Deck 6: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Which of the following is the best example of a sensation?

A) Your skin receptors detect the touch of a student walking by.
B) You recognize the sound of your friend's voice in the cafeteria.
C) You smile while listening to your favorite song.
D) You gasp when you realize that you forgot about today's exam.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The main distinction between sensation and perception is that only perception involves

A) noticing that a stimulus is present.
B) detecting the absence of stimulus.
C) interpreting what the stimulus is.
D) deciding how to react to a stimulus.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A _______ is a physical event that a sensory receptor cell might detect, whereas a _______ is the final interpretation of that physical event.

A) percept; stimulus
B) stimulus; response
C) response; percept
D) stimulus; percept

Answer 3

D

Question 4

A specialized sensory cell that detects stimuli is called a

A) sensory receptor organ.
B) taste pore.
C) tastant.
D) sensory receptor cell.

Question 5

Eyes and ears are

A) sensory codes.
B) sensory receptor organs.
C) labeled lines.
D) interneurons.

Question 6

Psychologists use the term "sensory modality" to refer to a

A) specific stimulation of a sensory receptor.
B) set of sensory receptors clustered together in one place in the body.
C) specific sense, such as vision or olfaction.
D) set of percepts that do not correspond to sensory stimuli.

Question 7

The adequate stimulus for the visual system is _______, and the adequate stimulus for the auditory system is _______.

A) position of the head; position of the body
B) changes in electrical current; a chemical in the air
C) light; contact with the body surface
D) light; sound

Question 8

Your brain is able to distinguish between the sound of a car horn and the sight of the car itself because

A) visual-type energy and auditory-type energy are very different.
B) auditory-type energy reaches the brain faster than visual-type energy.
C) the brain labels each percept according to the information that it receives before you detect the stimulus.
D) the set of nerves that relays information from the ear to the brain is different from the set that relays information from the eye to the brain.

Question 9

The concept of labeled lines refers to the fact that

A) a separate set of nerves transmits information from each sensory receptor organ to the brain.
B) the brain operates like a telephone switchboard.
C) separate areas of the thalamus process all of the sensory information at once.
D) each neuron in your body can be labeled according to the shape and size of its axon.

Question 10

A sensory code is a

A) specific sensory modality like olfaction.
B) system used by psychologists in the study of perception.
C) kind of sensory receptor that turns other sensory receptors on and off.
D) relationship between stimuli and the action potentials they produce in sensory cells

Question 11

Use the following to answer questions :
Refer to the figure below

-The figure shows the response of a touch receptor in response to two stimulus strengths. What can you conclude about the relationship between the strength of the stimulus and the likelihood of the touch receptor to fire?

A) The lighter the push against the skin, the more likely it is that the touch receptor will fire.
B) The harder the push against the skin, the more likely it is that the touch receptor will fire.
C) The strength of the stimulus is unrelated to the likelihood of the touch receptor to fire.
D) Light touches cannot cause the touch receptor to fire.

Question 12

Use the following to answer questions :
Refer to the figure below

-How does the figure illustrate the concept of a sensory threshold?

A) Sensory thresholds and sensory codes are essentially the same concept.
B) A stimulus that is strong enough to cause a sensory receptor to fire will not cause the sensory receptor to reach threshold.
C) Stimulus strength is the only sensory modality that affects sensory thresholds.
D) If the stimulus is weak enough, the sensory receptor will not reach threshold and will not produce an action potential.

Question 13

Which of the following research questions is a psychophysicist likely to be most interested in asking?

A) Which neurons relay information from the thalamus to the cerebral cortex?
B) What kinds of neurons relay information from the spinal cord to the muscles?
C) How is perceptual information encoded and stored for later use by the brain?
D) How much louder must a sound be before a person can detect that it is louder than the original sound?

