Deck 4: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

The minimum amount of difference in the sweetness of two soft drinks that you can detect is an example of what principle?

A) Just-noticeable difference
B) Weber's Law
C) Fechner's Law
D) Signal-detection theory

Answer 1

Just-noticeable difference

Question 2

Walking down a country lane on a clear,dark night you see a candle in a cabin window you know to be approximately 30 miles away.This is an example of what phenomena?

A) Feature detectors
B) Binocular cues
C) Perceptual constancy
D) Absolute threshold

Answer 2

Absolute threshold

Question 3

Sound,light,and other kinds of stimuli from our surroundings cannot travel through our nerves to the brain.Instead,our sensory organs convert the physical properties of these various stimuli into neural impulses.This conversion process is called ____.

A) transformation
B) transmission
C) transduction
D) transfer

Answer 3

transduction

Question 4

You are at a party when you overhear two women across the room whispering about the attractive man that just came through the door.What field of psychology might be interested in this phenomena?

A) Psychometrics
B) Threshold psychology
C) Psychophysics
D) Parapsychology

Question 5

What are the sensory receptors for taste?

A) Pressure-sensitive hair cells in the cochlea
B) Sensitive ends of touch neurons
C) Sensitive ends of olfactory neurons in the mucous membranes
D) None of the above

Question 6

A number of studies have found that the absolute threshold for a given sense ____.

A) varies between people
B) are the same for everyone
C) is the highest in old people
D) is the highest in children

Question 7

What are the sensory receptors for vision?

A) Cornea and the iris
B) Light-sensitive rods and cones in the retina of the eye
C) Pupil and the lens
D) Aqueous humor and vitreous humor

Question 8

While tasting a biscotti,you recognize the familiar flavor of almond.What is this process of sensation and interpretation called?

A) Proprioceptive sense
B) Absolute threshold
C) Perception
D) Weber's law

Question 9

What was Gustav Fechner's contribution to the field of psychophysics?

A) He discovered the principle of just-noticeable difference.
B) He discovered that a person can smell one half drop of perfume diffused in a 5 room house.
C) He introduced the term absolute threshold.
D) He is known as the father of psychophysics.

Question 10

What is common between absolute threshold and difference threshold?

A) They vary in different situations but are the same for every person.
B) They are the same for every person in all situations.
C) They vary from person to person and from situation to situation.
D) They vary from person to person but are the same in all situations.

Question 11

You are seated in the lab and I place two sticks side by side exactly two feet in front of you.I start moving one of the sticks very,very slowly until you tell me that it looks farther away than the other.I am demonstrating what principle?

A) Just-noticeable difference
B) Absolute threshold
C) Subliminal stimulation
D) Signal detection theory

Question 12

Name the principle that states a weak or small stimulus does not require much change before a person notices that the stimulus has changed,but a strong or large stimulus requires a proportionately greater change before the change is noticed.

A) Just noticeable difference
B) Fechner's principle
C) Weber's law
D) Signal detection theory

Question 13

According to signal-detection theory,there are two important factors that shape decision making.What are they?

A) Absolute threshold and difference threshold
B) Observer's expectation and rewards and costs associated with detecting or not detecting the stimulus
C) Expectations of the observer and perceived false expectations
D) Motive and personal belief

Question 14

Hearing a sound is ____,and interpreting its meaning is ____.

A) mental;physical
B) physical;mental
C) perception;sensation
D) sensation;perception

Question 15

When a person tries to judge whether a faint stimulus is present or absent,approximately how long does it take for his or her vigilance to diminish due to fatigue?

A) 1 hour
B) 30 minutes
C) 15 minutes
D) 1.5 hours

Question 16

What term describes a ratio between the original stimulus and any addition or subtraction of stimulation before the change is noticed by the person?

A) Sensory adaptation
B) Weber's Law
C) Absolute threshold
D) Signal detection theory

Question 17

When people age,their absolute thresholds for all their senses increase.What does this mean?

A) As we age,greater stimulation is necessary to detect stimuli.
B) As we age,our senses get better.
C) As we age,the absolute threshold for a given sense varies,even though in our youth,it was basically the same for everyone.
D) As we age,it gets easier to detect changes in stimuli.

Question 18

Transduction takes place at structures called ____.

A) sensory adaptors
B) sensory receptors
C) sensory signal sites
D) sensory crossings

Question 19

Which of the following statements best describes absolute threshold?

A) It is the lowest level of intensity that a person can detect.
B) It is the lowest level of intensity that a person can detect more than half of the time.
C) It is the lowest level of intensity that a person can detect half of the time.
D) It is the maximum level of intensity that a person can tolerate before feeling pain.

