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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 2 1. Which of the following best describes the hallmarks of comparative cognition? a) Examining the cognitive processes of animals and comparing them to those of other animals. b) Examining cognitive processes using experimental procedures. c) Examining cognitive processes using experimental procedures and interpreting the findings within an evolutionary framework. d) Examining cognition from an evolutionary framework. 2. Which of the following is true about cognition? a) It is also known as knowledge. b) It is the act of processing information. c) It is the mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding. d) All of the above. 3. What are the tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection? a) Offspring inherit parents’ characteristics through genes, variations among individuals within a species occur spontaneously, certain variations will be selected and transmitted across generations. b) Offspring inherit parents’ characteristics, variations among individuals within a species occur spontaneously, survival of the fittest. c) Offspring inherit parents’ characteristics, individuals within a species adapt to their environment, survival of the fittest. d) Offspring inherit parents’ characteristics through genes, individuals within a species adapt to their environment, survival of the fittest. 4. Which of the following is not true about by-­‐products? a) By-­‐products are products of natural selection. b) By-­‐products are products of evolution. c) By-­‐products may become adaptive in the future if environmental contingencies change. d) By-­‐products are side effects of adaptations. Chapter 1

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 3 5. What was a primary criticism of Darwin’s continuity that is still valid today? a) Humans and animals differ on many traits and abilities. b) Trait differences between humans and animals are qualitative. c) Anecdotes were used to support his hypothesis. d) It does not abide by Morgan’s canon. 6. Which of the following studies would a behaviorist criticize? a) Galef’s study of Japanese quails and their mate-­‐choice copying. b) Pfungst’s investigation of Clever Hans and his arithmetic abilities. c) Köhler’s study of captive chimpanzees and their problem-­‐solving abilities. d) a and c. 7. Which of the following questions would a behavioral ecologist ask? a) What is the function of this behavior? b) How does the behavior change across the lifespan of the animal? c) What are the internal mechanisms that cause animals to respond in specific ways? d) B and C 8. A trait that has been selected for a particular function in the past that now also serves another function is called a(n): a) Exaptation. b) Adaptation. c) Common adaptation. d) Common exaptation. 9. Proximate causes of a behavior are examined, most commonly, in which field(s)? a) Ethology. b) Developmental Psychology. c) Behavioral Neuroscience. d) All of the above.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 4 10. Which of the following is true? a) The evolution of cognitive processes can be difficult to establish due to common exaptation. b) The evolution of cognitive processes can be difficult to establish due to common adaptation. c) The adaptive value of cognitive processes can be difficult to establish due to random effects. d) The adaptive value of cognitive processes can be difficult to establish due to by-­‐products. 11. Although often described as a revolution, the increase in research into cognition can be seen as gradual due to a) continuing research from the 1900s-­‐1950s on higher mental processes. b) behaviorism’s continued dominance in psychology in the latter half of the 20 th century. c) the strict adherence to Morgan’s canon by a select group of researchers. d) the difficulty of discovering evidence for higher processing in animals. 12. The following sentence serves as a definition for what term: “mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding and the act of using these processes’? a) Cognition. b) Learning. c) Adaptation. d) Psychology. 13. The case of Clever Hans demonstrates the need for what experimental control technique? a) Double blind procedure. b) Paired samples. c) Random sampling. d) Control groups.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 5 14. Which of the following is not one of the ‘Four Questions of Ethology’? a) What is the function of the behavior? b) What are the mechanisms that elicit the behavior? c) How does the behavior change across the lifespan? d) What variations in the behavior occur? 15. A fixed action pattern is an example of a) Learned behavior. b) Instinctive behavior. c) Sensory adaptation. d) Imprinting. 16. Convergence on the same solution through independent evolutionary change is known as: a) Intelligence. b) Common adaptation. c) Speciation. d) Evolution by means of natural selection. 