EPPP Part 1 (Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology) — All Questions

After a left-hemisphere stroke, a 62-year-old speaks in slow, effortful, telegraphic phrases, follows everyday conversation reasonably well, and is visibly frustrated by his own errors. Damage to which region best accounts for this picture?

• a.The arcuate fasciculus linking the language areas
• b.The right-hemisphere homologue of Broca's area
• c.Wernicke's area in the left superior temporal gyrus
• d.Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus✓

Nonfluent, effortful speech with relatively preserved comprehension and awareness of errors is the pattern Broca described in 1861 and that NIDCD lists as Broca's (nonfluent) aphasia. Wernicke's area damage produces fluent but meaningless speech with poor comprehension, and arcuate fasciculus damage produces conduction aphasia, marked by poor repetition with fluent speech. Right-hemisphere damage in a right-handed adult does not usually produce aphasia of this kind.

Patient H.M. underwent bilateral removal of medial temporal lobe structures, including most of the hippocampus, to control seizures. Which ability remained largely intact afterward?

• a.Forming lasting memories of new daily events
• b.Getting better at mirror tracing over several days✓
• c.Recalling a word list after a distracting delay
• d.Recognizing people he first met after surgery

Scoville and Milner (1957) described a profound anterograde amnesia after H.M.'s resection: he could not form lasting memories of new events, recognize people met after surgery, or recall material once his attention was diverted. Milner (1962) showed that he nevertheless improved steadily at mirror drawing across days, evidence that procedural (nondeclarative) learning does not depend on the medial temporal lobe.

A night-shift nurse has trouble sleeping during the day because her light exposure is out of step with her body's master circadian clock. Which structure serves as that master clock?

• a.Mammillary bodies of the hypothalamus
• b.Locus coeruleus in the pons
• c.Suprachiasmatic nucleus✓
• d.Pineal gland in the epithalamus

NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences identifies the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) as the brain's master clock; it receives light information from the eyes and controls melatonin production. The pineal gland secretes melatonin but takes its timing from the SCN rather than acting as the clock. The locus coeruleus is the main noradrenergic nucleus, and the mammillary bodies are involved in memory circuits.

A client asks how sertraline works. Which description of its primary mechanism is accurate?

• a.It inhibits monoamine oxidase, slowing serotonin breakdown
• b.It blocks dopamine D2 receptors in the mesolimbic pathway
• c.It directly stimulates postsynaptic serotonin receptors
• d.It blocks reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic neuron✓

The FDA label for sertraline (Zoloft) states that its mechanism is presumed to be linked to inhibition of CNS neuronal uptake of serotonin, which is what makes it a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Inhibiting monoamine oxidase describes MAOIs such as phenelzine, direct receptor stimulation describes agonists, and D2 blockade describes antipsychotics.

A client taking phenelzine eats aged cheese and cured sausage at a party and within an hour develops a severe occipital headache and a sharp rise in blood pressure. What is the most likely explanation?

• a.An allergic reaction to histamine in fermented food
• b.Neuroleptic malignant syndrome triggered by dehydration
• c.A hypertensive crisis caused by dietary tyramine✓
• d.Serotonin syndrome from serotonin precursors in the food

Phenelzine is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, and its FDA label warns that foods high in tyramine, such as aged cheese and cured meats, can precipitate a hypertensive crisis marked by occipital headache and markedly raised blood pressure. Serotonin syndrome arises mainly from combining serotonergic drugs, neuroleptic malignant syndrome is linked to dopamine-blocking agents, and an allergic reaction does not typically present as an acute hypertensive headache.

Why do prescribers routinely measure serum drug concentrations in clients who take lithium?

• a.Toxicity can occur at levels close to therapeutic levels✓
• b.Lithium forms an active metabolite that must be tracked
• c.Serum levels are needed to confirm a bipolar diagnosis
• d.Lithium levels change only when doses are missed

The boxed warning on lithium labeling states that lithium toxicity is closely related to serum lithium concentrations and can occur at doses close to therapeutic concentrations, so facilities for serum lithium determination should be available before treatment starts. Lithium is an ion that is not metabolized, a blood level cannot diagnose bipolar disorder, and levels shift with many factors such as dehydration, sodium intake and interacting drugs, not only missed doses.

