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Question 1Biological Bases of Behavior

Degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra is the hallmark of which disorder?

  1. Huntington's disease
  2. Myasthenia gravis
  3. Multiple sclerosis
  4. Parkinson's disease Correct answer.

Explanation

The nigrostriatal pathway projects from the substantia nigra pars compacta to the striatum and uses dopamine; loss of these cells produces the tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia of Parkinson's disease. The other disorders involve different cell populations or mechanisms (striatal neurons, myelin, and the neuromuscular junction, respectively).

Question 2Biological Bases of Behavior

The primary visual cortex is located in which cerebral lobe?

  1. Frontal lobe
  2. Occipital lobe Correct answer.
  3. Parietal lobe
  4. Temporal lobe

Explanation

Primary visual cortex (V1) occupies the banks of the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe, receiving input from the lateral geniculate nucleus. The other lobes house auditory and association cortex, somatosensory cortex, and motor cortex, respectively.

Question 3Biological Bases of Behavior

Myelin sheaths speed conduction along an axon chiefly by:

  1. widening the synaptic cleft at the axon terminal
  2. restricting ion exchange to the nodes of Ranvier Correct answer.
  3. raising the threshold of voltage-gated sodium channels
  4. increasing the axon's internal resistance to current flow

Explanation

Myelin insulates the internodal segments, so regenerating action potentials occur only at the unmyelinated nodes of Ranvier; the resulting saltatory conduction is much faster than continuous propagation. The sheath does not change synaptic geometry or channel thresholds.

Question 4Biological Bases of Behavior

Which pattern of bodily changes is most typical of sympathetic nervous system activation?

  1. Increased salivation with lowered blood pressure
  2. Slowed heart rate with increased gastric secretion
  3. Constricted pupils with reduced sweat production
  4. Dilated pupils with increased heart rate Correct answer.

Explanation

Sympathetic activation mobilizes the body for action: pupils dilate, heart rate and blood pressure rise, and digestion is suppressed. The other patterns describe parasympathetic effects or a mixture inconsistent with sympathetic discharge.

Question 5Biological Bases of Behavior

Bilateral removal of the hippocampi in patient H.M. produced a lasting inability to:

  1. recall events from his childhood
  2. acquire new motor skills
  3. form new declarative memories Correct answer.
  4. recognize familiar objects

Explanation

The hippocampus is required for consolidating new declarative (explicit) memories, so bilateral damage yields dense anterograde amnesia. Remote autobiographical memory, procedural skill learning, and object recognition depend on other structures and remain largely intact.

Question 6Biological Bases of Behavior

Damage to the cerebellum most typically produces which sign?

  1. Unsteady gait and limb incoordination Correct answer.
  2. Loss of pain sensation
  3. Resting tremor of the hands
  4. Fluent but meaningless speech

Explanation

The cerebellum coordinates timing and smoothness of movement, so lesions cause ataxia, dysmetria, and intention tremor rather than resting tremor. Sensory loss and fluent empty speech localize to somatosensory pathways and Wernicke's area.

Question 7Biological Bases of Behavior

Melatonin is secreted primarily by which structure?

  1. Adrenal medulla
  2. Anterior pituitary
  3. Pineal gland Correct answer.
  4. Thyroid gland

Explanation

The pineal gland synthesizes melatonin from serotonin, releasing it during darkness under circadian control. The other glands release catecholamines, tropic hormones, and thyroid hormones, respectively.

Question 8Biological Bases of Behavior

The corpus callosum serves mainly to:

  1. connect the two cerebral hemispheres Correct answer.
  2. relay auditory information from the brainstem to the cortex
  3. regulate breathing rhythm and blood pressure
  4. store long-term declarative memories in the temporal lobe

Explanation

The corpus callosum is the largest commissure, carrying excitatory fibers that transfer information between homologous regions of the left and right hemispheres. Sectioning it produces the classic disconnection syndromes seen in split-brain research.

