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AL Psych Juris practice questions

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Question 1Biological Bases of Behavior

Which part of the neuron primarily receives incoming signals from other neurons?

  1. The terminal buttons
  2. The dendrites Correct answer.
  3. The myelin sheath
  4. The axon hillock

Explanation

Dendrites are the branching extensions that carry receptor sites for neurotransmitters and collect incoming signals. The axon hillock integrates and initiates output, myelin insulates the axon, and terminal buttons release transmitter.

Question 2Biological Bases of Behavior

A resting neuron's membrane potential is typically about:

  1. 0 millivolts
  2. +40 millivolts
  3. -140 millivolts
  4. -70 millivolts Correct answer.

Explanation

At rest the inside of the membrane is negatively charged relative to the outside by roughly 70 mV, maintained largely by selective ion permeability and the sodium-potassium pump.

Question 3Biological Bases of Behavior

The refractory period that follows an action potential functions mainly to:

  1. Convert graded potentials into excitatory signals
  2. Increase the amplitude of subsequent action potentials
  3. Reverse the direction of neurotransmitter release
  4. Prevent the neuron from firing again immediately Correct answer.

Explanation

During the absolute refractory period voltage-gated sodium channels are inactivated, so the axon cannot generate another spike right away. This enforces a maximum firing rate and keeps the impulse traveling forward.

Question 4Biological Bases of Behavior

In the synapse, neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron when which event occurs?

  1. Chloride channels open on the postsynaptic cell
  2. Sodium is pumped out of the terminal
  3. Calcium ions enter the axon terminal Correct answer.
  4. Potassium ions exit the dendrite

Explanation

Depolarization of the terminal opens voltage-gated calcium channels, and calcium influx triggers vesicles to fuse with the membrane and release transmitter. The other ions are not the direct trigger for vesicle fusion.

Question 5Biological Bases of Behavior

A drug that blocks the reuptake of serotonin would most likely:

  1. Increase the rate at which serotonin is degraded
  2. Prevent serotonin from binding to its receptors
  3. Prolong serotonin's action in the synaptic cleft Correct answer.
  4. Deplete serotonin from the presynaptic terminal

Explanation

Reuptake transporters normally clear transmitter from the cleft; blocking them leaves serotonin available to stimulate receptors longer. This is the mechanism of SSRIs.

Question 6Biological Bases of Behavior

The division of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for fight-or-flight responses is the:

  1. Somatic nervous system
  2. Parasympathetic nervous system
  3. Sympathetic nervous system Correct answer.
  4. Enteric nervous system

Explanation

The sympathetic branch mobilizes the body under stress, raising heart rate, dilating pupils, and redirecting blood flow to muscles. The parasympathetic branch promotes rest and digestion.

Question 7Biological Bases of Behavior

Which brain structure relays nearly all sensory information (except smell) to the cerebral cortex?

  1. The thalamus Correct answer.
  2. The hypothalamus
  3. The cerebellum
  4. The amygdala

Explanation

The thalamus acts as the major sensory relay station, routing incoming signals to appropriate cortical areas. Olfaction is the notable exception that bypasses it.

Question 8Biological Bases of Behavior

Damage to the hippocampus would most directly impair a person's ability to:

  1. Form new explicit memories Correct answer.
  2. Regulate body temperature
  3. Produce fluent speech
  4. Maintain balance while walking

Explanation

The hippocampus is critical for consolidating new declarative memories, as shown in classic case studies of hippocampal damage. Temperature control, speech production, and balance involve other structures.

Question 9Biological Bases of Behavior

A patient can understand spoken language but speaks in halting, effortful phrases. This pattern most strongly suggests damage to:

  1. Broca's area Correct answer.
  2. The occipital lobe
  3. Wernicke's area
  4. The somatosensory cortex

Explanation

Broca's area in the left frontal lobe supports speech production; damage leaves comprehension intact but output nonfluent. Wernicke's area damage produces the opposite pattern.

Question 10Biological Bases of Behavior

The corpus callosum is best described as:

  1. A bundle of fibers connecting the two hemispheres Correct answer.
  2. A gland that releases melatonin
  3. A set of ventricles filled with cerebrospinal fluid
  4. A structure that filters sensory input in the midbrain

Explanation

The corpus callosum is the large white-matter tract that transfers information between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Severing it produces split-brain effects.

Question 11Biological Bases of Behavior

In split-brain research, an object presented to the left visual field can be picked up correctly while the person cannot name it. This happens because:

  1. The left visual field is blind after surgery
  2. The right hemisphere controls the left hand but not the eyes
  3. The object is stored only in short-term memory
  4. Left-field input reaches the right hemisphere, which lacks speech output Correct answer.

