Chapter 14

Question 1

Anterior commisure

Answer 1

bundle of axons that connects the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

Question 2

anomia

Answer 2

difficulty recalling the names of objects

Question 3

aphasia

Answer 3

language impairment

Question 4

broca’s area

Answer 4

left frontal cortex portion of the brain associated with language production

Question 5

broca’s aphasia

Answer 5

(nonfluent aphasia) brain damage that causes impaired language characterized by poor pronunciation, speaks mostly in nouns and verbs and omits prepositions and other grammatical connectives, comprehension is impaired if the meaning depends on complex grammar.

Question 6

backward masking

Answer 6

a brief visual stimulus after another visual stimulus that leads to failure to remember the first

Question 7

binocular rivalry

Answer 7

when 2 stimuli are presented (one to each eye) and perception shifts from one to the other

Question 8

corpus callosum

Answer 8

bundle of axons that connects the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

Question 9

conscious

Answer 9

capable of reporting presence of a stimulus

Question 10

dualism

Answer 10

belief that mind and body are different kinds of substance that exist independently

Question 11

dyslexia

Answer 11

a specific impairment of reading in someone with adequate vision, motivation and overall cognitive skills

Question 12

epilepsy

Answer 12

a condition characterized by repeated episodes of excessive synchronized neural activity

Question 13

focus

Answer 13

point in the brain where an epileptic seizure begins

Question 14

hard problem

Answer 14

philosophical question as to why and how brain activity becomes conscious

Question 15

inattentional blindness

Answer 15

If something in a complex scene changes slowly or changes when you blink your eyesyou probably will not notice unless you were paying attention to the particular area where the change occurred

Question 16

language acquisition device

Answer 16

a built in mechanism for acquiring language

Question 17

lateralization

Answer 17

division of labour between the two brain hemispheres

Question 18

masking

Answer 18

use of one stimulus to block perception of another

Question 19

materialism

Answer 19

view that everything that exists is material or physical

Question 20

mentalism

Answer 20

view that only the mind really exists and that the physical world could not exist unless some mind were aware of it

Question 21

mind-brain problem

Answer 21

question about the relationship between mental experience and brain activity

Question 22

monism

Answer 22

belief that the universe consists of only one kind of substance

Question 23

optic chiasm

Answer 23

area where axons from each eye cross to the opposite side of the brain (right vis field - left side retina - left hemisphere of the brain & vice versa)

Question 24

planum temporale

Answer 24

section of the temporal cortex that is larger in the left hemisphere (for 65% of people)

Question 25

productivity

Answer 25

ability of language to produce new signals to represent new ideas

Question 26

phi phenomenon

Answer 26

tendency to see something as moving back and forth between positions when in fact it is alternately blinking on and off in those positions

Question 27

spatial neglect

Answer 27

a tendency to ignore the left side of the body ot the left side of objects

Question 28

Stroop effect

Answer 28

The difficulty of saying the colour of ink of a word instead of reading the word itself

Question 29

split-brain people

Answer 29

People who have undergone surgery to the corpus callossum

Question 30

visual field

Answer 30

area of the world that an individual can see at one time

Question 31

Wernicke’s area

Answer 31

portion of the brain located near the auditory cortex associated with language comprehension

Question 32

Williams syndrome

Answer 32

Condition in which the person has relatively good language abilities in spite of impairments in other regards. Deletion of genes from chromosome 7, decreased gray matter; perform regularly in music and friendliness despite 50-60 IQ and severe impairment

Question 33

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 33

(fluent aphasia) condition characterized by poor language comprehension and impaired ability to remember the name of objects; speech is grammatical but often nonsensical, comprehension seriously impaired