Deck 5: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Like 7 percent of the male population,Lionel is red-green colour blind.Red-green colour blindness is caused by

A) an abnormal number of ganglion cells.
B) a deficiency in one of the three types of cones.
C) hypersensitive sensory adaptation mechanisms.
D) problems with the feature detection system.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Owls are nocturnal animals and have exceptional night vision.Because they are generally not active during the day,they have not developed an ability to see colours-they see only black and white.Given this information,we can conclude that owls have

A) more cones than rods.
B) more rods than cones.
C) cones but no rods.
D) rods but no cones.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Patrick's mother shows him the constellations in the night sky.Patrick likes the Big Dipper the best,because it's the easiest for him to see.On what principles of sensation and perception must Patrick rely to see the stars form what looks like a big spoon?

A) Sensory prostheses
B) The Gestalt laws of perceptual organization
C) Stroboscopic movement
D) Binocular depth cues

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Some birds of prey have such exceptional visual acuity that they can see small animals from thousands of feet in the air.Visual acuity is greatest when an image projects directly onto a small area of the retina that contains no rods but many cones.Some birds of prey have more than one of these areas.The area is called a

A) cone.
B) rod.
C) fovea.
D) ganglion.

Question 5

Tovah is trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle.Since she has no idea what the completed picture is supposed to be,she has to rely on the shapes and colours of the individual pieces to create and understand the whole picture.We can refer to Tovah's efforts to combine individual elements of the puzzle into a unified whole as

A) top-down processing.
B) bottom-up processing.
C) selective attention.
D) perceptual organization.

Question 6

Caleb and Greg both want to improve their social confidence.Caleb buys a popular CD containing subliminal messages.The CD manufacturers claim that if he listens to the music on the CD every day,his mind will perceive the subliminal messages and his confidence will improve.Greg purchases a book on social confidence.The book includes exercises intended to make him more aware of how his thoughts and behaviours affect his social confidence.Who will see results?

A) Caleb only.
B) Greg only.
C) Both Caleb and Greg may get results,but Greg's will probably be better.
D) Both Caleb and Greg may get results,but Caleb's will probably be better.

Question 7

Caleb wants to increase his social confidence,so he buys a popular CD containing subliminal messages.The CD's producers claim that if he listens to the music on the CD every day,his mind will perceive its subliminal messages and his confidence will improve.If Caleb sees results,what is the most likely reason?

A) His expectations have produced the results.
B) Subliminal messages are extremely powerful brainwashers.
C) Music of any type has been proven to improve confidence.
D) Synesthesia.

Question 8

From time to time,people argue that subliminal rock music lyrics influence teenagers to behave in antisocial ways.In 1985,the families of two boys alleged that a subliminal message ("Do it" in a Judas Priest song)led the boys to commit suicide.Based on what we know about subliminal messages,is it likely that subliminal messages were in fact responsible?

A) No;subliminal messages may have subtle effects,but none this extreme.
B) No;subliminal messages have no effect whatsoever.
C) Yes;short,simple subliminal messages alter the brain's alpha waves.
D) Yes;subliminal messages have been shown to influence people to behave in ways they otherwise would not.

Question 9

Regan was born with a rare disorder that affects her ability to organize her perceptions as most people do.Regan's sensory experiences are often mixed up: She will hear colours,for example,feel smells,or see sounds.This disorder is called

A) shadow syndrome.
B) Gestalt disorder.
C) transduction.
D) synesthesia.

Question 10

While driving home one evening,Owen is so involved in his cell phone conversation that he doesn't notice an empty car at the side of the road and hits it.Owen is all right,but since it wasn't yet dark,the police say Owen should have had no problems seeing the car.When they learn he was talking on his phone,they say that because he was distracted,other stimuli didn't register in his consciousness.This phenomenon is referred to as

A) top-down processing.
B) shadowing.
C) inattentional blindness.
D) a Gestalt law.

Question 11

There is a short in the light in Holden's office,so it makes a soft but constant high-pitched sound.Maintenance workers have not been able to fix the problem.When Travis walks into Holden's office,he says,"How can you stand that awful noise?" Holden spends a moment listening and then says,"I don't even hear it anymore." Holden has been exposed to the sound so long that he has experienced

A) an absolute threshold.
B) sensory adaptation.
C) a difference threshold.
D) synesthesia.

