Deck 4: Cognition: Sensation, Perception, and States of Consciousness

Question 1

What is the term for a sleeplike state marked by reduced sensitivity to stimuli, loss or alteration of knowledge, and the substitution of automatic for voluntary motor activity?

A) sleep
B) trance
C) aesthetic experience
D) dream
E) sensory adaptation

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A(n)________ is a term used to identify the feeling of pleasure evoked by stimuli that are perceived as beautiful, attractive, and rewarding.

A) depth perception
B) perceptual set
C) aesthetic experience
D) revealing experience
E) sensory adaptation

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The organization of sensations in three dimensions, even though the image on the eye's retina is two-dimensional is referred to as:

A) depth perception
B) difference threshold
C) sensory adaptation
D) revealing experience
E) sensory threshold

Answer 3

A

Question 4

_________ is a quiet and relaxed state of tranquility in which a person achieves an integration of emotions, attitudes, and thoughts.

A) hypnosis
B) aesthetic experience
C) trance
D) meditation
E) sleep

Question 5

What is the general name for phenomena that are different than normal waking consciousness and include mystic experiences, meditation, hypnosis, trance, or possession?

A) aesthetic experience
B) therapy
C) paranormal phenomena
D) altered states of consciousness
E) spirituality

Question 6

What is the general scientific term for phenomena that appear to contradict physical laws and suggest the possibility of causation by mental processes?

A) hypnosis
B) magic psychology
C) conscious efforts
D) social psychology
E) parapsychology

Question 7

_______ refers to the tendency of the sensory system to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.

A) sensation
B) excessive sleep
C) sensory adaptation
D) meditation
E) dreams

Question 8

The ________ refers to the minimum amount of physical energy needed for an observer to notice a stimulus.

A) absolute threshold
B) consciousness
C) wakefulness
D) perception
E) meditation

Question 9

A(n) ________ is a mental representation that orients people to dimensions such as time, space, and the interpersonal world.

A) perceptual set
B) absolute threshold
C) sensory adaptation
D) behavioral environment
E) altered state of consciousness

Question 10

Some intriguing perceptual differences were found in comparative studies of Weston and East Asian subjects. East Asians tend to be more holistic and Westerners tend to be more _______.

A) creative
B) impatient
C) analytic
D) forgiving
E) aggressive

Question 11

An individual's experience with the environment (for example, living in a mountainous area) shapes this individual's perception by creating perceptual sets. What are they?

A) stress-related reactions
B) perceptual expectations
C) absolute thresholds
D) adaptation strategies based on thinking
E) negative emotions

Question 12

Individuals from hunter and gatherer cultures have _______ rates of color blindness than individuals from agricultural cultures.

A) lower
B) the same
C) higher
D) significantly higher
E) highly unusual

Question 13

The _________ suggests that while an ethnic group may excel in a particular sensory task, they may be less adept in others. Yet in sum, sensory and other cognitive skills are evenly balanced across ethnic groups.

A) the inequality hypothesis
B) the power hypothesis
C) the compensation hypothesis
D) the justice hypothesis
E) the consciousness hypothesis

Question 14

There is evidence that scanning patterns (scanning a text, for example) are subject to cultural variations. These variations are most closely linked with:

A) perception of time
B) religion
C) access to water
D) access to sand
E) reading habits

Question 15

What is the most significant factor determining an individual's susceptibility to visual illusions?

A) formal schooling
B) sleep deprivation
C) attitude about psychological experiments
D) absolute thresholds
E) sensory adaptation

Question 16

Which of the following is least likely to be viewed as an Altered State of Consciousness?

A) meditation
B) hypnotic trance
C) fantasy
D) possession trance
E) sleep

Question 17

Under the influence of the Protestant (Christian) tradition, developed first in Western Europe, altered states of consciousness were considered:

A) normal, common phenomena
B) result of difficult educational environment
C) religious experiences
D) human emotions
E) abnormal phenomena

Question 18

Until recently, the altered states of consciousness associated with religious experiences have been practically excluded from scientific psychological research. Why?

