PSYC 205 Test Bank Exam Questions
with Correct Answers
3. The waggle dance of bees contains information about the distance and direction
of a food location. Distance information is conveyed through the
a) Angle of the dance to the vertical
b) Rapidity of the 'waggle' of the dance
c) Number of times the dance is completed
d) Lengthofthe'run'ofthedance - Answer-d
2. Human language has the property of recursion. This relates to the fact that:
a) We can embed clauses within clauses.
b) We consider the mental states of listeners.
c) We can talk about objects or events that occurred in the past.
d) We intend to provide information to others. - Answer-a
1. The term that characterizes a communication system in which an unpalatable
species has coloration, odors, or warning sounds that signal their danger to potential
predators is
a) Batesian mimicry
b) Aposematism
c) Audience effect
d) Kinesis - Answer-b
Which of the following statements is the most inaccurate?
a) In rats, maternal responses to a pup's distress calls have been shown to indicate
that the mother attributes distress/anxiety to the pup.
b) The interaction between rat pup distress calls and maternal responses has been
considered as a model for separation anxiety in human infants.
c) Rat pup distress calls may be a vocal byproduct of compression of the abdomen
due to cold exposure.
d) After hearing a pup's distress call, a rat mother's response functions to reduce the
pup's distress by retrieving the pup and bringing it back to the nest. - Answer-a
9. Johnson et al. (2010) repeatedly showed human infants the following animated
scene until they habituated: a small circle and a large circle were separated on a
hillside at which time the small circle emitted a cry. Infants then watched two test
events, one in which the larger circle approached the smaller circle, and one in which
the larger circle moved away from the smaller circle. Which behavior best describes
the looking behavior of infants in the test trials?
a) Securely attached infants looked longer when the large circle approached the
smaller circle.
b) Insecurely attached infants looked longer when the large circle moved away from
the smaller circle.
c) Insecurely attached infants looked longer when the large circle approached the
smaller circle.
d) Securely attached infants looked equally at both test events. - Answer-c
,Which of the following statements about oxytocin is incorrect?
a) In rats, oxytocin is related to nest building behaviors
b) Variants in the genes coding for the oxytocin receptor may correspond to
differences in sharing behavior in humans.
c) Oxytocin is a neurohormone.
d) In humans, oxytocin is a factor only in kin-directed prosocial behavior. - Answer-d
7. The risk of cheaters increases when the group size increases, particularly if the
outcome of the cooperation is publicly available in the sense that individuals who did
not take part in the cooperative activities can access the benefits. This concept is
typically referred to as
a) Inequity Aversion
b) The tragedy of the commons
c) Inequality aversion
d) Group hunting - Answer-b
6. In research with nonhuman primates, which term refers to feelings of concern for
others stemming from understanding their feelings?
a) Consolation
b) Empathy
c) Sympathy
d) Emotional contagion - Answer-c
5. Which of the following is incorrect, given research to date?
a) Punishment for not sharing in a fair manner is found in both humans and
chimpanzees.
b) In capuchin monkeys, inequity aversion is, at best, limited to situations of
unfairness to oneself
c) For chimpanzees, there is no evidence of sharing in experiments using the
dictator game.
d) In the wild, there is ample observation of food sharing among relatives in
cooperatively breeding species. - Answer-a
4. Which of the following statement is most accurate?
a) Among primates, only humans and callitrichid species have thus far been
observed to engage in proactive food sharing
b) Across the nonhuman animal species tested, chimpanzees show the most
frequent sharing of food with kin
c) Among primates, only humans and callitrichid species have thus far been
observed to engage in passive food sharing
d) Among primates, only humans have thus far been observed to engage in
proactive food sharing. - Answer-a
3. In the laboratory, you test 18-month-old human children and young chimpanzees
in a similar task: you 'accidently' drop an object and then reach for it. You observe
and record the actions of the children and chimpanzees for up to 10 seconds after
you reach for the object. Given the results of Warneken and Tomasello (2006), you
will likely observe that
a) Chimpanzees, but not young children, pick up the object and give it to you
b) Only the young children will pick up the object and give it to you
,c) At this age, both chimpanzees and children will keep the dropped object
for themselves
d) Boththechimpanzeesandchildrenwilltypicallypickuptheobject and give it to you -
Answer-d
2. Of the following, the best way to characterize mutualism is:
a) Help those who are related to you.
