Deck 15: Evolutionary Perspectives

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT one of Bullock's (1984)three major aims for comparative neuroscience?

A)Rules
B)Relevance
C)Roots
D)Rationality

Answer 1

D

Question 2

This key concept in Darwin's theory of evolution is the idea that traits that give members of a species increased chances for reproduction will be more heavily represented in subsequent generations.

A)Sexual selection
B)Fitness
C)Natural selection
D)Mutation

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following was NOT one of Charles Darwin's observations?

A)The genetic code changes over time,and many of these changes begin with a mutation.
B)Individuals in a population vary in physical and behavioral traits.
C)Some traits are heritable and can be transmitted to subsequent generations.
D)Not all individuals within a population survive.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following behaviors is the best example of a fixed action pattern?

A)Infanticide by the langur monkey
B)Altruism in humans
C)Egg-rolling by the greylag goose
D)Spatial navigation by the prairie vole

Question 5

A researcher discovers that men who play the guitar have more offspring compared to others,and concludes that playing the guitar is evolutionarily adaptive.Among the objections one might make to this conclusion,which aspect (if any)of Darwin's principles of natural selection has NOT been shown?

A)Individuals within a population vary and are not identical.
B)Some of this variation is heritable.
C)Not all individuals are equally successful at reproducing.
D)None of the above.

Question 6

In his book,________,________ argued for the gene-centered rather than the organism-centered view of evolution.

A)Sociobiology / E.O.Wilson
B)The Selfish Gene / E.O.Wilson
C)Sociobiology / Richard Dawkins
D)The Selfish Gene / Richard Dawkins

Question 7

Within the lifetime of a single individual,environmental information affects

A)both the genotype and the phenotype.
B)the genotype but not the phenotype.
C)the phenotype but not the genotype.
D)neither the genotype nor the phenotype.

Question 8

As a general rule,traits that can be found across a large number of species

A)tend to be adaptations.
B)tend to be exaptations.
C)tend to be older evolutionarily.
D)tend to be younger evolutionarily.

Question 9

Taking an evolutionary perspective into account will probably influence the way future studies in cognitive neuroscience are designed in all of the following ways EXCEPT

A)researchers will gradually stop examining cognitive phenomena and focus their studies on neurophysiology and neuroanatomy to understand behavior.
B)researchers will try to design tasks and stimulus material that have greater ecological validity for animal subjects.
C)researchers will take into account the kinds of problems that currently existing species had to solve in their evolutionary history.
D)researchers will consider animal subjects in terms of their own unique adaptations rather than assuming that they are merely simpler models of human ability.

Question 10

Put the following schools of thought in historical order based on when they began.

A)Sociobiology,ethology,evolutionary psychology
B)Ethology,sociobiology,evolutionary psychology
C)Ethology,evolutionary psychology,sociobiology
D)Evolutionary psychology,ethology,sociobiology

Question 11

A researcher who is interested in when marsupial traits evolved does a comparative study of all the mammalian species of Australia.She finds that most Australian mammals are marsupials,and she concludes that marsupial traits originated in Australia shortly after Australian mammals were geographically isolated from the other continents.Is this conclusion valid?

A)Yes.
B)No,because she did not consider that the traits in question may be homologous.
C)No,because she did not study any non-Australian mammals.
D)No,because she did not consider the unique environmental problems that Australia posed for mammalian evolution.

Question 12

The comparative neurobiologist Jon Kaas (1997)undermined the idea that

A)complex brains evolve by expanding the amount of association cortex.
B)all primates have brain regions homologous to human area MT.
C)the bill of the duck-billed platypus is an exaptation.
D)one gene is responsible for a single trait or behavior.

Question 13

The term ________ refers to a specific trait that has evolved by increasing an organism's ability to survive and reproduce.

A)allele
B)fitness
C)adaptation
D)mutation

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a basic premise of natural selection proposed by Darwin?

A)Individuals within a population vary and are not identical.
B)Some of this variation is heritable.
C)Heritable traits are encoded in DNA.
D)Not all individuals are equally successful at reproducing.

Question 15

Tinbergen and Lorenz (1957)illustrated that the egg-rolling behavior of the greylag goose is an example of a(n)

A)pleiotropic mechanism.
B)fixed action pattern.
C)exaptation.
D)maladaptive behavior.

