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2018 tssm unit 3 - Practice exam
VCE Psychology Unit 3/4
Secondary School
• 10Balwyn High School
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2018 Trial Examination
STUDENT NUMBER Letter
THIS BOX IS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY
PSYCHOLOGY
Unit 3 – Written examination
Reading time: 15 minutes Writing time: 1 hour 30 minutes
QUESTION AND ANSWER BOOK
Section Area of study Number of questions
Number of questions to be answered
Number of marks
A
- How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?
- How do people learn and remember?
45 45 45
B
- How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?
- How do people learn and remember?
8 8 45
Total 90
Students are NOT permitted to bring mobile phones and/or any other unauthorised electronic devices into the examination room.
Students are permitted to bring into the examination room: pens, pencils, highlighters, erasers, sharpeners and rulers. Students are NOT permitted to bring into the examination room: blank sheets of paper and/or white out liquid/tape. No calculator is permitted in this examination. Materials supplied Question and answer book of 21 pages. Instructions Print your name in the space provided at the top of this page. All written responses must be in English.
SECTION A - Multiple-choice questions
Instructions for Section A Answer all questions. Choose the response that is correct or that best answers the question. A correct answer scores 1, an incorrect answer scores 0. Marks will not be deducted for incorrect answers. No marks will be given if more than one answer is completed for any question.
The following information refers to questions 1-
Brian is an IT consultant who recently moved from Australia to work at Google in San Francisco. Whilst initially excited about the move, he has found the relocation much harder than he ever anticipated. His young son become ill when they moved and he was shocked at the medical bills and lack of government subsidy in America. His Father back in Australia was diagnosed with a terminal illness and he feels hopeless and unable to help him from his new home. One morning when he was heading off to work he could not find his keys temporarily and his wife was shocked at his extreme overreaction to this event. Brian has since developed flu like symptoms but he is still going to work and carrying out his usual daily activities.
Question 1 Brian has found the move from Australia to America more stressful than anticipated. He was shocked to learn the harsh ramifications of living in a country that provided no supportive funding for medical expenses and he is also finding the separation from his father extremely traumatic due to his father’s recent illness. These factors refer to which of the following types of stressor? A. Stressful life events B. Daily hassles C. Acculturation D. Catastrophe
Question 2 Brian’s father being diagnosed with a terminal illness would be categorised as which type of stressor? A. Stressful life event B. Daily hassle C. Acculturation D. Catastrophe
Question 3 Losing his keys is an example of A. a stressful life event. B. a daily hassle. C. acculturative stress. D. a catastrophe.
SECTION A - continued
Question 9 In terms of the General Adaptation Syndrome, what stage would Brian be in when he developed flu like symptoms? A. Alarm Reaction B. Resistance C. Exhaustion D. Counter-shock
Question 10 Brian’s excitement before the move indicated he perceived the stressor initially as a A. Benign. B. Irrelevant. C. Harm. D. Challenge.
Question 11 Brian’s subsequent difficulties following the move indicated he perceived the move as a A. Threat. B. Irrelevant. C. Harm/Loss. D. Challenge.
Question 12 Brian’s doctor has advised him that when he recovers from his flu-type symptoms, he should engage in physical activity to help him deal with the stress he is experiencing. Which of the following is not a benefit of physical exercise? A. Exercise uses up the stress hormone cortisol B. Exercise helps to work out muscle tension that has built up in the muscles C. Exercise increases the cardiovascular system, increasing stamina for when we face future stressors D. Exercise will deal directly with the problems faced by Brian
Question 13 Stress can be considered a psychobiological process because A. Of the activation of the autonomic nervous system. B. There is usually a psychological interpretation of a stressor/something that is causing us to worry and a physiological response such as the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. C. Both the sympathetic and parasympathetic branch of the nervous system are involved. D. The interpretation of a stressor can differ depending on individual differences.
SECTION A - continued
Question 14 Which part of the neuron is responsible for receiving messages in the form of a neurotransmitter?
A. Myelin sheath B. Nucleus C. Axon terminals D. Dendrites
Question 15 Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease only develop when the drop in dopamine levels is as follows: A. 80% overall and a 50% drop in the substantia nigra neurons. B. 50% overall and an 80% drop in the substantia nigra neurons. C. 40% overall and a 25% drop in the substantia nigra neurons. D. 90% overall and a 50% drop in the substantia nigra neurons.