Question 14

An absolute threshold is the

A) ability to detect stimuli of all intensities.
B) degree to which a stimulus is mapped to a given response.
C) lowest intensity of a stimulus that a person can detect half the time.
D) lowest intensity of a stimulus that a person can detect 100 percent of the time.

Question 15

Weber's fraction expresses the _______ as a proportion of the original stimulus.

A) absolute threshold
B) just noticeable difference (JND)
C) stimulus intensity
D) response magnitude

Question 16

Imagine your professor asks you to conduct an experiment in which you have to increase the intensity of a light several times and determine the smallest change in the intensity of light that your friend can detect. You are measuring your friend's

A) just noticeable difference (JND).
B) Gestalt perception.
C) sensory code.
D) absolute threshold.

Question 17

In psychology, the word "noise" is defined as

A) an unwanted sound.
B) the firing of a sensory cell without a stimulus or in response to an irrelevant stimulus.
C) the misclassification of a hit or miss in a signal detection experiment.
D) a factor that is always manipulated in controlled psychophysical experiments.

Question 18

In which of the following scenarios would signal detection be most difficult because of ambient noise?

A) Noticing the text-alert sound from the cell phone in your pocket while you walk throughout the supermarket
B) Enjoying your favorite song on the train while using noise-canceling headphones
C) Hearing the doorbell ring while waiting anxiously for guests to arrive
D) Feeling a tap on your shoulder while moving through a noisy crowd

Question 19

In which of the following scenarios would you be most likely to succumb to a false alarm in signal detection?

A) Listening for the kitchen timer to beep while you are cooking dinner
B) Monitoring for the vibration of your phone in your pocket while you are sitting
C) Listening for the sound of unknown creatures while you are walking alone in the woods at night
D) Listening for raindrops on a quiet afternoon

Question 20

Sensory adaptation is the

A) progressive loss of responsiveness in sensory cells exposed to a constant stimulus.
B) progressive evolution of sensory systems throughout human history.
C) heightening of sensory responses to unfamiliar stimuli.
D) heightening of sensory responses to familiar stimuli.

Question 21

Some of the free nerve endings in your skin are specialized to detect information about

A) light touch.
B) vibration.
C) temperature.
D) movement of hair follicles.

Question 22

Why would you feel pain when placing your hand on both a hot and a cold pipe at the same time?

A) Touch receptors are reporting the sensations of heat and cold, but the brain combines the two and perceives pain.
B) The juxtaposition of hot and cold metal scalds your skin.
C) Any vibration of the pipes interferes with the normal functioning of your free nerve endings.
D) The free nerve endings in your hand cannot distinguish between hot and cold sensations.

Question 23

A receptive field is

A) the location within a neuron where perception occurs.
B) the region of space where stimuli affect the activity of a cell in a sensory system.
C) part of a neuron's axon.
D) the location of a neuron within a sensory organ.

Question 24

Nociceptors are free nerve endings that are specialized to sense

A) temperature changes.
B) pain.
C) motion.
D) vibration.

Question 25

Your friend Tom lacks the ability to feel pain. Tom's condition is called

A) congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
B) sensory pain deficiency.
C) sensory adaptation.
D) congenital insensitivity to pain.

Question 26

In a sense, phantom limb pain is a purely _______ phenomenon.

A) sensory
B) combat-specific
C) perceptual
D) modality-general

Question 27

Neuropathic pain is caused by

A) a damaged or malfunctioning nervous system.
B) drugs that are designed to silence parts of the nervous system.
C) regeneration of nociceptors in the stump of a missing limb.
D) damage to the myelin sheath of spinal neurons.

Question 28

The flexible, transparent structure in the eye that helps focus an image on the back of the eye's interior is called the

A) iris.
B) optic disc.
C) fovea.
D) lens.

Question 29

The bending of light by the _______ and _______ focuses a sharp image onto the retina.

A) cornea; optic nerve
B) optic disc; fovea
C) cornea; lens
D) lens; optic disc

Question 30

The retina is the

A) flexible material on the outside of the eye.
B) transparent layer below the cornea that passes light through the eye.
C) surface at the back of the eye where the image is focused.
D) muscular portion of the eye that changes size to allow more or less light in.

