Deck 1: A Brief History of Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

René Descartes posited that the mind was separate from the body. However, he implicated a single brain structure, the pineal gland, as having what function?

A)regulating feelings and emotions
B)connecting the mind and the body
C)moderating cognitive processes
D)adjusting behavior

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Localizationist is to ________ as holistic is to ________.

A)Wernicke; Gall
B)Gall; Flourens
C)Flourens; Broca
D)Broca; Wernicke

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In developing phrenology, Gall's main failure was that

A)he did not seek disconfirming evidence.
B)he was not a scientist.
C)his method was correlational.
D)All of the answer options are correct.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Giovanni visits his local phrenologist. What is this person likely to tell him?

A)You are a domineering person.
B)Your father was a very domineering person.
C)Your brother is a domineering person.
D)Your mother was a very domineering person.

Question 5

Phrenologists believed that the contour of the skull could provide valuable information about an individual's cognitive capacities and personality traits. This approach was based on the assumption that

A)skull protrusions are caused by disproportionate development of the brain areas beneath them, which are responsible for different specific functions.
B)certain traits such as aggressiveness lead to life experiences and injuries that alter the shape of the skull in specific ways.
C)life experiences and injuries that alter the shape of the skull in specific ways lead to certain traits, such as aggressiveness.
D)the development of the skull bones directly influences the configuration of the soft brain areas beneath them, which are responsible for different specific functions.

Question 6

The view known as aggregate field theory, which stated that the whole brain participates in behavior, is most associated with

A)Broca.
B)Hughlings Jackson.
C)Brodmann.
D)Flourens.

Question 7

________ was one of the first brain scientists to realize that specific cognitive functions can be localized to specific parts of the brain and that many different functional regions can take part in a given behavior.

A)Broca
B)Hughlings Jackson
C)Flourens
D)Brodmann

Question 8

Which stance would most likely hold an assumption that physical elements of the brain are responsible for the conscious mind?

A)monism
B)behaviorism
C)dualism
D)relativism

Question 9

The discipline of phrenology was founded by

A)Broca and Wernicke.
B)Fritsch and Hitzig.
C)Ramón y Cajal and Sherrington.
D)Gall and Spurzheim.

Question 10

Aside from saving Anne Green's life, Thomas Willis and Christopher Wren also

A)created very accurate drawings of the brain.
B)came up with the names of a number of brain structures.
C)took the first steps that led to cognitive neuroscience.
D)All of the answer options are correct.

Question 11

What term was coined by Thomas Willis as a consequence of the case of Anne Green?

A)psychopathology
B)cognition
C)neurology
D)psychosis

Question 12

Which 19th-century scientist suggested that the frontal lobe contributes to language and speech production?

A)Flourens
B)Wernicke
C)Broca
D)Brodmann

Question 13

Considering the perspective recommended for approaching cognitive neuroscience, which of the following would best explain how a cognitive function may have developed?

A)learning and reward
B)integration with technology
C)neurological dysfunction
D)hunting and gathering

Question 14

Each of the following are reasons why Willis is considered one of the early figures in cognitive neuroscience EXCEPT:

A)He named many brain parts.
B)He gave frequent lectures on specific brain regions.
C)He was among the first to link behavioral deficits to brain damage.
D)He created very accurate brain images.

Question 15

Gall's method for investigating phrenology was flawed because

A)he used the wrong language to explain the characteristics he observed.
B)he did not tell Napoleon Bonaparte that he possessed noble characteristics.
C)he sought only to confirm, not disprove, the correlations he observed.
D)he used his own skull as the base model.

Question 16

A central issue of modern cognitive neuroscience is whether specific human cognitive abilities

A)arise from networks of brain areas working together.
B)are determined by the shape and size of the human skull or the brain beneath.
C)are best studied using the scientific method.
D)can be best identified using the Golgi silver method of staining or fMRI.

Question 17

The view developed by Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, based on the idea that processes like language and memory cannot be localized within circumscribed brain regions, was known as

A)the neuron doctrine.
B)aggregate field theory.
C)rationalism.
D)the law of effect.

