Experimental Psychology Test Questions
Course Introduction
Experimental Psychology explores the scientific methods used to investigate human behavior and mental processes. This course introduces students to the foundational concepts of experimental design, hypothesis testing, data collection, and statistical analysis within psychological research. Students will examine how experiments are structured to answer questions about perception, cognition, learning, memory, and emotion. Emphasis is placed on ethical considerations, critical evaluation of research findings, and practical experience with designing and conducting experiments. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of how experimental approaches contribute to the broader field of psychology and will develop the analytical skills needed to assess empirical studies.
Recommended Textbook
Learning and Memory 2nd Edition by Mark A. Gluck
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1304 Verified Questions
1304 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Psychology of Learning and Memory
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116 Verified Questions
116 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Who proposed connectionist models of the mind?
A)Clark Hull
B)Gordon Bower
C)David Rumelhart
D)George Miller
Answer: C
Q2) The person who first attempted to develop a comprehensive mathematical model of animal learning was:
A)Edward Thorndike.
B)Ivan Pavlov.
C)John B.Watson.
D)Clark Hull.
Answer: D
Q3) Who believed that children are born a "blank slate?"
A)Gottfried Leibniz
B)Plato
C)John Locke
D)René Descartes
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Neuroscience of Learning and Memory
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109 Verified Questions
109 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which brain structure is involved in helping you learn the coordinated movements necessary for learning to ride a bike?
A)temporal lobe
B)brainstem
C)thalamus
D)cerebellum
Answer: D
Q2) What was one of the problems with phrenology?
Answer: Grading criteria: The main problem is that phrenology assumes that the shape of the skull reflects the shape of the brain,which is not true.Other acceptable answers: Gall studied only the skulls,not the actual brains,of living people;it was misused by quacks trying to make money;it was used to justify mistreatment of criminals and others deemed inferior to the ruling class.
Q3) Phrenology was a systematic study of the brain that was pursued by:
A)Galen.
B)Aristotle.
C)Paul Broca.
D)Franz Joseph Gall.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Habituation, Sensitization, and Familiarization:
Learning About Repeated Events
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114 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Learned non-use occurs when a stroke patient stops using a body part because of: A)that body part being physically restrained.
B)damage to the hippocampus.
C)damage to the motor areas controlling that body part.
D)a lack of sensory input from that body part.
Answer: D
Q2) How do rats' place cells respond when a maze is rotated? What does this tell us about how rats navigate?
Answer: Grading criteria: A place cell that responds when the animal is in one arm of a maze will respond best when the visual cues from that arm are present (when the animal is in an arm that looks the same),regardless of the rotation of the maze.Place cells respond based on the location of visual landmarks rather than absolute location.
Q3) Explain how a therapist might make use of habituation to treat a patient who has a fear of spiders.
Answer: Grading criteria: The main idea to convey is repeated exposure to spiders until patient no longer feels fear.
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Chapter 4: Classical Conditioning: Learning to Predict
Important Events
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118 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Lightning is usually followed by thunder.Eventually we can be startled just by the lightning alone.What is the unconditioned response?
A)being startled by thunder
B)being startled by lightning
C)thunder
D)lightning
Q2) When the eyeblink reflex is conditioned using a tone,what is the conditioned response?
A)blinking in response to a puff of air
B)blinking in response to the tone
C)the puff of air
D)the tone
Q3) How does the Rescorla-Wagner model account for the phenomenon of blocking?
Q4) In Garcia and Koelling's taste aversion studies,which of the following was an unconditioned stimulus?
A)a tone
B)an unfamiliar taste
C)a shock
D)feeling sick
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Chapter 5: Operant Conditioning: Learning the Outcome of Behaviors
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Sample Questions
Q1) Andrea is trying to stop biting her nails.Whenever she gets the urge to bit her nails,she forces herself to count to 100 before giving in to her urge.This is an example of: A)extinction.
B)distancing.
C)reinforcement of alternative behaviors.
D)delayed reinforcement.
Q2) Suppose you are a mayor who wants to use punishment to decrease crime in your city.Based on your textbook's discussion,how can you make sure the punishment is as effective as possible?
Q3) Which finding has been used to suggest that extinction mimicry is not simply due to rats no longer liking the food reward?
A)When dopamine is blocked in rats,the rats act as though they like all foods.
B)When dopamine is blocked in rats,the rats no longer display an aversive ("ugh")reaction to foods they dislike.
C)Parkinson's patients rate the pleasantness of foods the same way that healthy people do.
D)Parkinson's patients tend to dislike most foods.
Q4) Discuss the evidence suggesting that dopamine is involved in reinforcement.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Generalization and Discrimination Learning
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following findings confirms Gluck and Myers's prediction regarding the role of the hippocampus in generalization?
A)People with schizophrenia display reduced acquired-equivalency effects.
B)Anti-psychotic medications can affect acquired equivalence.
C)Activity in the hippocampus during generalization trials on an acquired-equivalency task is correlated with accuracy.
D)Activity in the hippocampus during learning trials on an acquired-equivalency task is correlated with accuracy.
Q2) Which of the following is true regarding configural nodes?
A)They are part of the input layer of a discrete-component representation.
B)They are part of the input layer of a distributed representation.
C)They respond only when a combination of input nodes are active.
D)Their connection to the output node has a positive weight.
