Deck 4: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Avita believes that people who share an astrological sign are compatible. When she met Gary, whose sign was compatible with hers, she immediately saw him as "perfect" for her. This is an example of _____ processing.

A) bottom- up
B) crazy
C) astrological
D) top-down

Answer 1

top-down

Question 2

Coding converts sensory input into a specific sensation and is dependent upon the _____.

A) number and type of skin cells that are activated
B) precise nerve that is stimulated
C) phase status of the brain
D) frequency of sensory stimulation

Answer 2

precise nerve that is stimulated

Question 3

Information processing that begins with your thoughts, expectations, and knowledge and ends at the sensory level is called _____.

A) top-down
B) bottom-up
C) vertical
D) horizontal

Answer 3

top-down

Question 4

Reading is a process of:

A) bottom-up processing
B) top-down processing
C) psychophysics
D) both a and b

Question 5

Sensory detection happens when our_______ detect and process sensory information from the environment.

A) resting potentials
B) action potentials
C) receptors
D) molecules

Question 6

When you look up at the sky and simply notice the clouds, you are engaging in the process of _____; when you try to organize the clouds into recognizable shapes or objects, you are engaging in the process of _____.

A) hallucinations; delusions
B) sensation; perception
C) passive observation; active observation
D) perception; sensation

Question 7

Your visual receptors have begun to detect, convert, and transmit the contours of the letters on this exam to your brain. You are therefore engaged in the process of _____.

A) perception
B) organization
C) reading
D) sensation

Question 8

Bottom-up processing has to work with ____, whereas top-down processing is associated with _________.

A) sensation; perception
B) perception; sensation
C) detecting signals; transmitting signals
D) transmitting signals; detecting signals

Question 9

Transduction is the process of converting _____.

A) neural impulses into mental representations of the world
B) receptors into environmental stimuli
C) environmental stimuli into neural impulses
D) receptors into neural impulses

Question 10

Sensation is the process of _____ raw sensory data from the internal and external world and transmitting it to the brain.

A) receiving and converting
B) selecting and organizing
C) receiving and organizing
D) selecting, receiving, and organizing

Question 11

The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory data into usable mental representations of the world is called _____.

A) memory
B) attention
C) perception
D) sensation

Question 12

_______ is the mind's window to the outside world.

A) Perception
B) Sensation
C) Audition
D) Vision

Question 13

Brittany received a package in the mail that contained wood pieces she thought must be the new cabinet she ordered, but there were no directions. In order to assemble this cabinet, Brittany must use ________.

A) ensemble reasoning
B) top-down processing
C) bottom-up processing
D) affective reasoning

Question 14

Tiny cells on your retina are detecting the contours of the letters on this page and sending that information to your brain. These are your _____ for vision.

A) lenses
B) receptors
C) filters
D) transmitters

Question 15

Converting sensory inputs into different sensations is the process known as _________.

A) transduction
B) coding
C) reduction
D) synesthesia

Question 16

Sensory receptors are _____.

A) cells specialized to receive and process distinct sensory information
B) cells specialized to detect and respond to stimulus energy
C) cells specialized in processing information from the brain and reacting
D) cells specialized in interpreting information sent from the body

Question 17

Bottom-up processing is _____ driven, whereas top-down processing is ______ driven.

A) whole-concept; parts
B) perceptually; sensation
C) conceptually; data
D) data; conceptually

Question 18

When you listen to music, the sound waves are converted into neural impulses for your brain to process. This is called _____.

A) transformation
B) sensory transmission
C) perceptual transduction
D) transduction

Question 19

The three key functions of sensation are, respectively, _____.

A) stimulation, coding, and transduction
B) transmission, interpretation, and coding
C) detection, stimulation, and transmission
D) processing, psychophysics, and sensory adaptation

Question 20

Information processing that begins with raw sensory data and finishes with analysis in the brain is called _____.

