Physiological Psychology Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Physiological Psychology explores the intricate relationship between the brain, nervous system, and behavior. This course examines how biological processes such as neural signaling, neurotransmitter activity, brain structures, and hormonal influences underlie psychological functions including perception, learning, memory, emotion, and motivation. Students will investigate methods used to study brain-behavior connections and consider the effects of brain injury, neurological diseases, and psychopharmacology on behavior. Through an integration of lectures, readings, and practical examples, the course provides a foundational understanding of how physiological mechanisms shape human experience and mental health.
Recommended Textbook
Biological Psychology 12th Edition by
James W. Kalat
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15 Chapters
1794 Verified Questions
1794 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Nerve Cells and Nerve Impulses
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120 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Korsakoff's syndrome ____.
A)is marked by severe memory impairments
B)results from too much thiamine
C)results from lack of oxygen to the brain
D)is due to a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier
Answer: A
Q2) What is the main source of nutrition for vertebrate neurons?
A)fats
B)glucose
C)sodium
D)complex carbohydrates
Answer: B
Q3) Protein channels allow ____ molecules to cross the cell membrane.
A)large charged
B)small charged
C)large uncharged
D)small uncharged
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Synapses
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Sample Questions
Q1) Avoiding foods with lecithin,such as eggs and peanuts,would affect the levels of which neurotransmitter the most?
A)acetylcholine
B)serotonin
C)GABA
D)endorphin
Answer: A
Q2) When a vertebrate animal contracts the flexor muscles of a leg,it relaxes the extensor muscles of the same leg.Sherrington considered this evidence for the existence of ____.
A)spatial summation
B)temporal summation
C)inhibitory messages
D)the delay in transmission at synapses
Answer: C
Q3) Whether or not a neurotransmitter is excitatory depends on the response of the postsynaptic receptor.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Anatomy and Research Methods
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Sample Questions
Q1) The hindbrain consists of the ____.
A)tectum, tegmentum, and reticular formation
B)thalamus and hypothalamus
C)spinal cord and cranial nerves
D)medulla, pons, and cerebellum
Answer: D
Q2) Sympathetic is to ____ as parasympathetic is to ____.
A)serotonin; dopamine
B)dopamine; serotonin
C)acetylcholine; norepinephrine
D)norepinephrine; acetylcholine
Answer: D
Q3) Where would you find the dorsal root ganglia?
A)at the base of the brain
B)in the gray matter of the spinal cord
C)in the white matter of the spinal cord
D)outside, but near, the spinal cord
Answer: D
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5
Chapter 4: Genetics, evolution, development, and Plasticity
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Sample Questions
Q1) A person with two recessive genes is considered to be ____ for that trait.
A)homozygous
B)heterozygous
C)unitary
D)marginal
Q2) How is brain development related to adolescent impulsivity?
Q3) The developing infant brain is highly resistant to damage.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What modern day practice helps prevent an inadequate production of thyroid hormones?
A)fluoride in drinking water
B)processed sugar
C)iodized salt
D)artificial sweeteners
Q5) Apoptosis ____.
A)is a programmed mechanism of cell death
B)promotes the survival and growth of the axon
C)promotes the survival and growth of dendrites
D)promotes the activity of neurons
6
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Chapter 5: Vision
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Sample Questions
Q1) The visual path in the parietal cortex is referred to as the ____.
A)ventral stream
B)dorsal stream
C)parvocellular pathway
D)magnocellular pathway
Q2) Damage to the dorsal stream may interfere with ____.
A)describing what is seen
B)perceiving the movement of an object
C)remembering something seen at a previous time
D)reaching out to grasp an object
Q3) According to the trichromatic theory of color vision,the most important factor in determining the color we see is the ____.
A)velocity of the action potential
B)absolute activity of a single cone
C)difference between cone and rod activity
D)relative activity of short, medium, and long wavelengths
Q4) A complex cell responds to a pattern of light in a particular orientation.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is prosopagnosia?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Other Sensory Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fact that the refractory period limits the firing rate of a neuron is problematic for which of the following?
A)frequency theory only
B)place theory only
C)volley theory only
D)both the frequency theory and the place theory
Q2) Taste and smell axons converge onto many of the same cells in an area called the ____.
A)frontal cortex
B)striate cortex
C)insular cortex
D)endopiriform cortex
Q3) Morphine is effective in relieving ____.
A)pain on the skin
B)sharp pain
C)slow, dull pain
D)pain in the interior of the body
Q4) The amplitude of a sound wave is its intensity.
A)True
B)False
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Movement
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Sample Questions
Q1) As an option for treating Parkinson's patients,transplantation of stem cells appears to be ____.
A)the most effective technique
B)more effective in late stages of the disease
C)modestly effective, as with other treatments
D)not at all effective
Q2) Moving a leg or arm back and forth requires opposing sets of muscles called ____.
A)extensor muscles
B)flexor muscles
C)cardiac muscles
D)antagonistic muscles
Q3) The stretch reflex ____.
A)results in a stretch
B)is caused by a stretch
C)inhibits motor neurons
D)sends a message for a muscle to relax
Q4) Briefly describe the nature of Parkinson's disease.Include a discussion of its causes and possible treatments.
Q5) Briefly describe the cellular organization of the cerebellum.
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Chapter 8: Wakefulness and Sleep
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Sample Questions
Q1) The biological clock depends on part of the hypothalamus,called the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
A)True
B)False
Q2) After entering stage 4 for the first time each evening,the sleeper typically ____.