A) because of the government's restrictions on such studies
B) because of the attempts of researchers to distance psychology from organized religion
C) because of censorship: journals and magazines would not have published such research
D) because such studies are extremely expensive and require special licensing
E) because these states of consciousness are dangerous

Question 19

Imagine your client during a therapy session describes her perceptions and feelings when an evil spirit invaded her body a few days ago. From a psychological perspective, how would you define this altered state of consciousness?

A) visionary trance
B) non-specific spirit-related coma
C) spiritual awakening
D) possession trance
E) "Seven-days-in-Tibet" experience

Question 20

Which of the following most accurately reflects the language-related theories of color perception?

A) people are generally color blind but the language is used to identify brightness
B) certain words are linked to various units of the visible spectrum
C) language has nothing to do with the way people see colors
D) when a person learns a foreign language, this individual is confused about colors
E) exposure to colors blue and red reduces a person's accent

Question 21

Studies of color preferences showed that women across countries tend to choose and like _____________compared to other colors.

A) reddish hues, such as pink
B) blue and red colors
C) greenish hues, such as olive
D) yellow and red colors
E) violet hues, such as lilac

Question 22

Some psychologists suggest that shamanic practices involving ritualistic trance influence ____________

A) the brain's serotonin and opioid neurotransmitter systems
B) an individual's hormonal system
C) immune system and resistance to stress
D) an individual's reaction time
E) an individual's time perception

Question 23

People in monophasic cultures tend to interpret their dreams as:

A) indirect indication of the dreamer's concerns
B) fairy tales coming out of the unconscious mind
C) mild mental disorders
D) a special kind of mental problems
E) signs of demonic possession

Question 24

Which part of the brain, according to M. Persinger, is closely associated with so-called God experiences?

A) Cerebellum
B) Frontal lobe
C) Temporal lobe
D) Parietal lobe
E) Spinal Cord

Question 25

In many non-Western musical traditions the idea of the note, as a stable, sustained pitch is foreign.

Question 26

Individuals from polyphasic cultures are more likely to value dreams and treat them as part of reality.

Question 27

Cross-cultural psychology provides compelling evidence that sensory differences (differences in the way people hear, smell, see, etc.) between cultures are insignificant.

Question 28

Research suggests that residents of large metropolitan cities, in general, tend to be more susceptible to near-death and other out of body experiences.

Question 29

The compensation hypothesis, involving sensory differences between African and European cultures, has not been supported by compelling empirical data.

Question 30

When examining the effects of food and water deprivation on word identification, researchers found that deprivation did not alter the identification of need-related words.

Question 31

As individuals age, they frequently assert that time runs faster than it did when they were young. However, this observation has not been empirically validated.

Question 32

There is a popular perception about the main attributes of Western consciousness as being linear, pragmatic, and rational.

Question 33

Individuals from monophasic cultures are less inclined to incorporate dreams into their perception and daily experiences.

Question 34

In the dream study conducted on a sample of Zulu South Africans, subjects with less education were more likely to consult with dream interpreters and act in response to dreams than were their more educated counterparts.

Question 35

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that people have generally more difficulty judging about pictures of faces of other ethnic groups compared to faces of their own group.

Question 36

Studies show that people, including residents of big cities, are substantially slower and less accurate at visually detecting animals compared to non-living objects such as moving cars.

Question 37

Studies show that people from Asian cultures including China, Japan, and Korea, pay more attention to the center of pictures than people from Western cultures who pay more attention to contexts and backgrounds of pictures.

Question 38

In Taiwan, the official calendar starts in 1912, the year of the founding of the Republic of China.

Question 39

Ian Spence and his colleagues found differences in men and women's ability to distinguish objects that appear in their field of vision. Men were are generally better at remembering and locating general landmarks in pictures, while women were are better at remembering and locating ________

Question 40

What is the main psychological (cognitive) symptom of a visionary trance?