Which description matches how disulfiram supports abstinence from alcohol?

• a.It blocks opioid receptors, reducing the rewarding effect of alcohol
• b.It substitutes for alcohol at GABA-A receptors to prevent withdrawal
• c.It reduces craving by lowering dopamine release in the striatum
• d.It makes drinking aversive by blocking acetaldehyde breakdown✓

The FDA label for disulfiram states that it blocks the oxidation of alcohol at the acetaldehyde stage, so drinking produces an unpleasant disulfiram-alcohol reaction (flushing, nausea, palpitations) that deters use. Opioid-receptor blockade is how naltrexone works, GABA-A modulation describes benzodiazepines used for withdrawal, and disulfiram's action is not described as reducing dopamine release.

For opioid use disorder, buprenorphine differs pharmacologically from methadone chiefly because buprenorphine is:

• a.a partial agonist at the mu-opioid receptor✓
• b.a full agonist at the mu-opioid receptor
• c.an alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist
• d.a pure antagonist at the mu-opioid receptor

FDA labeling for buprenorphine products describes buprenorphine as a partial agonist at the mu-opioid receptor, which gives it a ceiling on some opioid effects. Methadone is a full mu agonist, naltrexone is an opioid antagonist, and alpha-2 agonists such as lofexidine ease withdrawal symptoms without acting on opioid receptors.

A twin study estimates the heritability of a trait at 0.60 in the sampled population. Which interpretation is correct?

• a.The trait will be 60% resistant to any environmental intervention
• b.60% of trait variance in that population reflects genetic variance✓
• c.A child has a 60% chance of inheriting the trait from an affected parent
• d.About 60% of each person's level of the trait is caused by their genes

Heritability is a population statistic: the proportion of phenotypic variance in a particular population and environment that is attributable to genetic variance (Visscher, Hill & Wray, 2008; NIH MedlinePlus Genetics). It says nothing about how much of one individual's trait comes from genes, does not mean the trait resists environmental change, and is not a transmission probability for a given child.

A researcher wants to track, millisecond by millisecond, how the brain responds to briefly flashed words. Which method best suits this aim?

• a.Event-related potentials from scalp EEG✓
• b.PET imaging of glucose metabolism
• c.Structural MRI with diffusion tensor imaging
• d.Functional MRI using the BOLD signal

Scalp EEG and the event-related potentials derived from it record electrical activity with millisecond temporal resolution, though with limited spatial precision. The fMRI BOLD signal follows a hemodynamic response that unfolds over seconds (Logothetis, 2008), PET is slower still, and diffusion tensor imaging maps white-matter structure rather than moment-to-moment activity.

A man with a long history of heavy drinking cannot retain new information and fills memory gaps with sincere but fabricated accounts. This syndrome is primarily caused by deficiency of which vitamin?

• a.Folate (vitamin B9)
• b.Niacin (vitamin B3)
• c.Cobalamin (vitamin B12)
• d.Thiamine (vitamin B1)✓

NINDS describes Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome as a brain disorder caused by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, most often in people with alcohol use disorder, with Korsakoff's psychosis marked by memory loss and confabulation. B12 deficiency causes anemia and neuropathy, folate deficiency is tied to anemia and neural tube defects, and niacin deficiency causes pellagra.

In Garcia and Koelling's (1966) study, rats readily learned to avoid flavored water that was followed by illness but did not learn to avoid light-and-noise cues followed by the same illness. What does this show?

• a.Illness is a weaker unconditioned stimulus than electric shock
• b.Conditioning requires the stimuli to occur within a few seconds of each other
• c.Some cue-consequence pairings are learned more readily than others✓
• d.Rats cannot perceive audiovisual cues while they are drinking

Garcia and Koelling (1966) found that taste was easily associated with illness and audiovisual cues with shock, but not the reverse, showing that organisms are prepared to learn certain associations. Taste aversion also forms with delays of hours, so contiguity of a few seconds is not required. Illness produced strong learning with taste, and the rats did learn about the audiovisual cues when they were paired with shock.

