Cognitive Psychology- Ch. 2 Practice Questions

What is the metabolic center of an individual neuron?

Cell body

Why is it easier to study brain tissue from newborn animals than brain tissue from adults?

The density of cells in a newborn brain is small compared with the density in an adult brain.

Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as

neural circuits.

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected within the nervous system are called__________.

neural networks

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.

parietal

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

picket fence.

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.

sparse

When the axon is at rest, the inside of the neuron has a charge that is 70 millivolts more negative than the outside. This difference will continue as long as

the neuron is at rest.

Edgar Adrian studied the relationship between nerve firing and sensory experience by measuring how the firing of a neuron from a receptor in the skin changed as he applied more pressure to the skin. He found that

the rate of nerve firing increased as he increased the pressure.

Which of the following statements best describes how neurons communicate with one another?

A chemical process takes place in the synapse.

Which of the following is consistent with the idea of localization of function?

All of these are correct.

In which of the following body parts are neurons NOT present?

Arteries

Which part of a neuron transmits signals to other neurons?

Axons

Which parts of neurons are also known as a "nerve fiber"?

Axons

Ramon is looking at photos of athletes in a sports magazine. He is focusing on their body parts, particularly their chest and legs. Which part of Ramon's brain is activated by this viewing?

Extrastriate body area (EBA)

In the mid-20th century, the study of the mind began using which technique or model inspired by digital computers?

Information processing model

What is a key difference between dendrites and axons?

One sends information and the other receives information.

Sarah has experienced brain damage making it difficult for her to understand spatial layout. Which area of her brain has most likely sustained damage?

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Which part of the nervous system picks up information from the outside environment?

Receptors

Action potentials occur in the

axon

Your author points out that studying the mind requires both __________ and __________experiments.

behavioral; physiological

The key structural components of neurons are the

cell body, dendrites, and axons.

The study of the physiological basis of cognition is known as

cognitive neuroscience.

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

continuous

Brain imaging has made it possible to

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

Neurons that respond to specific qualities of objects, such as orientation, movement, and length, are called

feature detectors.

When recording from a single neuron, stimulus intensity is represented by the

firing rate of the action potentials.

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.

frontal

You are walking down the street and see a nice car drive by. You notice its color, movement, and shape. All of these features are processed

in different parts of the brain.

Barbara has recently been diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Her oncologist wants to determine the best treatment method to eliminate the tumors. Her gastroenterologist is focused on relieving her symptoms and restoring normal digestive functioning. Barbara's psychologist works to help minimize her anxiety and keep her spirits up. The fact that these doctors are considering Barbara's situation with different goals and from different perspectives is similar to the idea of __________ presented in your textbook.

levels of analysis

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

localization of function.

The fusiform face area (FFA) in the brain is often damaged in patients with

prosopagnosia.

If the intensity of a stimulus that is presented to a touch receptor is increased, this tends to increase the __________ in the receptor's axon.

rate of nerve firing

The value that stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron is known as

resting potential.