17. __________ is a description of a trait or behavior in terms of its adaptive value. a) Proximate cause b) Fitness c) Ultimate cause d) Natural selection 18. Which two fields of psychology are most commonly associated with the field of Comparative Cognition? a) Developmental psychology and behavioral neuroscience. b) Developmental psychology and ecological psychology. c) Behavioral neuroscience and social psychology. d) Ecological psychology and evolutionary psychology. 19. Which of the following is not a tenet of Darwin’s theory of evolution? a) Offspring inherit the characteristics of their parents. b) Offspring benefit from their parents’ learned abilities. c) Certain variations will be selected and transmitted across generations. d) Variations among individuals within a species occur spontaneously.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 6 20. The idea that “animal behavior should not be interpreted in terms of higher cognitive processes when simpler explanations are possible” is known as a) Morgan’s Canon. b) the Clever Hans effect. c) Gestalt Theory. d) tight experimental control. 21. Subpopulations of animals that were originally members of the same species may diverge so that they can no longer breed. This process is known as a) adaptation. b) imprinting. c) speciation. d) divergence. 22. Ultimate causes of behavior are related to the _______________ whereas proximate causes of behavior focus on ___________________. a) adaptive value; development and mechanisms. b) development and mechanisms; adaptive value. c) innate features; instincts. d) adaptive value; neurobiological systems. 23. Research in psychological shifted, in the late twentieth century to focus on cognitive processes. Which fields had the biggest influence on this shift? a) Biology and ecology. b) Behavioral ecology and computer science. c) Linguistics and ethology. d) Linguistics and computer science. 24. When several species develop a different strategy for dealing with the same problem, it is referred to as: a) common adaptation. b) evolutionary divergence. c) evolution by design. d) adaptive value.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 7 25. Which scientific perspective is NOT considered an influence on the development of comparative cognition? a) Evolutionary theory b) Molecular biology c) Ethology d) Experimental psychology 26. Which question does not belong to Tinbergen’s original four questions? a) How did the behavior change across evolution? b) How does the behavior develop across the lifespan? c ) What is the function of this cognition? d) Why do animals behave in a specific way in a certain situation? 27. Which of the following is (are) the main difference(s) between an experimental and observational study? a) Experimental studies allow for collection of more data than observational studies. b) Researchers manipulate an independent variable in experimental studies. c) Experimental studies involve random assignment of subjects. d) Observational studies are cheaper and less time consuming. 28. Which of the following statements is correctly categorized as proximate or ultimate? a) Moths have ears that can detect bat vocalizations: Ultimate. b) Humans have a brain region that is devoted specifically to recognizing and understanding language: Ultimate. c) Male peacocks with brighter feathers are able to mate with more females than are dull-­‐colored males: Proximate. d) Male bluegills that resemble females are often able to fertilize eggs without attracting attention from larger dominant males: Ultimate. 29. By the mid 20 th century, ‘species’ was usually defined as a) organisms that share physical characteristics. b) a group of animals that can breed with one another. c) animals that share 100% of their genetic variance. d) animals that have the ability to communicate with one another in some form.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 8 30. In part due to the anecdotal approach to explaining animal behavior represented by writers such as George Romanes, the early part of the 20 th century saw a) increasing interest in using an experimental approach to explaining animal behavior. b) an increase in interest in the intelligence of monkeys. c) movement away from laboratory research. d) increased financial support for field research. 31. The “Clever Hans Effect” refers to a) the potential for animals to exceed expectations in intelligence. b) the power of children to shape the behavior of adults. c) the risk of unconsciously cueing participants to behave in accordance with the experimenter’s expectations. d) the ability of participants to fool researchers into believing they are more capable than they truly are. 32. Which of the following is the result of natural selection? a) adaptations. b) by-­‐products. c) mutations. d) random effects. 33. Stereotype behaviors that occur in a rigid order and are triggered by a specific stimulus in the external environment are called a) fixed action patterns. b) reflexes. c) random effects. d) action potentials. 