Chapter 15

Question 1

What are psychological constructs?

Answer 1

idea or set of impressions that some mental ability exists an entity (memory, language, thought, emotion)

Question 2

How is language a driver of higher-level thinking?

Answer 2

• categorizes information
• organizes time
• syntax

Question 3

What does cognition entail the abilities of?

Answer 3

attending to, identifying and making meaningful responses to stimuli

Question 4

Where does human thought come from in the brain?

Answer 4

arises from activity of complex neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex

Question 4

What are cell assemblies?

Answer 4

hypothetical group of neurons that become functionally connected via common sensory inputs

Question 5

What is the most important way in which human thought differs from thinking in other animals?

Answer 5

a lot of human thought is verbal through language which allows us to categories information and provides a way to organize our behaviour around time

Question 6

What are structural differences between the left and right hemispheres?

Answer 6

• lateral fissure
• sensorimotor face area
• broca’s area

Question 7

What role does the right hemisphere play?

Answer 7

spatial behaviour and music

Question 8

What does the left hemisphere play a role in?

Answer 8

controlling voluntary movement sequences and language

Question 9

What happens when there is right parietal damage?

Answer 9

• difficulties copying pictures (constructional apraxia)
• difficulties doing puzzles, navigating familiar environments

Question 10

What happens when there is left parietal damage?

Answer 10

• impairment in generating coordinated voluntary motor movements (apraxia)
• difficulties in math, reading, object naming

Question 11

What is dichotic listening?

Answer 11

experimental procedure for simultaneously presenting a different auditory input to each ear through stereophonic earphones
- right ear seems to have preferential access to the left hemisphere

Question 12

What causes split brain?

Answer 12

severing the corpus callosum

Question 13

What are the two major contributors to organizational differences in individual brains?

Answer 13

• sex
• handedness

Question 14

What is synesthesia?

Answer 14

people who experience certain sensations in more than one sensory modality

Question 15

What roles do gonadal hormones play in brain organization and function?

Answer 15

influence brain development and shape neural circuits in adulthood

Question 16

What is the association cortex?

Answer 16

neocortex outside the primary sensory and motor cortices; produces cognition

Question 17

What is spatial cognition?

Answer 17

our knowledge about the environment that allows us to determine where we and objects in our environment are, how to go from one place to another, how to interpret our spatial world, and how to communicate about space

Question 18

Where is knowledge stored?

Answer 18

association cortex

Question 19

Which lobe processes information about objects?

Answer 19

temporal

Question 20

Which lobe processes information about spatial cognition?

Answer 20

parietal

Question 21

What are ways we conceptualize space?

Answer 21

• space in reference to body
• allocentric and egocentric
• more abstract cognitive space

Question 22

What is a key feature of being able to navigate spatial environment?

Answer 22

mental manipulation

Question 23

What are visuospatial deficits?

Answer 23

• implicates posterior parietal regions
• topographic disorientation
• balint syndrome (optic ataxis, ocular apraxia, simultagnosia)

Question 24

What is topographic disorientation?

Answer 24

an inability to find one’s way in relationship to salient environmental cues

Question 25

What are different kinds of attention?

Answer 25

• selective attention
• focused attention
• divided attention
• sustained attention

Question 26

What is hemispatial neglect/contralateral neglect?

Answer 26

failing to attend to one half of space

Question 27

What is executive function?

Answer 27

cognitive processes associated primary with the frontal love that plans behaviour and makes decisions

Question 28

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 28

cell in the primate premotor and parietal cortex that fires when an individual observes an action taken by another individual

Question 29

What is the function of the multimodal cortex?

Answer 29

allows brain to combine characteristics of stimuli across different sensory modalities

Question 30

What is dysexecutive syndrome?

Answer 30

damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
- difficulties with reasoning/abstraction
- poor motivation/initiation
- lack of self-monitoring
- difficulty shifting and adapting behaviours
- utilization behaviours
- poor multi-tasking
- decreased working memory capacity

Question 31

What is perseveration?

Answer 31

tendency to emit repeatedly the same verbal or motor response to varied stimuli

Question 32

What is theory of mind?

Answer 32

understanding others mental states and is governed by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Question 33

What is empathy

Answer 33

being able to experience the emotional states of others

Question 34

What is self-regulation?

Answer 34

controlling emotions and impulses; governed by anterior cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex

Question 35

What is a brain connectome?

Answer 35

a map of the complete structural and functional fiber pathway connections in the living human brain by using imaging methods

Question 36

What are four general themes of social neuroscience research?

Answer 36

• understanding others
• understanding oneself
• self-regulation
• social living

Question 37

What is consciouness?

Answer 37

the mind’s level of responsiveness to impressions made by the senses