Biology

Behavioral Psychology and Physiology

1,185 Questions

Behavioral psychology and physiology explore cognitive processes, attention, memory, and learning mechanisms like conditioning. These concepts are frequently tested in general science and psychology sections of various competitive exams. Prepare thoroughly using these practice questions covering key behavioral theories and physiological functions.

Cognitive processesMemory and learningAttention and focusDevelopmental milestonesSensory perception

Behavioral Psychology and Physiology Questions

Multiple choice

Prolonged eye contact between two individuals is weighted with great significance because

Directions: Read the passage and answer the given question.

One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behaviour. You shift your eyes, meet another person's gaze or fail to meet it - and produce an effect out of all proportion to the trifling muscular effort you have made. When two people look searchingly into each other's eyes, emotions are heightened and  the relationship tipped toward greater intimacy.

In normal conversation, each eye contact lasts only about a second before one or both individuals look away. Because the longer meeting of the eyes is rare, it is weighted with significance when it happens and can generate a special kind of human-to-human awareness. Most of the time, a lingering look is inter­preted as a sign of attraction and this should be scru­pulously avoided except in appropriate circumstances. A young woman once complained. ‘That man makes me so uncomfortable, half the time when I glance at him he's already looking at me - and he keeps right on looking.'

Proper street behaviour requires a balance of at­tention and intention. You are supposed to look at a passer-by just enough to show that you are aware of his presence. If you look too little, you appear haughty or furtive; too much and you are inquisitive. Usually what happens is that people eye each other until they are about eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes.

Much of eye behaviour is so subtle that we react to it only on the intuitive level. This has been demon­strated in elaborate experiments. Subjects sit and talk in the psychologist's laboratory, irrespective of the fact that their eye behaviour is being observed from be­hind a one-way vision screen. In one fairly typical ex­periment, subjects were induced to cheat while per­forming a task, then were interviewed and observed. It was found that those who. had cheated met the interviewer's eyes less often than was normal, an in­dication that 'shifty eyes' can actually be a tip-off to an attempt to deceive.

However, none of the `facts' of eye behaviour are cut and dried, for there are variations between indi­viduals. People use their eyes differently and spend different amounts of time looking at others. Besides, no pattern of eye behaviour is precisely predictable in any normal conversation.

  1. it always generates a special awareness

  2. such contacts are extremely rare

  3. such contacts are often interpreted negatively

  4. such contacts create a great impression
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The passage states: 'In normal conversation, each eye contact lasts only about a second. Because the longer meeting of the eyes is rare, it is weighted with significance when it happens.' Option B correctly identifies that prolonged contacts are rare.

Multiple choice

As per the author, the muscular effort we make is

Directions: Read the passage and answer the given question.

One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behaviour. You shift your eyes, meet another person's gaze or fail to meet it - and produce an effect out of all proportion to the trifling muscular effort you have made. When two people look searchingly into each other's eyes, emotions are heightened and  the relationship tipped toward greater intimacy.

In normal conversation, each eye contact lasts only about a second before one or both individuals look away. Because the longer meeting of the eyes is rare, it is weighted with significance when it happens and can generate a special kind of human-to-human awareness. Most of the time, a lingering look is inter­preted as a sign of attraction and this should be scru­pulously avoided except in appropriate circumstances. A young woman once complained. ‘That man makes me so uncomfortable, half the time when I glance at him he's already looking at me - and he keeps right on looking.'

Proper street behaviour requires a balance of at­tention and intention. You are supposed to look at a passer-by just enough to show that you are aware of his presence. If you look too little, you appear haughty or furtive; too much and you are inquisitive. Usually what happens is that people eye each other until they are about eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes.

Much of eye behaviour is so subtle that we react to it only on the intuitive level. This has been demon­strated in elaborate experiments. Subjects sit and talk in the psychologist's laboratory, irrespective of the fact that their eye behaviour is being observed from be­hind a one-way vision screen. In one fairly typical ex­periment, subjects were induced to cheat while per­forming a task, then were interviewed and observed. It was found that those who. had cheated met the interviewer's eyes less often than was normal, an in­dication that 'shifty eyes' can actually be a tip-off to an attempt to deceive.

However, none of the `facts' of eye behaviour are cut and dried, for there are variations between indi­viduals. People use their eyes differently and spend different amounts of time looking at others. Besides, no pattern of eye behaviour is precisely predictable in any normal conversation.

  1. approximately equal to the effect of our shifting of the eyes

  2. much more than the effect of our eye movement

  3. much less than the effect of our eye movement

  4. inversely proportional to the effect of our eye movement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The passage opens by stating: 'You shift your eyes, meet another person's gaze or fail to meet it - and produce an effect out of all proportion to the trifling muscular effort you have made.' This shows the effect is much greater than the effort.

Multiple choice

From the findings of the research described in the passage, one can come to the conclusion that

Directions: Read the passage and answer the given question.

One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behaviour. You shift your eyes, meet another person's gaze or fail to meet it - and produce an effect out of all proportion to the trifling muscular effort you have made. When two people look searchingly into each other's eyes, emotions are heightened and  the relationship tipped toward greater intimacy.