Question 18

The key observation leading John Hughlings Jackson to propose a topographical organization in the cerebral cortex was that

A)speech disturbances could be identified by left-hemisphere lesions.
B)the two hemispheres of the brain served different functions.
C)seizures begin in a localized region of the cortex.
D)focal brain damage causes specific behavioral deficits.

Question 19

While studying brain function, it is often useful to think of development in terms of ____________, which is the perspective of _____________________.

A)cognition; cognitive neuroscience
B)survival; evolution
C)blood flow; magnetic resonance imaging
D)dysfunction; psychopathology

Question 20

John Hughlings Jackson proposed a ________organization in the cerebral cortex, based on his work with people with ________.

A)holistic; aphasia
B)topographic; aphasia
C)topographic; epilepsy
D)holistic; epilepsy

Question 21

Which of the following terms refers to the idea of a continuous mass of tissue that shares a common cytoplasm?

A)synapse
B)syncytium
C)striatum
D)claustrum

Question 22

Which of the following statements best describes the "neuron doctrine"?

A)The nervous system consists of a fused network of interconnected fibers.
B)The brain can be subdivided into regions that are distinct in cytoarchitectonics yet functionally interactive.
C)The nervous system consists of physically distinct cells that are functionally interactive.
D)The brain can be subdivided into functionally autonomous modules.

Question 23

Yvette wants to figure out whether cells in two different layers of the occipital lobe have different functions. What would she have done if she had been a scientist in the early 20th century?

A)look at a CAT scan
B)observe the tracts that connect each layer
C)study living patients with damage to those cells
D)look at the layers under a microscope

Question 24

Researchers Fritsch and Hitzig found support for the idea that specific functions are localized to discrete parts of the cortex in an experiment using electrical stimulation of a dog's brain. More specifically, they found __ systematic relationship between the portion of the cortex stimulated and specific ________.

A)a; movements
B)a; vocalizations
C)no; movements
D)no; vocalizations

Question 25

As a first approximation, individuals with damage to the left inferior frontal lobe tend to have more difficulty with ________, whereas individuals with damage to the left posterior temporal lobe tend to have more difficulty with ________.

A)fine motor control; the sense of touch
B)the sense of touch; fine motor control
C)the production of language; the perception of language
D)the perception of language; the production of language

Question 26

The neuroanatomist who described 52 distinct cortical areas based on cell structure and arrangement, and whose classification scheme is often used today, was

A)Purkinje.
B)Helmholtz.
C)Brodmann.
D)Hyde.

Question 27

One reason that early research on specific human cognitive capacities and the brain areas that are responsible for them developed rather slowly before the 20th century is that

A)most early investigators were limited to postmortem studies to localize lesions.
B)investigators did not know the brain was separated into two hemispheres until the20th century.
C)most early investigators focused on studying the brain-behavior relationship in animals rather than in humans.
D)there was little interest in this field until the 20th century.

Question 28

Wernicke is to ________ as Broca is to ________.

A)understanding speech; speaking
B)speaking; understanding speech
C)aggregate field theory; topographic organization
D)aggregate field theory; aggregate field theory

Question 29

La reazione nera, or "the black reaction," refers to

A)a cell stain developed by Golgi.
B)a perceptual phenomenon described by the Gestalt psychologists.
C)a ganglion preparation developed by Arvanitaki.
D)a type of reinforcement-based learning described by the behaviorists.

Question 30

Korbinian Brodmann used ________ techniques to document 52 regions of the brain that differed in ________.

A)phrenological; cytoarchitectonics
B)phrenological; chronometrics
C)tissue staining; cytoarchitectonics
D)tissue staining; chronometrics

Question 31

Wernicke was an early researcher who suggested that the ________ contributes to language comprehension.

A)right frontotemporal area
B)left frontotemporal area
C)right temporoparietal area
D)left temporoparietal area

Question 32

Patient Leborgne was nicknamed "Tan" because that was the only word he could utter. Leborgne had developed an aphasia due to a lesion in which area of the brain?

A)frontal cortex
B)Broca's area
C)cerebellum
D)Wernicke's area

Question 33

The primary contribution of Golgi to the field of cognitive neuroscience was that he

A)developed a staining technique that permitted full visualization of individual neurons.
B)showed experimentally that the nervous system is composed of a net of physically interconnected neuronal units.
C)discovered that cells in different regions of the cortex also differ in shape and size.
D)demonstrated that nerves can release chemicals that have an activating effect on nearby muscle cells.

