Go to: Answers to Section 3-1 Quiz Questions

1. Which of the following would be best explained by an evolutionary approach to learning?

A. Both chimpanzees and humans easily learn to be afraid of snakes at a young age.
B. Both adults and children easily learn to avoid stimuli paired with electric shocks.
C. Both rats and pigeons easily learn to perform behaviors for a food reward.
D. Both adults and children easily learn to salivate to a bell paired with food.

2. There are individual differences in the ease with which people are startled by a loud noise: some are easily startled and others are not so easily startled. Let's say that we find that these individual differences are associated with genetic differences. Furthermore, let's say that people who are easily startled tend to live longer and reproduce more than those who don't startle easily. What else would need to be true in order for this behavioral variant to evolve in the population?

A. Common ancestors of humans and other primates would need to have exhibited this characteristic.
B. Modern primates closely related to humans would need to exhibit this characteristic.
C. Learning would need to have little or no effect on the ease with which someone is startled.
D. The reproductive advantage for those who are easily startled would need to remain stable over many generations.

3. The theory of biological preparedness states that

A. humans have evolved a nervous system that matures over time.
B. humans have evolved to learn certain kinds of associations very easily.
C. learning is due to biological changes in the nervous system.
D. remembering is due to biological changes in the nervous system.

4. Natural selection leads to evolution only when

A. the selected variant is associated with biological factors.
B. the selected variant is associated with particular genes.
C. environments are unpredictable.
D. environments are predictable.

5. Which of the following is most likely to represent an adaptation in humans that has evolved over many generations through natural selection?

A. the ability to easily learn to fear snakes
B. the ability to easily learn to drive cars
C. the ability to easily learn to write letters
D. the ability to easily learn to avoid elevators

6. Which of the following is an "extant" species?

A. Homo erectus
B. Homo sapiens
C. Homo habilis
D. none of the above

7. Normal humans have 46 chromosomes and normal chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes. If it were possible (and ethical!) to combine a human reproductive cell with a chimp reproductive cell and produce a living hybrid offspring, would the hybrid be able to reproduce with other hybrids?

A. Yes, because they would be members of the same hybrid species.
B. Yes, because they would have the same number of chromosomes.
C. No, because they would have different combinations of human and chimp chromosomes.
D. No, because they would be most attracted to members of one of the two parent species.

8. An evolutionary approach to learning can help us to understand

A. how to distinguish learning from remembering.
B. why we learn some things more quickly than other things.
C. how to train animals to perform complex tasks.
D. why humans are able to learn to ignore repetitive stimuli.

9. Taller men have more children, on average, than shorter men because women tend to find taller men to be more attractive. In this case, tallness in men is being

A. adapted.
B. naturally selected.
C. environmentally determined.
D. genetically determined.

10. According to some evolutionary psychologists, when an environment is highly stable and predictable, species inhabiting that environment are

A. more likely to evolve a general learning ability.
B. less likely to evolve a general learning ability.
C. more likely to evolve adaptations.
D. less likely to evolve adaptations.

11. By observing closely related species, evolutionary psychologists are better able to determine whether

A. a characteristic is undergoing natural selection at the present time.
B. a characteristic existed in a common ancestor of the related species.
C. behavioral differences among the species are caused by learning.
D. behavioral differences among the species are caused by genes.

12. The development of physical characteristics, such as eye color, typically is influenced by interactions among a number of genes. This best illustrates which of the following concepts?

A. adaptation to selective pressures
B. evolutionary maturation
C. multifactorial causation
D. selection of genetic variants

13. Why is it is important to have different theoretical approaches in psychology?

A. Each approach focuses on a different set of causes, and behavior has many causes.
B. One of the approaches probably eventually will be found to be the best one.
C. What is discovered about the human mind depends on how one views the mind.
D. none of the above

Go to: Answers to Section 3-1 Quiz Questions