A) top-down
B) bottom-up
C) horizontal
D) higher-order

Question 21

Rowena is placed in a room and told to press a button each time she hears a sound become louder. In this test, Rowena's _____ is being measured.

A) difference threshold for sound
B) adaptation threshold for sound
C) absolute threshold for sound
D) level of auditory accommodation

Question 22

A subliminal stimulus refers to any stimulus that _____.

A) is presented during a person's motivational need state
B) manipulates people without their knowing about it
C) is presented below the threshold of a person's conscious awareness
D) goes undetected in more than 50% of its presentations

Question 23

Your friend is thinking of using several subliminal tapes to improve his memory and self-esteem. He asks you what psychologists think about these tapes. What would be the MOST correct response you could make?

A) They provide a convenient and generally reliable form of self-help.
B) They promote mental and physical health.
C) They have been shown to be highly effective for some people.
D) They are not supported by scientific research.

Question 24

Sensory reduction refers to the process of _____.

A) reducing your dependence on a single sensory system
B) decreasing the number of sensory receptors that are stimulated
C) filtering and analyzing incoming sensations before sending a neural message to the cortex
D) reducing environmental sensations by physically preventing your sensory organs from seeing or hearing.

Question 25

A phenomenon in which the perceived intensity of a repeated stimulus decreases over time is called _____.

A) sensory coding
B) sensory assimilation
C) sensory accommodation
D) sensory adaptation

Question 26

The reason you are seeing this test, rather than smelling it, tasting it, or hearing it, is because your visual receptors are being stimulated and the information is being sent along the optic nerve to the occipital lobe in your brain. This process is called _____.

A) transduction
B) sensory reduction
C) transformation
D) coding

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT prone to sensory adaptation?

A) Vision
B) Taste
C) Smell
D) Touch

Question 28

Scientists use a _____ to flash images too quickly for conscious recognition, but slowly enough to be registered.

A) oscilloscope
B) sensorscope
C) tachistoscope
D) sublimascope

Question 29

Caleb and Amara sleep through a passing police siren and the blaring of their neighbor's stereo, but wake instantly when their newborn baby begins to whimper softly. This is an example of _____.

A) sensory reduction
B) parenting
C) sensory analysis
D) sensory adaptation

Question 30

Our senses adapt to continuous, repetitive stimulation because this allows us to _____.

A) operate more efficiently
B) relax due to familiarity
C) multitask effectively
D) nothing since our senses do not adapt

Question 31

Using a headset to sleep better works by _____.

A) sensory deprivation
B) sensory reduction
C) sensory elimination
D) coding

Question 32

These senses adapt quickly to repeated stimulation.

A) smell and touch
B) vision and touch
C) vision and pain
D) smell and extreme temperatures

Question 33

The difference threshold is the minimal _____.

A) difference needed to notice a stimulus change
B) stimulus energy that can be detected by different people
C) stimulus energy that can be detected at different times by the same person
D) difference needed to determine which senses are involved in a multisensory experience

Question 34

Experiments on subliminal perception have _____.

A) supported the existence of the phenomenon, but found it has little or no effect on persuasion
B) shown that subliminal perception occurs only among children and some adolescents
C) shown that subliminal messages affect only people who are highly suggestible
D) failed to support the phenomenon

Question 35

The branch of psychology that studies the relation between attributes of the physical world and our sensory experience of those attributes is called _____.

A) physical psychology
B) astropsychology
C) parapsychology
D) psychophysics

Question 36

The smallest magnitude of a particular stimulus energy that can be detected is called its _____ threshold.

A) signal
B) difference
C) absolute
D) detection

Question 37

Dr. Shiguli wants to determine the lightest touch that can be felt by various animals compared to human beings. He would therefore be interested in finding the _____ for touch.

A) absolute threshold
B) difference threshold
C) human threshold
D) perception threshold

Question 38

These neurotransmitters act like morphine to inhibit pain perception.

A) GABA
B) Epinephrine
C) Endorphins
D) Norepinephrine

Question 39

When you first put your clothes on this morning you felt them on your skin, but within minutes you no longer noticed them. This is an example of _____.

