Deck 1: History, background, and Basic Concepts

Question 1

One disadvantage of using animals in research on learning is that

A)they are more likely to display "subject effects" than humans
B)some complex learning abilities are unique to humans
C)it is difficult to control their environments
D)all of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Skinner has argued against the use of intervening variables in psychological theories

A)because they make the theories more complex
B)because he believed that the causes of many behaviors can be found in the environment,not inside the individual
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Ebbinghaus's results suggest that continuing to recite a poem after you have learned it perfectly

A)will improve your ability to remember it later
B)will harm your ability to remember it later
C)will have no affect on your ability to remember it later
D)will interfere with your ability to learn other poems

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Ebbinghaus's experiments in which a previously-learned list was systematically rearranged and the new list was learned provided evidence supporting

A)the recency principle
B)the contiguity principle
C)the similarity principle
D)none of the above

Question 5

If a subject memorizes a list perfectly in 10 trials,and then takes 6 trials to relearn the list the next day,the amount of savings is

A)33.3%
B)40%
C)60%
D)66.7%

Question 6

Ebbinghaus discovered that continuing to study a list of nonsense syllables after he could already recite the list perfectly

A)increased the savings on a later relearning test
B)did not change the savings on a later relearning test
C)actually decreased the savings on a later relearning test
D)increased the strength of backward associations

Question 7

If the savings in a serial learning experiment is 75% after a delay of one hour,the savings after a delay of two hours will probably be

A)more than 75%
B)more than 50%
C)about 50%
D)less than 50%

Question 8

Ebbinghaus's results suggest that studying a large number of names and dates immediately before an exam

A)is a good strategy
B)is a poor strategy
C)will neither help nor hurt
D)will help only if this information has also been studied at some earlier time

Question 9

Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables in his list-learning experiments primarily because

A)they were relatively free from prior associations
B)they were difficult to learn
C)they were all three letters long
D)he needed a supply of hundreds of different list items

Question 10

To account for all the relations between two independent variables and three dependent variables,a theory without intervening variables would have to describe

A)two relations
B)three relations
C)five relations
D)six relations

Question 11

Nativism is

A)a more extreme position than Empiricism
B)the view that all knowledge comes from experience
C)the view that no knowledge comes from experience
D)none of the above

Question 12

Neal Miller argued that intervening variables are helpful when dealing with many independent and dependent variables because they make a theory

A)simpler
B)more realistic
C)more testable
D)fruitful

Question 13

Which of the following is an example of an intervening variable-

A)hunger
B)food
C)eating
D)not eating for 10 hours

Question 14

A neuron's transmitter is released from its

A)cell body
B)axon terminals
C)dendrites
D)nucleus

Question 15

B. F. Skinner used white rats in his early experiments because

A)they exhibit only the simplest learning abilities
B)they had been frequently used in medical research
C)he felt it did not matter what species he studied
D)none of the above

Question 16

Aristotle's rules of association included all of the following except

A)contiguity
B)recency
C)similarity
D)contrast

Question 17

If a child learns the concept of house before the concept of floor,this learning

A)is evidence for Aristotle's principle of contiguity
B)is evidence against Aristotle's principle of contiguity
C)is evidence for James Mill's theory of complex ideas
D)is evidence against James Mill's theory of complex ideas

Question 18

Laws in the United States require that research animals have

A)adequate food and water
B)a clean living environment
C)veterinary care
D)all of the above

Question 19

A psychologist develops a theory that failure produces frustration,and frustration frequently leads to aggressive behavior.In this theory,frustration is

A)an independent variable
B)a dependent variable
C)an intervening variable
D)a confounding variable

Question 20

According to Thomas Brown's secondary principles of association,learning is affected by

A)the length of time two stimuli are presented together
B)the liveliness or vividness of the stimuli
C)how frequently two stimuli have been presented together
D)all of the above

Question 21

The "simple cells" discovered by Hubel and Wiesel,which respond to lines of particular orientations,can be found in

A)the retina
B)the cornea
C)the visual cortex
D)the hippocampus

Question 22

During the course of brain operations with human subjects,Penfield found that electrical stimulation of specific areas of the cerebral cortex

A)caused patients to report vivid visual and auditory sensations
B)produced irreversible damage to the neurons that were stimulated
C)caused patients to experience pain
D)led to dreams that the patients described in detail when they awoke

Question 23

The __________ of a neuron receive(s)the transmitter released by other neurons.

A)cell body
B)axon terminals
C)dendrites
D)nucleus

Question 24

Long-term potentiation

A)is an increase in an animal's ability to learn
B)is an increase in the strength of an excitatory synapse
C)is a decrease in a neuron's rate of firing
D)never lasts for more than a few hours

Question 25

The activity of a cone on the retina can provide other parts of the visual system with information about

A)the color of a stimulus
B)the size of a stimulus
C)the shape of a stimulus
D)all of the above

Question 26

A particular cell in a cat's visual system might respond most strongly to a line with an angle that is 60ᵒ from the horizontal.Available evidence suggests that a cat's previous visual experiences

A)have no effect on the characteristics of such angle detectors
B)have no effect except to keep the detectors from deteriorating because of a lack of use
C)can affect to some extent the best angle for a given cell
D)are totally responsible for determining the best angle for a given cell

Question 27

Studies with rats raised in enriched environments have shown that their brains

A)have larger synapses
B)have more branching of dendrites
C)are heavier
D)all of the above