Deck 1: The Nature of Perception, and Some Ways of Investigating It

Question 1

Researchers in perception study:

A) How the brain acquires information through the senses
B) The neurological basis of handedness
C) Why some things are easier to remember than others
D) None of these

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is a Gestalt perspective on perception?

A) Bigger is always better
B) The whole is other than the sum of the parts
C) The whole is less than the sum of the parts
D) Perception relies on past experience

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which statement best captures Gregory's view of perception?

A) Percepts are accurate representations of the world
B) Percepts are like scientific hypotheses
C) Percepts are like weather forecasts
D) Perception does not involve cognition

Answer 3

B

Question 4

According to Gibson, the affordance of an object is?

A) The likely cost in the effort of manipulating it
B) Its natural place in the world
C) Its implicit suggestion of how to handle it
D) Its economic value

Question 5

Which of the following is not a level of description in Marr's theory of vision?

A) Algorithmic
B) Computational
C) Physiological
D) Implementation

Question 6

A motion coherence threshold is calculated from:

A) The proportion of elements moving in the same direction at the same velocity
B) The proportion of moving elements of the same contrast
C) The element with the lowest velocity
D) The proportion of stationary elements

Question 7

In the elderly, motion coherence thresholds are higher (motion perception is worse) than in the young:

A) At higher speeds
B) At lower speeds
C) At all speeds
D) There is no difference at any speed

Question 8

Adapting to vertical stripes:

A) Makes horizontal motion harder to see
B) Makes oblique stripes harder to see
C) Makes faint vertical stripes harder to see
D) Makes everything harder to see

Question 9

In serial visual search, reaction times:

A) Decrease with the number of elements in the display
B) Become more variable
C) Increase with the number of elements in the display
D) None of these

Question 10

Perceptual learning in Vernier acuity has been studied by:

A) Change in contrast thresholds
B) Selective adaptation
C) Change in coherence thresholds
D) Transfer of training

Question 11

The oblique effect is:

A) Misperception of a statement which is indirect
B) Lower sensitivity to oblique than to horizontal and vertical contours
C) Slower responses to things seen out of the corner of the eye
D) Misperception of body orientation when not upright

Question 12

When hearing and vision provide conflicting information about the location of objects:

A) Visual information is always followed
B) Auditory information is always followed
C) Auditory information biases perceived location when visual information is imprecise
D) None of these

Question 13

Which of the following brain regions is thought to be involved in synaesthesia?

A) Pre-cuneus
B) Hippocampus
C) Frontal lobes
D) Hypothalamus

Question 14

Measuring how changes in the apparatus affect the properties of the stimulus is known as:

A) Sensitization
B) Accommodation
C) Transduction
D) Calibration

Question 15

The highest frequency which can be detected by a human with normal hearing is about:

A) 100 Hz
B) 5 kHz
C) 20 kHz
D) 50 kHz

Question 16

The loudest sound which can be heard by a human without feeling pain is about:

A) 120 dB (SPL)
B) 50 dB (SPL)
C) 200 dB (SPL)
D) 80 dB (SPL)

Question 17

The average luminance of the sky is about:

A) 100 cd m⁻²
B) 1000 cd m⁻²
C) 4000 cd m⁻²
D) 400 cd m⁻²

Question 18

The size of visual stimuli is often expressed in:

A) Centimetres
B) Candelas per square metre
C) Foot lamberts
D) Degrees of visual angle

Question 19

The elements of which an image on a digital computer screen is composed are known as:

A) Textels
B) Pixels
C) Radians
D) Verniers

Question 20

How is human vision different from the operation of a bar-code reader?

A) It transduces electromagnetic energy into electrical activity
B) It is usually accurate
C) It makes use of a large cache of stored knowledge
D) It is usually fast

Question 21

Why is the Law of Similarity not a good explanation of perceptual grouping?

A) It is hard to understand
B) It is a re-description of the phenomena which it seeks to explain
C) There are experiments which disprove it
D) There are other perceptual laws which contradict it

Question 22

JJ Gibson was especially interested in:

A) The perceptual control of actions
B) Visual illusions
C) Visual cognition
D) Brain mechanisms of perception

Question 23

Implementation (one of Marr's levels of explanation) must be different in principle in brains and digital computers because:

A) They have different energy requirements
B) One is made of metal, the other of living tissue
C) The computer is much faster than the brain
D) Neurons can be in one of many states, whereas the elements in a digital computer can be in one of only two states

Question 24

An absolute threshold is:

A) A definition of a completely forbidden action
B) A measure of the faintest stimulus that can be detected
C) That part of personal space from which everyone else is excluded
D) The smallest difference between stimuli needed for reliable discrimination

Question 25

Thresholds are a measure of which aspect of a perceptual system?

A) Its sensitivity
B) Its dynamic range
C) Its adaptability
D) Its ecological importance

Question 26

In parallel visual search, reaction times:

A) Decrease with the number of elements in the display
B) Become more variable
C) Increase with the number of elements in the display
D) Do not vary with the number of elements

Question 27

Ahissar and Hochstein suggested that during the early stages of perceptual learning:

A) Learning occurred in more central cognitive processes
B) Learning occurred in specific early visual mechanisms
C) Learning was slow and tentative
D) Learning was not subject to interference

Question 28

Contextual or top-down effects in perception are probably mediated at least to some extent by:

A) Lateral connections in the retina and cochlea
B) Reward signals in the brain
C) Feedback from later to earlier stages of perception
D) Cerebellar activity

Question 29

Humans can detect the range of sound frequencies from about:

A) 1 Hz to 100 Hz
B) 20 Hz to 20 kHz
C) 5 kHz to 100 kHz
D) 20 kHz to 100 kHz

Question 30

Compare and contrast the views on the nature of perception of RL Gregory and JJ Gibson

Question 31

How has motion perception changed in the elderly?

Question 32

How have visual search tasks affected our view of visual attention?

Question 33

How have experiments on perceptual learning influenced our view of plasticity in the adult brain?

Question 34

How would you convince a sceptic who says that synaesthesia is just a product of a vivid imagination?