Deck 4: Extension A: Sensation and Reality

Question 1

It only takes ___ photons of light striking visual receptors at the back of the human eye to produce a sensation.

A)one
B)three
C)five
D)ten

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Humans can detect one drop of perfume diffused into a three-room apartment and one teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water.These limits represent our _____ for smell and taste.

A)perceptual thresholds
B)transducer limits
C)sensory localizations
D)absolute thresholds

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The process by which the brain organizes sensations into meaningful patterns is known as

A)reception.
B)adaptation.
C)perception.
D)cognition.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Regarding the sensory limitations of humans, which of the following statements is FALSE?

A)The human senses do not capture complete information from the environment.
B)The limitations of the human senses is considered an evolutionary oversight.
C)The reduction in the amount of sensory information bombarding the brain helps prevent the brain from being overloaded.
D)Some animals emit sounds with pitches so high that the human ear cannot hear them.

Question 5

Seeing does not take place in the eyes but in the brain because the brain

A)organizes the information coming in from the eyes.
B)performs sensory analysis.
C)divides the world into sensory features.
D)creates phosphenes.

Question 6

Visual perception is ultimately a function of the

A)muscular movements of the eye.
B)neural activity of the rods and cones.
C)particular pathways over which neural impulses travel.
D)neural activity in the brain.

Question 7

In an approach called _____, sound waves or electromagnetic radiation are measured and related to dimensions of the resulting loudness or brightness we experience.

A)physiological psychology.
B)neurological psychology.
C)psychophysics.
D)sensory deprivation.

Question 8

When listening to your professor's lecture, hearing the various sounds of the professor's words would be _____.Interpreting the meaning of the professor's words is an example of _____.

A)perception; sensation
B)sensation; perception
C)assimilation; accommodation
D)accommodation; assimilation

Question 9

_____ is concerned with relating changes in physical stimuli to corresponding psychological sensations.

A)Physiological psychology
B)Psychokinesis
C)Psychophysics
D)Psychometry

Question 10

In order to take your psychology quiz, you must read and process the information.Detecting the black marks on the page depends on the process of _____.The ability to organize these black lines into meaningful patterns involves the process of _____.

A)perception; transduction
B)sensation; perception
C)sensory adaptation; sensory accommodation
D)neural processing; neural transfer

Question 11

A candle flame seen at 30 miles on a clear dark night is the smallest possible amount of light needed for a human to visually detect.This illustrates the _____ for human vision.

A)absolute threshold
B)transducer limit
C)adatalight limit
D)phosphene capacity

Question 12

The science of measuring changes in physical stimuli and relating them to changes in psychological sensations is called

A)physiological psychology.
B)neurological psychology.
C)psychophysics.
D)sensory deprivation.

Question 13

The smallest package of light is called a(n)

A)tranducer.
B)photon.
C)dysomia.
D)ampere.

Question 14

Humans can hear sounds down to _____ hertz and up to about _____ hertz.

A)0; 1000
B)20; 20,000
C)20,000; 200,000
D)200,000; 2,000,000

Question 15

Humans can detect the tick of a watch under quiet conditions at 20 feet and feel a bee's wing on their cheeks from one centimeter above.These limits represent our _____ for hearing and touch.

A)perceptual thresholds
B)transducer limits
C)sensory localizations
D)absolute thresholds

Question 16

The minimum amount of energy needed for a sensation to occur is called

A)the absolute threshold.
B)a transducer.
C)data reduction.
D)minimal level.

Question 17

A "silent" dog whistle that makes sounds as high as 40,000 to 50,000 hertz takes advantage of a characteristic of sensory systems known as

A)the absolute threshold.
B)the difference threshold.
C)perceptual defense.
D)a just noticeable difference.

Question 18

Regarding the sensation of various species, which of the following statements is FALSE?

A)The eyes of honeybees transduce parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that is invisible to humans.
B)Bats' ears transduce sound waves that humans cannot hear.
C)Research has shown that the human eye transduces all of the electromagnetic spectrum to the brain, but the brain is unable to perceive it.
D)Sharks have special organs that can sense the bioelectric fields of other living things.

Question 19

Owls, who hunt at night, can hear sounds that cannot be heard by humans, which illustrates that they have a much _____ than humans.

