Chapter 6 Psychology

Although he is unaware of moving lights in his right visual field, Graham correctly reports the direction of their movement ______ percent of the time.

90

The parts of the brain that enable consciousness and our ability to communicate that awareness are located in the:

frontal lobes.

cochlea

a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.

Weber's law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by

a constant minimum percentage.

cochlear implant

a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.

priming

a method used to measure unconscious cognitive processes, such as implicit memory, in which a person is exposed to info. and is later tested to see whether the info. affects behavior or performance on another task or in another situation.

fovea

a small area in the center of the retina, composed entirely of cones, where visual information is most sharply focused.

hypnosis

a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

pitch

a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

A person can detect a single drop of perfume diffused in an area the size of a one-bedroom apartment. This is a(n) _____ threshold.

absolute

The minute Mark walks into his mother-in-law's house to visit, he is struck by the strong smell of his mother-in-law's perfume. However, after about 10 minutes Mark no longer notices the smell. This is probably the result of sensory _____.

adaptation

The opponent-process theory is most useful for explaining the characteristics of:

afterimages.

phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in rapid succession

gestalt

an organized whole. Emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes.

Tinnitus is a(n) _____ phantom limb sensation.

auditory

Bees can see ultraviolet light, but cannot see the color red. This means that bees cannot see:

low-frequency wavelengths.

Relative height, motion, size, and linear perspective are examples of _____ cues to depth perception.

monocular

Relative size, interposition, relative motion, and relative height are examples of _____ cues to depth perspective.

monocular

Two examples of ______________depth cues are interposition and linear perspective

monocular

Eleanor suffered severe stroke damage near the rear of both sides of her brain. Based on the case study of Mrs. M. described in the textbook, the stroke is MOST likely to impair Eleanor's ability to perceive:

motion

Retina is to _____ as _____ is to hair cell.

rod and cone; cochlea

Robert, a nurse, notes that some parents of asthmatic children respond to very small changes in their children's breathing and seek care accordingly. However, other parents might not notice the same small changes. This difference in reaction to the same stimuli is best explained by:

signal detection theory.

In a condition called _____, one sort of sensation such as hearing sound, produces another such as seeing color.

synesthesia

Jess was in a serious car accident and is having trouble recognizing familiar faces. She MOST likely suffered damage to her _____ lobe, just behind her right ear.

temporal

A researcher subliminally presents a visual image to study participants, which increases the likelihood that they will later recognize the same briefly presented image. This BEST illustrates:

that information can be processed outside of conscious awareness.

Angela's reporting of hand sensations when her face is touched indicates:

that the brain restructures itself after certain kinds of damage.

perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to an altered perceptual reality; in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual field (as when wearing visual displacement goggles).

depth perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

middle ear

the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window.

extrasensory perception

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

As she was trying to study, Tanisha asked her roommate to lower the radio. Her roommate had turned the radio up originally from a volume level of 14 to 15, which was just enough for Tanisha to detect. Tanisha's roommate turned the radio back down to 14 after Tanisha asked her to lower it, which satisfied Tanisha. This is probably the result of:

the difference threshold.

wavelength

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.

As Erika walks out into the fresh air after a rap concert, she notices that her ears are ringing. The ringing indicates possible damage to:

the hair cells of her cochlea's basilar membrane.

inner ear

the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

retina

the light-sensitive, multi-layered inner surface of the eye that contains the rods and cones, as well as neurons that form the beginning of the optic nerve.

kinesthesia

the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

gate-control theory

the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory

theory that the retina contains three diff. types of color receptors- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue- which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

The pain system differs from the visual system in that:

there is no one type of stimulus that triggers pain (as light triggers vision).

Why did you use an experimental manipulation of coffee temperature—with some participants holding a warm cup of coffee and others holding a cup of iced coffee—to determine whether a cup of coffee can warm up relationships?

they do not relate to perceptions of warmth and friendliness.

