Cognition, emotion and stress sample question 1

Broca's area in the left frontal lobe.

Cognition, emotion and stress sample question 2

Reduced melatonin secretion, because light signals reaching the suprachiasmatic nucleus suppress pineal output

Cognition, emotion and stress sample question 4

information becomes conscious when it is broadcast to many brain regions, making it widely available

MCAT · Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior · Psychology

Cognition, emotion and stress

Cognition, emotion and stress is part of Psychology in the MCAT Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section. The questions below are written in the style of the real test, each with the answer and a worked explanation.

Question types you will see here include piaget stage and process recognition, heuristic and bias identification, emotion theory test and stress physiology and adaptation stages.

Common traps: confusing preoperational with concrete operational; swapping assimilation and accommodation; treating the zone of proximal development as a Piaget concept.

Sample questions

Question 1
A man's speech is slow and effortful and uses mostly nouns and verbs ("Walk... dog... park"), but he understands questions and follows instructions. Damage to which area is most likely?
- A.
  Broca's area in the left frontal lobe.
- B.
  Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe.
- C.
  the angular gyrus in the parietal lobe.
- D.
  the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe.
Answer: A. Broca's area in the left frontal lobe.
Non-fluent, effortful speech with intact comprehension is the profile of Broca's aphasia, from damage to the left frontal region: A. B would produce fluent but meaningless speech with poor comprehension; C is linked to reading and writing; D damage would impair hearing rather than speech production.
Question 2
A volunteer sits in bright, blue-rich light for an hour late in the evening. Which hormonal change is expected, and by what route?
- A.
  Increased melatonin secretion, because the pineal gland releases melatonin in response to light
- B.
  No change in melatonin, because the pineal gland ignores input from the retina and the clock
- C.
  Reduced melatonin secretion, because light signals reaching the suprachiasmatic nucleus suppress pineal output
- D.
  An earlier onset of melatonin release, because evening light advances the body clock by hours
Answer: C. Reduced melatonin secretion, because light signals reaching the suprachiasmatic nucleus suppress pineal output
Retinal light signals reach the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which inhibits pineal melatonin release (C). Light does not raise melatonin (A), the pineal gland is regulated by the SCN (B), and evening light delays rather than advances the clock (D).
Question 3
A student is told her test feedback was randomly made up and that it had no connection to her performance. She nevertheless continues to believe she is poor at the task. Which term best describes this?
- A.
  Confirmation bias
- B.
  The availability heuristic
- C.
  Belief perseverance
- D.
  Anchoring
Answer: C. Belief perseverance
Holding a belief after the evidence that created it has been discredited is belief perseverance (C). Confirmation bias (A) is seeking or favouring evidence that supports a belief. The availability heuristic (B) judges likelihood by how easily examples come to mind. Anchoring (D) is over-reliance on an initial number.
Question 4
A masked word flashed for 20 ms is not reported, although it activates visual cortex. The same word shown for 200 ms is reported and also produces widespread activity in prefrontal and parietal regions. Global workspace theory interprets the difference as showing that:
- A.
  conscious perception depends on activity in primary visual cortex alone, since that region was active in both cases
- B.
  the brain does not process the briefly flashed word at all
- C.
  information becomes conscious when it is broadcast to many brain regions, making it widely available
- D.
  consciousness arises from a single dedicated region, the thalamus
Answer: C. information becomes conscious when it is broadcast to many brain regions, making it widely available
C is right: widespread broadcasting makes the information available for report and use. A is contradicted because both words activated visual cortex. B is contradicted because the brief word did activate visual cortex. D is a single-region claim opposite to the theory.
Question 5
Some people with high spinal cord injuries, who receive less sensory feedback from their bodies, report that certain emotions feel less intense than they did before the injury. This finding most directly supports:
- A.
  the James-Lange theory
- B.
  the Cannon-Bard theory
- C.
  Lazarus's cognitive appraisal theory
- D.
  the opponent-process theory of emotion
Answer: A. the James-Lange theory
The James-Lange theory holds that emotional experience results from perceiving one's own physiological responses, so reduced bodily feedback should weaken felt emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory holds that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently, so it predicts that losing bodily feedback would leave emotional experience intact.

Find your real gaps

A few questions show the style. The free scan shows which MCAT skills cost you the most points, then builds a plan around them.

Take the free scan