Question 1

In general, one would be more likely to develop an intense fear of __________.

Accepted Answer

Snakes are a common phobia as they are often associated with danger and venomous species can be deadly. Pencils, running shoes, and frying pans are not typically associated with fear or danger.

Question 2

The amygdala receives sensory input from the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.

Accepted Answer

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure in the brain that is involved in processing emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. It receives sensory input from both the thalamus (which relays sensory information from the body to the brain) and the cerebral cortex (which is involved in conscious thought and perception).

Question 3

Your psychology professor asks you to remember where you were when you found out about 9/11 and you easily remember many details of this event. This is an example of a ____________.

Accepted Answer

Flashbulb memory is a type of memory that is strongly linked to emotional and significant events, such as traumatic or surprising events. The memory is so vivid that it appears to be captured in a "flashbulb" and is often recalled with great detail and clarity, even years later. The event of 9/11 is considered to be a prime example of a flashbulb memory for many people.

Question 4

David could not recognize his brother's face after the accident but he did not suffer from amnesia. This specific disorder is called ________.

Accepted Answer

David's inability to recognize his brother's face after the accident even though he did not suffer from amnesia suggests that he might have developed prosopagnosia, a specific disorder that affects a person's ability to recognize faces. Flashbulb memory refers to vivid and emotionally significant memories of a specific event, contextual fear is a type of learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a negative or fearful outcome, and phobia is an excessive and irrational fear of an object or situation. None of these options match the symptoms described in the scenario.

Question 5

Rats were first trained to associate a light with the presence of water then they were placed in a new chamber where they were shaped to press a lever. If a light is paired with the left-hand lever they should press that more often than the right because of the protocol of _______________.

Accepted Answer

Second-order conditioning occurs when a conditioned stimulus is paired with a new stimulus, leading to the new stimulus also becoming a conditioned stimulus. In this scenario, the rats were first conditioned to associate a light with water (first-order conditioning). Then, the light (now a conditioned stimulus from the first phase) is paired with pressing a specific lever, making the act of pressing the lever when the light is on a conditioned response, which is an example of second-order conditioning.

Question 6

The cingulate cortex projects to the mamillary bodies.

Accepted Answer

The cingulate cortex does not directly project to the mamillary bodies; instead, it is part of the limbic system and is involved in emotional processing and regulation. The mamillary bodies receive projections primarily from the hippocampus via the fornix.

Question 7

Which of the following is not a protocol for conditioning positive emotion in animals?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following is not a...

Question 8

Most of the time when a person fears snakes they also fear spiders or something similar in size.

Accepted Answer

Fear of snakes and fear of spiders (arachnophobia) are distinct phobias. While some individuals may experience both, it is not a rule that one fear automatically implies the other. Phobias can vary greatly from person to person.

Question 9

Denise has a fear of heights although she has never fallen from something high. Her fear is called a ___________.

Accepted Answer

A phobia is an intense and irrational fear of a particular object, situation or activity. Denise's fear of heights fits this description since it is intense and irrational, despite never having experienced a fall from a high place. The other options (A, B, and C) do not describe her fear accurately. Flashbulb memory refers to our ability to recall vividly and with great detail certain emotionally charged events. Contextual fear refers to a fear that is learned based on a particular context, such as a fear of dogs after being bitten by one. Cued fear is similar to contextual fear, but it is tied to a specific cue or trigger rather than a bigger context.

Question 10

Fear conditioning is one of the most thoroughly studied examples of emotional memory.

Accepted Answer

Fear conditioning has been extensively studied and is considered a classical model for studying emotional memory.

Question 11

The recall for a flashbulb memory is detailed because it is like taking a picture of the event in your head.

Accepted Answer

Flashbulb memories are vivid and detailed recollections of significant events, but research shows that they are not always accurate and can be prone to distortion over time, unlike a perfect photographic capture.

Question 12

After reading a list of nonsense words, subjects had a preference for those words that __________.

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as the mere exposure effect, where people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In this context, words that appeared more often in the list become more familiar, and thus, subjects had a preference for those words.

Question 13

Subjects in a study were exposed to shapes for a brief time. Although they did not remember seeing anything but light flashes, they preferred the shapes they were briefly exposed to. What do these results suggest about memory?

Accepted Answer

The fact that subjects preferred the shapes they were briefly exposed to suggests that even brief exposure can leave a memory trace.

Question 14

The Papez circuit explains the main emotional pathway in which the hypothalamus is the central brain structure

Accepted Answer

The Papez circuit indeed involves emotion processing, but it identifies the limbic system, with structures such as the hippocampus, anterior thalamic nuclei, cingulate gyrus, and mammillary bodies of the hypothalamus, rather than the hypothalamus alone as the central structure.

Question 15

In the conditioned place preference task, the rat will spend more time in the arm that was previously associated with food.

Accepted Answer

In the conditioned place preference task, the rat is trained to associate a specific arm or compartment with a particular reward, such as food or drugs. After conditioning, the rat will spend more time in the arm that was previously associated with the reward, indicating a preference for that environment.

Question 16

According to Zajonc and his colleagues, what kind of words do most people prefer?

Accepted Answer

According to Zajonc and his colleagues, most people prefer words that are more common. This is known as the mere exposure effect, where repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to increased liking or preference for that stimulus.

Question 17

Fear can be conditioned easily in rats through _________.

Accepted Answer

Fear can be conditioned easily in rats through classical conditioning, which involves pairing a neutral stimulus (such as a sound) with an aversive stimulus (such as a shock or loud noise), resulting in the neutral stimulus becoming associated with fear. Operant conditioning involves learning through consequences of behavior, while systematic desensitization is a form of therapy for reducing anxiety that involves gradually exposing a person to feared stimuli. Systematic conditioning is not a recognized term in psychology.

Question 18

The reptilian brain includes lower brain stem parts of the brain.

Accepted Answer

The reptilian brain includes the lower brain stem of the brain, which is responsible for basic survival functions such as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.

Question 19

When an animal is relaxed their startle reflex is smaller than if they were anxious.

Accepted Answer

When an animal is relaxed, their nervous system is in a calm state that is less sensitive to stimuli. As a result, their startle reflex is smaller compared to when they are anxious and their nervous system is in an alert state.

Question 20

Klüver-Bucy syndrome was the result of the removal of the hippocampus in monkeys.

Accepted Answer

Klüver-Bucy syndrome was primarily the result of bilateral removal of the temporal lobes, including the amygdala, not just the hippocampus, in monkeys.

Quiz 7: Emotional Learning and Memory