Deck 21: Extension: A - Spatial Behavior

Question 1

The patient examined by Bálint could not:

A) direct his gaze to the contralateral field.
B) attend to more than one object at a time.
C) identify common objects by sight alone.
D) direct attention to ipsilateral field.

Answer 1

attend to more than one object at a time.

Question 2

Damage to the monkey's dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (principal sulcus) region impairs behavior requiring:

A) short-term memory for the spatial location of visual stimuli.
B) long-term memory for the spatial location of visual stimuli.
C) object recognition using cross-modal matching of visual and tactile stimuli.
D) evaluation of the relative reward magnitudes for visually presented stimuli.

Answer 2

short-term memory for the spatial location of visual stimuli.

Question 3

The Morris water task is commonly used to test the ability of rats and other small mammals, to navigate using either:

A) egocentric maps or a stimulus gradient.
B) emotional memory or visible landmarks.
C) dead reckoning or piloting ability.
D) piloting ability or visible landmarks.

Answer 3

piloting ability or visible landmarks.

Question 4

In the study by Maguire and colleagues, increases in the volume of gray matter in the right posterior hippocampus were positively correlated with the:

A) topographical memory ability of taxi drivers.
B) autobiographical memory ability of taxi drivers.
C) semantic memory of taxi drivers.
D) degree of autonomic arousal while watching Taxi Driver.

Question 5

In the context of spatial behavior, the term "egocentric" refers to the localization of environmental stimuli with reference to:

A) prominent, unchanging landmarks.
B) one's own body.
C) one's sense of self-importance.
D) imagined landmarks.

Question 6

A rat that finds its way around a radial arm maze by following odor trails left by other rats is engaging in:

A) piloting.
B) dead reckoning.
C) route following.
D) olfactory discrimination.

Question 7

When tested in the Morris water task, rats with hippocampal damage are most impaired when navigation requires the use of:

A) piloting ability.
B) visible landmarks.
C) food rewards.
D) dead reckoning.

Question 8

The hippocampus appears to be somewhat larger in those species of birds that:

A) defend territory.
B) mate for life.
C) cache food.
D) develop elaborate songs.

Question 9

Patients with damage to the parietal cortex of the right hemisphere have been reported to have difficulty:

A) making sense of cues indicating the apparent direction of moving dots.
B) making sense of clues needed for solving crossword puzzles.
C) focusing their eyes on stimuli that are moving through the environment.
D) making sense of illusory contours indicating depth of visual field.

Question 10

The ability to replace objects on a table in their previous position is impaired by damage to the:

A) left parietal cortex.
B) left hippocampus.
C) right hippocampus.
D) right parietal cortex.

Question 11

Most cases of Bálint syndrome involve:

A) bilateral temporal lobe damage.
B) bilateral occipital lobe damage.
C) bilateral parietal lobe damage.
D) right unilateral parietal lobe damage.

Question 12

The mental representation of the parts of the environment beyond one's outstretched fingers is referred to as a:

A) cognitive map of body space.
B) cognitive map of grasping space.
C) cognitive map of distal space.
D) cognitive map of time space.

Question 13

When the brain activity of London taxi drivers was recorded using PET while they described driving specific routes, a selective activation was observed in the:

A) right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
B) left and right hippocampi.
C) left hippocampus.
D) right hippocampus.

Question 14

Our capacity to successfully navigate from one place in our environment to another depends on the ability known as:

A) topographic memory.
B) topographic agnosia.
C) egocentric memory.
D) cognitive cartography.

Question 15

Patients lacking the ability to navigate using environmental cues to orient themselves are said to suffer from:

A) landmark agnosia.
B) anterograde disorientation.
C) spatial neglect.
D) spatial amnesia.

Question 16

The ability to use self - movement cues to judge speed, time, and travel direction is essential for the form of navigation known as:

A) route following.
B) place learning.
C) piloting.
D) dead reckoning.

Question 17

Gross disability in finding one's way about is termed:

A) topographic amnesia.
B) topographic agnosia.
C) topographic disorientation.
D) topographic alexia.

Question 18

A patient who experiences no difficulties finding her way around the home where she lived for most of her adult life but becomes spatially disoriented in her most recent home can be said to be suffering from _____ disorientation.

A) retrograde
B) egocentric
C) anterograde
D) allocentric

Question 19

O'Keefe and Nadel have proposed that the ability to form cognitive maps is dependent upon the:

A) hippocampus.
B) parietal lobes.
C) frontal lobes.
D) amygdala.

Question 20

The failure to identify individual landmarks while retaining the ability to identify the classes of objects to which the landmarks belong is an example of:

A) Bálint's syndrome.
B) landmark agnosia.
C) topographic amnesia.
D) egocentric disorientation.

Question 21

Research on sex - related differences in spatial ability suggests that, when traveling, men are likely to use ______, whereas women preferentially use ______.

A) distal cues; proximal cues
B) spatial maps; landmarks
C) proximal cues; distal cues
D) landmarks; spatial maps

Question 22

A neuron that reliably reacts with a burst of activity whenever a rat is near the response lever in its test cage would be classified as a:

A) place cell.
B) head-direction cell.
C) reward-location cell.
D) grid cell.

Question 23

Females with Turner's syndrome do not produce ______ and have ______.

A) gonadal hormones; impaired spatial abilities
B) stress hormones; impaired spatial abilities
C) gonadal hormones; enhanced spatial abilities
D) stress hormones; enhanced spatial abilities
Answer Key

Question 24

The typical male advantage on spatial tasks is about:

A) 0.5 standard deviation.
B) 0.2 standard deviation.
C) 1.5 standard deviation.
D) 0.05 standard deviation.

Question 25

Changes in hippocampal volume related to spatial memory abilities in humans and birds alike may depend on:

A) increases in blood vessel density.
B) the birth of new neurons.
C) the birth of new astrocytes.
D) the death of old neurons.

Question 26

A common attribute of place, grid, and head - direction cells is:

A) stability in the face of changing environmental cues.
B) location only in the hippocampus.
C) sensitivity to changes in environmental cues.
D) location in rats, mice, and monkeys.

Question 27

Which of the following characteristics is true of head - direction cells but not of place cells?

A) Head-direction cells cease their activity when the animal ceases moving.
B) Head-direction cells continue to be active even when the animal is restrained.
C) The activity of head-direction cells is sensitive to changes in environmental cues.
D) The activity of head-direction cells is insensitive to changes in environmental cues.

Question 28

According to McGee's hypothesis, if superior abilities are heritable through a recessive gene located on the X chromosome, then ______ percent of the female population should show above average abilities.

A) 25
B) 33
C) 75
D) 50

Question 29

Activity of head - direction cells is likely to contribute significantly to:

A) path-following ability.
B) directional tuning.
C) landmark localization.
D) food-hoarding behavior.

Question 30

A neuron that reliably reacts with a burst of activity at regular intervals as an animal moves through the environment would BEST be classified as a:

A) grid cell.
B) place cell.
C) response cell.
D) head-direction cell

Question 31

In order to use dead reckoning, nonhuman animals use:

A) heading cues.
B) landmark cues.
C) self-movement cues.
D) olfactory cues.