PSY101 - Chapter 5

Frank, a nurse, notes that some parents of asthmatic children respond to very small changes in their children's breathing while the children are in the hospital. However, the same parents might not notice the same small changes at home. This type of difference in reaction to stimuli is BEST explained by:

context effects.

These nerve cells in the brain respond to specific aspects of a stimulus

feature detectors

Our assumption that light comes from above contributes to

light and shadow cues.

Perceptual sets are the result of _____, which people form to organize and interpret unfamiliar information.

mental tendencies

Relative size, interposition, and relative height are examples of _____ cues.

monocular

"Mrs. M" suffered severe stroke damage near the rear of both sides of her brain. She is unable to perceive

movement.

These retinal receptors are sensitive to movement and are necessary for peripheral and twilight vision.

rods

These retinal receptors detect black, white, and gray

rods

Multiple _____ send combined messages to a bipolar cell, whereas a single _____ may link directly to a single bipolar cell.

rods; cone

Which of the following occurs below a person's absolute threshold for conscious awareness?

subliminal stimulation

Tinnitus is a(n) _____ phantom sensation

auditory

Kayla is worried because she knows that her work environment is very loud and that prolonged exposure to sounds above _____ decibels can produce hearing loss.

85

_____ includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

Extrasensory perception

_____ is the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input

Extrasensory perception

_____ is the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.

Extrasensory perception

Rules for organizing stimuli into coherent groups were first identified by:

Gestalt psychologists

Wayne underwent radical eye surgery and had to wear an eye patch for four months. How will this sensory deprivation affect his vision?

His vision will be unaffected by this sensory deprivation

_____ refers to the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.

Priming

Alicia has just heard a positive, uplifting song about women achieving their goals. She is now in a good mood. As she is walking to class, she overhears two women talking and only makes out the word 'dye'. What is she likely to think they are discussing?

They are talking about different ways to color their hair.

Which theoretical perspective proposes that the retina has three types of color receptors, which are sensitive to one of three colors: red, green, or blue?

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

Tinnitus is a(n) _____ phantom sensation.

auditory

Erin has been told her basilar membranes are damaged. This is MOST likely to affect her

audition

The difference threshold is the minimum difference that a person can detect

between any two stimuli half the time

Sensory analysis starts at the entry level, such as with the sensory receptors, and works up to the integration of sensory information in the brain. This process is called:

bottom-up processing

Brad and Christine are two TSA officers who are scanning bags at the airport. Brad, the newer officer, scans all the features of the contents systematically, looking for clues to indicate anything suspicious. Christine, who is more experienced, is able to use her experience and expectations to assist her search. Brad relies more on _____ processing, while Christine is able to use _____ processing.

bottom-up; top-down

This coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses is called the

cochlea

These retinal receptors are located in the center of the retina. They detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

cones

When light enters the eye, it passes through the

cornea, pupil, and lens

Researchers used goggles to restrict kittens' vision for several months. Once the goggles were removed, the kittens:

could distinguish color and brightness but not form

Krishna's 7-month-old niece is just learning to crawl. His sister has agreed to have her daughter participate in an experiment that incorporates a visual cliff. What is MOST likely being studied in this experiment?

depth perception

When angry, people more often perceive neutral objects as guns. This demonstrates that _____ can impact our interpretations.

emotion

According to the Gestalt psychologists, people tend to group features according to whether they are the object to be attended to or are in the surroundings. This is called the principle of:

figure-ground.

The retina's central focal point is the _____, which contains only cones and no rods.

fovea

Dr. Johnson subliminally flashes either positive or negative words immediately before showing his research participants a painting by a local artist. Then asked to rate the painting in terms of attractiveness, the participants tend to

give the painting that follows positive words higher ratings.

Margot has been experiencing a great deal of pain in her lower back. Each morning she wakes anticipating back pain. Her experience of pain is in part the result of:

her expectations about pain.

Individuals' memories of pain are MOST affected by:

how much pain they felt at the end.

Blue, green, and red are all examples of:

hue

The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light is called

hue

Which of the following is NOT a basic sensation associated with taste?

hue

The cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs make up the _____ ear.

inner

Phantom limb sensations and other experiences of amputees show that the brain can produce pain in the absence of:

normal sensory input

In a brain surgery that went wrong, James suffered damage to a portion of his visual cortex and now has difficulty seeing depth. What aspect of visual processing could explain his deficit?

parallel processing

People recognize objects as having a consistent form regardless of how the viewing angle changes. This fact illustrates:

perceptual constancy

Which of the following is a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another?

perceptual set

Brenda is presented with a photograph of an adult-child pair and is told that the two individuals are parent and child. She is more likely to say the pair looks alike than people who are told the pair is unrelated. This is MOST likely caused by

perceptual sets

Professor Schmidt's research interests center around the impact of experience and expectations on people's reported perception. His research is based on:

perceptual sets

What can be secreted by other members of the same species and serve as sexual attractants?

pheromones

Devin is convinced that his grandfather will die soon. Devin believes he is capable of

precognition

Riina is 85 years old and is having trouble with her hearing. She worked in a loud factory for many years. The MOST likely reasons for her sensorineural hearing loss are normal aging and:

prolonged exposure to ear-splitting noise

The way in which a student quickly groups the individual letters in this test item into separate words BEST illustrates the principle of:

proximity

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters is called the:

pupil

Sensory adaptation can be defined as

reduced sensitivity in response to constant stimulation

Drivers sometimes overestimate the distance between their own vehicles and pedestrians because pedestrians cast a smaller retinal image and are thus deemed farther away. This distance cue is known as

relative size

This part of the eye contains the receptor rods and cones in addition to layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

retina

The distance between a person's right and left eyes functions to provide that person with a cue for depth perception known as

retinal disparity

Leonard and Anais, who are twins, are playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with their little cousins and are spinning around in circles. When they stop, they still feel as though they are spinning because the fluid in their _____ and _____ have not returned to their neutral state

semicircular canals; kinesthetic receptors

Which of the following refers to the process by which people detect physical energy in the environment and encode that energy as neural signals?

sensation

Experiencing sudden pain is to _____ as recognizing that one is suffering a heart attack is to _____

sensation; perception

If Adam moves his watchband up his wrist an inch, he will feel it for only a few moments. This BEST illustrates

sensory adaptation

Which of the following is defined as reduced sensitivity in response to constant stimulation?

sensory adaptation

When Amanda arrived at the gym on Tuesday morning, she noticed the musty odor of the showers in the locker room. As she finished changing, she did not notice the smell. This is probably the result of:

sensory adaptation.

Lana is convinced that rotten eggs are in the house, but no one else in the house can detect the odor. Lana's sensation is known as phantom

smell

While at work, Allan experiences a ringing-in-the-ears sensation known as

tinnitus

The fact that perceptions involve more than the sum of a person's sensations BEST illustrates the importance of

top-down processing

Happy Moon Restaurant uses monosodium glutamate in most of its dishes to enhance the flavor. The use of this flavor enhancer also stimulates the fifth taste of

umami

Chris is 48 years old. He recently had his sight restored after 45 years of blindness. He could associate people with their distinct features such as hair color but could not recognize their faces. He was also not good at judging the size of objects as their distance from him changed. His case suggests that

vision is partly an acquired sense