Deck 1: Behavioral Sciences

Question 1

Passage
Prominent theories of emotion have long held that alterations in one's internal physiological state are necessary for the experience of emotion.  Interoception involves both the unconscious and conscious perception of one's internal physiological state.  The insula (or insular cortex), located deep within the lateral fissure on both sides of the brain, appears to be largely responsible for interoception.  Studies suggest that the posterior insula (PI) is involved with processing homeostatic afferent information such as pain, temperature, hunger, thirst, and the impulse to breathe.  In contrast, the anterior insula (AI) appears to process information regarding emotional awareness, the conscious experience of emotion.A recent study evaluated AI activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).  Using fMRI, the participants' brain activity was monitored during two different tasks:  an emotion-eliciting task and an interoceptive task.Task 1Participants watched 10 short videos of people recalling personal events that were either negative (eg, surviving a mass shooting attack) or positive (eg, seeing a loved one after a year apart).  After each video, participants rated their reactions on a Likert scale from 1 (no emotional reaction) to 10 (extreme emotional reaction).Task 2Participants were instructed to monitor their own heart rate and press a button each time they felt their heartbeat.  Participants' heart rates were externally monitored to gauge the accuracy of their responses.ResultsNeuroimaging results suggested that both tasks elicited activity in the AI.  Furthermore, there was a high degree of overlap in the activity of the right AI and surrounding limbic and paralimbic brain regions at both the individual and group levels.
J. Zaki, J. I. Davis, and K. N. Ochsner ©2012 by Elsevier, B. V., and A. D. Craig ©2003 by Elsevier, B. V.
The assertion at the beginning of the first paragraph is referring to which of the following theories of emotion?James-LangeSchachter-SingerCannon-Bard

A)I only
B)III only
C)I and II only
D)II and III only

Answer 1

I and II only

Question 2

Passage
Poverty may be the most foundational risk factor for poor health outcomes.  Although poverty thresholds are calculated in a variety of ways, many international organizations define poverty thresholds as 50% of the median household income in a given country.  Since the United States Census Bureau first began publishing an official U.S. poverty estimate in the 1960s, the percentage of the population living in poverty has fluctuated between roughly 10% and 15%.  Extensive research shows a correlation between social stratification and health outcomes, with better outcomes corresponding to higher strata.Concentration of PovertyAccording to U.S. Census Bureau data, roughly 1 in 7 Americans is living in poverty, with almost 14 million residing in "high-poverty" neighborhoods (40% or more of residents below the federally defined poverty threshold), nearly double the amount since 1990.  High-poverty neighborhoods also tend to have the highest rates of violent crime, so living in these neighborhoods poses both immediate (eg, physical assault) and long-term health threats, as living in an unsafe neighborhood acts as a chronic environmental stressor.Poverty and IsolationPoverty also prevents or limits access to many productive social activities, such as working, buying goods and services, community and political involvement, and engagement with social networks.  The most impoverished members of society are often marginalized and may engage with mainstream society very little, if at all.Transmission of PovertyPoverty is transmitted across generations; numerous studies have found that individuals born into poverty are more likely to raise their own children in poverty.  A longitudinal study of 100 households concluded that transmission of poverty occurs because lower-income parents lack economic resources, social connections, and knowledge about the education system, not because they differ from higher-income parents in wanting to help their children succeed.  Experts also suggest that the education system perpetuates income disparities; schools in high-income neighborhoods have the most funding, best teachers, and highest graduation rates, whereas schools in low-income neighborhoods face numerous obstacles to obtaining supplies, retaining qualified teachers, and preventing student attrition.
T. Chin & M. Phillips, "Social Reproduction and Child-rearing Practices:Social Class, Children's Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap." ©2004 SAGE Publications
Which of the following statements is a situational attribution that is consistent with the information in the passage?

A)Individuals born into low-income families remain impoverished because they lack motivation.
B)Individuals from low-income neighborhoods drop out of school due to environmental stressors.
C)Individuals who break the cycle of poverty are more resilient than those who remain impoverished.
D)Individuals just above the poverty threshold have significantly better health than those just below it.

Answer 2

Individuals from low-income neighborhoods drop out of school due to environmental stressors.

Question 3

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Which of the following sociological processes best accounts for the persistent disparities in health outcomes for the subjects in Study 1 and Study 2?

A)Sick role theory
B)Medicalization
C)Socioeconomic gradient in health
D)Social exchange theory

Answer 3

Socioeconomic gradient in health

Question 4

Passage
Research suggests that individuals with depression experience dysfunctions in their autobiographical memory.  For example, negative autobiographical memories are more easily recalled than positive memories, and memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood are more difficult to access while depressed.  In individuals with depression, rumination (repetitive negative thoughts) can also impede autobiographical memory retrieval.Studies have demonstrated that the Method of Loci (MoL), a mnemonic strategy that pairs items to be remembered with well-known visuospatial locations (loci), effectively improves retention and recall over time.  Given this previous research, experimenters hypothesized that training individuals with depression in the MoL technique would improve sustained retrieval of their positive autobiographical memories.  For this study, 125 individuals between ages 25 and 45 with a current diagnosis of depression were recruited (individuals with co-occurring psychological diagnoses were excluded).  Phase 1 screened participants for normal memory function.  Participants were given a list of 25 three-letter nonsense words to memorize (eg, LAR, PAS, FUV), and recall was tested immediately (no delay), and again after 20 minutes, one hour, nine hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.  Those participants who demonstrated normal memory function (n = 122) were then randomly assigned to the MoL group (n = 61) or the control group (n = 61) for the next phase.During phase 2, the MoL group was trained to associate features of a positive autobiographical memory (eg, a marriage proposal) with a well-known route (eg, the route from home to work).  All salient details of the positive memory were mentally associated with loci.  For example, one participant paired the restaurant table where he proposed to his wife with a fire hydrant he passes on his way to work.  The control group was not trained using any specific technique.  Both groups mentally rehearsed their chosen memory every day for one week.  After one week, both groups performed equally well at recalling their selected positive memory.  However, when a surprise recollection memory test was performed a month later, the MoL group performed at levels comparable to their first recollection test, while the control group exhibited significantly reduced recollection.
T. Dalgleish, L. Navrady, E. Bird, E. Hill, B. D. Dunn, and A.M. Golden ©2013 Association for Psychological Science; T. Dalgleish and A. Werner-Seidler ©2014 Elsevier
Based on the study design, which of the following symptoms should NOT be present in any of the participants in this study?

A)Hopelessness
B)Sleep disturbances
C)Mania
D)Lack of pleasure

Question 5

Passage
Research suggests that individuals with depression experience dysfunctions in their autobiographical memory.  For example, negative autobiographical memories are more easily recalled than positive memories, and memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood are more difficult to access while depressed.  In individuals with depression, rumination (repetitive negative thoughts) can also impede autobiographical memory retrieval.Studies have demonstrated that the Method of Loci (MoL), a mnemonic strategy that pairs items to be remembered with well-known visuospatial locations (loci), effectively improves retention and recall over time.  Given this previous research, experimenters hypothesized that training individuals with depression in the MoL technique would improve sustained retrieval of their positive autobiographical memories.  For this study, 125 individuals between ages 25 and 45 with a current diagnosis of depression were recruited (individuals with co-occurring psychological diagnoses were excluded).  Phase 1 screened participants for normal memory function.  Participants were given a list of 25 three-letter nonsense words to memorize (eg, LAR, PAS, FUV), and recall was tested immediately (no delay), and again after 20 minutes, one hour, nine hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.  Those participants who demonstrated normal memory function (n = 122) were then randomly assigned to the MoL group (n = 61) or the control group (n = 61) for the next phase.During phase 2, the MoL group was trained to associate features of a positive autobiographical memory (eg, a marriage proposal) with a well-known route (eg, the route from home to work).  All salient details of the positive memory were mentally associated with loci.  For example, one participant paired the restaurant table where he proposed to his wife with a fire hydrant he passes on his way to work.  The control group was not trained using any specific technique.  Both groups mentally rehearsed their chosen memory every day for one week.  After one week, both groups performed equally well at recalling their selected positive memory.  However, when a surprise recollection memory test was performed a month later, the MoL group performed at levels comparable to their first recollection test, while the control group exhibited significantly reduced recollection.
T. Dalgleish, L. Navrady, E. Bird, E. Hill, B. D. Dunn, and A.M. Golden ©2013 Association for Psychological Science; T. Dalgleish and A. Werner-Seidler ©2014 Elsevier
This study assessed which of the following independent variables?

A)MoL versus no specific technique
B)Depression versus no depression
C)One-week recall versus one-month recall
D)Phase 1 recall versus phase 2 recall

Question 6

Passage
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States.  Suicide risk is associated with a variety of factors.  Personal factors include childhood abuse, certain personality traits (eg, impulsiveness, aggression), and history of mental illness.  Over 90% of people who attempt suicide meet diagnostic criteria for at least one psychological disorder, and suicide risk increases as the number of co-occurring disorders increases.  Diagnosis severity also matters:  studies suggest that individuals are at greatest risk of attempting suicide while inpatient at or newly discharged from a psychiatric hospital.Social factors also play a role in suicide.  Sociologist Émile Durkheim argued that embeddedness in society is a key feature in determining the likelihood of an individual committing suicide.  Specifically, the more people that depend on an individual financially, emotionally, or physically, the less likely that individual is to commit suicide.  Studies suggest that suicide is also linked to religious affiliation and income level.  Religious groups that place more value on community events, church attendance, and collective solidarity tend to have lower rates of suicide among members, whereas more affluent individuals are more likely to commit suicide.Economic trends have also been linked to suicide.  One study retrospectively analyzed the relationship between the U.S. economy and suicide rates.  It found that the overall suicide rate tends to rise during economic recessions and drop during economic expansions (Figure 1).
Figure 1  U.S. suicide rates compared to economic trendsFurther analysis of suicide data suggests that for every individual who successfully commits suicide, approximately 25 individuals are unsuccessful in such attempts, costing the United States billions of dollars annually in both lost wages and treatment expense.  Although white, middle-aged men are the most likely cohort to successfully commit suicide, women attempt suicide three times more often than men.
Which of the following is NOT supported by the passage?