Explanation

Visual input from the left field crosses to the right hemisphere, which in most people cannot produce speech, so the person can act on the object without naming it. Naming requires left-hemisphere language areas.

Question 12Biological Bases of Behavior

The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for:

  1. Processing visual information Correct answer.
  2. Regulating hunger and thirst
  3. Processing auditory stimuli
  4. Controlling voluntary movement

Explanation

The occipital lobe at the back of the brain houses the primary visual cortex, which receives input from the eyes via the thalamus. The other functions belong to different regions.

Question 13Biological Bases of Behavior

Nerve impulses travel faster along myelinated axons because myelin:

  1. Increases the number of ion channels along the axon
  2. Allows the signal to jump between nodes of Ranvier Correct answer.
  3. Slows the release of neurotransmitter
  4. Prevents the axon from depolarizing

Explanation

Myelin insulates the axon so the action potential regenerates mainly at the unmyelinated nodes, a process called saltatory conduction that increases speed.

Question 14Biological Bases of Behavior

Which technique measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygenation?

  1. Transcranial magnetic stimulation
  2. Electroencephalography
  3. Computed tomography
  4. Functional MRI Correct answer.

Explanation

fMRI relies on the BOLD signal, which reflects local changes in blood oxygen as a proxy for neural activity. EEG records electrical activity, CT shows structure, and TMS alters activity.

Question 15Biological Bases of Behavior

A neuron is exposed to a drug that keeps sodium channels open longer during depolarization. The most likely effect is:

  1. More frequent or prolonged action potentials Correct answer.
  2. A permanent resting potential
  3. Blocked neurotransmitter release
  4. A stronger myelin sheath

Explanation

Prolonged sodium entry sustains depolarization, making the cell more likely to fire and extending excitation. This increases signaling rather than silencing it.

Question 16Biological Bases of Behavior

The endocrine system differs from the nervous system mainly in that endocrine signaling:

  1. Relies on neurotransmitters across synapses
  2. Uses hormones carried through the bloodstream Correct answer.
  3. Produces effects that are always instantaneous
  4. Occurs only within the spinal cord

Explanation

Endocrine glands secrete hormones into the blood, so signals travel more slowly and can act on distant targets over longer durations. Neural signaling is faster and more localized.

Question 17Biological Bases of Behavior

A researcher lesions a rat's amygdala and then tests fear conditioning. The most likely result is:

  1. The rat fails to acquire a conditioned fear response Correct answer.
  2. The rat loses the ability to walk
  3. The rat shows enhanced fear learning
  4. The rat cannot form spatial maps

Explanation

The amygdala is essential for associating cues with threat, so lesions impair fear conditioning. Walking and spatial mapping depend on other structures.

Question 18Biological Bases of Behavior

Reuptake, enzymatic degradation, and diffusion are all processes that:

  1. Terminate neurotransmitter action in the synapse Correct answer.
  2. Increase receptor sensitivity
  3. Synthesize neurotransmitter in the terminal
  4. Generate action potentials in the axon

Explanation

After release, transmitter must be cleared to end the signal; reuptake, enzymatic breakdown, and diffusion are the main clearance routes. They act on the signal's termination rather than its creation.

Question 19Biological Bases of Behavior

The all-or-none principle of the action potential means that:

  1. Subthreshold stimuli produce partial spikes
  2. Spike amplitude varies with distance traveled
  3. A stimulus above threshold produces a full-amplitude spike Correct answer.
  4. Stronger stimuli produce larger spikes

Explanation

Once threshold is reached, the action potential fires at a constant amplitude regardless of stimulus strength; intensity is instead coded by firing rate. Graded potentials, not spikes, vary in size.

Question 20Biological Bases of Behavior

A drug that mimics a neurotransmitter by binding to and activating its receptors is called a(n):

  1. Enzyme inducer
  2. Antagonist
  3. Reuptake inhibitor
  4. Direct agonist Correct answer.

Explanation

A direct agonist binds the receptor site and activates it, mimicking the transmitter. An antagonist blocks rather than activates, and reuptake inhibitors act on transporters.

Question 21Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In Baddeley's working memory model, which component is responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating visual and spatial information?

  1. The visuospatial sketchpad Correct answer.
  2. The episodic buffer
  3. The phonological loop
  4. The central executive

Explanation

The visuospatial sketchpad is the slave system that stores and maintains visual and spatial material. The phonological loop handles verbal-acoustic information, the central executive allocates attention, and the episodic buffer integrates information across systems.

