Deck 4: D: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Activation of the receptors by stimuli is called

A)accommodation.
B)perception.
C)transduction.
D)sensation.

Answer 1

sensation.

Question 2

Jamica is participating in a psychology experiment and has been placed in a room that is pitch black.The researcher repeatedly asks Jamica to indicate whether or not she has seen a light stimulus.The researcher is testing Jamica's

A)difference threshold.
B)just noticeable difference.
C)absolute threshold.
D)adaptation threshold.

Answer 2

absolute threshold.

Question 3

The organization and interpretation of olfactory information is one example of

A)perception.
B)accommodation.
C)sensation.
D)transduction.

Answer 3

perception.

Question 4

The belief that our sensory systems are infallible and that our perceptions are perfect representations of the world around us is called

A)pixilation.
B)perceptionism.
C)naive realism.
D)sensory adaptation.

Question 5

Sounds that we hear are converted into electrical signals in neurons through a process called

A)sensory adaptation.
B)psychophysics.
C)transduction.
D)signal detection.

Question 6

The sensitivity of our sensory abilities and systems is demonstrated in our __________ thresholds.

A)difference
B)absolute
C)pain
D)psychophysical

Question 7

__________ refers to the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics.

A)Thresholds
B)Adaptation
C)Transduction
D)Psychophysics

Question 8

Activation of our sense receptors is greatest when

A)we are prepared to detect a stimulus.
B)we notice that the stimulus has been turned off.
C)we stop noticing a constant stimulus is present.
D)we first detect the presence of a stimulus.

Question 9

The conversion of external energy into something that the nervous system can understand is known as

A)transduction.
B)accommodation.
C)perception.
D)sensation.

Question 10

The ability to detect physical energy through our visual or touch systems is known as

A)accommodation.
B)perception.
C)transduction.
D)sensation.

Question 11

Which of the following is conceptually similar to the process of transduction?

A)Hearing a story from a friend and phoning up another friend to tell them the same story
B)Thinking about what you are going to write in a paper and then typing out your thoughts
C)Taking a picture of a funny sign that you saw on a road trip
D)Forgetting that your sunglasses are on your face because you have been wearing them so long

Question 12

The process by which unchanging information from the senses of taste,touch,smell,and vision is "ignored" by the sensory receptor cells themselves is called

A)sensory fatigue.
B)subliminal perception.
C)sensory adaptation.
D)perceptual defence.

Question 13

__________ are the raw data of experience,based on the activation of certain receptors located in the various sensory organs.

A)Accommodations
B)Perceptions
C)Transductions
D)Sensations

Question 14

When you first put your hat on,you can feel it quite easily,but after a while,you forget that you are wearing a hat at all-the sensation is gone.What happens?

A)Sensory fatigue
B)Subliminal perception
C)Sensory adaptation
D)Perceptual defence

Question 15

In the process known as __________,sensory receptors become less sensitive to repeated presentations of the same stimulus.

A)sensory fatigue
B)subliminal perception
C)sensory adaptation
D)perceptual defence

Question 16

The perceptual process of filling-in is guided by

A)preconceived notions and past experience.
B)activation of neuronal patterns specific to an object.
C)the process of transduction in any sense.
D)the raw sensory data that is received in the sense organs.

Question 17

By presenting research participants with incomplete objects,psychologists have been able to see how the participants come to determine what they are viewing.This research suggests that our daily experiences are the result of

A)both reality and illusions.
B)only reality.
C)only sensory information.
D)only illusions.

Question 18

Zach and David decide to go exploring the forest behind their farm on a cold December day.The fact that they felt much colder when they initially got outdoors than they do five minutes later,despite having not done anything to warm themselves,is known as

A)sensory interaction.
B)sensory illusion.
C)transduction.
D)sensory adaptation.

Question 19

As the number of people talking in a room increases,the stimulus intensity needed to detect a change in the number of people talking becomes

A)larger.
B)smaller.
C)same.
D)finer.

Question 20

Cells that are triggered by light,vibrations,sounds,touch,or chemical substances are called

A)ganglion cells.
B)bipolar cells.
C)ossicles.
D)sense receptors.

Question 21

Julian is getting his eyes tested,and the doctor asks him to indicate when the image on the screen gets brighter or darker than it was previously.The doctor is trying to determine Julian's

A)absolute threshold.
B)adaptation threshold.
C)just noticeable difference.
D)signal detection.