A)
B)
C)
D)

Question 7

Passage
Until recently, deviance has generally been conceptualized as negative.  Positive deviance (PD) is used to describe the atypical behaviors exhibited by some individuals that result in superior outcomes when compared with others in the group.  Despite having similar access to limited resources, some people adopt novel strategies to problem-solve much better than their peers.  For example, rural Vietnamese villages in the 1990s had child malnutrition rates approaching 70%.  Despite this, certain villagers were able to nourish their children by developing innovative strategies that defied social norms.  These villagers fed their children plant parts not traditionally consumed (such as the leaves of the sweet potato plant) and fed them three or four times a day (instead of the customary two meals a day).  In other words, despite a lack of conventionally accepted means, these villagers engaged in alternative behaviors, or PD, to meet the societal goal of providing adequate nourishment to their children.Research into PD has focused on using these innovative individuals to catalyze change in their communities.  A pilot study attempting to spread the techniques of these initial PD villagers within their own community was successful:  Childhood malnutrition dropped by over 80% in two years.  However, the community-based approach to changing health behaviors appears to be crucial:  When an international aid organization attempted to implement a larger program based on these same practices, villagers resisted the imposed changes and it was unsuccessful.Another study assessed how PD can improve outcomes in health care settings.  Patients with difficult-to-manage chronic diseases often hold deeply entrenched beliefs about how to handle their illnesses and ignore alternative strategies.  PD patients, referred to as "bright spotters" in the study, are an exception.  They have successfully managed to control their complex illnesses using innovative approaches such as diet modifications and unique coping mechanisms.  Similar to the pilot study with Vietnamese villagers, preliminary results suggest that peer-led group activities may best allow bright spotters to teach fellow patients how to effectively manage their illnesses.
The innovative strategies employed by PD villagers and bright spotters suggest an ability to overcome all of the following, EXCEPT:

A)mental set.
B)confirmation bias.
C)functional fixedness.
D)the Hawthorne effect.

Question 8

Passage
Until recently, deviance has generally been conceptualized as negative.  Positive deviance (PD) is used to describe the atypical behaviors exhibited by some individuals that result in superior outcomes when compared with others in the group.  Despite having similar access to limited resources, some people adopt novel strategies to problem-solve much better than their peers.  For example, rural Vietnamese villages in the 1990s had child malnutrition rates approaching 70%.  Despite this, certain villagers were able to nourish their children by developing innovative strategies that defied social norms.  These villagers fed their children plant parts not traditionally consumed (such as the leaves of the sweet potato plant) and fed them three or four times a day (instead of the customary two meals a day).  In other words, despite a lack of conventionally accepted means, these villagers engaged in alternative behaviors, or PD, to meet the societal goal of providing adequate nourishment to their children.Research into PD has focused on using these innovative individuals to catalyze change in their communities.  A pilot study attempting to spread the techniques of these initial PD villagers within their own community was successful:  Childhood malnutrition dropped by over 80% in two years.  However, the community-based approach to changing health behaviors appears to be crucial:  When an international aid organization attempted to implement a larger program based on these same practices, villagers resisted the imposed changes and it was unsuccessful.Another study assessed how PD can improve outcomes in health care settings.  Patients with difficult-to-manage chronic diseases often hold deeply entrenched beliefs about how to handle their illnesses and ignore alternative strategies.  PD patients, referred to as "bright spotters" in the study, are an exception.  They have successfully managed to control their complex illnesses using innovative approaches such as diet modifications and unique coping mechanisms.  Similar to the pilot study with Vietnamese villagers, preliminary results suggest that peer-led group activities may best allow bright spotters to teach fellow patients how to effectively manage their illnesses.
The first paragraph describes how certain villagers engaged in initial acts of positive deviance (PD) to nourish their children.  This description of PD engaged in by these villagers is most applicable to which of the following?

A)Differential association theory
B)Strain theory
C)Labeling theory
D)Conflict theory

Question 9

Passage
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States.  Suicide risk is associated with a variety of factors.  Personal factors include childhood abuse, certain personality traits (eg, impulsiveness, aggression), and history of mental illness.  Over 90% of people who attempt suicide meet diagnostic criteria for at least one psychological disorder, and suicide risk increases as the number of co-occurring disorders increases.  Diagnosis severity also matters:  studies suggest that individuals are at greatest risk of attempting suicide while inpatient at or newly discharged from a psychiatric hospital.Social factors also play a role in suicide.  Sociologist Émile Durkheim argued that embeddedness in society is a key feature in determining the likelihood of an individual committing suicide.  Specifically, the more people that depend on an individual financially, emotionally, or physically, the less likely that individual is to commit suicide.  Studies suggest that suicide is also linked to religious affiliation and income level.  Religious groups that place more value on community events, church attendance, and collective solidarity tend to have lower rates of suicide among members, whereas more affluent individuals are more likely to commit suicide.Economic trends have also been linked to suicide.  One study retrospectively analyzed the relationship between the U.S. economy and suicide rates.  It found that the overall suicide rate tends to rise during economic recessions and drop during economic expansions (Figure 1).
Figure 1  U.S. suicide rates compared to economic trendsFurther analysis of suicide data suggests that for every individual who successfully commits suicide, approximately 25 individuals are unsuccessful in such attempts, costing the United States billions of dollars annually in both lost wages and treatment expense.  Although white, middle-aged men are the most likely cohort to successfully commit suicide, women attempt suicide three times more often than men.
Durkheim describes a type of suicide committed by individuals who feel disconnected from society for not providing them a moral compass.  What is the societal condition that occurs when a society does not provide enough moral guidance to individuals?

A)Anomie
B)Cultural relativism
C)Relative deprivation
D)Deindividuation

Question 10

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Which of the following concepts LEAST helps to explain the results of Study 1?

A)Accessibility disparities
B)Institutional discrimination
C)Meritocracy
D)Relative poverty

Question 11

Passage
Poverty may be the most foundational risk factor for poor health outcomes.  Although poverty thresholds are calculated in a variety of ways, many international organizations define poverty thresholds as 50% of the median household income in a given country.  Since the United States Census Bureau first began publishing an official U.S. poverty estimate in the 1960s, the percentage of the population living in poverty has fluctuated between roughly 10% and 15%.  Extensive research shows a correlation between social stratification and health outcomes, with better outcomes corresponding to higher strata.Concentration of PovertyAccording to U.S. Census Bureau data, roughly 1 in 7 Americans is living in poverty, with almost 14 million residing in "high-poverty" neighborhoods (40% or more of residents below the federally defined poverty threshold), nearly double the amount since 1990.  High-poverty neighborhoods also tend to have the highest rates of violent crime, so living in these neighborhoods poses both immediate (eg, physical assault) and long-term health threats, as living in an unsafe neighborhood acts as a chronic environmental stressor.Poverty and IsolationPoverty also prevents or limits access to many productive social activities, such as working, buying goods and services, community and political involvement, and engagement with social networks.  The most impoverished members of society are often marginalized and may engage with mainstream society very little, if at all.Transmission of PovertyPoverty is transmitted across generations; numerous studies have found that individuals born into poverty are more likely to raise their own children in poverty.  A longitudinal study of 100 households concluded that transmission of poverty occurs because lower-income parents lack economic resources, social connections, and knowledge about the education system, not because they differ from higher-income parents in wanting to help their children succeed.  Experts also suggest that the education system perpetuates income disparities; schools in high-income neighborhoods have the most funding, best teachers, and highest graduation rates, whereas schools in low-income neighborhoods face numerous obstacles to obtaining supplies, retaining qualified teachers, and preventing student attrition.
T. Chin & M. Phillips, "Social Reproduction and Child-rearing Practices:Social Class, Children's Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap." ©2004 SAGE Publications
The third paragraph most directly describes the relationship between poverty and:

A)social control.
B)social exclusion.
C)false consciousness.
D)McDonaldization.

Question 12

Passage
Prominent theories of emotion have long held that alterations in one's internal physiological state are necessary for the experience of emotion.  Interoception involves both the unconscious and conscious perception of one's internal physiological state.  The insula (or insular cortex), located deep within the lateral fissure on both sides of the brain, appears to be largely responsible for interoception.  Studies suggest that the posterior insula (PI) is involved with processing homeostatic afferent information such as pain, temperature, hunger, thirst, and the impulse to breathe.  In contrast, the anterior insula (AI) appears to process information regarding emotional awareness, the conscious experience of emotion.A recent study evaluated AI activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).  Using fMRI, the participants' brain activity was monitored during two different tasks:  an emotion-eliciting task and an interoceptive task.Task 1Participants watched 10 short videos of people recalling personal events that were either negative (eg, surviving a mass shooting attack) or positive (eg, seeing a loved one after a year apart).  After each video, participants rated their reactions on a Likert scale from 1 (no emotional reaction) to 10 (extreme emotional reaction).Task 2Participants were instructed to monitor their own heart rate and press a button each time they felt their heartbeat.  Participants' heart rates were externally monitored to gauge the accuracy of their responses.ResultsNeuroimaging results suggested that both tasks elicited activity in the AI.  Furthermore, there was a high degree of overlap in the activity of the right AI and surrounding limbic and paralimbic brain regions at both the individual and group levels.
J. Zaki, J. I. Davis, and K. N. Ochsner ©2012 by Elsevier, B. V., and A. D. Craig ©2003 by Elsevier, B. V.
If subjects from around the world were shown photographs of participants' faces during Task 1 and asked to identify the participants' facial expressions, on which of the following facial expressions would the subjects most likely agree?

A)Disgust
B)Worry
C)Jealousy
D)Excitement

Question 13

Passage
Epidemiologists now consider obesity to be a global pandemic, occurring largely as a result of the spread of technology and culture worldwide.  Obesity has been linked to many serious health conditions, and as the obesity rate rises, the overall poorer health of the population impairs the functioning and stability of society.  Although experts disagree about whether obesity itself should be viewed as a disease to be treated with medical interventions, there is widespread consensus that obesity prevention is critical.  Research has shown that across one's life span, multiple biological, psychological, and social influences contribute to obesity; understanding the influence of these factors is essential to the development of effective obesity prevention programs.Study 1 was conducted using nearly 6,000 residents from a mid-sized city to investigate how obesity rates change over time in informal social groups.  During recruitment wave A, researchers asked an initial group of individuals to complete a two-minute health questionnaire; those who completed the questionnaire were then asked to participate in the research study.  During recruitment wave B, additional participants were recruited using a snowball sampling technique:  participants who enrolled during wave A provided contact information of friends and family members who were then asked to participate.  Researchers finalized the sample such that each participant had at least one family member, one close friend, and one acquaintance also in the study.  Every year for 20 years, researchers measured each participant's height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) and conducted an extensive interview with each participant to assess the type, strength, and geographic distance of their social ties with other participants.  Researchers found that the type and strength of social ties appeared to be more strongly linked to BMI than geographic closeness between social ties.Study 1 was criticized for not addressing larger contextual variables related to obesity, such as the availability of unhealthy food within a community.  Therefore, Study 2 randomly selected a subset of 500 cases from the Study 1 database and, using participants' addresses, researchers mapped and counted the number of retail food chains (ie, "fast food" restaurants selling low-quality, calorie-dense food) located within a 1-mile radius of participants' homes and compared this to BMI at the end of the 20-year study.  Results showed a significant relationship between higher BMI and more neighborhood retail food chains.
J. A. Levine ©2011 American Diabetes Association; Christakis, N. A. and Fowler, J. H. ©2007 Massachusetts Medical Society
Study 1 assessed how obesity rates changed over time in:

A)social strata.
B)social networks.
C)age cohorts.
D)organizations.