Question 9Biological Bases of Behavior

A patient speaks in short, effortful phrases with poor articulation but reliably follows multi-step commands. This pattern is most consistent with:

  1. Conduction aphasia
  2. Anomic aphasia
  3. Wernicke's aphasia
  4. Broca's aphasia Correct answer.

Explanation

Broca's aphasia is nonfluent with labored, agrammatic output while comprehension stays relatively preserved, reflecting damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus. Fluent, empty speech with poor comprehension would point instead to Wernicke's area.

Question 10Biological Bases of Behavior

In the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol acts on the brain mainly by:

  1. suppressing CRH and ACTH release Correct answer.
  2. increasing pituitary sensitivity to hypothalamic signals
  3. blocking cortisol receptors on hippocampal neurons
  4. stimulating the adrenal cortex to secrete more cortisol

Explanation

Cortisol feeds back negatively on the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary, reducing CRH and ACTH secretion and thereby damping its own production. This closed-loop regulation keeps the stress response from running unchecked.

Question 11Biological Bases of Behavior

Which function is most clearly lateralized to the right cerebral hemisphere in most people?

  1. Spatial judgment and emotional prosody Correct answer.
  2. Producing grammatical sentences
  3. Reading and writing single words
  4. Naming objects on confrontation

Explanation

The right hemisphere typically dominates for visuospatial processing, musical and emotional prosody, and some aspects of attention. Language production, reading, and naming are usually left-hemisphere functions.

Question 12Biological Bases of Behavior

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors relieve depression primarily by:

  1. stimulating serotonin autoreceptors on the presynaptic neuron
  2. blocking reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic terminal Correct answer.
  3. blocking postsynaptic serotonin receptors
  4. inhibiting monoamine oxidase enzymes

Explanation

SSRIs occupy the serotonin transporter, so serotonin stays in the synaptic cleft longer and postsynaptic signaling increases. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors act by a different mechanism, and autoreceptor stimulation would reduce release.

Question 13Biological Bases of Behavior

Huntington's disease is characterized by degeneration of which structure?

  1. Substantia nigra pars compacta
  2. Dorsal columns of the spinal cord
  3. Caudate nucleus and putamen Correct answer.
  4. Mammillary bodies

Explanation

Huntington's disease involves progressive loss of GABAergic medium spiny neurons in the caudate and putamen, producing choreiform movements and cognitive decline. The other structures are linked to Parkinson's disease, Korsakoff's syndrome, and sensory loss, respectively.

Question 14Biological Bases of Behavior

Which sensory modality reaches the cerebral cortex without first synapsing in the thalamus?

  1. Vision
  2. Somatosensation
  3. Audition
  4. Olfaction Correct answer.

Explanation

Olfactory receptor neurons project directly to the olfactory bulb and then to piriform cortex, bypassing the thalamic relay that serves the other senses. Audition, vision, and touch all pass through thalamic nuclei before reaching primary cortex.

Question 15Biological Bases of Behavior

Which brainstem structure is most critical for reflexive control of breathing and heart rate?

  1. Midbrain tectum
  2. Medulla oblongata Correct answer.
  3. Cerebellum
  4. Pons

Explanation

The medulla contains the respiratory rhythm centers and the cardioinhibitory and vasomotor nuclei that sustain autonomic life functions; lesions there are rapidly fatal. The pons modulates breathing, and the cerebellum and tectum serve motor coordination and orienting reflexes.

Question 16Biological Bases of Behavior

Bilateral damage to the amygdala most reliably disrupts:

  1. the ability to form new episodic memories
  2. acquisition of conditioned fear responses Correct answer.
  3. recognition of familiar faces
  4. voluntary control of eye movements

Explanation

The amygdala attaches emotional significance to stimuli and is required for fear conditioning, so lesions block the acquisition of conditioned autonomic fear responses. Episodic memory, eye movement control, and face recognition depend on the hippocampus, frontal eye fields, and fusiform gyrus.