Question 12

When Lindsay spins in circles,the fluid in her ear's semicircular canals moves,stimulating the hair cells and sending messages about the movement to her brain.If she spins long enough and stops abruptly enough,the fluid will continue to move,creating the confusing sensation of dizziness.This is probably particularly disconcerting for Lindsay,because her sense of _________________ says that her body is still,but her ________________ sense says she is still moving.

A) kinesthesis;synchronous
B) olfaction;vestibular
C) gustation;olfactory
D) kinesthesis;vestibular

Question 13

Ken asks his eye doctor to explain why he has blurry vision.The doctor says that Ken's eyeballs are longer than normal,causing visual images to fall too close to the lenses of his eyes.As a result,faraway objects look blurry.The doctor says the technical term for this condition is

A) myopia.
B) hyperopia.
C) fovea.
D) transduction.

Question 14

Gwen plays in a rock band.For years,she failed to wear earplugs,and now she has trouble hearing certain sounds.If we were to examine how prolonged exposure to loud noise has affected her auditory system,we would probably see damaged sound receptors.Sound receptors are actually

A) tiny hairs inside the organ of Corti.
B) cells floating inside the basilar membrane.
C) situated on the tympanic membrane,or eardrum.
D) tiny bones known as the hammer,anvil,and stirrup.

Question 15

Beth and Faith went to see different movies tonight.Beth saw a horror movie and Faith saw a comedy.They are in the living room of their apartment when they hear a sound outside.Beth is convinced that a monster like the one in the movie is on the front porch,while Faith is not concerned.Assuming that Beth and Faith have comparable hearing and that they did hear something,we can say that they probably are using different

A) senses.
B) decision criteria.
C) detectors.
D) subliminals.

Question 16

Using the image on the box,Tovah is putting together a jigsaw puzzle.The picture of the completed puzzle allows her to guess how and where the pieces fit.We can refer to Tovah's interpretation of individual pieces in light of the expectation created by the box picture as

A) top-down processing.
B) bottom-up processing.
C) selective attention.
D) perceptual organization.

Question 17

Isaac is in a room that is almost completely dark.He notices while lying in bed that if he tries to focus on the faint little red light on the fire detector,it seems to disappear.When he asks his mother why this happens,she explains that the eye receptors that understand colour do not function well in very dim light.To which receptors is she referring?

A) Rods
B) Cones
C) Cylinders
D) Ganglia

Question 18

Michelle turns off all her downstairs lights and starts up the steps,only to trip over her cat,which she cannot see in the dark.The cat wonders why Michelle steps on her at night but not during the day-after all,the cat can see just fine.Michelle and her cat have different ___________________ for light.

A) signal detections
B) feature detectors
C) absolute thresholds
D) pheromones

Question 19

John-Paul volunteers to help his science teacher with a demonstration.The teacher hands John-Paul a card with a dot on the left-hand side and an X on the right-hand side.Following the teacher's instructions,John-Paul closes his right eye,focuses on the X,and slowly moves the card toward his face.The dot seems to disappear magically,though of course when he opens both eyes it is still there.The teacher explains that this is caused by a blind spot.What causes blind spots?

A) Blind spots are a dominant genetic trait that serves no real purpose;some people don't have them.
B) The ciliary muscles are attached in two places to the retina;they block some of the eye's photoreceptors.
C) Blind spots are like burned out pixels in a computer screen;they occur when ganglion cells "wear out."
D) The optic nerve exits through the back of the eye,and there are no photoreceptors in that spot.

Question 20

Alessandra's family has always had at least one pet,so she is comfortable around dogs.Her friend Tyra,however,was bitten by a dog a few years ago,and is now afraid of all dogs.While Alessandra and Tyra are walking to school,they are approached by a dog that is wagging its tail.Alessandra bends down to pet the dog,but Tyra backs up because she is afraid.Both girls are ________________ the same dog,but the way each experiences or ____________ the dog is different.