Question 14

Passage
Research suggests that individuals with depression experience dysfunctions in their autobiographical memory.  For example, negative autobiographical memories are more easily recalled than positive memories, and memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood are more difficult to access while depressed.  In individuals with depression, rumination (repetitive negative thoughts) can also impede autobiographical memory retrieval.Studies have demonstrated that the Method of Loci (MoL), a mnemonic strategy that pairs items to be remembered with well-known visuospatial locations (loci), effectively improves retention and recall over time.  Given this previous research, experimenters hypothesized that training individuals with depression in the MoL technique would improve sustained retrieval of their positive autobiographical memories.  For this study, 125 individuals between ages 25 and 45 with a current diagnosis of depression were recruited (individuals with co-occurring psychological diagnoses were excluded).  Phase 1 screened participants for normal memory function.  Participants were given a list of 25 three-letter nonsense words to memorize (eg, LAR, PAS, FUV), and recall was tested immediately (no delay), and again after 20 minutes, one hour, nine hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.  Those participants who demonstrated normal memory function (n = 122) were then randomly assigned to the MoL group (n = 61) or the control group (n = 61) for the next phase.During phase 2, the MoL group was trained to associate features of a positive autobiographical memory (eg, a marriage proposal) with a well-known route (eg, the route from home to work).  All salient details of the positive memory were mentally associated with loci.  For example, one participant paired the restaurant table where he proposed to his wife with a fire hydrant he passes on his way to work.  The control group was not trained using any specific technique.  Both groups mentally rehearsed their chosen memory every day for one week.  After one week, both groups performed equally well at recalling their selected positive memory.  However, when a surprise recollection memory test was performed a month later, the MoL group performed at levels comparable to their first recollection test, while the control group exhibited significantly reduced recollection.
T. Dalgleish, L. Navrady, E. Bird, E. Hill, B. D. Dunn, and A.M. Golden ©2013 Association for Psychological Science; T. Dalgleish and A. Werner-Seidler ©2014 Elsevier
This study found that the method of loci (MoL) technique improved:

A)retrieval of an episodic memory.
B)retrieval of a semantic memory.
C)encoding of an episodic memory.
D)encoding of a semantic memory.

Question 15

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Most of the participants in Study 1 live in lower-income neighborhoods.  Which of the following is NOT a factor in the physical environment that helps explain disparities in health outcomes for these individuals?

A)Ambient stress
B)Environmental injustice
C)McDonaldization
D)Residential segregation

Question 16

Passage
Epidemiologists now consider obesity to be a global pandemic, occurring largely as a result of the spread of technology and culture worldwide.  Obesity has been linked to many serious health conditions, and as the obesity rate rises, the overall poorer health of the population impairs the functioning and stability of society.  Although experts disagree about whether obesity itself should be viewed as a disease to be treated with medical interventions, there is widespread consensus that obesity prevention is critical.  Research has shown that across one's life span, multiple biological, psychological, and social influences contribute to obesity; understanding the influence of these factors is essential to the development of effective obesity prevention programs.Study 1 was conducted using nearly 6,000 residents from a mid-sized city to investigate how obesity rates change over time in informal social groups.  During recruitment wave A, researchers asked an initial group of individuals to complete a two-minute health questionnaire; those who completed the questionnaire were then asked to participate in the research study.  During recruitment wave B, additional participants were recruited using a snowball sampling technique:  participants who enrolled during wave A provided contact information of friends and family members who were then asked to participate.  Researchers finalized the sample such that each participant had at least one family member, one close friend, and one acquaintance also in the study.  Every year for 20 years, researchers measured each participant's height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) and conducted an extensive interview with each participant to assess the type, strength, and geographic distance of their social ties with other participants.  Researchers found that the type and strength of social ties appeared to be more strongly linked to BMI than geographic closeness between social ties.Study 1 was criticized for not addressing larger contextual variables related to obesity, such as the availability of unhealthy food within a community.  Therefore, Study 2 randomly selected a subset of 500 cases from the Study 1 database and, using participants' addresses, researchers mapped and counted the number of retail food chains (ie, "fast food" restaurants selling low-quality, calorie-dense food) located within a 1-mile radius of participants' homes and compared this to BMI at the end of the 20-year study.  Results showed a significant relationship between higher BMI and more neighborhood retail food chains.
J. A. Levine ©2011 American Diabetes Association; Christakis, N. A. and Fowler, J. H. ©2007 Massachusetts Medical Society
According to the first paragraph, experts disagree about whether:

A)the life course approach applies to obesity.
B)the biopsychosocial nature of risk factors impacts obesity prevention.
C)the obesity pandemic is linked to globalization.
D)the medicalization of obesity is appropriate.

Question 17

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Racial or ethnic discordance between patient and physician may result in increased distrust by the patient because the physician is a member of:

A)a primary group.
B)a reference group.
C)a secondary group.
D)an out-group.

Question 18

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Based on the description of Study 2, which of the following statements identifies a potential methodological error of the study's design?

A)The physicians were unaware of the study's purpose, which may have resulted in experimenter bias.
B)The physicians were unaware of the study's purpose, which may have resulted in question-order bias.
C)The subjects were not randomly chosen, which may have resulted in sampling bias.
D)The subjects were not randomly chosen, which may have resulted in social desirability bias.

Question 19

Passage
Both institutional and interpersonal factors contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes for minorities in the U.S.  In Study 1, researchers sought to categorize the major factors contributing to the disparity by surveying 2,000 African American and 3,000 Hispanic residents in a major metropolitan city.  Of those surveyed, 64% met federal guidelines for living at or below the poverty threshold even though 90% of those surveyed were employed.  When asked, "What prevents you from going to the doctor?" the most common responses were financial considerations (92%), inability to get time off from work for appointments (85%), lack of transportation (52%), difficulty communicating with the health care provider (51%), and fear/distrust of the health care system (48%).Interpersonally, patients tend to fare better when their physician is of their same racial or ethnic background.  Study 2 observed all Hispanic patients (n = 110) who visited a clinic in an urban lower-income community over one week.  Patients met with either a Hispanic physician (n = 43) or a white, non-Hispanic physician (n = 67).  The Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Monday or Tuesday, and the white, non-Hispanic physician saw the patients who visited the clinic on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  Both physicians were men who spoke Spanish fluently, had been working at the clinic for 8-10 years, and were unaware of the study's purpose beforehand.  This study collected data on the duration of the face-to-face appointment time with the physician, medication adherence one month after the appointment, and the number of symptoms disclosed to the physician by the patient.  Ninety-eight of the patients were already on medication or were prescribed new medication at the time of their appointment, and patients were contacted one month later for assessment of adherence.  The results of this study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Average appointment time (minutes), medication adherence (percent), and number of symptoms disclosed according to patient-physician ethnic discordance vs. concordance
Adapted from W. Yost, (C)2007 Academic Press.
Benzodiazepines, often used to treat anxiety, can have adverse and harmful effects when taken for an extended period.  Suppose the Hispanic physician in Study 2 has a patient who asks for a refill of her benzodiazepine prescription.  He wants to help his patient with her anxiety, but he is also concerned about the extended use of this drug.  This scenario best illustrates:

A)role conflict.
B)role exit.
C)role strain.
D)role taking.

Question 20

Passage
Research suggests that individuals with depression experience dysfunctions in their autobiographical memory.  For example, negative autobiographical memories are more easily recalled than positive memories, and memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood are more difficult to access while depressed.  In individuals with depression, rumination (repetitive negative thoughts) can also impede autobiographical memory retrieval.Studies have demonstrated that the Method of Loci (MoL), a mnemonic strategy that pairs items to be remembered with well-known visuospatial locations (loci), effectively improves retention and recall over time.  Given this previous research, experimenters hypothesized that training individuals with depression in the MoL technique would improve sustained retrieval of their positive autobiographical memories.  For this study, 125 individuals between ages 25 and 45 with a current diagnosis of depression were recruited (individuals with co-occurring psychological diagnoses were excluded).  Phase 1 screened participants for normal memory function.  Participants were given a list of 25 three-letter nonsense words to memorize (eg, LAR, PAS, FUV), and recall was tested immediately (no delay), and again after 20 minutes, one hour, nine hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.  Those participants who demonstrated normal memory function (n = 122) were then randomly assigned to the MoL group (n = 61) or the control group (n = 61) for the next phase.During phase 2, the MoL group was trained to associate features of a positive autobiographical memory (eg, a marriage proposal) with a well-known route (eg, the route from home to work).  All salient details of the positive memory were mentally associated with loci.  For example, one participant paired the restaurant table where he proposed to his wife with a fire hydrant he passes on his way to work.  The control group was not trained using any specific technique.  Both groups mentally rehearsed their chosen memory every day for one week.  After one week, both groups performed equally well at recalling their selected positive memory.  However, when a surprise recollection memory test was performed a month later, the MoL group performed at levels comparable to their first recollection test, while the control group exhibited significantly reduced recollection.
T. Dalgleish, L. Navrady, E. Bird, E. Hill, B. D. Dunn, and A.M. Golden ©2013 Association for Psychological Science; T. Dalgleish and A. Werner-Seidler ©2014 Elsevier
Which of the following best explains the memory dysfunction described in the first paragraph?  For individuals with depression, retrieval of memories encoded while experiencing a positive mood appears to be impeded by:

A)primacy effects.
B)role-playing effects.
C)practice effects.
D)state-dependent effects.

Question 21

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
A mechanism for researchers to monitor a dream state would be provided by tracking which of the following?

A)Closed-eye movements
B)Electroencephalography measurements of K-complexes
C)Spikes in growth hormone release
D)Sudden body movements

Question 22

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
Compared with the study described in the second paragraph, the proposed follow-up study should demonstrate:

A)less internal and external validity.
B)less internal validity but greater external validity.
C)greater internal validity but less external validity.
D)greater internal and external validity.