Question 41

After spending an hour in a remote village, you become less aware of the noise caused by the constantly blowing dessert wind. This tendency to respond less to stimuli that continue without change is called:

Question 42

The organization of sensations in three dimensions, even though the image on the eye's retina is two-dimensional is called:

Question 43

Every evening, Henry turns off the lights in his small apartment, sits in front of the window, and experiences a quiet state of tranquility during which he achieves an integration of his thoughts, perceptions, and attitudes. Henry's roommates mistakenly call this hypnosis. What do psychologists call this experience?

Question 44

Despite significant differences in the manifest content of dreams, the ______ content is believed to be comparable cross-culturally.

Question 45

Trance states are often associated with sensitivity to stimuli and spiritual healing. Through what mechanism of action does this occur?

Question 46

According to the text, why do most Americans draw circles in a counter-clockwise direction?

Question 47

According to the text, what color is most likely to be described across cultures as "salient" and "active"?

Question 48

What is the name of the hypothesis that asserts people who are raised in an environment shaped by carpenters tend to interpret nonrectangular figures as representations of rectangular figures seen in perspective?

Question 49

The text distinguishes between two types of trances; visionary and _________

Question 50

In which country does the official calendar start at the birthday of this country's late communist leader?

Question 51

Subjects from regions with __________________were more susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion than subjects from regions in which such views are rare.

Question 52

American Indians and Alaska Natives report a _______prevalence of pain symptoms and painful conditions when compared with the general population of the United States.

Question 53

How are aesthetical standards defined in countries where the governments restrain the free flow of information?

Question 54

Describe the cultural interpretations of the red color.

Question 55

Describe the cultural interpretations of the black color.

Question 56

What is the distinction between monophasic and polyphasic interpretations of dreams?

Question 57

What is the difference between visionary and possession trances?

Question 58

Which demographic groups are most susceptible to visual illusions?

Question 59

Describe how (using which methods) a research-oriented psychologist could study possession trance.

Question 60

Describe the most significant difference between polyphasic and monophasic cultures (in the context of dreams).

Question 61

Studies of color preferences showed that women across countries tend to choose and like reddish colors while men have a preference for greenish-blue colors. How could you explain this from the evolutionary standpoint?

Question 62

What are the main psychological (cognitive) symptom of visionary trance? Describe them.

Question 63

Certain perceptual mechanisms are probably pre-wired in individuals since birth. Give examples and arguments from the chapter.

Question 64

Studies suggest that individuals from hunter and gatherer cultures have _______ rates of color blindness than/as individuals from agricultural cultures.

A) lower
B) the same
C) higher
D) significantly higher
E) highly unusual

Question 65

_________ is a quiet and relaxed state of tranquility in which a person achieves an integration of emotions, attitudes, and thoughts.

A) Hypnosis
B) Aesthetic experience
C) Trance
D) Meditation
E) Sleep

Question 66

The organization of sensations in three dimensions, even though the image on the eye's retina is two-dimensional, is referred to as __________________.

A) depth perception
B) difference threshold
C) sensory adaptation
D) revealing experience
E) sensory threshold

Question 67

The _________ suggests that while an ethnic group may excel in a particular sensory task, they may be less adept in others. Yet, in sum, sensory and other cognitive skills are evenly balanced across ethnic groups.

A) inequality hypothesis
B) power hypothesis
C) compensation hypothesis
D) justice hypothesis
E) consciousness hypothesis

Question 68

There is evidence that scanning patterns (scanning a picture or text, for example) are subject to cultural variations. These variations are most closely linked with _______________.

A) perception of time
B) religion
C) access to water
D) access to sand
E) reading habits

Question 69

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that people generally have more difficulty judging pictures of faces of other ethnic groups compared to faces of their own group.

Question 70

Research suggests that residents of large metropolitan cities, in general, tend to be more susceptible to near-death and other out of body experiences.

Question 71

The compensation hypothesis, involving sensory differences between African and European cultures, has not been supported by compelling empirical data.

Question 72

The text distinguishes between two types of trances: one is visionary and the other is: _____________.

Question 73

Why do most Americans draw circles in a counter-clockwise direction?