34. Which of the following are hallmarks of the discipline of comparative cognition? a) An evolutionary framework b) Experimental procedures c) Examination of cognitive processes. d) All of the above.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 9 35. Which of the following is not a tenet of evolutionary theory? a) Variations among individuals within a species occur spontaneously. b) Offspring inherit parents’ characteristics. c) Certain variations will be selected and transmitted across generations. d) An organisms can pass on characteristics that are acquired throughout its lifetime to its offspring.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 10 1. Which of the following is false about visual adaptations? a) Animals that inhabit environments with different patterns of light absorption have evolved different visual sensitivities. b) Some guppies are more sensitive to red light while others are more sensitive to blue light. c) Nocturnal animals have a much higher proportion of cones than rods. d) Animals that have very good binocular vision have a much smaller field of view. 2. Which of the following is true about sensory adaptations? a) All snake species respond at higher rates to chemical cues than to visual or thermal cues. b) Noctuid moths have ears that provide feedback on wing position and detect sound. c) Fruit flies show an increase in eye size that is related to their time in an environment with minimal light. d) The stripes on zebras act as insect repellant. 3. According to the sensory drive hypothesis, a) sophisticated sensory abilities emerge when there are harsh ecological conditions. b) natural selection favors sensory adaptations that maximize the effectiveness of communication in a new environment. c) selective pressures reduce sensory traits that are too costly to maintain. d) sensory preferences drive particular traits to become selected for. 4. In one experiment, Greylag geese retrieved and attempted to incubate giant artificial eggs, while neglecting their own normal sized eggs. This is an example of a) sensory bias. b) Sensory exploitation. c) maladaptation. d) a and b. Chapter 2

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 11 5. The period in which experience dependent changes can have profound and enduring effects on development is called the a) critical period. b) sensitive period. c) sensory period. d) experience-­‐dependent period. 6. Which of the following statements does not fit the compensatory plasticity hypothesis? a) A loss or a deficit in one sense leads to a heightened capacity in another. b) Once one sense becomes dominant during development, it cannot be reversed. c) Compensatory plasticity provides a mechanism for adaptation across generations. d) None of the above statements fit the hypothesis. 7. How do sensory receptors code for stimulus duration? a) Pattern of firing. b) Rate of firing. c) Number of neurons firing. d) Duration of firing. 8. What is the simplest way to study discrimination abilities in animals? a) Breed and raise animals under different stimulus conditions. b) Experimentally manipulate the physical attributes of a sensory stimulus. c) Train animals to make one response when a stimulus is present and another when it is absent. d) Vigilance tasks. 9. What happens between sensation and perception? a) Sensory information is taken apart and then recombined and integrated at relay nuclei. b) Sensory information is filtered by specialized neurons. c) Sensory information divided into elements and then reprocessed to produce a perceptual whole. d) Sensation and perception happen at the same time.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 12 10. Schneider showed that lesions of the visual cortex rendered golden hamsters unable to discriminate between visual stimuli, but did not impair the ability to turn towards a food reward. How can this be? a) The hamsters could smell the food. b) The visual system that identifies the ‘where’ of stimuli was intact in these hamsters. c) The hamsters’ lateral geniculate nucleus showed compensatory plasticity. d) Lesions of the visual cortex do not impair a hamsters’ ability to attend to relevant stimuli. 11. Blue jays were better at detecting one type of moth over another if it appeared in successive trials. What does this finding suggest? a) Blue jays were using selective attention. b) Blue jays were using sustained attention. c) Blue jays were forming search images. d) a and c. 12. The Sensory Drive Hypothesis states: “When populations occupy new habitats with different sensory environments, natural selection favors adaptations that maximize the effectiveness of ______”. a) foraging. b) mating. c) prey detection. d) communication. 13. What is the biggest indicator of how much of the environment an animal can see at once? a) Where it’s eyes are located. b) How big it’s eyes are. c) How big it’s pupils are. d) How big it’s head is. 14. Vision is an example of a a) feature. b) dimension. c) sensory modality. d) stimulus.