Take this Exam: AP Psychology — biological bases of behaviour | Zestly

Question 1

Across a full night of ordinary sleep, how does REM sleep behave?

Accepted Answer

Its episodes grow longer and come round more often as the night goes on.

Answer

It occurs only in the first hour, before the deeper stages begin.

Answer

It is the stage marked by slow delta waves and the greatest difficulty in waking.

Answer

Its episodes grow shorter as the night goes on, until they disappear before morning.

Question 2

In an invented study, a participant holding a 100-gram weight notices when 5 grams is added but not when 2 grams is added. Holding a 400-gram weight, she notices nothing until 20 grams is added. Which concept do these results illustrate?

Accepted Answer

The difference threshold, which grows in proportion to the size of the original stimulus

Answer

Sensory adaptation, the fading of a response to an unchanging stimulus

Answer

Transduction, the conversion of physical energy into neural signals

Answer

The absolute threshold, the faintest stimulus detectable at all

Question 3

Stare at a bright green square for half a minute, then look at a white wall: a reddish square appears where it was. Which observation does this represent, and which theory of colour vision accounts for it better?

Accepted Answer

An afterimage in the complementary colour, which the opponent-process theory explains

Answer

The existence of three cone types, which the opponent-process theory explains

Answer

The ability to see colour in bright light but not in dim light, which the opponent-process theory explains

Answer

The conversion of light into neural signals in the retina, which the opponent-process theory explains

Question 4

Reading a handwritten note, you come to a word in which one letter is smudged beyond recognition, yet you read the word without hesitating and only notice the smudge afterwards. Which process best accounts for this?

Answer

Perceptual adaptation, in which the perceptual system adjusts to a distorted sensory input

Answer

Bottom-up processing, in which perception is assembled purely from the incoming sensory detail

Answer

Top-down processing, in which expectation and context shape what is perceived

Answer

Sensory transduction, in which light is converted into neural signals in the retina

Question 5

An invented twin study reports that the heritability of a particular personality trait is $0.60$ in the population sampled. What does that figure mean?

Answer

The trait is entirely genetic for every person in the sample, and the figure measures how confidently that was shown.

Answer

Sixty per cent of the variation in that trait ACROSS the sampled population can be attributed to genetic differences between people.

Answer

Sixty per cent of any given person's standing on that trait was fixed by their genes.

Answer

Sixty per cent of the trait comes from the environment and the remaining forty per cent from genes.