Whenever a child screams at dinner, his father removes the vegetables from the plate and the screaming stops; the father now removes the vegetables sooner and more often. What maintains the father's behavior?

• a.Extinction
• b.Negative punishment
• c.Negative reinforcement✓
• d.Positive reinforcement

The father's behavior (removing vegetables) increases because it ends an aversive stimulus, the screaming; removing an aversive stimulus to strengthen a behavior is negative reinforcement (Skinner, 1953). Positive reinforcement adds a stimulus, negative punishment removes a pleasant stimulus to weaken behavior, and extinction is the withholding of reinforcement, none of which fits a behavior that is growing more frequent.

A gambler's machine delivers a win after a number of pulls that keeps changing, one win per twenty pulls on average. Which schedule is this, and what response pattern does it typically produce?

• a.Variable-interval; moderate, steady responding over time
• b.Variable-ratio; high, steady rates that resist extinction✓
• c.Fixed-ratio; a pause after each payout, then rapid responding
• d.Fixed-interval; a scalloped rise in responding near payout

Payout after an unpredictable number of responses is a variable-ratio schedule, which Ferster and Skinner (1957) showed produces high, steady rates that are highly resistant to extinction. A fixed-ratio schedule pays after a set number of responses, and interval schedules depend on elapsed time rather than the number of plays.

In Rescorla's (1968) experiments, two groups received the same number of tone-shock pairings, but one group also received many shocks when no tone was present. That group showed little fear of the tone. What does this demonstrate?

• a.Frequent unsignaled shocks cause rats to habituate to shock
• b.Backward conditioning is stronger than forward conditioning
• c.The CS must predict the US, not merely be paired with the US✓
• d.Fear conditioning requires at least ten tone-shock pairings

Rescorla (1968) held the number of tone-shock pairings constant and varied the probability of shock without the tone; when shocks were just as likely without the tone, the tone predicted nothing and little conditioning occurred. The result concerns contingency, not habituation, a fixed number of trials, or backward pairing.

In Tolman and Honzik's (1930) maze study, rats that explored the maze for days without food made many errors, but when food was introduced their errors dropped almost immediately to the level of rats rewarded all along. What does this illustrate?

• a.Stimulus generalization
• b.Spontaneous recovery
• c.One-trial learning
• d.Latent learning✓

The unrewarded rats had learned the maze layout (a cognitive map) without reinforcement, and the learning showed up in performance only once food gave them a reason to use it; Tolman and Honzik called this latent learning. One-trial learning refers to a single pairing producing learning, stimulus generalization to responding to similar stimuli, and spontaneous recovery to the return of an extinguished response after a rest.

Participants recall a 15-word list either immediately or after 30 seconds spent counting backward. Compared with immediate recall, what change is expected in the delayed condition?

• a.The recency effect shrinks while the primacy effect remains✓
• b.The primacy effect shrinks while the recency effect remains
• c.Both effects grow because the delay allows extra rehearsal
• d.Both effects disappear, flattening the serial position curve

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) showed that a filled delay of about 30 seconds eliminates the recency effect, which reflects items still in short-term memory, while leaving primacy, which reflects rehearsal into long-term memory, largely intact. Counting backward prevents rehearsal, so neither effect grows, and primacy does not vanish.

Repeating 'the-the-the' aloud while trying to memorize a list of letters sharply lowers recall. In Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model, which component is being disrupted?

• a.Visuospatial sketchpad
• b.Phonological loop✓
• c.Episodic buffer
• d.Semantic long-term store

Articulatory suppression occupies the articulatory rehearsal process of the phonological loop, the working-memory component that holds and rehearses speech-based information (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). The visuospatial sketchpad handles visual and spatial material, the episodic buffer was added in 2000 to integrate information across systems, and long-term semantic memory is not part of the working-memory model's slave systems.

Which study instruction is expected to produce the best later recall of a list of words?

