Deck 9: Action and the Perception of Events

Question 1

A visual event involves changes

A) over time.
B) in space.
C) in recollection.
D) both over time and in space.

Answer 1

both over time and in space.

Question 2

The perception of motion is important

A) in enhancing perception of form.
B) to the observer's safety.
C) both in enhancing perception of form and to the observer's safety.
D) neither in enhancing perception of form nor to the observer's safety.

Answer 2

both in enhancing perception of form and to the observer's safety.

Question 3

The perception of the shape or form of an object based only on limited information, such as points of light attached to the object's surface, is called

A) structure from motion.
B) biological motion.
C) visual masking.
D) none of these

Answer 3

structure from motion.

Question 4

The work by Johansson revealed that observers are capable of correctly identifying an actor's motion based only on points of light attached to the major joints of the body. This capability has been referred to as

A) structure from motion.
B) biological motion.
C) visual masking.
D) none of these

Question 5

The perception of biological motion from just a few moving points of light is an example of

A) motion capture.
B) point-light motion.
C) motion aftereffect.
D) critical flicker frequency.

Question 6

Based on point-light motion, which of the following CANNOT be perceived?

A) an individual painting a house
B) people dancing
C) whether an individual is a male or female
D) all of these can be perceived

Question 7

When all that can be seen of people moving in the dark is lights attached to their joints, which of the following statements is NOT true?

A) Infants show a preference for biological over nonbiological motion.
B) The motion can be presented very briefly and still be identified as biological.
C) Complex deductive thought processes are required in order to interpret the motion.
D) Different activities and even the gender of the person can be detected.

Question 8

The ability of elderly observers to identify the human activity depicted by brief, point-light animations

A) is better than that of young adult observers.
B) is worse than that of young adult observers.
C) is the same as that of young adult observers.
D) is the same as that of young adult observers when the decline with age in other visual abilities is taken into account.

Question 9

An area within the superior temporal sulcus is involved in processing biological motion. We know this because

A) neurons within this area are robustly activated by viewing point-light animation sequences depicting
Biological motion.
B) neurons within this area are not activated by viewing the same sequences in which the dots have been scrambled in position.
C) neurons within this area are not activated by viewing dot animations portraying nonbiological objects.
D) all of these

Question 10

Using computer-generated movies of optic flow patterns, investigators have found that

A) people are poor at judging the direction in which they're heading.
B) accurate locomotion requires a complex visual scene.
C) older people are more prone to errors in direction judgments.
D) none of these

Question 11

According to the Warren (1998), observers are capable of using an optic flow field to perceive

A) the shape of an object.
B) the actions of observers.
C) heading.
D) none of these

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT true of an optic flow field?

A) It can be used to determine heading.
B) It can be used to judge time of arrival.
C) It is perceived differently by young and older adults.
D) All of these are true.

Question 13

According to the textbook, which one of the following disorders may involve compromised processing of information from optic flow?

A) Parkinson's disease
B) Alzheimer's disease
C) anorexia nervosa
D) none of these

Question 14

People who experience ______________ have particular trouble extracting form or shape information from a moving stimulus.

A) Alzheimer's disease
B) prosopagnosia
C) amnesia
D) dyslexia

Question 15

According to the work of David Lee (1980), the change in the size of an object informs the observer of

A) heading.
B) observer's speed of motion.
C) time-to-contact.
D) none of these

Question 16

The visual cue we use to time our arrival at, or collision with, an object is

A) the increase in the size of the object's visual image.
B) the rate of change of the size of the object's visual image.
C) estimated distance to the object divided by the velocity.
D) the ratio of the rate of change of the size of the object's visual image to its size.

Question 17

Retinal image expansion associated with movement toward an object is termed ______________ , and the detection of such expansion appears to be _______________.

A) impinging; inborn
B) flaring; learned
C) image eruption; learned
D) looming; inborn

Question 18

When schizophrenic individuals look at pictures of faces of people portraying neutral and emotional expressions, their eye fixations

A) tend to dwell on the eyes and mouth.
B) are longer than those of people without schizophrenia.
C) are briefer than those of people without schizophrenia.
D) tend to avoid the eyes and mouth.

Question 19

If they were all moving at the same rate, which of the following would seem to be moving most quickly?

A) a pick-up truck
B) an airliner
C) a locomotive
D) a ride-on lawn mower

Question 20

If you quickly shifted your gaze from this question to a neighboring student's paper, what kind of eye movement would you have made?

A) a saccade
B) a pursuit movement
C) a saltatory movement
D) an involuntary movement

Question 21

When you execute a saccade, your vision

A) is blurred.
B) remains clear.
C) is suppressed.
D) none of these

Question 22

If a rapidly moving object of low contrast is presented during a saccade, observers are

A) unlikely to report seeing it.
B) likely to report seeing it.
C) likely to report seeing it if it is large.
D) likely to report seeing it if it is small.

Question 23

The major cause of the inability to see clearly during a saccadic eye movement is most likely

A) blur caused by fast motion.
B) suppression.
C) accompanying eye blinks.
D) loss of accommodation.

