Cognitive Psychology Book Questions Chapter 2

A specific person's face is represented in the nervous system by the firing of: a) a feature detector that fires specifically to that face. b) a group of neurons that all respond only to that face. c) a group of neurons each responding to a number of different faces. d) a receptor in the retina that responds when the face is present.

C. a group of neurons each responding to a number of different faces.

Josiah is trying to speak to his wife, but his speech is very slow and labored, often with jumbled sentence structure. Josiah may have damage to his: a) Broca's area. b) Parahippocampal place area (PPA) c) Extrastriate body area (EBA) d) Wernicke's area.

a) Broca's area.

Which of the following brain imaging techniques, discovered in 1908, is now a standard technique for detecting tumors and other brain abnormalities? a) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) b) Computed tomography (CT) c) X-ray imaging d) Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

a) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Damage to Wernicke's area is in which lobe of the brain? a) Temporal b) Occipital c) Parietal d) Frontal

a) Temporal

Early studies of brain tissue that used staining techniques and microscopes from the 19th century described the "nerve net." These early understandings were in error in the sense that the nerve net was believed to be: a) continuous. b) composed of discrete individual units. c) composed of cell bodies, axons, and dendrites. d) composed of neurotransmitters rather than neurons.

a) continuous.

Brain imaging has made it possible to: a) determine which areas of the brain are involved in different cognitive processes. b) view individual neurons in the brain. c) show how environmental energy is transformed into neural energy. d) view propagation of action potentials.

a) determine which areas of the brain are involved in different cognitive processes.

A grandmother cell responds: a) only to a specific stimulus. b) to strong positive emotion. c) to both positive and negative emotion. d) to a variety of stimuli.

a) only to a specific stimulus.

A 10-month-old baby is interested in discovering different textures, comparing the touch sensations between a soft blanket and a hard wooden block. Tactile signals such as these are received by the ____ lobe. a) parietal a) occipital b) frontal c) temporal

a) parietal

The occipital lobe is: a) the part of the cerebral cortex where the visual cortex is located. b) important for language, memory, hearing, and vision. c) important for higher functions such as language, thought, and memory, as well as motor functioning. d) where signals are received from the sensory system for touch.

a) the part of the cerebral cortex where the visual cortex is located.

In a procedure called diffusor tensor imaging (DTI), the way in which ____ diffuse(s) along the length of a nerve fiber is measured to determine how different nerves communicate with each other. a) water b) electricity c) neurotransmitters d) sodium ions

a) water

Which of the following procedures can be used to help determine the exact way in which nerve fibers communicate with each other? a) fMRI b) DTI c) PET d) EMG

b) DTI

Sarah has experienced brain damage making it difficult for her to understand spatial layout. Which area of her brain has most likely sustained damage? a) Fusiform face area (FFA) b) Parahippocampal place area (PPA) c) Extrastriate body area (EBA) d) Functional magnetic area (FMA)

b) Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

The idea that specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain is known as: a) localization of function. b) distributed processing. c) modularity. d) aphasia.

b) distributed processing.

The ____ lobe of the cortex receives information from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses, as well as higher cognitive functions such as thinking and problem solving. a) subcortical b) frontal c) occipital d) parietal

b) frontal

Paul Broca's and Carl Wernicke's research provided early evidence for: a) distributed processing. b) localization of function. c) prosopagnosia. d) neural net theory.

b) localization of function.

26) Ramon is looking at pictures of scantily clad women in a magazine. He is focusing on their body parts, particularly their chest and legs. Which part of Ramon's brain is activated by this viewing? a) Fusiform face area (FFA) b) Parahippocampal place area (PPA) c) Extrastriate body area (EBA) d) Functional magnetic area (FMA)

c) Extrastriate body area (EBA)

Which of the following statements is the most accurate with regard to specificity coding? a) It is probably accurate, which explains why the human nervous system contains over one hundred quadrillion neurons. b) Research has found that specificity encoding does occur for lower animals, such as dogs and cats, but has not found this phenomenon to exist in human beings. c) It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each. d) Specificity coding is one of the areas that is only theoretical and not applied, and thus there is no way to know if it truly exists in human beings.

c) It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each.

You are walking down the street and see a really nice car drive by. You notice many features of it: its color, movement, shape, location, and so forth. All of these features are processed: a) in one localized area of the brain. b) by the grandmother cells in the brain. c) in different parts of the brain. d) through fMRI potentials.

c) in different parts of the brain.

Recording from single neurons in the brain has shown that neurons responding to specific types of stimuli are often clustered in specific areas. These results support the idea of: a) cortical association. b) dissociation. c) localization of function d) the information processing approach.

c) localization of function

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected within the nervous system are called ____ . a) synaptic vesicles b) neuronal bridges c) neural networks d) fused conduits

c) neural networks

The fusiform face area (FFA) in the brain is often damaged in patients with: a) Broca's aphasia. b) Wernicke's aphasia. c) prosopagnosia. d) Alzheimer's disease.

c) prosopagnosia.

When conducting an experiment on how stimuli are represented by the firing of neurons, you notice that neurons respond differently to different faces. For example, Arthur's face causes three neurons to fire, with neuron 1 responding the most and neuron 3 responding the least. Roger's face causes three different neurons to fire, with neuron 7 responding the least and neuron 9 responding the most. Your results support ____ coding. a) specificity b) distributed c) sparse d) divergence

c) sparse

Brain-imaging techniques can determine all of the following EXCEPT: a) areas of the brain activated during cognitive tasks. b) localization of brain activity in response to a specific stimulus. c) the structure of individual neurons. d) patterns of blood flow in the brain.

c) the structure of individual neurons.

Which of the following is consistent with the idea of localization of function? a) Specific areas of the brain serve different functions. b) Neurons in different areas of the brain respond best to different stimuli. c) Brain areas are specialized for specific functions. d) All of the above.

d) All of the above.

Which part of the brain is important for touch, pressure, and pain? a) Occipital lobe b) Hippocampus c) Temporal lobe d) Parietal lobe

d) Parietal lobe

When recording from a single neuron, stimulus intensity is represented in a single neuron by the: a) size of the action potentials. b) size of the synapse. c) firing rate of the neurotransmitters. d) firing rate of the action potentials.

d) firing rate of the action potentials.

Hemoglobin molecules in areas of high brain activity: a) gain some of the ferrous molecules they are transporting. b) lose some of the ferrous molecules they are transporting. c) gain some of the oxygen they are transporting. d) lose some of the oxygen they are transporting.

d) lose some of the oxygen they are transporting.

The concept of distributed neural coding proposes that a specific object, like a face, is represented across a number of: a) microelectrodes. b) stimuli. c) modalities. d) neurons.

d) neurons.

If kittens are raised in an environment that contains only verticals, you would predict that most of the neurons in their visual cortex would respond best to the visual presentation of a: a) brick wall. b) chain link fence. c) solid wall. d) picket fence.

d) picket fence.

A synapse is: a) a tube filled with fluid that conducts electrical signals. b) the structure that contains mechanisms to keep a neuron alive. c) the structure that receives electrical signals from other neurons. d) the gap that separates two different neurons.

d) the gap that separates two different neurons.