Scientific Thinking
This field is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
What is psychology?
A researcher watches children playing on a playground without interfering with them.
What is naturalistic observation?
A researcher wants to determine whether studying with music causes students to perform differently on a memory test. What research design should they use?
What is an experiment?
This perspective focuses on rewards, consequences, and how they influence behavior.
What is behaviorism?
These structures primarily receive signals from other neurons.
What are dendrites?
A claim presents itself as scientific, but it lacks adequate scientific evidence or support.
What is pseudoscience?
A psychologist intensely investigates one person with a rare neurological condition.
What is a case study?
In the music-and-memory experiment, students are randomly assigned to either study with music or in silence. What is the independent variable?
What is whether they study with music or in silence?
This perspective sought to identify the basic elements of conscious experience through introspection.
What is structuralism?
Put these in the correct order: axon terminal — dendrites — neurotransmitter — cell body — axon — synapse
Dendrites → cell body → axon → axon terminal → neurotransmitter → synapse
Researchers discover that students who sleep more tend to earn higher grades. Why can't they immediately conclude that sleep causes better grades?
What is correlation does not establish causation?
A researcher asks 2,000 college students how many hours they sleep and how stressed they feel.
What is a self-report/survey?
In the music-and-memory experiment, students are randomly assigned to either study with music or in silence, and researchers measure students' scores on a memory test. What is the dependent variable?
What is memory-test performance?
A psychologist asks how a behavior helps an organism adapt to its environment. Which historical perspective fits?
What is functionalism?
Communication along a neuron's axon is primarily this type, while communication between neurons is primarily this type.
What are electrical; chemical?
A psychologist hears that a personality test can predict who will become wealthy. Instead of immediately believing or rejecting the claim, the psychologist asks, "What evidence supports this?"
What is scientific skepticism?
Researchers find that stress and sleep are related. What can they conclude—and what can they NOT conclude—from this correlational finding?
They can conclude that the variables are related, but they cannot conclude that one causes the other.
Researchers want to test a new treatment. One group receives the treatment while another group provides a comparison condition. What is the purpose of the comparison group?
What is to provide a control/comparison condition?
A psychologist explains behavior primarily in terms of unconscious processes and conflicts.
What is psychoanalysis?
This structure acts as an insulator around the axon and allows neural signals to travel faster.
What is the myelin sheath?
A researcher proposes that exercise reduces college students' stress. A skeptical scientist asks whether sleep, workload, or another factor could explain the relationship. This is an example of what principle?
What is ruling out rival hypotheses?
A researcher wants to know whether the results from a sample of college students can be generalized to the larger student population. This procedure is especially important.
What is random selection?
Researchers randomly assign participants to treatment and comparison groups and use appropriate controls. Why is this design particularly useful when researchers want to determine whether a treatment causes a change?
Because random assignment and experimental controls help isolate the effect of the independent variable, providing a stronger test of causation.
Match the explanation to the perspective: "A student procrastinates because completing other activities has been repeatedly rewarded, reinforcing the behavior."
What is behaviorism?
According to the exam, neurons don't simply send messages—they also do this to transmit the signal, and the signal travels in this direction.
What is change their electrical charge and travel unidirectionally?