Deck 1: Introduction: Learning to Change

Question 1

The list of alleged human instincts ______.

A) has gotten shorter over the years
B) has gotten longer over the years
C) has remained about the same over the years
D) is longer for pre-industrialized peoples than for those living in industrialized nations

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The quotation, "Change is the only constant," is attributed to ______.

A) Buckminster Fuller
B) Virgil
C) Lucretius
D) Einstein

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The person who demonstrated that the marching of tropical army ants is not intelligent behavior is ______.

A) Schneirla
B) Schneider
C) Schneidman
D) Schneirman

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Modal action patterns are induced by events called ______.

A) genes
B) stimuli
C) releasers
D) reflexes

Question 5

Darwin suggested that natural selection is analogous to

A) breeding.
B) chemical synthesis.
C) history.
D) learning.

Question 6

Lee Cronk wrote an article on how evolved behavior can prove nonadaptive when the environment changes. The article was called ________.

A) Old Dogs, Old Tricks
B) The Once and Future King
C) Murder Most Fowl
D) History Recalled

Question 7

The rooting of pigs (for worms, larvae, and truffles) is an example of a

A) MAP.
B) reflex.
C) general behavior trait.
D) learned behavior.

Question 8

Natural selection is illustrated by changes in the coloration of the Peppered Moth resulting from _______.

A) industrial pollution
B) drought
C) loss of habitat
D) long term changes in the hydraulic cycle

Question 9

The chief advantage of learning over natural selection as a means of adapting to change is that learning _______.

A) is faster
B) is more enduring
C) is less enduring
D) does not affect all members of a species

Question 10

The cowbird deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds. This is most likely a ________.

A) reflex
B) modal action pattern
C) general behavior trait
D) learned behavior

Question 11

Variation and natural selection are the foundations of _______.

A) genetics
B) evolution
C) learning
D) adaptation

Question 12

Learning is evolved _________.

A) selectivity
B) modifiability
C) biology
D) karma

Question 13

The gollypod, a fictitious aquatic animal, breaks out in a cold sweat whenever exposed to the sun. This reaction is most likely ______.

A) a reflex
B) a fixed action pattern
C) a general behavior trait
D) the result of learning

Question 14

Work on selective breeding in ___________ over a period of 40 years shows that behavioral characteristics can be selectively bred so that the descendants behave more like a different species than like their own ancestors.

A) ants
B) foxes
C) horses
D) rabbits

Question 15

The best title for the figure below is _________.

A) diet and heredity
B) fearfulness and heredity
C) addiction and heredity
D) aggressiveness and heredity

Question 16

Evolution is widely accepted except in

A) America.
B) Asia.
C) Europe.
D) Antarctica.

Question 17

Natural selection is often _______.

A) ahead of the times
B) behind the times
C) up with the times
D) under the times

Question 18

A reflex is ________.

A) any very simple behavior
B) a simple response to a simple event
C) a relationship between an event and a simple response
D) a purely physiological phenomenon

Question 19

Most mutations _______.

A) are not helpful to survival
B) contribute to survival in important ways
C) cause monsterism
D) occur in one-celled organisms

Question 20

Darwin was influenced by the book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, by

A) Aldous Huxley.
B) Robert FitzRoy.
C) Thomas Huxley.
D) Thomas Malthus.

Question 21

_____ changes when learning occurs.

A) Behavior
B) Skill level
C) Understanding
D) Perception

Question 22

Experience refers to ________.

A) mental states
B) our surroundings
C) changes in the environment
D) practice

Question 23

Natural selection helps the individual adapt to changes in its environment.

Question 24

The figure below most likely illustrates _______.

A) habituation
B) sensitization
C) a MAP
D) insurgence

Question 25

Natural selection helps the species adapt to change, not the individual.

Question 26

Zing Yang Kuo found that 86% of kittens that saw their mothers kill rats later killed rats themselves. He found that _____ of kittens that never saw their mothers kill rats later killed rats themselves.

A) 87%
B) 73%
C) 65%
D) 45%

Question 27

Behavior refers to anything a person or animal does that can be

A) changed.
B) described.
C) measured.
D) photographed, tape recorded, or filmed.

Question 28

Teenagerus Americanus, a two-legged ape indigenous to North America, breaks out in a cold sweat whenever exposed to elevator music. This reaction is most likely ______.

A) a reflex
B) a fixed action pattern
C) a general behavior trait
D) learned behavior

Question 29

In Darwin's day, the laws governing inheritance were not generally known.

Question 30

Darwin believed that there were no human instincts.

Question 31

The author of your text evidently believes that _______.

A) change is a good thing
B) behavior is best accounted for by nature
C) adaptation occurs slowly
D) learning is a way of adapting to change

Question 32

The evolution of most species is now complete.

Question 33

A thumbtack stuck in a bulletin board several feet away is less likely to affect your behavior than a thumbtack placed on the chair on which you are sitting. Even though both examples involve a thumbtack, the second is more likely to qualify as a ________.

A) stimulus
B) contiguous relation
C) contingency
D) response

Question 34

Malthus' book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, had a strong influence on Darwin.

Question 35

Learning is a biological mechanism.

Question 36

Reflexes are generally less variable than modal action patterns.

Question 37

Hart and Risley did a longitudinal study of the influence of the home verbal environment on children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. They found that _______.

A) children whose parents talked to them a lot later scored lower on IQ tests
B) children whose parents talked to them a lot later scored higher on IQ tests
C) the amount of parental talk was unrelated to later IQ scores
D) the influence of parental language depended on parental income.

Question 38

All reflexes contribute to survival.

Question 39

Steven says that he was very nervous when he first attended college classes, but now he feels quite relaxed. Steven's loss of anxiety is most likely an example of _______.

A) learning
B) disease
C) maturation
D) fatigue

Question 40

A major problem with natural selection as an adaptive mechanism is that it is slow.

Question 41

The phrase "survival of the fittest" is often interpreted to mean that natural selection is the result of a kind of combat. What would be a more accurate interpretation of the phrase?

Question 42

The chief limitation of natural selection as a means of adapting to change is that ___________.

Question 43

Some people have genes from Homo neanderthalensis.

Question 44

Why is natural selection helpful to species, but not to individuals?

Question 45

_______, like natural selection, is a biological mechanism for adapting to change.

Question 46

Your text views learning as a change in the brain that is represented in behavior.

Question 47

Some people reject evolution because some organs are too complex to have appeared abruptly by chance. What is wrong with this argument?

Question 48

How are reflexes, modal action patterns, and general behavior traits alikeow are they different?

Question 49

The cross-breeding of closely related species is called hybridization.

Question 50

Repeated exposure to a stimulus that evokes a reflex response results in ________.

Question 51

Learning always involves the acquisition of new behaviors.

Question 52

The brown-headed cowbird puts its eggs in other birds's nests. This is an example of a ______.

Question 53

The author of your text excludes thoughts and feelings from the realm of behavior.

Question 54

The evidence from biology suggests that the first "eyes" were not eyes at all, but_______.

Question 55

Learning is a change in behavior due to ________.

Question 56

The dispute over the relative importance of genetics and learning is often called the ________ debate.

Question 57

Explain the role of mutations in evolution.

Question 58

The word stimulus always refers to events in an organism's surroundings.

Question 59

It is sometimes difficult to say whether an event is behavior or physiology.

Question 60

A stimulus is an environmental event that is capable of affecting _______.

Question 61

Some psychologists insist that learning refers to durable changes. What is the problem with this approach?