Question 23

Passage
Poverty may be the most foundational risk factor for poor health outcomes.  Although poverty thresholds are calculated in a variety of ways, many international organizations define poverty thresholds as 50% of the median household income in a given country.  Since the United States Census Bureau first began publishing an official U.S. poverty estimate in the 1960s, the percentage of the population living in poverty has fluctuated between roughly 10% and 15%.  Extensive research shows a correlation between social stratification and health outcomes, with better outcomes corresponding to higher strata.Concentration of PovertyAccording to U.S. Census Bureau data, roughly 1 in 7 Americans is living in poverty, with almost 14 million residing in "high-poverty" neighborhoods (40% or more of residents below the federally defined poverty threshold), nearly double the amount since 1990.  High-poverty neighborhoods also tend to have the highest rates of violent crime, so living in these neighborhoods poses both immediate (eg, physical assault) and long-term health threats, as living in an unsafe neighborhood acts as a chronic environmental stressor.Poverty and IsolationPoverty also prevents or limits access to many productive social activities, such as working, buying goods and services, community and political involvement, and engagement with social networks.  The most impoverished members of society are often marginalized and may engage with mainstream society very little, if at all.Transmission of PovertyPoverty is transmitted across generations; numerous studies have found that individuals born into poverty are more likely to raise their own children in poverty.  A longitudinal study of 100 households concluded that transmission of poverty occurs because lower-income parents lack economic resources, social connections, and knowledge about the education system, not because they differ from higher-income parents in wanting to help their children succeed.  Experts also suggest that the education system perpetuates income disparities; schools in high-income neighborhoods have the most funding, best teachers, and highest graduation rates, whereas schools in low-income neighborhoods face numerous obstacles to obtaining supplies, retaining qualified teachers, and preventing student attrition.
T. Chin & M. Phillips, "Social Reproduction and Child-rearing Practices:Social Class, Children's Agency, and the Summer Activity Gap." ©2004 SAGE Publications
The conclusion drawn from the longitudinal study described in the final paragraph would be best supported by a follow-up study that found a:

A)positive correlation between children's educational attainment and their parents' cultural capital.
B)positive correlation between parents' educational attainment and their desire to help their children succeed.
C)negative correlation between children's future earnings and their parents' economic capital.
D)negative correlation between children's future earnings and their parents' desire to help their children succeed.

Question 24

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
If a lucid dreamer falls asleep at 10:00 PM and wakes up at 6:00 AM, during what period of sleep would this person have the greatest chance of lucid dreaming?

A)Between 10:00 PM and 11:30 PM
B)Between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM
C)Between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM
D)Chances of lucid dreaming are roughly equal throughout sleep

Question 25

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
If the researchers wanted to examine the role of sleep in memory consolidation, which of the following groups, if added to the current study design, would best accomplish this goal?

A)A group of lucid dreamers who practiced the task both while sleeping and while awake.
B)A group of nonlucid dreamers who practiced the task but did not sleep between the pretest and posttest.
C)A group of nonlucid dreamers who did not practice the task and did not sleep between the pretest and posttest.
D)No additional groups are needed; this can be accomplished by comparing the results of the "waking practice" group with the "no practice" group.

Question 26

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
During Task 1, the researcher found that subjects' response time was slower and color identification accuracy was worse during the natural condition.  Which of the following best accounts for this finding?

A)Color and motion are processed simultaneously.
B)Color information is processed slower than motion.
C)Motion is processed in the retina whereas color is processed in the occipital lobe.
D)Color and motion information are transmitted to the brain via the same pathway.

Question 27

Passage
Language is a skill acquired during early childhood that continues to develop for many years.  Communication using language involves multiple complex processes, including listening, speaking, comprehension, and cognition.  Receptive language ("language input") involves language comprehension, while expressive language ("language output") involves the ability to produce intelligible language.  In normally developing children, receptive language emerges first, followed by expressive language.To examine how age plays a role in the activation of the neurological networks involved in processing more complex language, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze how the use of receptive language generates metabolic activity in the brains of children.  A total of 672 participants were divided into three groups by age:  Age 4-6 (n = 219), age 7-9 (n = 224), and age 10-12 (n = 229).Participants in each group were asked to listen to pre-recorded stories while undergoing fMRI of the brain to determine if an age-related difference could be found in activated brain tissue volume during the listening task.  The recorded fMRI-monitored listening portion of the experiment lasted approximately 5 minutes.  Immediately following this listening exercise, fMRI monitoring was discontinued and the children were administered tests to determine comprehension of the material.  None of the children had been informed that they would be taking a comprehension test prior to its actual administration.
Figure 1  fMRI listening task analyzed per age group: (A) comprehension test scores, and (B) brain volume activated  (Note: Solid lines represent the mean in each group.)
M. M. Berl, E. S. Duke, J. Mayo, L. R. Rosenberger, E. N. Moore, J. VanMeter, N. Bernstein Ratner, C. J. Vaidya, and W. D. Gaillard ©2010 by Elsevier, Inc.
A proponent of the universalism perspective would state that the results in Figure 1B support the belief that:

A)cognition is influenced by language.
B)cognition is required for language.
C)language and cognition develop via social interaction.
D)language is necessary for cognition.

Question 28

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
All subjects performed better in Task 1 when the objects were presented near the center of the visual field as opposed to the periphery because:

A)the fovea contains the greatest density of cones in the retina.
B)the fovea is more vascularized than the rest of the retina.
C)the optic disc contains the greatest density of cones in the retina.
D)the optic disc is more vascularized than the rest of the retina.

Question 29

Passage
Language is a skill acquired during early childhood that continues to develop for many years.  Communication using language involves multiple complex processes, including listening, speaking, comprehension, and cognition.  Receptive language ("language input") involves language comprehension, while expressive language ("language output") involves the ability to produce intelligible language.  In normally developing children, receptive language emerges first, followed by expressive language.To examine how age plays a role in the activation of the neurological networks involved in processing more complex language, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze how the use of receptive language generates metabolic activity in the brains of children.  A total of 672 participants were divided into three groups by age:  Age 4-6 (n = 219), age 7-9 (n = 224), and age 10-12 (n = 229).Participants in each group were asked to listen to pre-recorded stories while undergoing fMRI of the brain to determine if an age-related difference could be found in activated brain tissue volume during the listening task.  The recorded fMRI-monitored listening portion of the experiment lasted approximately 5 minutes.  Immediately following this listening exercise, fMRI monitoring was discontinued and the children were administered tests to determine comprehension of the material.  None of the children had been informed that they would be taking a comprehension test prior to its actual administration.
Figure 1  fMRI listening task analyzed per age group: (A) comprehension test scores, and (B) brain volume activated  (Note: Solid lines represent the mean in each group.)
M. M. Berl, E. S. Duke, J. Mayo, L. R. Rosenberger, E. N. Moore, J. VanMeter, N. Bernstein Ratner, C. J. Vaidya, and W. D. Gaillard ©2010 by Elsevier, Inc.
The observed correlations presented in Figure 1 suggest all of the following EXCEPT:

A)the age group with the best comprehension also showed the greatest volume of brain activation.
B)younger children were not able to comprehend the stories as effectively as older children.
C)activating a greater volume of the brain resulted in improved reading comprehension.
D)age is positively correlated with volume of brain activation in children listening to stories.

Question 30

Passage
Language is a skill acquired during early childhood that continues to develop for many years.  Communication using language involves multiple complex processes, including listening, speaking, comprehension, and cognition.  Receptive language ("language input") involves language comprehension, while expressive language ("language output") involves the ability to produce intelligible language.  In normally developing children, receptive language emerges first, followed by expressive language.To examine how age plays a role in the activation of the neurological networks involved in processing more complex language, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze how the use of receptive language generates metabolic activity in the brains of children.  A total of 672 participants were divided into three groups by age:  Age 4-6 (n = 219), age 7-9 (n = 224), and age 10-12 (n = 229).Participants in each group were asked to listen to pre-recorded stories while undergoing fMRI of the brain to determine if an age-related difference could be found in activated brain tissue volume during the listening task.  The recorded fMRI-monitored listening portion of the experiment lasted approximately 5 minutes.  Immediately following this listening exercise, fMRI monitoring was discontinued and the children were administered tests to determine comprehension of the material.  None of the children had been informed that they would be taking a comprehension test prior to its actual administration.
Figure 1  fMRI listening task analyzed per age group: (A) comprehension test scores, and (B) brain volume activated  (Note: Solid lines represent the mean in each group.)
M. M. Berl, E. S. Duke, J. Mayo, L. R. Rosenberger, E. N. Moore, J. VanMeter, N. Bernstein Ratner, C. J. Vaidya, and W. D. Gaillard ©2010 by Elsevier, Inc.
Does the concept of the critical period of language development help explain the differences between the age groups seen in this study?

A)Yes, because only the youngest age group was still within the critical period of language development
B)No, because all the children studied were likely still within the critical period of language development
C)Yes, because older children demonstrated greater brain volume activation than younger children
D)No, because there does not appear to be a connection between brain volume activation and language comprehension

Question 31

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
Which hypothetical result from a study on tetrachromatic monozygotic (MZ) twins separated at birth and raised by different parents would provide the strongest evidence contradicting the conclusion in the final paragraph of the passage?  Tetrachromatic MZ twins' color discrimination abilities are more similar to each other than to:

A)the general population.
B)their biological siblings.
C)their biological parents.
D)their adoptive siblings.

Question 32

Passage
Language is a skill acquired during early childhood that continues to develop for many years.  Communication using language involves multiple complex processes, including listening, speaking, comprehension, and cognition.  Receptive language ("language input") involves language comprehension, while expressive language ("language output") involves the ability to produce intelligible language.  In normally developing children, receptive language emerges first, followed by expressive language.To examine how age plays a role in the activation of the neurological networks involved in processing more complex language, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze how the use of receptive language generates metabolic activity in the brains of children.  A total of 672 participants were divided into three groups by age:  Age 4-6 (n = 219), age 7-9 (n = 224), and age 10-12 (n = 229).Participants in each group were asked to listen to pre-recorded stories while undergoing fMRI of the brain to determine if an age-related difference could be found in activated brain tissue volume during the listening task.  The recorded fMRI-monitored listening portion of the experiment lasted approximately 5 minutes.  Immediately following this listening exercise, fMRI monitoring was discontinued and the children were administered tests to determine comprehension of the material.  None of the children had been informed that they would be taking a comprehension test prior to its actual administration.
Figure 1  fMRI listening task analyzed per age group: (A) comprehension test scores, and (B) brain volume activated  (Note: Solid lines represent the mean in each group.)
M. M. Berl, E. S. Duke, J. Mayo, L. R. Rosenberger, E. N. Moore, J. VanMeter, N. Bernstein Ratner, C. J. Vaidya, and W. D. Gaillard ©2010 by Elsevier, Inc.
According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the children in the group:

A)age 4-6 are currently unable to think symbolically using language.
B)age 7-9 are currently unable to grasp the concept of conservation.
C)with the best comprehension scores can manipulate concrete concepts mentally.
D)with the poorest comprehension scores have yet to achieve object permanence.

Question 33

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
Which of the following conclusions is most supported by Figure 1?

A)An individual from the "lucid practice" group demonstrated the lowest improvement of all members.
B)The difference in task improvement between the "lucid practice" group and the "no practice" group was statistically significant.
C)The "lucid practice" group's lowest quartile improved more on the task than the "no practice" group's highest quartile.
D)The mean score for the "waking practice" group was higher than the mode scores for the other two groups.

Question 34

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
The researcher's conclusion is best aligned with the:

A)nativist hypothesis.
B)opponent-process theory.
C)Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
D)Young-Helmholtz theory.