Question 31

Photoreceptors are the

A) primary receptors of the vestibular system.
B) light-sensitive receptor cells in the retina.
C) vibration-sensitive cells in the inner ear.
D) cells that relay information from the retina to the cerebral cortex.

Question 32

Your ability to perceive the color of a vibrant blue sky or a red rose depends on the responses of the _______ in your retina, and your ability to find your way to the bathroom in the dark depends upon the _______ in your retina.

A) cones; blind spots
B) hair cells; rods
C) rods; cones
D) cones; rods

Question 33

The visual field is

A) what is hidden from view by the blind spot.
B) what we can see without moving our eyes.
C) the visual environment inside the eye.
D) the retinal image that is not inverted.

Question 34

The optic disc is the part of the retina

A) where most of the cones are located.
B) where most of the rods are located.
C) that has no photoreceptors.
D) that focuses light onto the rest of the retina.

Question 35

Use the following to answer questions :
Refer to the figure below.

-What does this figure demonstrate?

A) The right visual cortex receives information about what we see in the right half of the visual field.
B) The left visual cortex receives information about what we see in the right half of the visual field.
C) Objects on our right side are processed by the left eye only.
D) Objects on our right side are processed by the right eye only.

Question 36

Use the following to answer questions :
Refer to the figure below.

-What can you conclude about the map on the visual cortex?

A) Specific regions of visual space are organized as inputs to specific regions of the visual cortex.
B) The brain is able to map physical locations well, but colors are not mapped to real space.
C) Only features in the left visual field are constructed in the left visual cortex, but all other features are processed by other parts of the brain.
D) The brain does not distinguish between the left and right visual fields.

Question 37

The _______ is the region of the occipital lobe where most visual information first arrives.

A) thalamus
B) iris
C) primary visual cortex
D) fovea

Question 38

As you and a friend throw a softball back and forth, you depend on _______ to help you determine how close the ball is getting to you and when and where to catch it.

A) motion parallax
B) binocular cues
C) photoreceptor adaptation
D) monocular cues

Question 39

The main difference between binocular and monocular depth cues is that

A) monocular cues are generally more complex than binocular cues.
B) monocular cues require information from both eyes, while binocular cues do not.
C) binocular cues are used mostly for Gestalt perception, while monocular cues are used for motion.
D) binocular cues require information from both eyes, while monocular cues do not.

Question 40

When checking your vision to prescribe new eyeglasses, an optometrist covers one eye, asks a few questions, then switches to the other eye and repeats the questions. The doctor is taking advantage of your eyes' _______ to help her analyze your vision.

A) binocular convergence
B) binocular vantage point
C) binocular disparity
D) monocular linear perspective

Question 41

A potential consequence of convergence is that you will be unable to

A) focus on an object that is very close to your face without your eyes becoming "crossed."
B) judge the distance of an object that is very close to your face.
C) use convergence and binocular disparity cues simultaneously.
D) see well at night.

Question 42

Occlusion is a _______ depth cue.

A) monocular
B) binocular
C) proprioceptive
D) vestibular

Question 43

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the use of the size cue for monocular depth perception?

A) From the back of a lecture hall, students in the front row appear smaller to you than students halfway between the front and the back.
B) While turning the pages of your book, you perceive the pages as moving rectangles.
C) While walking down a street, you perceive that a specific building is far away if it does not appear to move quickly as you move.
D) While driving your car, you perceive that the position of nearby objects changes more than the position of distant objects.

Question 44

If you were an artist drawing a cityscape, you would apply the linear perspective depth cue by

A) ensuring that foreground buildings occlude background objects.
B) drawing the streets converging with the edges of buildings at the horizon.
C) making sure background objects are much larger than foreground objects.
D) preserving the actual shape of each object while drawing it.

