(Psychological, Social, and Biological) Flashcards
7 cards from real MCAT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 (Psychological, Social, and Biological) flashcards as text
A researcher studies how repeated exposure to a neutral stimulus paired with a fear-inducing stimulus eventually causes the neutral stimulus alone to elicit fear. Which learning paradigm best describes this?
Answer: Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning pairs a neutral conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus alone elicits a conditioned response.
Which brain structure is most critically involved in the formation of new declarative memories?
Answer: Hippocampus
The hippocampus is essential for consolidating new declarative (explicit) memories, including episodic and semantic information.
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which level must generally be satisfied before an individual can focus on esteem needs?
Answer: Belongingness and love needs
In Maslow's hierarchy, belongingness and love needs (social needs) fall below esteem needs and must be reasonably met first.
A patient cannot recognize faces even though visual acuity is intact. This condition is called:
Answer: Prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia is the selective inability to recognize familiar faces, typically associated with damage to the fusiform face area.
Which neurotransmitter is primarily depleted in Parkinson's disease, leading to motor deficits?
Answer: Dopamine
Parkinson's disease results from loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, disrupting the motor control circuit.
A child watches an adult punch a doll and later imitates this behavior. This best demonstrates:
Answer: Observational (social) learning
Bandura's Bobo doll experiments showed that children learn aggressive behaviors by observing and imitating models, illustrating observational learning.
In Piaget's theory, the process of modifying an existing schema to incorporate new information that doesn't fit is called:
Answer: Accommodation
Accommodation involves changing or creating new schemas when new information cannot be assimilated into existing cognitive structures.