Question 35

Passage
Lucid dreaming occurs when a person becomes consciously aware of a dream and uses executive decision-making skills to critically analyze the dream environment.  Lucid dreamers are thus able to control certain aspects of their dreams, an ability that may occur intentionally, through practice, or unintentionally, usually after having noticed something bizarre or unrealistic in the dream.  A lucid dreamer might choose to experience the sensation of flying, explore a custom-designed landscape, carry out a predetermined task, or practice a skill.  Estimates suggest that about half the population has had a lucid dream, and about 10%-20% of people are considered frequent lucid dreamers experiencing such dreams regularly (at least once a month).In one study, researchers asked participants to perform a difficult visuomotor task that involved throwing an object through a small moving target.  Participants were organized into three groups, one group of frequent lucid dreamers and two groups of nonlucid dreamers.  All three groups attempted the visuomotor task at midday in the research lab, before (pretest) and after (posttest) a single night's sleep at home.  Lucid dreamers were asked to only practice the visuomotor task overnight during their lucid dream ("lucid practice" group).  One group of nonlucid dreamers practiced the task in the lab, right after the pretest ("waking practice" group), and another group of nonlucid dreamers performed the pretest and posttest without practicing between the tests ("no practice" group).  The average improvement of hits (the number of times each participant successfully threw the object through the target) from pretest to posttest for each group is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Median improvement in total hits for each group  (Note: The notches represent the 95% confidence interval for the median.)The researchers proposed that a follow-up study be devised and conducted to control for any potential variability in each participant's sleep at home.  The researchers suggested using the same study procedure except participants would sleep overnight for five consecutive nights in a sleep lab, where the timing and duration of sleep would be standardized.  In order to eliminate any potential "first-night effects" (an initial reduction in sleep quality when sleeping in an unfamiliar environment), researchers proposed that pretest and posttest measures each be taken before and after the third, fourth, and fifth night's sleep.
If a neuroimaging study compared normal dreaming with lucid dreaming, in what brain region would more activity be expected during lucid dreaming?

A)Cerebellum
B)Prefrontal cortex
C)Amygdala
D)Primary visual cortex

Question 36

Passage
Language is a skill acquired during early childhood that continues to develop for many years.  Communication using language involves multiple complex processes, including listening, speaking, comprehension, and cognition.  Receptive language ("language input") involves language comprehension, while expressive language ("language output") involves the ability to produce intelligible language.  In normally developing children, receptive language emerges first, followed by expressive language.To examine how age plays a role in the activation of the neurological networks involved in processing more complex language, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze how the use of receptive language generates metabolic activity in the brains of children.  A total of 672 participants were divided into three groups by age:  Age 4-6 (n = 219), age 7-9 (n = 224), and age 10-12 (n = 229).Participants in each group were asked to listen to pre-recorded stories while undergoing fMRI of the brain to determine if an age-related difference could be found in activated brain tissue volume during the listening task.  The recorded fMRI-monitored listening portion of the experiment lasted approximately 5 minutes.  Immediately following this listening exercise, fMRI monitoring was discontinued and the children were administered tests to determine comprehension of the material.  None of the children had been informed that they would be taking a comprehension test prior to its actual administration.
Figure 1  fMRI listening task analyzed per age group: (A) comprehension test scores, and (B) brain volume activated  (Note: Solid lines represent the mean in each group.)
M. M. Berl, E. S. Duke, J. Mayo, L. R. Rosenberger, E. N. Moore, J. VanMeter, N. Bernstein Ratner, C. J. Vaidya, and W. D. Gaillard ©2010 by Elsevier, Inc.
Which of the following explanations for the results shown in Figure 1A most aligns with the learning theory of language development?

A)The children developed their language skills through exposure to the environment, operant conditioning, and imitation and repetition of language.
B)The children who scored well on comprehension tests have learned that achievement is rewarded, motivating them to think more actively during the listening exercise.
C)Older children's performances on the comprehension task were driven by both biological factors and exposure to social situations.
D)Older children were able to learn the reading material more effectively because they had already passed the critical period of language development.

Question 37

Passage
Numerous studies suggest that physicians make both conscious and unconscious assumptions about their patients, and these assumptions often impact patient care and outcomes.  However, little research has focused on the assumptions patients make about their physicians.Researchers designed an observational study to investigate assumptions made by patients in health care settings.  For this study, three different surgeons were asked to interact with pre-surgery patients whom they had never met using a standardized script.  Each surgeon participated in 30 total interactions over the course of two weeks.  The purpose of the study was to assess how the patient's assumptions regarding the surgeon's status were impacted by the surgeon's race, gender, and attire.According to the script, the surgeon did not introduce him- or herself upon entering the room.  All three surgeons were in their late 40s; one surgeon was a black woman, one was a black man, and one was a white man.  The surgeons wore either surgical scrubs alone or a white coat over their surgical scrubs.  Researchers analyzed how patients addressed or referred to the surgeon to assess assumptions about the surgeon's role as a doctor or a nurse.  The results are presented in Table 1.Table 1  Percentage of Patients Who Assumed the Surgeon Was a Doctor or a Nurse
The researchers also retrospectively analyzed minor (non-life-threatening) surgical errors and postoperative patient outcomes for one month prior to the study and during the study timeframe for each surgeon.  The number of minor errors was averaged per surgery, and postoperative patient outcomes were quantified using a multifactor (eg, pain, infection, bleeding, other complications) assessment scale of 1 (worst outcome) to 12 (best outcome).Table 2  Average Number of Minor Surgical Errors (Per Surgery) and Aggregated Postoperative Patient Outcome Scores

The study described in the passage is most directly evaluating which of the following sociological theories?

A)Conflict
B)Symbolic interactionism
C)Structural functionalism
D)Social exchange

Question 38

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
The study described in the passage would best be categorized as which of the following?

A)Longitudinal study
B)Case study
C)Cross-sectional study
D)Randomized controlled trial

Question 39

Passage
Numerous studies suggest that physicians make both conscious and unconscious assumptions about their patients, and these assumptions often impact patient care and outcomes.  However, little research has focused on the assumptions patients make about their physicians.Researchers designed an observational study to investigate assumptions made by patients in health care settings.  For this study, three different surgeons were asked to interact with pre-surgery patients whom they had never met using a standardized script.  Each surgeon participated in 30 total interactions over the course of two weeks.  The purpose of the study was to assess how the patient's assumptions regarding the surgeon's status were impacted by the surgeon's race, gender, and attire.According to the script, the surgeon did not introduce him- or herself upon entering the room.  All three surgeons were in their late 40s; one surgeon was a black woman, one was a black man, and one was a white man.  The surgeons wore either surgical scrubs alone or a white coat over their surgical scrubs.  Researchers analyzed how patients addressed or referred to the surgeon to assess assumptions about the surgeon's role as a doctor or a nurse.  The results are presented in Table 1.Table 1  Percentage of Patients Who Assumed the Surgeon Was a Doctor or a Nurse
The researchers also retrospectively analyzed minor (non-life-threatening) surgical errors and postoperative patient outcomes for one month prior to the study and during the study timeframe for each surgeon.  The number of minor errors was averaged per surgery, and postoperative patient outcomes were quantified using a multifactor (eg, pain, infection, bleeding, other complications) assessment scale of 1 (worst outcome) to 12 (best outcome).Table 2  Average Number of Minor Surgical Errors (Per Surgery) and Aggregated Postoperative Patient Outcome Scores

For the 48-year-old black female surgeon, which of the following are correctly paired?

A)Ascribed status:  surgeon
B)Achieved status:  physician
C)Ascribed status:  nurse
D)Achieved status:  woman

Question 40

Passage
Of the biological factors impacting color perception in humans, one of the easiest to study is the number and type of color-sensitive photoreceptors.  The human retina typically contains three types of cone photoreceptors, which contain opsin proteins that are sensitive to short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of light (Figure 1A).The genes that encode for medium and long wavelength-sensitive opsin proteins are located on the X chromosome.  Mutations in these genes often produce a variant cone type that responds to wavelengths overlapping the response range of one of the normal cone types, so color perception is unaltered (Figure 1B).  However, in a small percentage of women, the variant cone type appears to be sensitive to a range of wavelengths that differs from that of normal cone types (Figure 1C).  It is hypothesized that these "tetrachromatic" women may be able to distinguish more colors than can the normal trichromatic population.
Figure 1  Response curves for (A) three cone types (trichromat, normal color perception); (B) four cone types (likely normal color perception); and (C) four cone types (tetrachromat, hypothesized enhanced color perception)A researcher conducted a series of tasks to assess the extent to which color perception of tetrachromatic subjects differs from that of trichromatic controls.  Three women known to possess four retinal cone classes were recruited for the study.  One of the women had experienced a small lesion to her right primary visual cortex the year prior.  In addition, two women with normal trichromatic vision were recruited as controls (Table 1).Table 1  Characteristics of Subjects
In Task 1, participants identified the colors of objects that were stationary (artificial condition) and in motion (natural condition).  Under both conditions, the researcher systematically varied where the objects were presented in the subjects' visual field.  Task 2 was a standardized, computer-administered color-discrimination task.  Task 3 was an extensive interview that assessed the subjects' subjective experience of color.Subject 1 was able to identify more colors than the controls under all experimental conditions, and Subject 2 and Subject 3 performed marginally better than controls in some of the experimental conditions.  Notably, only Subject 1 was able to verbalize her thoughts about her atypical color perception during Task 3, where she described seeing nuances in colors using words she had learned from her mother, who was also a tetrachromat and an artist.  The researcher concluded that language likely plays a significant role in color perception: Without a vocabulary for the full variety of colors tetrachromats can perceive, they are limited in their perception despite their biological trait.
S. S. Deeb ©2005 John Wiley & Sons; K. A. Jameson, A. D. Winkler, and K. Goldfarb ©2016 IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging.
Subject 3 would NOT be able to perceive visual stimuli presented:

A)to the far left of her central fixation point.
B)to the far right of her central fixation point.
C)just above her central fixation point.
D)just below her central fixation point.

Question 41

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

If the students who related the toy objects and definitions to each other had higher-than-average recall scores, to which of the following might this be attributed?I.  Spreading activationII.  Semantic networksIII.  Source monitoring

A)I only
B)II only
C)III only
D)I and II only

Question 42

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
What type of study design is most appropriate to investigate whether the number of hours slept per night predicts the number of health care provider visits for those with and without the DEC2 gene mutation?

A)Ethnographic study
B)Cross-sectional study
C)Observational longitudinal study
D)Randomized controlled trial

Question 43

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
Which of the following conclusions is supported by these data reflecting the relationship between cigarette craving and smoking behavior before and after MT intervention?

A)Before beginning MT intervention, high levels of craving caused an increase in smoking behavior.
B)A significant difference in smoking behavior was observed before and after MT intervention.
C)A significant difference in cigarette craving was observed before and after MT intervention.
D)The relationship between craving and smoking was weaker after the MT intervention.

