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Psychology Biopsychology
Examination Questions Answers (Ideal
for your studies).
A survey of hospital patients has found that a new drug, Zapurpain, is as effective as other pain medication.
Explain ONE limitation of asking hospital patients to self-report the
effectiveness of Zapurpain. [2 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • Social desirability - patients may feel obligated to say that the drug is effective at reducing their pain.
•Or pain is a subjective experience, participants with higher pain tolerance/threshold may report the drug is effective.
Zapurpain acts like an inhibitory neurotransmitter at the synapse.
Explain how Zapurpain might affect the process of synaptic
transmission through inhibition. [4 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅
- Zapurpain mimics the effects of inhibitory neurotransmitters.
•Causing stimulation of the post synaptic receptors by an inhibitory neurotransmitter results in inhibition (hyperpolarization) of the postsynaptic membrane.
•When an inhibitory neurotransmitter binds to the postsynaptic receptors it makes the postsynaptic cell less likely to fire.
•Summation - if the inhibitory inputs are higher than the excitatory, they can cancel out excitation and inhibition action potentials occurring/Zapurpain would decrease overall activity.
Explain ONE difference and ONE similarity between Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Event-Related Potentials
(ERPs) as ways of studying the brain. [4 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ DIFFERENCE
•Different methodology - fMRIs work by measuring changes in blood oxygenation levels as a measure of neural activity.
•Whereas ERPs measure electrical activity via electrodes to detect brain waves triggered by events.
•Or fMRIs are more expensive than ERP's
SIMILARITY
•fMRIs and ERPs are non-invasive and don't use radiation to study the brain.
•Or both measure brain activity linked to events/tasks.
Outline and evaluate split-brain research. [8 marks - Correct Ans: ✅ AO
•'Split-brain' patients have their corpus callosum severed. Normally the hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum and few other structures.
•A commissurotomy is an operation to cut the corpus callosum and is sometimes performed to control epileptic seizures.
•The right hemisphere can only produce basic words and phrases but contribute to emotional content to language.
•A limitation is differences in hemispheric functions may be ove
Which method of studying the brain would most accurately identify specific brain areas activated during a cognitive task? [1 Mark]
A) Electroencephalogram (EEG)
B) Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)
C) Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRIs)
D) Post-mortem examinations - Correct Ans: ✅ • C
The adrenal gland is part of the endocrine system that produces adrenaline to help the body prepare for the fight or flight response.
Using an example of a gland and hormone, outline the function of the endocrine system. Do NOT use the adrenal gland/adrenaline as
your example. [4 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • The endocrine system helps regulate the activity of cells and organs in the body, the endocrine system also communicates chemical messages to the organs of the body.
•The thyroid gland produces thyroxine, which increases heart rate and metabolic rates.
•Or the pancreas secretes insulin and glucagon, which help regulate blood sugar levels.
Kieran completes a quiz in his magazine and announces that he is 'left brained'. "That's just silly", Sam says. "You cannot just be 'left brained', the whole brain works together to carry out functions."
"It's not silly!" Kieran replies. "It says here that the left brain is responsible for speech and language."
Discuss research into localisation of function in the brain and/or hemispheric lateralisation.
Refer to Kieran and Sam's discussion in your answer. [16 Marks] -
Correct Ans: ✅ AO
LOCALISATION OF FUNCTION IN THE BRAIN
•The cortex of both hemispheres (in the brain) is divided into 4 lobes: frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and the occipital lobe.
•The motor cortex is located at the back of the frontal lobe, it controls voluntary movement and damage may result in loss of control over fine motor movement.
•The somatosensory cortex is located at the front of the parietal lobes. Its function is to process sensory information from the skin (touch, heat, pressure etc), and the amount of somatosensory area to a particular part of the body denotes its sensitivity.
•The visual cortex is located in the back of the brain (in the occipital lobe). Each eye sends information from the RVF to the left visual cortex, and from the LVF to the right visual cortex. Damage to the LH for example can produce blindness of the RVF of both eyes.