b) YouscratchmybackwhileIscratchyourback.
c) Pay back helpful acts over delays.
d) Help those who have helped others in the past. - Answer-b
1. Hamilton's mathematical formulation for inclusive fitness takes into account
a) Only direct fitness
b) Only one's own offspring
c) Indirect and direct fitness
d) Reproductive fitness and reproductive success - Answer-c
10. From the chapter on social competence, what cognitive mechanism(s) might
underlie the ability to recognize dominance structures?
a) formation of equivalence classes
b) a memory system that allows for chunking
c) a memory system that allows for reciprocity and ordinality
d) formationofequivalenceclassesandamemorysystemthatallows
for chunking - Answer-d
Which of the following is an example of redirected aggression?
a) After threatening Monkey B, Monkey A shows aggression toward his own kin.
b) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B threatens a relative of Monkey A.
c) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B shows aggression toward Monkey
A
d) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B turns his back and engages in
eating behavior. - Answer-b
8. You test two groups of western scrub jays. In Group 1, the jays had to cache food
in private, without any other jays watching. In Group 2, the jays were able to cache
food in the presence of other jays that were dominant to them. Then, jays from both
groups are given access to the cached food while no other birds are present. Given
the results of Dally et al. (2006), what do you expect to observe?
a) The jays in Group 2 will move the cached food to new locations more so than the
jays in Group 1.
b) The jays in Group 1 will move the cached food to new locations more so than the
jays in Group 2.
c) The jays in Group 1 will engage in more species-specific mobbing behavior than
the jays in Group 2.
d) The jays in Group 2 will engage in more species-specific mobbing behavior than
the jays in Group 1. - Answer-a
7. Neurons in the premotor cortex that fire when monkeys reach for and grasp
objects, and also fire when the monkey observes another monkey doing the same
action, are called.
, a) Medial prefrontal neurons
b) Temporal parietal junction neurons
c) Mirror neurons
d) Mimicry neurons - Answer-c
6. Chimpanzees in Group A see the following scenario: an experimenter looks at the
chimpanzee, picks up a grape, places it near the chimpanzee, but the grape
unexpectedly rolls out of reach of chimpanzee. Chimpanzees in Group B see a
different set of events: an experimenter looks at the chimpanzee, picks up a grape
and places it far away from the chimpanzee participant. Given the results of Call et
al. (2004), what behavior do you expect to observe?
a) Chimpanzees in both groups become agitated with the experimenter and leave
the testing room because the grape could not be eaten.
b) Chimpanzees in Group B, but not Group A, become agitated with the
experimenter and leave the testing room because for Group B, the experimenter was
unwilling to give the grape.
c) Chimpanzees in Group B, but not Group A, become agitated with the
experimenter and leave the testing room because of an underlying inequity bias.
d) Chimpanzees - Answer-b
5. Tina, a five-year-old human child, is shown a Cheerios box and then shown that it
contains marbles. If asked what her friend, Timothy, will think upon seeing the box
for the first time, Tina will most likely say that Timothy will think it contains:
a) Cheerios
b) marbles c) pencils d) beads - Answer-a
4. Which of the following observations of behavior does not consider the mental
states that might underlie the behavior?
a) She ordered chocolate ice cream instead of strawberry because she did not like
fruit-flavored desserts.
b) The child carried the cup to the table, placed it gently on the placemat, and smiled
while thinking, "I didn't spill! I'm a big boy!"
c) She ordered chocolate ice cream because she did not know that strawberry was
available.
d) The child carried the cup to the table, placed it gently on the placemat, and said, "I
didn't spill! I'm a big boy!" - Answer-d
3. In the 1970s, Gallup had certain assumptions and conclusions regarding mirror
self recognition. These included all of the following except:
a) only apes and humans show self recognition
b) self recognition is related to Theory of Mind
c) recognizing oneself in a mirror implies a concept of self
d) mirrorneuronsunderliemirrorself-recognition - Answer-d
2. Pascalis and colleagues found that 6- and 9-month-old human infants
distinguished among photographs of different human faces, but only the younger age
group could also distinguish among a set of monkey faces. This type of
developmental process is often referred to as:
a) Speciesism
b) Conspecific focusing
with Correct Answers
3. The waggle dance of bees contains information about the distance and direction
of a food location. Distance information is conveyed through the
a) Angle of the dance to the vertical
b) Rapidity of the 'waggle' of the dance
c) Number of times the dance is completed
d) Lengthofthe'run'ofthedance - Answer-d
2. Human language has the property of recursion. This relates to the fact that:
a) We can embed clauses within clauses.