A) sensory accommodation
B) sensory adaptation
C) feature detectors
D) the fabric of your life

Question 40

Jose twists his ankle quite badly in the last ten minutes of his school's championship soccer game. He continues to play and does not notice the pain in his ankle. This is probably because of an increase in his _____ levels.

A) testosterone
B) adrenalin
C) epinephrine
D) endorphin

Question 41

The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the opening of the _____.

A) lens
B) optic chiasm
C) pupil
D) cornea

Question 42

To determine wavelength you would measure from _____.

A) top to bottom
B) bottom to bottom
C) peak to peak
D) peak to bottom

Question 43

The range of wavelengths is:

A) the distance between successive peaks
B) the height from peak to trough
C) the mixture of waves
D) the frequency

Question 44

The light-sensitive inner surface of the back of the eye, which contains rods and cones, is called the _____.

A) lens
B) cornea
C) retina
D) fovea

Question 45

Jake has just stubbed his toe. How can he apply the gate-control theory of pain to keep his toe from hurting?

A) He can do jumping jacks
B) He can count to 10
C) He can swear a blue streak
D) He can rub the toe that hurts

Question 46

The _____ is the transparent elastic structure that focuses light on the back of the eyes by changing shape.

A) pupil
B) iris
C) fovea
D) lens

Question 47

The correct order of the pathway for light energy is _____.

A) pupil - retina - lens - cornea
B) lens - pupil - cornea - retina
C) cornea - pupil - lens - retina
D) retina - pupil - lens - cornea

Question 48

Vision and hearing are a result of our perception of __________________.

A) light and sound waves
B) smells and tastes
C) sound waves and vibrations
D) olfaction and lights

Question 49

Tinnitus and phantom pain are phenomena that suggest the _____ can generate pain without sensory input.

A) brain
B) spinal cord
C) afferent nerves
D) efferent nerves

Question 50

In vision, wavelength determines _____.

A) the intensity we see
B) the brightness we see
C) the complexity we see
D) the hue we see

Question 51

Blue-eyed Tracy came out of the movie theater after a matinee. What kept Tracy from being blinded by too much sudden sunlight?

A) The muscles in her iris reduced the size of her pupil.
B) The muscles in her pupil reduced the size of her iris.
C) The muscles in her iris reduced the size of her lens.
D) Nothing; she was immediately and permanently blinded.

Question 52

The cones on the retina are sensitive to _____.

A) color and fine detail
B) dim light and color
C) fine detail and dim light
D) color, fine detail, and dim light

Question 53

This is the curved, tough, protective transparent shield on the front of the eye through which light enters.

A) Pupil
B) Cornea
C) Lens
D) Chorid

Question 54

Rods are most sensitive _____, and less sensitive _____.

A) to color wavelengths; in dim light
B) in dim light; to low-amplitude light waves
C) in dim light; to color wavelengths
D) to color wavelengths; to high-amplitude light waves

Question 55

The _____ theory of pain suggests that pain sensations are processed and altered by mechanisms within the spinal cord.

A) substance G
B) gate-control
C) epinephrine
D) sensory threshold

Question 56

The physical properties of light and sound are ____.

A) wavelength, frequency, and amplitude
B) wavelength, duration, and intensity
C) frequency, duration, and intensity
D) amplitude, frequency, and intensity

Question 57

With respect to light waves, amplitude determines _____.

A) color
B) brightness
C) hue
D) saturation

Question 58

_____ is the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time.

A) Frequency
B) Amplitude
C) Electrogenesis
D) Transduction

Question 59

_____ is the name of the colored part of the eye that consists of muscles that control the size of the pupil.

A) Cornea
B) Lens
C) Iris
D) Samantha

Question 60

The _____ theory of pain helps explain why it sometimes helps to rub or massage an injured thumb.

A) sensory adaptation
B) gate-control
C) just noticeable difference
D) Lamaze

Question 61

How many hues does your author state humans can discriminate?

