Learning Principles
Which of the following schedules of reinforcement would most likely result in a low to moderate, steady response rate?
a) fixed interval
b) fixed ratio
c) variable interval
d) variable ratio
C) Variable Interval
Sedation (drowsiness) is most likely to be a side effect of which of the following antidepressants?
A. Prozac
B. Wellbutrin
C. Zoloft
D. Pamelor
D. Pamelor
For a DSM-5 diagnosis of Binge-Eating Disorder, an individual must have engaged in binge-eating, on average:
A. once a week for at least one month.
B. once a week for at least three months.
C. twice a week for at least one month.
D. twice a week for at least three months.
B. once a week for at least three months.
Which of the following research designs would be useful for controlling the effects of a potential confounding organismic variable on the results of a research study when participants' scores on that variable are known at the beginning of the study?
A. counterbalanced
B. randomized block
C. Solomon four-group
D. nonequivalent groups.
B. randomized block
While treating a client for snake phobia, a therapist handles the snake and then guides the client through a series of steps until she is able to handle the snake herself. This technique is referred to as:
A. symbolic modeling.
B. participant modeling.
C. in-vivo desensitization.
D. overcorrection.
B. Participant Modeling
When a therapist is a trainee and his or her supervisor has legal responsibility for treatment being provided by the therapist, the therapist must:
A. obtain a waiver of confidentiality from a client prior to discussing the case with his/her supervisor.
B. let a client know that he/she is a student intern and that a supervisor will be reviewing the case.
C. let a client know that he/she is a student intern and provide the client with the supervisor's name.
D. let a client know that he/she is a student intern and introduce the client to the supervisor.
C. let a client know that he/she is a student intern and provide the client with the supervisor's name.
Research on the development of depth perception in infants has shown that sensitivity to depth cues emerges in which of the following sequences (from first to last)?
A. binocular, pictorial, kinetic
B. kinetic, pictorial, binocular
C. binocular, kinetic, pictorial
D. kinetic, binocular, pictorial
D. kinetic, binocular, pictorial
According to Troiden (1988), homosexual identity development involves which of the following stages?
A. confusion, comparison, acceptance, synthesis
B. feeling different, confusion, assumption, integration
C. dissonance, immersion, introspection, integrated awareness
D. dissonance, acceptance, assumption, integration.
B. feeling different, confusion, assumption, integration
You experience panic and fear while taking the licensing exam. When you take your driving test several weeks later, these feelings resurface. This is likely attributable to:
a) higher-order conditioning
b) stimulus generalization
c) response generalization
d) positive punishment
b) stimulus generalization
Research on visual imagery has linked it to which of the following structures of the brain?
A. putamen
B. hippocampus
C. reticular formation
D. basal ganglia.
B. hippocampus
For a DSM-5 diagnosis of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, the onset of symptoms must be prior to __ years of age.
A. 6
B. 10
C. 12
D. 18
B) 10
If the relationship between level of anxiety (the independent variable) and number of words recalled (the dependent variable) is nonlinear, which of the following would be most useful for statistically evaluating the relationship between the two variables?
A. ANCOVA
B. MANOVA
C. trend analysis
D. factorial analysis
C. trend analysis
A researcher investigating implicit memory will most likely use which of the following tasks?
Select one:
A. free recall
B. paired associate.
C. word-stem completion
D. verbal recognition
C. word-stem completion
With regard to ethical guidelines, exposing animal subjects in a research study to stress or pain:
A. is prohibited under any circumstances.
B. is prohibited except in the "most unusual circumstances."
C. is permitted when the stress or pain is minimized and applied in a humane way.
D. is permitted when alternative procedures are unavailable, and the stress or pain is justified by the prospective value of the study's results.
D. is permitted when alternative procedures are unavailable, and the stress or pain is justified by the prospective value of the study's results.
According to Piaget, a child cannot gain a true understanding of addition and subtraction until he/she is __years of age.
A. 3
B. 5
C. 7
D. 11
C) 7
"Culturally encapsulated" therapists:
A. have become immersed in another culture at the expense of their own culture.
B. exhibit an overt type of racism while denying that they are prejudiced against members of other cultures.
C. define the reality of their clients according to their own cultural assumptions.
D. maximize cultural differences by consistently distinguishing between "us" and "them."
C. define the reality of their clients according to their own cultural assumptions.
A key distinguishing feature in bringing about classical versus operant extinction is:
a) one involves spontaneous recovery, the other a response burst
b) one involves pairing, the other reinforcement
c) the nature of what is added
d) the nature of what is withheld
d) The nature of what is withheld
Participants in a research study are asked to tap with a finger to keep time with a metronome. After several taps, the metronome is turned off and participants are asked to continue with the same beat. Participants with damage to which of the following areas of the brain will have the most difficulty with this task?
