Question: Lashley’s observation that any part of a functional area of the brain could perform the function associated with that area was called:

Answer Choices:

A. mass action
B. fractionation
C. equipotentiality
D. psychobiology

Answer: C – equipotentiality

 

Question: Lashley’s search for the engram:

Answer Choices:

A. ended with the identification of the loci of memory and learning
B. was unsuccessful

Answer: B – was unsuccessful

 

Question: Which of the following did Hebb accomplish?

Answer Choices:

A. He characterized equipotentiality.
B. He identified the existence of instinctual drift in many species.
C. He linked the reticular activating system with cognitive and behavioral performance.
D. He conducted research on hemispheric specialization with split-brain patients.

Answer: C – He linked the reticular activating system with cognitive and behavioral performance.

 

Question: Roger Sperry and his colleagues discovered that information could be transferred from one cerebral hemisphere to the other via the:

Answer Choices:

A. corpus callosum and optic chiasm
B. corpus callosum and amygdala
C. hippocampus and optic chiasm
D. hippocampus and optic amygdala

Answer: A – corpus callosum and optic chiasm

 

Question: Using the split-brain preparation, Sperry and his colleagues speculated that:

Answer Choices:

A. the functions performed by the two cerebral hemispheres were the same
B. there was hemispheric specialization in nonhuman animals but not in humans
C. the functions performed by the two cerebral hemispheres were slightly different
D. the functions performed by the two cerebral hemispheres were dramatically different

Answer: D – the functions performed by the two cerebral hemispheres were dramatically different

 

Question: ____ focuses on a specific category of an animal’s behavior in its natural habitat and attempts to explain that behavior in terms of evolutionary theory.

Answer Choices:

A. Ethology
B. Radical behaviorism
C. Cognitive science
D. Methodological behaviorism

Answer: A – Ethology

 

Question: Sociobiology attempts to explain complex social behavior in terms of ____ theory.

Answer Choices:

A. learning
B. psychoanalytic
C. cognitive
D. evolutionary

Answer: D – evolutionary

 

Question: According to the sociobiologists, the social behavior of any individual is determined by:

Answer Choices:

A. inherited dispositions (biology) only
B. culture only
C. both inherited dispositions (biology) and culture
D. neither inherited dispositions (biology) nor culture

Answer: C – both inherited dispositions (biology) and culture

 

Question: Barash wrote the book, The Whisperings Within. “Whisperings” refers to what?

Answer Choices:

A. a hard-wired set of behaviors
B. environmentally controlled behaviors
C. predispositions to act in certain ways
D. complex human social behaviors

Answer: C – predispositions to act in certain ways

 

Question: The term sociobiology is often used interchangeably with the term:

Answer Choices:

A. connectionism
B. behavioral genetics
C. evolutionary psychology
D. ethology

Answer: C – evolutionary psychology

 

Question: According to Buss, the sociobiological fallacy refers to:

Answer Choices:

A. the contention that we merely live to pass copies of our genes into the next generation
B. the idea that behaviors were selected in our evolutionary past because they solved problems
C. the application of Darwinian principles to human social behavior
D. a behavioral tendency now exists because it contributed to the survival of a species

Answer: A – the contention that we merely live to pass copies of our genes into the next generation

 

Question: According to Seligman, ____ determines how easily an animal will learn.

Answer Choices:

A. the animal’s evolutionary history
B. the environment in which the animal is placed
C. the animal’s level of intelligence
D. the type of behavior the animal is learning

Answer: A – the animal’s evolutionary history

 

Question: According to Bouchard, any similarities in intelligence or personality between twins separated at birth must be due to:

Answer Choices:

A. culture and biological influences
B. genetic influences
C. learning
D. nurture

Answer: B – genetic influences

 

Question: What indicates how much of the variation among measures (e.g., test scores) is attributed to genetic influences?

Answer Choices:

A. Nurture
B. Heritability
C. The preparedness continuum
D. The correlation coefficient (r)

Answer: B – Heritability

 

Question: Bouchard estimated the heritability of intelligence to be about:

Answer Choices:

A. .10
B. .50
C. .70
D. 1.00

Answer: C – .70

 

Question: Bouchard and his colleagues found that the most important determinant of a person’s religious interests, attitudes, and values is:

Answer Choices:

A. degree of education
B. socioeconomic status
C. genetics
D. early childhood experience

Answer: C – genetics

 

Question: Behavioral geneticists tend toward ____ because they believe that at least some thought processes or behavior patterns are strongly influenced by heredity.

Answer Choices:

A. empiricism
B. nativism
C. dualism
D. sensationalism

Answer: B – nativism