Question 17Biological Bases of Behavior

During the absolute refractory period, a neuron:

  1. conducts potentials in both directions along the axon
  2. fires repeated action potentials of reduced amplitude
  3. fires only to stimuli above the normal threshold
  4. cannot generate another action potential Correct answer.

Explanation

Sodium channel inactivation immediately after a spike makes the membrane temporarily unexcitable no matter how strong the stimulus, which enforces the one-way propagation of the impulse. The relative refractory period, by contrast, permits firing only to supra-threshold stimulation.

Question 18Biological Bases of Behavior

Functional MRI infers neural activity primarily from changes in:

  1. glucose uptake measured with a radioactive tracer
  2. blood oxygenation in active tissue Correct answer.
  3. electrical voltage recorded at the scalp
  4. the magnetic field generated by neural firing

Explanation

fMRI relies on the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal, which reflects local changes in oxygenation and blood flow accompanying neural activity. Scalp voltage, radiotracer glucose metabolism, and neuromagnetic fields describe EEG, PET, and MEG, respectively.

Question 19Biological Bases of Behavior

A patient with normal strength and sensation cannot pantomime brushing his teeth on command, yet performs the action correctly when handed a toothbrush. This is best described as:

  1. Tactile agnosia
  2. Ideomotor apraxia Correct answer.
  3. Hemineglect
  4. Constructional apraxia

Explanation

Ideomotor apraxia is a disorder of the programming of learned skilled movements in which the action can be performed automatically with the real object but not to command. Preserved strength and sensation rule out motor and sensory explanations.

Question 20Biological Bases of Behavior

Hubel and Wiesel's monocular deprivation experiments in kittens demonstrated that:

  1. early visual experience shapes cortical wiring Correct answer.
  2. cortical organization is fixed at birth
  3. visual experience has no effect on cortical wiring
  4. adult brains recover fully from early deprivation

Explanation

Depriving one eye during a sensitive early period caused cortical neurons to lose responsiveness to that eye, showing that sensory experience refines cortical circuitry within a critical period. Deprivation later in life produced far less change.

Question 21Biological Bases of Behavior

Korsakoff's syndrome in chronic alcohol use is most directly caused by:

  1. thiamine deficiency damaging the mammillary bodies Correct answer.
  2. demyelination of the corpus callosum
  3. accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques in the hippocampus
  4. chronic NMDA receptor overactivation in the cortex

Explanation

Alcohol-related thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency damages the mammillary bodies and diencephalic structures, producing profound anterograde amnesia and frequent confabulation. Plaque accumulation and demyelination describe Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.

Question 22Biological Bases of Behavior

Long-term potentiation at hippocampal synapses depends critically on:

  1. AMPA receptor internalization and reduced synaptic efficacy
  2. presynaptic inhibition of glutamate release
  3. calcium entry through unblocked NMDA receptors Correct answer.
  4. GABA-A receptor activation and chloride influx

Explanation

NMDA receptors are blocked by magnesium at rest; sufficient postsynaptic depolarization expels the magnesium, allowing calcium influx that triggers kinase cascades and insertion of new AMPA receptors. This is the cellular model of learning-related synaptic strengthening.

Question 23Biological Bases of Behavior

Left hemispatial neglect is most commonly associated with a lesion in:

  1. the right frontal operculum
  2. the left supplementary motor area
  3. the left occipital lobe
  4. the right posterior parietal cortex Correct answer.

Explanation

The right posterior parietal cortex supports attention to contralateral (left) space, and its damage produces neglect of the left side of space and the body. Because the right hemisphere attends to both sides while the left attends mainly to the right, right-sided lesions cause more severe and persistent neglect.