A) 4 million
B) 7 million
C) 7 hundred
D) 6 thousand

Question 62

The electromagnetic spectrum is made up of _____.

A) electromagnetic waves
B) magnetic waves
C) only energy found outside of the visible spectrum
D) only energy found inside the visible spectrum

Question 63

Which of the following is a major flaw in the trichromatic theory of color vision?

A) it does not explain defects in color vision
B) mixing the three color wavelengths does not yield the full spectrum of colors that can be perceived by humans
C) it is based on faulty research
D) subsequent research has demonstrated that there are more than three classes of cones

Question 64

The theory of color vision that says color perception results from mixing three distinct color systems is called the _____.

A) tricolor theory
B) trichromatic theory
C) tripigment theory
D) opponent-process theory

Question 65

The blind spot is_____.

A) the part of the retina that is clogged with receptors
B) the area where blood vessels and the optic nerve exit the eye
C) related to how large the pupil in any given moment
D) due to damage to the eye and not something everyone has

Question 66

Farsightedness occurs when the cornea and lens _____.

A) focus an image behind the fovea
B) focus an image behind the retina
C) focus an image in front of the fovea
D) focus an image in front of the retina

Question 67

When you enter a darkened environment, visual processing shifts from cones to rods. This is called _____.

A) light adaptation
B) light accommodation
C) dark accommodation
D) dark adaptation

Question 68

Consider the experiment in which you stared at a green, black, and yellow flag for 60 seconds, then looked at a blank sheet of paper and saw the image of the U.S. flag. How does the author explain this phenomenon?

A) It is a hallucination
B) It is a delusion
C) The trichromatic theory says colors have opposites that activate with exposure
D) The neural system for each color became fatigued so responded with the respective opposing color

Question 69

When the lens of the eye becomes less flexible around middle age, people are diagnosed with ____.

A) myopia
B) presbyopia
C) hyperopia
D) occulopia

Question 70

Cone receptor cells in the retina _____.

A) are equally distributed across the retina
B) outnumber the rods
C) become less numerous toward the center of the retina
D) become more numerous toward the center of the retina

Question 71

A visual acuity problem that occurs when the cornea and lens focus an image in front of the retina is called _____.

A) farsightedness
B) hyperopia
C) myopia
D) presbyopia

Question 72

Lamont is working in a photography darkroom. When he first entered this room, he experienced visual _____ adaptation.

A) light
B) macular
C) dark
D) perceptual

Question 73

You are not usually aware of the blind spot in your eye because the lost information is filled in with _____.

A) information from adjacent spots on the retina
B) information from your other senses
C) information from previous experiences
D)predictable extrapolations in your optic nerve

Question 74

Which colors are our cones sensitive to, according to the trichromatic theory?

A) Yellow, blue, and green
B) Yellow, red, and green
C) Blue, green, and red
D) Yellow, blue, and red

Question 75

The theory of color vision that is based on three systems of color opposites is called the _____ theory.

A) opponent-process
B) trichromatic
C) paired-process
D) opposing-pairs

Question 76

Infants old enough to focus and move their eyes show they are able to see color _____ an adult's ability to do so.

A) less than
B) nearly as well as
C) better than
D) in the primary color range only as well as

Question 77

The point on the retina that contains only cones and is responsible for our sharpest vision is called the _____.

A) focal spot
B) photoreceptor
C) fovea
D) optical illusion

Question 78

When you stare at a red surface and look away at a white background, you see a green color afterimage. Which color theory can explain the phenomenon the best?

A) Trichromatic theory
B) Opponent process theory
C) Dual-process theory
D) None of the above

Question 79

The blind spot has _____ receptors, whereas the fovea has _____ receptors.

A) only cone; both rod and cone
B) no; both rod and cone
C) only rod; only cone
D) no; only cone

Question 80

Which visual receptors adapt faster when confronted with a sudden change in light intensity?

A) Rods
B) Cones
C) Ossicles
D) Macula