Two theories together account for color vision. The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains ___________, and Hering's theory accounts for the nervous system's having ___________.

three types of color receptors; opponent-process cells

Interpreting new sensory information within the framework of a past memory illustrates _____ processing.

top down

The fact that perception involves more than the sum of sensations BEST illustrates the importance of _____ processing.

top-down

The fact that perceptions involve more than the sum of sensations BEST illustrates the importance of _____ processing.

top-down

Malik glances at his doctor's scrawl on a handwritten prescription. He draws on his knowledge of common medications to distinguish among a's, o's, and u's. Malik's experience BEST illustrates:

top-down processing.

The difference threshold is the minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli:

50 percent of the time.

What mental processes allow you to perceive a lemon as yellow?

- Perception is the mental process which allows to perceive a lemon as yellow. Further Explanation: The light reflection from the lemon enters the eye where the cone cells present at the back side of the eye has photoreceptor which sends signal to the brain.

olfaction

sense of smell

How do we perceive color in the world around us?

- According to the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory, the retina contains three types of color receptors. Contemporary research has found three types of cones, each most sensitive to the wavelengths of one of the three primary colors of light (red, green, or blue). Hering's opponent-process theory proposed three additional color processes (red-versus-green, blue-versus-yellow, and back-versus-white). Research has confirmed that, en route to the brain, neurons in the retina and the thalamus code the color-related information from the cones into pairs of opponent colors. These two theories, and the research that supports them, show that color processing occurs in two stages.

How do we use binocular and monocular cues to perceive the world in three dimensions, and how do we perceive motion?

- Depth perception is our ability to see objects in three dimensions and judge distance. The visual cliff and other research demonstrate that many species perceive the world in three dimensions at, or very soon after, birth. Binocular cues, such as retinal disparity, are depth cues that rely on information from both eyes. Monocular cues (such as relative size, interposition, relative height, relative motion, linear perspective, and light and shadow) let us judge depth using information transmitted by only one eye. As objects move, we assume that shrinking objects are retreating and enlarging objects are approaching. A quick succession of images on the retina can create an illusion of movement, as in stroboscopic movement of the phi phenomenon.

What does research on restored vision, sensory restriction, and perceptual adaptation reveal about the effects of experience on perception?

- Experience guides our perceptual interpretations. People blind from birth who gained sight after surgery lack the experience to visually recognize shapes, forms, and complete faces. Sensory restriction research indicates that there is a critical period for some aspects of sensory and perceptual development. Without early stimulation, the brain's neural organization does not develop normally. People given glasses that shift the world slightly to the left or right, or even upside down, experience perceptual adaptation. They are initially disoriented, but they manage to adapt to their new context.

Where are feature detectors located, and what do they do?

- Feature detectors, located in the visual cortex, respond to specific features of the visual stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. Supercell clusters in other critical areas respond to more complex patterns.

How did the Gestalt psychologists understand perceptual organization, and how do figure-ground and grouping principles contribute to our perceptions?

- Gestalt psychologists searched for rules by which the brain organizes fragments of sensory Fata into gestalts, or meaningful forms. In pointing out that the whole may exceed the sum of its parts, they noted that we filter sensory information and construct our perceptions. To recognize an object, we must first perceive it (see it as a figure) as distinct from its surroundings (the ground). We bring order and from to stimuli by organizing them into meaningful groups, following such rules as proximity, continuity, and closure.

. ________________is your sense of body position and movement. Your _______________ specifically monitors your head's movement, with sensors in the inner ear.

- Kinesthesia; vestibular sense

How do we detect loudness, discriminate pitch, and locate sounds?

- Loudness- from the number of activated hair cells - Pitch - place theory; we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different places along the cochlea's basilar membrane - Frequency theory; proposes that the brain deciphers the frequency of the neural impulses traveling up the auditory nerve to the brain. - Sound waves strike one ear sooner and more intensely than the other. The brain analyzes the minute differences in the sounds received by the two ears and computes the sound's source.

How do we sense touch?

- Our sense of touch is actually several senses—pressure, warmth, cold, and pain—that combine to produce other sensations, such as "hot."

How does sensory interaction influence our perceptions, and what is embodied cognition?

- Our senses can influence one another. This sensory interaction occurs, for example, when the smell of a favorite food amplifies its taste. Embodied cognition is the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments

After surgery to restore vision, adults who had been blind from birth had difficulty

- recognizing objects by sight.