Question 45

The depth cue of motion parallax accounts for the fact that while you are moving forward, you will perceive the

A) farthest objects as moving fastest and in the same direction.
B) largest objects as moving slowest and in the opposite direction.
C) smallest objects as moving fastest and in the same direction.
D) closest objects as moving fastest and in the opposite direction.

Question 46

If someone shined a flashlight into your eye, your _______ would constrict.

A) eyelid
B) pupil
C) cornea
D) retina

Question 47

You would expect your pupil to be largest when you are

A) sitting on the beach on a sunny day.
B) staring at your computer screen during the day.
C) watching TV in a dimly lit room.
D) navigating through a dark forest at night.

Question 48

Which best illustrates photoreceptor adaptation?

A) Your photoreceptors have evolved to see many different colors.
B) You perceive the color red differently if it is placed next to the color blue rather than next to another red object.
C) You find it difficult to avoid walking into objects when you first enter a dark room, until your eyes adjust.
D) You are able to identify colors easily, except for differences between red and green.

Question 49

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, which of the following people would be the most likely to suffer from colorblindness?

A) Rod, who has all of his cones intact and functioning normally
B) Steve, who has fewer rods than most people
C) Angel, whose short-wavelength cones have exceptional sensitivity
D) Cornell, whose long-wavelength cones lack sensitivity

Question 50

The fact that we have short-, medium-, and long-wavelength cones that each respond to lights of different colors is most supportive of the _______ theory of color vision.

A) receptive field
B) opponent-process
C) trichromatic
D) binocular

Question 51

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates size constancy?

A) You often misjudge how tall people are when you see them on television.
B) When riding in a car, you perceive close objects as remaining the same size but objects that are farther away as shrinking.
C) In your mind, you generally remain the same size throughout your life.
D) As you approach a monument, you perceive that the monument remains the same size.

Question 52

While you are sitting in a park, you see a tulip that is exposed to the sun. Shortly after you notice it, the tulip is exposed to the shade. According to the concept of color constancy, you perceive that the color of the tulip has

A) changed, based on your prior experience with objects.
B) remained the same, but the lighting conditions have changed.
C) remained the same, because you cannot trust your sensations in bright light.
D) changed, because tulips normally change in color due to the heat.

Question 53

The main idea behind Gestalt psychology is that

A) the whole perception is more than just the sum of our separate sensations.
B) photons are perceived by a mental organ separate from the visual system.
C) sensations and perceptions have a one-to-one correspondence.
D) perception is essentially the sum of our separate sensations.

Question 54

The Gestalt rules of perception seek to explain the ways in which

A) vision increases perceptual speed.
B) vision organizes images.
C) visual preferences are defined.
D) visual sensations differ across individuals.

Question 55

Which of the following examples best illustrates an application of the Gestalt rule of continuity?

A) In the movie theater, you perceive that an actor is moving rather than just appearing first in one place and then in another place on the screen.
B) It is difficult to read the word "term" when written T eR m.
C) It is difficult not to think of your family members as a group.
D) Though you know all of your friends' names, it is hard for you to remember exactly where they live.

Question 56

The primary function of the outer ear, or pinna, is to

A) vibrate in concert with the surrounding air molecules.
B) gather sounds and direct them to the middle ear.
C) filter out sounds of low and high frequency.
D) dampen loud sounds.

Question 57

The primary function of the three ossicles of the middle ear is to

A) act as a funnel for sounds from the outside world.
B) transmit vibrations to the inner ear.
C) deflect sounds from the inner ear.
D) stand still as the outer ear vibrates.

Question 58

The tiny bones that vibrate along with the eardrum and transmit vibrations to the cochlea are called the

A) ossicles.
B) middle canals.
C) rods.
D) tympanum.

Question 59

The _______ houses the cochlea and other organs that are important for balance.

