PSY 654 Exam UPDATED ACTUAL
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
1. In what way can highlight help learning? - CORRECT ANSWER Helps you remember
whatever you highlighted much better
2. Name two limitations of highlighting - CORRECT ANSWER No difference in bettering
performance whether you highlight or not
The things you didn't highlight you remember worse (laser focus on highlighted part)
3. What are diminishing returns of learning in re-reading? - CORRECT ANSWER - On the 4th
or 5th read, you don't end up retaining more information (plateaus); After you keep rereading it, your
brain becomes familiar with it but it just means you recognize it, not that you know or understand it
4. When is re-reading better than testing? When is testing better than re-reading? - CORRECT
ANSWER If your test or quiz would be happening within the next 5 minutes; and if you have
days of time before the test
Describe an experiment that would demonstrate these patterns of results. - CORRECT ANSWER
- Fowler & Barker (1974); gave people scientific articles to read, one group could highlight and
one group could not
- Peterson (1992); gave people history articles to read, then gave them application problems and found
the highlighting group did much worse
- Rothkopf (1968); read 1500-word text, test scores after 0, 1 ,2, and 4 reads - found after 4th time
there are almost no additional gains
- Roediger & Karpicke (2006); read passages - if within 5 mins, rereading is better, but if within days
or several hours, self-testing is better
5. Provide one example of a test/quiz that you would be better off re-reading over and over again as
opposed to testing yourself - CORRECT ANSWER If your test or quiz would be happening
within the next 5 minutes
, 6. What part of the cerebral cortex is involved in creating a mental representation of the space around
you? - CORRECT ANSWER The parietal lobe helps set up 3D representations of the world
around us
7. Discuss the contributions that Santiago Ramon y Cahal and Edgar Adrian made to our
understanding of the structure and function of the brain - CORRECT ANSWER - Santiago
Cahal discovered that when you look at neurons theyre not necessarily directly connected to one
another
- Discovered the precise structure of a brain cell
- Had no desire to be a neuroscientist, but he combined art and medicine to make drawings
- Edgar Adrian discovered methods for measuring electrical signals in the nervous system
- More intensive stimuli do not result in stronger signals, but rather signals that are sent more often
(action potentials)
8. How do neurons code for the intensity of a stimulus? Are action potentials stronger for more
intense stimuli? Are action potentials fired more frequently formore intense stimuli? Both? -
CORRECT ANSWER - All neurons fire at the same rate; if the stimulus is a higher intensity,
the more often that neuron is going to fire
- Action potentials dont get bigger or more powerful, they just go off more often
9. What was the significance of the work done by David Hubel and Thornsten Weisel? What was the
significance of the work done by Charles Gross? - CORRECT ANSWER Hubel and Weisel
worked on "feature detectors"
- Worked on cats; implanted microelectrodes in specific neurons and showed them very specific
stimuli
- Found that neurons in our visual cortex which are very sensitive to lines of different orientations,
curvature, hues of colour only fire for one specific thing, the other nearby neurons that arent
responsible for it will not fire
- Charles Gross worked on "complex stimuli"
- Discovered that one information gets processed in the occipital lobe, it gets passed down to the
temporal lobe (allows us to make meaning of the world around us)
10. What is the difference between specificity coding and population coding? Use facial processing to
make your argument. How does sparse coding build on the idea of population coding? - CORRECT
ANSWER Specificity Coding -- Each neuron is responsible for recognizing a specific face (ex
Oprah neuron); Fires only when that face is seen
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
1. In what way can highlight help learning? - CORRECT ANSWER Helps you remember
whatever you highlighted much better
2. Name two limitations of highlighting - CORRECT ANSWER No difference in bettering
performance whether you highlight or not
The things you didn't highlight you remember worse (laser focus on highlighted part)
3. What are diminishing returns of learning in re-reading? - CORRECT ANSWER - On the 4th
or 5th read, you don't end up retaining more information (plateaus); After you keep rereading it, your
brain becomes familiar with it but it just means you recognize it, not that you know or understand it
4. When is re-reading better than testing? When is testing better than re-reading? - CORRECT
ANSWER If your test or quiz would be happening within the next 5 minutes; and if you have
days of time before the test
Describe an experiment that would demonstrate these patterns of results. - CORRECT ANSWER
- Fowler & Barker (1974); gave people scientific articles to read, one group could highlight and
one group could not
- Peterson (1992); gave people history articles to read, then gave them application problems and found
the highlighting group did much worse
- Rothkopf (1968); read 1500-word text, test scores after 0, 1 ,2, and 4 reads - found after 4th time
there are almost no additional gains
- Roediger & Karpicke (2006); read passages - if within 5 mins, rereading is better, but if within days
or several hours, self-testing is better
5. Provide one example of a test/quiz that you would be better off re-reading over and over again as
opposed to testing yourself - CORRECT ANSWER If your test or quiz would be happening
within the next 5 minutes
, 6. What part of the cerebral cortex is involved in creating a mental representation of the space around
you? - CORRECT ANSWER The parietal lobe helps set up 3D representations of the world
around us
7. Discuss the contributions that Santiago Ramon y Cahal and Edgar Adrian made to our
understanding of the structure and function of the brain - CORRECT ANSWER - Santiago
Cahal discovered that when you look at neurons theyre not necessarily directly connected to one
another
- Discovered the precise structure of a brain cell
- Had no desire to be a neuroscientist, but he combined art and medicine to make drawings
- Edgar Adrian discovered methods for measuring electrical signals in the nervous system
- More intensive stimuli do not result in stronger signals, but rather signals that are sent more often
(action potentials)
8. How do neurons code for the intensity of a stimulus? Are action potentials stronger for more
intense stimuli? Are action potentials fired more frequently formore intense stimuli? Both? -
CORRECT ANSWER - All neurons fire at the same rate; if the stimulus is a higher intensity,
the more often that neuron is going to fire
- Action potentials dont get bigger or more powerful, they just go off more often
9. What was the significance of the work done by David Hubel and Thornsten Weisel? What was the
significance of the work done by Charles Gross? - CORRECT ANSWER Hubel and Weisel
worked on "feature detectors"
- Worked on cats; implanted microelectrodes in specific neurons and showed them very specific
stimuli
- Found that neurons in our visual cortex which are very sensitive to lines of different orientations,
curvature, hues of colour only fire for one specific thing, the other nearby neurons that arent
responsible for it will not fire
- Charles Gross worked on "complex stimuli"
- Discovered that one information gets processed in the occipital lobe, it gets passed down to the
temporal lobe (allows us to make meaning of the world around us)
10. What is the difference between specificity coding and population coding? Use facial processing to
make your argument. How does sparse coding build on the idea of population coding? - CORRECT
ANSWER Specificity Coding -- Each neuron is responsible for recognizing a specific face (ex
Oprah neuron); Fires only when that face is seen
