Psych question module 4

The audible range for humans is ________.

20-20,000 Hz

The visible spectrum includes light that ranges from about ______________.

400-700 nm

The opponent-process theory is supported by ________.

Afterimages

How do we experience the sensation of taste when we, for example, drink a glass of sour lemonade?

As we drink the lemonade, its chemicals, which are the stimuli for taste, break down into molecules that mix with saliva and stimulate the taste buds. As the receptors for taste, the taste buds produce nerve impulses that eventually reach areas in the brain's parietal lobe. The brain then transforms these nerve impulses into sensations of taste.

Which was the independent variable in Jessica Witt's study?

The size of the holes projected around the golf hole.

Using a different images of each eye receipts in order to perceive death is called using _______ cues.

Binocular

Color is not a physical property of our environment. What function (if any) do you think color vision serves?

Color vision probably serves multiple adaptive purposes. One popular hypothesis suggests that seeing in color allowed our ancestors to differentiate ripened fruits and vegetables more easily.

Illusions are valuable to psychologists because they are used to ________.

Explore what people experience and what parts of the brain are involved in perception

Which field of psychology includes the following concepts: figure-ground relationship, law of similarity, and proximity

Gestalt

What is amplitude?

Height of a wave

What is the function of the retina?

It contains photoreceptor cells

Wha is the function of the iris

It controls the size of the pupil

What is the function of the part of the eye identified by the arrow

It focuses light onto the retina

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.

________- frequency sound waves are perceived as high sounds, while __________- frequency sound waves are perceived as low-pitched sounds.

Low; high

If your eyes see someone saying "ball" but the word you hear is "doll", the struggle to make sense of that information in your brain is consistent with ________.

McGurk effect

Merkel's disks and Ruffini corpuscles are examples of ________.

Mechanoreceptors

Why do you think humans are especially sensitive to sounds with frequencies that fall in the middle portion of the audible range?

Once again, one could make an evolutionary argument here. Given that the human voice falls in this middle range and the importance of communication among humans, one could argue that it is quite adaptive to have an audible range that centers on this particular type of stimulus.

Which was the dependent variable in Jessica Witt's study?

The size of the circle drawn by the participant and the number of successful putts.

Why do you think other species have such different ranges of sensitivity for both visual and auditory stimuli compared to humans?

Other species have evolved to best suit their particular environmental niches. For example, the honeybee relies on flowering plants for survival. Seeing in the ultraviolet light might prove especially helpful when locating flowers. Once a flower is found, the ultraviolet rays point to the center of the flower where the pollen and nectar are contained. Similar arguments could be made for infrared detection in snakes as well as for the differences in audible ranges of the species described in this section.

How can temporal and place theories both be used to explain our ability to perceive the pitch of sound waves with frequencies up to 4000 Hz?

Pitch of sounds below this threshold could be encoded by the combination of the place and firing rate of stimulated hair cells. So, in general, hair cells located near the tip of the basilar membrane would signal that we're dealing with a lower-pitched sound. However, differences in firing rates of hair cells within this location could allow for fine discrimination between low-, medium-, and high-pitch sounds within the larger low-pitch context.

Amanda has a severe hearing loss and recently received a cochlear implant. The implant has several electrodes that are surgically placed into her inner ear. The electrodes differ slightly in length so that each electrode stimulates a different area in the cochlea. Electrode #1 stimulates a certain area when a sound at 5000Hz is presented. Electrode #2 stimulates a different area when a sound at 6000Hz is presented. Electrode #3 stimulates yet another spot when a sound at 7000Hz is presented, etc. This manner of encoding pitch is most like which strategy used by listeners with normal hearing?

Place theory

Which illusion plays on converging lines and convinces your brain that a more distant line in an image must be longer than a line that appears close?

Ponzo illusion

The electromagnetic spectrum includes ____________.

Radio waves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet rays, x Rays, and gamma rays

Do you think women experience pain differently than men? Why do you think this is?

Research has shown that women and men do differ in their experience of and tolerance for pain: Women tend to handle pain better than men. Perhaps this is due to women's labor and childbirth experience. Men tend to be stoic about their pain and do not seek help. Research also shows that gender differences in pain tolerance can vary across cultures.

What part of the eye contains photoreceptors cells?

Retina

When Martha first visits her Aunt and Uncle's house, the smell of fish is overwhelming, but after an hour, she doesn't even notice it's there. What explains this?

Sensory adaptation

Which of the following theories is currently thought to provide the best explanation for how we perceive low frequencies (below 150hz)?

Temporal theory

What is wavelength?

