Sample Questions: Introductory Psychology

The following Introductory Psychology sample questions aren't used in actual CLEP exams and aren’t presented here as they will be on the test. Use them to get a sense of question format and difficulty level.

Directions

Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case.

Questions

1. A researcher randomly assigns one group of high school students to innovative, active study groups, while another group studies alone. She then compares the scores on the exam, finding that those who studied in groups did better than those who studied alone. Which of the following was her dependent variable?
   1. High school students
   2. Scores on the exam
   3. Students in the innovative, active study groups
   4. Students who studied alone
   5. Type of group
2. Which of the following cortical areas is most closely associated with vision?
   1. Frontal
   2. Prefrontal
   3. Temporal
   4. Occipital
   5. Parietal
3. Frequency theory and place theory attempt to explain how the inner ear registers the pitch of sound. Which statement best reflects current opinion about frequency theory and place theory?
   1. Evidence strongly supports frequency theory.
   2. Evidence strongly supports place theory.
   3. Place theory explains the perception of complex sounds well, whereas frequency theory explains the perception of simple sounds well.
   4. Place theory explains the perception of high-frequency sounds well, and frequency theory explains the perception of low-frequency sounds well.
   5. There is little evidence to support either theory.
4. After initial conditioning, an unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response gradually stops occurring. This change in behavior is called:
   1. Extinction
   2. Counterconditioning
   3. Higher-order conditioning
   4. Stimulus discrimination
   5. Stimulus generalization
5. Priming is considered part of implicit memory because it:
   1. Occurs without conscious awareness
   2. Often involves emotions
   3. Helps in recognition but not in recall
   4. Plays an important role in autobiographical memory
   5. Requires deep encoding
6. Which of the following is a disadvantage of relying on external rewards to motivate behavior?
   1. There is potential to reduce extrinsic motivation.
   2. There is potential to reduce intrinsic motivation.
   3. It increases fear of failure.
   4. It increases fear of success.
   5. It decreases competency.
7. Researchers know that infants’ sense of smell is fairly well developed at birth because newborns prefer the smell of:
   1. Sweet-smelling foods to the smell of sour-smelling foods
   2. Meat to the smell of fruits
   3. A nursing pad from their mother to the smell of a pad from another mother
   4. An acid to the smell of a base
   5. A baby’s clothing to the smell of an adult’s clothing
8. Amy appears to have an irrational and maladaptive fear of flying. She will not fly to visit her children and grandchildren, and she has even lost a job because she refused to fly to meet clients. Amy would most likely be diagnosed with which of the following anxiety disorders?
   1. Generalized anxiety
   2. Specific phobia
   3. Social phobia
   4. Obsessive–compulsive
   5. Panic
9. Tom fails his math exam. If he explains his failure by using an internal attribution, his reason for failing might be which of the following?
   1. The teacher was unclear when presenting the material in class.
   2. Tom’s job did not leave him enough time to study.
   3. The person sitting next to Tom during the exam was very distracting.
   4. There was not enough time allotted to complete the exam.
   5. Tom is not smart or not good at math.
10. In order to illustrate how often a particular score occurs in a given data set, researchers use:
    1. Inferential techniques
    2. Cognitive mapping
    3. Cluster analysis
    4. The median
    5. A frequency distribution

Answers

1) B   2) D   3) D   4) A   5) A   6) B   7) C   8) B   9) E   10) E