Question 24Biological Bases of Behavior

Tardive dyskinesia following years of antipsychotic treatment is best explained by:

  1. degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the striatum
  2. excessive serotonin reuptake blockade
  3. upregulation of dopamine D2 receptors after chronic blockade Correct answer.
  4. loss of GABAergic inhibition in the cerebellum

Explanation

Sustained blockade of striatal D2 receptors leads to receptor upregulation and denervation supersensitivity, so involuntary oro-facial and choreiform movements emerge, sometimes worsening when the drug is reduced. Older high-potency agents carry the greatest risk.

Question 25Biological Bases of Behavior

The suprachiasmatic nucleus regulates circadian rhythms by:

  1. releasing cortisol directly into the general circulation
  2. receiving light input and driving melatonin rhythm Correct answer.
  3. generating rhythmic motor output to the skeletal muscles
  4. monitoring blood glucose and triggering hunger

Explanation

The SCN receives photic information from the retina via the retinohypothalamic tract and entrains the body's circadian clock, in part by signaling the pineal gland's melatonin secretion. It is a clock, not an endocrine gland or motor generator.

Question 26Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

According to Miller's classic analysis, short-term memory capacity is approximately:

  1. Seven plus or minus two chunks Correct answer.
  2. Twenty plus or minus five items
  3. Two plus or minus one chunks
  4. Twelve plus or minus three chunks

Explanation

Miller proposed that immediate memory is limited to about seven (plus or minus two) meaningful units, or chunks. Because chunking lets larger amounts of information be coded as single units, the effective span can exceed the raw item count.

Question 27Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A dog has learned to salivate to a tone that was paired with food. The tone is then presented repeatedly without food until salivation ceases. This procedure is called:

  1. Extinction Correct answer.
  2. Higher-order conditioning
  3. Stimulus generalization
  4. Spontaneous recovery

Explanation

Extinction is the decline of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus. The original learning is not erased; responding can return later through spontaneous recovery.

Question 28Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In Piaget's theory, object permanence is first achieved during which stage of development?

  1. Concrete operational
  2. Preoperational
  3. Sensorimotor Correct answer.
  4. Formal operational

Explanation

Object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight, emerges near the end of the sensorimotor stage. It underlies later symbolic and representational achievements.

Question 29Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Broca's area is most closely associated with which function?

  1. Language comprehension
  2. Speech production Correct answer.
  3. Visual word recognition
  4. Affective prosody

Explanation

Broca's area, in the left inferior frontal region, supports the motor and grammatical programming of articulate speech. Damage produces nonfluent output with relatively preserved comprehension.

Question 30Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Which theory holds that bodily arousal comes first and the emotional experience is the perception of that bodily change?

  1. James-Lange theory Correct answer.
  2. Cognitive appraisal theory
  3. Schachter-Singer theory
  4. Cannon-Bard theory

Explanation

The James-Lange view states that a stimulus produces visceral and skeletal changes, and the perception of those changes is the emotion itself. This stands in contrast to theories that give cognition or the thalamus a larger role.

Question 31Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Negative reinforcement is best described as:

  1. Removal of an aversive stimulus Correct answer.
  2. Presentation of a primary reinforcer
  3. Withholding of expected reward
  4. Delivery of an aversive consequence

Explanation

Reinforcement is defined by its effect on behavior: it increases responding. Negative reinforcement increases behavior by terminating or preventing an aversive condition, as in escape and avoidance learning.

Question 32Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

The cocktail party effect most directly demonstrates:

  1. Effortless performance under divided attention
  2. Automatic encoding of spatial location
  3. Selective attention to salient input Correct answer.
  4. Graded degradation of unattended messages

Explanation

Hearing one's own name in an unattended channel shows that selection is not total exclusion; salient personal information can break through. The phenomenon is evidence for selective attention with some semantic monitoring of ignored input.

Question 33Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In a free-recall list-learning task, the primacy effect is generally attributed to:

  1. Maintenance rehearsal in working memory
  2. Recency of the final list items
  3. Long-term storage of early list items Correct answer.
  4. Distinctiveness of middle list items

Explanation

Early list items receive more rehearsal, allowing transfer to long-term memory, which produces the primacy advantage. Recency reflects items still held in working memory at test.

