Deck 3: Coming to Perceive the World

Question 1

___________ refers to the sharpness of vision based on the ability to see the contrasts in the world that represent lines, shapes, and shadows.

A) Visual acuity
B) Visual discrimination
C) Visual habituation
D) Visual perspicacity

Answer 1

Visual acuity

Question 2

Sakhi is born with dense cataracts in the lenses of both eyes, which prevent her from seeing patterns of light.She is scheduled to receive corrective surgery to remove the cataracts at age 5.What should her parents expect after the surgery?

A) She will likely still have extremely limited vision.
B) She will likely experience restored optical acuity but some forms of processing acuity will never be restored.
C) She will likely experience restored processing acuity but some forms of optical acuity will never be restored.
D) She will likely experience restored optical and processing acuity allowing her to see fine details.

Answer 2

She will likely experience restored optical acuity but some forms of processing acuity will never be restored.

Question 3

A person who has ___________ will perceive stimuli at different orientations with different levels of acuity.

A) astigmatism
B) cataracts
C) macular degeneration
D) strabismus

Answer 3

astigmatism

Question 4

___________ refers to developmental "windows of opportunity" during which specific sorts of inputs can profoundly affect the organism in ways that are largely irreversible after the period is over.

A) Acute periods
B) Critical periods
C) Decisive periods
D) Sensitive periods

Question 5

All of the following are common challenges associated with scientists using the preferential looking method EXCEPT:

A) Parents may unknowingly influence infant looking.
B) Researchers may unknowingly bias recordings if they know which picture infants are viewing.
C) Stimuli must be carefully standardized.
D) Infants may demonstrate an overwhelming preference for one of the stimuli.

Question 6

Baby Stephan is participating in a study designed to test infants' depth perception.The researchers place him on an apparatus, which consists of a large, transparent pane of glass with two checker-patterned displays below it.On the far side, the pattern is roughly 3 feet below to give the impression of a sudden drop-off.Baby Stephan is on a:

A) visual bridge
B) visual cliff
C) visual drop-off
D) visual ravine

Question 7

The eye is designed to project images of light on the retina, which illustrates ___________, and this information is later "read" by the mind, which illustrates ___________.

A) sensation; perception
B) perception; sensation
C) registration; interpretation
D) interpretation; registration

Question 8

___________ involves registering sensory information as it is initially taken in.

A) Interpretation
B) Perception
C) Reflection
D) Sensation

Question 9

___________ refers to an organism's ability to adjust to environmental changes.

A) Hardiness
B) Malleability
C) Plasticity
D) Sensitivity

Question 10

Jamal was born with eye muscles that made his eyes excessively converge, resulting in a "cross-eyed" condition.Although he had corrective surgery at age 7, his vision was never what would be considered normal.This is an example of a(n):

A) acute period effect
B) critical period effect
C) decisive period effect
D) plastic period effect

Question 11

The retina of the eye, the hair cells of the auditory system, and the taste buds of the tongue are all involved in:

A) speech
B) olfaction
C) perception
D) sensation

Question 12

Who would claim that right from the start, infants have specialized abilities to link up inputs from multiple senses to create integrated mental representations of objects?

A) empiricists
B) environmentalists
C) nativists
D) naturalists

Question 13

Researchers using the ___________ method attend to the jumping of the eyes as they track a continuous succession of objects that stream by.

A) habituation
B) optokinetic nystagmus
C) preferential looking
D) visually evoked potential

Question 14

___________ refers to how well the brain's visual cortex handles the information received from the retina.

A) Differential acuity
B) Optical acuity
C) Processing acuity
D) Receptive acuity

Question 15

If an owl younger than 60 days of age has one ear plugged, it will adapt and adjust the localization system.If the owl is still young when the earplug is removed, it will initially localize incorrectly but then gradually readjust.This is an example of a(n):

A) acute period
B) critical period
C) resilient period
D) sensitive period

Question 16

Macie, a ten-month-old, has been presented with many pictures of other infants.She grows bored and does not look long at each of these pictures.When the researchers present the image of an older man, Macie becomes quite attentive and looks much longer at this new image.According to researchers, Macie experiences:

A) dishabituation
B) fatigue
C) habituation
D) visual preferences

Question 17

Which of the following is true about methods for measuring visual acuity in infancy?

A) Visually evoked potential measurements reveal sharper levels of acuity than preferential looking or habituation methods.
B) Habituation methods reveal sharper levels of acuity than preferential looking or visually evoked potential methods.
C) Preferential looking methods reveal sharper levels of acuity than habituation or visually evoked potential methods.
D) There are no differences among different measures of visual acuity in infancy.

