Chapter 9 Quiz: Scent, Sound, and the Senses

12 questions. Select the best answer for multiple-choice items; answer short-answer questions in 2–4 sentences.

1. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is primarily a set of genes associated with:

a) Hormone production during puberty b) Immune system function and pathogen recognition c) Vocal tract development and voice quality d) Serotonin receptor sensitivity

2. In Claus Wedekind's original 1995 sweaty t-shirt study, which pattern was most consistently found among women who were not using oral contraceptives?

a) They preferred the odors of men with MHC types similar to their own b) They showed no consistent preference based on MHC type c) They preferred the odors of men with MHC types dissimilar to their own d) They rated all t-shirts as equally unpleasant

3. What does the oral contraceptive finding in the t-shirt study suggest, according to Wedekind's interpretation?

a) Oral contraceptives eliminate all sensitivity to body odor b) Hormonal contraceptives may shift preferences toward kin-like (MHC-similar) odors, mimicking a pregnancy state c) Oral contraceptive users are better at detecting MHC dissimilarity d) The MHC effect only exists in women who use hormonal contraceptives

4. A major scientific concern with the body of t-shirt/MHC research is:

a) The studies were conducted exclusively in non-Western countries b) No studies have been published that found the MHC preference effect c) Publication bias may mean that studies with significant MHC effects are more likely to be published than null results d) MHC genes are identical across all human populations, making the hypothesis untestable

5. The vomeronasal organ (VNO) in adult humans is best described as:

a) A fully functional chemosensory organ that processes pheromone signals b) A vestigial structure lacking the neural connections needed for pheromone signal transmission c) The primary site of MHC peptide detection in the nasal passage d) Absent in human anatomy entirely — it exists only in rodents

6. Tristram Wyatt, a leading pheromone researcher, has concluded that:

a) Androstenone is a well-established human sex pheromone b) Human pheromone products sold commercially have been shown in trials to increase sexual attractiveness c) There is no well-founded evidence for any specific human pheromone that reliably triggers behavioral responses d) Human pheromones work through the same VNO pathway as in rodents

7. The fact that the olfactory system projects directly to the amygdala and hippocampus without routing through the thalamus is significant because it helps explain:

a) Why smell is processed more quickly than vision b) Why certain scents trigger emotionally charged autobiographical memories c) Why the MHC preference effect is stronger than the visual attractiveness effect d) Why pheromones in humans activate the accessory olfactory bulb

8. Research on vocal pitch and attractiveness has generally found that:

a) Lower-pitched voices in both men and women are universally rated as most attractive b) Voice pitch has no consistent relationship with attractiveness ratings across studies c) Women tend to rate lower-pitched male voices as more attractive; men tend to rate higher-pitched female voices as more attractive d) Voice pitch only affects attractiveness ratings in visual-impairment contexts where faces cannot be seen

9. Short answer: What are formants, and why do researchers believe formant spacing may provide additional information about a speaker beyond fundamental frequency alone?

Write your answer here.

10. C-tactile (CT) afferents are:

a) Neural pathways that detect sharp pain and high-pressure touch b) Unmyelinated fibers in the skin that respond selectively to gentle, slow, stroking touch and project to the insular cortex c) Receptors in the vomeronasal organ that detect social chemical signals d) Cortical neurons in the temporal lobe that process voice attractiveness

11. Sorokowska and colleagues' (2017) multinational survey on touch norms found:

a) Touch norms were essentially uniform across the 45 countries studied b) Northern European and East Asian cultures generally showed more permissive touch norms than Southern European cultures c) Significant cross-national variation in which body areas are acceptable for non-intimate acquaintances to touch d) Touch frequency was highest in the English-speaking countries studied

12. Short answer: The concept of multisensory integration holds that the brain combines inputs from different sensory channels rather than processing them independently. What is the significance of superadditivity in the context of attraction, and what does it predict about encounters where signals across channels are congruent versus contradictory?

Write your answer here.

Answer Key (Instructor Use)

  1. b
  2. c
  3. b
  4. c
  5. b
  6. c
  7. b
  8. c
  9. Formants are the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract — peaks in the acoustic energy spectrum that shape voice timbre. Formant spacing, or formant dispersion, reflects vocal tract length: longer tracts (associated with larger bodies) produce lower, more widely spaced formants. Research by Puts and colleagues found that formant dispersion predicts perceived dominance in male voices, suggesting that listeners may extract body-size information from formant patterns independently of fundamental frequency.
  10. b
  11. c
  12. Superadditivity refers to the phenomenon where congruent multisensory signals produce a combined response greater than the sum of individual channel responses. In attraction contexts, this predicts that an attractive face paired with an attractive voice will generate stronger attraction than either alone. Conversely, when signals across channels conflict (attractive face plus off-putting odor), the brain must resolve the incongruity, and the outcome may reduce or complicate the overall attraction response — neither channel simply dominates.