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 13 15. Which of the following is the best definition for psychophysics? a) A branch of psychology concerned with how sensations are translated into mental processes. b) A branch of psychology concerned with the interaction between the physics of movement (e.g., inertia, momentum) and perception. c) A branch of psychology concerned with examining psychopaths. d) A branch of psychology that examines how learning and memory shape perception. 16. What is the primary factor which shapes the types of sensory information that an animal uses to find food or mates and to hide from predators? a) The size of the animal. b) How plentiful food, mates, young and predators are. c) The environment in which they are active. d) How quickly the animal moves. 17. Many animals have evolved in such a way that it is difficult for them to hide from predators. What is a primary explanation for this paradox? a) Being visible to predators makes the animals liable to be inadvertently harmed. b) Being more visible to predators also makes them more visible to potential mates. c) Animals have to sacrifice mobility to remain hidden. d) Animals have multiple predators with different sensory abilities. 18. Children who are born with cataracts never fully recover their sight if they are removed after the age of 3. Cataracts that develop and are removed in adulthood have no impact on this vision. This reflects the fact that the visual system has a specific: a) type of energy that it responds to. b) peak developmental period. c) sensitive period. d) functional period. 19. The loss or deficit in one sense that leads to a heightened capacity in another sense is related to the a) sensory preference hypothesis. b) plastic development principle. c) compensatory plasticity hypothesis. d) compensatory development principle.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 14 20. __________ are produced when physical stimuli activate receptors which send neural signals to the rest of the CNS. ________________ is the interpretation of these signals when the sensory information is processed, organized and filtered. a) Sensations; Perception. b) Sensory Illusions; Sensation. c) Sensations; Attention. d) Sensations; Sensory Coding 21. The ____________ threshold for detecting light that occurs under reduced illumination is called ________________________. a) raised; dark adaptation. b) lowered; dark adaptation. c) lowered; light adaptation. d) raised; light adaptation. 22. The processing of separating and extracting meaningful information from the abundance of sensory cues in the environment is known as a) stimulus separation. b) sensory processing. c) extraction process. d) stimulus filtering. 23. Which region of the thalamus relays information received from the eyes? a) Lateral dorsal nucleus. b) medial geniculate nucleus. c) Dorsal geniculate nucleus. d) Lateral geniculate nucleus. 24. Which cortical region might be responsible for assigning motivational values to sensory systems? a) Orbitofrontal Cortex. b) Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex. c) Anterior Cingulate Cortex. d) Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 15 25. Which theory states that characteristics of a sensory stimulus are coded before they get combined to a whole? a) Top-­‐down theory. b) Elemental parts theory. c) Feature integration theory. d) Building block theory. 26. Which is the best definition of the term, “sign stimulus”? a) An essential feature of a stimulus that releases a fixed activity pattern (FAP). b) A stimulus that orients the individual in space. c) A stimulus that elicits a quick cessation of behavior (like a stop sign). d) Any stimulus that delivers information about the intentions of others. 27. The process through which sensory receptors translate physical events into electrical signals is called a) transduction. b) stimulus filtering. c) optic flow. d) an action potential. 28. The process of separating and extracting meaning information from the myriad of stimuli in our environment is called a) stimulus filtering. b) sensory exploitation. c) selective attention. d) transduction. 29. The Tinbergen study in which birds tended to artificial oversized eggs while ignoring their own normal sized eggs is an example of a) supernormal stimuli. b) compensatory plasticity hypothesis. c) greedy birds. d) sensory bias.

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    Comparative Cognition : Multiple Choice Questions pg. 16 30. According to the principal of frequency coding, as the intensity of the physical stimulus increases a) the frequency of action potentials increase. b) the number of neurons firing increases. c) more attention is paid to the stimulus. d) information travels along the axon at a faster rate.

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