Question 16

The effects of genetic mutation on a species are systematic,yet mutation is a randomly occurring process in individual organisms.How can this apparent discrepancy be best explained?

A)Natural selection systematically eliminates organisms with mutations that increase fitness.
B)Natural selection systematically favors the reproduction of organisms with mutations that increase fitness.
C)Natural selection systematically favors the reproduction of organisms with mutations that decrease fitness.
D)Natural selection systematically eliminates organisms with exaptations.

Question 17

The various specific forms of a gene that give rise to variation in the gene pool are called

A)phenotypes.
B)alleles.
C)exaptations.
D)adaptations.

Question 18

The term sociobiology is associated with

A)E.O.Wilson.
B)Stephen Jay Gould.
C)Charles Darwin.
D)Richard Dawkins.

Question 19

Comparative research on area MT indicates that the precursor to this area probably evolved

A)before the emergence of primates,given that humans,apes,monkeys,and tree shrews all have homologous areas.
B)early in primate evolution,given that humans,apes,and monkeys,but not tree shrews,all have homologous areas.
C)late in primate evolution,given that only humans,gorillas,and chimpanzees have homologous areas.
D)late in primate evolution,given that no other species has a homologue to human region MT.

Question 20

A heritable trait is one that

A)is the result of a mutation.
B)can be linked to genetic variation.
C)leads to increased reproductive success.
D)is associated with adaptive behavior.

Question 21

The relationship between which of the following pairs of traits is homoplasic?

A)Human hands and bat wings
B)Human MT and gorilla MT
C)Human eyes and reptilian eyes
D)Human music and birdsong

Question 22

You are conducting a comparative analysis of five species of elves.You find that four of the five species possess pointed ears,whereas the fifth does not.Further,no other closely related species has pointed ears.Which of the following is the most parsimonious conclusion about elvish ears?

A)Pointed ears evolved four independent times in the four pointed-ear species.
B)Pointed ears evolved by a combination of adaptation and exaptation.
C)Pointed ears are a plesiomorphic feature of elves that was lost in one species.
D)Pointed ears are an example of homoplasy because not all elves possess them.

Question 23

Marr (1982)articulated the idea that the study of any cognitive mechanism requires

A)consideration of not only the advantages the mechanism confers on an individual's fitness,but also the disadvantages it confers.
B)consideration of not only the genetic aspects of the mechanism,but also its phenotype,which is the result of both genetic and environmental information.
C)consideration of not only the anatomical aspects of the mechanism,but also the genetics that led to its development.
D)consideration of not only the structural aspects of the mechanism,but also the kinds of problems it was designed to solve.

Question 24

Imagine that you have just documented a particular allele whose presence strongly correlates with two different traits.This is an example of

A)pleiotropy.
B)specificity.
C)adaptation.
D)exaptation.

Question 25

According to many contemporary evolutionary psychologists,the collection of cognitive abilities that humans currently have

A)grew out of separate,individual adaptations that addressed different aspects of fitness.
B)developed from a unified system that has evolved at a consistent steady rate.
C)continues to evolve during an individual's lifespan to address the current problems we face.
D)resulted from the synchronized expression of particular alleles during our evolutionary history.

Question 26

The term genetic pleiotropy means that

A)each gene is responsible for a single function or behavior.
B)each gene contributes to many different functions or behaviors.
C)each function or behavior is affected by many genes.
D)Both b and c are correct.

Question 27

The saying "You scratch my back,and I'll scratch yours" is a familiar way of describing the principle of

A)adaptation.
B)sexual selection.
C)reciprocity.
D)exaptation.

Question 28

You,a famous neuroscientist,are interested in investigating the human olfactory (smell)system.According to Marr,the general approach you should take includes

A)studying the structure of the olfactory system and how odors are carried through the air.
B)studying the structure of the olfactory system and the types of computational problems it has evolved to solve.
C)studying the structure of the human olfactory system,comparing it to the olfactory systems of other species.
D)studying the genetic basis of the olfactory system,comparing it to the phenotypes that emerge.

Question 29

Consider the following conditional statements:
(1)If there is a D on one side of the card,then there is a 3 on the other side.
(2)If you drink alcohol,then you must be over 21 years old.
Which of the following results would undermine Cosmides's (1984)belief that better performance in applying statements like (2)compared to (1)reflects a specially evolved cheater detection system?