Question 34Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A student studies for an examination after drinking coffee and performs best when also caffeinated at test time. This pattern is best explained by:

  1. State-dependent retrieval Correct answer.
  2. Retroactive interference effects
  3. The levels-of-processing view
  4. The spacing effect

Explanation

State-dependent retrieval refers to better memory when the internal state at retrieval matches the state at encoding. Caffeine produces such an internal state, so congruent states at study and test aid recall.

Question 35Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

After extensive news coverage of airplane crashes, a traveler becomes convinced that flying is far more dangerous than driving. This judgment most clearly reflects:

  1. Anchoring and adjustment
  2. The representativeness heuristic
  3. Base-rate neglect in probability revision
  4. The availability heuristic Correct answer.

Explanation

The availability heuristic judges frequency or probability by how easily examples come to mind. Vivid, heavily publicized crashes are easy to retrieve and therefore inflate perceived risk.

Question 36Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

After choosing between two equally attractive apartments, a person rates the chosen apartment as more attractive than before. This outcome is best accounted for by:

  1. Statistical regression to the mean
  2. Social facilitation of evaluation
  3. Post-decision dissonance reduction Correct answer.
  4. The mere exposure effect

Explanation

Choosing between attractive alternatives creates dissonance, which is reduced by enhancing the chosen option and devaluing the rejected one (spreading of alternatives). This restores consistency between the choice and the evaluation.

Question 37Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In Baddeley's working memory model, the component that holds and rehearses verbal material in a sound-based code is the:

  1. Phonological loop Correct answer.
  2. Central executive
  3. Visuospatial sketchpad
  4. Episodic buffer

Explanation

The phonological loop stores speech-based information briefly and refreshes it through subvocal rehearsal. Its operation explains phonological similarity and word-length effects.

Question 38Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A person cannot see that a box of matches could be used to prop up a shelf because matches are 'for lighting.' This illustrates:

  1. Functional fixedness Correct answer.
  2. Convergent thinking habits
  3. A perseverative mental set
  4. A negative transfer effect

Explanation

Functional fixedness is the tendency to represent an object only in terms of its customary use, which blocks novel uses in problem solving. It is typically demonstrated with tasks such as Duncker's candle problem.

Question 39Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In Tversky and Kahneman's framing studies, describing a program in terms of lives saved rather than lives lost typically leads people to:

  1. Disregard how the outcomes are framed
  2. Prefer the certain option under both frames
  3. Prefer the risky option when outcomes are framed as gains
  4. Prefer the certain option when outcomes are framed as gains Correct answer.

Explanation

Choices are evaluated from a reference point, so gains typically produce risk aversion while equivalent losses produce risk seeking. Logically identical descriptions therefore yield different preferences, the framing effect.

Question 40Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A man who is aroused after climbing stairs enters an argument and interprets his pounding heart as intense anger. This interpretation is most consistent with:

  1. Two-factor theory Correct answer.
  2. Facial feedback hypothesis
  3. Cannon-Bard theory
  4. James-Lange theory

Explanation

The two-factor theory holds that emotion requires both undifferentiated physiological arousal and a cognitive label supplied by the situation. Residual arousal from exercise is misattributed to the social situation.

Question 41Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A clinician attributes a client's chronic lateness to the client's careless personality while overlooking the city's unreliable traffic. This judgment best illustrates:

  1. Fundamental attribution error Correct answer.
  2. Belief in a just world
  3. Illusory correlation
  4. Self-serving bias

Explanation

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining other people's behavior. The clinician focuses on character and ignores a situational constraint.

Question 42Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A young child says 'I goed' and 'foots.' These productions most clearly indicate:

  1. A failure of fast mapping
  2. Overgeneralization of grammatical rules Correct answer.
  3. Telegraphic speech
  4. A phonological disorder

Explanation

Applying the regular past-tense and plural rules to irregular forms shows that the child has extracted a rule rather than simply imitating adult speech. Such overregularizations typically disappear as the irregular forms are learned.

