Midterm 2 (Ch. 3-5)

Question 1

The attentional focus mechanism suggested by gate control theory relies on the notion of what kind of processing?

Answer 1

Top-down processing

Question 2

Because the brain cannot process physical stimuli directly, it must convert the stimuli into chemical and electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain. This process is known as

Answer 2

Transduction

Question 3

Precious was woken up in the middle of a dream about dragons shopping for umbrellas while dancing a polka. Precious was most likely experiencing __________ when woken up.

Answer 3

REM sleep

Question 4

In considering a human characteristic, we could say that the __________ provides the options, and the __________ determines which option is taken.

Answer 4

genome; environment

Question 5

Another way to think of agonists and antagonists with respect to their involvement in the actions of neurotransmitters is that agonists __________, whereas antagonists __________, the action of specific neurotransmitters.

Answer 5

enhance; impair

Question 6

Since nicotine increases acetylcholine functioning, we can assume it is a(n)

Answer 6

acetylcholine agonist.

Question 7

The Thatcher illusion occurs because we normally process faces in a way that is

Answer 7

configural

Question 8

The Missing Letter Effect reflects the _________of reading, and is ________ correlated with the Stroop Effect.

Answer 8

automaticity; positively

Question 9

Frank Tong and colleagues superimposed a house onto a face and asked participants to make judgments about what they saw. What were the participants’ brain responses?

Answer 9

The brain activity changed depending on whether participants reported seeing a house or a face.

Question 10

Sleep spindles indicate which stage of sleep?

Answer 10

stage 2

Question 11

Which area in the temporal lobe of the brain appears to be specialized for perceiving faces?

Answer 11

fusiform gyrus

Question 12

If the ventral stream of your visual cortex were not working temporarily, you would be unable to understand ________ an object is; but if your dorsal stream was still functioning, you could understand ________ an object is

Answer 12

what; where

Question 13

Which of the following can help close the neural gate in the spinal cord?

Answer 13

distraction

Question 14

Suppose you wish to examine the structure of a person’s brain. Given the choice, you should use

Answer 14

magnetic resonance imaging.

Question 15

An experimenter gives participants a set of headphones and plays a different story in each ear. Each participant is told to shadow the message in the left ear and to ignore the message in the right ear. The attended story is __________, while the nonattended story is __________.

Answer 15

more likely to be remembered; processed at least to some extent

Question 16

Why do people report the viral image of “the dress” as different sets of colors?

Answer 16

The light source in the image is ambiguous, so people make different relative judgments of the colors of the dress.

Question 17

All five sensory systems send information to the brain through the cranial nerves, but one sensory system sends information to the brain through the spinal nerves as well. Which of our sensory systems can also send information to the brain through the spinal nerves?

Answer 17

touch

Question 18

During the Cold War, the Stroop Effect was an effective counter-espionage tool for the USA because:

Answer 18

Bilingual people can’t ignore the written words in either language.

Question 19

Manuel is waiting to hear back about a job he interviewed for. Manuel takes a shower while he waits. While he is in the shower, he keeps straining to hear the phone above the noise of the water. Whenever he hears a sound, he thinks it is the phone. Manuel is showing ________, a concept described in ________.

Answer 19

response bias; signal detection theory

Question 20

People’s sensitivity to unchanging stimuli decreases over time because

Answer 20

unchanging stimuli convey little new information.

Question 21

A medication that blocks the reuptake of serotonin will lead to

Answer 21

more serotonin in the synapse.

Question 22

If a key is pressed on a piano, the frequency of the resulting sound waves will determine the ________, and the amplitude will determine the ________ of the perceived musical note.

Answer 22

pitch; loudness

Question 23

The brain and the spinal cord make up the __________ nervous system.

Answer 23

central nervous system

Question 23

A myelin sheath is like the

Answer 23

insulation of a wire.

Question 24

A gene is…

Answer 24

a segment of DNA that is involved in producing proteins that carry out specific tasks.

Question 25

The base of the cochlea responds to __________ sounds, and the tip of the cochlea responds to __________ sounds.

Answer 25

high-frequency; low-frequency

Question 26

The thalamus receives nearly all sensory information before relaying it to the cortex. What one sensation is the EXCEPTION to this rule?

Answer 26

smell

Question 27

One example of an automatic process is

Answer 27

walking

Question 28

Hormones are to __________ as neurotransmitters are to __________.

Answer 28

the endocrine system; the nervous system

Question 29

Which theory of sleep would explain why Jon slept an extra 4 hours after running a marathon?

Answer 29

restorative theory

Question 30

After neurotransmitters have been received by the postsynaptic neuron, which of the following does NOT happen to the remaining neurotransmitter:

Answer 30

Enzyme deactivation

Question 31

You unexpectedly observe a bright flash of light. Your detection of the light involves

Answer 31

Exogenous attention

Question 32

Beau’s mother and father each carry a dominant gene for brown eyes and a recessive gene for blue eyes. The probability that Beau’s eyes are blue is

Answer 32

.25

Question 33

The optic nerve is composed of axons of

Answer 33

ganglion cells

Question 34

Circadian rhythms can best be described as…

Answer 34

biological clocks controlling hormone levels, temperature, and the sleep cycle.

Question 35

Sleep deprivation can increase the activation of __________ receptors in the brain, which in turn can alleviate symptoms of __________.

Answer 35

serotonin; depression

Question 36

The parts of a neuron that receive messages from other neurons are the

Answer 36

dendrites

Question 37

Which of the following sequences reflects the order in which a signal travels through a neuron?

Answer 37

dendrite –> cell body –> axon –> terminal buttons

Question 38

Why is REM sleep called paradoxical sleep?

Answer 38

The person is asleep, but the person’s brain is very active.

Question 39

Which of the following is true about the experience of flow?

Answer 39

People experiencing flow lose track of time and fail to notice other things going on.

Question 40

Which of the following subcortical structures plays an important role in fear processing?

Answer 40

amygdala

Question 41

Janice took a stimulant medication called Adderall to help her study. After a few minutes, she noticed that she was sweating, and her heart was racing. These symptoms occurred because of the drug’s effect on Janice’s _______

Answer 41

sympathetic nervous system.

Question 42

Your friend is taking an over-the-counter medication. He claims that it is not a psychoactive drug, but you claim it is. What characteristic of the drug would most likely support your argument?

Answer 42

The drug activates the brain’s neurotransmitter receptors.

Question 43

According to trichromatic theory, damage to your S cones would most likely result in which of the following types of color blindness?

Answer 43

blue-yellow

Question 44

In research on signal detection theory, incorrectly “detecting” a stimulus that was not presented in a trial is called a

Answer 44

false alarm.