The gate-control theory of pain proposes that

- small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals, but large-fiber activity can close access to those pain signals.

What biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences affect our experience of pain? How do placebos, distraction, and hypnosis help control pain?

- Pain is your body's way of telling you something has gone wrong. By drawing your attention to a burn, a break, or a sprain, pain orders you to change your behavior. - BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES: - Our pain experiences vary widely. Women are more sensitive to pain than men are (their senses of hearing and smell also tend to be more sensitive). The brain also creates pain, as it does in people's experiences of phantom limb sensations after a limb has been amputated. We feel, see, hear, taste, and smell with our brain, which can sense even without functioning senses. - activity in spinal cord's large and small fibers - genetic differences in endorphin production - the brain's interpretation of CNS activity -PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCES: - attention to pain - learning based on experience - expectation - SOCIAL-CULTURAL INFLUENCES: - Our perception of pain varies with our social situation and our cultural traditions. We tend to perceive more pain when others seem to be experiencing pain. When people felt empathy for another's pain, their own brain activity partly mirrored the activity of the actual brain in pain. Thus, our perception of pain is a biopsychosocial phenomenon. - presence of others - empathy for others' pain - cultural expectations

What are the claims of ESP, and what have most research psychologists concluded after putting these claims to the test?

- Parapsychology is the study of paranormal phenomena, including extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis. The three most testable forms of ESP are telepathy (mind-to-mind communication), clairvoyance (perceiving remote events), and precognition (perceiving future events).

How do perceptual constancies help us construct meaningful perceptions?

- Perceptual constancy enable us to perceive objects as stable despite the changing image they cast on our retinas. Color constancy is our ability to perceive consistent color in objects, even though the lighting and wavelengths shift. Brightness (or lightness) constancy is our ability to perceive and object as having constant lightness even when its illumination - the light cast upon it - changes. Our brain constructs our experience of an object's color or brightness through comparisons with other surrounding objects. Shape constancy is our ability to perceive familiar objects as unchanging in size despite knowing its distance gives clues about its size, but we sometimes misread monocular distance cues and reach the wrong conclusions, as in the Moon illusion.

What are the characteristics of air pressure waves that we hear as sound?

- Sound is compressed air that our ears detect and transform into neural impulses, which brain detects as sounds.

In what ways are our senses of taste and smell similar, and how do they differ?

- Taste and smell are both chemical senses. Taste is a composite of five basic sensations—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami—and of the aromas that interact with information from the taste receptor cells of the taste buds.There are no basic sensations for smell. We smell something when molecules of a substance carried in the air reach a tiny cluster of 20 million receptor cells at the top of each nasal cavity. Odor molecules trigger combinations of receptors, in patterns that the olfactory cortex interprets. The receptor cells send messages to the brain's olfactory bulb, then to the temporal lobe, and to parts of the limbic system.

What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?

- The outer ear collects sound waves, which are translated into mechanical waves by the middle ear and turned into fluid waves in the inner ear. The auditory nerve then translates the energy into electrical waves and sends them to the brain, which perceives and interprets the sound.

How does the ear transform sound energy into neural messages?

- The outer ear is the visible portion of the ear. The middle ear is the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea. The inner ear consists of the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. Through a mechanical chain of events, sound waves traveling through the auditory canal cause tiny vibrations in the eardrum. The bones of the middle ear amplify the vibrations and relay them to the fluid-filled cochlea. Rippling of the basilar membrane, caused by pressure changes in the cochlear fluid, causes movement of the tiny hair cells, triggering neural messages to be sent (via the thalamus) to the auditory cortex in the brain. - Sensorineural hearing loss (or nerve deafness) results from damage to the cochlea's hair cells or their associated nerves. Conduction hearing loss results from damage to the mechanical system that transmits sound waves to the cochlea. Cochlear implants can restore hearing for some people, but their use is controversial.

How do we sense our body's position and movement?

- Through kinesthesia, we sense the position and movement of our body parts. We monitor our head's (and thus our body's) position and movement, and maintain our balance, with our vestibular sense.

How does the brain use parallel processing to construct visual perceptions?

