Deck 10: Socially Guided Neural Development

Question 1

Who first asserted that animals have no "soul" because they cannot reason like humans?

A) Descartes
B) Hebb
C) Aquinas
D) Darwin

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The best way to discern whether a behavior is complex would be to test whether the behavior

A) is influenced by genes.
B) can be modified by experience.
C) is unlearned.
D) requires social interaction.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Animals that do not require parental care to survive

A) cannot reproduce.
B) display the most complex behaviors.
C) have the largest brains.
D) have the smallest brains.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which animal displays the most extensive parental behavior?

A) Sea turtle
B) Chimpanzee
C) Human
D) Rat

Question 5

B6 mice are all genetically identical and spend more time exploring the center of an open field compared to Balb mice. If B6 mouse embryos are implanted into and raised by a Balb mouse dam, the pups will

A) still spend more time in the center of an open field compared to Balb mice.
B) spend the same amount of time in the center of an open field as Balb mice.
C) spend less time in the center of an open field compared to Balb mice.
D) not survive with a mother of a different mouse strain.

Question 6

Compared to rat pups that were licked less by their mother, rats that are reared by a mother who spends a lot of time licking her pups will respond to stress in adulthood in what way?

A) By releasing larger amounts of corticosterone
B) By releasing smaller amounts of corticosterone
C) No differently than pups that were licked less
D) Differently, depending on what genes the pups carry

Question 7

Which of following is not an epigenetic change, broadly defined?

A) Methylation of a gene
B) Acetylation of a gene
C) Single nucleotide change in a gene
D) Suppression of an X chromosome in an XX person

Question 8

Imprinting is a mechanism in some bird species by which newborn hatchlings are predisposed to

A) recognize their mother.
B) recognize each other.
C) search for a mate.
D) follow a slow-moving object.

Question 9

When zebra finch hatchlings are raised by Bengalese finches, they mature to seek mates that are like their foster Bengalese finches, which indicates that sexual imprinting is

A) built into the nervous system before hatching.
B) a result of learning.
C) not useful for increasing reproductive capacity.
D) an innate behavior.

Question 10

Japanese macaques, or "snow monkeys," dipping yams into seawater is an example of

A) observational learning.
B) a survival mechanism to get enough dietary sodium.
C) imprinting.
D) behavior resulting from a genetic change.

Question 11

Some gulls prey on surfacing whales, and the number of whales that have lesions from gulls has increased from 2% in the 1970s to 99% by 2011, indicating that

A) the gull population increased.
B) the whale population decreased.
C) a genetic change in gulls led to their preying behavior.
D) preying on whales is a learned behavior in gulls.

Question 12

Why do white-crowned sparrows in Berkeley, California sing slightly different songs than white-crowned sparrows just south of Berkeley, in Sunset Beach?

A) They are different strains of birds.
B) They always imitate the songs of their biological father.
C) They are genetically distinct.
D) They imitate the songs they hear growing up.

Question 13

When swamp sparrows are raised in isolation and exposed only to recordings of patterns of mixed songs from song sparrows and swamp sparrows, they

A) never produce a song.
B) still produce syllables typical of their own species.
C) still produce their species' birdsong.
D) produce a song that is a mixture of song sparrow and swamp sparrow syllables.

Question 14

People speak to babies in a high-pitched, singsong fashion with slow, exaggerated syllables

A) only in North America.
B) and this delays a baby's speech development.
C) to convey emotional tone and reward.
D) to help them distinguish phonemes.

Question 15

Approximately how many different phonemes exist across human languages?

A) 14
B) 140
C) 1,400
D) 1,400,000

Question 16

Humans are born with the ability to

A) distinguish every known phoneme.
B) distinguish only those phonemes of their parents' language.
C) continually learn to distinguish phonemes.
D) distinguish no phonemes.

Question 17

Experiments on monkeys raised with surrogate wire or cloth mother models instead of a live, interactive mother suggested what about caregiver attachment?

A) As long as infants are provided with food and shelter, they will be healthy.
B) Caregiver attachment is only important until the infant is weaned.
C) Only the biological mother can provide the necessary environment for an infant to survive.
D) Infants need comfort and nurturing to be healthy.

Question 18

The deficits observed in monkeys that were raised without a real, interactive mother

A) did not affect their own parenting behavior.
B) could be counteracted with peer-support.
C) disappeared as they grew up.
D) were lethal.

Question 19

Experiments showing the influence of social stimulation after weaning in rats indicate that

A) social stimulation continues to affect the brain after parental care ends.
B) parental care is the most important social stimulation.
C) genes do not play a role in learning and memory.
D) postweaning conditions do not affect sexual behavior.

Question 20

Social stimulation is _______ for myelination in the mouse brain _______ 2 weeks postweaning.

A) detrimental; before
B) not important; before
C) crucial; before
D) crucial; after

Question 21

IQ tests do not correlate with

A) performance in school.
B) lifetime earnings.
C) life expectancy.
D) life satisfaction.

Question 22

What did James Flynn suggest as a reason that IQ test performance is improving worldwide?

A) People with low IQ scores do not reproduce as much.
B) People have acquired genes that confer higher intelligence.
C) People are exposed to more abstract concepts than they once were.
D) IQ tests are designed differently.

Question 23

The IQ scores of monozygotic twins, who are genetically identical, are

A) identical.
B) more correlated than those between dizygotic twins.
C) less correlated than those between dizygotic twins.
D) not correlated.

Question 24

If a group of African American and white students are given a test and told beforehand that African Americans tend to not perform as well on the test, what will be the outcome of the test, compared to taking the test with no stereotype presented beforehand?

A) African Americans' performance will improve
B) White students' performance will improve
C) African American's blood pressure will increase
D) White students' blood pressure will increase

Question 25

If students are told that there is no sex difference in performance on a math test, boys and girls perform equally as well. But if they are told beforehand that boys tend to score higher than girls, only girls' performance is impaired. This is an example of

A) environmental enrichment.
B) stereotype threat.
C) biological destiny.
D) the Flynn effect.

Question 26

How did Albert Magnus and Thomas Aquinas come up with the term "instinct" to describe animal behavior? Why is this term not useful?

Question 27

By what mechanism does the amount of attention a rat dam gives to her pups affect their response to stress?

Question 28

What is one benefit of relying on social cues and not just genes alone to guide birds on their migratory path?

Question 29

What specific parts of birdsong are regulated by predisposed genetic influences and by learning? What advantage does this system have?

Question 30

Refer to the graph.
These data show that as a bird ages, there are changes in the volume of brain regions involved in producing birdsong, specifically: higher vocal center (HVC), robustus archistriatum (RA), and lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (LMAN). How does each region change, and what does this suggest about their function in birdsong?

Question 31

Refer to the image.
The figure shows the pattern of brain activation during a language task. Which brain (A or B) shows abnormal activation? What could have caused this abnormality, and what would this do to language capacity in an individual?

Question 32

How did the results of Harry Harlow's maternal monkey experiments conflict with the human child rearing ideology of the time?

Question 33

How did placing weaned rat pups in enriched environmental conditions affect their brain development?

Question 34

Worldwide, IQ test performance has been rising by about 6 points per decade. What does this result suggest about the relationship between IQ and genetic influences? Between IQ and environment?

Question 35

What are three possible reasons that people with higher socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have higher IQ scores?