Deck 6: Sensation, Perception, and Action

Question 1

What type of theorist is most likely to argue that all of the information needed to interpret the current perceptual situation is available in the current perceptual situation?

A)constructivist
B)ecological
C)biological
D)neurological

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Sensation refers to

A)interpretation of incoming sensory messages.
B)stimulation of nerve cells in the sense organs.
C)perceiving the surrounding environment.
D)innate processes of understanding the world.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Anita jingles her keys in front of baby Leslie's face,and she watches and smiles.Anita continues the game because Leslie appears to enjoy it.After a while,though,Leslie seems to lose interest and no longer focuses on the keys when Anita jingles them.This illustrates the process of

A)cross-modal perception.
B)constancy.
C)preferential looking.
D)habituation.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is the best example of a perceptual process?

A)Hearing a sound in the room
B)Detecting that a light has been turned on in a dark room
C)Sensing that someone has touched your arm
D)Realizing that the odor you smell is vanilla

Question 5

When looking at faces,infants between age one and two months shift from

A)looking at the top of the face to looking at the bottom of the face.
B)looking at the bottom of the face to looking at the top of the face.
C)looking at the outer contour of the face to looking at the interiors of the face.
D)looking at the interiors of the face to looking at the outer contour of the face.

Question 6

Dr.Violet is interested in how young children perceive color.In her study,Dr.Violet simultaneously shows young children two blobs of different color and measures the amount of time they focus on each blob.Dr.Violet's technique is known as a(n)_____ task.

A)habituation
B)preferential looking
C)evoked potentials
D)operant conditioning

Question 7

Gibson's theory proposes that the features of an object reveal its

A)affordances.
B)assimilations.
C)accommodations.
D)affectations.

Question 8

Which of the following is LEAST likely to draw the visual attention of a young infant?

A)A moving object
B)A high contour object
C)A highly complex object
D)A face

Question 9

Habituation is best defined as the process of "learning to be _____" with a stimulus.

A)smart
B)you
C)bored
D)free

Question 10

Martin Banks and colleagues suggest that _____ is the most important overall factor in determining what an infant will stare at the longest.

A)the degree of contours that the object has
B)whether the object is moving or not
C)how complex the object is in terms of colors and patterns
D)whether or not the infant can see it well

Question 11

Which of the following is true regarding newborn infants' vision?

A)Infants do not have color vision until around six months of age.
B)Much of what young infants see is blurry.
C)Pattern complexity has no impact on infants' visual preferences.
D)Initial visual accommodation skills allow infants to focus clearly on far objects but not near objects.

Question 12

A wave of sound proceeds through the auditory canal to the inner ear where receptor neurons on the basilar membrane are stimulated.The neurons send a message to the brain.When the brain receives the message,the result is a person thinking,"That sounds like my mom calling me for dinner." What has taken place?

A)Sensation and perception
B)Sensation but not perception
C)Perception but not sensation
D)Neither sensation nor perception

Question 13

Three-month-old Jordan reacts as if he believes that the basketball he is playing with actually shrinks as it rolls away from him.This reaction would indicate that Jordan lacks

A)object permanence.
B)cross-modal perception.
C)attention.
D)size constancy.

Question 14

Visual accommodation involves the ability of the _____ of the eye to change shape and bring objects into focus.

A)retina
B)lens
C)iris
D)fovea

Question 15

Which object would have the greatest amount of visual contour?

A)A series of black circles on a white background
B)A gray ship on the ocean
C)A pillow with pastel blobs of blue and yellow
D)A clear baby-bottle filled with breast milk

Question 16

Visual contour is specifically defined as the amount of _____ of a visual object.

A)curvature
B)light/dark transition
C)size
D)movement

Question 17

Within a minute after birth,a typical infant

A)sees colors and can track slow-moving objects.
B)sees colors but cannot track any moving objects.
C)can visually track slow-moving objects but sees only in black/white.
D)cannot track any moving objects and sees only in black/white.

Question 18

Which child has acquired perceptual size constancy?

A)Raven,who looks out a window on a plane and realizes that people in the terminal look like ants but that they are actually much bigger.
B)Yasmin,who knows that she will get bigger when she is older
C)Robbie,who can perceive the difference in size between a one-story building and a 10-story building
D)Carlos,who uses Lego building blocks to create a tower that is taller than he is

Question 19

A wave of light proceeds through to the back of the eye where it encounters and stimulates a receptor neuron.What process has taken place?