A)higher absolute threshold
B)lower absolute threshold
C)higher sensory adaptation level for sounds
D)lower sensory adaptation level for sounds

Question 20

The process of detecting physical energies with the sensory organs is called

A)sensation.
B)perception.
C)adaptation.
D)cognition.

Question 21

Information processed below the normal level of awareness is called

A)adaptive.
B)subnormal.
C)psychophysical.
D)subliminal.

Question 22

The perception of a stimulus below the threshold for conscious recognition is referred to as _____ perception.

A)adaptive
B)compensatory
C)extrasensory
D)subliminal

Question 23

Regarding absolute thresholds, which of the following statements is/are TRUE?

A)Absolute thresholds vary for different people.
B)Absolute thresholds change from time to time for a single person.
C)Unpleasant stimuli may raise the threshold for recognition.
D)All of these statements are true.

Question 24

The amount of change necessary in a given stimulus to produce "a just noticeable difference" is a constant proportion of the original stimulus.This defines

A)perceptual constancy.
B)perceptual set.
C)Weber's Law.
D)James' Law.

Question 25

Difference thresholds

A)occur when we can first detect some stimulus.
B)occur when we can detect the change in the intensity of a stimulus.
C)depend on the energy necessary to stimulate a sensory receptor.
D)are measured in Judgmental Normal Differences.

Question 26

Regarding subliminal perception, which of the following statements is/are TRUE?

A)A subliminal message would involve the presentation of stimuli too rapidly or too weakly to be consciously recognized.
B)Subliminal messages have never been used by advertisers in an attempt to increase sales.
C)Subliminal messages on tapes have been shown to be effective in helping people lose weight and improve grades.
D)All of these statements are true.

Question 27

Regarding subliminal messages, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A)Subliminal messages involve the presentation of stimuli above the normal level of awareness so that it is consciously recognized but easily forgotten.
B)Subliminal advertising was banned in the United States, Britain, and Australia.
C)Subliminal messages have been effective in helping students to learn more while studying.
D)Subliminal advertising has been shown to make people buy popcorn and a drink in a movie theater when they were not even hungry or thirsty.

Question 28

The point at which a change in sensory stimulation is detected is called the

A)absolute threshold.
B)psychophysical equation.
C)just noticeable difference.
D)transduction limit.

Question 29

Regarding subliminal perception, which of the following statements is/are TRUE?

A)Subliminal self-help tapes have been shown to have no effect, even when the person wanted to be influenced.
B)People who think they have been helped by subliminal messages have likely experienced nothing more than a placebo effect.
C)Only simple messages, such as single words, can be processed subliminally.
D)All of these statements are true.

Question 30

A researcher presents two lights of varying brightness to a subject who is asked to respond same or different by comparing their intensities.The researcher is seeking the

A)just noticeable difference.
B)absolute threshold.
C)subliminal threshold.
D)minimal threshold.

Question 31

In an experiment, college students were shown photos of a person flashed on a screen with either a subliminal image of a kitten or a face on fire preceding the photo.What effect did the subliminal images have on the students' impression of the target person in the photos?

A)The subliminal images had no effect on the students' impression of the target person in the photos.
B)The kitten image had a significant effect on the students' impression of the target person in the photos, while the image of the face on fire had no effect.
C)The image of the face on fire had a significant effect on the students' impression of the target person in the photos, but the image of the kitten had no effect.
D)Both images altered the impression students formed of the target person in the photos.

Question 32

Research on subliminal advertising has shown that it

A)can be a powerful influence and should be banned.
B)is effective only when used in wide-screen movies.
C)is highly successful in therapeutic situations, such as losing weight, but not for advertising.
D)has a weak effect that works only under limited circumstances.

Question 33

The most effective advertisements should include all of the following characteristics EXCEPT for being

A)subliminal.
B)loud.
C)clear.
D)attention-demanding.

Question 34

Regarding absolute thresholds, which of the following statements is FALSE?

A)Absolute thresholds vary for different people.
B)The costs of false "detections" make change one's absolute threshold.
C)Unpleasant stimuli tends to significantly lower one's threshold for recognition.
D)The state of one's nervous system and the stimulus itself affect one's absolute threshold.

Question 35

In an experiment, students who listened to subliminal messages to improve their grades performed _____ when their grades were compared.

