Neurobiology and CommunicationHomework Questions

SECTION A (multiple choice)1. Which of the following statements is correct?

A The somatic nervous system controls mainly involuntary actions using sensory nerves.

B The somatic nervous system controls mainly voluntary actions using sympathetic nerves.

C The autonomic nervous system controls some involuntary actions using parasympathetic nerves.

D The autonomic nervous system controls some voluntary actions using motor nerves.

2. The somatic nervous system controls the

A skeletal muscles B heart and blood vesselsC pituitary gland D muscular wall of the gut.

3. The diagram shows the main parts of the brain as seen in vertical section.

Which line in the table correctly identifies the functions of two areas of the brain?

Communication between hemispheres ReasoningA W XB X YC W YD Z W

4. Which of the following parts of the brain is important in transferring information between the two cerebral hemispheres?

A Hypothalamus B Corpus callosumC Cerebellum D Medulla

5. Which two parts of the brain form the central core?

A Medulla and cerebellumB Medulla and limbic systemC Cerebral cortex and medullaD Cerebral cortex and cerebellum

6. Which area of the brain processes information for memories?

A Corpus callosum B CerebellumC Limbic system D Cerebral cortex

7. The diagram below shows a test on a man who had a damaged corpus callosum which no longer functioned.

Some functions of each hemisphere are listed below.Left cerebral hemisphere Right cerebral hemisphere

Processes information from the right eye

Processes information from the left eye

Controls language production Controls spatial tasks co-ordination

The man was asked to look straight ahead and then the words ‘snow’ and ‘ball’ were flashed briefly on the screen as shown. What would the man say he had seen?

A Ball B SnowC Snowball D Nothing

8. The transformation of information into a form that memory can accept is called

A Shaping B RetrievalC Encoding D Storage

9. The diagram below illustrates the relationship between short and long term memory.

Which arrow represents the process of rehearsal?

10. The graph below shows the time taken by a student to complete a finger maze, over a number of trials, and the number of errors at each trial.

Which of the following statements is correct?

A The fastest time to complete the maze correctly is 4 seconds.B The time taken at trial 5 is 20 seconds.C When the number of errors is 10, the time taken is 25 seconds.D The number of errors decreased with each subsequent trial.

11. Which of the following shows the direction of a nerve impulse in a neurone?

A Axon cell body dendriteB Cell body dendrite axonC Cell body axon dendriteD Dendrite cell body axon

12. The following list describes the events involved in production of, and action of a neurotransmitter.

1. Diffusion across synapse 2. Enzymatic degradation

3. Secretion from vesicles 4. Binding to receptors 5. Protein synthesis.

Which sequence places these events in the correct order?

A 5 3 1 2 4 B 3 5 2 1 4C 3 5 4 1 2 D 5 3 1 4 2

13. The following diagram represents four neurones in a neural pathway.

Which line in the table describes the pathway correctly?

Type of pathwayA motor divergentB motor convergentC sensory divergentD sensory convergent

14. Which of the following statements about diverging neural pathways is correct?

A They accelerate the transmission of sensory impulses.B They suppress the transmission of sensory impulses.C They decrease the degree of fine motor control.D They increase the degree of fine motor control.

15. Which of the following statements about the action of recreational drugs on brain neurochemistry is correct?

A Desensitisation results from an increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptors due to the use of drugs that are agonists.

B Desensitisation results from an increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptors due to the use of drugs that are antagonists.

C Sensitisation results from an increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptors due to the use of drugs that are agonists.

D Sensitisation results from an increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptors due to the use of drugs that are antagonists.

16. The diagram below shows the ages (in months) at which children reach

various stages in their development. The left end of each bar indicates the age

by which 25% of the infants have reached the stated performance. The right

end of each bar indicates the age by which 90% of the infants have reached the

stated performance. The vertical bar indicates the age by which 50% of the

infants have reached the stated performance.

An eight month old infant can walk with support but cannot stand alone. In what percentage of the population is this child found?

A Less than 25% B Between 25% and 50%C Around 50% D Between 50% and 90%

17. The diagram below shows the ages in months at which children are able to

walk unaided. The left end of each bar indicates the age by which 25% of the

infants can walk unaided. The right end of each bar indicates the age by which

90% of the infants can walk unaided. The vertical bar indicates the age by which 50% of the infants can walk unaided.