A)Perception
B)Thinking
C)Cognition
D)Sensation

Question 20

Marisol has been developing normally since the moment of conception.When will she have mature color vision?

A)near the end of the fetal stage
B)within a day after birth
C)about three to four months after birth
D)around her first birthday

Question 21

How should you react to a policy that supports the initial testing of hearing at age three and a half years?

A)Great idea,because this is the beginning of a sensitive period for development of potential auditory problems.
B)Great idea,but since few hearing problems occur before this age,you are unlikely to identify any children with hearing problems.
C)Bad idea,because by the time those with significant hearing loss reach this age,they are at significant risk for life-long speech and language difficulties.
D)Bad idea,as accurate assessment of hearing is not possible until age five.

Question 22

The fact that two-month-olds can detect the difference between the sound "pa" and the sound "ba" indicates that they

A)can differentiate phonemes.
B)have cross-modal perception.
C)have semantic awareness.
D)possess visual accommodation.

Question 23

Within days of their baby's birth,Ben and Jen are having an argument about their son.Jen claims that he recognizes her voice,but Ben says that this is impossible.Knowing the research in this area,you are able to tell them that

A)Ben is correct (voice recognition does not occur until around six months of age).
B)both could be correct,as babies can recognize only the first voice that they heard immediately following delivery (if this was Jen's voice,then she is correct;if it was not Jen's voice,then Ben is correct).
C)Jen is correct (maternal voice recognition is evident a few days after birth).
D)we can not know who is correct because infants this young cannot be accurately tested.

Question 24

Which of the following is the best example of the infant as an intuitive theorist?

A)Infants look away when an object disappears from view.
B)Infants get bored and look away when an object is repeatedly presented.
C)Infants show surprise when a ball that is dropped behind a screen is later shown to be suspended in the air.
D)Infants show surprise when a ball rolling down a hill is shown reaching the bottom of the hill.

Question 25

Typically,newborns can

A)see and hear equally well.
B)see better than they hear.
C)hear better than they see.
D)neither see nor hear well.

Question 26

Six-month-old Kara watches as two dolls are placed behind a screen.When the screen is removed,Kara sees either two dolls (possible)or one doll (impossible).Which of the following reactions is the infant likely to show?

A)Kara will not notice any difference between the possible and impossible outcomes,as evidenced by no difference in looking times at the two outcomes.
B)Kara will look longer at the impossible outcome than the possible outcome.
C)Kara will look longer at the possible outcome because it is familiar to her.
D)Kara will not look at either outcome because they will have habituated to the original stimulus.

Question 27

All of the major sensory systems begin to function

A)before birth.
B)shortly after birth.
C)about one month after birth.
D)by a child's first birthday.

Question 28

According to the intuitive theorist perspective,infants

A)have innate knowledge of the world and can reason about the world like adults do.
B)must construct their knowledge of the world from a blank slate.
C)learn what they need to know about the world by observing people around them.
D)may have some innate knowledge of the world,but do not yet have the capabilities to reason about the world.

Question 29

Which of the following is NOT an example of cross-modal perception?

A)Recognizing a person's face in a photograph that you have only seen in person one time
B)Picking out by sight a toy that you had previously only touched
C)Identifying which of your two pet cats has jumped onto the bed in the dark by running your hands over it
D)Correctly identifying a Tootsie Roll pop because of the way it feels in your mouth,after a friend tells you to closer your eyes and open your mouth for a treat

Question 30

Three-month-old infants can discriminate between phonemes.This means that they can discriminate between

A)basic speech sounds.
B)a doorbell and the bell on a telephone.
C)various familiar odors.
D)familiar and novel tastes.

Question 31

Aaliyah was born five weeks premature.What would help her to gain weight faster?

A)being fed formula with sugar
B)being kept in a warm environment
C)being stroked over her entire body
D)being lulled with soothing music

Question 32

Breast feeding an infant who is receiving a vaccination

A)leads the infant to produce more antibodies.
B)is ill advised as it promotes connecting pleasure with pain.
C)reduces the behavior signs that they are in pain.
D)has been banned by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Question 33

Newborns look in the direction of a sound that they hear.They also try to grasp objects that they can see.This suggests that newborns

A)use the senses of sight,hearing,and touch,more than taste and smell.
B)use vision to coordinate all the senses.
C)cannot distinguish between their senses.
D)can integrate two or more senses.