Question 18

___________ refer to the constant interplay between organism and environment.

A) Circular reactions
B) Feedback loops
C) Restorative processes
D) U-shaped developments

Question 19

Dr.Patel presents infants with a picture of a regular face and a scrambled face.He presents both stimuli at the same time and records the amount of time infants look to each picture to determine if they spend more time looking at one over the other.This is an example of the:

A) habituation/dishabituation method
B) head turn procedure
C) preferential looking method
D) violation of expectation paradigm

Question 20

The typically developing six-month-old has:

A) 20:400 vision
B) 20:100 vision
C) 20:60 vision
D) 20:20 vision

Question 21

Which best describes a newborn's color vision?

A) Newborns are color-blind.
B) Newborns cannot yet cluster wavelengths into categories similar to those that adults use.
C) Newborns are able to tell apart different hues like red and green.
D) Newborns can distinguish very subtle color differences like red and reddish orange.

Question 22

___________ refers to the perception that a rapidly expanding object is moving closer.

A) Looming
B) Motion parallax
C) Portension
D) Stereopsis

Question 23

Elena is a 2-month-old infant participating in a research study.She sees two rod segments moving in the same direction behind an occluding box.Elena infers:

A) one unbroken rod is present
B) two fragments of the rod are present
C) the rod fragments are connected through the occluding box
D) the rod pierces the occluding box

Question 24

Studies of 3-month-olds have shown that:

A) Caucasian infants prefer to look at Caucasian faces
B) Caucasian infants prefer to look at African-American faces
C) African-American infants prefer to look at Caucasian faces
D) infants do not respond to race

Question 25

In the picture below, the darker rectangle overlaps the lighter rectangle, suggesting that it must be in front.This illustrates:

A) convergence in the distance
B) interposition
C) perspective illusion
D) texture gradients

Question 26

As the infant develops, the eyeball grows and develops a more spherical form.By about 1 year, the infant's eyeball is roughly spherical, such that light passing through the lens now lands, in focus, on the whole retina.What accounts for these changes in the eye's shape?

A) automatic growth
B) biological maturation
C) increasingly focused input
D) optokinetic nystagmus

Question 27

What type of depth cues are infants most likely to rely on in the visual cliff paradigm?

A) binocular cues
B) dynamic cues
C) monocular cues
D) pictorial cues

Question 28

Ishani is an art major.She shows linear perspective in one painting by using parallel lines in a way that they seem to meet as they extend toward the horizon.This illustrates:

A) convergence in the distance
B) interposition
C) perspective illusion
D) texture gradients

Question 29

Why might infants be able to use dynamic cues to depth before binocular and pictorial cues?

A) Dynamic cues are almost always reliable in the natural world.
B) Dynamic cues can be misleading in many optical illusions and infants need to practice using these cues.
C) Dynamic cues require good visual acuity.
D) Dynamic cues assist with categorical perception of color.

Question 30

Which of the following best describes the categorical perception of color?

A) Language has no effect on the categories of color we perceive.
B) Individuals learn color categories solely from older members of their society.
C) Two different systems influence the categorical perception of color.
D) Adults are unable to learn new, artificial color names for categories not represented in their own language.

Question 31

Which statement best describes the developmental changes in the use of pictorial depth cues?

A) Infants younger than about 6 months of age do not seem to use pictorial depth cues.
B) Infants younger than about 6 months of age rely on pictorial depth cues more than any other age group.
C) The use of pictorial depth cues remains high until about 2 years of age when children gain locomotion.
D) There are no developmental differences in the use of pictorial depth cues.

Question 32

Newborns prefer to look at:

A) normal faces
B) scrambled faces where features are arranged symmetrically around the vertical centerline
C) scrambled faces where features are arranged symmetrically around the horizontal centerline
D) faces where features are scrambled at random

Question 33

Which of the following statements best describes findings regarding facial attractiveness?

A) Judgments of facial attractiveness vary greatly across cultures.
B) Judgments of facial attractiveness vary greatly within cultures.
C) Adults prefer faces with features that are uniformly average in size and arrangement.
D) Adults prefer faces that lack symmetry and are thus quite unique.

Question 34

___________ cues to depth are based on the relative movement (or apparent movement) of objects based on their distance from the observer.