A)A study illustrating that the difference in processing sentences like (1)compared to sentences like (2)is especially large in socially adept people
B)A study illustrating that participants understand statements like (2)well across a wide variety of social situations and always misunderstand such statements when they are nonsocial in nature
C)A study illustrating that participants understand conditional statements any time they can be concretely conceptualized in a way that does not involve the if-then clause,even when the content is not social
D)A study illustrating that after participants are trained in formal logic,the difference between their performance on sentences like (1)and (2)diminishes

Question 30

According to François Jacob (1977),natural selection works like a

A)scientist.
B)tinkerer.
C)engineer.
D)traveling salesman.

Question 31

The term ________ describes the occurrence of identical alleles at homologous positions on the two chromosomes.When they are not identical,the term ________ is used.

A)pleiotropy / specificity
B)specificity / pleiotropy
C)heterozygous / homozygous
D)homozygous / heterozygous

Question 32

The insect wing is thought to have first evolved because it provided the benefit of thermoregulation.Only later,when wings became large,did it also come to provide the important benefit of flight.This is an example of

A)exaptation.
B)phenotypic shift.
C)an allele.
D)meiotic division.

Question 33

________ refers to the mutual "give and take" in social relationships.

A)Altruism
B)Exaptation
C)Natural selection
D)Reciprocity

Question 34

The retention of a structure,behavior,or gene from a common ancestor is

A)homology.
B)plesiomorphy.
C)homoplasy.
D)analogy.

Question 35

Consider the following conditional statements:
(1)If there is a D on one side of the card,then there is a 3 on the other side.
(2)If you drink alcohol,then you must be over 21 years old.
According to Cosmides (1984),people understand conditional statements when they involve social exchange information (2)better than they understand more abstract information (1)because

A)social exchange situations involve the detection of potential cheaters,which is a skill we have evolved.
B)social exchange situations produce less processing load in working memory than do purely descriptive or abstract versions.
C)conditional logic is less important in social exchange situations than in abstract situations.
D)social exchange situations in which conditional logic is important are less common than abstract situations in which conditional logic is important.

Question 36

Imagine that you are presented with four cards labeled D,F,3,and 5,respectively,and are asked to test the following rule: "If there is a D on one side of the card,then there is a 3 on the other side." Which cards must you turn over to determine if the statement is true?

A)F and 5
B)F and 3
C)D and 5
D)D and 3

Question 37

According to Gould and colleagues (1981),an exaptation occurs when

A)an allele mutates into a form that confers greater fitness to an organism within one generation and then mutates back to its original form in the next generation.
B)a single gene is expressed in different ways in individual members of a species.
C)a structure exists and is selected for because it serves one function for an organism but then takes over a different use to increase fitness in another way.
D)a distinct new species separates from a larger population of organisms.

Question 38

The reason that mutation at the allele level can lead to natural selection for whole organisms is that

A)mutation is always a beneficial process by which a species becomes better adapted to its environment with each passing generation.
B)altering even one allele changes the entire phenotype of an organism.
C)mutations occur early in development,during meiosis,when the genetic blueprint for all of an organism's cells is being determined.
D)genes provide the blueprints for anatomical or physiological structures that can influence the fitness of an organism in its environment.

Question 39

Sexual selection refers to the idea that

A)mate selection,and therefore reproductive success,depends on specific behavioral and physical aspects of an organism.
B)monogamous species tend to show greater fitness for their environments than do polygamous species.
C)natural selection involves genetic variation produced by random mating rather than by mutations.
D)natural selection operates differently on polygamous males than on monogamous males.

Question 40

One limitation of the transgenic mouse is that because of ________,a change in one gene results in multiple changes to the ________.

A)mutation / phenotype
B)mutation / genotype
C)genetic pleiotropy / phenotype
D)genetic pleiotropy / genotype

Question 41

Which of the following give(s)examples of the advantages of studying an animal's behavior in its natural habitat?
(1)One can more easily discern the problem-specific mechanisms that an animal might possess by observing it in its natural habitat.
(2)Direct observation of animals is usually easier to perform in their natural habitat than in a laboratory.
(3)Observing an animal in its natural habitat emphasizes the adaptations that animal has evolved to survive in its particular niche.

A)(1)only
B)(2)only
C)(1)and (2)
D)(1)and (3)

Question 42

The idea that a general-purpose process in the brain mediates learning across all types of learning tasks is called associationism or ________.