Question 22Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

According to the Yerkes-Dodson principle, performance on a difficult, complex task is typically optimal at which level of arousal?

  1. A moderate-to-high level of arousal
  2. A moderate-to-low level of arousal Correct answer.
  3. A level of arousal that is irrelevant to task difficulty
  4. A high level of arousal

Explanation

The Yerkes-Dodson principle states that the optimal arousal level depends on task difficulty: complex tasks are performed best at lower arousal, whereas simple tasks tolerate higher arousal. The inverted-U curve shifts leftward as task complexity increases.

Question 23Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A client who experienced a traumatic event reports that memories of the event intrude vividly but that ordinary details of the surrounding week are hazy. This pattern is best described as:

  1. Enhanced encoding of central trauma details with impaired peripheral encoding Correct answer.
  2. Global retrograde amnesia for the entire year
  3. Complete suppression of all memory for the event
  4. Uniform enhancement of all autobiographical memory for that period

Explanation

Traumatic and highly emotional events tend to produce narrowed attention, enhancing encoding of central details while reducing encoding of peripheral contextual details. This produces vivid intrusive fragments alongside gaps in surrounding memory.

Question 24Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In classical conditioning of a fear response, presenting the conditioned stimulus repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus leads to a gradual decline in the conditioned response. This process is called:

  1. Higher-order conditioning
  2. Extinction Correct answer.
  3. Generalization
  4. Spontaneous recovery

Explanation

Extinction is the weakening of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus. It involves new inhibitory learning rather than erasure of the original association.

Question 25Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Which of the following best illustrates the availability heuristic?

  1. Choosing between options by calculating their expected monetary values
  2. Preferring a sure gain over a probabilistic larger gain
  3. Estimating the frequency of a crime based on how easily recent news examples come to mind Correct answer.
  4. Revising a belief after being shown base-rate statistics

Explanation

The availability heuristic is judging frequency or probability by the ease with which instances can be retrieved from memory. Vivid media coverage makes examples easy to retrieve and inflates perceived frequency.

Question 26Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A person who is highly confident in a judgment despite weak supporting evidence is displaying:

  1. Hindsight bias
  2. Framing effect
  3. Anchoring effect
  4. Overconfidence bias Correct answer.

Explanation

Overconfidence refers to excessive certainty in one's judgments relative to the actual accuracy of those judgments. It is distinct from other biases that concern how estimates are anchored, recalled, or framed.

Question 27Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In a delay-of-gratification paradigm, a child's ability to wait for a larger later reward is most closely associated with which cognitive capacity?

  1. Perceptual priming
  2. Executive inhibitory control Correct answer.
  3. Classical eyeblink conditioning
  4. Sensory habituation

Explanation

Waiting for a delayed reward requires suppressing the prepotent response to take the immediate reward, which depends on executive inhibitory control. This capacity develops markedly across early childhood.

Question 28Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

According to Piaget, a child who can conserve quantity but cannot yet reason systematically about abstract propositions is most likely in which stage?

  1. Sensorimotor
  2. Formal operational
  3. Preoperational
  4. Concrete operational Correct answer.

Explanation

Concrete operational children master conservation and logical operations tied to tangible situations but struggle with abstract hypothetical reasoning. Formal operational thought, which emerges later, enables abstract and systematic reasoning.

Question 29Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A student studies vocabulary by testing herself repeatedly rather than rereading the list. Her improved later recall best illustrates:

  1. Blocking
  2. State-dependent learning
  3. The testing effect Correct answer.
  4. The spacing effect

Explanation

The testing effect is the finding that actively retrieving information produces better long-term retention than passive restudy. Self-testing engages retrieval processes that strengthen memory.

Question 30Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Which statement accurately characterizes the serial position effect?

  1. Recency effects disappear when recall is tested immediately
  2. Primacy effects are strongest when lists are very long and rapidly presented
  3. Items in the middle of a list are recalled best
  4. Primacy reflects long-term memory while recency reflects short-term memory Correct answer.

Explanation

The serial position curve shows better recall for early items (primacy, reflecting greater rehearsal and long-term storage) and late items (recency, reflecting short-term storage). Delaying recall or filling a delay eliminates the recency advantage.

Question 31Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In signal detection theory, shifting the decision criterion to be more liberal will produce:

  1. More hits and more false alarms Correct answer.
  2. Fewer hits and more false alarms
  3. No change in hits or false alarms
  4. More hits and fewer false alarms

Explanation

A liberal criterion means the observer is more willing to report a signal, which increases both correct detections (hits) and incorrect detections (false alarms). Sensitivity, indexed by d-prime, is separate from criterion placement.