b) We consider the mental states of listeners.
c) We can talk about objects or events that occurred in the past.
d) We intend to provide information to others. - Answer-a
1. The term that characterizes a communication system in which an unpalatable
species has coloration, odors, or warning sounds that signal their danger to potential
predators is
a) Batesian mimicry
b) Aposematism
c) Audience effect
d) Kinesis - Answer-b
Which of the following statements is the most inaccurate?
a) In rats, maternal responses to a pup's distress calls have been shown to indicate
that the mother attributes distress/anxiety to the pup.
b) The interaction between rat pup distress calls and maternal responses has been
considered as a model for separation anxiety in human infants.
c) Rat pup distress calls may be a vocal byproduct of compression of the abdomen
due to cold exposure.
d) After hearing a pup's distress call, a rat mother's response functions to reduce the
pup's distress by retrieving the pup and bringing it back to the nest. - Answer-a
9. Johnson et al. (2010) repeatedly showed human infants the following animated
scene until they habituated: a small circle and a large circle were separated on a
hillside at which time the small circle emitted a cry. Infants then watched two test
events, one in which the larger circle approached the smaller circle, and one in which
the larger circle moved away from the smaller circle. Which behavior best describes
the looking behavior of infants in the test trials?
a) Securely attached infants looked longer when the large circle approached the
smaller circle.
b) Insecurely attached infants looked longer when the large circle moved away from
the smaller circle.
c) Insecurely attached infants looked longer when the large circle approached the
smaller circle.
d) Securely attached infants looked equally at both test events. - Answer-c
,Which of the following statements about oxytocin is incorrect?
a) In rats, oxytocin is related to nest building behaviors
b) Variants in the genes coding for the oxytocin receptor may correspond to
differences in sharing behavior in humans.
c) Oxytocin is a neurohormone.
d) In humans, oxytocin is a factor only in kin-directed prosocial behavior. - Answer-d
7. The risk of cheaters increases when the group size increases, particularly if the
outcome of the cooperation is publicly available in the sense that individuals who did
not take part in the cooperative activities can access the benefits. This concept is
typically referred to as
a) Inequity Aversion
b) The tragedy of the commons
c) Inequality aversion
d) Group hunting - Answer-b
6. In research with nonhuman primates, which term refers to feelings of concern for
others stemming from understanding their feelings?
a) Consolation
b) Empathy
c) Sympathy
d) Emotional contagion - Answer-c
5. Which of the following is incorrect, given research to date?
a) Punishment for not sharing in a fair manner is found in both humans and
chimpanzees.
b) In capuchin monkeys, inequity aversion is, at best, limited to situations of
unfairness to oneself
c) For chimpanzees, there is no evidence of sharing in experiments using the
dictator game.
d) In the wild, there is ample observation of food sharing among relatives in
cooperatively breeding species. - Answer-a
4. Which of the following statement is most accurate?
a) Among primates, only humans and callitrichid species have thus far been
observed to engage in proactive food sharing
b) Across the nonhuman animal species tested, chimpanzees show the most
frequent sharing of food with kin
c) Among primates, only humans and callitrichid species have thus far been
observed to engage in passive food sharing
d) Among primates, only humans have thus far been observed to engage in
proactive food sharing. - Answer-a
3. In the laboratory, you test 18-month-old human children and young chimpanzees
in a similar task: you 'accidently' drop an object and then reach for it. You observe
and record the actions of the children and chimpanzees for up to 10 seconds after
you reach for the object. Given the results of Warneken and Tomasello (2006), you
will likely observe that
a) Chimpanzees, but not young children, pick up the object and give it to you
b) Only the young children will pick up the object and give it to you
,c) At this age, both chimpanzees and children will keep the dropped object
for themselves
d) Boththechimpanzeesandchildrenwilltypicallypickuptheobject and give it to you -
Answer-d
2. Of the following, the best way to characterize mutualism is:
a) Help those who are related to you.
