Deck 2: Research Methods in Perception

Question 1

Introspection is of limited value in understanding perception because:

A) Some perceptual processes are not available to consciousness
B) It is hard to describe what one perceives
C) People tend to make mistakes in their description of percepts
D) None of these

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The Method of Adjustment is of limited value because:

A) There is a large variance in the responses
B) It confounds caution and sensitivity
C) It does not give repeatable results
D) It takes too much time

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In a graph showing the Signal + Noise and the Noise distributions in Signal Detection Theory, the units on the x-axis are:

A) Criteria
B) Probabilities
C) Logarithms
D) Standard deviations

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In Signal Detection Theory, the observer's criterion:

A) Is the value below which responses are rejections
B) Is the value above which responses are rejections
C) Is the value below which responses are hits
D) Is the value below which responses are incorrect

Question 5

The psychometric function:

A) Is the observer's motivation to do a task
B) Is a measure of the observer's personality
C) Is a graph plotting observer performance against stimulus value
D) Is the result of calibrating the apparatus

Question 6

Performance in a 2AFC task is affected by:

A) Shifts of criterion
B) Lapses of attention
C) Slowness of response
D) None of these

Question 7

A shortcoming of the Method of Constant Stimuli is that:

A) It encourages guessing
B) It produces Class B observations
C) It requires an initial guess by the experimenter about threshold value
D) It produces imprecise measures of threshold

Question 8

Adaptive Methods make use of:

A) The history of the participant's responses
B) Random guessing
C) The experimenter's guess about the location of the threshold
D) The participant's criterion

Question 9

Data obtained from Magnitude Estimation are:

A) Interval
B) Binary
C) Categorical
D) Ordinal

Question 10

Sensory evoked potentials are usually averaged:

A) To remove the effects of brain activity not related to the stimulus
B) To identify in which perceptual system they originate
C) To prevent experimenter bias
D) To eliminate criterion shifts

Question 11

From the Auditory Evoked Potential, one can identify:

A) Lapses of attention
B) A native speaker of a language
C) Intrusive thoughts
D) The likely site of neural damage in the auditory system

Question 12

Magnetoencephalography is conducted in a shielded room:

A) To prevent extraneous noises from interfering with the measurements
B) To prevent any danger to experimenters
C) To prevent interference with the signals from the brain by the magnetic field of the earth
D) To allow more precise stimulus presentation

Question 13

Which of the following is not a disadvantage in fMRI?

A) Its temporal resolution
B) Restrictions on the individuals who may be scanned
C) A need to keep the participant stationary
D) Its spatial resolution

Question 14

The units into which the brain is subdivided in the analysis of data from fMRI are known as:

A) Voxels
B) Pixels
C) Sulci
D) SQUIDs

Question 15

Which of the following is not a disadvantage in studying the effects of brain lesions in humans?

A) Over time, tissue surrounding the lesion may take over lost functions
B) A lesion may affect several functional areas
C) Patients' willingness to cooperate in studies
D) Patients may tire quickly

Question 16

A receptive field is:

A) An individual's field of view
B) Part of the measurement process in fMRI
C) A dimension of personality
D) The array of sensory receptors within which stimulation causes changes in the activity of a sensory neuron

Question 17

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with short (<5 ms) intervals between pulses:

A) Produces excitatory effects in neural tissue
B) Produces inhibitory effects in neural tissue
C) Is not recommended for experimental purposes in humans
D) Has no effect on neural tissue

Question 18

Support for the Bayesian approach to perception has come from studies of:

A) Single neurons
B) Visual aftereffects
C) Cue combination
D) Masking

Question 19

Artificial neural networks are composed of:

A) Layers
B) Random couplings
C) Recursive loops
D) None of these

Question 20

Artificial neural networks learn by:

A) Turning off some units
B) Adding more unit
C) Finding the most active unit
D) Changing the weights of inputs at each unit

Question 21

Questionnaires can give useful information about:

A) Differences in perception between groups
B) Neural processing in the retina
C) Perceptual thresholds
D) Auditory cortex

Question 22

In a two-alternative forced choice task:

A) The stimulus is always detectable
B) The participant never makes an error
C) The stimulus is always presented
D) Lapses of attention do not affect measures of performance

Question 23

The slope of the psychometric function gives:

A) A measure of the observer's accuracy
B) A measure of the precision in the sensory system being investigated
C) The observer's criterion
D) None of these

Question 24

Magnitude Estimation is useful because:

A) It produces interval data
B) It is bias-free
C) It gives data which are normally distributed
D) It can be used to measure the perception of stimulus attributes which are hard to quantify

Question 25

The EEG gives:

A) Excellent temporal resolution
B) Immunity to interference from electrical equipment
C) Excellent spatial resolution
D) Useful data from a single trial

Question 26

Which of the following is not a disadvantage of PET?

A) Its temporal resolution
B) The need to inject a radioactive substance into participants
C) A need to keep the participant stationary
D) Its spatial resolution

Question 27

In fMRI, the haemodynamic response is:

A) The pulse
B) The assumed change in blood flow associated with neural activity
C) The increase in heart rate produced by arousing stimuli
D) The unwanted changes in heart rate caused by scanner noise

Question 28

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with intervals of 10 to 30 ms between pulses:

A) Produces excitatory effects in neural tissue
B) Produces inhibitory effects in neural tissue
C) Is not recommended for experimental purposes in humans
D) Has no effect on neural tissue

Question 29

Broca examined post-mortem the brains of patients who had problems in speaking but not in understanding speech. He found lesions in the:

A) Right parietal lobe
B) Left occipital lobe
C) Left temporal lobe
D) Lateral left frontal lobe

Question 30

A problem with applying the Bayesian approach to perception is that:

A) Perception has a random element
B) It is sometimes difficult to ascertain prior probabilities
C) Likelihoods are often equal
D) It imposes unlikely constraints

Question 31

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Method of Adjustment and a two-alternative Forced Choice task as ways of measuring sensory thresholds?

Question 32

To what extent do adaptive psychophysical methods overcome the disadvantages of other methods?

Question 33

Describe TMS and give an example of its use in experiments.

Question 34

Why is fMRI-A a useful technique? Give an example of its use.

Question 35

Compare and contrast single cell recording in animals and the study of humans with brain damage as ways of studying brain function.