Question 20

Pressure-sensitive hair cells in the cochlea are the sensory receptors for ____.

A) vision
B) hearing
C) smell
D) touch

Question 21

If you are exposed to an unchanging stimulus over a period of time,you will experience ____,and become less responsive to that stimulus.

A) absolute threshold
B) difference threshold
C) subliminal stimulation
D) sensory adaptation

Question 22

Which of the following statements is true?

A) The pupil is a hole in the iris.
B) The iris is a hole in the pupil.
C) The iris is not composed of muscle.
D) The pupil is a ring of muscles.

Question 23

During Zoua's first week of living in her college dorm,she had trouble studying because of the music her roommate played all the time.Yet,by the second week,Zoua hardly noticed the music while studying.What phenomenon explains this change?

A) Signal detection theory
B) Sensory adaptation
C) Subliminal stimulation
D) Sensory threshold

Question 24

Within a human's range of visible light,color is seen based on the size of the wavelength.Shorter wavelengths are seen as ____,intermediate ones as ____,____,and ____,and longer wavelengths as ____.

A) violet;blue;green;yellow;red
B) red;green;blue;orange;violet
C) red;orange;yellow;green;blue
D) green;blue;indigo;violet;red

Question 25

What is the area of central focus located near the center of the retina?

A) Rod
B) Cone
C) Optic nerve
D) Fovea

Question 26

Light first enters the eye through the ____,a clear membrane covering the front of the eyeball.

A) pupil
B) lens
C) cornea
D) iris

Question 27

Which part of the eye is responsible for carrying oxygen and other nutrients to the cornea and lens?

A) Fovea
B) Optic nerve
C) Aqueous humor
D) Pupil

Question 28

Name the two basic kinds of receptor neurons,or photoreceptors,located in the retina.

A) Bipolar and ganglion
B) Rods and cones
C) Photoreceptors and ganglion
D) Bipolar cells and photoreceptors

Question 29

Relaxing the lens and making it more spherical results in a ____.

A) clear image of distant objects
B) clear image of near objects
C) panned view
D) clear image of large objects

Question 30

What happens to your pupils when you are psychologically aroused or interested in something?

A) Pupils constrict
B) Nothing,pupils are only affected by light
C) Pupils open and close rapidly
D) Pupils dilate

Question 31

Acting much like the diaphragm of a camera,the ____ regulates how much light enters the eye.

A) iris
B) pupil
C) lens
D) cornea

Question 32

Which part of the eye is actually a piece of the brain that migrates to the eye during early fetal development?

A) Fovea
B) Retina
C) Optic chiasm
D) Superior colliculus

Question 33

Which of the following falls within the visible range of light?

A) 460 nanometers
B) Ultraviolet light
C) 320 nm
D) X-rays

Question 34

Where does the integration and compression of information from the rods and cones occur so that it can be more easily transmitted along the optic nerve?

A) Photoreceptors
B) Bipolar and ganglion cells
C) Optic chiasm
D) Superior colliculus and lateral geniculate nucleus

Question 35

Light first passes through the ____,____,and ____ and is then focused on the ____ at the back of the eye.

A) iris;fovea;retina;lens
B) pupil;lens;optic nerve;retina
C) cornea;pupil;lens;retina
D) cornea;retina;lens;optic nerve

Question 36

The area of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye contains no receptor cells.What does this mean in layman's terms?

A) It means this is the place on the eye that cannot see any color.
B) It means this is the place on the eye that images are not seen.
C) It means there are no rods or cones in this area.
D) Both b and c

Question 37

Animals that tune out constant unchanging stimuli that provide no new information should be better able to detect more useful information for survival due to what explanation?

A) Sensory adaptation
B) Subliminal stimulation
C) Psychophysics
D) Innate ability

Question 38

Before visual information gets to the brain,it must pass through a three-cell chain.Put them in the correct order.

A) Photoreceptor,bipolar cells,ganglion cells
B) Ganglion cells,bipolar cells,photoreceptor
C) Optic disk,basal cells,photoreceptors
D) Bipolar cells,photoreceptors,ganglion cells

Question 39

Which photoreceptors are most useful at night?

A) Cones
B) Fovea
C) Axons
D) Rods

Question 40

Imagine you are a soldier carrying a 53 pound rucksack during field duty.One day a friend adds a one ounce letter to your pack.You don't feel a thing,but the next day your friend adds a one pound package to your pack,and you can tell the difference.What psychological principle is this phenomenon based on?

A) Weber's Law
B) The Cue Effect
C) Sensory adaptation
D) Sensory threshold

Question 41

Pigeons have ____ vision.