A) outer ear
B) middle ear
C) inner ear
D) pinna

Question 60

The _______ at one end of the cochlea is sensitive to the vibrations of the bones of the middle ear.

A) oval window
B) central canal
C) stapes
D) pinna

Question 61

The specialized receptor cells inside the cochlea are called

A) photons.
B) rods.
C) hair cells.
D) stapes.

Question 62

The cochlea relays information to the brain about sound when

A) sound molecules chemically interact with the hair cells.
B) vibrations in the cochlea bend the hairs of the hair cells, producing an action potential in a neuron underneath the hair cells.
C) free nerve endings in the cochlea are stimulated.
D) Meissner's corpuscles are stimulated.

Question 63

The greatest adaptive, perceptual advantage to having two ears rather than one is that

A) we are more easily able to localize sounds with two ears.
B) the head does not cast a sound shadow when there are ears on opposite sides.
C) sounds seem more pleasant when heard with two ears.
D) the cochlea functions more efficiently if both ears are functioning properly.

Question 64

According to the duplex theory, we use both _______ differences and _______ differences to localize sounds.

A) latency; convergence
B) intensity; conflict resolution
C) intensity; latency
D) latency; frequency

Question 65

Our two chemosensory systems are the _______ system and the _______ system.

A) taste; olfactory
B) taste; auditory
C) auditory; visual
D) olfactory; touch

Question 66

When you eat a slice of pizza, your blissful experience, called _______, is the combined stimulation provided to taste receptors in the mouth and olfactory receptors in the nose.

A) taste
B) flavor
C) smell
D) gustation

Question 67

The collections of 50-150 cells on the surface of the tongue, back of the mouth, and roof of the mouth are called

A) taste buds.
B) taste receptor cells.
C) taste pores.
D) tastants.

Question 68

Chemicals in the mouth encounter the surface of taste receptor cells at

A) epithelial cells.
B) olfactory pores.
C) tastants.
D) taste pores.

Question 69

A chemical that encounters a taste receptor cell and excites it is called a(n)

A) epithelium.
B) umami.
C) odorant.
D) tastant.

Question 70

In order to distinguish sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami tastes, humans have

A) three specialized types of taste receptors: salty/sweet, bitter/sour, and umami.
B) a specialized type of taste receptor for each of the five taste categories.
C) special locations on the tongue where each taste is processed.
D) nearly twice as many salty receptors as the other types of receptors combined.

Question 71

Biting into a lemon is likely to stimulate taste receptor cells for _______ and _______.

A) salty; sweet
B) bitter; salty
C) sweet; sour
D) umami; bitter

Question 72

Most _______ tastes, like that of vinegar, are chemically acidic.

A) sweet
B) salty
C) bitter
D) sour

Question 73

In order for you to enjoy the smell of a flower, molecules called _______ from the flower must land on your olfactory epithelium, which lines the inside of the nose.

A) odorants
B) photons
C) tastants
D) free radicals

Question 74

The olfactory epithelium, which lines the inside of the nose, houses the

A) photoreceptors.
B) taste receptor cells.
C) olfactory receptor neurons.
D) olfactory bulb.

Question 75

The olfactory system routes information directly to the _______ of the brain.

A) lateral geniculate nucleus
B) primary visual cortex
C) olfactory bulb
D) parietal cortex

Question 76

When walking quietly on a beach, your body cells will _______ if you step on something hard, but if the beauty of the setting overwhelms you, you may not consciously _______ this as painful.

Question 77

We can define the _______ for a touch receptor by gradually increasing the strength of a stimulus against the skin until the brain detects the stimulus.

Question 78

You decide to determine a person's _______ with respect to sound. In doing so, you change the volume of a stereo in different increments until you determine the smallest change in volume that the person can detect.

Question 79

According to _______ theory, you are much more likely to be able to understand a friend whispering in your ear during a lecture than during a basketball game, because there is more ambient noise at the basketball game.

Question 80

_______ are free nerve endings that are specialized pain receptors.