Deck 3: Section 3: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

What is the purpose of transduction?

A) increasing the intensity of a stimulus so it is easier for the brain to detect
B) translating physical energy into neural signals that the brain can understand
C) determining whether or not a stimulus is detectable
D) integrating visual signals with auditory signals

Answer 1

translating physical energy into neural signals that the brain can understand

Question 2

Red wavelengths of light are _____, and violet wavelengths of light are _____.

A) long; long
B) long; short
C) short; long
D) short; short

Answer 2

long; short

Question 3

Which of the following is a binocular depth cue?

A) linear perspective
B) interposition
C) retinal disparity
D) All of these.

Answer 3

retinal disparity

Question 4

Damage to the hair cells in the cochlea causes _____ deafness, and _____ occurs when light waves from distant objects come into focus in front of the retina.

A) nerve; nearsightedness
B) conduction; nearsightedness
C) nerve; farsightedness
D) conduction; farsightedness

Question 5

Even though the image of your dog on your retina changes as your dog runs to fetch a stick, you do not perceive your dog as getting smaller. Which process of perception explains this phenomenon?

A) perceptual set
B) perceptual constancy
C) dark adaptation
D) accommodation

Question 6

The rods in the retina are responsible for _____ vision, and the cones are responsible for _____ vision.

A) color; dim light
B) bright light; dim light
C) color; bright light
D) dim light; color

Question 7

Transduction of sound waves into neural impulses is performed by the _____.

A) eardrum
B) oval window
C) malleus, incus, and stapes
D) hair cells in the basilar membrane

Question 8

According to Weber's law, if c = 1/50, then the difference threshold for a standard stimulus of 100 units would be _____.

A) 1
B) 2
C) 5
D) 10

Question 9

The best explanation for how we perceive low pitches (< 500 Hz) is the _____ theory, and the best explanation for how we perceive high pitches (> 5,000 Hz) is the _____ theory.

A) place; place
B) place; frequency
C) frequency; place
D) frequency; frequency

Question 10

If a person is using a very strict criterion for a signal detection task, the false alarm rate will be _____, and the miss rate will be _____.

A) high; high
B) high; low
C) low; high
D) low; low

Question 11

The minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50 percent of the time is called the _____.

A) difference threshold
B) absolute threshold
C) false alarm rate
D) miss rate

Question 12

According to the opponent-process theory of color vision, if you stared at a blue circle for a while and then looked at a white surface, you would see a _____ circular afterimage.

A) blue
B) green
C) yellow
D) black

Question 13

Although Henry's watchband was bothering him when he first put it on, a short while later he did not even notice he was wearing it. This illustrates _____.

A) accommodation
B) sensory adaptation
C) subliminal perception
D) perceptual constancy

Question 14

Perceiving either a vase or two facial silhouettes looking at each other was used to illustrate the Gestalt principle of _____; perceiving two ambiguous characters numerically as 13 or alphabetically as the letter B was used to illustrate _____.

A) closure; subjective contours
B) figure and ground; context effects
C) closure; context effects
D) figure and ground; subjective contours

Question 15

Perceptual set is a good example of _____.

A) the figure-ground principle
B) perceptual constancy
C) bottom-up processing
D) top-down processing