Test Bank
to accompany
Pioneers of Psychology, 4th Edition
By Raymond E. Fancher and Alexandra Rutherford
Test Bank by
Raymond E. Fancher, Alexandra Rutherford, and Katherine Harper
York University
The questions included in this test bank were written to sample the contents of the
textbook both fairly and comprehensively. They vary considerably both in
difficulty and content, with some questions relating primarily to historical fact, and
others to substantive issues and concepts from modern psychology. Every effort
has been made to avoid ambiguous, trivial or trick questions – but it is generally a
,good idea to make sure that examination instructions ask for “the best answer”
rather than “the correct answer” to each item.
, Chapter 1 Questions
1. The ideas that young Descartes had at Ulm, which transformed his life and really started
him on his vocation as a philosopher and scientist, were primarily about:
a. the reflex.
b. the mind-body dichotomy.
c. a method for obtaining knowledge.
d. the passions.
ANS: (c)
2. According to scholastic philosophy, the explanatory principle accounting for the highest
mental functioning in humans was the:
a. interaction of the humors.
b. animal soul.
c. rational soul.
d. “unmoved mover.”
ANS: (c)
3. The hydraulically-operated mechanical statues at St. Germain were important to
Descartes because:
a. the mythological scenes they represented directed his attention toward important
psychological problems.
b. they suggested the idea that animal bodies could be understood mechanistically
as automata.
c. they inspired him to construct some experimental hydraulic models of his own.
d. all of the above
ANS: (b)
4. Descartes’ mathematical invention, which integrated algebra and geometry, is called:
a. analytic geometry.
b. Cartesian analysis.
c. differential calculus.
d. dioptric.
ANS: (a)
5. Descartes believed that the best intellectual products:
a. emerge from group discussion and collaboration.
b. follow from careful study of the classics.
c. had been produced by the ancient Greeks.
d. were the work of individual minds thinking in relative isolation.
ANS: (d)
6. The first rule of Descartes’ method, providing the equivalent of the geometric axioms,
was:
, a. to doubt everything.
b. to keep precise records of all observations.
c. to systematically manipulate one variable at a time.
d. to proceed deductively by syllogistic reasoning.
ANS: (a)
7. The only “simple natures” Descartes discerned when he applied his method to the
analysis of the physical world were the concepts of:
a. subjects and objects.
b. sensations and perceptions.
c. minds and bodies.
d. extension and motion.
ANS: (d)
8. According to Descartes’ “Treatise of Light” the entire physical universe is made up of:
a. fire, air, water, and earth.
b. invisible particles of “heat,” invisible particles of “light,” and visible particles of
material “earth.”
c. material particles separated by void.
d. several kinds of elementary atoms which should combine to form an almost
infinite variety of different compounds.
ANS: (b)
9. According to Descartes’s theory of light, the speed of light was:
a. infinite.
b. equal to the speed of sound.
c. finite but immeasurable.
d. equal to the speed of the earth’s rotation about the sun.
ANS: (a)
10. In the “Treatise of Man,” Descartes provided mechanistic explanations for all the
following functions, except:
a. reason.
b. dreaming.
c. sensation.
d. both a and b
ANS: (a)
11. In Descartes’ theory of the reflex mechanism, stimuli are transmitted to the brain by
means of ______________, and responses are initiated by________________________:
a. columns of “light” particles; the dispersion of heat to the proper muscle
b. hydraulic pressure in a sensory nerve; hydraulic pressure in a motor nerve
to accompany
Pioneers of Psychology, 4th Edition
By Raymond E. Fancher and Alexandra Rutherford
Test Bank by
Raymond E. Fancher, Alexandra Rutherford, and Katherine Harper
York University
The questions included in this test bank were written to sample the contents of the
textbook both fairly and comprehensively. They vary considerably both in
difficulty and content, with some questions relating primarily to historical fact, and
others to substantive issues and concepts from modern psychology. Every effort
has been made to avoid ambiguous, trivial or trick questions – but it is generally a
,good idea to make sure that examination instructions ask for “the best answer”
rather than “the correct answer” to each item.
, Chapter 1 Questions
1. The ideas that young Descartes had at Ulm, which transformed his life and really started
him on his vocation as a philosopher and scientist, were primarily about:
a. the reflex.
b. the mind-body dichotomy.
c. a method for obtaining knowledge.
d. the passions.
ANS: (c)
2. According to scholastic philosophy, the explanatory principle accounting for the highest
mental functioning in humans was the:
a. interaction of the humors.
b. animal soul.
c. rational soul.
d. “unmoved mover.”
ANS: (c)
3. The hydraulically-operated mechanical statues at St. Germain were important to
Descartes because:
a. the mythological scenes they represented directed his attention toward important
psychological problems.
b. they suggested the idea that animal bodies could be understood mechanistically
as automata.
c. they inspired him to construct some experimental hydraulic models of his own.
d. all of the above
ANS: (b)
4. Descartes’ mathematical invention, which integrated algebra and geometry, is called:
a. analytic geometry.
b. Cartesian analysis.
c. differential calculus.
d. dioptric.
ANS: (a)
5. Descartes believed that the best intellectual products:
a. emerge from group discussion and collaboration.
b. follow from careful study of the classics.
c. had been produced by the ancient Greeks.
d. were the work of individual minds thinking in relative isolation.
ANS: (d)
6. The first rule of Descartes’ method, providing the equivalent of the geometric axioms,
was:
, a. to doubt everything.
b. to keep precise records of all observations.
c. to systematically manipulate one variable at a time.
d. to proceed deductively by syllogistic reasoning.
ANS: (a)
7. The only “simple natures” Descartes discerned when he applied his method to the
analysis of the physical world were the concepts of:
a. subjects and objects.
b. sensations and perceptions.
c. minds and bodies.
d. extension and motion.
ANS: (d)
8. According to Descartes’ “Treatise of Light” the entire physical universe is made up of:
a. fire, air, water, and earth.
b. invisible particles of “heat,” invisible particles of “light,” and visible particles of
material “earth.”
c. material particles separated by void.
d. several kinds of elementary atoms which should combine to form an almost
infinite variety of different compounds.
ANS: (b)
9. According to Descartes’s theory of light, the speed of light was:
a. infinite.
b. equal to the speed of sound.
c. finite but immeasurable.
d. equal to the speed of the earth’s rotation about the sun.
ANS: (a)
10. In the “Treatise of Man,” Descartes provided mechanistic explanations for all the
following functions, except:
a. reason.
b. dreaming.
c. sensation.
d. both a and b
ANS: (a)
11. In Descartes’ theory of the reflex mechanism, stimuli are transmitted to the brain by
means of ______________, and responses are initiated by________________________:
a. columns of “light” particles; the dispersion of heat to the proper muscle
b. hydraulic pressure in a sensory nerve; hydraulic pressure in a motor nerve
