COG SCI C100 HW 2

Which of the following is an example of the effect of top-down processing?

Speech segmentation.

In general, the relationship between stimulus intensity and sensation intensity is BEST represented by

Steven's Power Law.

An observer is shown a light of varying intensity. The experimenter determines the intensity at which the light was detected half the time. What is being determined?

The absolute threshold.

If the observer is strongly motivated toward always detecting the signal, there will be an increase in the number of

false alarms

The adoption of a conservative criterion by the observer usually yields _____ and _____ hits.

fewer false alarms : fewer

An assumption of Signal Detection Theory is that the average sensory effect of S+N is _____ than the average sensory effect of N alone.

greater than

An ROC curve plots

hits vs. false alarms

The theory of unconscious inference includes

the likelihood principle.

The statement "Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible" refers to which Gestalt principle?

Good figure

The probability of a response in a signal detection experiment is affected by which of the following?

All of these (a. Signal detectability, b. Observer motivation, c. Response bias, e. Observer expectation)

Some perceptions result from assumptions we make about the environment that we aren't even aware of. This theory of unconscious inference was proposed by

Helmholtz.

You spot a coiled rope half buried in the sand on the beach, yet perceive it as a single continuous rope because of which Gestalt principle?

Good continuation

The difference threshold refers to the sensory effect produced from the

JND.

In which psychophysical method are stimuli presented in ascending and descending intensity?

Method of limits

Gollum is a rhesus macaque participating in an experiment where he has to choose between the object he was previously shown (the target object) and another object. Choosing the target object will result in a reward. What sort of task is the neurophysiologist making Gollum perform?

Object discrimination problem.

The experimental technique involving removing part of the brain is known as

ablation.

The minimum magnitude of a stimulus needed for its detection by an observer is known as the

absolute threshold.

A fundamental assumption of Fechner's Law is that

all JNDs are equal.

The results of the "Greebles" experiment illustrate

an effect of experience dependent plasticity.

The sequence of steps that includes the imaging on the retina, changing the image into retinal signals, and neural processing in the visual cortex is an example of _____ processing.

bottom-up

If you were listening to music on your iPod and I wanted to know how much I could turn the volume down before you noticed, I would need to know your

difference threshold

The measure of the smallest difference between two already detectable stimuli that can be noticed is the

difference threshold.

Maria takes a drink from a milk carton, but quickly spits it out because the carton actually had orange juice in it. But Maria likes orange juice, so why would she have such a negative response to drinking it? Her response is most affected by

expectations from top-down processing

Which of these phrases below best completes this sentence about the theoretical viewpoint of Gestalt Perception? "All perceptual objects _____."

have characteristics that can't be explained from mere information processing; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

One might describe Signal Detection as a theory that

in which threshold determination is seen as a decision process.

Viewpoint _____ is the ability to recognize the same object even when it is seen from different perspectives.

invariance

The task of determining the object responsible for the image on the retina is called the

inverse projection problem.

When a double dissociation occurs, it indicates that two functions;

involve different mechanisms.

The Giants are playing the Bums at AT&T Park; it's the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, and the Giants are down by three. Pence hits a line drive down the first base line. If it goes to the right of the foul pole, it's a foul b all, but if it goes to the left of the foul pole, it'll be a grand slam, and the Giants will make the Bums bleed Dodger blue... The umpire judging the ball will have the most difficulty making the call because

it can be very difficult to see a white ball overlapping a yellow pole (occlusion).

Damage to the temporal lobe makes the _____ problem more difficult.

object discrimination

People perceive vertical and horizontal orientations more easily than other orientations according to the

oblique effect

Speech segmentation is defined as

organizing the continuous stream of sounds into individual words.

The landmark discrimination problem is more difficult if you have damage to your _____ lobe.

parietal

Traditionally, _____ are the result of variables such as judgment, meaning, and experience, whereas _____ is concerned with the first contact between an organism and stimuli in the environment.

perceptions : sensations

The process by which small objects become perceptually grouped to form larger objects is the principle of;

perceptual organization.

The demonstration in your textbook that asks you to visualize scenes such as an office, department store clothing section, a lion, and a microscope often results in more details of the scene of the office or department store than the lion of the microscope. These latter two have fewer details because most people have less knowledge of the _____ in those scenes.

semantic regularities

You're at a parade where there are several marching bands. You perceive the bands as grouped together by uniform color; red uniforms are one band, green uniforms are another, and so on. You have this perceptual experience because of

similarity.

In the example in the textbook of the Olympic rings, which Gestalt principle best describes the perception of five interlocking circles?

simplicity

In signal detection experiments, one of the critical factors influencing the sensitivity measure is the

stimulus intensity or magnitude

The "textured wall" example from your textbook illustrates

the light-from-above heuristic.

A basic principle of Signal Detection Theory is

traditional measures of absolute threshold are affected by non-sensory factors.

The likelihood principle states that

we perceive the object most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we receive.

The pathway leading from the striate cortex to the temporal lobe is known as the ____ pathway.

what

The perception pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway, while the action pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway.

what : where

The pathway leading from the striate cortex to the parietal lobe is known as the _____ pathway.

where

In a signal detection experiment, an observer with a large d' value;

will make more hits or fewer false alarms than an observer with a low d' value.

In the "finding faces in a landscape" demonstration in your textbook, once you perceive a particular grouping of rocks as a face, it is often difficult to not perceive them this way. This is due to

your prior knowledge of the image