AP Classroom Sensation & Perception Test

Hunger and eating are primarily regulated by which of the following? a. androgens b. estrogens c. the hypothalamus d. the kidneys e. the medulla oblongata

c.

Of the following, a behavioral psychologist is most likely to study the ... a. perceived locus of control of adults who experience panic attacks b. formation of emotional attachments to significant others c. defense mechanisms used by depressed adults and children in stressful situations d. genetic basis for schizophrenic disorders e. effects of token economies on establishing social skills among children with emotional disturbances

c.

Curare blocks action at acetylcholine synapses and causes paralysis. This drug is an example of an ... a. antagonist b. agonist c. inhibitory postsynaptic potential d. excitatory postsynaptic potential e. excitatory neurotransmitter

a.

Respondents to surveys and questionnaires often report that they are healthier, happier, and less prejudiced than would be expected based on the results of other types of research. This finding can best be explained by which of the following? a. sampling bias b. experimenter bias c. the social desirability bias d. the bystander effect e. the placebo effect

c.

Significant damage to which of the following parts of the brain will most likely cause a person to fall into a deep coma from which the person will be unable to awaken? a. hypothalamus b. frontal lobe c. reticular formation d. amygdala e. thalamus

c.

Which of the following scenarios most clearly describes the effects of a strong kinesthetic sense? a. Developing a craving for a food after smelling it b. Being able to navigate using directions c. Being able to tell exact bodily position without looking at the body d. Being able to locate where a sound is coming from e. Balancing oneself on a ladder

c.

Researchers looking to create a drug to reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease would most likely focus their efforts on which of the following neurotransmitters? a. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) b. Serotonin c. Norepinephrine d. Dopamine e. Acetylcholine

e.

When Rosa has a cold, she cannot taste the flavor of her pizza. Which of the following psychological terms describes Rosa's inability to taste? a. vestibular sense b. just noticeable difference c. feature analysis d. optic chiasm e. sensory interaction

e.

Which of the following is the correct path a neural impulse will follow through the different layers of the retina? a. Ganglion cells, bipolar cells, rods and cones, optic nerve b. Bipolar cells, ganglion cells, rods and cones, optic nerve c. Optic nerve, ganglion cells, bipolar cells, rods and cones d. Rods and cones, ganglion cells, bipolar cells, optic nerve e. Rods and cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells, optic nerve

e.

In the dark, an object is more clearly seen when viewed in peripheral vision than when viewed directly. This phenomenon occurs because the rods located in the retina are ... a. more sensitive in the dark than cones and are not found in the fovea b. less sensitive in the dark than cones and are not found in the fovea c. are as sensitive in the dark as cones and are few in number in the fovea d. more numerous than cones are in the fovea e. as numerous as cones are all over the retina

a.

Research has shown that a major reason for poor performance while multitasking is that while multitasking, people ... a. switch their attention rapidly from task to task, so they miss critical information associated with a task that is not receiving their attention b. confuse information in long-term memory associated with the various tasks they are trying to perform c. have a heightened awareness of each task they are trying to perform, so it is difficult for them to ignore one task temporarily in order to complete another task d. process information associated with the various tasks at a deep level, so they encode too much information to recall easily and therefore their performance deteriorates e. encode information efficiently, but they have a difficult time retrieving it for use on a given task

a.

The change in the curvature of the lens that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances is called ... a. accommodation b. adaptation c. conduction d. convergence e. consonancy

a.

The thalamus processes information for all of the following senses EXCEPT ... a. smell b. hearing c. taste d. vision e. touch

a.

Tina is reading an important letter when she accidentally splashes water on the paper. The water has smudged a few words, but she is still able to understand what the letter says. This can be explained by ... a. top-down processing b. botton-up processing c. parallel processing d. retinal disparity e. color constancy

a.

Which of the following research approaches would be best for testing the hypothesis that the presence of certain odors causes people to gamble more? a. experimental b. observational c. correlational d. survey e. case study

a.

After his friend said a new movie was the funniest he had seen in years, Willard found himself laughing throughout the viewing, even though the movie was not very funny. What concept is Willard demonstrating? a. functional fixedness b. perceptual set c. Inattentional blindess d. bottom-up processing e. context-dependent memory

b.

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel's research on responses of the brain to visual stimuli showed that ... a. patterns are recognized exclusively by template matching b. many cortical cells respond most strongly to specific visual information c. pattern recognition occurs in the lateral geniculate nucleus d. the retinal image must be upside down to be recognized e. pattern recognition is better in normal-sighted individuals than in nearsighted or farsighted individuals

b.

Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues have used the visual cliff to measure an infant's ability to perceive ... a. patterns b. depth c. size constancy d. shape constancy e. different hues

b.

Jason is attending a parade that features the local high school band. Jason's friend Brent plays the trombone in the band. It is difficult for Jason to hear Brent play at the parade. Which of the following would best allow Jason to hear Brent's trombone? a. sensory adaptation? b. selective attention c. perceptual constancy d. Weber's law e. functional fixedness

b.

Laura arrives at a park that is located very close to a factory that produces cookies. She immediately notices the strong odor of chocolate chip cookies, but after a while she no longer detects the smell of the cookies. This can best be explained by which of the following? a. accommodation b. sensory adaptation c. Weber's law d. Assimiliation e. Phi phenomenon

b.