• a.Judge whether each word fits a sentence's meaning✓
• b.Decide whether each word rhymes with a target word
• c.Count the number of vowels in each word
• d.Decide whether each word is printed in capital letters

Craik and Lockhart's (1972) levels-of-processing framework, tested by Craik and Tulving (1975), found that semantic processing, such as judging whether a word fits a sentence, produces better retention than phonemic (rhyme) or structural (typeface, letter) processing. Rhyme judgments yield intermediate recall and case or vowel judgments the poorest.

Divers who learned word lists underwater recalled them better underwater than on land, and lists learned on land were recalled better on land. This result illustrates:

• a.Retroactive interference from later learning
• b.The spacing effect in distributed practice
• c.Context-dependent memory✓
• d.Proactive interference from earlier learning

Godden and Baddeley (1975) found that recall was best when the environment at retrieval matched the environment at learning, a context-dependent memory effect consistent with Tulving's encoding specificity principle. Interference effects concern competing learned material, and the spacing effect concerns distributing study sessions over time.

After moving to a new apartment, a woman keeps writing her old street address on forms when asked for her current one. Which memory process best explains the error?

• a.Retroactive interference
• b.Retrieval-induced forgetting
• c.Proactive interference✓
• d.Anterograde amnesia

Proactive interference occurs when older, well-learned information disrupts retrieval of newer information, here the old address intruding on the new one. Retroactive interference runs the other way (new learning disrupts old), anterograde amnesia is a general inability to form new memories, and retrieval-induced forgetting refers to practicing some items impairing related unpracticed items.

Across later adulthood, which kind of ability is expected to hold up best?

• a.Rapid coding of new visual symbols
• b.Vocabulary and general knowledge✓
• c.Speed in solving novel abstract puzzles
• d.Reasoning about unfamiliar figural matrices

Horn and Cattell (1967) distinguished crystallized intelligence, knowledge and vocabulary built up through experience, which stays stable or rises into later adulthood, from fluid intelligence, novel reasoning and processing speed, which declines from early adulthood. Novel puzzles, figural matrices and symbol coding all tap fluid ability or speed.

A theory holds that a person feels a specific emotion after noticing physiological arousal and labeling it with cues from the surrounding situation. Which theory is this?

• a.Two-factor theory✓
• b.James-Lange theory
• c.Opponent-process theory
• d.Cannon-Bard theory

Schachter and Singer (1962) proposed that emotion requires both general arousal and a cognitive label drawn from the situation. The James-Lange theory holds that emotion is the perception of bodily changes themselves, Cannon-Bard holds that arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently, and opponent-process theory concerns an initial emotional reaction followed by an opposing one.

A student does best on a difficult exam when moderately aroused and does worse when either very relaxed or highly anxious. This inverted-U relationship is known as:

• a.The Premack principle
• b.Drive-reduction theory
• c.The Yerkes-Dodson law✓
• d.Weber's law

Yerkes and Dodson (1908) reported that performance rises with arousal up to an optimum and then falls, with a lower optimum for more difficult tasks. Weber's law concerns just-noticeable differences in sensation, the Premack principle uses a more probable behavior to reinforce a less probable one, and drive-reduction theory explains motivation as reducing internal tension without predicting an inverted U.

Preschoolers who already liked drawing were told they would get a 'Good Player' certificate for drawing. Weeks later, during free play, they drew less than children who got no reward or an unexpected one. What best explains the drop?

• a.Unexpected rewards lowered interest just as much
• b.The expected reward undermined their intrinsic interest✓
• c.All tangible rewards raise later free-choice activity
• d.The certificate acted as a punisher for drawing

Lepper, Greene and Nisbett (1973) found that only the expected-reward group showed reduced later interest, the overjustification effect that self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan) attributes to rewards being experienced as controlling. The unexpected-reward group did not decline, the certificate was not an aversive consequence, and the finding contradicts the claim that tangible rewards always increase later interest.

Two radiologists are equally good at telling tumors from normal tissue, but one reports many more suspected tumors, producing both more hits and more false alarms. In signal detection theory, the two differ in:

• a.Response criterion (bias)✓
• b.Just-noticeable difference
• c.Sensitivity (d')
• d.Absolute threshold

Signal detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966) separates sensitivity (d'), the ability to discriminate signal from noise, from the response criterion, the observer's willingness to say 'signal.' Equal sensitivity with more hits and more false alarms means a more liberal criterion. Absolute threshold and just-noticeable difference are classical psychophysics concepts that do not separate these two factors.