Question 32Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Damage to the hippocampus most typically produces which pattern of memory impairment?

  1. Isolated deficit in short-term verbal span
  2. Impaired formation of new declarative memories with relatively intact procedural learning Correct answer.
  3. Global loss of all remote semantic knowledge
  4. Impaired procedural skill learning with intact declarative memory

Explanation

Hippocampal damage classically produces anterograde amnesia for declarative (episodic and semantic) information while procedural learning and priming remain largely preserved. This dissociation supports multiple memory systems.

Question 33Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A therapist helps a client replace the automatic thought "I always fail" with the more balanced thought "I sometimes struggle, but I often succeed." This technique is most central to:

  1. Contingency management
  2. Systematic desensitization
  3. Cognitive restructuring Correct answer.
  4. Psychoanalytic free association

Explanation

Cognitive restructuring targets distorted automatic thoughts and replaces them with more accurate appraisals. It is a core technique of cognitive therapy for emotional disorders.

Question 34Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In Beck's cognitive model of depression, the cognitive triad consists of negative views about:

  1. Family, work, and leisure
  2. The past, the present, and the future
  3. The self, the world, and the future Correct answer.
  4. Emotions, behaviors, and sensations

Explanation

Beck's cognitive triad describes depressive thinking characterized by negative beliefs about oneself, the world, and the future. These content themes are maintained by schemas and cognitive distortions.

Question 35Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A person with a specific phobia avoids elevators because she predicts she will panic and be humiliated. In cognitive-behavioral terms, the maintaining factor most directly targeted by exposure is:

  1. Her baseline trait extraversion
  2. Her catastrophic prediction and avoidance-driven safety behaviors Correct answer.
  3. Her genetic vulnerability
  4. Her working memory capacity

Explanation

Exposure works by disconfirming catastrophic predictions and reducing reliance on safety behaviors and avoidance that prevent corrective learning. The feared outcome is tested rather than assumed.

Question 36Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Which of the following is the clearest example of a cognitive distortion known as dichotomous (all-or-nothing) thinking?

  1. "My friend didn't call, so she must hate me"
  2. "If I don't get a perfect score, I'm a total failure" Correct answer.
  3. "Bad things always happen to me"
  4. "Everyone will notice my mistake"

Explanation

Dichotomous thinking evaluates experience in extreme, mutually exclusive categories with no middle ground. The perfect-or-failure statement exemplifies this split.

Question 37Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Ekman's cross-cultural research on facial expressions primarily supported the claim that:

  1. All emotional expressions are learned and culture-specific
  2. Emotion recognition is entirely determined by language
  3. Facial expressions carry no reliable information about emotion
  4. A small set of basic emotions has universally recognizable facial expressions Correct answer.

Explanation

Ekman found that certain basic emotions, such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust, are recognized across diverse cultures. This supports a universal component to emotional expression, though display rules modulate expression.

Question 38Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

The James-Lange theory of emotion proposes that:

  1. Bodily arousal precedes and gives rise to emotional experience Correct answer.
  2. Emotion and bodily arousal occur simultaneously and independently
  3. Cognitive appraisal alone determines emotion without physiology
  4. Emotional experience precedes and causes bodily arousal

Explanation

The James-Lange theory holds that physiological arousal comes first and the emotional experience is the perception of that bodily change. This contrasts with theories in which cognition or simultaneous processes drive emotion.

Question 39Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

According to Schachter and Singer's two-factor theory, an emotional experience results from:

  1. Physiological arousal alone
  2. Unconscious appraisal that bypasses awareness
  3. Cognitive labeling of physiological arousal in context Correct answer.
  4. Facial feedback without arousal

Explanation

The two-factor theory proposes that emotion arises when undifferentiated physiological arousal is interpreted and labeled using situational cues. Both arousal and a cognitive label are necessary.

Question 40Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A researcher finds that participants who were induced to smile rate cartoons as funnier than those induced to frown. This finding is most consistent with:

  1. Drive-reduction theory
  2. The Yerkes-Dodson law
  3. The Cannon-Bard theory
  4. The facial feedback hypothesis Correct answer.

Explanation

The facial feedback hypothesis holds that facial muscle activity associated with expressions can modulate emotional experience. Smiling producing higher humor ratings is a classic illustration.

Question 41Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A patient with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage shows impaired real-life decision-making and social judgment despite intact intellect. This pattern is best explained by a deficit in:

  1. Spatial working memory
  2. Somatic marker signaling during choice Correct answer.
  3. Phonological rehearsal
  4. Procedural motor learning

Explanation

Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis proposes that ventromedial prefrontal regions integrate bodily affective signals to guide advantageous decisions. Damage impairs this affective guidance while leaving general intellect intact.