- Through parallel processing, the brain handles many aspects of vision (color, movement, form, and depth) simultaneously. Other neural teams integrate the results, comparing them with stored information and enabling perceptions.

We have specialized nerve receptors for detecting which five tastes? How did this ability aid our ancestors?

- We have specialized receptors for detecting sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami tastes. Being able to detect pleasurable tastes enabled our ancestors to seek our energy and protein rich foods. Detecting aversive tastes deterred them from eating toxic substances, increasing their chances of survival.

Why do you feel a little dizzy immediately after a roller-coaster ride?

- Your vestibular sense regulates balance and body positioning through kinesthetic receptors triggered by fluid in your inner ear. Wobbly legs and a spinning world are signs that these receptors are still responding to the rides turbulence. As your vestibular sense adjusts to solid ground, your balance will be restored.

What are the characteristics of the energy that we see as visible light? What structures in the eye help focus that energy?

- broad spectrum of electromagnetic energy -portion visible to humans -blue-violet wavelengths -red light wavelengths -energy particles strike -eye's inner surface -retina -hue-depends on wavelength -brightness -depends on intensity

Depth perception underlies our ability to

- judge distances.

How does the biopsychosocial approach explain our experience of pain? Provide examples.

- our experiences of pain is influenced by biological factors ( genetic diff. in endorphin production), psychological factors (attention), and social cultural factors ( presence of others)

sensory receptors

; - specialized forms of neurons, cells that make up nervous system - stimulated by different kinds of energy - each receptor transduces physical information into electrical information, depolarizes or hyperpolarizes the cell, causing it to fire more or less based on timing and intensity of information

dissociation

; a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.

frequency theory

; in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. (Also called temporal theory.)

posthypnotic suggestion

; suggestion a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors.

audition

; the sense or act of hearing.

cones

A visual receptor that transform light into neural impulses. These have excellent sensitivity, enable color vision, and function best in daylight or bright light.

rods

A visual receptor that transform light into neural impulses. These have poor sensitivity, detect black and white, and function well in dim light.

subliminal

Above treshold.

Cell phone use while driving is dangerous because: - we think we are attending to everything that we need to, but we probably aren't. - our attention and working memories, as well as our visual capacities, are limited. - when we attend to two or more tasks at the same time, there are costs. - All of these choices are correct.

All of these choices are correct.

From an evolutionary perspective, attention is important because: - there is too much information in the world. - some information is more important than other information. - it facilitates survival. - All of these choices are correct.

All of these choices are correct.

The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the _________.

Cochlea

optic nerve

Comprised of the axons of retinal ganglion cells, this carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

transduction

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret.

What did the researchers learn from the subliminal persuasion experiments summarized here?

Experiments show that subliminal messages (such as to "stop smoking") have no substantial, lasting effect. It seems we can be subtly affected by subliminal stimuli but not persuaded or manipulated by them.

Marissa's preterm baby is stimulated with hand massage several times each day. Which result can she expect for her baby?

Her baby will gain weight faster and be able to go home sooner than preterm babies who are not stimulated with hand massage.

Mia is attracted to a man she is chatting with in a nightclub. What is probably happening to her eyes?

Her pupils are dilating.

Tomas wakes up early in the morning and his room is fairly dark. He looks over and sees his shirt hanging on a hook. He knows it is his red shirt because he hung it up there before he went to bed, but in the dark he cannot see its color. It looks dark gray to him. Why is that?

In the dim light, the cones in his eyes are ineffectual.

bottom-up processing

Involves processing information by starting with the individual elements of a visual stimulus and gradually building up a final representation and interpretation (Grivas, et al, 2006). Focusus on gestalt, depth and constancy principles.

Knowledge of the coffee roasting process or enjoyment of coffee shops were NOT confounding variables in your study, because:

It makes it possible to determine whether changes in coffee temperature cause people to perceive others as more friendly and warm.

How do the rods and cones process information, and what is the path information travels from the eye to the brain?

Light entering the eye triggers chemical reaction in the light-sensitive rods and color-sensitive cones at the back of the retina, which converts light energy into neural impulses. After processing by bipolar and ganglion cells, neural impulses travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the thalamus, and on to the visual cortex.