A. cerebellum
B. suprachiasmatic nucleus
C. cortex
D. hippocampus
A. cerebellum
The symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder are:
A. usually most severe during the early adult years.
B. usually most severe during middle age.
C. usually most severe during older adulthood.
D. stable in terms of severity over the adult years.
A. usually most severe during the early adult years.
Which of the following would be most useful when a test administrator wants to use test scores to determine how much a person has learned during the course of a six-week training program?
A. expectancy tables
B. stanine scores
C. percentile ranks
D. percentage scores
D. percentage scores
Surveys of heterosexual men and women have found that, with regard to sexual satisfaction in mid- to late-adulthood:
A. men report being more physically and emotionally satisfied with their current sexual relationships than women do.
B. women report being more physically and emotionally satisfied with their current sexual relationships than men do.
C. men and women report nearly identical levels of physical and emotional satisfaction with their current sexual relationships.
D. men report being more physically satisfied but women report being more emotionally satisfied with their current sexual relationships.
A. men report being more physically and emotionally satisfied with their current sexual relationships than women do.
Dr. Fran Flummox is asked by the plaintiff's attorney to serve as an expert witness on behalf of the plaintiff in a malpractice suit. The attorney asks Dr. Flummox if she would be willing to waive her usual fee and accept a proportion of the anticipated settlement instead. As an ethical psychologist, Dr. Flummox:
A. may agree to do so because accepting a contingent fee is acceptable in this situation.
B. should agree to do so only if the contingent fee will represent the fair market value of her services.
C. should agree to do so only if she determines that accepting the contingent fee is in the best interests of the plaintiff.
D. should refuse to do so because psychologists should avoid accepting contingent fees in this situation.
D. should refuse to do so because psychologists should avoid accepting contingent fees in this situation.
For Bowlby, an "internal working model" derives from:
A. an innate, biologically-based predisposition.
B. early interpersonal interaction patterns.
C. early problem-solving experiences.
D. the self-concept.
B. early interpersonal interaction patterns.
A psychologist has just started working at a mental health clinic. Several of the clients who are referred to him belong to an ethnic minority group that he has not worked with before. He should:
A. inform the clients of his limited experience and discuss their options with them.
B. consult with a senior member of the clinic.
C. read relevant research on the needs of members of this group.
D. refer the clients to a more qualified therapist.
B. consult with a senior member of the clinic.
Which of the following best describes behavioral contrast?
a) when one of two bxs that are being reinforced stops being reinforced, that bx decreases while the other increases
b) a bx in a complex sequence reinforces the previous bx in the sequence and also serves as a signal for the next bx
c) a bx that is frequently carried out is used to reinforce a bx that is rarely carried out
d) an aversive stimulus can be avoided if the desired bx is emitted in time.
A) When one of two behaviors that are being reinforced stops being reinforced, that behavior decreases while the other increases.
Which of the following neurotransmitters has been implicated in both long-term potentiation and the "excitotoxicity" that is believed to underlie several neurodegenerative disorders?
A. serotonin
B. acetylcholine
C. norepinephrine
D. glutamate.
D. glutamate
The mother of a 35-year-old man says that, for the past five weeks, he has been acting very uncharacteristically. He seems perplexed and nervous much of the time, his tone of voice varies between flat and shrill, and his speech is sometimes like "word salad." The mother says that sometimes it seems like he is listening to voices or sounds that she cannot hear. Based on this information, the most likely diagnosis is:
A. Schizophrenia.
B. Schizoid Personality Disorder.
C. Schizoaffective Disorder.
D. Schizophreniform Disorder.
D. Schizophreniform Disorder.
To use the Taylor-Russell tables to evaluate a new selection test, you need information about which of the following?
A. predictor cutoff, criterion cutoff, and hit rate.
B. base rate, hit rate, and selection ratio.
C. base rate, selection ratio, and validity coefficient
D. base rate, hit rate, and predictor cutoff.
C. base rate, selection ratio, and validity coefficient
A number of investigators have attempted to identify the factors that reduce the likelihood that a woman will seek or remain in substance abuse treatment. Of the factors that have been studied, which of the following has most often been identified as a primary barrier to substance-abuse treatment for women?
