Social Behaviour Reading Answers

Dec 29, 2023

Social Behaviour Reading Answers contains 14 questions, and it is a topic belonging to the assessment system of IELTS academic reading test. Social Behaviour Reading Answers has been taken from book called E-Eng School IELTS Reading Tests with Answers Key. In IELTS reading section, the nature of questions is such that candidates have to read a passage and provide answers from therein, it is to be attempted within 20 minutes. Social Behaviour Reading Answers contains the questions that ask the candidates to find information from the passage and filling the blanks etc. To practice more reading papers like that the candidates can refer to IELTS Reading Practice test.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the questions that follow

Social Behaviour Reading Answers

Over the years, most people acquire a repertoire of skills for coping with a range of frightening situations. Scientists are addressing this problem by identifying specific brain processes that regulate fear and its associated behaviors. Despite the availability of noninvasive imaging techniques, such information is still extremely difficult to obtain in humans. Hence, they have turned the attention to another primate, the rhesus monkey.
These animals undergo many of the same physiological and psychological developmental stages that humans do, but in a more compressed time span. As they gained more insight into the nature and operation of neural circuits that modulate fear in monkeys, it should be possible to pinpoint the brain processes that cause inordinate anxiety in people and to devise new therapies to counteract it.
For 20 years, Ned Kalin, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied fear in people and monkeys. He explained that monkeys have a palette of fearful, or defensive, behaviors that are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Each winter, Kalin and colleagues Steven Shelton and John Berard study a free-living colony of primates called Rhesus macaques on a 38-acre islet called Cayo Santiago of the coast of Puerto Rico. Over the years, they noticed that the monkeys responded differently to different threats.
Working in a lab back in Madison, Kalin and Shelton put young macaques through three tests, and saw three adaptive fearful responses: when left alone for 10 minutes, most of the monkeys started cooing to attract their mother's attention. Being separated from mother terrifies infant primates, so this is a smart, adaptive reaction. When a human intruder entered the room and looked away from the monkey, most of the animals skulked toward the back of their cage and froze.
Such freezing minimizes the chance of being detected and gives the animal time to figure out what to do. When a person stared expressionless at the monkey, the animal started a kind of "defensive aggression" reaction, with deep barking, bared teeth, and rattling the cage. Staring, Kalin notes, can be very threatening, since it can signify that a predator has located you or that another member of your species is trying to dominate you.
So far, so good. But why did some monkeys freeze for a few seconds, and others for minutes at a time? Why did 5 percent of the preadolescent monkeys freeze when they were stared at, while 95 percent got aggressive? To further define these types of fearful behavior, Kalin gave small amounts of drugs to the monkeys:
He found that opiates inhibited the cooing for the mother, which made sense since opiates made naturally by the body are known to affect attachment behavior, but not the aggressive barking. Anti- anxiety drugs like diazepam, or valium, had little or no effect on cooing, but it did decrease barking and freezing.
What does all this mean for people plagued by fear and anxiety disorders? For one thing, that fearful responses combine several elements; fear is not one single thing. For another, the problem is not simply having too much emotion, Kalin says, but of having the wrong one, or being unable to hit the "off" switch. "People in the past have conceptualized problems of emotions as being overly intense responses. But we find animals that are unable to turn off a specific reaction, or which express the wrong reaction".
Based on earlier observations in humans, the scientists knew that humans carry two versions of the gene, long and short. Some people have two long versions (L/L), but the people with one of each (S/L) are known to experience a higher incidence of social anxiety and other behaviors. Scientists from Duke University Medical Center conducted three experiments with male monkeys that had been genotyped for the S/L or L/L variants to learn how genetic variation might influence their responses to social rewards and punishments.
They found that monkeys with one copy of the short gene spent less time gazing at images of the face and eyes of other monkeys, were less likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, and less likely to want to view a picture of a high-status male.
"For both human and non-human primates, faces and eyes are rich source of social information, and it's well established that humans tend to direct visual attention to faces, especially the eye region", Platt said. "Rhesus monkeys live in highly despotic societies, and convey social rank information by making threats and showing dominant and submissive behaviors".
In a second experiment, the S/L monkeys were less willing to take risks after they were primed with the faces of high-status males. They more often chose a "safe" option of a fixed volume of juice, rather than the chance for a greater or lesser amount, the "risky" choice. Previous studies have found that inducing fear in human subjects makes them more risk-averse.
The final experiment was a pay-per-view set-up. The monkeys could have a juice reward paired with an image. The images were of high-status male faces, low-status male faces, or a gray square. The L/L monkeys actually had to be paid juice to view the dominant males, while the S/L monkeys gave up juice for a look at these faces.
Altogether, data showed that genetic variation does contribute to social reward and punishment in macaques, and thus shapes social behavior in both humans and rhesus macaques. This study confirms rhesus monkeys can serve as a model of what goes on in our brains, even in the case of social behavior.

