Psych Ch 5

Your ears receive sound waves and convert this energy into neural messages that travel to your brain and are processed as sounds. This is an example of ________.

transduction

Tyrahn's rods do not transform light into nerve impulses as easily and efficiently as they should, so he has trouble seeing in dim light. This is called ________ blindness

night

Felicia smacks her thumb with a hammer while building a doghouse. The sense of ________ provides her brain with information about the pain she feels.

nociception

Akeelah extended her arm in front of her and then extended one of her fingers. She focused on that finger. Next, she closed her left eye without moving her head; then she opened her left eye and closed her right eye without moving her head. She noticed that her finger seemed to shift as she alternated between the two eyes because of the slightly different view each eye had of her finger. What is illustrated by this example?

binocular disparity

Which type of processing involves the interpretation of sensations and is influenced by available knowledge and expectancies?

bottom-up

When a child works on a "connect the dots" puzzle, she can often see the completed work before she has finished all of the dots. Once there is enough visual information present, she's able to perceive the completed picture even though it is still incomplete. Which Gestalt principle does this demonstrate?

closure

One principle of civil engineering is that when you design a highway you should have traffic flow in the same direction and avoid interruptions to that flow as much as possible. Exit ramps tend to be curved so that cars don't have to stop rather than having 90-degree angles that force stops and starts. This is an application of which Gestalt principle?

good continuation

Participants were instructed to focus on either white or black objects, disregarding the other color. When a red cross passed across the screen, about one third of the subjects did not notice it. This research protocol demonstrates which concept?

inattentional blindness

________ disparity refers to the slightly different view of the world that each eye receives, and is a distance cue that allows us to perceive the depth of a given visual stimulus.

Binocular

Which of these is not one of the structures that comprises the outer ear?

the basilar membrane

Vinnie is standing on one leg with his arms in the air. The ________ sense helps keep him balanced so he has less chance of falling over.

vestibular

Two lines appear to be a different length, though in reality they are the same length. This is known as the ________ illusion.

Müller-Lyer

________ refers to the way that sensory information is interpreted and consciously experienced; ________ refers to what happens when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor.

Perception; sensation

What term describes the continuation of a visual sensation after removal of the stimulus?

afterimage

Sarit is at a bar full of music, chatter, and laughter. He gets involved in an interesting conversation with a woman named Mona, and he tunes out all the background noise. Sarit's friend, Karen, taps him on the shoulder and asks what song just played on the jukebox. Sarit says he doesn't know, even though he is sitting right next to the jukebox and is familiar with popular music. This illustrates the role that ________ plays in what is sensed versus what is perceived.

attention

Petra walks into a brightly lit Psychology lab to participate in an experiment involving the ability to perceive the colors of the rainbow. Which photoreceptors will be most useful during this experiment?

cones

Ravon is deaf. He was born without the ability to hear, and has never experienced an auditory stimulus. When people write using "sound" type words like "loud," "soft," and "quiet," he sometimes has difficulty understanding what they are trying to convey. Ravon has ________ deafness.

congenital

Ronaldo was born without the ability to experience pain, though he can perceive temperature differences and changes in pressure. What is his condition called?

congenital analgesia

Light waves are first transmitted through the ________ at the front of the eye and enter an opening called the ________ before shining onto the retina.

cornea; pupil

The amplitude of a wave is the height of a wave as measured from the highest point on the wave________ to the lowest point on the wave ________.

crest; trough

As you are talking to a friend on your cell phone, you might find that you can't hear them because they are speaking very softly. If you ask them to "speak up," from a physical perspective you are asking them to ________ of the sound waves they are producing.

increase the amplitude

In a person whose eyes work in the usual fashion, the ________ will focus images perfectly on a small indentation in the back of the eye known as the ________.

lens; fovea

Which nerve carries visual information from the retina to the brain?

optic

Which perceptual system allows Nancy to run without watching her feet and hit a baseball without focusing on her hands?

proprioception

Wesley is in a movie theater with no windows—the only light is low illumination from the emergency lights on the floor. Which photoreceptors will be most useful to Wesley as he attempts to leave the theater?

rods

Catherine is at a crowded baseball game when she loses track of her son, Nick. Despite the loud cheering and noise of the crowd, she can pinpoint his location when he calls for her because she can distinguish the sound of his voice from the all the other voices. This illustrates ________ theory.

signal detection

Why are olfaction and gustation called chemical senses?

They have sensory receptors that respond to molecules in the food we eat or in the air we breathe.

Within the visible spectrum, our experience of red is associated with ________ waves of light.

longer wavelengths

Some neurons can only generate action potentials up to a certain speed, and no faster. This fact is a limitation of the ________ theory of pitch perception.

temporal

The auditory cortex, in which sound stimuli are processed for perception, is located in the ________ lobe.

temporal

What has research shown about processing subliminal messages?

In laboratory settings, people can process and respond to information outside of their awareness.

Imagine yourself in a dark classroom reading PowerPoint slides. If an audience member were to check the internet using her cell phone and causing her screen to light up, chances are that many people would notice the change in illumination in the classroom. However, if the same thing happened in a brightly lit classroom during a discussion, very few people would notice. The cell phone brightness does not change, but its ability to be detected as a change in illumination varies dramatically between the two contexts. This is an example of ________.

Weber's law

When considering the wavelength of a radio wave - like the kind you hear when listening to music as you drive along - you would be correct to think that the size is this wave is about as long as

a building.

When you watch the teacher at the front of the room, you are easily able to distinguish her from the white board (or chalk board) behind her. This demonstrates the Gestalt principle of

a figure-ground relationship

Which school of thinking in psychology includes the following concepts: figure-ground relationship, law of continuity, and principle of closure?

Gestalt

________ amplitudes are associated with ________ sounds.

higher; louder

What does the place theory of pitch perception suggest?

Different portions of the ear are sensitive to sounds of different decibels.

How does a cochlear implant enable the deaf to hear?

It receives incoming sound information and directly stimulates the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain.

If you watch a flock of birds flying overhead, each very close to the next one, you may perceive them as all being part of the same group. If they were all spaced very much apart, however, you may see them as individual birds not flying together. This distinction takes advantage of which Gestalt principle?

proximity

Nikki was walking around a department store shopping one day, and did not realize that the shirt she was wearing looked just like the shirts worn by employees. When a stranger asked, "do you work here," she thought it was funny. The other customers' assumption that Nikki was a store employee demonstrates the Gestalt principle of _______.

similarity