Midterm 2 sample questions

As explained in class, the second midterm will not cover any material from chapter 10 in thetextbook, nor any lecture material after the completion of the chapter 12 content on 10 March.That is, there will be no material on schizophrenia on the midterm. The midterm will coverchapters 7, 8, 9, and 12 from the textbook and lecture material from 15 February to 10 March(i.e., up to the end of the chapter 12 content).The second midterm will consist of 25 multiple choice questions (25 points), defining 5 of 6possible terms (10 points), and 6 short answer questions (20 points). Below are some samplequestions representative of the type to be given on the second midterm.1. All of the following are characteristics of Turner’s Syndrome except for:A) causes general cognitive deficitsB) accounts for 10% of total spontaneous abortionsC) is associated with abnormal sexual developmentD) is often characterized by short stature2. _________ cognitive deficits seem usually to be due to single gene disorders or chromosomalaberrations, while ________ cognitive deficits seem usually to be a complex trait effect.A) Profound/severeB) Severe/profoundC) Mild/SevereD) Severe/mild3. A child with moderate cognitive deficits has an IQ in the range ofA) 100-70B) 70-50C) 50-35D) 35-204. Findings suggest that the co-occurrence (i.e., comorbidity) of psychiatric disorders is high.With respect to genetic influences on psychopathology, this suggests thatA) trying to separate disorders into internalizing and externalizing is a pointless endeavour.B) their effects are dependent upon the specific disorder.C) their effects are broad in scope.D) their effects must be assessed on an individual patient basis.5. Maturation effects may help explain whyA) Alzheimer’s Disease has low heritability.B) MZ twins show higher heritability for IQ when adopted apart.C) XYY males are disproportionately incarcerated.D) Measures of IQ between relatives tends to correlate less as they age.

6. Bipolar disorder is almost certainlyA) due to genes on chromosome 5 alone.B) the most highly heritable of all the psychopathologies.C) a quantitative trait influenced by multiple genes.D) a subset of dspressive mood disorders (misdiagnosed due to reliance on behaviouralcriteria)7. Consider the following data with respect to antisocial symptoms across adolescence toadulthood.Adolescence AdulthoodGenetic 10% 40%Shared envir. 40% 10%Unique envir. 50% 50%This data indicates thatA) antisocial personality disorder runs in families.B) genetics become increasingly important with age.C) early shared environmental factors are crucial in estimating the degree of antisocialsymptoms in adulthood.D) heritability of antisocial symptoms can be estimated to be about 0.2 in adolescence, but 0.8in adulthood.8. Behavioural genetics studies of autism tend to find minimal effects of shared environment (forexample, discounting the “refrigerator mother” hypothesis). This is a problem for what type ofexplanation for autism?A) Behavioural interpretations.B) Mendelian genetics interpretations.C) QTL interpretations.D. An ACE model interpretation.9. Cognitive disabilities not uncommonly co-occur with medical problems. A newer idea in themedical community is that there might be common genetic factors accounting for both cognitivedisabilities and medical problems. Which of the following pieces of evidence support this idea?A) Mild cognitive disabilities run in families.B) Children with both cognitive disabilities and medical problems are more likely to haveparents with cognitive disabilities.C) Two studies have found that low IQ is as heritable as IQ in the normal range, implying thatheritable factors can contribute to familial resemblances for mild cognitive disabilities.D) Mild cognitive disabilities are generally caused by noninherited DNA events (for example,chromosomal abnormalities), which can also cause medical problems.10. Which technique can be used to distinguish quantitative from qualitative differences in aproband of subjects from that of the normal population?A) Quantitative trait locus analysis.B) Non-shared factor analysis.C) Linkage disequilibrium analysis.D) DF extremes analysis.

11. Although there is now general agreement that g, general cognitive ability, exists and has aheritable component, there are some valid criticisms, includingA) that g only accounts for about 40% of the variance of the test used.B) the fact that g is dependent upon hierarchical models of cognition.C) that tests of cognitive ability derive most of their validity from the extend to which theymeasure g.D) the fact that g seems to be independent of cultural context (i.e., unique environment effects)12. Additive genetics effectsA) occur when alleles at a locus and across loci “add up” to affect behaviour.B) occur when unique combinations of alleles have extraordinary effects not seen in parents orsiblings.C) occur when several genes affect a behaviour.D) occur when alleles at a locus interact to affect behaviour.13. Numerous studies have looked for candidate genes associated with g, but have failed to showconsistent results. However, studies on QTL effect sizes suggests that this may be becauseA) The shared and unique environmental components overwhelm the genetic factors, makingcandidate gene studies ineffective for a complex trait like g.B) you need very powerful tests to detect small effects for complex traits.C) multivariate analysis of studies with equally calibrated sample sets will be necessary.D) of the polygenic nature of g.Definitions1. Dominance:2. Reeler mouse:3. Mirror neurons:

Short Answer1. Consider issues of both general cognitive ability and school achievement when answering thefollowing two questions. A. Does heritability change during development? And, B. Do geneticfactors contribute to developmental change (4 points)2. A. Give an example of both a trisomy and a single gene mutation that affect cognitive function(1 point). B. Provide one additional piece of information about each specific example you havechosen (2 points).3. Autism is the most heritable childhood disorder. It is really, really heritable. Yet despite this,the risk to siblings is only about 5%. Explain the seeming contradiction between these statements(1 point).

ANSWERSMultiple Choice1. A 2. D 3. C 4. C 5. D 6. C 7. B 8. A 9. B 10. D 11. C 12. A 13. BDefinitions1. Nonadditive genetic effect in which alleles at a locus interact rather than add up to affectbehaviour.2. Mouse that has loss of Reln gene function; experience motor control problems; reeler mousepups show reduced rates of ultrasonic vocalizations (have been used as autism model).3. Neurons that fire both when an individual performs an action or experiences a stimulusdirectly, and also when the action or stimulus is observed to occur in another.Short-Answer1. A. General cognitive ability does show that heritability changes during development; differentgenetic factors seem to come “on-line” in infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, etc. thatinfluence g, and studies show correlations between parents and children for g increase from lessthan 0.2 in infancy to over 0.3 by adolescence. School achievement, however does not (scoresare remarkably consistent across age ranges in different school subjects).1. B. For g, genetic factors contribute largely to continuity from childhood to adulthood,although some genetic change does exist; the results for school achievement is similar (i.e.,genetics contribute mostly to continuity with some support for change).2. A. Single Gene Mutations: Phenylketonuria (PKU), Fragile X syndrome, Rhett syndrome,Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, Neurofibromatosis type 1. Trisomy:Trisomy 21, Down syndrome, XXY, XYY, XXX.2. B. Any reasonable piece of info would be fine.3. Genes account for the majority of the variability with respect to the behaviour (autism) in thepopulation, so high heritability; but it’s very polygenic, so small allele differences can producelarge individual phenotypic differences (i.e., sibs not having autism).