Questions and answers

You should look through the questions below, which have been broken down into each of the weeks of content so far. From the questions of each week, you should pick one question that you want to answer (meaning you will do five questions in total). For each of these questions, answer that question based on content from the class. Each question should be answered with at least 150 words, though you are free to write as much as you’d like to answer the question.

While this is obviously an open book element of the exam, you should do this work independently, and answer these questions with your own understanding of these topics. While your notes, the textbook, and the slides can certainly help you here, you should not simply copy information from any sources. You should think about these questions, use your notes and other class resources to understand the topic, and then attempt to answer the question in your own words, referencing those items as needed.

I have mentioned this in other places, but one of the clearest and easiest ways to get in trouble with this, or any assignment, is to copy-paste information from anywhere else into your response. The one exception to this in this assignment is that you should copy paste the questions you are answering into your document as you answer them, so that we know what questions you’re answering. Other than that, this is not a research paper where you’re quoting directly from sources – this is an exam testing your understanding of course content so far.

If you have any questions or want any clarifications on this or any part of the exam, please reach out for help.

Questions to answer are below. Again, choose one from each of the five weeks, to answer five in total, with answers to each that are at least 150 words.

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Week 1 (pick one)

Why is it important to consider ethical implications when designing psychological research? What examples in the history of psychology brought about changes to how we think about ethics in research, and how does this relate to the Belmont Report and IRBs?

What is a variable, how are independent and dependent variables used in an experiment, and what is the importance of control groups and random assignment?

What is the scientific method, and why is it important to psychological research?

What is the difference between lab and field studies? Why would researchers be more likely to engage in one or the other?

What is a logical fallacy? Pick any of the logical fallacies that we covered and discuss how it works and how it might impact decision making.

Week 2 (pick one)

Identify the four main areas of the cerebrum that we covered, and describe their locations and basic functions.

What are Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas related to, and what occurs when each is damaged? How are these areas and resulting damage both similar and different?

PET scans, fMRI, and EEG are all different ways to image the brain; how are they similar and how are they different? What is each measuring, at a big picture level?

How has the domestication of different non-human animals informed us about how species adapt to fit their environments? How are the domestication of dogs, cats, and foxes both similar and different?

What is the basic structure of a neuron? Roughly how many neurons do we have, and how does this number compare to other non-human animals? Are there other animals with more neurons than us, and if so, what else is important to know about the location of those neurons?

What parts of the limbic system did we cover? Pick any one of these parts of the limbic system and describe its function, as well as why that is important psychologically.

Week 3 (pick one)

How is the brain of an average two year old different from that of a fully grown adult? Discuss how both size and density of neuronal connections is similar or different, and what this means for how the brain changes during childhood.

What is the strange situation task, and what is it used to examine? Roughly what age of child would this task be used with? What can be learned from different behaviors that are displayed by children in this task?

What are the four major classifications of parenting styles? How are authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles similar and different, and what are some examples of behaviors in each? Which leads to better child outcomes?

Describe the skills of object permanence and conservation of quantity. How does a child’s behavior look different before and after each of these skills is mastered?

What is theory of mind, and how does it relate to the false belief test and perspective taking?

What is the main difference between life expectancy at birth and life expectancy from a life table? How does continuing to age impact your life expectancy? What are some of the ways our brain functioning changes as we age?

Week 4 (pick one)

What is the difference between sensation and perception? What part do your five sensory organs play in this?

What is Gestalt psychology, and what was the main assumption relating to regularity of the world around us? What are some Gestalt ideas that come from this, and how do they work?

Pick any two optical illusions that we covered and describe how they relate to potential errors of sensation and perception, as well as to Gestalt principles and assumptions.

What are sleepwalking and sleep paralysis, and how are they both related to errors in the sleep process? What are hypnagogic hallucinations, and how can they interact with sleep paralysis?

What is pareidolia? What is facial feature pareidolia, and why is our brain open to making these types of errors? What is an example of audio pareidolia?

What are the different stages of sleep, how do we move through them, and what brain waves can be found as sleep progresses? What is the most restful state of sleep? In what state of sleep do we dream?

Week 5 (pick one)

What is classical conditioning, and how does it work? How did Pavlov condition his dogs, using conditioned and unconditioned effects, stimuli, and responses?

What is operant conditioning, and how does it work? Give an example of a positive reinforcer, a negative reinforcer, a positive punishment, and a negative punishment.

What is taste aversion conditioning, and what type of conditioning is it related to? How does it work, and why is your brain and body so quick to utilize it?

What is a memory palace, and how is it used? Why is something like a memory palace so effective at helping to remember otherwise random information?

What is the difference between episodic and semantic memory? How are both different from working memory? What steps occur in order for a memory to be remembered?

What do we know about false memory? How are both the Mandela effect and the ‘lost in the mall’ experiment related to false memory, and how are each influenced by pragmatic inferences? What can we learn from each of these examples?