Explain why neurons can only transmit information in ONE direction
at a synapse. [3 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • The synaptic vesicles containing the neurotransmitter are only released from the presynaptic membrane.
•The receptors for the neurotransmitter are only presented on the postsynaptic membrane.
•It is the binding of the neurotransmitter of the neurotransmitters to the receptor which enables information to be passed/transmitted on (to the next neuron).
- Or diffusion of the neurotransmitters mean they can only go from high to low concentration so they can only travel from the presynaptic to the postsynaptic membrane.
The fight or flight response enabled our ancestors to survive but can be less helpful in responses to modern stressors.
Explain how the body responds during fight or flight and why this
could be unhelpful in a driving test. [4 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • The fight or flight response causes adrenaline to be produced which can cause an increased production of sweat, faster heart rate and breathing rate which could be off-putting and unhelpful during a driving test (e.g sweaty hands make it harder to grip a steering wheel).
•Although the fight or flight response enables a quick reaction to fight or run away from the threat, neither of these would be helpful in a driving test. As if you ran away or attacked the instructor you would fail.
Explain the process of synaptic transmission. [4 Marks] - Correct
Ans: ✅ • Electrical impulses (action potentials) reach the end of the neuron (the presynaptic terminal).
•Electrical impulses trigger the release of neurotransmitters from tiny sacs called synaptic vesicles.
•Neurotransmitters combine with receptors on the postsynaptic membrane.
•Stimulation on the postsynaptic receptors by neurotransmitters results in either excitation or inhibition of the postsynaptic membrane.
Lotta's grandmother suffered a stroke to the left hemisphere, damaging Broca's area and the motor cortex.
Using your knowledge of the functions of Broca's area and the motor cortex, describe the problems that Lotta's grandmother is likely to
experience. [4 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • As a consequence of damage to Broca's area Lotta's grandmother is likely to suffer from language /speech production problems.
•Although it will affect her language production, it won't affect her understanding.
•Lotta's grandmother will only be able to talk in short meaningful sentences which take great effort.
•The speech lacks fluency/difficulty with certain words which help sentences function (prepositions and conjunctions e.g 'a', 'the', 'and').
•As a consequence of the damage to the motor cortex, Lotta's grandmother is likely to suffer from loss of muscle function/paralysis.
•This has a negative impact on this study, rating patient's improvement (has no explanatory power).
Write ONE question that could be used in the researcher's questionnaire to produce quantitative data and ONE question that could be used in the researcher's questionnaire to produce
qualitative data. [2 Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ AO
QUANTITATIVE
•'On average how many hours of physiotherapy do the patients receive each week?'
QUALITATIVE
•'How does physiotherapy help patients?'
Outline and evaluate ONE or more ways of studying the brain. [
Marks] - Correct Ans: ✅ • fMRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to monitor changes in oxygenated blood and flow that occur due to neural activity in specific areas of the brain.
•It measures the change in energy released by haemoglobin, reflecting activity of the brain (oxygen consumption) to give a 3D moving picture of the brain.
•Activity in regions of interest can be during a baseline task and during a specific activity.
•EEGs, electrodes are put on the scalp and detect neuronal activity directly below where they are placed.
•The scan recording represents the brainwave pattern generated from millions of neurons, this shows brain activity.
•EEG is often used as a diagnostic tool (e.g epilepsy, tumours, sleep disorders).
•ERPs, are what is left when all extraneous brain activity from an EEG recording is filtered out.
•This is done using a statistical technique, leaving only those responses that relate to the presentation of a specific stimulus or performance of a certain task.
•ERPs are types of brainwaves triggered by certain events.
•Post-mortem examinations, analysis of a person's brain following their death.
•Areas of the brain are examined to establish the likely cause of a deficit or disorder that the person suffered from in life.
•May involve comparison with a neurotypical brain in order to assess the extent of the difference.
AO
fMRI
•fMRIs are non-invasive, unlike other scanning techniques (e.g PET), fMRI does not rely on the use of radiation and is safe.
•Another strength is it produces images with high spatial resolution showing detail by the millimeter.
•fMRI can provide a clear picture of how brain activity is localised.
