[AP PSY] Cognition, Perception

Dr. Lee is interested in the effect of lighting on people's ability to concentrate. Dr. Lee studies this by manipulating the amount of lighting while participants read and then measuring their scores on a reading comprehension test. Group 1 receives dim light, and group 2 receives bright light. Which of the following research methods is Dr. Lee using?

An experiment

Which process transfers information from sensory memory to short-term memory?

Attention

The Gestalt principle that refers to an individual's tendency to perceive an incomplete figure as whole is called

Closure

Even though it was nearly dark outside, Kaci could still tell that the basketball she was playing with was orange. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?

Color constancy

Kaori is traveling on an airplane for the first time. As the plane takes off, she watches the automobiles driving on the freeway below. Even though the automobiles seem to get smaller as the airplane gains altitude, Kaori does not perceive the cars as shrinking but still perceives them to be their normal size. Which perceptual principle best describes this phenomenon?

Constancy Constancy occurs when it is understood that objects are still the same size, in spite of their actual size on the retina.

Dr. Keith conducted a study to investigate whether caffeine improves focus and attention. He selected a random sample of students from his college class and then randomly assigned each of them to drink a cup of coffee or a cup of water before class. At the end of class, he administered a test on their knowledge of class material presented that day. Which of the following elements of Dr. Keith's research would most strengthen Dr. Keith's ability to infer a causal relationship between caffeine intake and improved focus and attention? Responses

Dr. Keith keeps conditions the same between the two groups except for the independent variable.

Which of the following is an example of a visual perceptual constancy?

Even though the angle from which she viewed the table had changed, Elise still perceived the table as rectangular.

A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. Which type of research does the scenario describe?

Experimental

When Rocco views the image above, he sees it as a 13 when it is part of a larger number set but as a B when it is part of a word. Rocco's response shows the importance of what perceptual concept?

Framing The context in which the character occurs is influencing how it is perceived, which is called framing.

The claim that a whole is different from the sum of its parts is central to which of the following schools of thought?

Gestalt psychology

Dr. Keith conducted a study to investigate whether caffeine improves focus and attention. He selected a random sample of students from his college class and then randomly assigned each of them to drink a cup of coffee or a cup of water before class. At the end of class, he administered a test on their knowledge of class material presented that day. Dr. Keith found that students who drink coffee demonstrate less focus and attention, as evidenced by lower test scores, and then claimed that he expected that result all along. Based on this description, which of the following is Dr. Keith displaying?

Hindsight bias Hindsight bias occurs when after learning an outcome, one overestimates one's ability to have foreseen that result.

Observers watch a group of people passing a basketball back and forth. A researcher asks the observers to count the number of passes made. As they count passes, many of the observers fail to notice a person in a gorilla costume walking through the basketball court. Which of the following is the most likely reason many of the observers do not notice the person in the gorilla costume?

Inattentional blindness Inattentional blindness occurs when a dramatic and unexpected change occurs in a visual stimulus but is unnoticed by the the person perceiving the object because they are engaged in another task.

Ana injured her eye in an accident and has to wear a patch over the eye while it heals. Which of the following cues would she best be able to use to make judgments about the distance objects are from her?

Linear perspective

Convergence is a binocular depth cue that is based on which of the following?

Muscular tension that occurs when the eyes turn inward

Amirah attended a concert for her favorite band. As the band played her favorite song, Amirah sang along and repeated one of the lyrics incorrectly. Another person nearby heard the mistake and told her she had made a mistake, Amirah was confident she heard and sang the lyric correctly. What term best describes Amirah's belief?

Overconfidence Amirah is confident her memory of the song lyrics is correct despite evidence to the contrary.

Gestalt psychology is concerned primarily with understanding which of the following?

Perception

Breonna and Peyton have been dating for six months. Breonna invited Peyton to attend her family's annual picnic. Throughout the day, Breonna's many family members were talking loudly, laughing, and teasing each other. At the end of the day, Peyton asked Breonna why many of the family members seemed angry at each other. Breonna was surprised by Peyton's question and thought everyone enjoyed the day. Which of the following concepts best explains why Peyton and Breonna had very different observations at the picnic?

Perceptual set Perceptual set describes how prior experiences and preconceived notions can influence our expectations and behaviors. Breonna and Peyton each have different experiences with loud, laughing, teasing interactions, causing different interpretations.

After his friend said a new movie was the funniest he had seen in years, Willard found himself laughing throughout the viewing, even though the movie was not very funny. What concept is Willard demonstrating?

Perceptual set Willard's expectations influenced his perceptions of the movie.

A person with sight in only one eye lacks which of the following visual cues for seeing in depth?

Retinal disparity

Ana is instructed by her doctor to wear a patch over one eye while an infection heals. While wearing the patch, Ana will lose her ability to use which of the following depth perception cues?

Retinal disparity

Which of the following is a binocular cue for depth perception?

