Deck 4: A--Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Sensation is the conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of response by the nervous system.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Sound waves with greater amplitude are perceived as having a higher pitch than sound waves with lower amplitude.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

According to the Gestalt psychologists, visual perception is an active process, not just the summing of all the smaller pieces.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The absolute sensory threshold for audition refers to the softest sound any human has ever accurately detected.

Question 5

Humans have an approximately equal number of rods and cones.

Question 6

Researchers have now established that there are seven primary qualities of odor, and there are seven corresponding types of olfactory receptors.

Question 7

The auditory system responds differently to sounds that are low-frequency compared to sounds that are high-frequency.

Question 8

Although no human has ever traveled to other galaxies, based on our knowledge of color vision, psychologists predict that the universe is filled with new colors that are very different than the colors we happen to see on earth.

Question 9

In signal detection terms, reporting that a stimulus is present, when in fact the stimulus was not present, is known as a "false alarm."

Question 10

Our perception of human faces can be explained entirely in terms of the activity of neurons known as feature detectors.

Question 11

Vision is possible because a form of energy comes out of our eyes.

Question 12

After decades of research, psychologists now accept the opponent process theory as the correct theory of color vision and reject the trichromatic and retinex theories as incorrect.

Question 13

Because there are no receptor cells where the optic nerve leaves the retina, all people have a blind spot.

Question 14

Because cones are located in the fovea, we cannot detect color in our extreme peripheral vision.

Question 15

Men are more likely to suffer color vision deficiency than are women.

Question 16

The cones are adapted for color vision, daytime vision, and detailed vision.

Question 17

The "pain" of feeling rejected is processed in the anterior cingulate cortex, the same brain area that responds to the emotional aspect of the cutaneous sensation of pain.

Question 18

Proximity is the tendency to perceive objects that are close together as belonging to a group.

Question 19

According to the retinex theory, we perceive color when the cerebral cortex compares various retinal patterns.

Question 20

Imagine that a song has the phrase "buy me" recorded as a backward message. According to the research on subliminal perception, this message is likely to increase music sales for this particular song.

Question 21

Receptor cells for hearing are found along a membrane within the cochlea. This membrane is called the ____________________ membrane.

Question 22

The experience of pain is a mixture of ____________________ and ____________________, and these qualities are regulated in different areas of the brain.

Question 23

Visual perception in humans is best described by feature detectors, and visual perception in other species of mammals is best described by the Gestalt view.

Question 24

The condition in which a stimulus of one type, such as sound, also elicits another experience, such as color is called ____________________.

Question 25

Within the retina, cones are adapted for ____________________ and rods are adapted for ____________________.

Question 26

Our eyes, ears, and other sensory organs are packed with ____________________, specialized cells that convert environmental energies into signals for the nervous system.

Question 27

As light passes through the eye it is focused by the ____________________, which always focuses light in the same way, and the ____________________, which is flexible and enables focusing on objects at different distances by varying its thickness.

Question 28

The conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of responses by the nervous system is called ____________________, while making sense of that information is known as ____________________.

Question 29

People with color vision deficiency most often have trouble distinguishing ____________________ from ____________________.

Question 30

Retinal disparity and convergence are both binocular cues of depth perception.

Question 31

After you stare at something red and look away, you see ____________________. This observation supports the ____________________ theory of color vision.

Question 32

Some people report continuing sensations, including pain, in a limb long after it has been amputated. This phenomenon is known as ____________________.

Question 33

The ____________________, the central area of the human retina, is adapted for highly detailed vision.

Question 34

The ____________________detects the position and acceleration of the head?

Question 35

Our brains use information from both the ____________________ and the ____________________ in order to help us maintain balance.
or

Question 36

The pitch of a sound (e.g., high C or E-flat) depends on the ____________________ of the sound waves.

Question 37

Gradual improvement in the ability to see in dim light is called _____________________.

Question 38

In the human ear, the ability to perceive low frequencies (up to about 100 Hz) depends on neurons working according to the ____________________ principle.

Question 39

The optic nerve exits the retina at the ____________________.

Question 40

The sensations of pressure, pain, warmth, cold, vibration, and stretch of the skin are collectively known as the ____________________ senses.

Question 41

Briefly describe hyperopia and myopia and how these two common disorders of vision differ.

Question 42

Define and differentiate trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. Which theory most easily explains negative color afterimages?

Question 43

The route of visual information from the visual receptors (rods and cones) to the brain goes from receptors to the bipolar cells to the ganglion cells through the optic nerve and finally to the brain. Describe in greater detail the route from the bipolar cells to the brain, specifically defining the ganglion cells and optic nerve.

Question 44

Describe the gate theory of pain and give two examples of activities or events that can reduce pain messages.

Question 45

____________________ is a field that focuses on our ability to perceive overall patterns.

Question 46

The Gestalt psychologists described several principles of how we organize perceptions into meaningful wholes. Define the principles of (a) proximity, (b) similarity, (c) continuation, and (d) closure.

Question 47

A participant is asked to report every time he or she sees a faint light. If rewards are offered for correctly reporting the presence of the light, but no punishment for reporting it when it is absent, the participant will make many ____________________ but also many ____________________.