A)better than students who listened to relaxing ocean sounds
B)better than students who listened to nothing at all
C)better than both of the other groups
D)no better than students in either of the other groups

Question 36

Weber's Law is primarily concerned with

A)absolute thresholds.
B)just noticeable differences.
C)perceptual defenses.
D)sensory receptors.

Question 37

The threshold or limit for awareness of sensory information is called the

A)photon.
B)hertz.
C)perceptual defense.
D)limen.

Question 38

Regarding the effectiveness of subliminal stimuli in comparison to the most attention- demanding stimuli, the text concludes that subliminal stimuli are _____ the attention-demanding stimuli.

A)extremely powerful in comparison to
B)slightly more effective than
C)about as effective as
D)less effective than

Question 39

Limen refers to

A)a threshold.
B)perceptual defense.
C)a sensation.
D)subliminal messages.

Question 40

A change in stimulus intensity that is detectable to an observer is known as the _____ threshold.

A)absolute
B)adaptability
C)difference
D)subliminal

Question 41

According to Weber's Law, if a cup of coffee has five teaspoons of sugar in it, you will have to add _____ more before it will be noticeably sweeter.

A)one
B)two
C)three
D)five

Question 42

The conversion of electromagnetic energy into a neural impulse occurs because your eyes are

A)feature detectors.
B)phosphemic analyzers.
C)biological transducers.
D)sensory localizers.

Question 43

A frog's eyes are highly sensitive to small, dark, moving spots.Thus, the frog's eyes act as _____ since they are attuned to this specific stimuli.

A)feature detectors
B)sensory amplifiers
C)perceptual transducers
D)phosphenes

Question 44

Sense receptors are biological transducers, which means that they

A)select from a broad range of stimulation.
B)analyze the environment into important features.
C)convert one form of energy to another.
D)detect only a limited range of energies.

Question 45

_____ refers to changing important features of the world into messages understood by the brain.

A)Sensory coding
B)Sensory accommodation
C)Sensory adaptation
D)Sensory gating

Question 46

Our sensory systems act as data reduction systems.This means that they

A)can change one form of energy to another.
B)transmit information to the brain in the form of codes.
C)select and analyze information and send only the most important data to the brain..
D)are only sensitive to a small range of sensations that will require additional interpretation by the brain.

Question 47

The "pop-out" effect, or eye-catching effect, of such visual stimuli as lines, shapes, edges, spots, and colors occurs because your visual system is highly sensitive to perceptual ____.

A)amplitudes
B)transducers
C)features
D)thresholds

Question 48

In order for a frog's visual bug-detector to work, the bug must be

A)a dark color.
B)coming closer to the frog.
C)stationary.
D)moving.

Question 49

Our senses are considered _____ because they select, analyze, and filter information until only the most important information remains.

A)convergent systems
B)data reduction systems
C)somesthetic systems
D)replicating systems

Question 50

Separation of sensory information into its important elements is known as

A)sensory analysis.
B)sensory adaptation.
C)perceptual gating.
D)perceptual localization.

Question 51

One of the characteristics that all sensory systems have in common is that they are

A)electromagnetic sensitivity.
B)biological transducers.
C)utilize energy assimilation.
D)show corticalization.

Question 52

The amount of change needed to produce a JND is smallest for which of the following?

A)taste
B)weight
C)pitch
D)loudness

Question 53

Our vision

A)allows us to see the world, but narrows what we observe.
B)acts as a data reduction system.
C)selects, analyzes, and filters information down to the most important data.
D)does all of these.

Question 54

In a drawing, a single vertical line is placed among a group of slanted lines.This _____ effect is so basic that babies as young as three months respond to it.

A)somesthetic
B)pop-out
C)gate-control
D)stereoscopic

Question 55

Research by Jerome Lettvin on the eye of the frog suggests that the organization of the sensory input begins at the level of the

A)sensory receptors acting as feature detectors.
B)midbrain sensation detectors.
C)visual cortex.
D)cerebral cortex.

Question 56

The visual system has a set of _____ that are attuned to very specific stimuli, such as lines, shapes, edges, spots, colors, and other patterns.

A)sight cells
B)second stage sensors
C)feature detectors
D)vision neurons

Question 57

The sensory receptors of your eyes are able to convert light energy into neural energy which can then be utilized by the brain.Thus, the sensory receptors in your eyes act as

A)visual adapters.
B)biological assimilators.
C)phosphenes.
D)biological transducers.

