Week 14 — Quiz (auto-graded) · The Peripheral & Autonomic Nervous System

Course: Anatomy & Physiology I (BIOL 2301 + BIOL 2101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Navarro
Objective tested: Objective 7 — CNS vs. PNS; cranial & spinal nerves; afferent (sensory) vs. efferent (motor); somatic (voluntary) vs. autonomic (involuntary); sympathetic vs. parasympathetic.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 14.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-14-qti.xml (generated by the shared validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The reusable item-bank entries and the Canvas placement block are at the bottom of this file.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 14 misconceptions named in the lecture outline (especially swapping the two autonomic branches).

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). The cranial nerves and spinal nerves are the wiring that connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. They are part of the —
- A. central nervous system (CNS)
- B. peripheral nervous system (PNS) ✅
- C. brain itself
- D. meninges
Feedback: The CNS is just the brain + spinal cord. Everything outside it — the 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves — is the PNS, the cables that carry signals in and out. (The meninges are the protective coverings of the CNS, not nerves.)

Q2 (MC). You decide to pick up a coffee cup, and your arm muscles obey. Which division of the motor (efferent) system carried that voluntary command to skeletal muscle?
- A. the autonomic nervous system
- B. the somatic nervous system ✅
- C. the parasympathetic division
- D. the sensory (afferent) division
Feedback: Somatic = voluntary, carrying conscious commands to skeletal muscle ("self-driven and skeletal"). The autonomic system (and its sympathetic/parasympathetic branches) runs involuntary organs — heart, glands, smooth muscle. The afferent division is sensory, not motor.

Q3 (Matching). Match each body effect to the autonomic division that produces it.
| Body effect | Correct division |
|---|---|
| Speeds up the heart rate | Sympathetic (fight-or-flight) |
| Dilates (widens) the pupils | Sympathetic (fight-or-flight) |
| Slows down the heart rate | Parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) |
| Stimulates digestion | Parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) |
Feedback: The two branches are antagonistic. Sympathetic (fight-or-flight) speeds the heart and dilates the pupils; parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) slows the heart and stimulates digestion. Learn one column and flip it for the other.

Q4 (MC). A car swerves toward you and your body instantly readies you to react — heart pounding, pupils wide, airways open, digestion on hold. This is the work of the —
- A. parasympathetic division (rest-and-digest)
- B. sympathetic division (fight-or-flight) ✅
- C. somatic sensory division
- D. enteric reflex only
Feedback: The whole package — faster heart, dilated pupils, open airways, paused digestion — readies you to fight or run, the job of the sympathetic division. Every sympathetic effect answers "what would help me fight or run right now?"

Q5 (MC). After a calm meal, your heart rate eases, your pupils constrict, and your gut gets to work. Which division is dominant in this rest-and-digest state?
- A. the sympathetic division
- B. the parasympathetic division ✅
- C. the somatic division
- D. the afferent division
Feedback: Slowed heart, constricted pupils, and active digestion are the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) effects — the mirror image of fight-or-flight. The vagus nerve carries much of this calming signal.

Q6 (MC). In the peripheral nervous system, afferent neurons and efferent neurons carry signals in opposite directions. Which statement is correct?
- A. Afferent = sensory, carrying signals TOWARD the CNS; efferent = motor, carrying signals AWAY from the CNS ✅
- B. Afferent = motor, carrying signals away from the CNS; efferent = sensory, carrying signals toward the CNS
- C. Both afferent and efferent neurons carry signals only toward the brain
- D. Afferent and efferent both refer to motor commands to muscle
Feedback: Afferent Arrives at the CNS (sensory input); Efferent Exits to the body (motor output). B reverses them; C and D ignore the two-way design (sensory in, motor out).

Q7 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are sympathetic (fight-or-flight) effects?
- A. Increases heart rate ✅
- B. Dilates the pupils ✅
- C. Inhibits (slows) digestion ✅
- D. Decreases heart rate
- E. Stimulates digestion
Feedback: Sympathetic = fight-or-flight: it increases heart rate, dilates the pupils, and inhibits digestion (blood goes to muscle, not gut). Decreasing heart rate (D) and stimulating digestion (E) are parasympathetic effects — the distractors.

Q8 (True / False). "During hard exercise, the parasympathetic division speeds up the heart to deliver more oxygen."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. The sympathetic division speeds the heart for exertion (fight-or-flight); the parasympathetic division slows it (rest-and-digest). This swap is the single most common error on this material — anchor each effect to its branch.

Q9 (MC). How many pairs of cranial nerves and how many pairs of spinal nerves make up the peripheral nervous system?
- A. 10 pairs of cranial nerves and 30 pairs of spinal nerves
- B. 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves ✅
- C. 31 pairs of cranial nerves and 12 pairs of spinal nerves
- D. 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 12 pairs of spinal nerves
Feedback: The PNS has 12 pairs of cranial nerves (from the brain) and 31 pairs of spinal nerves (along the cord). C reverses the two numbers; A and D are simply wrong counts. Lock in "12 and 31."

Q10 (MC). Which statement about the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is correct?
- A. The ANS controls skeletal muscle for voluntary movement
- B. The ANS controls cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and glands, and the vagus nerve is its major parasympathetic nerve ✅
- C. The ANS is the only sensory pathway to the brain
- D. The vagus nerve is the major sympathetic nerve that triggers fight-or-flight
Feedback: The ANS runs involuntary targets — cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and glands — and the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) is its major parasympathetic nerve. A describes the somatic system; C ignores the afferent pathways; D mislabels the vagus as sympathetic (it's parasympathetic).

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q7) lists exactly the three sympathetic effects (A, B, C) and requires the two parasympathetic distractors (D, E) to be left unselected; the matching item (Q3) pairs four effects to the correct branch. Every autonomic fact is verified against standard physiology (OpenStax A&P §15.1; InnerBody nervous system): sympathetic = fight-or-flight (↑ heart rate, dilates pupils, opens airways, inhibits digestion, norepinephrine, thoracolumbar); parasympathetic = rest-and-digest (↓ heart rate, constricts pupils, stimulates digestion, acetylcholine, craniosacral); the vagus (cranial nerve X) is the major parasympathetic nerve; afferent = sensory toward the CNS, efferent = motor away; somatic = voluntary, autonomic = involuntary; 12 cranial + 31 spinal nerve pairs. No sympathetic/parasympathetic effect is swapped. Anatomy-accuracy gate: PASS. No computation in this quiz, so no arithmetic to mis-key (Week 14's only numbers are the nerve-pair counts, 12 and 31, verified above; the quantitative gate does not apply to the quiz).

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=BIOL2301 · week=14 · objective=7 · topic=peripheral-autonomic-nervous-system and deposited in Item Bank: Week 14 — Peripheral & Autonomic Nervous System. The final (Week 16) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 pns-vs-cns, q2 somatic-vs-autonomic, q3 sympathetic-parasympathetic-match, q4 sympathetic-fight-flight, q5 parasympathetic-rest-digest, q6 afferent-efferent, q7 sympathetic-effects-select, q8 parasympathetic-heart-misconception, q9 cranial-spinal-counts, q10 ans-targets-vagus.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 14 Quiz — The Peripheral & Autonomic Nervous System"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Navarro's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"