PSYCHOLOGY QUESTIONS “MULTIPLE CHOICE”
1. Farah is studying for her linguistics exam. She thinks that if she can process the terminology and theories
more deeply, she will probably retain the information better. Farah’s thinking is similar to what model of
memory?
a. Levels of processing c. Parallel distributed processing
b. Transfer-appropriate processing d. Information processing
2. Amanda asks Becky, “How was your spring break?” As Becky describes her vacation, she begins to feel
guilty because she subconsciously recalls how her parents criticized her for taking a trip instead of
concentrating on her studies. Becky’s recollection of her vacation is an example of a(n) memory, and
her feeling of guilt is an example of a(n) __ memory
.
a. implicit; explicit c. episodic; semantic
b. semantic; episodic d. explicit; implicit
3. When you ask her, Kyung cannot remember the names of all fifty U.S. state capitals. However, when you
then show her a list of U.S. city names, she can correctly point out all fifty capitals. Kyung originally had
trouble remembering the state capitals because of poor
a. recall. c. elaborative rehearsal.
b. recognition. d. maintenance rehearsal
4. Jill is studying for her psychology midterm. The most effective way for Jill to encode the course material
would be
a. acoustically. c. semantically.
b. visually. d. episodically.
5. Skill learning depends mainly on
a. insight and observational learning.
b. operant conditioning and reconditioning.
c. classical conditioning.
d. imitation, following instructions, and practice.
6. Gretchen absolutely loves going to school. Her teacher uses teaching methods that are fun, such as
small-group problem-solving tasks, discussion of short essays written in class, and short review sessions of
the previous half-hour of class. Gretchen’s teacher is obviously taking a(n) __ learning approach.
a. insight c. vicarious .
b. latent d. active
7. If a group of kids is allowed to watch more hours of violent television programs than usual, they most likely
will
a. be much less aggressive immediately afterward.
b. be slightly less aggressive later on the playground.
c. imitate many of the violent actions they witnessed.
d. imitate only the violent actions that were rewarded on television.
8. During her talk, Dr. Ravenscroft discusses her research on learning and how the brain creates associations
and connections. Most likely, Dr. Ravenscroft has found that association networks can be explained by all of
the following except
a. parallel-distributed processing. c. connectionist models.
b. opponent-process theory. d. distributed memory and knowledge
9. Your friend tells you that she just bought a cat. You naturally assume that your friend means that she bought
a housecat rather than a lion or a tiger. This is an illustration of a(n)
a. constructive memory. c. implicit memory.
b. spontaneous generalization. d. relearning method.
10. When asked to describe an examination room at his doctor’s office, John seemed to do an accurate job.
However, his description included a framed medical degree on the wall that in fact was not there. This is an
illustration of
a. context-specificity. c. constructive memory.
b. elaborative rehearsal. d. a retrieval cue.
11. Al is on the witness stand. He is asked whether he can remember the name of the person who told him to
place the bet. Al replies that he thinks the last name ofthe person starts with “C.” AI’s response is an example
of
a. penultimate response. c. spontaneous generalization.
b. feeling-of-knowing experience. d. tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
12. Blair is asked a question during a game of Trivial Pursuit. The answer is on the tip of his tongue, but he can’t
come up with it. Which of the following memory processes failed him?
a. Encoding c. Retrieval
b. Storage d. Rehearsal
13. Semantic network models predict that people will respond more quickly to the question “Can a bat fly?” than
they will to “Is a bat a mammal?” because
a. of the primacy effect.
b. the first question requires a deeper level of processing.
c. they probably have a stronger association between “bat” and “wings” than “bat” and
“mammal. “
d. the first question can be answered using short-term memory, but the second question
cannot.
14. Sharmin is trying to remember the hilarious conversation she had with her friends last night If Sharmin
wanted to utilize context-specific memory to help remember the conversation topics, she should
a. recreate the mood she was in when the conversation took place.
b. concentrate on the last topic they discussed.
c. cluster the topics into meaningful groups of information.
d. return to the restaurant in which they had the conversation.