A)Gestalt psychology.
B)stimulus-response psychology.
C)nonassociative learning.
D)ethology.

Question 43

A mutation is a change in the genetic structure of an organism.

Question 44

The term recombination refers to a change in the frequency of an allele within a population.

Question 45

In the context of evolution,the term epiphenomenon can refer to a trait that is a by-product of selection for a different trait.

Question 46

All of the following represent differences between the human brain and the brains of other species EXCEPT

A)the human brain contains a greater number of cortical columns than do the brains of other species.
B)the dendritic spines in human neurons have different physiological properties than the dendritic spines found in other species.
C)human brains are comprised of two basic cell types (neurons and glia);other species have only one basic cell type.
D)the pattern of connectivity between specialized brain regions is different in humans than in other species.

Question 47

Natural selection acts on variations of the phenotype within the population.

Question 48

Studies of sex differences in spatial ability in rodent species have revealed all of the following general observations EXCEPT

A)species that range over large habitats tend to exhibit less of a sex difference in hippocampal size than do species with smaller habitats.
B)the differential growth observed in the hippocampus is due to the influence of sex hormones.
C)hippocampal size can selectively increase during breeding season,when males expand their ranges in search of mates.
D)in some species,females possess larger hippocampi than do males.

Question 49

Which of the following LEAST exemplifies a topic in the field of ethology?

A)The ability of an insect to find its way home after foraging
B)The ability of a pigeon to learn a delayed-response task in the laboratory
C)The ability of birds to learn the position of the celestial pole in the night sky
D)The ability of a chimpanzee to recognize the aggressive facial expression of another chimpanzee

Question 50

The concept of genetic pleiotropy refers to the idea of a particular gene being responsible for a single function or behavior.

Question 51

As a predator evolves structures or behaviors that increase its ability to hunt,its prey may also undergo evolution to counter these developments.This is an example of

A)coevolution.
B)coadaptation.
C)reciprocity.
D)social exchange.

Question 52

Traits have no absolute value;rather,their value is measured by how well they contribute to fitness in a particular environment.

Question 53

Which of the following results would be the most difficult to reconcile with the belief that human sex differences in mathematical ability stem from an evolved,genetically based dimorphism?

A)Anthropological research suggesting that humans were historically more polygamous than they are today
B)Neuroanatomical research suggesting that hippocampal sizes differ in men and women
C)Neuroendocrine research suggesting that prenatal androgen exposure and later mathematical ability are correlated
D)Educational research suggesting that such sex differences have been reduced dramatically in the last two generations

Question 54

Ethology is the study of

A)emotion and cognition.
B)genetics and the transmission of complex traits.
C)nonassociative learning in humans.
D)animal behavior in real-life settings.

Question 55

Reading is an example of a fixed action pattern.

Question 56

The bat has evolved a specialized detection system that helps it hunt its prey,the noctuid moth.In tandem,the moth has evolved specialized sensory receptors that allow this species to foil the detection system of the bat.This is an example of

A)reciprocity.
B)exaptation.
C)coevolution.
D)social exchange.

Question 57

Bullock's three aims of comparative neuroscience are roots,rules,and relevance.

Question 58

When doing an out-group analysis,the most parsimonious hypothesis is the one proposing the largest number of evolutionary transformations.

Question 59

In some species,the hippocampus is larger in males relative to females.What is one general characteristic that all these species tend to share?

A)They have an external gestation period.
B)They are monogamous.
C)They are polyandrous.
D)They are polygamous.

Question 60

Homoplasy is the retention of a structure,behavior,or gene from a common ancestor.

Question 61

What is the difference between an adaptation and an exaptation?

Question 62

A linguist might study the historical relationship between languages by using a comparative method to construct a family tree.For instance,the tree might show that Spanish and French are both descendants of Latin.How is this similar to comparative neuroscience? Draw an analogy between the two.

Question 63

Evolutionary psychologists often propose that the human mind is like a Swiss Army knife,with a variety of specific adaptations that are each the product of selection pressures from specific environmental problems.Is this a parsimonious viewpoint? Why or why not?

Question 64

What is the difference between homology and homoplasy? Provide an example of each.

Question 65

How might you evaluate the claim that human language was shaped directly by natural selection? Could language be an exaptation?