Question 16 Excitatory neurotransmitters ____________ neural transmission. A. Increase B. Decrease C. Neutralise D. Have no effect on
Question 17 Inhibitory neurotransmitters work by preventing ______________ neurons from firing. A. Pre-synaptic B. Post-synaptic C. Motor D. Sensory
Question 18 The neurons that take information to the Central Nervous System are called: A. Somatosensory neurons B. Efferent neurons C. Motor neurons D. Sensory neurons
SECTION A - continued TURN OVER
Question 24 How would Hebb explain Jessica’s failure to recall aspects of the German language? A. Dendritic spinning has occurred B. Post synaptic neurons are failing to fire. C. Use it or lose it principle. D. All of the above
Question 25 Which neurotransmitter would be particularly active in the brain when Jessica is learning French? A. Serotonin B. Dopamine C. Acetylcholine D. Glutamate
Question 26 Identify which of the below is a key excitatory neurotransmitter? A. Serotonin B. Dopamine C. Acetylcholine D. Glutamate
Refer to the following for question 27- Sally cried each time she was immunised with a painful injection by the doctor who wore a white jacket during the procedure. After the third vaccination, Sally had developed a strong classically conditioned response — the sight of the white jacket worn by the local pharmacist and by the baker triggered an emotional outburst of fear and crying. Stimulus generalisation had occurred.
Question 27 Identify the unconditioned stimulus in this scenario. A. The painful injection B. The white jacket C. Fear of the white jacket D. The third vaccination
Question 28 Identify the conditioned stimulus in this scenario. A. The painful injection B. The white jacket C. Fear of the white jacket D. The third vaccination
SECTION A - continued TURN OVER
Question 29 Identify the conditioned response in this scenario. A. The painful injection B. The white jacket C. Fear of the white jacket D. The third vaccination
Question 30 Stimulus generalisation in this scenario is demonstrated by A. Fear of all white jackets. B. Fear of the white jacket worn by the pharmacist and baker. C. Fear of the white jacket prior to conditioning. D. Fear of the white jacket worn by the doctor.
Question 31 Identify the area of the brain and two hormones that are likely to be activated during the acquisition of this fear for Sally. A. Hippocampus, noradrenaline and cortisol B. Amygdala, noradrenaline and cortisol C. Hippocampus, noradrenaline and GABA D. Hippocampus, noradrenaline and glutamate
Question 32 After visiting the baker for several subsequent mornings and experiencing no aversive stimulus such as an injection, Sally no longer shows a fear response to the baker in a white coat. Identify the process that has occurred here. A. Stimulus discrimination B. Spontaneous recovery C. Extinction D. Acquisition of a non-fear response
SECTION A - continued
Question 35 Some medical students are not suitable to perform detailed neurosurgery as they do not possess the required precision of the fine motor skills and hand eye coordination involved in delicate procedures. Identify the stage of observational learning that they may not be able to master. A. Attention B. Retention C. Reproduction D. Motivation-reinforcement
Question 36 Some medical students fail to build suitable visual representation of the precision of the fine motor skills and hand eye coordination involved in delicate procedures. Identify the stage of observational learning that they may not be able to master. A. Attention B. Retention C. Reproduction D. Motivation-reinforcement
Question 37 Because he got cold at the football last week, Giovanni decides to wear a coat to the match today, as it’s very windy. Is this an example of A. Positive reinforcement. B. Negative reinforcement. C. Punishment. D. Response cost (negative punishment).
Question 38 A policeman catches Sharon drink–driving and she loses her licence. Is this an example of A. Positive reinforcement. B. Negative reinforcement. C. Punishment. D. Response cost (negative punishment)
Question 39 Which of the following refer to implicit memories only? A. Procedural and classically conditioned memories B. Procedural and personal memories C. Episodic and semantic memories D. Semantic and classically conditioned memories
SECTION A - continued
Question 40 Which area of the brain is largely involved in the consolidation of new long-term memories that a student learns in their subject lessons? A. The cerebral cortex B. The hippocampus C. The amygdala D. The cerebellum
Question 41 Which area of the brain is largely involved in the consolidation of new long-term memories when learning how to drive a car? A. The cerebral cortex B. The hippocampus C. The amygdala D. The cerebellum
Question 42 Which area of the brain is largely involved in the storage of existing long-term memories that a student learns in their subject lessons? A. The cerebral cortex B. The hippocampus C. The amygdala D. The cerebellum
Question 43 Which area of the brain is largely involved in the consolidation of new long-term memories that a student acquires when knowing to avoid a particularly dogmatic teacher who they fear? A. The cerebral cortex B. The hippocampus C. The amygdala D. The cerebellum
Question 44 Which of the following would indicate the most likely level of retention used when completing an open-ended essay question? A. Cued recall B. Retention C. Free recall D. Recognition
SECTION A - continued TURN OVER
SECTION B – Short answer questions
Instructions for Section B Answer all questions in the spaces provided.
Question 1 (8 marks) a. Using the three-phase model of operant conditioning, explain how a police consultant might train a police dog to detect the presence of an illegal drug at the airport. 6 marks
b. Explain how the above learning could be later extinguished. 2 marks
SECTION B - continued TURN OVER
Question 2 (2 marks) Identify one neurotransmitter and one area of the brain involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
Refer to the following for questions 3- The best-known and most influential experiment on the duration of STM was conducted by American psychologists Margaret Peterson and Lloyd Peterson (1959). Participants were given ‘trigrams’ (meaningless groups of three letters such as qlg, jfb and mwt) to memorise. Immediately after the trigrams were presented, the participants were given a distracter, or interference task, requiring them to start counting backwards by threes from an arbitrary three-digit number; for example, ‘634, 631, 628, ...’. This was done to prevent practice of the trigrams. Following a time interval that varied from 3 to 18 seconds, a light was used to signal that participants were required to recall the trigrams.
