Exam 3 Solved Questions - Research Methods and Data Analysis in Psychology II | PSYC 301, Exams of Psychology

Download Exam 3 Solved Questions - Research Methods and Data Analysis in Psychology II | PSYC 301 and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! FORM B! Name: Directions: (1) Write the FORM (A or B) above your name on the computer scan form. This examination is made up of 27 multiple choice questions followed by 5 short-answer questions and then 2 bonus questions. Read all questions carefully and choose the best answer. Mark your answers to the first 27 questions on the blue scan form. Answer all other questions directly on the examination. 1. Examples demonstrating the principle of competition among neurons a. in some people blind from birth because of non-functional eyes, areas in the occipital lobe are devoted to reading Braille which uses discriminative touch b. in schizophrenics, neuron migration in the hippocampus is defective c. normal development of cortical columns in the primary visual cortex requires input from both eyes d. a and c e. a and b and c 2. Hippocampal independence a. occurs in the later stages of consolidation b. means that the prefrontal cortex takes over the task of binding together information during memory recall c. may take months or even years to achieve fully d. a and c e. a and b and c 3. After the eye forms, but before the ganglion cells axons begin to travel into the brain, you transplant an eye from one frog to the back of the head of an otherwise normal developing frog so that it has three eyes. a. the ganglion cell axons from the third eye will travel toward a chemical signal produced by their target neurons b. the ganglion cell axons from the third eye will travel toward the closest of the normal eyes c. the ganglion cell axons from the third eye will not reach their normal destination (the tectum) d. a and c e. a and b and c 4. Areas of the brain that show decreased activity during REM sleep include a. primary visual cortex b. parietal sensory association cortex c. amygdala d. a and c e. a and b and c Psychology 301 – Spring, 2011 Examination #3 KEY FORM B! Name: 5. A 22 year-old concert pianist suffers a stroke that damages the hand region of the right primary motor cortex a. she has a much better chance of regaining her piano playing ability than an equally skilled 13 year- old pianist who suffered the same brain damage b. she will never be able to recover her piano skills c. it is possible for her to regain her piano skills through extensive practice over many months or years d. a and c e. a and b and c 6. Current evidence suggests that a. beta-amyloid accumulates to form plaques in the cortex of Alzheimer’s disease patients b. brain regions most affected early in Alzheimer’s disease are the precentral gyrus and the hypothalamus c. the progress of the disease can be stopped by glutamate antagonists d. a and c e. a and b and c 7. The importance of long-term potentiation for memory a. is predominantly for the encoding stage of memory, but not for long term storage b. is that it is a neurphysiological mechanism for storing information about past events c. can be shown using ‘knock-out’ mice missing the gene for NMDA receptors in the hippocampus d. a and c e. a and b and c 8. In the type of amnesia like H.M. had a. memories of events that occurred long before the surgery/damage are preserved b. the patient could learn to type c. the patient’s sense of time and the passage of time is impaired d. a and c e. a and b and c 9. During fetal development in humans a. myelination throughout the nervous system is completed by the eighth month of gestation b. neurons produced during proliferation migrate outward from the ventricular (central) region under the guidance of radial glial cells c. approximately 65% of the total number of neurons are produced before birth; the rest are added over the first five years of childhood d. a and c e. a and b and c FORM B! Name: 20. Experiments with rats have shown that adult male sexual behavior a. is correlated with a large sexually dimorphic nucleus b. has a sensitive period during early development c. evolved to maximize the possibility of fertilization d. a and c e. a and b and c 21. Pruning of synapses and dendrites during CNS development a. is determined by the amount of activity in the synapses and dendrites b. can be affected by the conditions under which the young animal is reared c. is achieved through a reduction in the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) necessary to sustain the synapses and dendrites d. a and c e. a and b and c 22. Hypotheses for the reason that sleep evolved to be come a necessary component of all vertebrates’ lives include a. maintenance of proper metabolic processes, especially for sugars b. optimizing the learning and memory processes necessary for survival in the cold, cruel world c. no single reason d. a and c e. a and b and c 23. Habituation of the gill withdrawal reflex in Aplysia a. occurs after several repetitions of a stimulus b. leads to a heightened response to tail stimulation c. is caused by long-lasting (longer than seconds) changes at the synapse between the sensory neuron and the motor neuron going to the gill cover d. a and c e. a and b and c 24. During the first 45-50 minutes of sleep on a given night a. CNS metabolic rate decreases b. isolation from external sensory stimuli increases c. the waves in the EEG become progressively larger and slower d. a and c e. a and b and c FORM B! Name: 25. The fMRI study comparing brain activity in non-musicians with professional violinists who started playing before age 10 and with comparably skilled violinists who started playing after age 10 showed that a. the sensitive period for determining the structure of the primary motor cortex is largely over by age 10 b. musical skills are inherited c. specializations of the precentral gyrus are required for exceptional violin playing as an adult d. a and c e. a and b and c 26. Circadian rhythms in humans and other mammals a. allow animals to prepare for environmental and physiological events that occur every 24 hours b. are determined by the relative positions of the sun and moon on the day you were born c. require an active and healthy suprachiasmatic nucleus d. a and c e. a and b and c 27. As it relates to neural development, the “Use it or lose it” principle refers to: a. an excess number of neurons are formed, but neurons not active during key stages in development die b. an excess number of neural connections are formed, but those not active during key stages in development are lost c. competition by sensory system neurons for space in the cortex plays a role in determining the adult pattern of connections d. a and c e. a and b and c 28. (6 pts.) Human memory is notoriously unreliable. Describe three (3) characteristics of the memory system that contribute to this unreliability. 1. Aspects of events that you don’t pay attention to may not be encoded in the first place 2. Some information that was encoded may not be consolidated (stress, sleep deprivation, drugs, other reasons) 3. Recalled memories are easily altered and then the altered memory is the one reconsolidated 4. Memories that are recalled, but not reinforced can lose strength or be lost entirely 5. Memories can be surpassed by active, but unconscious mechanisms FORM B! Name: 29. (6pts.) Sometimes men with an amputation below the elbow will feel their missing hand being stroked when they shave. Explain how and why this could happen. There are three primary issues here: the organization of the somatosensory homunculus, plasticity, and neural competition. Both the hand region and the face region of the touch map are very large and they are adjacent. After the amputation, there is little sensory information reaching the hand area of the touch cortex and those neurons will not be active. The neurons of the nearby face area are free to ‘take over’ the inactive hand region. At least for a while, the circuit from the hand area to the posterior parietal association cortex and on to PFC where the perception of hand touch becomes conscious is still intact, however. That means that touch to the face could be interpreted as both touch to the face and touch to the missing hand 30. (6 pts.) Traditionally, the 24 hour cycles exhibited by all animals have been explained by two competing hypotheses: 1) the rhythms are caused by changes in the external world arising from the rotation of the earth (day/ night, for instance); and 2) there is an endogenous clock that can function independently from external cues (day/night, for instance). Provide and explain at least 3 different lines of evidence that would distinguish between these hypotheses. Don’t hesitate to be creative … 1. Removal of all external cues (this is extremely hard to do, by the way) does not eliminate the daily rhythm 2. Removal of the suprachiasmatic nucleus does eliminate the rhythm even when all external cues are present 3. Most animals have rhythms that do not exactly match the 23 hour 36 min period of earth rotation 4. An animal’s rhythm can be genetically altered 5. others