A person can just detect the difference between a 100-gram and a 102-gram weight. According to Weber's law, about how large a difference would be needed to detect a change from a 500-gram weight?

• a.10 grams✓
• b.20 grams
• c.5 grams
• d.2 grams

Weber's law states that the just-noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus. Here the Weber fraction is 2/100 = 0.02, and 0.02 x 500 = 10 grams (check: 10/500 = 0.02). A 2-gram difference would wrongly assume a constant absolute difference, and 5 or 20 grams do not keep the 0.02 ratio.

Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs first given inescapable shock later failed to escape shock in a shuttle box, while dogs first given the same shock but able to end it learned to escape readily. Which variable produced the difference?

• a.Whether they could control the earlier shock✓
• b.Whether the earlier shock was signaled by a tone
• c.The total amount of shock received earlier
• d.The number of days between the two phases

Seligman and Maier (1967) used a yoked design in which the escape and inescapable groups received identical shocks; only controllability differed, and only the no-control group later failed to escape, which they called learned helplessness. Because shock amount was matched, it cannot explain the difference, and signaling and time between phases were not the manipulated variables.

In Asch's line-judgment studies, which change most sharply reduced conformity to an incorrect majority?

• a.Making the comparison lines harder to tell apart
• b.Having the participant answer after the confederates
• c.One other group member giving the correct answer✓
• d.Enlarging the unanimous majority to fifteen people

Asch (1956) found that when a single other person broke the majority's unanimity by giving the correct answer, conformity dropped dramatically. Asch found that enlarging the majority beyond three or four added little and did not reduce conformity, and making the task more ambiguous increases reliance on others rather than reducing it (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955, informational influence). Answering after the confederates was the standard procedure that produced conformity in the first place.

In Milgram's (1963) original obedience study, roughly what proportion of the 40 participants continued to the maximum 450-volt level?

• a.About one-third
• b.Fewer than 5 percent
• c.More than 90 percent
• d.About two-thirds✓

Milgram (1963) reported that 26 of 40 participants (65%) obeyed to the end of the shock generator, far more than people predicted beforehand. None stopped before 300 volts, but the proportion reaching 450 volts was about two-thirds, not a small minority, one-third or nearly all.

In Festinger and Carlsmith's (1959) study, participants were paid either $1 or $20 to tell a waiting student that a dull task was enjoyable. Which result supported cognitive dissonance theory?

• a.Those paid $1 later rated the task as more enjoyable than those paid $20✓
• b.Both paid groups rated the task higher than the unpaid control group
• c.Those paid $20 later rated the task as more enjoyable than those paid $1
• d.Neither payment changed ratings relative to the unpaid control group

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) found that the $1 group, lacking sufficient external justification for the lie, reduced dissonance by coming to rate the task as more enjoyable. The $20 group had ample justification and rated the task about the same as controls, so neither the $20 result, a both-groups increase, nor a no-effect pattern matches the data.

Observers read an essay and were told the writer had been assigned which side to argue, yet they still judged that the writer personally held the view expressed. This finding demonstrates:

• a.The halo effect
• b.The self-serving attributional bias
• c.The fundamental attribution error✓
• d.The false consensus effect

Jones and Harris (1967) showed that observers inferred essay writers' true attitudes even when they knew the position was assigned, underweighting the situational constraint; Ross (1977) named this tendency the fundamental attribution error. The self-serving bias concerns explanations of one's own successes and failures, false consensus is overestimating how many others share one's views, and the halo effect is generalizing from one positive trait.

