PSY 108 6a) Basic Concepts of Sensation and Perception
San Jose police fatally shot a 19-year-old girl who was holding a power drill in 2014. The police officers claimed that they thought she was holding a gun. Their perception of the woman was influenced by the _____.
context
_____ refers to the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information. This takes place in the cerebral cortex after sensory information has been transducted.
Perception
_____ stimulation occurs below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness
Subliminal
The size of the difference threshold is greater for heavier objects than for lighter ones. This best illustrates _____ law.
Weber's
Barbara stubbed her toe last night. It hurts and all day today she has been aware of her toe. She says, "This is so weird. I usually don't think about my toe." Barbara is describing sensory _____.
adaptation
The size of the _____ threshold is greater for heavier objects than for lighter ones. This best illustrates Weber's law.
difference
Sensory adaptation can be defined as
diminished sensitivity as a result of repeated stimulation
John and Jaqueline have been married for 10 years and love each other very much. They just had an argument where John told his wife that she was useless. The argument took place in front of Jaqueline's friend, Simone. Jaqueline tells Simone that "He's just having a bad day." Jaqueline perceives the argument as minimal due to her _____.
emotions
Walton opens his eyes in the morning to see flowers by the bedside. At that point, his eyes are receiving light energy, which they change into _____ messages for the brain to process. This conversion of one form of energy into another is called transduction.
neural
Dr. HanPsychology is studying _____ in children. When given a serving of chicken nuggets, children thought that the nuggets served in a McDonald's bag tasted much better than nuggets served in a plain bag. Dr. Han concludes that the children's sense of taste has been influenced.
perceptual set
Psychophysics is the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and the ____ experience of them.
psychological
Perceptual sets are the result of _____, which people form to organize and interpret unfamiliar information.
schemas
After hearing that Bryce 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
Two TSA officers are scanning bags at the airport. One of the officers lets a bag go through, but the other officer yells, "Wait, didn't you see that?" Why one officer saw a weapon and the other did not is best explained by:
signal detection theory
One research study discussed in the text explained how bar patrons who consumed a free sample of vinegar-laced beer preferred the free beer unless they had been told about the addition of vinegar. Their sense of ____ has been impacted by their perceptual set.
taste
Context creates an expectation that _____ influence(s) our perception.
top-down processing
Racial and ethnic stereotypes can sometimes bias perceptions of others' behaviors. This best illustrates the impact of:
top-down processing
