11 visual knowledge test bank q

Which of the following sentences best illustrates the effect that Gestalt principles have on perception?

"Go beyond the information given."

In order to summarize the Gestalt psychologists' movement in a few words, one might say,

"The perceptual whole is different than the sum of its parts."

Which of the following statements most accurately describes visual illusions?

Cognitive principles that generally help us can cause illusions in some cases.

The face/vase example illustrates what important principle of perceptual organization?

If the input is ambiguous, the image can be interpreted in different ways at different times.

Which of the following statements about the visual stimulus, light, is FALSE?

Light perceived as red is associated with longer wavelengths, relative to blue light.

________ cells in the LGN are specialized for spatial analysis and form detection, whereas ________ cells are specialized for the detection of motion and depth.

Parvocellular; magnocellular

The Necker cube is an ambiguous figure. Which of the following statements regarding the cube is FALSE?

The lines on the page contradict one another, so that the perception has to "overrule" the information given.

Which of the following does NOT provide an example for parallel processing in the visual system?

Visual information is sent from the retina, to the LGN, to the visual cortex.

Some people have sustained brain damage and lost the ability to identify color. Other people have sustained damage to a different area of the brain and lost the ability to detect motion. What does this indicate about our visual system?

We have specialized areas for processing different kinds of visual information.

Which of the following statements most accurately represents the order of events involved in interpreting a visual stimulus?

You perceive the components and interpret the stimulus in a parallel fashion.

One way that we can perceive depth is through our sensitivity to the adjustment our lens is making. This cue would be

a monocular depth cue.

The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) acts as

a way station between the eye and the occipital cortex, located in the thalamus.

Brad is able to read a clock but is unable to see the arms of a clock move from position to position. He is suffering from

akinetopsia.

A researcher wishes to define the receptive field for a particular neuron in the visual cortex. To do this, the researcher will need to specify

an area in the visual field within which targets will cause the cell to fire.

the primary visual cortex is located

at the part of the cortex that is farthest from the eyes.

Which of the following would NOT be considered part of the fovea?

b. the area of the retina found far out in the periphery

Cells A and B receive the same high levels of stimulation, but Cell A shows a lower level of activity relative to Cell B. A likely explanation for this fact is that Cell A

being laterally inhibited by other cells

Human brains have a distinct division-of-labor strategy. Each task is achieved as a result of multiple brain areas working together. But the work of the various parts of the brain must be compiled into a finished whole. The issue of how this reassembly works is referred to as the

binding problem

Molly sees a black crow standing on a brightly lit snow field. In this setting, a great deal of light will be reflected off of the crow's feathers. Molly will likely perceive the crow as

black, thanks to brightness constancy.

Which of the following is NOT one of the Gestalt principles governing perception?

complexity

________ are located primarily in the fovea, while ________ are located primarily in the periphery.

cones, rods

Despite the fact that sensory stimuli can change from moment to moment, we perceive the details (color, shape, etc.) of an image to be stable because of

constancy

A researcher has identified the receptive field for a neuron and has determined that the receptive field has a center-surround organization. If the researcher were to shine light into the entire receptive field, including both the center and the surrounding areas, we would expect the neuron to

continue firing at resting rate

The observation that different neurons function as dot, edge, and movement detectors suggests that

different neurons have different receptive fields.

Cells detecting the boundary of a surface are subject to less lateral inhibition than cells detecting the center of the same surface. This leads to an effect called

edge enhancement

Lateral inhibition leads to which perceptual experience?

edge of an object is enhanced

The cues to depth perception

generally rely on simple principles of physics.

To perceive the visual world, we have to bind various elements of a scene together so that they are perceived in an integrated fashion. Which of the following is NOT likely to be involved in this process

iconic memory

Julie has sustained damage to the "what" system in her brain. She will likely have difficulty with which of the following task

identifying a chair

Shadowing can provide a cue for depth. For example, if a shadow appears on the bottom of a circle, the object appears convex. However, if the shadow appears on the top of the object, it appears concave. This happens because

in the real world, light comes from above more often than from below

A horse is blocking the front of a barn door, obstructing your view of the door. This configuration allows you to determine that the horse is closer to you than the barn door is. This is called

interposition.

The fact that your view of one object is blocked by another object can provide information about depth. This depth cue is termed

interposition.

Because of its center-surround organization, a neuron that has its entire receptive field (i.e., the center and the surround) exposed to bright light will

maintain the same rate of firing as if there were no light presented.

Krista is sitting on a bench, watching the world go by. She notices that the people who are near to her move across her retina more quickly than the cars in the distance move. This effect is called

motion parallax.

As you move toward an object, the object gets larger on your retina. This is called

optic flow

Single-cell recordings measure the ________ of individual neurons.

pattern of firing

Jenna sees a picture of a dog standing in front of a tree. The dog is blocking part of Jenna's view, so that she cannot see a portion of the tree trunk. Jenna does, however, perceive the tree to have an intact, continuous trunk. Jenna's perception reminds us that

people generally "fill in" missing perceptual information, guided by the Gestalt principles.

Parvo and magno cells

provide input for the LGN

Patients who have suffered damage to the occipital-parietal pathway (the "where" system) will have difficulties with which of the following tasks?

reaching in the correct direction to retrieve the toothbrush

Through single-cell recordings, researchers have identified the ________ neurons in the visual system.

receptive field

Someone with akinetopsia would have difficulty with all of the following EXCEPT

recognize faces

The specialization evident in visual processing shows that

relies on parallel processing

The ________ is the part of the eye involved in transducing light energy into neural energy.

retina

Which of the following characteristics seems NOT to carry information within the visual system?

shape of the neurone

Which of the following is NOT considered a monocular cue for depth perception?

similarity

A researcher wishes to determine under what circumstances, or in response to what input, a particular neuron fires. A technique well suited to this purpose is

single-cell recording.

The importance of vision for humans is reflected in the

size of th visual cortex

Visual agnosia is associated with damage to which of the following?

the "what" system, which carries information from the occipital cortex to the temporal cortex

Visual illusions often occur because of

the perceiver's interpretation of the input.

Which of the following statements about the retina is FALSE?

three types of photoreceptors

It seems inefficient to rely on so many different cues for depth perception. Why, then, do we have so many disparate cues?

we use Dif cues in Dif situs

The action pathway corresponds with the ________ system, while the perception pathway corresponds with the ________ system.

where, what