Question 22

Hearing the audio track of one syllable (such as "ba")spoken repeatedly while seeing a video track of a different syllable being spoken (such as "ga")produces the perceptual experience of a different third sound (such as "da").This is an example of

A)the McGurk effect.
B)the just noticeable difference.
C)signal detection.
D)the doctrine of specific nerve energies.

Question 23

The point at which a person can detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time it is presented is called the

A)absolute threshold.
B)range threshold.
C)difference threshold.
D)noticeable threshold.

Question 24

The frequency of true positives,false negatives,false positives,and true negatives allow us to determine if participants have

A)the correct signal-to-noise ratio.
B)any response biases.
C)detected a just noticeable difference.
D)an absolute threshold for the stimulus.

Question 25

Casey is participating in a psychology experiment where he is asked to indicate whether he heard a sound or did not hear a sound on successive testing trials.If Casey says he did not hear a sound,and a sound was presented,his response would be considered a __________ according to signal detection theory.

A)true positive
B)false positive
C)false negative
D)true negative

Question 26

Vivid sensations of light caused by pressure on your eye's receptor cells are called

A)just noticeable differences.
B)transductions.
C)phosphenes.
D)synesthesias.

Question 27

According to signal detection theory,a __________ is when a stimulus is present but the participant indicates that it was absent.

A)true positive
B)false negative
C)false positive
D)true negative

Question 28

When Ann went to her doctor,he gave her a hearing test.During the test,the doctor presented a series of tones to Ann through earphones.The tones started at a low intensity and then became louder.The doctor asked Ann to raise her hand whenever she started to hear a sound.The doctor was testing Ann's

A)auditory convergence.
B)absolute threshold.
C)refractory threshold.
D)difference threshold.

Question 29

The smallest amount of a particular stimulus required to produce any sensation at all in the person to whom the stimulus is presented is the

A)absolute threshold.
B)range threshold.
C)difference threshold.
D)noticeable threshold.

Question 30

Which of the following is true with respect to the doctrine of specific nerve energies?

A)The sensation we experience is determined by the nature of the sense receptor,not the stimulus.
B)Our brain responds differently when either light or touch activate sense receptors in our eyes.
C)Distinct stimulus energies (e.g. ,light,sound)cause different sensations in the same sense receptor.
D)Specific nerve energies involve processing in sense receptors but have no links to cortical pathways.

Question 31

According to signal detection theory,a __________ is when a stimulus is absent,but the participant indicates that it was present.

A)true positive
B)false negative
C)false positive
D)true negative

Question 32

Casey is participating in a psychology experiment where he is asked to indicate whether he heard a sound or did not hear a sound on successive testing trials.If Casey says he heard a sound,and no sound was presented,his response would be considered a __________ according to signal detection theory.

A)true positive
B)false positive
C)false negative
D)true negative

Question 33

Casey is participating in a psychology experiment where he is asked to indicate whether he heard a sound or did not hear a sound on successive testing trials.If Casey says he did not hear a sound,and no sound was presented,his response would be considered a __________ according to signal detection theory.

A)true positive
B)false positive
C)false negative
D)true negative

Question 34

Alicia is talking on her cell phone to her friend Maya.If Maya is in a crowded subway terminal,Alicia finds that she has to nearly shout for Maya to be able to hear her.However,when Maya is in a meadow on her grandparents' farm she can easily tell what Alicia is watching on TV as they talk.This is one illustration of

A)the just noticeable difference.
B)transduction.
C)absolute threshold.
D)signal-to-noise ratio.

Question 35

Which of the following is not an example of cross-modal processing?

A)The rubber hand illusion
B)Transduction
C)The McGurk effect
D)Synesthesia

Question 36

The lowest stimulus intensity required for detection is the __________,and the smallest change in stimulus intensity that we can detect is the __________.

A)absolute threshold;just noticeable difference
B)base value;just noticeable difference
C)response criterion;sensory constant
D)difference threshold;absolute threshold

Question 37

Our experience of phosphenes is an example of the

A)process of sensory transduction.
B)doctrine of specific nerve energies.
C)signal-to-noise ratio.
D)McGurk effect.

Question 38

Weber's law provides a formulation that is used to determine the

A)largest detectable stimulus.
B)smallest detectable stimulus.
C)largest detectable difference between two stimuli.
D)smallest detectable difference between two stimuli.

