Example Multiple Choice Questions for
PS51006A
Biological & Comparative Approaches to
Psychology
(½ cu) (TWO HOURS)
Below you will find 10 fairly basic example multiple choice questions to get you started.
These questions are taken from Gleitman et al (1999). Psychology - Study Guide. Norton.
The multiple choice questions in the final exam will follow that same format as shown below
(i.e., a choice must be made out of five alternatives). There will be a total of 100 questions in
the two-hour examination. The questions below relate to chapters 2 and 10 in Gleitman et al
(1999). The questions in the exam will be based both on the essential stipulated reading and
the lecture material.
1. Which of the following statements is not true of the limbic system?
a) it is a subcortical structure
b) it is present on both sides of the brain
c) it is involved in the control of emotional and motivational activities
d) it integrates the functions of the cerebral hemispheres
2. A person exhibiting an inability to coordinate the separate details of
the visual world into a whole suffers from:
a) visual agnosia
b) receptive aphasia
c) a lesion in Broca's area
d) a lesion in Wernicke's area
3. A right-handed person has lost the entire projection area of his left
occipital cortex, as shown below, but is otherwise normal. Which of
the following defects would you expect?
Front
Right
Left
Back
a) Loss of the right side of his visual field
b) Loss of the left side of his visual field
c) Inability to produce speech despite the ability to understand it
d) Inability to understand speech despite the ability to produce it
-1-
4. When graphed over time, the complex electrical event known as the
action potential looks something like this:
100
Voltage in
millivolts
100
Voltage in
millivolts
50
50
0
0
-50
-50
-100
-100
Time in milliseconds
Time in milliseconds
A
Voltage in
millivolts
200
B
Voltage in
millivolts
150
0
-50
100
100
50
-150
0
-200
Time in milliseconds
Time in milliseconds
C
D
5. Both excitory neurotransmitters and above-threshold depolarization
of axons:
a) open ion channels
b) produce synaptic delay
c) explain temporal summation
d) all of the above
6. The lock-and-key model accounts for:
a) the existence of neurotransmitters
b) the summation of excitation and inhibition in postsynaptic neurons
c) the fact that specific neurotransmitters stimulate specific postsyntaptic
neurons
d) the release of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles
-2-
7.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Hormones and neurotransmitters are both:
secreted only by endocrine glands
secreted into the bloodstream
chemical messengers
all of the above
8. According to the kin selection hypothesis:
a) Animals are more likely to choose closely related rather than unrelated
animals as mates.
b) Altruistic behaviour should be more likely among relatives than among
unrelated individuals.
c) Reciprocal altruism is observed only between closely related individuals.
d) None of the above.
9. The Darwinian principle of natural selection implies that:
a) Social behaviour cannot be subject to evolution because it is not inherited
b) Social and altruistic behaviour may evolve only if it serves to increase the
frequencies of the genes of the animal showing this behaviour
c) In the struggle to survive and reproduce, human beings are self-centred
and solitary creatures restrained only by the constraints imposed by society
d) Coupled with principles of ethology and genetics, social and altruistic
behaviour will evolve as long as there is appropriate display or
communication
10. Features of the human infant, such as the smile, cries, upturned
nose, and chubby cheeks, are:
a) The stimuli through which we learn to recognise specific children
b) Releasers of parental behaviour
c) The vehicles for the establishment of basic trust
d) Instances of distress displays
Answers will be provided in the tutorial on multiple choice questions in week 7
of the Spring Term. See the section on Tutorial Topics and Recommended
Reading for more details.
-3-