Question 1

Individuals who suffer severe attention deficits because of parietal lobe damage are most likely to only be able to do which task?

Accepted Answer

Individuals with severe attention deficits due to parietal lobe damage would have difficulty with complex visual search tasks and those involving multiple features. They are most likely to be able to perform visual search tasks where the target is defined by a single feature, such as color or shape.

Question 2

What will happen in a situation where a participant is asked to stare at one object (object A), but focus his or her cognitive attention on another object (object B) that is immediately adjacent to object A?

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is called inattentional blindness, where participants are so focused on attending to one object (Object B) that they fail to notice any changes in another object (Object A) that is in close proximity to it. Therefore, the participants will be unaware of any changes that took place in object A, even though they were looking directly at object A.

Question 3

According to the textbook's authors, why is our perceptual system open to error in interpretation as seen in the perception of ambiguous figures?

Accepted Answer

The authors suggest that subjective interpretation is necessary when the perceptual input is ambiguous, which means that our perceptual system has to rely on our personal experiences and expectations to make sense of the stimuli. This subjective interpretation can vary from person to person, leading to errors in interpretation of ambiguous figures.

Question 4

What mechanism plays an important role in solving the binding problem?

Accepted Answer

Attention plays a crucial role in solving the binding problem by focusing on specific stimuli, thus enabling the integration of features into a coherent perception.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about dichotic listening tasks, in which different signals are delivered to each ear, is true?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following statements about dichotic...

Question 6

Which aspect of perceptual attention is best illustrated by the cocktail-party effect?

Accepted Answer

The cocktail-party effect refers to our ability to selectively attend to one conversation in a noisy environment while ignoring other conversations. This demonstrates our ability to selectively attend or focus on specific stimuli while filtering out distractions, which is an aspect of selective attention.

Question 7

What is true of the visual search procedure?

Accepted Answer

The visual search procedure is commonly used in cognitive psychology to study the mechanisms of visual attention, including how people scan and process visual information. Option A is incorrect because visual search may involve selective attention to specific features or parts of a stimulus. Option B is incorrect because visual search can involve both top-down and bottom-up processing, depending on the task and context. Option D is incorrect because similarity between stimuli can actually make visual search more difficult by increasing response times and errors.

Question 8

Which of the following is most closely associated with the concept of selection in attention?

Accepted Answer

The cocktail-party effect is the phenomenon where we are able to selectively attend to one conversation while ignoring others in a crowded room. This is a prime example of selective attention or the process of filtering out irrelevant information to focus on pertinent information.

Question 9

A participant who is shown only part of a word would most likely employ which of the following methods to guess the rest of the word?

Accepted Answer

The participant would allow recent experience with similar words to influence their choice (option A) and rule out certain letters that would not combine with the word fragment to spell any recognizable word (option B). Both of these methods would likely be employed in combination to guess the rest of the word. Option C is unlikely to be a strategy for guessing the rest of a word given just a word fragment.

Question 10

What happens in a dichotic listening task?

Accepted Answer

In a dichotic listening task, different information is presented to both ears simultaneously, and participants are asked to attend to and recall information from only one ear. This is often used to study selective attention and the ability to filter out irrelevant information.

Question 11

In one study, research participants watched a video screen on which one group of players, dressed in white shirts, were tossing a ball back and forth. Mixed-in with these white-shirted players, and clearly visible on the same video screen, was a group of black-shirted players, also tossing around a ball. When participants were asked to focus on the white-shirted players only, __________.

Accepted Answer

This question refers to a famous psychological experiment known as the "Invisible Gorilla" test, which demonstrates selective attention and inattentional blindness. Participants focusing on the white-shirted players often fail to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene, illustrating how focusing attention on one task can make us blind to other unexpected events.

Question 12

What is a participant asked to do in a dichotic listening experiment?

Accepted Answer

In a dichotic listening experiment, the participant is asked to focus on and repeat back the message that comes in the to-be-attended-to ear (usually specified before the experiment begins). The message in the other (not-to-be-attended-to) ear is typically ignored or "shadowed" (meaning the participant hears it but does not actively process or try to repeat it back).

Question 13

If you tell a research participant that the next word she sees in a visual display is going to concern sports, that information will typically speed up her recognition of words such as soccer and tennis. Priming effects such as these __________.

Accepted Answer

Priming effects demonstrate that our prior knowledge and expectations can influence our perception of stimuli, supporting the idea that perception is partly knowledge-driven. Option A is incorrect because priming effects are a well-documented phenomenon in cognitive psychology. Option B is incorrect because there is no evidence to suggest that priming effects become less common with age. Option D is incorrect because options A and B are not correct.

Question 14

What type of search does one perform when one is examining an array for a conjunction of features?

Accepted Answer

Examining an array for a conjunction of features requires searching for a target that is defined by a combination of features, such as the presence of both a certain color and shape.

Question 15

Participants who are told that they are about to see a word that represents a musical instrument will recognize the word guitar __________ participants who are told they are about to see a word that represents a form of transportation. This occurs because of __________.

Accepted Answer

Participants who are primed with a specific category, such as musical instruments, will have a faster response time in recognizing words that belong to that category. This is called priming effect. Therefore, participants who are told that they are about to see a word that represents a musical instrument will recognize the word guitar more quickly than participants who are told they are about to see a word that represents a form of transportation.

Question 16

In a dichotic listening task, different stimuli are delivered to each ear. The subject is told to attend to one signal over the other. Which of the following is most likely to be noticed in the unattended ear?

Accepted Answer

In a dichotic listening task, the subject's attention is directed to one ear, while stimuli are presented simultaneously to both ears. When the attention is focused on one ear, it is less likely that the subject will notice stimuli presented in the other ear. However, any feature that is sufficiently salient or important may still capture the attention of the subject, even if it is presented in the unattended ear. Therefore, any of the options listed in the question may or may not be noticed, depending on various factors such as the subject's cognitive load, motivation, and arousal level. As such, all of the above options are equally likely or unlikely to be noticed in the unattended ear.

Question 17

What is suggested by research in which participants are asked to take part in a dichotic listening test, in which different stimuli are delivered to each ear?

Accepted Answer

Research suggests that the auditory stimulus is received by the receptors in the unattended-to ear but the information is only partly processed. This phenomenon is known as the "cocktail party effect," where the brain can selectively attend to one conversation while filtering out others.

Question 18

Being able to identify an ambiguous stimulus illustrates which major point about perception?

Accepted Answer

The ability to identify an ambiguous stimulus illustrates that perception is an active process, in which the brain actively processes and interprets sensory information to create perception. It is not just a passive reception of information, but an active process in which the brain uses context and prior knowledge to create perception. Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because they do not accurately reflect the major point that can be inferred from the ability to identify an ambiguous stimulus.

Question 19

According to the textbook's authors, why did ancient Egyptian artists draw their subjects with such perceptual imprecision?

Accepted Answer

The authors of the textbook suggest that ancient Egyptian artists were more interested in creating symbolic representations of their subjects, emphasizing their most enduring characteristics, rather than creating precise and realistic depictions. This suggests that the lack of perceptual precision was a deliberate choice rather than a limitation of their artistic abilities.

Question 20

Perception and conception (seeing and knowing) __________.

Accepted Answer

Perception and conception (seeing and knowing) interact in complex ways. Our prior knowledge and experiences can influence how we perceive and interpret sensory information, and our perceptions can also affect our future conceptions and understandings of the world. This interaction allows us to make sense of our surroundings and make informed decisions based on our perceptions and knowledge.

Quiz 5: Perception