PSY 121 MSU Exam 2 Cathey

Chemical substances in the body that regulate bodily activities such as growth, metabolism, and sexual reproduction are called ____________.

hormones

The endocrine system consists of many glands that release hormones for different functions. Which gland is considered the master gland that communicates with all the other glands?

Pituitary gland

Javier has been complaining of being fatigued, cold, and depressed lately. His doctor decides to run some tests on his endocrine system. What condition might the doctor test for given his symptoms?

Hypothyroidism

Tomas has been playing the piano since age 5. Throughout his adolescence, he also taught himself to play guitar, bass, and the drums. Due to his practice with musical instruments, Tomas's brain would show improved ________.

synaptic plasticity

A doctor wants detailed pictures of the structures in a patient's brain but doesn't want to expose the patient to any radiation. What would be the best method of assessment for the doctor to use?

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Samson is a client in a sleep lab and is going to have his brain wave activity measured while sleeping. He will have electrodes placed all over his skull so that the test can measure his brain activity. This type of test is called ______.

electroencephalogram (EEG)

What part of the brain allows us to detect danger even below the level of conscious awareness?

Amygdala

The cerebral cortex is divided into ___________ lobes with the ____________ lobe at the back of the head.

four; occipital

Sophie has entered her first spelling bee. In addition to studying from a long list of words, she spends time planning how to psyche out her competitors on the big day. Which lobe of her brain would she primarily be using during these activities?

Frontal

Which structure in the limbic system is responsible for voluntary movement and coordination?

Basal ganglia

Andre suffered brain damage from an accident at work. Since his accident, he seems to be unaware of his own body parts and at times unable to feel pain. Which lobe of his brain is likely to have incurred damage?

Parietal

Yuna loves to play soccer and is an aggressive player who will head the ball as often as she can. Her parents have noticed that she has been forgetting to turn in assignments and forgetting when she is supposed to hang out with friends. They are concerned because ________________.

recent research has suggested that heading the ball can lead to memory problems.

What is the name for the band of axons that connects the right hemisphere of the brain to the left hemisphere?

Corpus callosum

For most people, language is processed in which hemisphere of the brain?

Left

Jaselyn has a pair of heterozygous genes for a "widow's peak" hairline. What kind of hairline will she inherit?

A widow's peak hairline

The complete set of instructions for our physical and psychological characteristics is called our _______________.

genome

Twin sisters Leah and Lily know they have the genetics for heart disease. Both sisters like to exercise, but Lily also has a high-stress job and only sleeps four hours a night. Leah is a yoga instructor and eats a mostly vegetarian diet. The field of epigenetics would suggest

the environment has the ability to change gene expression, so both women can change their risk of developing heart disease.

A person's genetic makeup is referred to as ___________, whereas the observable traits that are expressed from genes is referred to as ___________.

genotype; phenotype

Grady was adopted shortly after birth into a loving home. Neither of his adopted parents drank alcohol or did any drugs. Throughout his adolescence and into adulthood, Grady struggled with substance abuse. He eventually found out that his biological mother was an alcoholic for her entire life. What does this scenario suggest?

There is likely a strong genetic explanation for Grady's substance abuse.

The cell body that contains the nucleus, which includes DNA and other structures that support the neuron, is called the ___________.

soma

The structures that extend out from the axon and release chemicals into the space between neurons are called ___________.

terminal buttons

The neuron that secretes neurotransmitters into the synapse is called the _________, and the neuron that receives the signal is called the ________.

presynaptic neuron; postsynaptic neuron

At its resting state, the inside of a neuron is more ______________ than the outside.

negatively charged

An action potential occurs when: the inside of the cell becomes ____________ and reaches its threshold, which causes a(n) ______________ reaction.

depolarized; electrical

An action potential becomes a(n) ______________ event once the _______________ is/are released into the synapse.

chemical; neurotransmitter

Muhammad Ali had trouble controlling his motor movements in the last decades of his life. He had tremors in his muscles, which made it difficult for him to walk and talk. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which means he had low levels of which neurotransmitter?

Dopamine

An antagonist can be described as a:

chemical that blocks the effects of a substance or neurotransmitter.

A study with London taxi cab drivers found that the hippocampus of their brains had greater volume, which was presumed to mean more neural connections, as a result of learning and driving new routes around the city. This finding demonstrates the concept of _________________.

synaptic plasticity

Chen has felt depressed for the last six months and is on an antidepressant. He still struggles with depressed mood and difficulty with his memory. His psychologist suggested getting more ______ because that may increase the volume of the _______ in his brain.

exercise; hippocampus

Sensory neurons carry information ________________ the central nervous system, and motor neurons carry information ______________ the central nervous system.

toward; away from

As Makelah does squats and lunges to warm her body up to play basketball, she realizes she is using which part of her peripheral nervous system?

Somatic nervous system

Which structure is considered part of the endocrine system and the nervous system?

Hypothalamus

Sayla has had to monitor her blood sugar levels since she was a child to make sure she doesn't get sick. Although she would like to be able to eat sweets, she understands she can't because her ______ does not produce enough _________.

pancreas; insulin

Epinephrine and norepinephrine are secreted by the adrenal glands and are both _____________ when used in the nervous system and _________ when used in the endocrine system.

neurotransmitters; hormones

Keisha was brought to the ER with a bump on her head. The doctor ordered a test that consists of a series of x-rays from many different perspectives that will display a two-dimensional image of her brain. This test is called ___________.

computed tomography (CT)

This type of brain scan provides a functional assessment of the brain.

