Exam Questions help!

[radl223]

Hi everyone,

I recently started doing practice exams (untimed) and I came across these questions that I had trouble with and I have no clue why I was wrong. The questions are below, and the bolded multiple choice options are the correct answers!

1. Stage 1 sleep consists of _______________ brainwaves, _______________ and __________ waves and lasts for approximately ____________ minutes.
A) small, irregular; alpha, theta; two
B) small, irregular; beta, theta; two
C) small, regular; alpha, theta; ten
D) small, regular; beta, theta; ten

^^ For this one I did C. I thought stage 1 NREM sleep lasts for 5-10 minutes, and that it was 'regular'? What makes the brainwaves 'irregular' or 'regular'? Can someone please explain this to me

2. Sleeping patterns are rhythms of sleep and waking. However, when external cues are removed (such as light and dark), humans eventually shirt to a sleep-waking cycle that averages _________ hours.
A) 23
B) 24
C) 25
E) None of the above

^^ I had no clue about this question.. I just assumed 24 hours. Are we meant to know this?

3. Brighton suffered a head injury in a car accident. He has brain damage to the left hemisphere of his brain. Brighton is likely to experience an inability to:
A) identify emotions
B) recognise faces
C) write a song
D) name objects

^^ I did C because the left hemisphere of the brain has Wernicke's and Broca's area, and I assumed that it will language related and they won't be able to write a song, I have no idea.

And last questions!! In regards to ethics, what is beneficence and do we need to know this? Apparently it's only in the Oxford Textbook.

Thankyou in advance

[mishamigo]

1. Stage 1 sleep has irregular waves. This means they vary markedly, both in frequency and amplitude. Stages 3&4 have regular waves, as they are less jagged and are fairly stable.

2. I have no idea either- interesting though!

3. Hmmm. Not sure about this, I think it would be arguable that c or d may both be correct- however c is nothing to do with Broca's area, only wernicke's. however I guess you could still write a song, it just wouldn't make sense (someone else feel free to correct me here!)

4. Our school uses Oxford, yet none of our classes have learnt beneficence. Anyway, the book explains it as: the likely benefit of the study must justify any risks of harm or discomfort to participants. (Also it isn't an ethical breach, it's apparently a value of the national health and medical research council...)

Hope I helped!

[aaackk]

2) you are supposed to know. it relates to the sleep-wake cycle and the delayed phase stuff (sorry i forgot the term).

3) I think C is supposed to allude to musical abilities, rather than speech abilities. The way youve interpreted the Q is right, but D is the more correct answer, because naming objects involves being able to use those specialised lobes to physically pronounce whatever you are naming. Writing a song doesnt necessarily have to involve words, it can just involve notes etc

[Paulrus]

for question two, i think apparently some studies found our natural sleep wake cycle is actually meant to last for 25 hours without external cues. but yeah i don't think that'll come up on the exam
question three is d because verbalising objects is a specialised function of the left hemisphere. sperry and gazzaniga's experiment showed that in participants who have undergone split brain procedures, they could only name objects that were presented to their right visual field, because that meant the info would be processed in the left hemisphere, where language is processed.

as for question one though, i'm confused. REM lasts for 2 minutes at the beginning of the night, but it's asking about NREM stage 1, so i have no idea. it seems like it's a combination of a and c. it's a dodgy question i think 

you should definitely remember beneficence for the exam, there's a good chance there'll be some stuff on ethics and guidelines and stuff

[brenden]

From what exam have you got these questions?

1. It was also my belief that Stage 1 goes for 5-10 minutes. B) and D) are certainly wrong, because you would not expect Beta waves in S1. I also would have chosen C due to the time provided.

2. Hmmm... I think this could be in Grivas? It is a piece of knowledge I have, so it either came from my teacher, Grivas, TSFX Notes, or Psych A+ Notes, and I'm leaning toward Grivas. I think this was discovered after isolating participants for a certain amount of days and then asking them to estimate how long they had been isolated (and they underestimated). I really wouldn't take my word for this, because I'm not sure if my brain is just making things up.

3. Brighton suffered a head injury in a car accident. He has brain damage to the left hemisphere of his brain. Brighton is likely to experience an inability to:
A) identify emotions
B) recognise faces
C) write a song
D) name objects

^^ I did C because the left hemisphere of the brain has Wernicke's and Broca's area, and I assumed that it will language related and they won't be able to write a song, I have no idea

Okay, I can see your logic, but I'll show you why it's wrong. Correct, Broca's and Wernicke's area are usually in the left hemisphere. Wernicke's interprets language, and Broca's controls the facial muscles concerned with speech (it's located pretty close to the primary motor cortex). So, if someone has damage to Broca's area, you would assume they could write a song. However, Wernicke's area interprets language, so you would assume that damage to Wernicke's would inhibit someone's ability to write a song. Therefore, you have decided that this person has damage to Wernicke's area. However, someone with Wernicke's area speaks in psycho babble, correct? They speak well enunciated, but it doesn't make sense. "Cigarrettes went jumping spoon sister?" So they also wouldn't be able to name objects. It seems as if Wernicke's cannot be appropriate. Broca's would be able to do the first three, and you could make a case for someone being inhibited in their ability to name objects if they had extreme damage to Broca's area and couldn't even speak. However, that doesn't fit very well, anyway, does it? The question is asking you about hemispheres. The question is simply not asking you to demonstrate your knowledge of the brain's language centres. Look at the answers; they have a common theme. What sort of things are associated more predominantly with the right hemisphere of the brain (or left handed people)? Creativity, emotions etc etc. What about the left hemisphere? Logic, problem solving, etc etc. What this question is asking you to do, then, is to identify that a), b), c) are all features of the right hemisphere, and they want you to answer d) to show that you recognise the left hemisphere is not predominantly associated with the first three. Moreover, the left hemisphere verbalises, so 'naming' something would focus on it. Therefore, D.

This document should answer your question very well (pretty interesting actually, type the Belmont Report into Wikipedia and have a read of the history just for kicks) http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html
Know beneficence for the exam.

[radl223]

Ahh thank you so much everyone!! Yeah i really did not think of that for question 3. Thanks everyone for taking time out to explain it to me, makes sense now these are from lisachem btw