Question 39

The principle that the just noticeable difference of any given sense is a constant fraction or proportion of the stimulus being judged is called

A)the opponent process principle.
B)the doctrine of specific nerve energies.
C)the phi phenomenon.
D)Weber's law.

Question 40

The lowest intensity of a particular stimulus that enables the average person to detect that stimulus 50 percent of the time it is presented is called the

A)absolute threshold.
B)range threshold.
C)difference threshold.
D)noticeable threshold.

Question 41

Jarod and Ashton are watching a basketball game.They are so absorbed in watching the ball being tossed back and forth that they fail to notice a man in a bunny costume walk through the middle of the basketball court.This is an example of

A)inattentional blindness.
B)shape constancy.
C)change blindness.
D)the binding problem.

Question 42

The longest wavelengths we can see are experienced as __________ colours.

A)red
B)violet
C)green
D)yellow

Question 43

Clay has played professional soccer for seven years and is easily able to tune out the sound of the crowd and all other irrelevant sensory information during the game.Bruce is a rookie and is often distracted by what his opponents are saying and the mood of the crowd.Clay and Bruce are showing differing levels of

A)selective attention.
B)parallel processing.
C)absolute thresholds.
D)top-down processing.

Question 44

Cross-modal sensations,such as hearing colours or tasting words,are associated with

A)the McGurk effect.
B)synesthesia.
C)parallel processing.
D)colour constancy.

Question 45

When Georgina reads,letters and words take on personality characteristics,such as shy and sweet.Which of the following explains this altered perception?

A)Synesthesia
B)Inattentional blindness
C)Dyslexia
D)Grapheme lexicality

Question 46

Airplane pilots who fail to notice the presence of another plane taxiing across the runway as they are preparing to land are experiencing a phenomenon called

A)inattentional blindness.
B)shape constancy.
C)change blindness.
D)the binding problem.

Question 47

The cocktail party effect and the technique of shadowing demonstrate that

A)information we have filtered out of our attention is still being processed at some unconscious level.
B)individual pathways of sense receptors are not cross-modal in their processing.
C)selective attention only allows us to process one channel of input at a time.
D)we constantly engage in dichotic listening and attend to more than one message equally.

Question 48

The vanishing ball illusion is dependent upon __________ rather than reality.

A)our mental predictions and expectancies
B)shape constancy
C)inattentional blindness
D)perceptual sets

Question 49

Which of the following is an example of how selective visual attention can lead us to miss important information?

A)The cocktail party effect
B)Synesthesia
C)Colour blindness
D)Change blindness

Question 50

The central player in our perception of the world is

A)taste.
B)touch.
C)sound.
D)light.

Question 51

According to Donald Broadbent's research,selective attention acts as a

A)trapdoor.
B)safety net.
C)key.
D)filter.

Question 52

The colour of light is what psychologists call

A)brightness.
B)hue.
C)timbre.
D)synesthesia.

Question 53

The shortest wavelengths that we can see are experienced as __________ colours.

A)red
B)violet
C)green
D)yellow

Question 54

Sarah is a pianist who reports that she hears musical tones as colours.This is one example of

A)the Ponzo illusion.
B)synesthesia.
C)binocular cues.
D)the Ganzfield technique.

Question 55

Which of the following is an example of inattentional blindness?

A)Hearing two different messages delivered to the right and left ears and being asked to repeat one of those messages and ignore the other
B)Failing to notice a man in a lobster costume skate across the ice at a hockey game because you are busy watching the puck being passed back and forth
C)Different brain regions are responsible for processing aspects of a single stimulus.If one region incorrectly processes a stimulus,we are blind to what the stimulus is.
D)Reading through your textbook and,after a time,realizing that you are unaware of what you just read

Question 56

Victor is involved in an auditory experiment where he is being presented different messages to his right and left ear.He is asked to attend to the right ear,where he hears the message "The girl was really … bird on a wire." The message played to Victor's left ear was "After was wishing … scared of the dark." Based on the technique called shadowing,when Victor is asked to repeat what he heard,what would he say?

A)The girl was really bird on a wire.
B)The girl was really scared of the dark.
C)After was wishing scared of the dark.
D)After was wishing bird on a wire.

Question 57

The wavelength of the light reaching your eyes determines in part what __________ you see.