Question 44

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

In this study, the vocabulary recall task most directly assessed which of the following types of memory?

A)Implicit
B)Semantic
C)Short-term
D)Working

Question 45

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
Chronic sleep deprivation is expected to have which of the following effects on the body?

A)Increased activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and decreased function of the reproductive system
B)Increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system and decreased function of the immune system
C)Increased activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and increased stimulation of the cardiovascular system
D)Increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system and increased stimulation of the digestive system

Question 46

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

Which is least applicable to a diagnosis of MD?

A)Persistent, intrusive, and repetitive thoughts or urges
B)Physical behaviors that help reduce anxiety
C)Excessive, repetitive behaviors
D)Obsession with losing weight

Question 47

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

According to the first paragraph, which of the following electroencephalogram patterns should predominate during the sleep stage associated with the consolidation of the type of memory assessed in this study?

A)Alpha and beta waves
B)Theta waves
C)Delta waves
D)Sleep spindles and K complexes

Question 48

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
According to Figure 1, the time in one's life when sleep contains the largest proportion of REM sleep best corresponds to which of the following?

A)Piaget's sensorimotor stage
B)Erikson's initiative vs. guilt stage
C)Mead's play stage
D)Kohlberg's instrumental relativist orientation stage

Question 49

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

Which of the following, had it occurred, would be the best example of the social desirability bias in this study?

A)Researchers subconsciously allowed Group II to view the toys slightly longer than the other groups.
B)Researchers selected only college students with regular 10 pm-6 am sleep schedules to participate.
C)Some participants reported using their typical strategy for vocabulary memorization in this task.
D)Some participants did not disclose that they stayed out past 10 pm the night of the experiment.

Question 50

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
In which region of the brain would a lesion most likely disrupt the sleep/wake cycle?

A)Anterior pituitary
B)Posterior pituitary
C)Hypothalamus
D)Hippocampus

Question 51

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

The DSM-5 describes AN as characterized by a distorted body image and excessive food restriction leading to severe weight loss.  How would a behaviorist explain the behavior of an individual diagnosed with AN?

A)The eating behavior is evidence of a biochemical imbalance in the dopamine reward system in the brain.
B)Positive attention from others for initially losing weight motivates the individual to want to lose more weight.
C)The individual is behaving in a way to attain the "thin ideal" portrayed by celebrities in the media.
D)The individual most likely has a close friend or family member with an eating disorder and is imitating that behavior.

Question 52

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
Based on the description in the passage, should an individual who is a "short sleeper" be diagnosed with a sleep-wake disorder?

A)Yes, because sleeping less than average is considered a sleep disturbance
B)Yes, because diurnal circadian rhythms are affected
C)No, because daytime functioning is not impaired
D)No, because the causes of sleep-wake disorders are psychological, not genetic

Question 53

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
The data in Figure 1 suggest which of the following relationships is statistically significant?

A)At the end of treatment, MT was more effective than FFS.
B)At 17 weeks post-treatment, MT was more effective than FFS.
C)MT was more effective at the end of treatment than at 17 weeks post-treatment.
D)The difference between MT and FFS was greater at 17 weeks post-treatment than at the end of treatment.

Question 54

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
Assuming that stress is a major contributing factor to smoking relapse rates, the benefit of meditation in smoking abstinence is best predicted by:

A)a decrease in cortisol release.
B)a decrease in melatonin production.
C)an increase in sympathetic activity.
D)an increase in epinephrine release.

Question 55

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
Self-administration of nicotine in animal models is most likely suppressed by means of:

A)blocking dopaminergic pathways.
B)blocking adrenergic pathways.
C)enhancing dopaminergic pathways.
D)enhancing adrenergic pathways.

Question 56

Passage
Across the lifespan, mental and physical health depends on adequate sleep.  Extensive research suggests that sleep needs and characteristics change throughout an individual's life (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Average hours of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep for different age groups across the lifespanChronic sleep deprivation acts as a physiological stressor and can have a multitude of short- and long-term negative health consequences.  Studies show that over 30% of adults get less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night, putting them at greater risk for metabolic disorders (eg, obesity, diabetes), cardiovascular disease (eg, high blood pressure, stroke), and emotional disorders (eg, anxiety, depression).  Sleep deprivation is also associated with impaired cognitive functioning, decreased work performance, and an increased risk of accidents.However, the guideline that adults sleep at least 7 hours per night does not account for the considerable variation in individual sleep needs.  Research suggests that some individuals, known as "long sleepers," require an average daily sleep duration of more than 9 hours, while "short sleepers" require an average daily sleep duration of less than 6 hours.  One study found that biological night duration (established by one's circadian pacemaker or "master clock") appears to be a few hours shorter for short sleepers as compared to long sleepers.  Other studies suggest that short sleepers regularly sleep less than 7 hours without any apparent negative consequences due to one or more genetic mutations, such as a mutation on the DEC2 gene (also known as BHLHE41), which codes for a transcription factor involved in regulating circadian rhythms.
For the study comparing long sleepers to short sleepers described in the final paragraph, researchers were LEAST likely to have measured which of the following biomarkers?

A)Core body temperature
B)Melatonin
C)Oxytocin
D)Cortisol

Question 57

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

Which conclusion is LEAST supported by the data in Table 1?

A)A shorter time interval between learning and testing results in a greater amount of recall.
B)When sleep occurs shortly after learning, memory consolidation appears to be enhanced.
C)Recalling vocabulary definitions was more difficult than recalling toy objects for all groups.
D)The interval between sleep and testing matters less to recall than the method of memorization.

Question 58

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
Which of the following may be involved with physical drug dependence?Neurochemical changes in the brainWithdrawal symptoms with cessation of drug useTolerance to the drug used

A)I and II only
B)I and III only
C)II and III only
D)I, II, and III

Question 59

Passage
The highly addictive nature of cigarettes can be partly explained by how nicotine, the primary addictive ingredient, is administered.  The fastest route of administration for most drugs is through inhalation; cigarette smoking results in the transmission of nicotine to the brain in about 15 seconds.  In the brain, nicotine activates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which stimulate the brain's reward pathway and produce mild feelings of euphoria.  Those who quit smoking often relapse due to stress, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms such as cravings and irritability.  Of those who attempt to quit without formal treatment, only 3%-5% remain abstinent after a year.Research suggests that mindfulness meditation-based programs can be an effective strategy to quit smoking.  Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation that involves cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations arising in the present moment.For one study, researchers randomly assigned 88 smokers to either Mindfulness Training (MT) or the Freedom From Smoking (FFS) intervention developed by the American Lung Association.  Both groups participated in 90-minute group training sessions twice a week for four weeks.  The FFS intervention educated participants on the negative health consequences of smoking, coping strategies for cravings, and the development of healthy lifestyle habits.  The MT intervention taught mindfulness meditation techniques as a way of gaining awareness and acceptance of the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of cravings.  The number of cigarettes smoked per day and self-reported abstinence, as verified by exhaled carbon monoxide, were measured at the end of treatment and at a 17-week follow-up for participants in each group (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Percentage of participants in each group abstinent at the end of treatment and at 17-week follow-up (* indicates p < 0.05)
Smoking behavior is:

A)positively reinforced through the removal of withdrawal symptoms and negatively reinforced through mild feelings of euphoria.
B)positively reinforced through mild feelings of euphoria and negatively reinforced through the removal of withdrawal symptoms.
C)positively reinforced through mild feelings of euphoria and negatively punished through the onset of withdrawal symptoms.
D)positively reinforced through the onset of withdrawal symptoms and positively punished through mild feelings of euphoria.

Question 60

Passage
Before memories have been consolidated they are considered "labile," or unstable and easily altered.  Sleep is theorized to be essential to the process of memory consolidation, though the mechanisms for this are still under investigation.  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has long been assumed to be the sleep stage most important for overall memory consolidation, but recent research suggests that different types of memory may be consolidated during different sleep stages.  Procedural memories appear to be primarily consolidated during REM sleep while declarative memories appear to be primarily consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS).  Sleep duration, sleep regularity, and timing of sleep all contribute to the proportions of REM and SWS, so these factors also play an important role in memory consolidation processes.An experiment was performed at a large state university to investigate the relationship between sleep and learning in college students.  Researchers screened potential participants with a sleep habits questionnaire.  Those who reported having a regular sleep schedule were included in the study (N = 100) and given a vocabulary knowledge pretest.  Participants were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups, each containing 25 students.  During the learning phase (L), each student was asked to memorize a set of 10 common toy objects (eg, car, ball, stuffed animal, blocks) and 10 vocabulary definitions that the student had labeled as "unknown" during the pretest.  Images of the toy objects were presented in a sequence, one at a time, for 5 seconds each; the 10 vocabulary definitions were listed on a sheet that students were allowed to study for 10 minutes.  During the testing phase (T), students were asked to recall the objects in any order and define the vocabulary words (Figure 1).
Figure 1  Experimental design for each of the 4 groupsResults were reported as the average recall accuracy for the objects and vocabulary definitions, by group (Table 1).  Participants were then given a survey about the techniques they used when attempting to remember the toy objects and vocabulary definitions.  Some students reported associating the definitions and objects with one another.  For instance, one student reported that she related the words "plucky" (meaning brave) and "tocsin" (meaning an alarm) to an image of a toy fire truck, making it easier to recall the toy object and both associated vocabulary definitions.Table 1  Average Recall Accuracy, per Group

The recall of which of the following should be most subject to serial position effects?

A)The vocabulary words presented at the beginning and the end of the list
B)The toy objects presented at the beginning and the end of the sequence
C)The vocabulary words that were the most familiar to the subjects
D)The toy objects to which the subjects had a personal connection

Question 61

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

A proponent of the biopsychosocial approach to mental illness would likely consider which of the following as factors contributing to the development of an eating disorder?Images seen on television and social mediaVariations in hormones such as leptin and cortisolCo-occurring mental illnesses

A)I only
B)I and III only
C)II and III only
D)I, II, and III

Question 62

Passage
Visual perception involves the organization and interpretation of information obtained from visible light.  Visual perception relies on monocular and binocular cues, as well as perceptual organization principles that allow humans to interpret limited or partial information more holistically.  These sorts of mental shortcuts are based on prior experiences and knowledge, and are especially useful when lighting or perspective is limited.  For example, the ambiguous image in Figure 1 is often perceived as a cup.
Figure 1  Ambiguous imagePerceptual organization principles allow our brains to quickly and efficiently make assumptions about visual inputs, but these principles can also give rise to perceptual illusions.  For example, the Ames room is constructed to exploit monocular depth cues in such a way that the person standing on one side of the room appears to impossibly dwarf the person on the other side of the room (Figure 2).
Figure 2  Ames room illusion (two people standing in a specially constructed Ames room, viewed through a monocular peephole)Human senses were adapted for use on land, which can lead to potentially deadly perceptual distortions while flying or underwater diving.  Pilots are prone to such perceptual distortions when landing on unfamiliar runways.  During their training, pilots develop a mental image of how a typical runway appears as they descend and land.  Later, they compare this prototypical shape to the runway they see before them to make adjustments in the slope of their descent.  However, if a runway differs from what the pilot is used to (eg, in width or slope), it will differ from the pilot's mental image for a typical runway at that same altitude.  For example, an unusually wide runway will appear to be closer than it actually is, and a narrow runway will seem to be further away.  This can cause the pilot to approach at a dangerously steep or shallow slope.Pilots and divers can also suffer from spatial disorientation due to variations in sensory stimuli that are not typically encountered on land.  For example, gravity is not experienced in the body the same way underwater as on land, and visual cues are often limited in deep dives.  In these murky conditions, divers can easily lose track of the surface of the water, leading to extreme spatial disorientation and panic.
Spatial disorientation experienced by pilots and divers would be LEAST affected by information processed by the:

A)organ of Corti.
B)otolith organs.
C)semicircular canals.
D)somatosensory system.

