12.1

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

The cognitive interpretations of subjective experiences - can operate outside of our immediate awareness

Question 2

What are the four possible reasons for the cause of motivated behavior?

Answer 2

1. The brain’s need for stimulation
2. Evolutionary influences (Innate Releasing Mechanism)
3. Environmental influencers (operant conditioning)
4. Neural circuits that modulate rewards

Question 3

What is evidence for the brain’s need for stimulation?

Answer 3

Sensory deprivation experiments in humans (Hebb & Heron) and experiments on monkeys (Butler & Harlow)

Question 4

What is the innate releasing mechanism (IRM)

Answer 4

The hypothetical prewired neural system that detects specific stimuli and triggers an adaptive response without the need for learning.

Question 5

What are androgens?

Answer 5

Hormones related to masculine characteristics

Question 6

What is an example of the innate releasing mechanism in humans?

Answer 6

Babies mimicking adult facial expressions despite being too young to mimic intentionally (even blind babies who have never seen a face respond to the tone of voices)

Question 7

What are two way that neural reward circuits are modulated?

Answer 7

Hormones and chemosignals (from smell and taste)

Question 8

What is preparedness?

Answer 8

The predisposition to learn certain associations faster than others (emphasis on learning)

Question 9

What is evolutionary psychology?

Answer 9

The field of psychology that applies principles of natural selection to explanations of human behavior

Question 10

What are reinforcers?

Answer 10

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Question 11

What is learned taste aversion?

Answer 11

Acquired association between a specific taste or odor and illness; leads to an aversion to foods that have the taste or odor.
One only needs one bad experience to develop this

Question 12

Glickman and Schiff first proposed the idea that animals engage in prey-killing behaviors, such as when a cat kills a bird, because these behaviors are _________

Answer 12

rewarding

Question 13

One reason animals get bored and seek new activities it to maintain brain ___________

Answer 13

stimulation

Question 14

A man’s frequency of copulation correlates with his __________

Answer 14

androgen levels

Question 15

The brain of a species is prewired to produce ____________ to specific sensory stimuli selected by evolution to prompt certain associations between events

Answer 15

Innate releasing mechanisms

Question 16

Why is free will inadequate to explain why we do the things we do?

Answer 16

In general, behavior is controlled by neural circuits that are modulated by a wide range of factors