A) sensing;perceives
B) perceiving;senses
C) sensing;detects
D) perceiving;detects

Question 21

Quinn has spent the afternoon setting up hundreds of dominoes.When his brother gets home,he comments that Quinn has created an interesting clover-leaf pattern.Though Quinn wasn't aware he was doing this,he is able to see the pattern when his brother points it out.Which Gestalt principle are both boys using?

A) Similarity
B) Figure-ground
C) Proximity
D) Continuity

Question 22

Becky's mother and father load the luggage into the car while Becky gives Grandmother a hug good-bye.As the family drives away,Becky watches Grandmother get smaller and smaller,until she seems to disappear.Becky asks her parents why Grandma always becomes the size of an ant when they leave.Her parents attempt to explain to Becky the principle of

A) proximity.
B) continuity.
C) size constancy.
D) shape constancy.

Question 23

Leonardo da Vinci's painting the 'Mona Lisa' has intrigued people,because it is uncertain as to whether the woman in the picture is smiling or not.According to the research presented in your textbook,the ambiguity of the Mona Lisa 'smile' is due to:

A) binocular disparity
B) a by-product of the human visual system
C) the illusion called the visual cliff
D) the Muller-Lyer illusion

Question 24

A rock band recently covered (i.e. ,remade)a classic country song.Though the band uses different kinds of instruments and a different tempo,Colby still recognizes it due to

A) the law of continuity.
B) Hering's opponent-process theory.
C) perceptual constancy.
D) transduction.

Question 25

Sammy was born and raised in a large city.The first time his parents drive through the countryside,he sees an animal with four legs,a mane,a long tail,and a saddle.Though he has never seen this animal in real life before,he decides that it must be a horse.He is using

A) central processing.
B) bottom-up processing.
C) top-down processing.
D) individual processing.

Question 26

Niguel is required to give a speech as part of his psychology class.Esme,who is also in the class,opens a note from her boyfriend during Niguel's speech and grows angry at something her boyfriend wrote.Though he hasn't been paying attention to how many people are smiling at him,Niguel immediately notices Esme's angry face.Why do psychologists think we are so much quicker to recognize an angry face than a happy one?

A) We are biologically programmed to want to help people who seem unhappy.
B) Most people are paranoid that someone will be angry with them.
C) Angry faces are assumed to have threat value,and we are biologically programmed to respond to threats quickly.
D) Vigilance like Niguel's is situation-specific;if he weren't anxious about his speech,he would have been no quicker to see Esme's angry face than a happy face.

Question 27

Two advertisements for chewing gum are shown on television.In Ad 1,a woman chews the gum while she jogs in the park.In a voiceover,she says that she always enjoys jogging more when she's chewing this gum.In Ad 2,Ginger asks a man out but is rejected.Later,she learns that he turned her down because she has bad breath.When Ginger goes to the store to buy gum,the brand from Ad 2 is the one she remembers,so that is the one she buys.What about Ad 2 was more compelling than Ad 1?

A) Ad 2 had a higher threat value,and people are more attentive to stimuli that might affect their well-being.
B) Ad 2 involved an interaction between two people;research has shown that interactions in ads always draw more of our attention.
C) Ad 1 featured exercise,and research has shown that only the 30 percent of Americans who exercise regularly will notice ads featuring exercise.
D) We can't tell unless we can see what the women in each ad looked like.

Question 28

When we are reading,the distance of each letter from those around it affects the word which we see.For example,scarcity means something different from scar city,therapist is different from the rapist,and prosecute is different from prose cute.Which Gestalt principle are we using to decide which letters to consider part of full words?

A) Similarity
B) Proximity
C) Closure
D) Continuity

Question 29

Since everyone's penmanship is different,how are we able to read so many different handwriting styles? That is,how do we recognize familiar letters in spite of the differences in the way they are written?

A) Perceptual constancy
B) The law of proximity
C) The law of continuity
D) Monocular depth cues

Question 30

The newspapers in Ursula's neighbourhood recently reported that a man saw a lion in the area.Since lions are not native to Ursula's part of the world and none of the lions at the zoo have escaped,many people are skeptical that the lion even exists.However,as Ursula is driving home,an animal runs out in front of her car.It's the lion! She slams on the brakes and calls the police.The police arrive within minutes and search the woods surrounding the road.They find no lion tracks,but they do find dog footprints-and a large golden retriever.Ursula is embarrassed to learn that what she saw was a big dog,not a lion.Because she'd read about the lion,she had expected to see it.Ursula had

A) a vestibular error.
B) a stroboscopic experience.
C) a perceptual set.
D) synesthesia.