A. child and childcare concerns
B. sexual harassment from male counselors
C. denial of a substance abuse problem
D. a perception that treatment is ineffective.
A. child and childcare concerns
You're asked by the court to evaluate a 70-y/o woman to help determine her competence. She's disoriented & confused and has substantial memory loss. You've recently taken a workshop on the use of a new computerized asmt technique for people w/ sxs like these, and feel it would be especially valid here. Further, you had taken the workshop specifically because you want to expand your practice by being qualified to conduct competency-related evaluations for the court. Your best course of action would be to:
A. use the program to assess the woman.
B. use the program to assess the woman but, when testifying in court, discuss the potential limitations of your conclusions.
C. use the program to assess the woman but confirm your conclusions before testifying by consulting with the developer of the assessment technique.
D. refer the woman to someone who's more familiar w/ this type of evaluation.
D. refer the woman to someone who is more familiar with this type of evaluation.
Children normally begin to talk somewhere around their first birthday. Studies investigating the nature of a child's language development have shown that a large proportion of a child's first words refer to:
A. objects that the child wants.
B. objects that the child can hold.
C. objects that are static and invariable.
D. objects that move or change.
D. objects that move or change.
Research on the attitudes of heterosexuals toward gays and lesbians has found that all of the following are predictive of higher levels of sexual prejudice except:
A. high levels of authoritarianism.
B. male (versus female) gender.
C. fundamentalist religious views.
D. younger (versus older) age.
D. younger (versus older) age.
A researcher attempts to train a dog to salivate to a light. The researcher has the dog complete 20 trials in which the food powder is presented followed by a flash of light. At the end of the 20 trials, the dog does not salivate to the light. This is most likely due to:
a) satiation
b) habituation
c) inappropriate pairings
d) extinction
C) Inappropriate pairings
When given a task involving alternating sequential letters of the alphabet with numbers, a patient responds with the following sequence: A, 1, B, 2, C, D, E, F, G. Most likely this reflects damage to which of the following brain structures?
A) frontal lobe
B) pariental lobe
C) amygdala
D) occipital lobe
A) frontal lobe
Naasir N. states that he often can't keep himself from falling asleep during the day and, as a result, has injured himself several times at work and recently started taking the bus to work because he's afraid he'll fall asleep while driving. He says that he often experiences weakness in his legs right before he falls asleep during the day and has vivid, sometimes frightening dreams just before he wakes up. Naasir says that he likes to have a few beers in the evening and on weekends but that this seems to increase his daytime sleepiness. He reports that he has very vivid dreams at night and usually wakes up several times each night but is able to quickly fall asleep again. Based on these symptoms, the most likely diagnosis for Naasir is:
A. sleep apnea.
B. alcohol-induced sleep disorder.
C. primary hypersomnia.
D. narcolepsy.
D. Narcolepsy
The Solomon four-group design is used to evaluate the effects of pretesting on a research study's:
A. internal validity only.
B. external validity only.
C. internal and external validity.
D. statistical conclusion validity
C. internal and external validity
Work by Perry and colleagues (1986) suggests that highly aggressive children:
A. were exposed prenatally to high levels of androgens.
B. are less sensitive to physical discomfort than less aggressive children.
C. exhibited a disoriented/disengaged attachment pattern as young children.
D. show little remorse after hurting another child.
D. show little remorse after hurting another child
A psychologist is hired to perform a court-ordered evaluation of a defendant in a criminal case. The psychologist discusses the purpose of the evaluation with the defendant who then says he does not want to cooperate. According to the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology (APA, 2012), the psychologist should:
A. remind the defendant that he has no choice since the evaluation is court-ordered.
B. refuse to conduct the evaluation unless he obtains an informed consent from the defendant.
C. refuse to conduct the evaluation unless he obtains an informed consent from either the defendant or the defendant's attorney.
D. postpone the evaluation and advise the defendant to contact his attorney.
D. postpone the evaluation and advise the defendant to contact his attorney.
A 16-month-old child who calls her pet cat "kitty" sees a dog for the first time and calls it "kitty." In terms of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the child is displaying:
A. assimilation.
B. accommodation.
C. categorization.
D. centration.
A. assimilation.
Research on Helms' White Racial Identity Development Model suggests that a White therapist will usually be most successful when working with a client from an ethnic/racial minority group when the therapist is in which stage?
a) reintegration
b) immersion-emersion
c) autonomy
d) integrative awareness
c) autonomy