A)returns immediately to stage 1
B)enters REM
C)cycles back through stages 3 and 2
D)wakes up
Q3) During sleep,what happens in the brain?
A)cessation of spontaneous activity in neurons
B)increased firing by dopamine neurons
C)decreased firing by dopamine neurons
D)increased firing by GABA neurons
Q4) Biological clocks are very resistant to environmental influences.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe brain function during REM sleep.
Q6) Discuss the leading theories on the biological perspectives on dreaming.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Internal Regulation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Vasopressin increases blood pressure by constricting the blood vessels.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Vasopressin raises blood pressure by ____.
A)causing the blood vessels to dilate
B)constricting the blood vessels
C)increasing the blood's salt concentration
D)decreasing the blood's salt concentration
Q3) How do amphibians and reptiles control their body temperature?
A)by evolving their gene pool
B)by shivering and sweating
C)by changing the reflectivity of their skin
D)by choosing an appropriate area of the environment
Q4) People who are lactose intolerant can consume a little milk,and larger amounts of ____,which are easier to digest.
A)cheese and yogurt
B)meats
C)fruits and vegetables
D)beans
Q5) How does cholecystokinin limit meal size?
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Chapter 10: Reproductive Behaviors
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Sample Questions
Q1) Hormones are capable of inducing long-lasting changes throughout the body.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The hypothalamus of a female who is exposed to testosterone early in life will ____.
A)decrease in size
B)develop a cyclic pattern of hormone release
C)develop more like a typical male hypothalamus (noncyclic)
D)become inactive
Q3) Which of the following depends on an organizing effect of hormones?
A)whether an organism develops as male or female
B)the degree of sexual activity at any time
C)the timing of migration or hibernation
D)current metabolic rate
Q4) Testosterone levels continue to increase throughout a human male's lifetime.
A)True
B)False
Q5) In general,men are more jealous of sexual infidelity than women.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Emotional Behaviors
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is characterized by extreme sympathetic nervous system arousal?
A)locked-in syndrome
B)pure autonomic failure
C)panic attack
D)prosopagnosia
Q2) The amygdala is part of the ____.
A)pyramidal system
B)sympathetic nervous system
C)parasympathetic nervous system
D)limbic system
Q3) Amygdala damage will result in the complete loss of the startle response.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Blood and urine levels of which chemicals are related to a history of violent suicide attempts?
A)high amount of serotonin turnover
B)low amount of serotonin turnover
C)high levels of L-dopa
D)low levels of L-dopa
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Biology of Learning and Memory
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Sample Questions
Q1) As with Korsakoff's patients,Alzheimer's patients have impairments in ____ memory,but are relatively unimpaired in ____ memory.
A)short-term; long-term
B)implicit; explicit
C)procedural; declarative
D)declarative; procedural
Q2) After his surgery,H.M.had the most difficulty with ____.
A)learning new procedural tasks
B)remembering events long before the surgery
C)being able to define new English words
D)IQ tests
Q3) The inability to form memories for events that happened after brain damage is a characteristic of ____ amnesia.
A)retrograde
B)anterograde
C)proactive
D)procedural
Q4) Hippocampal damage impairs spatial memory.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Cognitive Functions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Wernicke's aphasia is to ____ as Broca's aphasia is to ____.
A)parietal lobe; temporal lobe
B)nouns; verbs
C)spoken language; sign language
D)understanding; speaking
Q2) The comprehension of language in people with Broca's aphasia is ____.
A)completely normal
B)poor for nouns, but fine for prepositions and conjunctions
C)similar to that of normal people who are just highly distracted
D)better than average
Q3) the right hemisphere is dominant for recognizing both pleasant and unpleasant emotions in others.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker proposed that humans have a ____.
A)language synthesizer
B)language stimulus apparatus
C)language acquisition device
D)grammatical articulation device
Q5) What is Broca's apahsia and which areas of the brain does it affect?
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Psychological Disorders
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Sample Questions
Q1) The first successful treatment for bipolar disorder,and still the most common one,is lithium salts.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When an adopted child develops schizophrenia,the disease is significantly more probable among the ____.
A)adopting relatives than the biological relatives
B)biological relatives than the adopting relatives
C)siblings than the parents
D)fathers than the mothers
Q3) Studies of the genetics of addiction have implicated the gene that controls COMT,an enzyme that breaks down norepinephrine.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Simply imaging something pleasant is not sufficient to stimulate the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens; the event must actually be experienced.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the differences between antagonists and agonists.
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Chapter 15: Appendix A: Brief, basic Chemistry
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Sample Questions
Q1) Neurons vary enormously in size,shape,and functions.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A cognitive neuroscientist is most likely to ____.
A)conduct behavioral tests to determine the abilities and disabilities of people with various kinds of brain damage
B)study scans of brain anatomy or activity to analyze and explore people's knowledge, thinking, and problem solving
C)relate behaviors to the functions they have served and, therefore, the presumed selective pressures that caused them to evolve
D)identify educational needs of schoolchildren, devise a plan to meet the needs, and then help teachers implement it
Q3) Discuss the four biological explanations of behavior.
Q4) Which field is least likely to focus primarily on research?
A)neuroscience
B)psychophysiology
C)neurochemistry
D)neurology
Q5) Describe the minimalist position on animal research.
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