AP Psych Unit 3

Which brain area is primarily involved with controlling speech?

Broca's area

Natural selection acts

Population

According to opinion polls, how do scientists and nonscientists react differently to the idea of evolution?

There is widespread consensus among scientists that evolution is scientific fact, but half of U.S. adults do not believe in evolution.

Transferring messages from a motor neuron to a leg muscle requires the neurotransmitter known as

acetylcholine

The most extensive regions of the cerebral cortex, which enable learning and memory, are called the

association areas

The association areas are located in the

cerebral cortex

In transmitting sensory information to the brain, to the brain, an electrical signal travels from the __________ of a single neuron.

dendrites to the cell body to the axon

Which cognitive neuroscience term reflects the idea that "much of our everyday thinking, feeling, and acting operates outside our conscious awareness"?

dual processing

After a car swerved in front of you on the highway, you notice that your heart is still racing, even through you are no longer in danger. Why do the physical symptoms of fear linger even after we cognitively realize the danger has passed?

endocrine messages tend to outlast the effect of neural messages

The ovaries and females and the test in males are part of the

endocrine system

José has just played a long, bruising football game but feels little fatigue or discomfort. His lack of pain is most likely caused by the release of

endorphins

In creating more effective treatments for pain, researchers would use which of the following techniques for identifying regions of the brain that handle pain?

functional MRI (fMRI)

The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes are called

genes

Adopted children are more likely to demonstrate levels of agreeableness and extraversion, more similar to that of their biological parents then their adoptive parents. This finding suggests that personality traits are more strongly influenced by

genes than by the environment

Evolutionary psychologist would be most likely to attribute gender differences in attitudes towards sex to the fact that men have __________ than do women.

greater reproductive potential

Twin studies suggest that Alzheimer's disease is influenced by

heredity

Olds and Milner located reward centers in the brain structure known as the

hypothalamus

The brain structure that provides a major link between the nervous system and the endocrine system is the

hypothalamus

Critics of evolutionary psychology are most likely to suggest that it underestimates the

impact of cultural expectations on human sexual behavior

The localization of a function such as speech production to the right or left side of the brain is called

lateralization

Evolutionary psychologist have suggested that men are __________ likely than women to prefer mates with a fertile-looking appearance and __________ likely than women to prefer mates with wealth and social status.

more; less

The reproductive advantage enjoyed by organisms best suited to a specific environment is known as

natural selection

Because Marla is the first girl and her fourth grade class to sexually mature, she is sometimes tease and rejected by her classmates. Marla's sense of social isolation and embarrassment results from the interaction of

nature and nurture

Dendrites are branching extensions of

neurons

Our adaptive flexibility in responding to different environments contributes to our fitness, which refers to

our ability to survive and reproduce

The somatic nervous system is a component of the ___________ nervous system.

peripheral

A behavior geneticist would be most interested in studying hereditary influences on

personality traits

The nineteenth-century theory that bumps on the skull reveal a person's abilities and traits is called

phrenology

The goal of constraint-induced therapy is to

rewire damaged brains by forcing patients to use a nonfunctioning limb

As you are reading this, the cells in your eyes are firing in response to the light coming from this paper. Which type of neuron is carrying this message to the brain?

sensory

Which part of your brain receives information that you are moving your legs?

sensory cortex

The spatial junctions where impulses are chemically transmitted from one neuron to another are called

synapses

Which brain structure receives information from all the senses except smell?

thalamus

Which brain structure relays information from the eyes to the visual cortex?

thalamus

Your ability to experience physical sensations is most likely to be disrupted by damage to your

thalamus

An axon is

the extension of a neuron that carries messages away from the cell body

Researchers use dichotic listening tasks to investigate relight-left differences in an intact brain. In this task a different verbal stimulus is presented simultaneously to each ear. Findings suggest that participants more quickly recall information heard by the right ear. This suggests that

the left hemisphere is dominant in language processing

A picture of a dog is briefly flashed in the left visual field of a split-brain patient. At the same time a picture of a boy is flashed in the right visual field. In identifying what she saw the patient would be most likely to

verbally report that she saw a boy

Sheelah was able to jerk her hand out of the scalding water before sensing any pain because this withdrawal reflex

was activated by interneurons in her spinal cord