Questions 13-17

Reading passage 3 contains 9 paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraphs state the following information?
Write the appropriate letters, A-I.

Classification of responses to fear

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Working in a lab back in Madison, Kalin and Shelton put young macaques through three tests, and saw three adaptive fearful responses: when left alone for 10 minutes, most of the monkeys started cooing to attract their mother's attention.
Keyword: adaptive, fearful, response
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence mentions three adaptive fearful responses. The usage of three for fearful responses points towards a classification. It is basically saying these responses to fear can be classified into three.

Face of high status males cause greater fear in the S/L monkey

Answer: G
Supporting Sentence: In a second experiment, the S/L monkeys were less willing to take risks after they were primed with the faces of high-status males.
Keyword: S/L monkeys, high status males
Keyword Location: Paragraph 12, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that S/L monkeys were less willing to take risks while facing high status males. This less willingness to take risk indicates towards greater fear and its caused by faces of high-status males.

Facial expressions contain social information

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: "For both human and non-human primates, faces and eyes are rich source of social information, and it's well established that humans tend to direct visual attention to faces, especially the eye region".
Keyword: faces, social information
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that faces and eyes are a rich source of social information. This also means the faces contain social information because a source of something contains that something.

Fear is not a simple emotion

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: What does all this mean for people plagued by fear and anxiety disorders? For one thing, that fearful responses combine several elements; fear is not one single thing.
Keyword: fear, not one
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that fearful responses combine several elements; fear is not one single thing. So, fear is not a simple emotion because it combines several elements and isn’t one single thing. Something that is not simple is a combination of several elements as it indicates complexity. Thus, Fear is not a simple emotion.

Medicine does not work in some cases

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Anti- anxiety drugs like diazepam, or valium, had little or no affect on cooing, but it did decrease barking and freezing.
Keyword: drugs, no effect
Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, 3rd line
Explanation: The word drugs means medicines, so diazepam or Valium are medicines in this case. The supporting sentence says that medicine had little to no effect on cooing which means wherever the medicine had no effect, it didn’t work. So, in some cases like cooing medicine does not work.

Questions 18-21
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

What do humans and animals differ while they share the similar physiological and psychological development stages?

Answer: TIME SPAN
Supporting Sentence: These animals undergo many of the same physiological and psychological developmental stages that humans do, but in a more compressed time span.
Keyword: physiological, psychological, humans
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that animals undergo same physiological psychological developmental stages that humans do. This means that animals and humans share the same physiological and psychological developmental stages. But animals undergo the same in a compressed time span that means stages are same but differ in the matter of time span.

What reaction did the monkey start with when they were gazed at expressionless?

Answer: DEFENSIVE AGGRESSION
Supporting Sentence: When a person stared expressionless at the monkey, the animal started a kind of "defensive aggression" reaction, with deep barking, bared teeth, and rattling the cage.
Keyword: stared, expressionless, monkey
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence talks about a person staring expressionlessly at the monkey. So, when stared at like that the animal started a kind of “defensive aggression”. Thus, the monkey’s reaction was defensive aggression.

How many preadolescent monkeys became aggressive when they were facing domination from another member of their own species?

Answer: 95 PERCENT
Supporting Sentence: Staring, Kalin notes, can be very threatening, since it can signify that a predator has located you or that another member of your species is trying to dominate you.

So far, so good. But why did some monkeys freeze for a few seconds, and others for minutes at a time? Why did 5 percent of the preadolescent monkeys freeze when they were stared at, while 95 percent got aggressive?