People who are color blind most likely have deficiencies in their ... a. rods b. cones d. optic nerve e. occipital lobe

b.

The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's ... a. contrast sensitivity b. absolute threshold c. response threshold d. critical frequency e. just noticeable difference

b.

When viewed from the window of a moving train, nearby objects seem to pass by more quickly than do more distant objects. This cue for depth perception is called ... a. stroboscopic motion b. motional parallax c. motion constancy d. linear perspective e. the Muller-Lyer illusion

b.

Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable? a. Some characteristic of research participants that is constant, such as gender b. Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment c. A factor that is manipulated by the experimenter in order to observe its effects on some other factor d. A factor that can be used to predict how people in an experiment will respond e. A factor that is equated for the experimental and the control group

b.

An industrial-organizational psychologist would be most likely to study the ... a. cognitive development of adults b. recreational activities in a community center c. effectiveness of management training d. industrialization of the United States e. career development of high school students

c.

Ana injured her eye in an accident and has to wear a patch over the eye while it heals. Which of the following cues would she best be able to use to make judgments about the distance objects are from her? a. Convergence b. Binocular disparity c. Linear perspective d. Similarity e. Closure

c.

As you watch a friend walk away from you, your retinal image of your friend gets smaller. Despite this, you do not perceive him to be shrinking. This is an example of ... a. motional parallax b. retinal disparity c. size constancy d. continuity e. common fate

c.

An evolutionary psychologist would explain that humans desire social interaction, social acceptance, and social affiliation due to a need for ... a. achievement b. individualism c. behavioral change d. survival e. self-actualization

d.

An individual who drinks alcohol daily finds it necessary to drink increasing amounts to achieve the state of well-being attained in the past. This individual is showing ... a. withdrawal symptoms b. alcohol-induced psychosis c. state-dependent learning d. alcohol tolerance e. delirium tremens

d.

Ben was enjoying a walk in the woods on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. As he went around a curve, he noticed a bear walking toward him. Immediately his pupils dilated, he began to perspire, and his heart accelerated. These changes are most closely related to the function of the ... a. angular gyrus b. hippocampus c. parasympathetic nervous system d. sympathetic nervous system e.ventricular system

d.

Gustatory receptors are sensitive to all of the following taste qualities EXCEPT ... a. bitter b. sweet c. salty d. spicy e. sour

d.

In a normal distribution, which of the following statements is true about the area that falls between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean? a. It contains the bottom 50% of the distribution b. It contains the middle 50% of the distribution c. It contains the bottom 68% of the distribution d. It contains the middle 68% of the distribution e. It is the same as the square of the average deviation

d.

In an experiment to test the effects of hunger on aggressive behavior, aggressive behavior would be the ... a. placebo b. control c. hypothesis d. dependent variable e. independent variable

d.

The place in the retina where the optic nerve exits to the brain is called the ... a. lens b. sciera c. fovea d. blind spot e. aqueous humour

d.

Which of the following is a binocular cue for depth perception? a. linear perspective b. texture gradient c. interposition d. retinal disparity e motion parallax

d.

Which of the following parts of the brain is most active in decision-making? a. reticular formation b. corpus callosum c. hypothalamus d. cerebral cortex e. pituitary gland

d.

A reason that one typically does not notice a blind spot in the visual field is that ... a. the blind spot is very small, and no visual stimuli are likely to be so small that the blind spot completely obscures them b. most visual stimuli affect only one visual hemisphere, and one hemisphere can cover for the other c. visual stimuli usually affect the occipital cortex in both hemispheres d. the blind spot habituates to a stimulus when the head is held still e. the brain fills in missing information so there is no awareness that the visual field is incomplete

e.

An individual's ability to focus on a particular conversation in a noisy and crowded room is called ... a. auditory localization b. dichotic listening c. deep processing d. divided attention e. selective attention

e.

Damage to which of the following brain structures may cause the inability to detect the emotional significance of facial expressions, especially those demonstrating fear? a. hippocampus b. thalamus c. cerebellum d. hypothalamus e. amygdala

e.

Ernst Weber's and Gustav Fechner's psychophysical laws concern the relation between which of the following? a. The perceived uniformity and size of a stimulus b. The darkness of a room and the time needed for the rods to adjust c. The quality of a stimulus and the likelihood that it is perceived as pleasurable d. The perceived sizes of afterimages projected across different distances e. The intensity of a stimulus and its corresponding psychological sensation

e.

Photoreceptors relay visual information to the brain through which of the following cells? a. Trigeminal and vestibular b. Ganglion and vestibular c. Bipolar and vestibular d. Bipolar and Schwann e. Bipolar and ganglion

e.

Which of the following is used to reduce the effects of confounding variables in experiments? a. Descriptive statistics b. Inferential statistics c. Meta-analysis d. An algorithm e. Random assignment

e.

Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates a context effect? a. Carol performs better in her recital when she practices in short sessions, several times a day. b. Edgar solves his jigsaw puzzles faster when he completes the edges first. c. Rosemarie shoots more accurately at her archery competition when other people are around. d. Vernon is more social at parties when he has had caffeine. e. Jeannette does better on her exam when she takes it in the same room where she studies.

e.