Question 34

Laura and Stan are discussing the abilities of their two-month-old son Jack.Laura claims that Jack can recognize both of his parent's voices.Stan says that Jack cannot recognize either voice.If Jack is a typical two-month-old,then who is correct?

A)Laura
B)Stan
C)Neither,as Jack can likely recognize Laura's voice but not Stan's voice
D)Neither,as Jack can likely recognize Stan's voice but not Laura's voice

Question 35

Cross-modal perception is the ability to

A)perceive three-dimensionality from a two-dimensional display.
B)perceive an object through two senses at the same time.
C)stop responding to a stimulus that is repeatedly presented.
D)recognize with one sense an object that was learned through another sense.

Question 36

Four month-old infants can best organize the world into distinct objects when the objects they are trying to make sense of are

A)stationary.
B)moving.
C)identical.
D)multicolored.

Question 37

One-month-old infants were given either a smooth pacifier or one with hard nubs on which to suck.Although they had not seen the pacifier while sucking on it,when given the opportunity to look,the infants stared longer at the type of pacifier that they had sucked on.This shows that they have

A)cross-modal perception.
B)evoked potential.
C)inter-sensory sensation.
D)dynamic systems.

Question 38

What can we conclude regarding developmental changes in speech perception?

A)With age,we become more sensitive to sound discriminations that are relevant in our own language and less sensitive to sound discriminations that are irrelevant.
B)With age,we become more sensitive to all sound discriminations.
C)There are no detectable differences in sound discriminations with age.
D)With age,we become more sensitive to differences in consonant sounds and less sensitive to differences in vowel sounds.

Question 39

Newborns will produce certain facial expressions depending on the taste of the liquid that they are offered.They smile when offered sugar water and frown when offered quinine.This demonstrates that newborns

A)prefer salty tastes to sour ones.
B)inherit their mother's taste preferences.
C)can discriminate between various tastes.
D)learn to avoid substances that might contain poison.

Question 40

What is the best explanation for young infants' ability to recognize their mother's voices shortly after birth?

A)An instinctive mother-baby bond
B)Postnatal linguistic experiences
C)Innate phonetic receptors
D)Prenatal exposure to mom's voice

Question 41

What type of food would be most likely to produce "chemosensory irritation?"

A)A cold scoop of ice cream
B)A hamburger hot off the grill
C)A pickled pig's foot
D)A spicy hot jalapeño pepper

Question 42

Adolescents are more likely to enjoy strong or strange tasting food because

A)they have had more opportunities to learn to like them.
B)they have a less sensitive sense of taste than do children.
C)they are rebelling against family customs.
D)they are influenced by their peers to do so.

Question 43

As a researcher focused on the issue of sensations,how would you most likely explain why older people tend to raise the volume on their television sets and use more seasoning on their food?

A)Their sensory thresholds have increased with age.
B)They cannot concentrate on simple things.
C)Visual accommodation abilities have declined.
D)They forget seasoning their food or raising the TV volume.

Question 44

A study finds that 100 percent of 20-year-olds,70 percent of 40-year-olds,and only 40 percent of 60-year-olds are able to detect the scent of a single rotten egg in a 10- by 10-foot room.A developmental psychologist would most likely explain this change in terms of a(n)

A)Decrease in olfactory sensory threshold
B)Increase in olfactory sensory threshold
C)Decrease in cross-modality perception
D)Increase in cross-modality perception

Question 45

Who is demonstrating a fine motor skill?

A)Tina,who is kicking
B)Akbar,who is jumping
C)Nancy,who is grasping a pencil
D)Max,who is throwing a ball

Question 46

Attention skills of adolescents are advanced relative to those of children.This advantage appears to be due,in part,to _____ commonly found in adolescents.

A)improvements in visual acuity
B)increased distractibility
C)myelination of brain cells
D)androgens released by the ovaries/testes

Question 47

The most effective way to increase the performance of a young child on a task requiring attention skills would be to

A)increase the complexity of the task.
B)increase the number of senses involved.
C)decrease distractions.
D)decrease time spent on the task.