b) YouscratchmybackwhileIscratchyourback.
c) Pay back helpful acts over delays.
d) Help those who have helped others in the past. - Answer-b
1. Hamilton's mathematical formulation for inclusive fitness takes into account
a) Only direct fitness
b) Only one's own offspring
c) Indirect and direct fitness
d) Reproductive fitness and reproductive success - Answer-c
10. From the chapter on social competence, what cognitive mechanism(s) might
underlie the ability to recognize dominance structures?
a) formation of equivalence classes
b) a memory system that allows for chunking
c) a memory system that allows for reciprocity and ordinality
d) formationofequivalenceclassesandamemorysystemthatallows
for chunking - Answer-d
Which of the following is an example of redirected aggression?
a) After threatening Monkey B, Monkey A shows aggression toward his own kin.
b) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B threatens a relative of Monkey A.
c) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B shows aggression toward Monkey
A
d) After being threatened by Monkey A, Monkey B turns his back and engages in
eating behavior. - Answer-b
8. You test two groups of western scrub jays. In Group 1, the jays had to cache food
in private, without any other jays watching. In Group 2, the jays were able to cache
food in the presence of other jays that were dominant to them. Then, jays from both
groups are given access to the cached food while no other birds are present. Given
the results of Dally et al. (2006), what do you expect to observe?
a) The jays in Group 2 will move the cached food to new locations more so than the
jays in Group 1.
b) The jays in Group 1 will move the cached food to new locations more so than the
jays in Group 2.
c) The jays in Group 1 will engage in more species-specific mobbing behavior than
the jays in Group 2.
d) The jays in Group 2 will engage in more species-specific mobbing behavior than
the jays in Group 1. - Answer-a
7. Neurons in the premotor cortex that fire when monkeys reach for and grasp
objects, and also fire when the monkey observes another monkey doing the same
action, are called.
, a) Medial prefrontal neurons
b) Temporal parietal junction neurons
c) Mirror neurons
d) Mimicry neurons - Answer-c
6. Chimpanzees in Group A see the following scenario: an experimenter looks at the
chimpanzee, picks up a grape, places it near the chimpanzee, but the grape
unexpectedly rolls out of reach of chimpanzee. Chimpanzees in Group B see a
different set of events: an experimenter looks at the chimpanzee, picks up a grape
and places it far away from the chimpanzee participant. Given the results of Call et
al. (2004), what behavior do you expect to observe?
a) Chimpanzees in both groups become agitated with the experimenter and leave
the testing room because the grape could not be eaten.
b) Chimpanzees in Group B, but not Group A, become agitated with the
experimenter and leave the testing room because for Group B, the experimenter was
unwilling to give the grape.
c) Chimpanzees in Group B, but not Group A, become agitated with the
experimenter and leave the testing room because of an underlying inequity bias.
d) Chimpanzees - Answer-b
5. Tina, a five-year-old human child, is shown a Cheerios box and then shown that it
contains marbles. If asked what her friend, Timothy, will think upon seeing the box
for the first time, Tina will most likely say that Timothy will think it contains:
a) Cheerios
b) marbles c) pencils d) beads - Answer-a
4. Which of the following observations of behavior does not consider the mental
states that might underlie the behavior?
a) She ordered chocolate ice cream instead of strawberry because she did not like
fruit-flavored desserts.
b) The child carried the cup to the table, placed it gently on the placemat, and smiled
while thinking, "I didn't spill! I'm a big boy!"
c) She ordered chocolate ice cream because she did not know that strawberry was
available.
d) The child carried the cup to the table, placed it gently on the placemat, and said, "I
didn't spill! I'm a big boy!" - Answer-d
3. In the 1970s, Gallup had certain assumptions and conclusions regarding mirror
self recognition. These included all of the following except:
a) only apes and humans show self recognition
b) self recognition is related to Theory of Mind
c) recognizing oneself in a mirror implies a concept of self
d) mirrorneuronsunderliemirrorself-recognition - Answer-d
2. Pascalis and colleagues found that 6- and 9-month-old human infants
distinguished among photographs of different human faces, but only the younger age
group could also distinguish among a set of monkey faces. This type of
developmental process is often referred to as:
a) Speciesism
b) Conspecific focusing