A) monochromatic
B) dichromatic
C) trichromatic
D) pentachromatic

Question 42

Which animal did David Hubel and Tortsen Wiesel use for their experiment on the communication of cells in the visual cortex?

A) Rat
B) Cat
C) Frog
D) Monkey

Question 43

The rods ____.

A) function best under sunlight
B) detect black,white,and gray patterns
C) detect colors other than black,white,and gray
D) require a lot of light to be activated

Question 44

Which of the following is true?

A) In dim light,muscle fibers in the iris dilate the pupil to let in more light.
B) In dim light,muscle fibers in the iris dilate the pupil to release more light.
C) In bright light,the pupil dilates to let in more light.
D) In bright light,the pupil dilates to release more light.

Question 45

The ____ is a clear jellylike liquid that occupies the space behind the lens.

A) tear
B) floater
C) aqueous humor
D) vitreous humor

Question 46

What is the best way to explain to a child why he or she sees a leaf as green?

A) The leaf is green because it absorbs green wavelength.
B) The leaf is green because that color is inherent to the leaf because of the chlorophyll that it absorbs.
C) The leaf is green because that leaf evokes the sensation of green in our minds.
D) The color green is in the light waves reflected from the leaf.

Question 47

This distance at which the lens of the eye can no longer accommodate to bring objects into focus is called the ____.

A) focal point
B) near point
C) saturation point
D) lens point

Question 48

What are the cells called in the visual cortex that respond only to a highly specific characteristic of a visual stimulus,such as an angle,straight edge,spot movement,or brightness?

A) Lateral geniculate nuclei
B) Feature detectors
C) Action potentials
D) Ganglion cells

Question 49

Any color can be created by combining the light wavelengths of three primary colors.What are those colors?

A) Red,yellow,blue
B) Green,orange,violet
C) Orange,green,indigo
D) Red,green,blue

Question 50

Which of the following is a function of the lateral geniculate nucleus?

A) Carry information from the retina to the brain
B) Organize information about color and other aspects of the visual field
C) Compression of information so that it can be more easily transmitted along the optic nerve
D) Controlling eye movements

Question 51

As people get past the age of 45,the distance of the near point increases because ____.

A) our eyes become prone to cataract
B) by the time we reach that age,our eyes become weak
C) aging causes a loss in the elasticity of the lens
D) the size of our eyes change

Question 52

What happens to the axons of the ganglion cells that make up the optic nerve at the point where they leave the eyes?

A) All of the axons travel together to the optic chiasm.
B) The cells begin firing rapidly,and the image from the eye is sent via the bipolar cells to the brain.
C) They go directly to the visual cortex.
D) They separate,and half of them cross to the other side of the head at the optic chiasm.

Question 53

Apart from humans,which of the following has trichromatic vision?

A) Bees
B) Birds
C) Pigeons
D) Horses

Question 54

Which one of the following has all-rod eyes?

A) Lizards
B) Chipmunks
C) Bears
D) Rats

Question 55

Hubel and Wiesel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1981.What was their achievement?

A) They found out that the superior colliculus is the primary area for visual processing in less developed animals.
B) They discovered that it is the lateral geniculate nucleus that performs the major part of visual processing.
C) They studied visual processing and showed that particular cortical cells existed which responded more strongly to particular patterns of light.
D) Colors are created by our nervous system in response to wavelengths.

Question 56

The ____ is the primary area for visual processing in less developed animals,like frogs.

A) superior colliculus
B) thalamus
C) hypothalamus
D) medulla oblongata

Question 57

Which part of the brain controls the eye movement?

A) Hypothalamus
B) Thalamus
C) Superior colliculus
D) Medulla oblongata

Question 58

Shortly after leaving the optic chiasm,the optic nerve fibers diverge along two pathways.Eighty percent of the nerve fibers are connected to the ____ of the thalamus,and most of the others are attached to the ____ in the midbrain.

A) occipital lobe;visual cortex
B) bipolar cells;ganglion cells
C) superior colliculus;lateral geniculate nucleus
D) lateral geniculate nucleus;superior colliculus

Question 59

Our just-noticeable difference threshold is so low for colors that the average person can discriminate between how many different colors?

A) Ten thousand
B) One hundred thousand
C) One million
D) Two million

Question 60

Before the information is sent on to the brain,a great deal of complex information processing takes place in the ____.

A) blind spot
B) fovea
C) optic nerve
D) retina

Question 61

Young adults can typically hear tones with frequencies as low as ____ Hz and as high as ____ Hz.

A) 10;5,000
B) 20;20,000
C) 2,000;5,000
D) 10;100,000

Question 62

What is the constant speed of sound waves in water?

