PSYC 312 Ch. 5

What is true about cortical neurons that have become insensitive to an eye that was sutured shut during the critical period?

Some sensitivity can be recovered if the other eye is sutured shut for a few months.

When mechanical force is absorbed by a sensory receptor, the energy is transduced into a local depolarization or hyperpolarization. What is this called?

a receptor potential

Monkeys with damage to area V4 lose:

color constancy.

Cutting the left optic nerve in front of the optic chiasm would result in blindness in ____.

the left eye

While bird watching, a red cardinal slowly hops into view. Which of the following characteristics are you most likely to notice first in your peripheral vision?

the movement of the bird

If you stare at a waterfall long enough to fatigue feature-detector neurons responsive to downward motion, then look at the rocks and trees next to the waterfall, how will the rocks and trees appear?

to move upward

Where does the optic nerve send most of its information?

to the lateral geniculate

In comparison to cones, rods:

are more sensitive to dim light.

The principle that allows you to perceive an orange shirt to be the same color under varying lighting conditions is known as:

color constancy.

An individual suffers damage to the temporal cortex, but maintains an intact parietal cortex. This may result in an inability to:

describe the size or shape of objects they see.

The law of specific nerve energies states that:

every stimulation of the optic nerve is perceived as light.

The optic nerve is composed of axons from which kind of cell?

ganglion cells

Which of the following items would most likely attract the attention of a newborn baby?

human face

Which of the following has the largest receptive fields and the greatest preferential sensitivity to highly complex visual patterns, such as faces?

inferior temporal cortex

Once within the cerebral cortex, the magnocellular pathway continues, with a dorsal branch important for:

integrating vision with action.

What is responsible for sharpening contrast at visual borders?

lateral inhibition

Light is focused as it enters through which of the following structures?

lens and cornea

In the visual system of the mammalian cerebral cortex, the dorsal stream is specialized for detecting ____, and the ventral stream is specialized for detecting ____.

location/shape

People with motion blindness probably have suffered damage to the:

middle-temporal cortex.

While focusing on the car in front of you, you suddenly notice another car in your peripheral vision. You will probably have a difficult time describing the details of the second car because:

more receptors converge their inputs in the periphery.

Magnocellular cells are to ____ as parvocellular cells are to ____.

movement; color

After you stare at a bright green object for a minute and look away, you see red. Which theory attempts to explain this finding?

opponent-process theory

If we compare the receptive fields of two simple cells in the primary visual cortex, chosen at random, in what way are they most likely to differ?

orientation (angle) of a line that they respond to

Small receptive fields are to ____ cells as large receptive fields are to ____ cells.

parvocellular; magnocellular

Chemicals that release energy when struck by light are called:

photopigments.

The receptive field of a receptor is the:

point in space from which light strikes the receptor.

Visual information from the lateral geniculate area goes to the:

primary visual cortex.

In what order does visual information pass through the retina?

receptor cells, bipolar cells, ganglion cells

What difficulty does someone with prosopagnosia have?

recognizing faces

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, the most important factor in determining the color we see is the:

relative activity of short, medium, and long wavelength cones.

In depth perception, different views are received by each eye, depending on the distance of the object being viewed. What is this called?

retinal disparity

All of the following are reasons why the fovea is well-suited for highly detailed vision EXCEPT:

the optic nerve connects there.

Rods are to ____ as cones are to ____.

the periphery; the fovea

Light from the left half of the world strikes what part of the retina?

the right half

The visual paths in the temporal cortex collectively are referred to as the:

ventral stream.