Retinal disparity

Jason is attending a parade that features the local high school band. Jason's friend Brent plays the trombone in the band. It is difficult for Jason to hear Brent play at the parade. Which of the following would best allow Jason to hear Brent's trombone?

Selective attention

One night, Noel went to a new restaurant. While waiting for her meal, she could not ignore the slurping sound the other diners made while eating. She was so focused on that sound that she could not even enjoy her meal. Which of the following concepts explains Noel's experience?

Selective attention Noel's attention is selective focused on the one sound which makes it difficult for her to perceive anything else.

Luis constructed a flip-book with 30 different still images of a cartoon cat. When Luis quickly flipped through successive images of the cat, the cat appeared to move. Which of the following concepts does the example illustrate?

Stroboscopic movement, because the book is a series of images presented at separate time intervals.

Dr. Keith conducted a study to investigate whether caffeine improves focus and attention. He selected a random sample of students from his college class and then randomly assigned each of them to drink a cup of coffee or a cup of water before class. At the end of class, he administered a test on their knowledge of class material presented that day. Which of the following is the operational definition of the dependent variable? Responses

Test scores on the class material

Which of the following scenarios best describes the monocular depth cue of relative size?

Yvonne judges the distance of an object based on how large the image is on the retina. Relative size involves the judgment of depth in which closer objects cast larger images on the retina than farther objects.

A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. In the study, cell phone use can be described as

an independent variable

The tendency of most people to identify a three-sided figure as a triangle, even when one of its sides is incomplete, is the result of a perceptual process known as

closure

While attending a concert, Anthony finds that he can clearly recognize the melody coming from the lead violin above all the other instruments playing in the orchestra, even though the other instruments may be louder. Gestalt psychologists would explain Anthony's ability using the principle of

figure-ground

Cognitive theorists emphasize the

formation and modification of schemas

When participants in dichotic listening experiments are repeating aloud a message presented in one ear, they are most likely to notice information on the unattended channel if that channel

mentions the participant's name

People who live in environments with buildings with square corners and right angles are more susceptible to a particular optical illusion where people judge the length of two different arrows than are people who live in environments without such angles and corners. The difference in perception between the two groups of people reveals that

people develop perceptual hypotheses based on experiences in their lives

Gestalt psychologists studied how

people see a triangle with missing corners as a complete triangle because of the principle of closure

In visual perception, size constancy occurs as an object comes closer to the viewer because the

perceived distance of the object becomes smaller

In psychology, Gestalt principles are used to explain

perceptual organization

Alice is shopping with her daughter when she hears the word "mom." Alice answers, only to realize that the sales clerk said "ma'am" to a customer. This inaccurate perception can be attributed to

perceptual set The context of Alice's experience influences her perception of the clerk's speech.

The difference between divided attention and selective attention is that divided attention

requires more automatic processing than selective attention does Success in the context of a task that uses divided attention requires automatic processing of one task while simultaneously doing another. Selective attention requires blocking out all other tasks in order to focus on just one.

An individual's ability to focus on a particular conversation in a noisy and crowded room is called

selective attention

Using cell phones while driving increases the number of accidents because use of the phones requires

selective attention

As you watch a friend walk away from you, your retinal image of your friend gets smaller. Despite this, you do not perceive him to be shrinking. This is an example of

size constancy

Climbing an irregular set of stairs is more difficult for an individual who wears a patch over one eye primarily because

some depth perception is lost

Research has shown that a major reason for poor performance while multitasking is that while multitasking, people

switch their attention rapidly from task to task, so they miss critical information associated with a task that is not receiving their attention

While at a crowded gathering, Zach realized that his attention was being drawn away from his conversation every time a person nearby said the word "exactly." Zach's response is an example of

the cocktail party effect

Luz, a math major, sees the drawing above as a Venn diagram. Her brother, an art major, sees it as two circles. The difference in perception is an example of

top-down processing

People listening to rock music played backward often perceive an evil message if specifically told what to listen for. That phenomenon best illustrates

top-down processing

Tina is reading an important letter when she accidentally splashes water on the paper. The water has smudged a few words, but she is still able to understand what the letter says. This can be explained by

top-down processing

In a groundbreaking study, a researcher shared a translation of an American Indian folk tale with middle-class British participants. Later, the participants were asked to repeat the story. The researcher measured the accuracy of their recollections when they were repeating the story. Several of the participants changed the words "canoes" to "boats" and "hunting seals" to "fishing". Which of the following explains why the participants made errors in their recollections?

The participants had difficulty repeating the story because the details didn't fit with their cultural schema. The study highlighted how culture shapes schema to help us understand the world.

When Kaylee's friends discovered she was going to have her tonsils removed, they told her she was going to be in a great deal of pain. After the surgery Kaylee reported that she was in a lot of pain, although most of her pain should have been alleviated by her pain medication. Given this scenario, which of the following best explains Kaylee's reporting of pain?

Top-down processing