If sixteen infants, aged twelve months, were tested, how many would be expected to walk unaided?

A 4 B 7 C 9 D 12

18. The following is a list of body parts.

1 tongue 2 eyebrows 3 hands 4 eyes

Which of these body parts can be used in non-verbal communication?

A 3 only B 2 and 4 onlyC 2, 3 and 4 only D 1, 2, 3, and 4

19. Identical twins are valuable in the study of behaviour because

A genetic an environmental factors can be discountedB maturation and environmental factors can be discountedC genetic factors can be discountedD genetic, maturation and environmental factors can be discounted.

20. The rewarding patterns of behaviour which approximate to the desired behaviour is called

A generalisation B discriminationC extinction D shaping.

21. Which of the following best describes shaping behaviour?

A improves performance in competitive situationsB approximates to the desired behaviourC results in the learning of motor skillsD results in deindividuation taking place.

22. Which of the following terms describes the process by which a person learns to distinguish between different but related stimuli?

A Generalisation B ImitationB Discrimination D Identification

23. The behavioural term generalisation is defined correctly as the ability to

A make appropriate different responses to different but related stimuliB make the same appropriate response to different but related stimuliC submerge one’s personal identity in the anonymity of a groupD improve performance in competitive situations.

24. The graph shows the results of a survey carried out on members of an athletic club who ran an 800m course under different conditions.

What is the percentage improvement in the time taken to run 800m between those athletes training on their own and those training with others?

A 40% B 25% C 24% D 20%

25. A young person does not smoke because she has seen an advertising campaign showing pictures of famous sports stars who do not smoke. This is an example of a behaviour called

A identification B discriminationC generalisation D deindividuation.

26. An athlete has a much better chance of achieving a personal best time in a race rather than in training because of

A internalisation B deindividuationC identification D social facilitation.

27. Which of the following describes the change in an individual’s behaviour where the presence of others causes the individual to show less restraint and become more impulsive?

A social facilitation B shapingC generalisation D deindividuation.

SECTION B1. The diagram shows a vertical section through a human brain.

a. State the function of the motor area of the left cerebral hemisphere.

(1)b. What is the function of the corpus callosum? (1)c. Which division of the nervous system is linked to the medulla?

(1)d. Describe how this division of the nervous system controls heart rate.

(1)

2. Here are two ways of classifying the nervous system.

a. Identify A, B, C, and D. (2)b. Describe one function of the somatic nervous system.

(1)c. The brain contains two cerebral hemispheres. Name the structure

that links these two hemispheres.(1)

3. Some nerve connections between the brain and parts of the body are shown below.

a. Identify the part labelled X. (1)b. Sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are often described as

antagonistic to one another. Explain the meaning of antagonistic.(1)c. Describe the effect of sympathetic stimulation on the heart, sweat

glands, and small intestine. (2)

4. The diagram shows some parts of the human brain in vertical section.

a. Copy and complete the table below.(3)

b. Find out how structure T, the hypothalamus, influences structure S,

the pituitary gland.(1)

c. State one regulatory function of the hypothalamus.(1)

d. Name the process which the brain uses to make sense of incoming sensory information and explain how this process leads to the recognition of objects. (2)

5. A classic optical illusion is shown below.

a. By which process will the brain analyse and make sense of the image? (1)

b. How does segregation of objects help? (1)c. What is the most important feature in recognition of objects?

(1)

6. The diagram below represents the passage of information through memory.

a. Process Z is encoding. What are processes X and Y? (2)b. Suggest two forms of information that can enter short-term

memory. (1)c. Describe how contextual cues help recall from long-term memory.

(1)d. Your SQA candidate number has 9 digits. Explain how chunking

could help you memorise the number.(1)

7. Give an account of memory under the following headings; (i) Transfer from short-term to long-term memory; (6)(ii) Retrieval from long-term memory.

(2)

8. An investigation was carried out into the effects of organisation on improving the recall of information.

a. Calculate the missing averages for each student group.(1)

b. In what way would the control cards be(i) Similar to;(ii) Different from the experimental cards. (1)

c. Suggest two variables, not already mentioned, which would have to be kept constant to ensure that a valid comparison can be made between the two groups.

(2)d. State a conclusion that can be drawn from the results.