Question 48

Swen's doctor just informed him that in order to correct his visual problem,Swen must have his clouded lens replaced.This means that Swen's visual problem involves

A)retinitis pigmentosa.
B)cataracts.
C)glaucoma.
D)macular degeneration.

Question 49

Whose exploratory behavior would most likely just begin to involve exploring an item with both their eyes and hands?

A)2-month-old Tom
B)6-month-old Heather
C)12-month-old Montell
D)18-month-old Tameeka

Question 50

Which indicates that Maria has well-developed selective attention skills?

A)She can pay attention to two people talking at the same time.
B)She can pay attention to her teacher's voice while ignoring the voices of classmates.
C)It takes a great deal of noise to get Maria to notice that someone is talking to her.
D)It takes her a long time to complete a task that requires vigilance.

Question 51

Whose exploratory behavior would most likely involve mouthing an object to learn more about it?

A)2-month-old Drishti
B)6-month-old Miguel
C)12-month-old Phoebe
D)18-month-old Cedric

Question 52

Mr.Perkins is developing a program to help high school students protect their hearing.What is an important aspect that the program should do to be effective?

A)avoid noting the potential long-term consequences of noise exposure.
B)clarify that hearing loss is not a health problem but a social issue.
C)reduce the stigma associated with wearing hearing protection.
D)note that one-time exposure to loud noise cannot cause damage.

Question 53

As a typical four-month-old,Dakota's attention process is best described as

A)being focused on the most relevant items.
B)adult-like.
C)being caught by objects in the environment.
D)non-existent.

Question 54

Ozzie is planning on attending a very loud rock concert.As such,he should be prepared to experience _____ unless he takes precautions to protect his hearing.

A)presbyopia
B)macular degeneration
C)presbycusis
D)tinnitus

Question 55

Which of the following is NOT a typical change in attention during childhood?

A)Attention becomes more selective
B)Attention span becomes longer
C)Attention becomes more focused on irrelevant objects
D)Attention becomes systematic

Question 56

Research has shown that children who undergo surgery for congenital cataracts,but who missed out on early visual experience,

A)see the details of faces but with dark spots in the center of the image.
B)are able to see details of faces,but have difficulty identifying different orientation of the same face.
C)are able to see details of faces,but have difficulty telling two different people apart.
D)have face discrimination abilities identical to children born without cataracts.

Question 57

The fact that infants' attention seems to involve reacting to environmental stimulation rather than being deliberately focused,illustrates the concept of a(n)_____ system.

A)dynamic
B)orienting
C)fail-safe
D)intentional

Question 58

Sensory threshold is defined as the

A)minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected.
B)maximum amount of sensory stimulation that can be tolerated before pain is experienced.
C)maximum number of senses that can be stimulated before the person is confused.
D)minimum amount of energy produced by a neuron.

Question 59

Seventy-year-old Vinita has been having difficulty seeing while driving at night.When she is seen by an optometrist,she is told that the problem is the fact that both of her lenses have clouded.The correct specific diagnosis would by that Vinetta has

A)presbycusis.
B)myopia.
C)presbyopia.
D)cataracts.

Question 60

Which of the following best describes the "sleeper effect of early visual deficits?"

A)If an infant does not experience normal visual experience,even after corrective surgery,it may never develop a normal perception of vision
B)Naps are critical to the development of the depth receptors found on the retina
C)The brain is so plastic,that even with complete absence of visual stimulation for up to a year,human infants will not show any detrimental effects
D)Children tend to inherit visual problems that show up suddenly around age six

Question 61

Research findings from Murphy (1985)suggests that the ability of older individuals to identify food is most negatively impacted by

A)losses in the ability to taste and smell.
B)losses in the ability to taste and cognitive declines impacting memory.
C)losses in the ability to smell and cognitive declines impacting memory.
D)losses in the ability to see and cognitive declines impacting memory.

Question 62

Which of the following responses reflects an affordance resulting from the image of a small rock next to a pond?

A)"This is a round,dark object."
B)"I can throw this in the water."
C)"Have I seen these things before?"
D)"What color and shape is this?"

