Deck 3: Section 4: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

When you taste a sour lemon, your taste receptors send messages to your:

A)olfactory cortex.
B)amygdala.
C)thalamus.
D)frontal lobes.

Answer 1

thalamus.

Question 2

As Jericho rounded second base, he immediately felt a tear in his calf muscle. Jericho's injury stimulated his _____, which are specialized sensory receptors for pain.

A)proprioceptors
B)exteroceptors
C)nociceptors
D)kinesthetic receptors

Answer 2

nociceptors

Question 3

Amy, an accomplished gymnast, has just learned how to do a cartwheel on the balance beam. Which two senses are especially involved in this accomplishment?

A)sense of equilibrium and the vestibular sense
B)proprioception and the kinesthetic sense
C)kinesthetic sense and vestibular sense
D)audition and vision

Answer 3

kinesthetic sense and vestibular sense

Question 4

There are two theories of color vision. The _____ theory correctly describes color vision in the retina, while the _____ theory correctly explains color vision in the ganglion cells and visual cortex.

A)frequency; place
B)place; frequency
C)opponent-process; trichromatic
D)trichromatic; opponent-process

Question 5

John was shocked when his doctor informed him that his condition was caused by extensive damage to his hammer, anvil, and stirrup. What condition is John suffering from?

A)disequilibrium or vestibular disability
B)vertigo, dizziness, and poor balance
C)conduction deafness
D)nerve deafness

Question 6

Look at the following two examples: (1) XXXXXXXXX OOOOOOOOO
(2) ZWX ZQX YZV QWX ZWQ
You tend to perceive the elements in the first example as two units because of the law of _____. You tend to perceive the elements in the second example as five units because of the law of _____.

A)proximity; closure
B)figure/ground; closure
C)closure; good continuation
D)similarity; proximity

Question 7

Research shows that repeated exposure to a particular stimulus leads to increased liking for that stimulus. This is referred to as:

A)the mere exposure effect.
B)psychokinesis.
C)perceptual constancy.
D)sensory adaptation.

Question 8

Researchers have found that human pheromones appear primarily to:

A)affect mood and emotional states.
B)enhance general arousal.
C)trigger sexual attraction.
D)increase hormone levels.

Question 9

As you enter the locker room at the college gym, you notice the sharp, distinctive smell of chlorine from the adjacent swimming pool. The stimulation of special receptors in your nose by airborne molecules of chlorine is an example of _____, and your interpretation of the stimulation is an example of _____.

A)gustation; transduction
B)sensation; perception
C)perception; sensation
D)olfaction; transduction

Question 10

Five-year-old Sam is having his hearing checked. The nurse places headphones over Sam's ears and instructs him to raise his hand whenever he hears a beep. Sam is being tested for his hearing:

A)threshold.
B)proprioception.
C)potential.
D)transduction.

Question 11

The box Focus on Neuroscience: Vision, Experience, and the Brain describes the visual experience of Mike May, who regained partial sight in one eye after 40 years of blindness. Mike:

A)was only able to perceive new faces and objects.
B)had well-developed motion perception.
C)could distinguish male from female faces.
D)had no color perception.

Question 12

You can easily distinguish between a tuna fish salad sandwich and a chicken salad sandwich by their smell because airborne molecules from tuna salad and chicken salad:

A)stimulate two different patterns of odor receptors in the nasal cavity.
B)stimulate different sensory thresholds.
C)each stimulates a different odor receptor in the nasal cavity.
D)generate neural impulses along two different sensory pathways.

Question 13

Cones are concentrated in the _____ and specialized for _____.

A)center of the retina; distance vision and feature detection
B)fovea; color vision and visual acuity
C)fovea; peripheral vision and vision in low-light conditions
D)periphery of the retina; color vision and visual acuity

Question 14

The "fallacy of positive instances" refers to the:

A)ability to predict the future.
B)tendency to misjudge the probability of an event occurring simply by chance.
C)tendency to seek the simplest possible explanation for an unusual event.
D)tendency to remember events that seem to confirm our beliefs and forget the events that contradict our beliefs.

Question 15

As you walk into your grandmother's home, you catch the whiff of your favorite peanut butter cookies. The process by which the odor of cookies is converted into neural signals that your brain can interpret as the smell of cookies is called:

A)transduction.
B)sensory adaptation.
C)proprioception
D)neuroplasticity.

Question 16

As you enter the locker room at the gym, you notice the distinctive smell of chlorine from the adjacent swimming pool. But after a few minutes, you're no longer aware of the odor. This is an example of:

A)the mere exposure effect.
B)sensory adaptation.
C)accommodation.
D)transduction.

Question 17

The optic disk produces:

A)color vision.
B)night vision.
C)the blind spot.
D)proprioception.

Question 18

The receptor cells for vision are sensitive to what kind of stimulus?

A)light
B)heat
C)vibration
D)tactile

Question 19

When Isabel visited the children's zoo, she heard squeals coming from the baby pigs and loud grunts from the adult pigs. Her perception of the high-pitched squeals can be explained by the _____ theory of hearing, and her perception of the low-pitched grunts can be explained by the _____ theory of hearing.

A)place; frequency
B)frequency; place
C)opponent process; trichromatic
D)trichromatic; opponent process

Question 20

After an injury has healed, it is possible to experience pain signals in or around the injured site. This phenomenon is called:

A)sensitization.
B)adaptation.
C)hallucination.
D)generalization.

Question 21

In the front of your geography classroom is a large globe of the world. Regardless of which angle you view the globe, you still perceive it as a round globe. This is an example of:

A)the law of similarity.
B)aerial perspective.
C)shape constancy.
D)figure-ground relationship.

Question 22

_____, a Gestalt psychologist, was the first person to study the phenomenon of induced motion.

A)Max Wertheimer
B)Roger Shepard
C)Karl Duncker
D)Johann Müller-Lyer

Question 23

Jack is a fervent believer in the idea that ancient astronauts colonized the Earth. After seeing an exhibit of moon rocks, Jack became convinced that one rock had traces of ancient hieroglyphics carved on its side and that another showed a crude diagram of a spaceship. The MOST likely explanation for Jack's conclusion is his:

A)use of positive self-talk.
B)perceptual set.
C)use of perceptual abilities such as aerial perspective and motion parallax.
D)extrasensory abilities.

Question 24

Which perceptual illusions involve size constancy?

A)the moon illusion and the Shepard Tables illusion
B)the Müller-Lyer illusion and the impossible figure illusion
C)the moon illusion and the Müller-Lyer illusion
D)the carpentered-world illusion and the Shepard Tables illusion

Question 25

Which of the following is a monocular cue involved in depth perception?

A)convergence
B)binocular disparity
C)accommodation
D)motion parallax