Question 42Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Prospect theory's value function is characterized by which pair of features?

  1. Probability weighting that treats all outcomes as equally likely
  2. Risk seeking for gains and risk aversion for losses
  3. Loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity to gains and losses Correct answer.
  4. Linearity and constant marginal utility

Explanation

Prospect theory's value function is concave for gains and convex for losses, reflecting diminishing sensitivity, and is steeper for losses than gains, reflecting loss aversion. These features generate characteristic framing effects.

Question 43Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In attentional terms, a person who fails to notice an unexpected object while focusing on a demanding task is demonstrating:

  1. Inattentional blindness Correct answer.
  2. Attentional capture
  3. Divided attention advantage
  4. Change blindness

Explanation

Inattentional blindness is the failure to perceive an unexpected object when attention is engaged by another task. It differs from change blindness, which concerns failing to detect changes across views.

Question 44Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Which of the following best describes the difference between implicit and explicit memory?

  1. Implicit memory depends on the hippocampus; explicit memory does not
  2. Implicit memory affects performance without conscious recollection; explicit memory involves conscious recollection Correct answer.
  3. Implicit memory is consciously recalled; explicit memory is automatic
  4. Implicit memory is short-term; explicit memory is long-term

Explanation

Implicit memory is expressed through performance changes such as priming or skill learning without deliberate recollection, whereas explicit memory requires conscious retrieval of facts or events. The two rely on partly distinct neural systems.

Question 45Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A client reports that she feels anxious whenever she enters a supermarket but cannot identify why. A behaviorist would most likely explain this as:

  1. An inherited personality trait
  2. A classically conditioned emotional response to contextual cues Correct answer.
  3. A deficit in working memory capacity
  4. A failure of formal operational reasoning

Explanation

A behaviorist explains unexplained anxiety as a conditioned emotional response acquired through pairing of contextual cues with aversive experiences. The supermarket functions as a conditioned stimulus eliciting conditioned fear.

Question 46Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A clinician wants to reduce a client's recurrent panic attacks by having the client deliberately inhale through a straw until the familiar sensations of breathlessness and dizziness arise, then remain in the situation without escaping. This technique is best understood as targeting which cognitive-affective process?

  1. Systematic desensitization that pairs relaxation with a graded hierarchy of external feared places
  2. Response prevention that blocks compulsive rituals performed to neutralize intrusive thoughts
  3. Interoceptive exposure that weakens the catastrophic misinterpretation of benign bodily sensations Correct answer.
  4. Cognitive restructuring that replaces automatic thoughts with evidence-based alternative beliefs

Explanation

Panic disorder is maintained by catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations as signs of imminent harm, so treatment deliberately induces those sensations to allow corrective learning. Interoceptive exposure uses exercises such as straw breathing or hyperventilation to show that the feared sensations are tolerable and not dangerous.

Question 47Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

A researcher finds that members of a collectivist culture are more likely than members of an individualist culture to prioritize group harmony over personal achievement. This difference is best described as an example of:

  1. Universal developmental milestones
  2. Cultural variation in social behavior Correct answer.
  3. Individual differences in temperament
  4. Genetic determinism of personality

Explanation

Cultural norms shape how people prioritize group versus individual goals, producing systematic differences across societies. The finding reflects shared cultural values, not biology or individual temperament.

Question 48Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

A person who moves to a new country and adopts the host culture's language and customs while largely abandoning their heritage practices is best described as using which acculturation strategy?

  1. Assimilation Correct answer.
  2. Integration
  3. Marginalization
  4. Separation

Explanation

Assimilation involves adopting the dominant culture while relinquishing one's original cultural identity. Integration retains both, separation retains only the heritage culture, and marginalization rejects both.

Question 49Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

In social psychology, the tendency to overestimate the role of personal disposition and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior is called:

  1. Just-world hypothesis
  2. Self-serving bias
  3. Fundamental attribution error Correct answer.
  4. Bystander effect

Explanation

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute others' behavior to disposition while discounting situational influences. Self-serving bias concerns attributions about one's own outcomes, not others' behavior.

Question 50Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior

A study finds that participants conform to a group's obviously incorrect judgment more often when the group is unanimous. This best illustrates the influence of:

  1. Obedience to legitimate authority
  2. Cognitive dissonance reduction
  3. Group size and unanimity on conformity Correct answer.
  4. Diffusion of responsibility

Explanation

Conformity increases when a group is unanimous because dissent provides social support for resisting. This reflects normative and informational social influence rather than obedience or dissonance.