A) Looming
B) Motion parallax
C) Portension
D) Stereopsis

Question 35

___________ principles provide ways of distinguishing one whole object from another.

A) Empiricist
B) Gestalt
C) Nativist
D) Optokinetic

Question 36

Studies examining pattern perception in other species suggest that:

A) not all pattern perception requires learning from experience
B) pattern perception requires a limited degree of learning from experience
C) pattern perception requires a great deal of learning from experience
D) pattern perception is not evident in nonhuman species

Question 37

What statement best describes the way newborn chicks peck at their food?

A) Newborn chicks peck 20 degrees to the left of their actual food.
B) Newborn chicks peck more at rounded objects.
C) Newborn chicks peck more at objects with straight edges.
D) Newborn chicks peck more at objects with sharp angles.

Question 38

Which Gestalt principle(s) do young infants use?

A) only common fate
B) only edge alignment
C) both common fate and edge alignment
D) Young infants do not use any Gestalt principles.

Question 39

Janie is a 2-day-old infant.Which best describes Janie's ability to see differences in brightness?

A) Janie is not yet able to sense any differences in brightness.
B) Janie can perceive differences between lamps of different brightness.
C) Janie can judge relative levels of brightness in an image by comparing two adjacent areas.
D) Janie can perceive changes in brightness of as little as 1 percent.

Question 40

___________ refers to the slight disparity between the two eyes' view of any object.

A) Binocular parallax
B) Convergence
C) Interposition
D) Motion parallax

Question 41

What taste do infants prefer?

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

Question 42

The infant shows a crude initial ability to localize sounds, which seems to decline briefly before reemerging in a more sophisticated form.This is an example of:

A) circular reactions
B) feedback loops
C) inverted processes
D) U-shaped developments

Question 43

Researchers have found that playing classical music to newborns is associated with:

A) no significant increase in cognitive abilities
B) a significant increase in only cognitive abilities
C) a significant increase in only social skills
D) a significant increase in both cognitive abilities and later social skills

Question 44

Which of the following is true about cochlear implants?

A) The earlier the patient receives the cochlear implant, the more normal will be her ability to distinguish between different speech sounds.
B) The later the patient receives the cochlear implant, the more normal will be her ability to articulate clearly.
C) Children cannot receive cochlear implants until they are three years of age.
D) Adults who receive cochlear implants show no improvement.

Question 45

Molly is a 6-month-old infant.She should have a preference for all the following EXCEPT:

A) attractive faces over unattractive faces
B) female faces over male faces
C) same-race faces over other-race faces
D) monkey faces over human faces

Question 46

Which statement about taste perception is accurate?

A) Taste perception functions only after birth.
B) The fetus tastes the mother's amniotic fluid.
C) The ability to perceive all four of the basic tastes is present at birth and does not require experience.
D) It is not until after six months that infants acquire flavor preferences through early exposure.

Question 47

At what age do infants begin to pick out words from a speech stream based solely on how often certain syllables tend to occur together in the same order?

A) This ability is present at birth.
B) This ability is present at 4 months of age.
C) This ability is present at 8 months of age.
D) This ability is present by 2 years of age.

Question 48

Which sensory system was the first to evolve?

A) audition
B) smell
C) vision
D) All sensory systems evolved together.

Question 49

Which best describes infants' olfactory preferences?

A) Newborns do not seem to show clear sets of olfactory preferences.
B) Newborns prefer the odor of breast milk to that of formula.
C) Newborns prefer the odor of formula to that of breast milk.
D) Newborns prefer the odor of methyl salicylate.

Question 50

Manuel is a 4-month-old.When he hears a sound, he:

A) is unable to locate its source
B) registers differences in sound intensity between the two ears but is unable to locate the source
C) experiences only a reflex-like turn of the head toward intense sounds
D) has a clear expectation that something is "out there" in a particular location in space

Question 51

___________ refers to fusing and integrating information across sensory modalities.

A) Categorical perception
B) Intermodal perception
C) Integrative perception
D) Transformative perception

Question 52

___________ refers to the amount of time delay between lip release and voicing.

A) Auditory evoked potential
B) Delayed voice onset
C) Voice activation time
D) Voice onset time

Question 53

Which of the following is NOT one of the four basic taste categories?

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

Question 54

Jonathan grows up in a home where English is the only language spoken.Which of the following best describes Jonathan?