In normal conversation, each eye contact lasts only about a second before one or both individuals look away. Because the longer meeting of the eyes is rare, it is weighted with significance when it happens and can generate a special kind of human-to-human awareness. Most of the time, a lingering look is inter­preted as a sign of attraction and this should be scru­pulously avoided except in appropriate circumstances. A young woman once complained. ‘That man makes me so uncomfortable, half the time when I glance at him he's already looking at me - and he keeps right on looking.'

Proper street behaviour requires a balance of at­tention and intention. You are supposed to look at a passer-by just enough to show that you are aware of his presence. If you look too little, you appear haughty or furtive; too much and you are inquisitive. Usually what happens is that people eye each other until they are about eight feet apart, at which point both cast down their eyes.

Much of eye behaviour is so subtle that we react to it only on the intuitive level. This has been demon­strated in elaborate experiments. Subjects sit and talk in the psychologist's laboratory, irrespective of the fact that their eye behaviour is being observed from be­hind a one-way vision screen. In one fairly typical ex­periment, subjects were induced to cheat while per­forming a task, then were interviewed and observed. It was found that those who. had cheated met the interviewer's eyes less often than was normal, an in­dication that 'shifty eyes' can actually be a tip-off to an attempt to deceive.

However, none of the `facts' of eye behaviour are cut and dried, for there are variations between indi­viduals. People use their eyes differently and spend different amounts of time looking at others. Besides, no pattern of eye behaviour is precisely predictable in any normal conversation.

  1. innocent people maintain longer eye contact than the guilty ones

  2. guilty people make frequent gazes during interrogation

  3. 'shifty eyes' indicate an intent to deceive

  4. 'shifty eyes' indicate a feeling of guilt

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Multiple choice

The idea of a voluntary movement is thought to originate in the _________.

  1. pre­mo­tor cor­tex

  2. pri­mary motor cor­tex

  3. asso­ci­a­tion cortex

  4. pri­mary sen­sory cor­tex

  5. broca’s area
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

These are the cortical areas that are neither motor nor sensory but are thought to be involved in higher processing of information.The idea of a voluntary movement originates in the asso­ci­a­tion cortex.

Multiple choice

Fill in the numbered blank (v).

Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.

Yawning is an involuntary ______(i)______ in which your mouth opens up wide and you inhale deeply, followed by _____(ii)_____. When you say involuntary, this means that you have no _____(iii)_____ over this action much like other reflexes such as blinking or sneezing. Yawns are not _____(iv)______ only to human beings as all other animals do this. Despite a lot of _____(v)_____, we still know little about the causes of yawning.

  1. study

  2. knowledge

  3. research

  4. experiments
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Careful study of a given subject, field, or problem, undertaken to discover facts or principles is called research.

Multiple choice

Fill in the numbered blank (i).

Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.

Yawning is an involuntary ______(i)______ in which your mouth opens up wide and you inhale deeply, followed by _____(ii)_____. When you say involuntary, this means that you have no _____(iii)_____ over this action much like other reflexes such as blinking or sneezing. Yawns are not _____(iv)______ only to human beings as all other animals do this. Despite a lot of _____(v)_____, we still know little about the causes of yawning.

  1. position

  2. behaviour

  3. exercise

  4. disease
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Yawning is not an exercise, position or disease. It's a behaviour which is usually triggered by fatigue or boredom.

Multiple choice

Fill in the numbered blank (iii).

Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.

Yawning is an involuntary ______(i)______ in which your mouth opens up wide and you inhale deeply, followed by _____(ii)_____. When you say involuntary, this means that you have no _____(iii)_____ over this action much like other reflexes such as blinking or sneezing. Yawns are not _____(iv)______ only to human beings as all other animals do this. Despite a lot of _____(v)_____, we still know little about the causes of yawning.

  1. trust

  2. freedom

  3. restriction

  4. control
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

An involuntary action is that which is carried out without one's conscious wish; not voluntary; unintentional.

Multiple choice

Fill in the numbered blank (iv).

Directions: Choose the best option to fill in the blank.

Yawning is an involuntary ______(i)______ in which your mouth opens up wide and you inhale deeply, followed by _____(ii)_____. When you say involuntary, this means that you have no _____(iii)_____ over this action much like other reflexes such as blinking or sneezing. Yawns are not _____(iv)______ only to human beings as all other animals do this. Despite a lot of _____(v)_____, we still know little about the causes of yawning.

  1. effected

  2. joined

  3. exclusive

  4. rare
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Exclusive means belonging to a particular individual or group and not to any other; not shared. Yawning is not exclusive as other creatures yawn too. 

Multiple choice

The rats espousing to swim near the edge of a water maze is a typical example of

  1. Gravitaxis

  2. Thigmotaxis

  3. Thermotaxis

  4. Rheotaxis

  5. Phonotaxis
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Thigmotaxis is the movement of an organism either towards or away from the stimulus of physical contact or to the proximity of a physical discontinuity in the environment.the most prominent example can be observed in rats espousing to swim near the edge of a water maze).