Question 63

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

Which of the following conclusions is best supported by Table 1?

A)No comparisons can be made between targets that used different depression measures.
B)Stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle was the most effective treatment overall.
C)Stimulation of the nucleus accumbens and the subcallosal cingulate gyrus was equally effective.
D)Stimulation of the ventral capsule/ventral striatum was the least effective long-term treatment.

Question 64

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

Which of the following is true regarding two classes of drugs commonly used to treat depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)?

A)Both classes of drugs stimulate the release of serotonin into the synaptic cleft.
B)SSRIs block uptake of serotonin into the post-synaptic neuron.
C)MAOIs decrease the breakdown of serotonin within the pre-synaptic neuron.
D)MAOIs promote uptake of serotonin into the pre-synaptic neuron.

Question 65

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

The most appropriate control subjects for the study described in the final paragraph would be:

A)males who have never been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
B)males who have never been treated for an eating disorder.
C)females who have never been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
D)females who have never been treated for an eating disorder.

Question 66

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

Which of the following brain regions is likely the most effective DBS target for a Parkinson disease patient?

A)Amygdala
B)Basal ganglia
C)Hippocampus
D)Motor cortex

Question 67

Passage
Visual perception involves the organization and interpretation of information obtained from visible light.  Visual perception relies on monocular and binocular cues, as well as perceptual organization principles that allow humans to interpret limited or partial information more holistically.  These sorts of mental shortcuts are based on prior experiences and knowledge, and are especially useful when lighting or perspective is limited.  For example, the ambiguous image in Figure 1 is often perceived as a cup.
Figure 1  Ambiguous imagePerceptual organization principles allow our brains to quickly and efficiently make assumptions about visual inputs, but these principles can also give rise to perceptual illusions.  For example, the Ames room is constructed to exploit monocular depth cues in such a way that the person standing on one side of the room appears to impossibly dwarf the person on the other side of the room (Figure 2).
Figure 2  Ames room illusion (two people standing in a specially constructed Ames room, viewed through a monocular peephole)Human senses were adapted for use on land, which can lead to potentially deadly perceptual distortions while flying or underwater diving.  Pilots are prone to such perceptual distortions when landing on unfamiliar runways.  During their training, pilots develop a mental image of how a typical runway appears as they descend and land.  Later, they compare this prototypical shape to the runway they see before them to make adjustments in the slope of their descent.  However, if a runway differs from what the pilot is used to (eg, in width or slope), it will differ from the pilot's mental image for a typical runway at that same altitude.  For example, an unusually wide runway will appear to be closer than it actually is, and a narrow runway will seem to be further away.  This can cause the pilot to approach at a dangerously steep or shallow slope.Pilots and divers can also suffer from spatial disorientation due to variations in sensory stimuli that are not typically encountered on land.  For example, gravity is not experienced in the body the same way underwater as on land, and visual cues are often limited in deep dives.  In these murky conditions, divers can easily lose track of the surface of the water, leading to extreme spatial disorientation and panic.
Pilots who experienced perceptual distortions while landing on an unusually wide runway were most likely affected by which type of monocular depth cue?

A)Interposition
B)Linear perspective
C)Light and shadow
D)Texture gradient

Question 68

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

Which of the following hypothetical findings from a follow-up study evaluating eating disorders in males is most consistent with the data presented in Table 1?

A)The proportion of males diagnosed with MD was roughly equivalent to the proportion of females diagnosed with AN.
B)Half of the individuals who met the diagnostic criteria for BED also met the criteria for BN within the past year.
C)Individuals diagnosed with BED were less likely to also meet criteria for depression than individuals diagnosed with AN.
D)Individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for MD were more likely to abuse anabolic steroids than those meeting diagnostic criteria for any other eating disorder.

Question 69

Passage
Visual perception involves the organization and interpretation of information obtained from visible light.  Visual perception relies on monocular and binocular cues, as well as perceptual organization principles that allow humans to interpret limited or partial information more holistically.  These sorts of mental shortcuts are based on prior experiences and knowledge, and are especially useful when lighting or perspective is limited.  For example, the ambiguous image in Figure 1 is often perceived as a cup.
Figure 1  Ambiguous imagePerceptual organization principles allow our brains to quickly and efficiently make assumptions about visual inputs, but these principles can also give rise to perceptual illusions.  For example, the Ames room is constructed to exploit monocular depth cues in such a way that the person standing on one side of the room appears to impossibly dwarf the person on the other side of the room (Figure 2).
Figure 2  Ames room illusion (two people standing in a specially constructed Ames room, viewed through a monocular peephole)Human senses were adapted for use on land, which can lead to potentially deadly perceptual distortions while flying or underwater diving.  Pilots are prone to such perceptual distortions when landing on unfamiliar runways.  During their training, pilots develop a mental image of how a typical runway appears as they descend and land.  Later, they compare this prototypical shape to the runway they see before them to make adjustments in the slope of their descent.  However, if a runway differs from what the pilot is used to (eg, in width or slope), it will differ from the pilot's mental image for a typical runway at that same altitude.  For example, an unusually wide runway will appear to be closer than it actually is, and a narrow runway will seem to be further away.  This can cause the pilot to approach at a dangerously steep or shallow slope.Pilots and divers can also suffer from spatial disorientation due to variations in sensory stimuli that are not typically encountered on land.  For example, gravity is not experienced in the body the same way underwater as on land, and visual cues are often limited in deep dives.  In these murky conditions, divers can easily lose track of the surface of the water, leading to extreme spatial disorientation and panic.
Which of the following predictions is best supported by information presented in the passage?

A)Individuals will perceive a cup in Figure 1 despite differences in expectations.
B)Visual principles of perceptual organization help prevent optical illusions from occurring.
C)According to the law of continuity, spatial disorientation will be greater under water than in the air.
D)The Ames room configuration will override the perceptual principle of size constancy.

Question 70

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

Which of the following is an inherent limitation in assessing the efficacy of DBS for controlling depression symptoms?

A)A placebo control group would be unethical.
B)Depressed patients are a vulnerable population.
C)The benefits do not outweigh the risks of the procedure.
D)The mechanism of action of DBS is unknown.

Question 71

Passage
Psychophysiology examines the relationship between the properties of a physical stimulus (eg, amplitude of sound waves) and how we perceive that stimulus (eg, loudness).  However, this relationship is often accompanied by a degree of uncertainty as the stimulus of interest, or signal, can be confounded by various sources of noise.  Noise can be either external (arising from the environment) or internal (arising from physiological sources).To investigate the effect of distraction on auditory perception, researchers tested the ability of subjects to detect auditory tones presented during a visual-memory task.  The study included 90 participants age 18-65, and each participant completed 10 trials.  Trials consisted of five 800-Hz tones presented randomly while participants viewed a set of 15 sequential pictures of common objects on a computer screen.  The objects fell into one of three categories: animals, vehicles, or things that make noise.  Half the participants were asked to memorize as many objects as they could (objects group), and half were asked to remember only the categories of objects they saw (categories group).  Tones were presented bilaterally within a range of 0-20 dB.  Participants noted when they detected a tone during the trial by pressing a button.  Results of the study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Mean percentage of tones correctly identified in each visual-memory task group (Note: Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.)
W. Yost ©2007 Academic Press.
Using the principles of signal detection theory, researchers likely hypothesized that:

A)subjects in the categories group would have more false positives than those in the objects group.
B)subjects in the categories group would have more correct detections than those in the objects group.
C)subjects in the categories group would have more false negatives than those in the objects group.
D)subjects in the objects group would have more correct rejections than those in the categories group.

Question 72

Passage
Psychophysiology examines the relationship between the properties of a physical stimulus (eg, amplitude of sound waves) and how we perceive that stimulus (eg, loudness).  However, this relationship is often accompanied by a degree of uncertainty as the stimulus of interest, or signal, can be confounded by various sources of noise.  Noise can be either external (arising from the environment) or internal (arising from physiological sources).To investigate the effect of distraction on auditory perception, researchers tested the ability of subjects to detect auditory tones presented during a visual-memory task.  The study included 90 participants age 18-65, and each participant completed 10 trials.  Trials consisted of five 800-Hz tones presented randomly while participants viewed a set of 15 sequential pictures of common objects on a computer screen.  The objects fell into one of three categories: animals, vehicles, or things that make noise.  Half the participants were asked to memorize as many objects as they could (objects group), and half were asked to remember only the categories of objects they saw (categories group).  Tones were presented bilaterally within a range of 0-20 dB.  Participants noted when they detected a tone during the trial by pressing a button.  Results of the study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Mean percentage of tones correctly identified in each visual-memory task group (Note: Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.)
W. Yost ©2007 Academic Press.
Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the study as it is described in the passage?

A)Age is not related to the ability to detect auditory tones.
B)Remembering the names of objects is more difficult than remembering the categories of objects.
C)There is not sufficient evidence to establish a significant difference in the correct detection of tones between the two groups.
D)The categories group is significantly better at correctly detecting tones than the objects group.

Question 73

Passage
Psychophysiology examines the relationship between the properties of a physical stimulus (eg, amplitude of sound waves) and how we perceive that stimulus (eg, loudness).  However, this relationship is often accompanied by a degree of uncertainty as the stimulus of interest, or signal, can be confounded by various sources of noise.  Noise can be either external (arising from the environment) or internal (arising from physiological sources).To investigate the effect of distraction on auditory perception, researchers tested the ability of subjects to detect auditory tones presented during a visual-memory task.  The study included 90 participants age 18-65, and each participant completed 10 trials.  Trials consisted of five 800-Hz tones presented randomly while participants viewed a set of 15 sequential pictures of common objects on a computer screen.  The objects fell into one of three categories: animals, vehicles, or things that make noise.  Half the participants were asked to memorize as many objects as they could (objects group), and half were asked to remember only the categories of objects they saw (categories group).  Tones were presented bilaterally within a range of 0-20 dB.  Participants noted when they detected a tone during the trial by pressing a button.  Results of the study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Mean percentage of tones correctly identified in each visual-memory task group (Note: Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.)
W. Yost ©2007 Academic Press.
Researchers noticed that participants were more likely to erroneously report hearing a tone when viewing a picture of an object that produces a tone-like sound, such as a telephone or a bell.  What type of processing best explains why this mistake might occur?