Question 31

Jaspar received a ViewMaster for his birthday.When he looks through the lenses,the image inside the ViewMaster appears to be three-dimensional.This is because each of Jaspar's eyes is seeing a slightly different image of the picture.This is called

A) binocular disparity.
B) the law of closure.
C) stroboscopic movement.
D) the law of proximity.

Question 32

Vittoria has grown up in the digital age.The movies her parents play are all on DVD.In her elementary school's health class,the teacher shows a movie on an old movie projector.When it's over,Vittoria helps the teacher take the reels off the projector and put them in their cases.As she does so,she notices that the video tape is actually thousands of tiny still images.She is bewildered and wonders how still images can create the illusion of movement.The principle behind motion pictures is

A) stroboscopic movement.
B) motion parallax.
C) the law of closure.
D) brightness constancy.

Question 33

Because it isn't feasible to construct every movie set to scale,models are sometimes used to simulate real environments.Looking through a camera that is focused on the model alone,one can easily believe that a tiny model is actually a real city.However,if a real,to-scale object such as a soda can is placed beside the city,we are able to see that the size of the city is a mere

A) illusion.
B) Gestalt.
C) stroboscope.
D) kinesthesis.

Question 34

Colin was involved in an accident that damaged his left eardrum.Though the injury reduced his ear's capacity to transmit vibrations,a hearing aid greatly improves his ability to hear.Colin has ___________________ deafness.

A) conduction
B) nerve
C) vibration
D) pitch

Question 35

The pygmy people live in the dense rain forests of Africa,and few ever see wide open spaces.An anthropologist once took a pygmy out of the rain forest and showed him a wide plain where buffaloes were grazing.The buffaloes were so far away that they looked like insects to the pygmy,and when the anthropologist drove closer to them,the pygmy was convinced that some form of witchcraft was being used to change the insects into buffaloes.Because of his lack of experience with distant objects,the pygmy had not developed

A) a linear perspective.
B) gustation.
C) the law of proximity.
D) size constancy.

Question 36

Though we cannot overtly smell them,chemical signals are contained in natural body scents.These chemicals are so powerful that they have been associated with attraction and phenomena like menstrual synchrony.What are these chemical signals?

A) Gustation
B) Pheromones
C) Olfaction
D) Conduction

Question 37

Abe made a little book with pictures of a stick figure.The picture on each page differs slightly from the picture on the page before it.When he flips through the pages as fast as he can,the stick figure appears to be walking.This perceived motion is known as

A) convergence cues.
B) binocular disparity.
C) transduction.
D) stroboscopic movement.

Question 38

Scientists created a visual cliff by placing a thick sheet of clear glass over a drop-off.They found that by the time children are old enough to crawl,they will not venture over the "edge" of the "cliff." What skill have the children developed that makes them wary?

A) Convergence
B) Perceptual constancy
C) The law of proximity
D) Depth perception

Question 39

Anselmo and Quinta are lying in the grass gazing up at puffy white clouds."Look!" Quinta says,pointing to a cloud."That one looks like a lamb." Anselmo sees that the cloud's shape does indeed suggest a lamb.To decide whether the cloud really looked like a lamb,Anselmo had to refer to an internal

A) perceptual schema.
B) depth cue.
C) motion parallax.
D) vestibular apparatus.

Question 40

Christa is interested in fixing up two friends on a blind date.Diane,whose last blind date was a nightmare,is reluctant to agree.Tristan,who met his last serious girlfriend on a blind date,is open to the idea.Throughout the date,Diane is quiet and standoffish,so Tristan decides he is not interested in seeing her again.Where did the problem with the date start?

A) Weber's law says that people have to be outgoing to be perceived as likable.
B) Diane was sending Tristan subliminal messages all evening.
C) Diane's perception of a blind date biased her against the idea before the date ever started.
D) Diane relied too heavily on the Gestalt law of proximity.