Question 43Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Participants who judge whether words fit into a sentence later remember those words better than participants who judge whether the words are printed in capitals. This result supports:

  1. The levels-of-processing framework Correct answer.
  2. The transfer-appropriate processing view
  3. The encoding specificity principle
  4. The modal model's rehearsal account

Explanation

Semantic decisions require deeper, more elaborative processing than judgments about physical appearance, and deeper processing yields better retention. This is the central claim of the levels-of-processing framework.

Question 44Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A door continues to look rectangular even though its image on the retina is trapezoidal. This best illustrates:

  1. Retinal disparity
  2. Shape constancy Correct answer.
  3. Perceptual set
  4. Motion parallax

Explanation

Shape constancy is the tendency to perceive an object's true shape despite changes in its retinal projection. The visual system uses depth and orientation cues to compensate for the slant.

Question 45Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, performance on a difficult and complex task is optimal at:

  1. A fixed, unchanging level of arousal
  2. Moderate to high levels of arousal
  3. Very high levels of arousal
  4. Low to moderate levels of arousal Correct answer.

Explanation

The Yerkes-Dodson principle describes an inverted-U relation between arousal and performance, with the optimum shifting lower as task difficulty increases. Complex tasks therefore suffer when arousal is high.

Question 46Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

In a blocking experiment, a stimulus trained in compound with an already predictive stimulus later elicits little conditioned responding. This result is best explained by:

  1. Stimulus substitution theory
  2. Contiguity-based accounts of conditioning
  3. Rescorla-Wagner prediction-error learning Correct answer.
  4. Preparedness theory

Explanation

The Rescorla-Wagner model holds that a cue gains associative strength only when the outcome is surprising, that is, when there is a prediction error. Because the added cue is redundant with a reliable predictor, no error remains and it acquires little strength.

Question 47Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

A screening test has good sensitivity, but the disorder is rare in the population being screened, so many positive results are false positives. A clinician who ignores the prevalence and treats a positive result as strong evidence of disorder is engaging in:

  1. Regression to the mean
  2. Illusory correlation
  3. Base-rate neglect Correct answer.
  4. Anchoring and adjustment

Explanation

When prevalence is low, even a sensitive test yields a low positive predictive value, so the prior probability must be incorporated. Ignoring that prior in favor of the test result is base-rate neglect.

Question 48Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

People generally overestimate how long their distress after events such as a job loss will last. This error is known as:

  1. Mere exposure effect
  2. Negativity bias
  3. Emotional contagion
  4. Impact bias Correct answer.

Explanation

Impact bias is the tendency in affective forecasting to overestimate the intensity and duration of future emotional reactions. It reflects neglect of the psychological processes, such as sense-making and adaptation, that speed recovery.

Question 49Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Patient H.M. could learn new motor skills without remembering the training sessions. This dissociation indicates that:

  1. Declarative memory is spared after such surgery
  2. Working memory depends on the hippocampus
  3. Implicit memory is the more fragile form
  4. Procedural learning can occur without declarative memory Correct answer.

Explanation

Bilateral medial temporal lobe damage produced severe anterograde amnesia for facts and events while skill learning and priming remained intact. This double dissociation established that procedural and declarative memory depend on different systems.

Question 50Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior

Naming the ink color of a printed color word is slower than naming the ink color of a neutral word. This interference is best explained by:

  1. Failure of color constancy under conflict
  2. Greater perceptual difficulty of printed color words
  3. Automatic word reading competing with color naming Correct answer.
  4. A strict capacity limit within the phonological loop

Explanation

Reading is highly practiced and obligatory, so the word's meaning is activated automatically and conflicts with the intended color-naming response. The Stroop effect therefore indexes automaticity and response conflict.