(1)

e. How could the reliability of the investigation be improved? (1)f. In a further investigation, students were given the same card to

memorise on three successive occasions. Predict the effect of this on number of words recalled. Explain your prediction.

(1)

9. The diagram shows a section through part of the central nervous system.

a. Copy and complete the table below. (3)

b. Choose one option from the highlighted pairs to complete the following sentences.

The parasympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic / somatic nervous system which originates in the medulla / cerebellum. Parasympathetic nerves slow down / speed up heart rate. (1)

c. What structural features of motor and sensory neurones speeds up the transmission of nerve impulses?

(1)

10. The diagram shows a motor neurone and its junction with skeletal muscle tissue.

a. Name parts A, B, and C.

(2)b. State the importance of the myelin sheath in the transmission of

nerve impulses. (1)c. Name the cells that produce the myelin sheath. (1)

11. Here are two different neural pathways.

a. Name the pathways A and B. (1)b. Explain how pathway A helps the hand to function.

(2)

12. The diagram shows a synapse between two nerve cells in the brain and a magnified view of a receptor called NMDA.

a. Describe how the neurotransmitter in the vesicle reaches cell Y. (2)b. The diagram is of a single neural pathway. Explain how a converging

neural pathway would be more likely to generate an impulse in cell Y. (2)

c. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter. Name a condition resulting from loss of acetylcholine producing cells in the brain.

(1)d. Describe the role of the neurotransmitters dopamine and

endorphins. (2)

13. The diagram shows a synapse which links a nerve cell with the sino-atrial node (SAN) in the heart.

a. Where in the heart is the SAN located? (1)b. Describe the function of molecule is X? (1)c. How is the neurotransmitter acetylcholine removed from the

synapse? (1)d. In which area of the brain does the sympathetic nervous system

originate? (1)e. Describe a situation that would stimulate the sympathetic nervous

system. (1)

14. Give an account of the function of a synapse under the following headings;(i) Release of neurotransmitter; (2)(ii) Action of neurotransmitter;

(3)(iii) Removal of neurotransmitter.

(4).

15. An investigation was carried out to find out how an infant’s play was affected by the presence of an adult. The infant was tested at three-month intervals using the following procedure.

a. At what ages does the departure of any adult have the greatest and least effect on the length of play time?

(1)b. When the child was 21 months old, what was the total increase in

playing time, over the 5 minute period, when the stranger left the room? (1)

c. Compare the effect of the departure of the mother with the departure of the father. Suggest a reason for this.

(2)

d. Compare the effect of the departure of the stranger with the departure of the parents. Suggest reasons for this.

(3)e. How could the reliability of the investigation be improved? (1)

16. An investigation was carried out into the influence of adults on the behaviour of young children.

a. Which adult/child combination resulted in least aggression? (1)b. Calculate the percentage increase in aggressive acts committed by

boys when they observe an aggressive man rather than a non-aggressive man. (1)

c. State a conclusion that can be drawn from the results regarding the gender of the aggressive adult.

(1)d. What form of learning were the children using? (1)e. Suggest a control that could have also been used in this

investigation. (1)

17. In terms of communication describe the significance of;(i) Use of language; (3)(ii) Non-verbal communication and its various forms. (3)

18. A student carried out an investigation into how age affects learning ability.

a. Calculate the average fastest time for 12 year old children.(1)

b. Describe two variables that would need to be kept constant to ensure a valid comparison between the three groups of children. (2)

c. What conclusion can be drawn from the results of this investigation. (1)

d. Regardless of age, the first attempt to complete the puzzle was always slower that the fifth attempt. Suggest why? (1)

e. Suggest why some children did not produce their fastest time on their fifth attempt. (1)

f. Most children completed the puzzle faster if other children were in the room competing with them. What is this effect called? (1)

19. Discuss how other people can influence an individual’s behaviour under the following headings; (i) The influence of groups; (6)(ii) Influences that change beliefs. (4)

20. . An investigation was carried out into the effect that the meaning of words has on the ability to recall them from short and long-term memory.

a. List two ways in which the investigators could limit variation between the two groups of people.

(1)b. What aspect of memory explains the high percentage scores

immediately after reading the words?(1)

c. Suggest why the groups were asked to read a book during the investigation. (1)

d. State two conclusions that can be drawn from the results. (2)