A)Bottom-up processing
B)Parallel processing
C)Serial processing
D)Top-down processing

Question 74

Passage
A common misconception in medicine is that eating disorders present similarly in males and females.  Research suggests that this is untrue: males meeting diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are more likely than females to have another psychiatric illness, demonstrate a later age of onset, and engage in excessive exercise.  They are less likely to engage in purging behaviors, be diagnosed by clinicians, or seek treatment.  When males do enter treatment, they are generally further along in the course of the illness.The classification of eating disorders in males according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) has recently been debated.  Research suggests that one very common manifestation of eating disorder etiology in males, called muscle dysmorphia (MD), includes an obsession with a larger and more muscular body, which contrasts with the thin, idealized body for females with eating disorders.  Characterized as a subset of body dysmorphic disorder, MD is more recently conceptualized as part of a spectrum of eating disorders; however, it is still classified under the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders umbrella in the DSM-5.One study applied the latest DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and MD to the medical records of male veterans treated in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals across the United States from 2000 to 2015.  The study (Table 1) found a significant increase in psychiatric comorbidity compared to controls (C).Table 1  Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders for Eating Disorder and MD Cases and Controls in a National Sample of Male Veterans Treated at VA Hospitals from 2000 to 2015

A physician suspects that a young woman seen in the clinic displays symptoms of an eating disorder.  Which of the following responses best demonstrates the ego defense mechanism of rationalization in the patient?

A)The patient states that she writes in her journal or calls a friend whenever she gets the urge to binge and purge.
B)The patient states that she sometimes skips breakfast and lunch but only when she is planning a big dinner.
C)The patient insists that she does not recall any binging or purging episodes, although her mother states that they occur frequently.
D)The patient expresses concern that several of her classmates engage in unhealthy eating patterns and purging behaviors.

Question 75

Passage
Visual perception involves the organization and interpretation of information obtained from visible light.  Visual perception relies on monocular and binocular cues, as well as perceptual organization principles that allow humans to interpret limited or partial information more holistically.  These sorts of mental shortcuts are based on prior experiences and knowledge, and are especially useful when lighting or perspective is limited.  For example, the ambiguous image in Figure 1 is often perceived as a cup.
Figure 1  Ambiguous imagePerceptual organization principles allow our brains to quickly and efficiently make assumptions about visual inputs, but these principles can also give rise to perceptual illusions.  For example, the Ames room is constructed to exploit monocular depth cues in such a way that the person standing on one side of the room appears to impossibly dwarf the person on the other side of the room (Figure 2).
Figure 2  Ames room illusion (two people standing in a specially constructed Ames room, viewed through a monocular peephole)Human senses were adapted for use on land, which can lead to potentially deadly perceptual distortions while flying or underwater diving.  Pilots are prone to such perceptual distortions when landing on unfamiliar runways.  During their training, pilots develop a mental image of how a typical runway appears as they descend and land.  Later, they compare this prototypical shape to the runway they see before them to make adjustments in the slope of their descent.  However, if a runway differs from what the pilot is used to (eg, in width or slope), it will differ from the pilot's mental image for a typical runway at that same altitude.  For example, an unusually wide runway will appear to be closer than it actually is, and a narrow runway will seem to be further away.  This can cause the pilot to approach at a dangerously steep or shallow slope.Pilots and divers can also suffer from spatial disorientation due to variations in sensory stimuli that are not typically encountered on land.  For example, gravity is not experienced in the body the same way underwater as on land, and visual cues are often limited in deep dives.  In these murky conditions, divers can easily lose track of the surface of the water, leading to extreme spatial disorientation and panic.
How does stereopsis contribute to the processing of two-dimensional retinal images into objects having three-dimensional depth?

A)The presence of rods and cones allows for processing different types of light.
B)Component attributes, such as color, motion, and form, are integrated in the occipital lobe.
C)The relative location of each retina allows for different images of the object to be processed.
D)The movement of ciliary muscles controlling the lens provides depth cues to the cortex.

Question 76

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

According to the monoamine hypothesis:

A)abnormally high serum cortisol levels underlie most depressive symptoms.
B)abnormalities in a single neurotransmitter cause most depressive symptoms.
C)abnormalities in various neurotransmitters cause depressive symptoms.
D)DBS would be an ineffective treatment for depressive symptoms.

Question 77

Passage
Psychophysiology examines the relationship between the properties of a physical stimulus (eg, amplitude of sound waves) and how we perceive that stimulus (eg, loudness).  However, this relationship is often accompanied by a degree of uncertainty as the stimulus of interest, or signal, can be confounded by various sources of noise.  Noise can be either external (arising from the environment) or internal (arising from physiological sources).To investigate the effect of distraction on auditory perception, researchers tested the ability of subjects to detect auditory tones presented during a visual-memory task.  The study included 90 participants age 18-65, and each participant completed 10 trials.  Trials consisted of five 800-Hz tones presented randomly while participants viewed a set of 15 sequential pictures of common objects on a computer screen.  The objects fell into one of three categories: animals, vehicles, or things that make noise.  Half the participants were asked to memorize as many objects as they could (objects group), and half were asked to remember only the categories of objects they saw (categories group).  Tones were presented bilaterally within a range of 0-20 dB.  Participants noted when they detected a tone during the trial by pressing a button.  Results of the study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Mean percentage of tones correctly identified in each visual-memory task group (Note: Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.)
W. Yost ©2007 Academic Press.
If the researchers first wanted to determine each subject's absolute threshold for tone detection in the presence of external white noise, which of the following would accurately represent the variables for such an assessment?

A)Tone volume (independent variable) and percent tones missed (dependent variable)
B)Percent tones missed (independent variable) and white noise volume (dependent variable)
C)Tone volume (independent variable) and percent tones detected (dependent variable)
D)Percent tones detected (independent variable) and white noise volume (dependent variable)

Question 78

Passage
Visual perception involves the organization and interpretation of information obtained from visible light.  Visual perception relies on monocular and binocular cues, as well as perceptual organization principles that allow humans to interpret limited or partial information more holistically.  These sorts of mental shortcuts are based on prior experiences and knowledge, and are especially useful when lighting or perspective is limited.  For example, the ambiguous image in Figure 1 is often perceived as a cup.
Figure 1  Ambiguous imagePerceptual organization principles allow our brains to quickly and efficiently make assumptions about visual inputs, but these principles can also give rise to perceptual illusions.  For example, the Ames room is constructed to exploit monocular depth cues in such a way that the person standing on one side of the room appears to impossibly dwarf the person on the other side of the room (Figure 2).
Figure 2  Ames room illusion (two people standing in a specially constructed Ames room, viewed through a monocular peephole)Human senses were adapted for use on land, which can lead to potentially deadly perceptual distortions while flying or underwater diving.  Pilots are prone to such perceptual distortions when landing on unfamiliar runways.  During their training, pilots develop a mental image of how a typical runway appears as they descend and land.  Later, they compare this prototypical shape to the runway they see before them to make adjustments in the slope of their descent.  However, if a runway differs from what the pilot is used to (eg, in width or slope), it will differ from the pilot's mental image for a typical runway at that same altitude.  For example, an unusually wide runway will appear to be closer than it actually is, and a narrow runway will seem to be further away.  This can cause the pilot to approach at a dangerously steep or shallow slope.Pilots and divers can also suffer from spatial disorientation due to variations in sensory stimuli that are not typically encountered on land.  For example, gravity is not experienced in the body the same way underwater as on land, and visual cues are often limited in deep dives.  In these murky conditions, divers can easily lose track of the surface of the water, leading to extreme spatial disorientation and panic.
The perception of a cup in Figure 1 is best attributed to which Gestalt principle of perceptual organization?

A)Invariance
B)Common fate
C)Similarity
D)Subjective contours

Question 79

Passage
Psychophysiology examines the relationship between the properties of a physical stimulus (eg, amplitude of sound waves) and how we perceive that stimulus (eg, loudness).  However, this relationship is often accompanied by a degree of uncertainty as the stimulus of interest, or signal, can be confounded by various sources of noise.  Noise can be either external (arising from the environment) or internal (arising from physiological sources).To investigate the effect of distraction on auditory perception, researchers tested the ability of subjects to detect auditory tones presented during a visual-memory task.  The study included 90 participants age 18-65, and each participant completed 10 trials.  Trials consisted of five 800-Hz tones presented randomly while participants viewed a set of 15 sequential pictures of common objects on a computer screen.  The objects fell into one of three categories: animals, vehicles, or things that make noise.  Half the participants were asked to memorize as many objects as they could (objects group), and half were asked to remember only the categories of objects they saw (categories group).  Tones were presented bilaterally within a range of 0-20 dB.  Participants noted when they detected a tone during the trial by pressing a button.  Results of the study are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1  Mean percentage of tones correctly identified in each visual-memory task group (Note: Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.)
W. Yost ©2007 Academic Press.
Which psychophysiology concept determines how high the volume of the tone must be for participants to detect it roughly half the time?

A)Absolute threshold
B)Difference threshold
C)Just noticeable difference
D)Sensory adaptation

Question 80

Passage
Major depression is a mood disorder that affects nearly 7% of the American population and is the most common cause of disability worldwide.  Standard treatment typically involves antidepressant medication alone, although a combination of antidepressant medication and psychological treatment, such as psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy, is often more effective.  However, because depression has genetic, environmental, and psychological contributing factors, treatment can be challenging.  Approximately 10% of those suffering from depression have treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that does not respond to standard treatment.A number of treatment options for those with TRD target the functioning of the nervous system.  Deep-brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat Parkinson disease, has also been investigated as a treatment for TRD.  DBS involves implanting a device in the brain that sends electrical impulses to a specific area.  Although the mechanism by which DBS alleviates depressive symptoms is unclear, neurostimulation provided by DBS is thought to disrupt dysfunctional patterns of electrical activity in local areas and connected brain regions.A meta-analysis reviewed the data from several studies that used different brain regions as DBS targets in the treatment of TRD.  Table 1 shows the percentage of TRD patients who underwent DBS and showed clinical responsiveness and remission of depression.  Clinical response was defined as a 50% reduction in scores on a measure of depression.  Various scales were used in the studies, including different versions of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).  Remission of depression was defined as a score that fell below a predetermined threshold.Table 1  Percentage of TRD Patients Who Showed Clinical Response and Remission With DBS Treatment

Stimulation of the nucleus accumbens would be expected to alleviate which of the following symptoms of depression?

A)Anhedonia
B)Difficulty concentrating
C)Fatigue
D)Insomnia