Exam 17: A: Basic Principles of Sensation and Perception

The effect of prior experience and current expectations on perception best illustrates the importance of

Although Manuel was sitting right next to his parents, he smelled a skunk minutes before they did. Apparently, Manuel has a lower ________ for skunk odor than his parents have.

Transduction refers to the process of

Stimuli below the absolute threshold are said to be

Those who believe in the value of subliminal audiotapes would be wrong to claim that

A forest ranger may notice the faintest scent of a forest fire, whereas much stronger but less important odors fail to catch her attention. This fact would be of greatest relevance to

After watching a scary television movie, Julie perceived the noise of the wind rattling her front windows as the sound of a burglar breaking into her house. Her mistaken interpretation best illustrates the influence of

The conscious or unconscious activation of certain associations is called

The process by which rods and cones convert electromagnetic energy into neural signals is an example of

Which theory assumes that top-down processing can influence a person's absolute threshold for a particular stimulus?

John Locke would have suggested that a perceptual set results from

The perceived lightness of an object depends on relative luminance. This provides an illustration of

When Helen noticed that her classmates were all wearing expensive designer jeans, she suddenly perceived her own off-brand jeans to be very unattractive. This best illustrates the importance of

Which of the following is an example of sensory adaptation?

After the invisible word "bread" was quickly flashed and then replaced by a masking stimulus, observers detected the related word "butter" much faster than the unrelated word "bubble." This best illustrates the impact of

Some participants in a subliminal persuasion experiment thought that they were receiving subliminal affirmations of their self-esteem when in reality they were receiving subliminal memory-enhancement instructions. These individuals subsequently demonstrated

If told an infant is "David," children may perceive him as bigger and stronger than if the same infant is called "Diana." This best illustrates the impact of

If we could stop our eyes from quivering as we stared at a stationary object, the object would probably

Players who had been hitting a baseball poorly perceived the ball as smaller than those who had been hitting well. This best illustrates that size perception can be influenced by

We experience the difference threshold as a(n)