Chapter 4 PSY 101

Looking at the image below, you are most likely to see it as 5 overlapping circles as opposed to a bunch of individual shapes put together, even if all the rings were the same color. This demonstrates

Gestalt principles.

A doctor informs you that you have a tumor in your thalamus. Which sense is least likely to be affected by the tumor?

Olfaction

Ever since Tony was young, he claimed he could only see shades of blue and yellow. On the other hand, Tim cannot see any colors at all, just shades of gray. Which of the following is true?

Tony has color deficiency

Matthew has noticed that some sounds suddenly appear off to him. It is as if he doesn't recognize the particular pitch. After conducting some tests, the doctor told him it appeared the problem was not with capturing the soundwaves or a problem with vibration conduction inside the ear, but instead an issue with transducing the vibrations into electrical signals. Based on that information, from where could the problem originate?

cochlea.

Dr. Warren places two pennies in a student's left hand. She lets the student feel the weight of the two pennies before adding one more penny to the pile. Dr. Warren then asks the student if they can feel any change in weight after adding the extra penny. This would be using which method?

difference threshold

Scott was out jogging for a while. He got a little tired a few miles in, but then started to feel better and even a little euphoric. This is sometimes called a "runner's high". A release of _______________ would likely cause the feeling Scott experienced.

endorphins

Doreen noticed recently that she has trouble with her central vision, however her vision to the sides seems fine. Whatever she focuses on seems blurry. Doreen may have an issue with her

fovea.

George accidently touches a hot stove and gets burned. He immediately rubs the painful area of the skin, which seems to help to reduce the sting of the burn to some extent. This pain reduction by rubbing the area is explained by the

gate-control theory.

Josie damaged the three tiny bones in her middle ear when she was exposed to a loud sound at a concert. What would be the likely result?

her auditory system would have some trouble carrying the vibrations to the cochlea

You witness a mother stroking and tightly holding her newborn baby. She is gently tracing lines in the baby's skin with her fingertip as she is trying to create as much skin to skin contact as possible. What is this an example of?

kangaroo care

If someone is trying to focus on an image up close and has no problem with that task, but then tries to focus on an object in a distance and has difficulty, it likely would be a problem with the

lens.

You look straight ahead and see several objects in front of you. You focus on the apple close to you and see it clearly. However, when you focus on the pencil located further behind the apple, the pencil appears blurry. Thus it seems you have trouble seeing distant objects clearly. You may have what condition?

myopia

Let's say that a person stares at a blue dot for a few minutes. Then he looks at a white piece of paper but perceives what appears to be a yellow dot after-image. This would support which theory of color vision?

opponent process theory

Joe is trying to make a right turn at night when he sees a headlight moving in the direction in which he wants to turn. He realizes after a second of staring at this headlight that it is actually a car with one headlight running rather than a motorcycle approaching him. Joe's eventual awareness and understanding that it is a car and not a motorcycle is an example of

perception.

After a tragic accident, Charles loses his left arm. Even though it is years later, he still feels this strange tingling sensation in the arm that is no longer present. Sometimes he feels an itch coming from what appears to be the left arm, even though it's not there. This is an example of

phantom limb pain.

A dog is walking outside and smells something in the grass. After it picks up the smell, the dog suddenly becomes hyper and also very aggressive with another dog walking by, which is unusual behavior for this particular dog. What could the dog have detected in the grass that made it unusually hyper and aggressive?

pheromones

You jump into a cold pool and find the water temperature very unpleasant. However, after a while of swimming in the cold pool, you start to not notice the unpleasant temperature anymore. This is an example of

resistance.

Diane looks at an image with just her left eye open, and then tries it with just her right eye open. She notices that the same image looks slightly different with each eye, and that she doesn't see as much depth as she did with both eyes open. This demonstrates which concept?

retinal disparity

Joseph noticed that he was having trouble with his night vision. It seems that he has difficulty adapting to the dark, and thus his eyes don't appear to get more sensitive to light. Which part of the eye is likely the main problem?

rods

Erika was walking down a driveway the other day and almost fell over as she lost her balance. She sometimes feels dizzy and nauseous and can feel the world is spinning at times. Which structure(s) could be having a problem that would explain what is wrong with her?

semicircular canals

If you had difficulties with audition and olfaction, you might have damage to the ____________ lobe.

temporal.

A researcher generates a 40 Hz pure tone for a participant, then generates an 800 Hz tone. Based on place theory, what would be the difference inside the cochlea between the two frequencies?

the different frequencies would stimulate different areas inside the cochlea

Sara looks at a stop sign in bright sunlight on one day. Then another day she looks at the exact same stop sign when it is overcast outside. What would Sara likely perceive when it is overcast?

the red looking about the same

You are driving at night on a familiar road. Almost every night you see squirrels cross the road in front of you and your car. One particular night you swear there was yet another one of these squirrels crossing the road when in fact it was actually a piece of garbage. This represents what type of processing?

top-down

Sylvester has a rare disease where if he glances at an object, he cannot see it because the reflection of the object into his eye is not turned into an electrical signal by the retina's receptors. This would be a problem with the process of

transduction.