suggest that __________.

a.	the average correlations between adopted children and their adoptive siblings is very low ##
b.	the similarity of identical twins reared apart is greater than the similarity for identical twins reared together
c.	neuroticism, but not extraversion, seems more affected by between-family than by within-family variables
d.	all of the above

48%, .49.  There's little resemblance between the personalities of adopted children and those of their adoptive siblings, despite sharing a similar environment. In one series of studies in which researchers collected personality measures for adopted children and their adoptive siblings, the average correlation for these measures was .04. The average correlation between the adopted children and their adoptive parents was .05. (p. 603) Chapter 15

43. Id is to __________ as superego is to __________.

a.	immediate satisfaction; internal prohibitions ##
b.	conscious reaction; immediate satisfaction
c.	internal prohibitions; conscious reactions
d.	internal prohibitions; immediate satisfaction

75%, .40.  In Freud's theory of personality, the id operates by the pleasure principle, and is a term for the most primitive reactions of human personality. The id strives blindly for immediate biological satisfaction, regardless of cost. The superego is an internalized code of conduct that arises from within the ego, that represents internalized rules of society, and come to control the ego by meting out punishment and guilt when these rules are broken. (pp. 607-608)Chapter 15

44. Despite many criticisms, the humanistic approach is credited with __________.

a.	inspiring the behaviorist approach to personality
b.	clarifying biological and environmental factors in personality development
c.	explaining innate animal actions
d.	reminding us of the positive and creative aspects of humans ##

62%, .43.  Although the key terms of the humanistic approach are vaguely defined, the humanists have reminded us of several important points that modern researchers have developed in more detail. These points include a crucial role for each person's sense of self, and highlighted that fact that people strive for more than food, sex, and prestige. The humanists reminded us that people read poetry, listen to music, fall in love, and try to better themselves. (p. 622) Chapter 15

45. According to George Kelly, which of the following primarily defined personality?

a.	static traits
b.	individual interpretations of specific situations ##
c.	the interaction of traits and situations
d.	none of the above

69%, .15.  Kelly acknowledged that people's behavior depends largely on the situation, but he emphasized that much depends on how people interpret the situation. He called these interpretations, or the dimensions used by a person to organize her or his experience personal constructs. (p. 624) Chapter 15

46. According to the Doctrine of Interactionism:

a. personality determines how people will behave in social interactions.

b. personality emerges from the interaction of cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes.

c. people create the situations to which they respond. ##

d. behavior is largely determined by the situation in which it takes place.

52%, .36.  The doctrine of interactionism, proposed by Kenneth Bowers, holds that people influence the situations, which, in turn, influence their behavior. Bowers claimed that neither traits nor situations are the primary determinants of behavior. Because situations are as much a function of the person, as the person's behavior is a function of the situation. Interactionism holds that people's behaviors are influenced by the situations in which they find themselves. It also views people as part of their own environment, such that personal factors of the sort envisioned in the doctrine of traits can still play an important role in behavior by changing the environment in which the behavior takes place. Lecture 28

47. In evaluating the Doctrine of Traits:

a. stability of behavior is greatest over relatively long periods of time.

b. stability of behavior is greatest at the level of habitual actions.

c. consistency is greatest across similar situations. ##

d. consistency is greatest at subordinate levels of analysis.

48%, -.04.  A bad item.  A The doctrine of traits holds that traits dispose people to behave in consistent ways from one situation to another. Although there is some consistency of behaviors across situations, as the doctrine of traits predicts, the consistency of personality is greatest across situations that are very similar to each other. For example, someone who is warm and friendly toward their spouse at home is also likely to be warm and friendly towards their children at home. Lecture 29

48. Mischel's "personality coefficient" refers to:

a. the degree of reliability of the average personality test.

b. the relatively high degree to which behavior can be predicted from personality traits.

c. the relatively low degree to which behavior can be predicted from personality traits. ##

d. the ability of personality tests to predict behavior at superordinate levels of analysis.

67%, .52.  Walter Mischel suggested that there was a ceiling or upper limit on the extent to which an individual's behavior in some specific situation could be predicted from knowledge of his or her generalized personality traits. Mischel called this ceiling the personality coefficient, and he set it at about .30. This means that a personality trait will, at most, only account for just under 10% of the variance of a given behavior. (r = .30, R² = .09). Lecture 30

49. According to the psychosocial law and social impact theory:

a. the influence of the group on the individual increases proportionally with the size of the group.

b. social pressure is decreased when the individual is a group member. ##

c. social pressure is greatest when frustration levels are high.

d. aggression is increased when other people are present in the environment.

16%, .01.  a bad item.  Michael predicted this item would be trouble, and he was right.  But according to Latane's social impact theory, increasing the size of the group has diminishing impact on the behavior of the individual -- it's analogous to Fechner's law that sensation grows more slowly than stimulation; in this case, the impact of a group grows more slowly with its size. But the influence of the group on the individual also diminishes if the individual has some allies -- it's as if the influence of the group is diluted. Lecture 31

50. In the "Baby X" experiments:

a. Women were more influenced by the baby's identification than were men.

b. Women were more influenced by the baby's identification as a girl than as a boy.

c. Men and women were equally influenced by the baby's identification. ##

d. Men were more influenced by the baby's identification as a boy than as a girl.

46%, .41.  In these experiments, adult subjects are asked to assist in a study of infants' responses to strangers. The adults are asked simply to interact with an infant, and are given some toys that they can use in the process. In the first study, the infant was in fact, a 3-month-old girl. The adults were told that the child was either a girl or a boy, or were given no information. The point of the study was to see how the identification of the child by gender and name would affect the behavior of the adults. The adults who thought they were interacting with a girl were much more likely to choose a doll as a prop for the interaction, as opposed to those who thought they were interacting with a boy. As a rule, boys and men make stronger gender-related discriminations than women, but the best answer is that, overall, the influence is widespread. Lecture 32