Q3) The nucleus basalis:
A)provides information regarding whether consequences are good or bad.
B)selects what information enters memory and how it is to be encoded by other brain regions.
C)sends output to the cortex to enable cortical remapping.
D)compresses redundant or unimportant information.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Episodic and Semantic Memory: Memory for
Facts and Events
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127 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Providing highly detailed yet false memories is known as: A)confabulation.
B)retrograde amnesia.
C)anterograde amnesia.
D)consolidation.
Q2) To create a memorable yet secure password,you should:
A)make your password relatively short.
B)create a password that is not meaningful to you.
C)write your password on a piece of paper.
D)write a hint or cue on a piece of paper.
Q3) According to standard consolidation theory,patients with brain damage that is limited to the hippocampus should have _____anterograde amnesia and _____ retrograde amnesia.
A)a lot of;a lot of
B)very little;very little
C)a lot of;very little
D)very little;a lot of
Q4) Explain why the shape of the typical forgetting curve implies that there is a consolidation period for memories.
Page 9
Q5) Describe how episodic memory was demonstrated in either gorillas or scrub jays,.
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Chapter 8: Skill Memory: Learning by Doing
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Tower of Hanoi puzzle is used for studying how we learn:
A)open skills.
B)closed skills.
C)cognitive skills.
D)perceptual-motor skills.
Q2) Which of the following is the best example of implicit learning?
A)memorizing the names of the state capitols
B)rehearsing a phone number someone just told to you
C)learning the words to a song that is played regularly on the radio
D)studying vocabulary words for a French test
Q3) Research on using massed and spaced practice to train postal workers to use a letter sorting machine showed that:
A)the group that was the most satisfied with the training process also learned it the most quickly.
B)those using spaced practice were more satisfied with their training.
C)those using massed practice required the fewest hours of training to learn the task.
D)those using spaced practice required the fewest hours of training to learn the task.
Q4) What is the difference between having talent and being an expert?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Working Memory and Cognitive Control
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105 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Brain imaging studies show that people with ______ show _____ prefrontal cortex activity during a 2-back task.
A)1 or 2 copies of the COMT allele;lower
B)1 or 2 copies of the COMT allele;higher
C)0 copies of the COMT allele;lower
D)0,1,or 2 copies of the COMT allele;equal amounts of
Q2) Charles must study for two exams and write a term paper.He needs to decide how to distribute his work during the day,including how much time to spend studying each subject,when to work on the term paper,how much he needs to accomplish before taking a break,and so forth.The task his central executive is MOST concerned with in this example is:
A)controlled updating of short-term memory buffers.
B)setting goals and planning.
C)task switching.
D)stimulus selection and response inhibition.
Q3) Which of the following is a task used to study task-shifting in working memory?
A)an N-back task
B)the Tower of Hanoi
C)the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
D)the Stroop task
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Chapter 10: Emotional Influences on Learning and Memory
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is mood-congruency of memory? What does it suggest about the effects of emotion on retrieval?
Q2) The psychological syndrome that can develop after a person is exposed to a horrific event is called:
A)conditioned avoidance.
B)learned helplessness.
C)a phobia.
D)posttraumatic stress disorder.
Q3) What is the therapeutic technique in which successive approximations of a feared stimulus are presented while a patient learns to stay relaxed?
A)conditioned avoidance
B)perseveration
C)piloerection
D)systematic desensitization
Q4) Which of the following is an example of an overt behavior caused by an emotion?
A)Amelia feels her heart rate increase right before she gives a speech.
B)Mason is elated when his football team wins the playoffs.
C)Paige is very sad when her dog runs away.
D)Keegan screams loudly when his brother startles him.
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Chapter 11: Social Learning and Memory: Observing,
Interacting, and Reenacting
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss the evidence suggesting that mirror neurons may be involved in the deficits seen in people with autism.
Q2) John's friends don't smoke,but many of John's favorite movie stars do smoke.John has decided to take up smoking.His behavior demonstrates that people are more likely to copy models:
A)who are similar to themselves.
B)whom they admire.
C)when the outcome is desirable.
D)when they have stored a memory of the model performing the behavior.
Q3) When an individual learns an emotional response after observing it in others,this is known as:
A)observational conditioning.
B)stimulus enhancement.
C)imitation.
D)contagion.
Q4) Stimulus matching refers to:
A)copying the exact actions that are observed.
B)directly comparing a generated stimulus with an observed stimulus.
C)copying the end result of a behavior that is observed.
D)being able to imagine oneself in the place of another person.
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Chapter 12: Development and Aging: Learning and Memory
Across the Lifespan
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sparrows raised in isolation still learn to sing,but their songs are abnormal.This is an example of:
A)a critical period.
B)a sensitive period.
C)an imprinting period.
D)the gestational age.
Q2) What is one thing a fetus can learn? Describe the research that demonstrates this.
Q3) In old age:
A)human brains are about the same weight as in adolescence.
B)human brains have increased in weight by 5%.
C)the brain shrinks only in people who have suffered from disease or injury.
D)human brains have lost about 5% of their weight.
Q4) Which structure is larger in men than in women?
A)lateral frontal cortex
B)Hippocampus
C)angular gyrus
D)supramarginal gyrus
Q5) Describe the processes of neurogenesis,apoptosis,synaptogenesis,and pruning of synapses,and how they all impact learning.
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