The sensory receptors that are found mostly in the skin and that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals are called__________ .

Nociceptors

Which of the following ESP phenomena is supported by solid, replicable scientific evidence?

None of these phenomena

sensory adaptation

Occurs when sensory receptors change their sensitivity to the stimulus. Sensory adaptation. Distinguishes sensory stimuli that takes into account the only the stimuli strengths but also elements such as the Setting, physical state, mood, and attitude.

How do absolute thresholds and difference thresholds differ?

Our absolute threshold for any stimulus is the minimum stimulation necessary for us to be consciously aware of it 50 percent of the time. Signal detection theory predicts how and when we will detect a faint stimulus amid background noise. Individual absolute thresholds vary, depending on the strength of the signal and also on our experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. Our difference threshold (also called just noticeable difference, or jnd) is the difference we can discern between two stimuli 50 percent of the time. Weber's law states that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (not a constant amount) to be perceived as different.Priming (the often unconscious activation of certain associations that may predispose one's perception, memory, or response)shows that we process some information from stimuli below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Which statement is most accurate? - Because the human brain is a massively parallel machine, it can attend to many things at once. - Our attention is easily vulnerable to distraction. - If we think we are able to attend to two tasks at the same time, we probably are. - Experiments have shown that we are good at dividing our attention.

Our attention is easily vulnerable to distraction.

What three steps are basic to all our sensory systems?

Our senses (1) receive sensory stimulation (often using specialized receptor cells); (2) transform that stimulation into neural impulses; and (3) deliver the neural information to the brain. Transduction is the process of converting one form of energy into another. Researchers in psychophysics study the relationships between stimuli's physical characteristics and our psychological experience of them.

_____ refers to the process of organizing and interpreting sensations.

Perception

How do our expectations, contexts, motivation, and emotions influence our perceptions?

Perceptual set is a mental predisposition that functions as a lens through which we perceive the world. Our learned concepts (schemas) prime us to organize and interpret ambiguous stimuli in certain ways. Our physical and emotional context, as well as our motivation, can create expectations and color our interpretation of events and behaviors.

What did the researchers learn from this slide-exposure experiment?

Positive or negative subliminal images (flashed too briefly to be perceived) can prime participants' responses, affecting their ratings of a later perceived stimulus. Thus, a seen-but-not-perceived werewolf image can lead a participant to rate a subsequent photo of a person less favorably.

How has priming been used in the slide-exposure experiment with subliminal stimuli?

Researchers have flashed unperceived subliminal (sub-threshold) stimuli to people's eyes. They do so to see if such stimuli can prime (activate) people's unconscious associations to an ensuing perceived stimulus, such as someone's picture.

What are sensation and perception? What do we mean by bottom-up processing and top-down processing?

Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting this information, enabling recognition of meaningful events. Sensation and perception are actually parts of one continuous process. Bottom-up processing is sensory analysis that begins at the entry level, with information flowing from the sensory receptors to the brain. Top-down processing is information processing guided by high-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions by filtering information through our experience and expectations.

Which of the following is an accurate description of phantom limb phenomenon?

Some phantom limb patients actually attempt to use the missing limb.

intensity

The degree of light and sound that determined the amplitude of the waves and is experienced as brightness and loudness, respectively. Example: Sounds that exceed 85 decibels in amplitude will damage the auditory system.

hue

The property of wavelengths of light known as color; different wavelengths correspond to our subjective experience of different colors.

difference threshold

The smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can still be recognized as a difference; operationally defined as the point at which the stimuli are recognized as different half the time.

signal detection theory

The study of people's tendencies to make correct judgements in detecting the presence of other stimuli (Ex: having a conversation with your friend at a loud party)

To what extent can the temporal and place theories explain the perception of high- and low-pitched sounds?

The temporal theory cannot explain the perception of high-pitched sounds.

opponent-process theory

The theory maintains that color vision depends on pairs of opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black). This theory explains the second stage of color processing.

If people stare at an object, why does it not seem to disappear?

Their nerve cells are constantly firing.

Which statement BEST explains why psychics are sometimes able to make accurate predictions?