A) He will never be able to distinguish between two different versions of the "d" sounds that are meaningful in Hindi but not in English.
B) At six months of age, he is able to distinguish between two different versions of the "d" sounds that are meaningful in Hindi but not in English.
C) At one year of age, he is able to distinguish between two different versions of the "d" sounds that are meaningful in Hindi but not in English.
D) He will always be able to distinguish between two different versions of the "d" sounds that are meaningful in Hindi but not in English.

Question 55

While young infants can tell apart both individual human faces and individual monkey faces, older infants show a decline in the ability to tell monkey faces apart but an improvement at distinguishing between human faces.This is an example of:

A) own-species preferences
B) perceptual narrowing
C) concentrated plasticity
D) visual focusing

Question 56

Which statement best describes newborns' face perception abilities?

A) Newborns have no sense of how facial features are laid out.
B) Newborns have not yet developed sensitivity to normal spatial relations between facial features.
C) Newborns have developed sensitivity to normal spatial relations between facial features.
D) Newborns already demonstrate all of the subtle sensitivities in face perceptions displayed by adults.

Question 57

Which statement best accounts for preferences for "average" faces?

A) Preferences for average faces represent specific cultural norms of attractiveness.
B) Average faces are promoted in beauty magazines.
C) Average faces are likely to more closely resemble the mother's face.
D) Average faces signify health and better chances of producing healthy offspring.

Question 58

Child-directed speech involves all of the following EXCEPT:

A) lower-pitched voice
B) rising intonations at the end of phrases
C) longer pauses between sentences
D) repetition

Question 59

Infants use their ___________ as their primary means of touch-based exploration.

A) hands
B) feet
C) knees
D) mouths

Question 60

Which of the following is true about sounds to which the fetus is exposed?

A) Newborns are unable to hear sounds prenatally.
B) The sounds a fetus hears while in the mother's uterus do not affect later auditory preferences.
C) Newborns prefer a stranger's voice as they have habituated to hearing their mother's voice.
D) Newborns prefer a story that their mother read aloud during the last weeks of pregnancy.

Question 61

Jackson, a newborn infant, is given a pacifier covered with bumps to suck on for a few minutes.However, he does not see the pacifier.When shown the bumpy pacifier and a smooth one, Jackson will likely:

A) look equally at both types of pacifiers
B) look longer at the bumpy pacifier
C) look longer at the smooth pacifier
D) ignore both pacifiers

Question 62

Explain how infant taste preferences reveal the complex interactions between genetic predispositions and environmental influences.

Question 63

Discuss the tradeoffs between a pattern recognition ability that is fully functional at birth and one that requires considerable environmental input.

Question 64

Infants look longer at happy faces than sad faces while hearing a happy sound track.This is an example of:

A) affective perception
B) categorical perception
C) emotive perception
D) intermodal perception

Question 65

Define critical period and illustrate this concept by describing the effects of deprivation of early visual experience.

Question 66

Describe U-shaped developmental curves in reference to infants' face-tracking abilities.

Question 67

What are sensitive periods and how does research on barn owls demonstrate this concept?

Question 68

Define feedback loop and illustrate this concept by describing the pattern of eye growth.

Question 69

Why is it possible for infants to distinguish between some speech sounds that adults cannot?

Question 70

Do some aspects of the auditory system show critical period effects? Include findings from studies involving cochlear implants.

Question 71

Dr.Cashon wants to design a study to determine whether infants can differentiate between a complex pattern-a checkerboard with many squares-and a simple pattern-a checkerboard with few squares.Describe how Dr.Cashon could answer this question using the preferential looking method.In doing so, explain the rationale behind this method.

Question 72

Define intermodal perception and provide an example.

Question 73

According to evolutionary theorists, why do adults prefer "average" faces?

Question 74

Which statement best describes perceptual development?

A) Infants are born with fully developed perceptual abilities at birth.
B) Infants lack any form of innate specializations for perception.
C) Infants do not require learning or experience to perceive the world.
D) Infants have a "head start" at developing complex perceptual skills.

Question 75

When in development do infants become able to match their mother's face and voice? They can do this as:

A) newborns
B) 3-month-olds
C) 9-month-olds
D) 1-year-olds

Question 76

Differentiate between sensation and perception.Provide an example of each process.

Question 77

Describe the difference between binocular parallax and convergence.

Question 78

Dr.Foster wants to design a study to determine if infants can differentiate between the colors blue and green.Describe how Dr.Foster could answer this question using a habituation design.In doing so, explain the rationale behind this method.

Question 79

Describe Gibson's visual cliff.What did Gibson learn about infant depth perception from using this mechanism?