Psychology 101 Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A sleeping participant shows rapid eye movements, vivid dreaming, and brain activity resembling wakefulness. Which sleep stage is most likely occurring?
NREM stage 1
NREM stage 3
Quiet wakefulness
REM sleep
2. A researcher changes the amount of sleep participants receive and then measures their attention. What is the independent variable?
Participants’ attention scores
The amount of sleep participants receive
The population from which participants were recruited
Any difference in attention between the groups
3. In an experiment comparing two teaching methods, why would researchers randomly assign participants to the groups?
To ensure the sample perfectly represents the entire population
To prevent participants from knowing the study’s purpose
To reduce systematic preexisting differences between the groups
To guarantee that the independent variable has a large effect
4. Jordan plans assignments carefully, keeps materials organized, and reliably meets deadlines. Which Big Five trait is most clearly illustrated?
Extraversion
Conscientiousness
Openness to experience
Agreeableness
5. A dog learns to salivate to a tone that has repeatedly preceded food. The tone is then played many times without food, and salivation gradually weakens. What has occurred?
Stimulus generalization
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Second-order conditioning
6. A study estimates the heritability of a trait at 60% within a particular population and environment. What does that figure mean?
Genes determine 60% of the trait in every individual
The trait has a 60% chance of being inherited by a child
Environmental influences account for exactly 40% of each person’s trait
About 60% of the observed variation in that population is associated with genetic differences under those conditions
7. A young child explores an unfamiliar room while checking back with a caregiver, then seeks and accepts comfort from that caregiver after becoming upset. Which attachment pattern does this most closely fit?
Avoidant attachment
Anxious-resistant attachment
Disorganized attachment
Secure attachment
8. Participants report improvement after taking an inert pill because they expect the treatment to help. What is this response called?
Regression toward the mean
The testing effect
The placebo effect
The Hawthorne effect
9. A study examines whether background music affects concentration. Which option is the clearest operational definition of concentration?
The ability to focus despite distractions
How mentally engaged each participant appears
The number of correct responses on a 20-item attention task
Participants’ general capacity for sustained thought
10. After seeing several vivid reports of airplane accidents, someone concludes that air travel accidents are extremely common. Which heuristic is most evident?
Availability heuristic
Anchoring heuristic
Confirmation bias
Representativeness heuristic
11. A survey finds that students who report more nightly sleep also tend to have higher grades. What conclusion is justified?
The relationship must be explained entirely by chance
Increasing every student’s sleep will necessarily raise that student’s grades
Higher grades cause students to sleep longer
Sleep and grades are associated, but the result alone does not establish causation
12. An infant watches a toy being covered with a cloth and then reaches under the cloth to retrieve it. In Piaget’s theory, this behavior demonstrates:
Conservation
Object permanence
Abstract reasoning
Egocentrism
13. You silently repeat a new phone number while searching for somewhere to write it. Which memory system are you primarily using?
Episodic memory
Procedural memory
Working memory
Sensory memory
14. A car’s warning sound stops when the driver fastens a seat belt, making the driver more likely to buckle up promptly in the future. Which learning process best explains this?
Negative reinforcement, because an unpleasant stimulus is removed
Positive reinforcement, because a desirable stimulus is added
Positive punishment, because an unpleasant stimulus is added
Classical conditioning, because buckling becomes an automatic reflex
15. A coworker arrives late, and you immediately decide that the person is careless without considering a major transit disruption. Which concept best describes this judgment?
Fundamental attribution error
Self-serving bias
Cognitive dissonance
Social facilitation
16. After a brain injury, a person has particular difficulty forming new explicit memories of events. Which structure is most directly associated with this problem?
The hippocampus
The cerebellum
The amygdala
The medulla