Question 24

The highest rate of flicker that can be perceived is referred to as

A) critical flicker frequency.
B) visual masking.
C) optimal temporal-frequency modulation.
D) none of these

Question 25

The critical flicker frequency has been shown to be

A) 10 Hz.
B) 30 Hz.
C) 45 Hz.
D) 60 Hz.

Question 26

The relationship between flicker frequency and sensitivity to it can be described as:

A) linear increase
B) linear decrease
C) U-shaped
D) an inverted U

Question 27

The human visual system seems to be most sensitive to flicker of approximately

A) 2 Hz.
B) 10 Hz.
C) 30 Hz.
D) 60 Hz.

Question 28

The smooth eye movements used to track a moving object are called

A) saccades.
B) pursuit eye movements.
C) object tracking movements.
D) both pursuit eye movements and object tracking movements.

Question 29

If during a saccade, an object moves and a neighboring object stays stationary but is blanked briefly,

A) the blanked object appears to move and the moving object appears stationary.
B) the blanked object appears stationary and the moving object appears to move.
C) both objects appear to move together, in the same direction.
D) neither object appears to move.

Question 30

One possible reason the frontal lobe is involved in perceiving biological motion is

A) it mediates complex cognitive judgments.
B) it mediates the motor commands to mimic the motion.
C) it mediates the eye movements to follow the motion.
D) none of these

Question 31

Motion defined by nonluminance cues, such as texture differences, is termed

A) first-order motion.
B) second-order motion.
C) third-order motion.
D) apparent motion.

Question 32

The perception of motion even though no motion actually occurred is referred to as

A) apparent motion.
B) motion aftereffect.
C) motion-induced blindness.
D) all of these

Question 33

Under certain conditions, if a light is flashed in one position and very shortly thereafter a second light is flashed in another location, the perception will be of a single, moving light. This perception of movement is called ______________ and is due to processes in the _______________ .

A) apparent motion; retina
B) induced motion; higher neural centers
C) motion aftereffect; retina
D) apparent motion; higher neural centers

Question 34

The aperture problem and the research of Wallach revealed that

A) perceived motion is best understood as local measurements that are integrated.
B) perceived motion is best understood in relation to what happens within an isolated receptive field.
C) perceived motion is best understood at the level of neurons.
D) none of these

Question 35

A key brain area in the processing of visual motion information is

A) the MT region.
B) the parietal cortex.
C) the superior colliculus.
D) the frontal cortex

Question 36

What kind of motion is the medial temporal region of the cerebral cortex sensitive to?

A) global motion over large areas of the visual field
B) fine detailed motion
C) random motion
D) The MT is insensitive to motion.

Question 37

Using randomly moving dots, what is the minimum percentage of dots that needs to move in a particular direction for this direction to be detected?

A) 2-3%
B) 3-5%
C) 5-9%
D) cannot be determined

Question 38

The tendency to see a common direction of motion even when many individual elements move in random directions provides evidence that motion perception involves

A) unreliable motion detection neurons.
B) independent, local motion detectors.
C) activity in area MT.
D) cooperative/competitive interactions.

Question 39

If you observe motion in one particular direction for several minutes you will be

A) less sensitive to movement in the same direction.
B) more sensitive to movement in the same direction.
C) more sensitive to movement at 90 degrees from that direction.
D) less sensitive to movement at 90 degrees from that direction.

Question 40

A typical experiment on _______________ consists of three phases: target designation, movement, and probe.

A) multiple object tracking
B) pattern recognition
C) apparent motion
D) autokinetic motion

Question 41

Bonneh, Cooperman, and Sagi (2001) discovered motion-induced blindness, in which

A) a moving array of blue random dots can make highly-visible yellow spots disappear and reappear.
B)a moving array of blue random dots presented to one eye can make highly visible yellow spots presented to the other eye disappear and reappear.
C)both a moving array of blue random dots can make highly-visible yellow spots disappear and reappear and a moving array of blue random dots presented to one eye can make highly visible yellow spots presented to the other eye disappear and reappear.
D)neither a moving array of blue random dots can make highly-visible yellow spots disappear and reappear nor a moving array of blue random dots presented to one eye can make highly visible yellow spots presented to the other eye disappear and reappear.

Question 42

What is structure from motion? Give examples, and discuss human sensitivity to structure from motion.

Question 43

Do we have to learn to see biological motion? Support your answer with evidence.

Question 44

Explain tau. Give the conditions for which it is a useful cue to time to collision. Give the conditions for which it is not a useful cue.

Question 45

What are the main two types of eye movements? What role does each play?

Question 46

You are trying out for the college's varsity baseball team. When it's your turn at bat, you do miserably. The coach yells that you should keep your eye on the ball. Explain to the coach the differences (at least three) between saccadic and pursuit eye movements. Tell why the difference between the two types of eye movements is relevant to the coach's advice. Tell the coach why this advice asks you to do the impossible. Finally, give one brief sentence describing how the coach might react.

Question 47

Briefly summarize the two alternative explanations for why the world appears stable when we move our eyes.

Question 48

What is the aperture problem, and how does the visual system resolve it?

Question 49

Describe how cooperative and competitive interactions result in the perception of global motion.