Test 2: Perception, Sensation and Memory

________ interference occurs when old information interferes with the recall of new information.

Proactive

A phenomenon in which the perceived intensity of a repeated stimulus decreases over time is called sensory ________.

adaption

Distant objects appear less distinct than closer objects because of dust or haze in the air. This is called the ________.

aerial perspective

A false or misleading impression of the environment that is shared by others in the same context is called ________.

an illusion

Memory is a ________ process, which means that it includes the organization and shaping of information by processing, storage, and retrieval of information.

constructive

The correct order of the pathway for light energy as it enters and makes its way through an eye is ________.

cornea - pupil - lens - retina

A vivid memory of circumstances associated with strongly emotional or surprise events that triggers hormone release is called a(n) ________.

flashbulb memory

We organize and perceive sensory data in terms of ________.

form, constancy and depth

Rods are most sensitive ________, and less sensitive ________

in dim light; to color and details

Sleep is important for memory because ________.

in sleep we process and store new information acquired when we are awake

The process of repeating information over and over to maintain it in short-term memory is called ________.

maintenance rehearsal

Cramming is another term for ________, which is an inefficient form of studying.

massed practice

The process by which information is encoded, stored, and later retrieved is called ________.

memory

The tendency to remember previous sad events when feeling sad in the present is an example of ________.

mood congruence

________ theory suggests that people block memories that could cause pain, threat, or embarrassment or provoke anxiety.

motivated forgetting

Coding converts sensory input into a specific sensation and is dependent upon the ________.

neural pathway that caries the information to the brain

According to retrieval failure theory, memories stored in LTM are ________.

never really forgotten (tip-of-the-tongue-phenomenon)

In answering this question, the correct multiple-choice option may serve as a ________ for recalling accurate information from your long-term memory.

retrieval cue

________ interference occurs when new information interferes with the recall of old information

retroactive

Your visual receptors have begun to detect, convert, and transmit the contours of the letters on this exam to your brain. You are therefore engaged in the process of ________.

sensation

________ memory refers to the initial memory stage, which holds information from the world around us. It has relatively large capacity, but the duration is only a few seconds.

sensory

When you first put your clothes on this morning you felt them on your skin, but within minutes you no longer noticed them. This is an example of ________.

sensory adaption

Short-term memory receives information direction from ________ memory shortly after encoding has occurred

sensory and long-term

According to the three-stage memory model, information must first enter ________ memory and then transfer to ________ memory. Finally, it must be moved to ________ memory to be retained for a meaningful length of time.

sensory; short-term; long-term

When you see a partially opened door, you know that the door is rectangular even though the image being detected by your retina is a trapezoid. This is an example of the perceptual principle called ________ constancy.

shape

Maintenance rehearsal allows us to keep information in ________ memory longer than the typical 30 seconds.

short-term

Eighteen-month-old Danielle thinks that her daddy is getting smaller and smaller as he walks away from her. This child has not yet developed the principle of ________.

size constancy

________ is the process of grouping separate pieces of information into a single unit in order to store more information in ________ memory.

Chunking; short-term

Which of the following is the CORRECT pathway traveled by sound waves through the ear?

Ear drum → hammer → anvil → stirrup → cochlea

The fact that you can recall what someone said several seconds ago, even if you were absorbed in another task when he or she first said it, is explained by ________ memory.

Echoic

theory suggests that we forget things because other information is obstructing its storage or retrieval.

Interference

Distributed practice is a learning technique in which ________

Learning sessions alternate with non-learning rest periods

Most information related to smell is processed in the ________.

Olfactory bulb

________ is/are the mind's window to the outside world.

Our senses

________ is the readiness to perceive in a particular manner, based on expectations.

Perceptual set

Loss of memory for events before an injury is called________ amnesia

Retrograde

When the brain is sorting out and attending only to the most important messages from the senses, it is engaged in the process of ________.

Selective attention

The artist Vincent van Gogh is known for cutting off his outer ear. What is the precise name of the part he cut off?

The pinna

The smallest magnitude of a particular stimulus energy that can be detected 50% of the time is called its ________ threshold

absolute

Cone receptor cells in the retina _____.

become more numerous toward the center of the retina

Information processing that begins with smaller sensory features and finishes with completed perceptions is called ________ processing.

bottom-up

The reason you are seeing this test, rather than smelling it, tasting it, or hearing it, is because your visual receptors are being stimulated and the information is being sent along the optic nerve to the occipital lobe in your brain. This process is called ________.

coding

The cones on the retina are sensitive to ________.

color and detail

The encoding specificity principle says that information retrieval is improved when ________.

conditions of retrieval are similar to encoding conditions

________ is your ability to accurately judge distance and perceive three-dimensional space.

depth perception

Feature detectors are specialized cells in the brain that ________.

detect and respond only to certain sensory information

Sensation is the process of ________ raw sensory data from the internal and external world and transmitting it to the brain.

detecting, converging and transmitting

The process of translating information into a neural code or language that will be retained in memory is called ________.

encoding

Transduction is the process of converting ________.

environmental stimuli into neural impulses

The subsystem within long-term memory that consciously stores facts, information, and personal life experiences is called ________ memory.

explicit

Humans have specialized cells for face recognition and frogs have specialized cells for bug detection. These cells are called ________.

feature detectors

According to the most fundamental Gestalt principle of organization, our perceptions consist of ________.

figure and ground

The difference threshold is the minimal ________.

physical difference needed to notice a change between two stimuli

_______ interference occurs when old information interferes with the recall of new information.

proactive

The branch of psychology that studies the relation between attributes of the physical stimuli and our sensory experience of those attributes is called ________.

psychophysics

You are reading the newspaper in the student lounge when your best friend comes up behind you, casting a shadow over the paper. The principle of brightness constancy says that you will ________.

realize that the newspaper's brightness did not really change

Sensory detection happens when our ________ detect and process sensory information from the environment.

receptors

Tiny cells on your retina are detecting the contours of the letters on this page and sending that information to your brain. These are your ________ for vision.

receptors

If you learn something while under the influence of caffeine, you recall it better when you are using caffeine again; this is known as ________ memory.

state-dependent

The blind spot is_____.

the area where the optic nerve exits the eye

The experience of phantom limb pain suggests that ________ can generate pain without sensory input.

the brain

When you are able to read words that have the letters mixed up just because you are expecting certain words to appear, you are engaged in ________ processing

top-down

When you listen to music, the sound waves are converted into neural impulses for your brain to process. This is called ________.

transduction

The immediate goal of elaborative rehearsal is to better ________ new information.

understand