The longer the interval, the less likely a participant was able to accurately recall the trigrams. By 18 seconds after the presentation of the trigrams, participants had forgotten almost all of the trigrams. When participants did not have to count backwards, their performance was much better, possibly because they were practising or repeating the items to themselves.
Question 3 (13 marks) a. What was the aim of this study? 1 mark
b. What conclusions can be drawn from this study in relation to short term memory? 2 marks
SECTION B – Question 3 - continued
g. How can we extend the duration of short term memory? 1 mark
Question 4 (2 marks) Identify two examples of acculturative stress that international students, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers who come to Australia may face.
Question 5 (2 marks) In terms of the nervous system response during the fight, flight, freeze response; explain why one might describe the freeze response as being likened to an organism having one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake at the same time.
SECTION B – continued
Refer to the following for Question 6
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia characterised by the gradual widespread degeneration of brain neurons, progressively causing memory decline, deterioration of cognitive and social skills, and personality changes. As brain cells die, the brain shrinks. The outer part of the brain is usually the area affected first by the disease. Short-term memory loss is therefore one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. As the disease progresses to deeper parts of the brain, long-term memory is increasingly impaired.
Question 6 (4 marks) a. Two distinguishing neurological features of Alzheimer’s disease are neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques. Identify two differences between these two features. 2 marks
b. Name the neurotransmitter that particularly declines with this condition. 1 mark
c. At what stage can Alzheimer’s be definitively diagnosed? 1 mark
SECTION B – continued TURN OVER
Extended response question
Refer to the following for Question 8
A famous case study documented memory problems experienced by American patient H. who had undergone brain surgery. The patient, whose real name was Henry Molaison, subsequently participated in hundreds of research studies on memory until he died in 2008 at age 82. However, until his death, he was known only by the initials H. to protect his privacy.
In 1953, when Molaison was 27 years old, he agreed to brain surgery to treat the severe epilepsy from which he had been suffering since the age of ten. Molaison’s epilepsy was unresponsive to anti-convulsant medications and other treatments. It was also extremely debilitating and he had difficulty holding even a simple job. At the time, doctors knew that, in many patients with epilepsy, seizures started in either the right or left hemisphere, usually in the medial temporal lobe. Because Molaison’s seizures were so severe, and because their precise origin could not be determined, his neurosurgeon decided to remove the medial temporal lobe from each hemisphere. Altogether, over 5 centimetres of tissue was ‘sucked out’ from each lobe. This included about two-thirds of each hippocampus, most of each amygdala, and adjacent cerebral cortex from around the hippocampus and amygdala. Although some of the hippocampus and amygdala remained in each lobe, these structures and surrounding neural tissue were so damaged (‘lesioned’) that what was left was believed to be useless.
Medically, the surgery was successful in terms of its goals. Molaison’s seizures declined in their frequency and severity, and could also be controlled with medication. His personality was basically unchanged and almost all cognitive functions remained unaffected. Molaison could conduct a conversation as normally as most people, as long as he was not distracted. He had a good
vocabulary, normal language skills and slightly above-average intelligence. However, there was a huge cost. The surgery left him with serious memory problems. Molaison could not remember things that happened in the period leading up to his operation. This memory loss was virtually ‘total’ for about 2 years pre-surgery and ‘partial’ back to about 10 years pre- surgery. Overall, in relation to episodic memories, he could not remember any event that happened at a specific time
and place but he had retained the gist of personal experiences. He could describe in a general way his life up until his operation.
Research suggested he could learn new motor skills and retain memories of how to complete previously learnt motor skills. He could retain information in his STM as long as he kept repeating and rehearsing that information.
SECTION B – continued TURN OVER
Question 8 (10 marks) Discuss the implications of this piece of research in terms of theoretical concepts related to memory.
In your response address the following: - Define this type of study and describe one advantage and one disadvantage of this type of study - Discuss why HM could recall all events prior to his surgery apart from the last two years before surgery. - What does this study tell us about the role of the hippocampus in terms of storage versus consolidation of long term memories? - Discuss the condition that HM had. - Discuss how elements of HM’s STM and LTM were affected by the operation. - Discuss what this case study suggests about areas of the brain involved in memory.
SECTION B – Question 8 - continued
2018 tssm unit 3 - Practice exam
Subject: VCE Psychology Unit 3/4
Secondary School
• 10
- Discover more from:VCE Psychology Unit 3/436 Documents
- More from:VCE Psychology Unit 3/436 Documents