They make lots of guesses.

In measuring perceptions of a stranger, why did you choose to use some trait adjectives (warm, friendly, caring) and not others (talkative, clean, detail-oriented)?

To focus only on traits that relate to warmth and friendliness

Why did you select room temperature of the laboratory setting as a confounding variable?Why did you select room temperature of the laboratory setting as a confounding variable?

To rule out the effect of room temperature changes on perceiving others as warm and friendly

Morrie has had a cold for five days, and his nose is so stuffy that he cannot smell anything. When he sips his coffee, he finds that it is tasteless. What is the MOST likely reason for this?

To savor a taste, we need to breathe the aroma through our nose.

You have had a cold for five days, and your nose is so stuffy you cannot smell anything. When you have your coffee, it seems like it has no taste. What is the most likely reason for this?

To savor a taste, you need to breathe the aroma through your nose.

Weber's law

Weber's Law, more simply stated, says that the size of the just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus value. For example: Suppose that you presented two spots of light each with an intensity of 100 units to an observer.

retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing the images of the retinas of the two eyes, the brain computes distance. The greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object

Which sequence correctly arranges the structures of the inner ear from the largest and most inclusive to the smallest and most specific?

cochlea, basilar membrane, hair cells

The visual cortex is located in the

back

Subliminal stimuli are

below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Sensation is to _____________ as perception is to __________.

bottom-up processing; top-down processing

Cones are the eye's receptor cells that are especially sensitive to ________ light and are responsible for our _____________ vision.

bright; color

The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of

brightness

The height of a sound wave (for example, the amplitude of the wave) determines what aspect of hearing?

loudness

According to the Gestalt psychologists, people tend to fill in the gaps to create a complete, whole object. This is called the principle of:

closure

A _____ is a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea. Please type the correct answer in the following input field, and then select the submit answer button or press the enter key when finished.

cochlear implant

At his visit to the optometrist, Lance had failed to distinguish painted numbers within the designs shown to him. Lance most likely has:

color-deficient vision.

As one watches a dog play in the park, light reflected from the dog's fur first passes through three structures of one's eye. In what order does the light pass through these structures?

cornea, pupil, lens

The visual cliff experiments suggest that

crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth.

monocular cue

depth cues that only require input from one eye; often used in 2D art to create illusion of depth

binocular cue

depth cues that require the combined input of both eyes

Your 9-month-old niece is just learning to crawl. Your brother has agreed to have her participate in an experiment that incorporates a visual cliff. What is most likely being studied in this experiment?

depth perception

Our perceptual set influences what we perceive. This mental tendency reflects our

experiences, assumptions, and expectations.

The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called _____________ .

feature detectors

In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of

figure-ground.

Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called

grouping.

After a rap concert, as Jamie walks out into the fresh air, she notices her ears are ringing. This ringing indicates possible damage to the:

hair cells of the basilar membrane.

Sensory adaptation helps us focus on

important changes in the environment.

place theory

in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated.

embodied cognition

in psychological science, the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.

parallel processing

information processing in which several aspects of a stimulus, such as light or sound, are processed simultaneously.

Marty and Becky are in the mood to have a hamburger for lunch. Marty wants to grill the hamburger outside instead of cooking it on top of the stove because he says he likes the taste of a grilled hamburger more than one cooked on top of the stove. The difference in taste Marty prefers is actually caused by the smell of the charcoal embedded into the hamburger. This is an example of sensory _____.

interaction

top-down processing

involves using psychological factors such as motivation, knowledge from past experience and the setting, or context, to interpret and assign meaning to a visual stimulus.

As one walks into a brightly lit room, the black structure in the center of one's eye seems to shrink to a tiny black dot. This response is caused by the action of the eye structure called the:

iris

Another term for difference threshold is the _______________.

just noticeable difference

visual cliff

laboratory device for testing depth perception among infants and young animals; its use demonstrated that, among most species, animals have the ability to perceive depth by the time they are mobile

Talia is 45 years old. She has started to notice that newspaper print is too small for her to read. Talia needs reading glasses because the:

lenses of her eyes are less able to accommodate.

conduction hearing loss

less common form of hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

One reads about an accident at a railroad crossing and wonders about the cause. Perhaps the car's driver overestimated the distance of the train because the parallel tracks stimulated the monocular depth cue of _____.

linear perspective

Railroad tracks appear to converge in the distance. This provides a cue for depth perception known as:

linear perspective.

feature detectors

located in the visual cortex of the brain, are nerve cells that selectively respond to specific visual features, such as movement, shape, or angle. Feature detectors are evidently the basis of visual information processing.

