PSY Ch. 5

What does the place theory of pitch perception suggest?

Different portions of the ear are sensitive to sounds of different decibels.

Ronaldo was born without the ability to experience pain, though he can perceive temperature differences and changes in pressure. What is his condition called?

Pacinian syndrome

Why are olfaction and gustation called chemical senses?

They have sensory receptors that respond to molecules in the food we eat or in the air we breathe.

Imagine yourself in a dark classroom reading PowerPoint slides. If an audience member were to check the internet using her cell phone and causing her screen to light up, chances are that many people would notice the change in illumination in the classroom. However, if the same thing happened in a brightly lit classroom during a discussion, very few people would notice. The cell phone brightness does not change, but its ability to be detected as a change in illumination varies dramatically between the two contexts. This is an example of ________.

Weber's law

Sarit is at a bar full of music, chatter, and laughter. He gets involved in an interesting conversation with a woman named Mona, and he tunes out all the background noise. Sarit's friend, Karen, taps him on the shoulder and asks what song just played on the jukebox. Sarit says he doesn't know, even though he is sitting right next to the jukebox and is familiar with popular music. This illustrates the role that ________ plays in what is sensed versus what is perceived.

attention

Light waves are first transmitted through the ________ at the front of the eye and enter an opening called the ________ before shining onto the retina.

cornea; pupil

Nikki was walking around a department store shopping one day, and did not realize that the shirt she was wearing looked just like the shirts worn by employees. When a stranger asked, "do you work here," she thought it was funny. The other customers' assumption that Nikki was a store employee demonstrates the Gestalt principle of _______.

similarity

Which perceptual system allows Nancy to run without watching her feet and hit a baseball without focusing on her hands?

somatosensation OR proprioception

The auditory cortex, in which sound stimuli are processed for perception, is located in the ________ lobe.

temporal

Which type of processing involves the interpretation of sensations and is influenced by available knowledge and expectancies?

top-down

Your ears receive sound waves and convert this energy into neural messages that travel to your brain and are processed as sounds. This is an example of ________.

transduction

Vinnie is standing on one leg with his arms in the air. The ________ sense helps keep him balanced so he has less chance of falling over.

vestibular

One principle of civil engineering is that when you design a highway you should have traffic flow in the same direction and avoid interruptions to that flow as much as possible. Exit ramps tend to be curved so that cars don't have to stop rather than having 90-degree angles that force stops and starts. This is an application of which Gestalt principle?

good continuation

________ amplitudes are associated with ________ sounds.

higher; louder

Participants were instructed to focus on either white or black objects, disregarding the other color. When a red cross passed across the screen, about one third of the subjects did not notice it. This research protocol demonstrates which concept?

inattentional blindness

When a child works on a "connect the dots" puzzle, she can often see the completed work before she has finished all of the dots. Once there is enough visual information present, she's able to perceive the completed picture even though it is still incomplete. Which Gestalt principle does this demonstrate?

proximity OR closure

Two lines appear to be a different length, though in reality they are the same length. This is known as the ________ illusion.

Ménière or Müller-Lyer

Wesley is in a movie theater with no windows—the only light is low illumination from the emergency lights on the floor. Which photoreceptors will be most useful to Wesley as he attempts to leave the theater?

rods

Ravon is deaf. He was born without the ability to hear, and has never experienced an auditory stimulus. When people write using "sound" type words like "loud," "soft," and "quiet," he sometimes has difficulty understanding what they are trying to convey. Ravon has ________ deafness.

sensorineural

Catherine is at a crowded baseball game when she loses track of her son, Nick. Despite the loud cheering and noise of the crowd, she can pinpoint his location when he calls for her because she can distinguish the sound of his voice from the all the other voices. This illustrates ________ theory.

signal detection