Question 63

Webster has just been informed that he is suffering from a visual problem that is destroying retinal cells responsible for central vision and that he will soon find reading nearly impossible.This diagnosis indicates that Webster has

A)age-related macular degeneration.
B)glaucoma.
C)retinitis pigmentosa.
D)cataracts.

Question 64

A slow-reacting pupil is most likely to be responsible for

A)glaucoma.
B)difficulty with dark adaptation.
C)cataracts.
D)difficulty with far vision.

Question 65

Which of the following best describes the process of motor skills development in children?

A)continuous
B)staged
C)intermittent
D)innate

Question 66

In terms of their ability to sense pain,old people typically experience

A)less sensitivity to mild pain.
B)more sensitivity to mild pain.
C)decreased sensitivity for all types and levels of pain.
D)increased sensitivity for all types and levels of pain.

Question 67

Which best describes the hearing of most older adults?

A)Minor hearing loss especially for high-frequency sounds
B)Significant hearing loss especially for high-frequency sounds
C)Minor hearing loss especially for low-frequency sounds
D)Significant hearing loss especially for low-frequency sounds

Question 68

Woody has just been diagnosed with presbycusis.What is he most likely experiencing?

A)He is hearing voices of people who are not there.
B)He is hearing a continuous ringing sound in his ear.
C)He is having difficulty hearing low-frequency sounds.
D)He is having difficulty hearing high-frequency sounds.

Question 69

The ecological perspective views the process of developing motor skills as a child's ________ the environment.

A)interaction with
B)habituation to
C)interpretation of
D)mastery of

Question 70

Sitting out in the garden,a small,fluttering object approaches three-year-old Annie.When she notices it,a proponent of the ecological perspective would say that Annie's next step would be to ________.

A)build meaning
B)learn more
C)translate it
D)take action

Question 71

Which of the following best reflects a child's refinement of motor skills?.

A)the transition from walking across a room to running across a room
B)the transition from banging an orange with a fist to peeling an orange
C)the transition from nodding the head at someone to waving a hand
D)the transition from writing letters on a paper to making large scribbles

Question 72

Who will likely be dealing with a picky eater when her child reaches kindergarten?

A)Dora,who ate a vegetarian diet with dairy while pregnant
B)Serita,who ate her mom's rich,spicy curries while pregnant
C)Olivia,who had many cravings for junk food while pregnant
D)Barbara,who ate a bland diet while pregnant due to indigestion

Question 73

From a nativist perspective,what process is skipped for a person to arrive at a particular perception?

A)verification
B)interpretation
C)localization
D)sensation

Question 74

Which statement concerning speech perception in adulthood is true?

A)Loud background noise is more distracting to young adults than to older adults.
B)Older adults are more likely to recall fewer details from a conversation that took place in a noisy restaurant.
C)Older adults tend to be better at attending to multiple conversations than young adults.
D)In familiar setting,older adults tend to not use contextual cues to help them interpret what they are hearing.

Question 75

While they both significantly affect vision,retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration differ in that retinitis pigmentosa _____ and age-related macular degeneration _____.

A)is due to genetics;is due to illness
B)impacts peripheral vision;impacts central vision
C)is more likely to be found in males;is more likely to be found in females
D)impacts close vision;impacts far vision

Question 76

When grandpa has difficulty reading a newspaper 20 inches from his face,but can clearly see the television that is 20 feet away,he most likely has

A)presbyopia.
B)age-related macular degeneration.
C)glaucoma.
D)retinitis pigmentosa.

Question 77

Old people are most likely to keep their homes too hot or too cold because

A)they tend to be less sensitive to changes in temperature.
B)changes in temperature tend to induce a loss of balance.
C)their constant pain will make them seek environments of different temperatures.
D)as myelin in their brains decreases their bodies crave heat.

Question 78

Which perspective on perception could use a box of mementos as a brand logo?

A)cultural
B)ecological
C)constructivist
D)nativist

Question 79

Which of the following reflects the relationship of affordances to humans' experience of them?

A)compound
B)individual
C)cultural
D)universal

Question 80

Who is most likely to have oculatory development problems?

A)Aidan,who lived in the dark during the sixth month of life
B)Rasha,who lived in the dark during the second month of life
C)Terry,who lived in the dark during the ninth month of life
D)Chantal,who lived in the dark during the fourteenth month of life