Intro & Perspectives
Why did John B. Watson and early Behaviorists strongly reject Wilhelm Wundt’s method of introspection?
Introspection relied on private, subjective self-reports of inner thoughts, whereas Behaviorism argued that psychology must focus strictly on observable, measurable behavior to be a true science.
Why is a Confounding Variable so dangerous to an experiment's validity?
Because it varies along with the Independent Variable, creating an alternative explanation for why the Dependent Variable changed and ruining cause-and-effect conclusions.
A person is involved in an accident and can comprehend spoken language perfectly, but when they speak, their speech is slow, labored, and grammatically broken. Which specific cortical area was damaged?
Broca's Area (located in the left frontal lobe).
Why is Negative Reinforcement frequently confused with Punishment, and what is the actual distinction between them?
Negative reinforcement increases a behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus; Punishment decreases a behavior by introducing pain or taking away privileges.
A teacher wants to stop a student from calling out in class. Every time the student calls out, the teacher sighs and scolds him in front of everyone. Instead of stopping, the student calls out more frequently. What is happening operantly?
The teacher's scolding/attention is acting as Positive Reinforcement (adding attention), which is accidentally increasing the bad behavior rather than punishing it.
A person reacts to a neutral critique with severe panic and anger. How would a Cognitive Psychologist explain this reaction compared to a Psychoanalytic Psychologist?
A Cognitive Psychologist would explain it as a faulty mental interpretation or thought process; a Psychoanalytic Psychologist would attribute it to unresolved unconscious conflicts or childhood trauma.
A researcher tests whether a study app improves grades by letting students volunteer to use the app. What specific bias threatens this study, and why does it distort results?
Volunteer Bias. Students who volunteer are often already more motivated, diligent, or tech-savvy than non-volunteers, so their higher scores might be due to motivation, not the app.
Why does alcohol consumption lead to sluggish reaction times, decreased alertness, and an inability to focus on ambient cues?
Alcohol suppresses the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which normally regulates alertness, arousal, and sensory filtering.
How does Taste Aversion violate the standard rules of classical conditioning established by Pavlov?
Standard classical conditioning requires dozens of repeated pairings of NS and US, whereas taste aversion happens in a single trial and can occur hours after the stimulus.
In Edward Tolman’s maze experiment, unrewarded rats built a mental layout of the maze while wandering around. What specific cognitive concept did this experiment prove exists without external reinforcement?
Latent Learning (or Cognitive Mapping).
How did Hippocrates’ early ancient view on psychological disorders differ radically from the prevailing beliefs during the Middle Ages?
Hippocrates believed disorders stemmed from brain abnormalities and biological causes, whereas the Middle Ages attributed them to demonic possession, sin, or supernatural forces.
What is the main structural difference between a Cross-Sectional Study and a Longitudinal Study when researching how memory changes with age?
A Cross-Sectional Study compares different age groups at a single point in time; a Longitudinal Study tracks the exact same group of individuals over a long period.
If a split-brain patient (whose corpus callosum was severed) sees an image of an apple flashed exclusively to their left visual field, why can’t they name the object out loud?
Visual information from the left field goes to the right hemisphere, which lacks language centers (Broca's/Wernicke's are in the left hemisphere), so the patient cannot describe it verbally.
A dog salivates when hearing a bell. If the bell rings repeatedly without food, salivation stops. However, two weeks later, the bell rings and the dog salivates again. What two conditioning concepts are demonstrated here?
Extinction.
A toddler is terrified of a large, barking German Shepherd. Later that afternoon, the toddler cries when seeing a small, silent Poodle, but plays happily with a toy stuffed dog. Name the TWO conditioning phenomena taking place here.
Generalization (fear extended to the Poodle) and Discrimination (knowing the stuffed toy is safe/different).
Explain the core disagreement between Structuralism and Gestalt Psychology regarding conscious perception.
Structuralism claimed consciousness could be broken down into individual sensory parts; Gestalt claimed the mind perceives organized wholes that cannot be understood by looking at isolated pieces ("the whole is greater than the sum of its parts").
How does a Double-Blind Study eliminate both participant bias and experimenter bias simultaneously?
Participants don't know their group (preventing placebo effects/expectancy), and experimenters interacting with them don't know who got the treatment (preventing subconscious bias in leading participants or recording data).
Which brain structure acts as an essential relay station for visual and auditory input, but does NOT process or relay information coming from the sense of smell?
The Thalamus.
What is the critical procedural difference between Shaping and Chaining?
Shaping reinforces successive approximations toward building one single new behavior; Chaining links already existing, separate behaviors together into a multi-step sequence
A student studies for 3 hours while listening to a loud TV show. She takes a test in a silent room and performs poorly. The teacher claims the TV ruined her concentration, but the student claims the silent test room threw her off. What was the Independent Variable, and what was a Confounding Variable?
IV: (TV noise vs. quiet). Confounding Variable: Environmental mismatch between study setting (loud) and testing setting (silent) / test anxiety
William James introduced Functionalism, focusing on the "cash value" of ideas. What central question were functionalists trying to answer about human behavior?
What purpose or function does a thought or behavior serve in helping an organism adapt to its environment?"
A factory manager increases worker production by adding extra break times. However, when he removes the extra breaks, production stays high anyway. What psychological phenomenon explains this outcome?
The Hawthorne Effect—the workers altered their behavior simply because they knew they were being observed and cared about by researchers, regardless of the physical changes made.
What is the precise functional difference between the Somatic Nervous System and the Autonomic Nervous System?
The Somatic system controls voluntary muscle movements and sensory transmission, while the Autonomic system controls involuntary smooth muscles, internal organs, and automatic glands.
Why is a Variable-Ratio Schedule of reinforcement (like a slot machine or fishing) much more resistant to extinction than a Fixed-Interval Schedule (like a weekly paycheck)?
Because the reward comes after an unpredictable number of responses, keeping the subject responding steadily in hopes that the very next attempt will yield the reward.
An athlete visualizes executing a perfect gymnastic vault by watching videos of professional athletes over and over. When she tries it, she succeeds. What learning concept is at work, and what type of reinforcement was involved?
Observational Learning / Modeling, powered by Vicarious Reinforcement (seeing others rewarded for the action).