Question 58

The fact that humans are not visually sensitive to ultraviolet radiation suggests that sensory systems function as

A)transducers.
B)encoding systems.
C)electromagnetic detectors.
D)data reduction systems.

Question 59

Sensory analysis tends to extract perceptual _____ from stimulus patterns.

A)thresholds
B)features
C)transducers
D)amplitudes

Question 60

As the senses process information, they divide the world into important _____, which are basic stimulus patterns.

A)phosphenes
B)perceptual features
C)perceptual sets
D)sensory adaptations

Question 61

The basic color categories of red, orange, yellow, green, etc.refer to

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

Question 62

The electromagnetic spectrum includes visible light, infrared and ultraviolet light, television broadcasts, radio waves, and

A)feature detectors.
B)gamma rays.
C)phosphenes.
D)many kinds of nerve impulses.

Question 63

Your eyes are able to transduce

A)visible light.
B)infrared and ultraviolet light.
C)bioelectric fields.
D)all of these.

Question 64

The type of sensation you experience depends on which area of the brain is activated.This is known as

A)transduction.
B)sensory localization.
C)sensory adaptation.
D)cerebralization.

Question 65

Your textbook described how researchers have developed a system whereby a miniature television camera has allowed a blind woman to "see" 100 dots of light." Such a system involves

A)a conversion of light into JNDs.
B)the tiny camera sending electrical signals to the visual cortex.
C)the mechanical production of phosphenes.
D)applying the "lock and key" theory of touch.

Question 66

Light sensations caused by pressure applied to the eye are referred to as

A)pheromones.
B)phosphenes.
C)visual features.
D)artificial vision.

Question 67

Fire-engine red is said to be more _____ than a muddy brick red.

A)hued
B)aqueous
C)saturated
D)accommodated

Question 68

Humans respond to different wavelengths of light by experiencing differing

A)hues.
B)levels of brightness.
C)amounts of saturation.
D)amplitudes.

Question 69

Assume that a scientist is working on a device to route sounds directly to the brain to provide a type of hearing for people who are completely deaf.Which principle of sensory functioning would be most useful to the scientist in achieving her goal?

A)selective attention
B)data reduction
C)sensory adaptation
D)sensory localization

Question 70

Creating phosphenes illustrates how the eye's _____ occurs.

A)sensory gating
B)accommodation
C)absolute threshold
D)sensory coding

Question 71

The entire spread of electromagnetic energies to which the eyes respond is called the

A)perceptual limit.
B)visible spectrum.
C)biological transduction range.
D)spectral analysis limit.

Question 72

Visible light starts at the "short" wavelengths, which we sense as _____, while the longest wavelengths we sense as _____.

A)red; violet
B)orange; green
C)yellow; blue
D)purple; red

Question 73

Hue refers to the

A)basic color categories.
B)pureness of color.
C)amplitude of light.
D)perception of meaningful patterns.

Question 74

Some brain areas receive visual information, others receive auditory information, and still others receive taste or touch.Knowing which brain areas are active tells us, in general, what kinds of sensations you are feeling.This illustrates

A)transduction.
B)sensory localization.
C)sensory adaptation.
D)cerebralization.

Question 75

Visible light is made up of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of

A)400-700 nanometers.
B)20 to 20,000
C)300-800 decibels.
C)P.S.
D)20 to 20,000 nanometers.

Question 76

Sensory localization means that the sensation experienced depends on the

A)area of the brain activated.
B)rate of firing of the nerve impulse.
C)the type of receptor stimulated.
D)the neural stimulation pattern.

Question 77

You are undergoing a PET scan.The doctor finds that when he asks you questions, the temporal lobe of the brain shows activation, while areas on the somatosensory area of the parietal lobe are activated when your hand is stroked.This association of brain area activation and sensation experienced illustrates

A)sensory gating.
B)sensory assimilation.
C)sensory localization.
D)cerebralization.

Question 78

White light is

A)made up of the longest wavelengths.
B)made up of the shortest wavelengths.
C)a mixture of many wavelengths.
D)the absence of any wavelength.

Question 79

Saturated or pure hues are produced by _____ of wavelengths.

A)wide band
B)narrow band
C)combination
D)high amplitude

Question 80

Which of the following is NOT one of the general functions of the sensory system?

A)sensory coding
B)sensory localization
C)sensory analysis
D)sensory deceleration