Question 34

The neuron doctrine is usually credited to ________, who used a staining technique pioneered by ________.

A)Purkinje; Brodmann
B)Brodmann; Purkinje
C)Golgi; Ramón y Cajal
D)Ramón y Cajal; Golgi

Question 35

The term synapse, coined by Sherrington, refers to the junction between

A)a blood vessel and surrounding neurons.
B)two different cytoarchitectonic regions in the brain.
C)two adjacent neurons.
D)an axon and the cell body of a neuron.

Question 36

Which of the following things would have been the most difficult for the famous individual studied by Paul Broca to do, compared to before his stroke?

A)listening to a piano recital
B)appreciating a painting
C)reading a book aloud
D)playing a game of cards

Question 37

Cytoarchitectonic maps distinguish different cortical regions by

A)the structure of their surface convolutions.
B)their structure at the cellular level.
C)the complex functions they perform.
D)the basic functions they perform.

Question 38

Which of the following scientists contributed to modern neuroscience in the 19th century?

A)Paul Broca
B)Sir Charles Sherrington
C)Gustav Theodor Fritsch
D)Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Question 39

Which of the following things would have been the most difficult for the famous individual described by Carl Wernicke to do, compared to before his stroke?

A)understanding a speech
B)painting a picture
C)singing a song
D)riding a horse

Question 40

Each of the following contributions led to the establishment of the neuron doctrine EXCEPT:

A)Golgi's silver method.
B)Purkinje's description of the first nerve cell.
C)Thorndike's observation of adaptive response.
D)Brodmann's cortical maps.

Question 41

Suppose you are investigating neurological function, and one of the initial portions of your procedure is to inject radioactive oxygen-15 into the patient's bloodstream. Which of the following methods are you most likely using to measure neurological activity?

A)electroencephalography (EEG)
B)computerized axial tomography (CAT)
C)positron emission tomography (PET)
D)magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Question 42

Which of the following people did NOT play a strong role in the theoretical shift in psychology in the latter part of the 20th century?

A)Noam Chomsky
B)Sir Charles Sherrington
C)George A. Miller
D)Claude Shannon

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT true of empiricism?

A)It is primarily associated with the British philosophers Hobbes, Hume, and Mill.
B)It was a foundation for the associationist-behaviorist school of psychology.
C)It postulates a special role for reason and induction in human thought.
D)It emphasizes sensory experience in the development of knowledge.

Question 44

Computerized axial tomography is to MRI as ________ is to ________.

A)X-ray; radio frequencies
B)structure; function
C)blood oxygenation; X-ray
D)radiation; dipoles

Question 45

"Cells that fire together, wire together" was first proposed by Donald Hebb as an explanation for

A)epileptic seizures and their effects.
B)cytoarchitectural variation.
C)the way in which the brain codes new learning.
D)amnesia caused by brain damage.

Question 46

A group of investigators is conducting research on brain tumors, and they need to obtain three-dimensional brain views to localize the tumors. Which instrument will provide the least invasive way to obtain their objective?

A)electroencephalography (EEG)
B)computerized axial tomography (CAT)
C)positron emission tomography (PET)
D)magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Question 47

Noam Chomsky argued that the structure of human languages is ________, in contrast to B. F. Skinner's assertion that languages are ________.

A)innate; learned
B)learned; universal
C)universal; rational
D)rational; innate

Question 48

Rationalism is the philosophical position that knowledge

A)originates from sensory experience.
B)must be experimentally tested.
C)must be deduced and justified through reason.
D)is globally distributed in the cortex.

Question 49

According to Edward Thorndike, which of the following is NOT true about rewards?

A)They indicate which creatures have malleable structures in the brain.
B)They help to stamp things into the mind.
C)They lead to adaptive learning.
D)They are part of the law of effect.

Question 50

Which of the following was NOT contributory to the development of the electroencephalogram?