A)brightness
B)saturation
C)hue
D)fine detail

Question 58

__________ relates to our understanding of how our brains combine different pieces of our perception into a unified whole.

A)Inattentional blindness
B)Shape constancy
C)Change blindness
D)The binding problem

Question 59

What colour would you report seeing if a researcher projects the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum onto a screen?

A)Red
B)Violet
C)Green
D)Yellow

Question 60

Savannah is sitting in the cafeteria at school talking to a group of her friends.She is paying attention to their conversation,but,all of the sudden,she hears her name in a conversation at a nearby table.Which of the following best describes Savannah's experience?

A)Dichotic listening
B)Selective attention
C)Cocktail party effect
D)Shadowing

Question 61

What is the pupil of the eye?

A)It is the white part of the eye.
B)It is the coloured part of the eye.
C)It is the location of the visual receptors.
D)It is the small opening in the centre of the eye.

Question 62

The change in the shape of the lens in order to focus on a visual image is known as

A)fixation.
B)divergence.
C)convergence.
D)accommodation.

Question 63

Which of the following terms explains why only a few first-graders need eyeglasses,whereas most senior citizens do?

A)Hyperopia
B)Myopia
C)Presbyopia
D)Accommodation

Question 64

The aspect of colour that corresponds to names such as red,green,and blue is

A)brightness.
B)saturation.
C)hue.
D)fine detail.

Question 65

Tracey has trouble reading her textbooks that are right in front of her,and James has trouble reading the board at the front of his classrooms.Based on this information,it is likely that Tracey has __________ and James has __________.

A)hyperopia;myopia
B)myopia;hyperopia
C)antiacuity;retinal fatigue
D)retinal fatigue;antiacuity

Question 66

When we describe someone's eyes as blue,technically we are referring to his or her blue

A)irises.
B)pupils.
C)corneas.
D)scleras.

Question 67

As we age,we are more likely to need glasses because

A)the lens loses its flexibility.
B)of damage to our retinas.
C)the retina can no longer accommodate subtle changes in light.
D)of damage to our corneas.

Question 68

The visible spectrum refers to the

A)portion of the whole spectrum of light that is visible to the human eye.
B)effect of intensity on how we see dark to grey to white.
C)effect of the sound density on the perceptions of those with synesthesia.
D)well-known fact that colours are less visible to some men's eyes.

Question 69

Following the process of accommodation,a fat lens would allow you to focus on __________ objects,whereas a flat lens would allow you to focus on __________ objects.

A)distant;nearby
B)nearby;distant
C)distant;distant
D)nearby;nearby

Question 70

The lenses in your eye change shape to focus on objects near or far away in a process called

A)saturation.
B)accommodation.
C)transduction.
D)the pupillary reflex.

Question 71

What structure is responsible for focusing light at the back of the eye?

A)Fovea
B)Retina
C)Lens
D)Cornea

Question 72

The pupil is the

A)opening in the centre of the iris.
B)white of the eye.
C)coloured part of the eye.
D)lining in the back of the eyeball.

Question 73

The clear,transparent protective coating over the front part of the eye is the

A)cornea.
B)iris.
C)pupil.
D)lens.

Question 74

The coloured part of the eye that contains muscles to contract or expand the pupil is the

A)iris.
B)lens.
C)sclera.
D)cornea.

Question 75

Which of the following examples does not describe a situation where our pupils would dilate?

A)Danille has rubbed belladonna juice on her eyes and goes to see her lover.
B)Kristine is working hard to solve some chemistry equations for a class she is taking.
C)Janelle is just walking outside from an afternoon matinee she went to see.
D)Tanya is in a dimly lit bar and is very attracted to a man that is sitting next to her.

Question 76

Nearsightedness,also known as __________,results when images are focused __________ the retina.

A)hyperopia;in front of
B)myopia;in front of
C)hyperopia;behind
D)myopia;behind

Question 77

Which part of the eye is a muscle that regulates the size of the pupil?

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

Question 78

The amount of light entering the eye is controlled by the

A)pupil.
B)lens.
C)sclera.
D)cornea.

Question 79

When light enters the eye,it first passes through what structure?

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

Question 80

Mixing equal amounts of red,green,and blue produces white light in

A)subtractive colour mixing.
B)the visual spectrum.
C)prismatic refraction.
D)additive colour mixing.