Participants talking over an intercom from separate booths heard another participant apparently having a seizure; they could not see or hear how the others reacted. The more people they believed were listening, the less likely and slower they were to help. The researchers attributed this to:

• a.Social loafing in groups
• b.Deindividuation in crowds
• c.Diffusion of responsibility✓
• d.Pluralistic ignorance

Darley and Latane (1968) explained the seizure-study result as diffusion of responsibility: the more bystanders, the less personal responsibility each felt. Pluralistic ignorance requires watching others' calm reactions, which the separated participants could not do. Social loafing is reduced effort on a pooled group task, and deindividuation is loss of self-awareness in crowds.

A beginner pianist plays worse when an audience is present, while an expert plays better. According to Zajonc's account of social facilitation, the audience:

• a.Lowers effort because responsibility is shared
• b.Distracts both players to the same degree
• c.Causes self-consciousness only in experts
• d.Raises arousal, boosting dominant responses✓

Zajonc (1965) proposed that the mere presence of others increases arousal, which strengthens dominant responses: correct, well-learned responses for experts and error-prone responses for novices. Shared responsibility is the mechanism of social loafing, equal distraction would not produce opposite effects, and the account does not limit the effect to experts.

A distracted viewer who cares little about the product sees an ad featuring an attractive celebrity. According to the elaboration likelihood model, any attitude change is most likely to:

• a.Come by the peripheral route and fade sooner✓
• b.Not occur unless the arguments are processed
• c.Depend chiefly on how strong the arguments are
• d.Come by the central route and be lasting

Petty and Cacioppo's elaboration likelihood model holds that when motivation or ability to think about a message is low, attitudes shift through peripheral cues such as source attractiveness, and such change tends to be weaker and less durable. Central-route change, driven by argument quality, requires high elaboration, and the model says change can occur without argument processing.

Homeowners who first agreed to display a small 'Be a safe driver' sign were later far more likely to accept a large, unattractive safe-driving billboard in their yard. This compliance technique is known as:

• a.Door-in-the-face
• b.That's-not-all
• c.Low-balling
• d.Foot-in-the-door✓

Freedman and Fraser (1966) showed that agreeing to a small request increases compliance with a later larger one, the foot-in-the-door technique. Door-in-the-face starts with a large request that is refused, low-balling changes terms after a commitment, and that's-not-all adds a bonus before the person responds.

In the Robbers Cave study, hostility between two groups of boys was most effectively reduced by:

• a.Keeping the groups apart for a cooling-off period
• b.Pleasant shared contact such as meals and movies
• c.Lectures on the value of getting along
• d.Cooperation toward superordinate goals✓

Sherif and colleagues (1961) found that simple pleasant contact often turned into further conflict, and that hostility fell substantially only when the groups had to work together toward goals neither could reach alone. Lectures and separation were not what reduced hostility in the study.

A client who immigrated as an adult keeps her heritage language and traditions while also taking an active part in the wider society's work and civic life. In Berry's model, this acculturation strategy is:

• a.Marginalization
• b.Separation
• c.Integration✓
• d.Assimilation

In Berry's (1997) framework, integration means keeping one's culture of origin and, at the same time, taking part in the dominant society. Assimilation gives up the heritage culture, separation keeps the heritage culture while avoiding the larger society, and marginalization involves little interest in either.

A psychologist argues that a Black woman's experience of workplace discrimination cannot be understood by examining race and gender separately and adding the results. Which framework, introduced by Crenshaw (1989), is this?

• a.Minority stress theory
• b.The contact hypothesis
• c.Acculturative stress
• d.Intersectionality✓

Crenshaw (1989) introduced intersectionality to describe how overlapping identities such as race and gender produce distinct experiences of discrimination that single-axis analysis misses. Minority stress theory concerns chronic stress from stigma, acculturative stress concerns strain from cultural adaptation, and the contact hypothesis concerns intergroup contact reducing prejudice.

In Meyer's (2003) minority stress model for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, which is an example of a proximal stressor?

• a.Concealing one's sexual orientation✓
• b.Being fired because of one's sexual orientation
• c.Being denied housing by a landlord
• d.Experiencing an anti-gay assault

Meyer (2003) distinguishes distal stressors, objective events of prejudice and discrimination such as job loss, violence or housing denial, from proximal stressors that operate within the person: expectations of rejection, concealment of identity and internalized homophobia. Concealment is therefore the proximal stressor here.