Afterimages are BEST explained by:

opponent-process theory.

figure-ground

organization of visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

The brain's ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called ________________.

parallel processing

perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, lightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change

The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called ________.

perception

In experiments, people have worn glasses that turned their visual fields upside down. After a period of adjustment, they learned to function quite well. This ability is called ______________________ .

perceptual adaptation

Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts

perceptual constancy.

After hearing that Bruce had served a prison sentence, Janet began to perceive his genuinely friendly behavior as insincere and manipulative. This best illustrates the impact of:

perceptual set.

Racial and ethnic stereotypes can sometimes bias the way one sees others' behaviors. This BEST illustrates the impact of:

perceptual set.

Both _____ and _____ indicate how experiences help humans to construct perception.

perceptual set; context

After hearing that Bryce had served a prison sentence, Janet began to view his genuinely friendly behavior as insincere and manipulative. This BEST illustrates the impact of:

perceptual sets.

grouping

perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

_____________theory explains how we hear high-pitched sounds, and ________theory, extended by the __________principle, explains how we hear low-pitched sounds.

place; frequency; volley

A psychic claims he can predict the future. This is known as _____.

precognition

perceptual set

predisposition or 'readiness' to perceive something in accordance with what we expect it to be. Perceptual set is often referred to as expectancy because various psychological factors (such prior experience and context) create an expectation to perceive information in a particular way.

The way in which one quickly groups the individual letters in this test item into separate words BEST illustrates the Gestalt principle of _____.

proximity

The cliché of the individual with extrasensory perceptual abilities bending a spoon with their mind illustrates the more specific phenomenon of:

psychokinesis

While playing Ring Around the Rosie, some children are spinning around and around. When they stop they still feel as though they are spinning because their _____ canals and kinesthetic receptors have not returned to their neutral state.

semicircular

Carlos was just touched on his cheek, which is a(n) _____. In order for Carlos to know if he was kissed or slapped, Carlos needs a(n) _____.

sensation; perception

What is the function of sensory adaptation?

sensory adaption (our diminished sensitivity to constant or routing odors, sounds, and touches) focuses our attention on informative changes in our environment.

A food's aroma can greatly enhance its taste. This is an example of

sensory interaction.

Troy and Allan are in the mood to have a hamburger for lunch. Troy wants to grill the hamburger outside instead of cooking it on top of the stove because he says he likes the taste of a grilled hamburger more than one cooked on top of the stove. The difference in taste Troy prefers is actually caused by the smell of the charcoal embedded into the hamburger. This is an example of:

sensory interaction.

absolute threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. Signal Detection Theory. a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise").

sensorineural hearing loss

the most common form of hearing loss, also called nerve deafness; caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves.

When psychologists refer to the visible part of the light spectrum, they mean:

the narrow range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum that can be detected by the human eye.

frequency

the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second).

The blind spot in your retina is located where

the optic nerve leaves the eye.

sensory interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.

sensation

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception. the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

accommodation

the process by which the lens of the eye changes shape to focus near objects on the retina

perception

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information; enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

blind spot

the region of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye. Because there are no rods or cones in this area, there is no vision here

vestibular sense

the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.

parapsychology

the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis.

Janice opens her eyes in the morning to see a photograph by her bedside. At that point, her eyes are receiving light energy, which they change into neural messages for the brain to process. This conversion of one form of energy into another is called:

transduction.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) activates _____ taste receptors.

umami

The characteristic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is .

wavelength

How are we affected by subliminal stimuli?

we do sense some stimuli subliminally, less than 50 percent of the time, and can be affected by these sensations. But although we can be primed, subliminal sensations have no powerful, enduring influence.