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Brett was up to bat and the pitcher threw a wild pitch hitting Brett in the back of the head. Luckily, Brett's batting helmet covered his neck protecting his ______________, which controls breathing and heartbeat.

medulla

The only lobes of the brain that touch all other lobes are the __________ lobes.

parietal

We hear with our ears, but which lobe of our brain is used to understand language?

Temporal lobe

Which structure of the limbic system is considered the center of our emotions?

Amygdala

Phineas Gage became a famous case study demonstrating how damage to the ________________ can lead to significant personality changes.

prefrontal cortex

Rayna considers herself to be a creative person. She creates sculptures out of recycled materials and loves to paint. She also seems to be skilled at reading people's emotional expressions. Which hemisphere of Rayna's brain would be the most active in these situations?

Right hemisphere

Ava has had her corpus callosum severed and is referred to as a "split brain patient." When her doctor presents an apple in her left visual field she claims she doesn't see anything. Why is this?

The left visual field is processed by the right side of the brain, which is not associated with language.

Ricky has blue eyes. Both of his parents have brown eyes. How is this possible?

His parents both had recessive genes for blue eyes.

The results of the Human Genome Project concluded that the human genome has approximately _________________ genes.

20,000

The study of how the external environment can influence and change gene functions is called ____________.

epigenetics

Behavioral geneticists use twin and adoption studies to examine the role of genetics. In general, adopted individuals have traits that _______________________.

resemble their biological parents

Which of the following is a good example of a physiological illusion?

Afterimages

Strong bright lights will cause sensory neurons to ______ fire while dim low lights will cause sensory neurons to ___________ fire.

rapidly; slowly

Which part of the ear carries the message to the brain?

Auditory nerve

What is the function of the outer ear?

To funnel sound waves to the ear drum

The interpretation of raw stimuli from our senses into meaningful information is called ____________.

perception

Leander was really hungry before being interviewed about his study habits. Researchers whispered "taco truck" several times during his interview although he didn't hear the words. He was then given the opportunity to eat food from a taco truck or from the cafeteria. Leander would most likely choose the taco truck. He was subjected to what researchers call ____________.

subliminal priming

Weber's law states that detectable differences between stimuli involve the ______ difference between them.

percentage

According to the visual cliff experiment, when can most humans judge depth?

By the time they can crawl

List the three layers of cells in the correct order that transmit neural signals from the retina to the optic nerve.

Rods and cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells

Helmut is at a crowded park walking his dog. He is looking for a friend and finally sees his friend's face among the crowd. He is using his ______________ neurons to detect faces.

feature detector

Mixing objects (such as paint) is referred to as _____________ color mixing; whereas, mixing colors of light is called ___________ color mixing.

subtractive; additive

You are attending a lecture with your friend but can't quite hear what the presenter is saying. Once your friend tells you the title of the lecture is "Psychology in Oscar-Winning Movies," you are able to understand much more of what was being said. This is an example of ____________.

top-down processing

The ______ is the colored muscle of the eye that dilates and constricts according to the amount of light.

iris

Kendra likes to listen to soft music while studying. Each time her roommate Layla comes in, Layla turns the music up by one. Kendra doesn't always notice the change, but she does notice it more than 50 percent of the time. This is an example of __________.

just noticeable difference

The place theory of hearing explains _________; the frequency theory explains ____________; and the volley principle explains _____________.

high frequencies; low frequencies; low and moderate frequencies

Marcus loves to listen to music, podcasts, and radio talk shows. He usually falls asleep while listening to something on the Internet and has his earphones in almost 5-6 hours a day. He has noticed lately that he seems to be asking his wife to repeat what she said several times before he can hear it. What type of hearing loss may Marcus be experiencing?

Sensorineural hearing loss

Where are the olfactory receptor sites located?

At the top of the nasal cavity

Anita has a severe reaction to chili peppers—they actually cause her pain—and she finds kale and broccoli too bitter to eat, while oranges are too sweet. Anita may have many more taste buds than the average person, which would make her a ____________.

supertaster

Preterm infants have been found to thrive when their sense of _________ is stimulated by their mother.

touch

Which sense originates in the inner ear and can cause you to lose your balance when you have an ear infection?

Vestibular sense

Which theory of color vision states that we have three special receptor cells to process color that work in an opposing manner?

Opponent process theory

The __________ is comprised of multilayered tissue at the back of the eye and is responsible for visual transduction.

retina

Stephan convinced his friend Derek that if he played a Beatles song backward, he would hear it whispering, "Worship Satan." Derek tried it and did hear the words "Worship Satan." Derek's perception of these words was probably influenced by __________.

perceptual set

What concept explains how a person can perceive lines in a diagram, even though distinct lines are not actually part of the diagram?

Illusory contour

What does the term Gestalt mean for psychological purposes?

naturally grouping

When a person is shown a series of disconnected curved lines in a circular pattern, the brain will interpret it as a circle. Which Gestalt principle is this example illustrating?

closure

Most perception involves which type of processing?

both

Humans receive images on their retinas from two slightly different angles. This binocular cue is referred to as ___________.

retinal disparity

Research has determined that our brain is capable of sensing stimuli without conscious awareness of that stimuli. This is called ____________.

subliminal perception

Why has the Müller-Lyer Illusion intrigued psychological researchers for years?

There are reliable cultural differences in perception of the illusion, but no consensus regarding why the differences exist.