A) 4,000 feet per second
B) 1,070 feet per second
C) 4,700 feet per second
D) 4,724 feet per second

Question 63

Remember the last time you watched an old western and someone put his ear to the ground to listen for the wagon train or to the railroad track to listen for the train? Although this character in the movie might not have known all the particulars,what did he seem to know when it came to sound?

A) He was aware that sound can travel through any medium.
B) He was aware that sound is waves of energy passing through the ground temporarily displacing molecules.
C) He was aware that soundwaves grow stronger as they travel from their source.
D) Both a and b

Question 64

What is the height of a sound wave?

A) Frequency
B) Decibels
C) Hertz
D) Amplitude

Question 65

Why is the term "color blindness" usually a misleading one?

A) Most individuals are not actually totally "blind" to color,they see things in lighter shades of the actual color.
B) Most individuals are not actually totally "blind" to color,they see things in shades of white,gray,and black.
C) Most individuals are not actually "blind" to color,they see two primary colors but are insensitive to the third.
D) Most individuals are not actually "blind" to color,although they have no functioning cones,the rods allow them to see contrasting colors.

Question 66

Why did Ewald Hering propose a competing theory to the trichromatic theory?

A) The trichromatic theory could not provide an explanation for color blindness.
B) The trichromatic theory could not explain afterimages.
C) The trichromatic theory could not explain why opponent cells are inhibited from firing during aspects of the visual process.
D) Both a and c

Question 67

According to the trichromatic theory,which of the following best describes how the three types of cones in the eye produce a color wavelength which is sent to the brain?

A) The outputs from the strongest set of cones are sent to the brain,while outputs from the others are ignored.
B) By combining different stimulation levels from these three kinds of cones,our visual system produces a multitude of different color sensations.
C) The same stimulation levels from the three cones are combined to produce different color sensations.
D) None of the above

Question 68

Sound frequency is measured in cycles per second or ____.

A) complexity
B) amplitude
C) hertz
D) pitch

Question 69

The psychological experience of pitch roughly corresponds to the physical quality of sound ____.

A) frequency
B) complexity
C) amplitude
D) timbre

Question 70

The physical quality of sound frequency roughly corresponds to the psychological experience of ____.

A) complexity
B) timbre
C) pitch
D) amplitude

Question 71

If an individual experiences negative afterimages,this could be due to ____.

A) partial color blindness
B) seeing colors darker or lighter than they actually are
C) having cones that do not work in synchronicity
D) the rebound effect in opponent cells

Question 72

What is another name for sense of hearing?

A) Audition
B) Sound
C) Treble
D) Timbre

Question 73

Why was George Wald offered the Nobel Prize?

A) He verified the existence of three different types of cones in the retina.
B) He discovered that the retina has three types of color receptors and that differing sensitivities to the different light waves are associated with these three primary colors.
C) He discovered that stimulation of one color inhibits its opposing color.When stimulation stops,the opposing color is seen as an afterimage.
D) None of the above

Question 74

Pressing the clock light in the middle of the night to see the time,you realize that even after the light has gone out you still see 3:06 floating in space.Which term best describes this phenomena?

A) Negative afterimage
B) Positive afterimage
C) Oppositional processing
D) Both b and c

Question 75

The ____ explains most of the visual processing occurring in the eye,while ____ explains the processing occurring between the eye and the brain.

A) trichromatic theory;opponent-process theory
B) opponent-process theory;trichromatic theory
C) color constancy;shape constancy
D) shape constancy;color constancy

Question 76

Sound waves weaken with ____.

A) hearing capacity
B) decreased distance
C) increased distance
D) All of the above

Question 77

What best describes the psychological experience of timbre?

A) Recognizing Great Aunt Sarah's voice from Grandma Helen's on the telephone
B) Recognizing the clarinet from the oboe in the symphony
C) Recognizing a different sound when clapping your hands together flat versus cupped
D) All of the above

Question 78

According to the opponent processing theory,when we stare at a particular color and look away,the opposing color is seen as an afterimage.This is due to cells firing in response to a particular wavelength and stopping when the wavelength is removed.Accepting this phenomenon as fact and knowing that blue and yellow are opposing colors,why don't you see your blue dress as yellow under certain lighting,and your yellow shirt as blue under others?

A) Color consistency
B) Color constancy
C) Figure-ground relationship
D) Trichromatic theory

Question 79

What theory of color perception proposed that there are three types of color receptors in the retina that produce the primary color sensations of red,green,and blue?

A) Young-Wald tri-colorwave theory
B) Hering's opponent-process theory
C) George Wald trichromatic theory
D) Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Question 80

Color constancy demonstrates that we perceive objects in their ____ context.

A) most useful
B) environmental
C) processing
D) proximal