Answer: another member, dominate, preadolescent monkeys
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 5th line & Paragraph 6, 2nd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence in the first part says that staring means another member of your species is trying to dominate you. In the second part, it says that 5 percent of preadolescent monkeys froze while 95 percent got aggressive.So, 95 percent of monkeys got aggressive when facing domination from a member of the same species.

According to the passage, what determines social behaviour in both humans and monkeys?

Answer: GENETIC VARIATION
Supporting Sentence: Altogether, data showed that genetic variation does contribute to social reward and punishment in macaques, and thus shapes social behavior in both humans and rhesus macaques.
Keyword: social behaviour, humans, macaques
Keyword Location: Paragraph 14, 2nd & 3rd line
Explanation: The social behaviour of humans and monkeys is determined by genetic variations. In this context, supporting sentence says that genetic variation contributes to social reward and punishment thus shapes social behaviour of humans and macaques. Here, macaques are a breed of monkeys.

Questions 22-26
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

In order to understand the brain processes that cause (23) ……… in people, and how genetic variation might influence social behaviour, scientists first conducted three experiments to gain more insight into fear in monkeys. For both human and monkeys, (24) …….. can convey social information. It was found that monkeys with one copy of the short gene were less likely to look at the face of a (25) ………. and to take a risk. The monkey without a (26) ……… would sight on dominant males if they were rewarded, while the (27) ……… monkeys waived the reward.

Answer: INORDINATE ANXIETY
Supporting Sentence: Some people have two long versions (L/L), but the people with one of each (S/L) are known to experience a higher incidence of social anxiety and other behaviors. Scientists from Duke University Medical Center conducted three experiments with male monkeys that had been genotyped for the S/L or L/L variants to learn how genetic variation might influence their responses to social rewards and punishments.
Keyword: experiment, genetic variation & social
Keyword Location: Paragraph 9, 5th & 6th line
Explanation: The supporting sentence says that three experiments with male monkeys, it aims to study how genetic variation might influence their response to rewards & punishments. This experiment follows the claim where S/L people are known to have higher anxiety. So, the experiment is being done to understand inordinate anxiety.

Answer: FACES AND EYES
Supporting Sentence: "For both human and non-human primates, faces and eyes are rich source of social information, and it's well established that humans tend to direct visual attention to faces, especially the eye region"
Keyword: human, non-human primates, social information
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: For both humans and monkeys, faces and eyes can convey social information. The supporting sentence says that for both human and non-human primates, faces and eyes are a rich source of social information. Non-human primates include monkeys and rich sources of social information can be used to convey it as well.

Answer: HIGH STATUS MALE
Supporting Sentence: In a second experiment, the S/L monkeys were less willing to take risks after they were primed with the faces of high-status males.
Keyword: monkeys, faces
Keyword Location: Paragraph 12, 1st & 2nd line
Explanation: The S/L monkeys are the monkeys with one short gene, the S stands for that. The supporting sentence says that these monkeys were less willing to take risks after being primed with faces of high-status males. Here, primed with faces means made to look at these faces. So, monkeys were less likely to take risks while faced with a high status male.

Answer: SHORT GENE
Supporting Sentence: The images were of high-status male faces, low-status male faces, or a gray square. The L/L monkeys actually had to be paid juice to view the dominant males, while the S/L monkeys gave up juice for a look at these faces.
Keyword: monkeys, dominant males
Keyword Location: Paragraph 13, 3rd line
Explanation: The supporting sentence deals with an experiment where long gene monkeys and short gene monkeys are made to view dominant males. The juice is the reward here. The supporting sentence says that L/L (or long gene) monkeys had to be paid juice as reward to look at dominant males. And L/L monkeys are the monkeys without Short gene.

Answer: S/L
Supporting Sentence: The images were of high-status male faces, low-status male faces, or a gray square. The L/L monkeys actually had to be paid juice to view the dominant males, while the S/L monkeys gave up juice for a look at these faces.
Keyword: while, monkeys, gave up
Keyword Location: Paragraph 13, 4th line
Explanation: The S/L monkeys waived the reward, waived means gave up. The supporting sentence says that S/L monkeys gave up juice to look at these faces. Here, these faces mean faces of dominant males and juice is the reward.