A)measuring continuous activity from the cerebral cortex of dogs and apes
B)studying patients who had skull defects
C)making photographic recordings of activity from a string galvanometer
D)publishing a paper describing recordings of brain currents

Question 51

Thorndike's law of effect

A)stated that much knowledge is innately specified due to natural selection.
B)was written to oppose Darwin's theory of natural selection.
C)stated that a behavior that is followed by a reward is likely to occur again.
D)was written to oppose the behaviorists.

Question 52

You decide that you want to measure blood flow of the brain. Which of the following methods would you employ to best achieve your goal?

A)Listen to the blood flow across veins.
B)Look at red blood cells under a microscope.
C)Measure the amount of iron in the blood.
D)None of the answer options is correct.

Question 53

____________ is the idea that all knowledge comes from sensory experiences, while ____________ holds that truth is intellectual.

A)Empiricism; rationalism
B)Empiricism; logic
C)Rationalism; empiricism
D)Rationalism; logic

Question 54

Imagine that you are one of the researchers who advanced the field of cognitive neuroscience by developing a new instrument to measure the brain. Computerized axial tomography (CAT) has already been developed, but your team wants to expand the CAT to develop an instrument that will provide information about brain function. Which method are you most likely developing?

A)electroencephalography (EEG)
B)functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
C)positron emission tomography (PET)
D)magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Question 55

John Watson famously argued that newborn babies

A)are incapable of forming memories.
B)have an intelligence comparable to our nearest primate cousins.
C)can be raised to become anything.
D)will develop different intellectual abilities according to innate differences.

Question 56

Empiricism is the philosophical position that all knowledge

A)must be deduced and justified through reason.
B)originates from sensory experience.
C)must be experimentally tested.
D)is globally distributed in the cortex.

Question 57

Ebbinghaus, who is considered the father of modern memory research, was among the first to demonstrate that

A)different types of brain lesions can produce different types of memory deficits.
B)in terms of cognition, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
C)behavior is best understood in terms of stimulus-response relationships.
D)internal mental processes can be measured in rigorous and reproducible ways.

Question 58

All of the following are representative of the emergence of the field of cognitive science in the second half of the 20th century EXCEPT

A)new developments in computer technology and artificial intelligence.
B)a philosophical shift in the field toward empiricism and associationism.
C)Chomsky's work arguing that behaviorist theories cannot explain language acquisition.
D)Miller's work showing that internal processes like short-term memory can be quantified.

Question 59

According to associationist Herman Ebbinghaus, complex processes such as memory

A)can be understood by combining different pieces of information.
B)are best understood in terms of a stimulus's emergent properties.
C)cannot be measured because they are not behaviors.
D)can be measured in an analytic fashion.

Question 60

Which of the following methods relies on blood oxygenation?

A)magnetic resonance imaging
B)functional magnetic resonance imaging
C)computerized axial tomography
D)electroencephalogram

Question 61

Describe two principal methods used to measure brain structure.

Question 62

Describe the main tenets of the Neuron Doctrine.

Question 63

Describe the evidence that led Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens to move the field away from localization toward aggregate-field theory.

Question 64

Draw a diagram demonstrating the approach known as the scientific method. Your diagram should indicate the general procedures used and the order in which they are performed.

Question 65

Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke discovered two different forms of aphasia. Compare and contrast them.

Question 66

Describe the transition from behaviorist to cognitive approaches in psychology.

Question 67

A major question in cognitive neuroscience is the extent to which regions of the brain are independent or integrated. Which of these two viewpoints is most valid? Present evidence to support your view.

Question 68

You would like to understand at what point in time an event took place in the brain. What neuroimaging method would you choose? Explain why you would choose this method and what information you would be missing.

Question 69

Noam Chomsky wrote an article titled "Three Models for the Description of Language." Describe how the findings he reported moved the field of cognitive psychology forward.

Question 70

Localizationists argued that higher cognitive functions were the product of brain activity in specific areas. Give evidence that they used to support their claims.

Question 71

Associationism and empiricism are two main philosophical positions. Pick the one you think best describes how humans come to know things and explain why you think this.

Question 72

Describe how and why the term cognitive neuroscience was chosen for this field. Be sure to mention the two fields that combined to create this new field of study.