15. Fred was tired of hearing two-year-old Pebbles cry whenever she did not get her way. Fred decided to ignore
Pebbles anytime she had a crying outburst. Over the course of several weeks, the frequency of outbursts
decreased and eventually ceased. What operant conditioning process was Fred utilizing?
a. Shaping c. Second order
b. Negative reinforcement d. Extinction
16. When Marc sits in his bedroom with the door open, his sister walks by and starts yelling at him. In time,
Marc learns that if he closes the door when his sister yells at him, she stops yelling and walks away. This
shows __ . Marc also learns that ifhe closes the door before his sister walks by, she will not start yelling
at him. This shows —
a. social learning; observational learning
b. insight learning; delayed conditioning
c. escape conditioning; avoidance conditioning
d. avoidance conditioning; escape conditioning
17. Jamie is working in a group to develop creative solution‘sto a social problem. As Jamie is considering new
ideas, she is able to manipulate the information held in her short-term memory primarily because of the
operations of her __ memory.
a. state-dependent c. working
b. semantic d. procedural
18. Bart tells Lisa about his new cat, Scratchy. Even though Bart does not mention that Scratchy has fur, Lisa
knows this because she makes this generalization from the facts she knows about cats. Lisa’s generalization
about Scratchy best demonstrates
a. the method of savings.
b. a false memory.
c. the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
d. a parallel distributed processing model of memory.
19. When Harold sees a box of Junior Mints, he immediately recalls where they are sold, when he had them last,
what they taste like, and which of his friends like them. Such a network of associations is suggestive of the
__ model of memory.
a. levels of processing c. transfer-appropriate processing
b. information processing d. parallel distributed processing
20. If you need to remember a person’s name for several days or weeks, the strategy of relating the name to a
characteristic of that person will be more effective than simply repeating the person’s name several times
when you first learn it. This indicates that
a. elaborative rehearsal works better than maintenance rehearsal.
b. maintenance rehearsal works better than elaborative rehearsal.
c. maintenance rehearsal involves deeper processing.
d. elaborative rehearsal works best only for short-term recall.
21. Which of the following is not one of the PQ4R suggestions about how to read a textbook?
a. Preview each chapter before reading it.
b. Reflect on what you are reading, thinking of your own examples of concepts.
c. Recite major points in your own words when you fmish a section.
d. Reread the chapter, underlining or highlighting key passages.
22. You are driving down the street when you see a billboard displaying a phone number for a service you need.
You keep repeating the number over and over so you won’t forget it until you can write it down at home. You
do this to prevent the process of __ from causing you to forget the number.
a. decay c. deductive interference
b. construction d. proactive inhibition
23. Shania is in court being cross- examined about a car accident that she witnessed. lfthe defense attorney wants
to manipulate Shania’s recall of the accident in favor of her client, which of the following questions would
she be most likely to ask?
a. “How fast was my client going when he hit the truck?”
b. “How fast was my client going when he made contact with the truck?”
c. “How fast was the defendant going when he slammed into the truck?”
d. “Although my client was issued a speeding ticket, do you think he was driving fast
enough to do all that damage?”
24. Dr. Evil presents the sound of a buzzer to his pet rabbit, and he follows it with the delivery of a small electric
shock. After repeated pairings of the buzzer and shock, the rabbit learns to fear the sound of buzzers. Dr. Evil
then proceeds to extinguish the rabbit’s fear of buzzers. Now suppose that, after extinction, Dr. Evil decides
to present the buzzer and shock to the rabbit once again. After only a few pairings, the rabbit will
demonstrate __ and fear the buzzer again.
a. stimulus discrimination c. stimulus generalization
b. spontaneous recovery d. reconditioning
25. In an experiment, a flash of light is paired with a mild electric shock to a participant’s :finger. After several
trials, the participant begins to pull his :finger away after seeing the flash of light. The experimenter then
begins to present just the flash, but no shock. After several trials the participant will
a. keep pulling his finger away after seeing the light.
b. pull his finger away sometimes but not others.
c. gradually cease pulling his :finger away after the flash of light.
d. pull his finger away more quickly on each trial.
26. Hannah’s behavior depends largely on reflexes rather than on voluntary control over her movements. Hannah is most likely
a. in Piaget’s preoperational period
b. suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome
c. less than six months old
d. experiencing Erikson intimacy-versus-isolation conflict