The distance from one wave peak to the next

Compare the two theories of color perception. Are they completely different?

The trichromatic theory of color vision and the opponent-process theory are not mutually exclusive. Research has shown they apply to different levels of the nervous system. For visual processing on the retina, trichromatic theory applies: the cones are responsive to three different wavelengths that represent red, blue, and green. But once the signal moves past the retina on its way to the brain, the cells respond in a way consistent with opponent-process theory.

What should be changed to make the following sentence true? "The central tenet of Gestalt psychology is that the pattern is different from the sum of its parts."

The word "pattern" should be changed to the word "whole."

What happened when the participants were asked to draw the size of the hole in Jessica Witt's research?

They drew the hole smaller than the actual hole size if surrounded by larger circles

For each statement, select which of the two theories of color vision it fits with best. Perceiving purple is a result of receiving messages from two types of cells: those that perceive red and those that perceive blue.

Trichromatic

While you may not notice the change in the music's volume while at a party, you would definitely notice the change if you were trying to study in a quiet library. This supports the idea that the difference threshold is a constant fraction of the original stimulus, also known as ________.

Webers law

Which of the following best describes how you perceive a 16,000 Hz tone?

a specific section of the basilar membrane will fire maximally to signal the pitch of the tone

________ refers to the minimum amount of stimulus energy required to be detected 50% of the time.

absolute threshold

What is the function of the pupil

allows light to enter the eye

This arrow is pointing to which part of the ear?

auditory canal

Cues that require two ears are referred to as ________ cues.

binaural

________ depth cues require the use of both eyes.

binocular

________ disparity refers to the slightly different view of the world that each eye receives.

binocular

subliminal messaging

can mildly influence behavior.

If Tyson, a track athlete, likes to apply a menthol rub to his legs after a hard workout. What skin receptors are activated by the cream?

chemoreceptors

Our tendency to perceive things as complete objects rather than as a series of parts is known as the principle of ________.

closure

This arrow is pointing to which part of the ear?

cochlea

Hearing loss resulting from damage to the bones of the middle ear is called ________ hearing loss.

conductive

Hearing aids might be effective for treating ________.

conductive hearing loss

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, ________ in the retina are responsive to red, green, and blue.

cones

________ operate best under bright light conditions.

cones

If you live in a city with lots of buildings, walls, and straight lines, you will probably perceive the lines in the Müller-Lyer illusion as being

different lengths

Light energy with very low amplitude would be perceived as ________.

dim

A wavelength is measured by the ____________ between one wave peak and the next wave peak.

distance

Psychologists use illusions to

explore what people experience, what parts of the brain are involved in perception, and how to alter the illusion

Psychologists use illusions to ________.

explore what people experience, what parts of the brain are involved in perception, and how to alter the illusion

Research indicates that sensorineural hearing loss is usually caused by ________.

exposure to loud noise

The main point of focus in a visual display is known as the ________.

figure

The ________ is a small indentation of the retina that contains cones.

fovea

Pitch is determined by the ________ of sound waves

frequency

According to the law of ________, we are more likely to perceive smoothly flowing lines rather than choppy or jagged lines.

good continuation

Failure to notice something that is completely visible because of a lack of attention is called ________.

inattentional blindness

Temporal theory cannot be used to account for why we hear higher pitched sounds because ________.

individual neurons cannot fire fast enough

For this image, select the monocular cue that best indicates that the duck is behind the bars. Note that for this picture, multiple cues may apply, but only one correct answer will be presented.

interposition

What area of the eye controls the size of the pupil

iris

Martha is working on her swing at softball practice and is focusing on keeping her elbow out high and her arm turned with her shoulders back. This awareness of her own movement through space is called ________.

kinesthesia

For this image, select the monocular cue that lets you know that the red cube is closer than the blue one. Note that for this picture, multiple cues may apply, but only one correct answer will be presented.

light and shadow

For this image, select the monocular cue that indicates that the part of the pier going from left to right in the center of the picture is farther away than the part that is in the lower part of the picture. Note that for this picture, multiple cues may apply, but only one correct answer will be presented.

linear perspective

Cocking your head would be most useful for detecting the ________ of a sound.

location

If you walk through a busy crowd and feel a few different people bump and push past you as they walk by, which skin receptors would be activated?

mechanoreceptors

Merkel's disks and Ruffini corpuscles are examples of

mechanoreceptors

What skin receptors are activated while holding hands?

mechanoreceptors

________ cues require only one eye.

monocular

When Brad got into a minor car accident, he hopped right out of the car to assess the damage. He didn't notice until later that night that he had a pretty serious cut on his leg. The fact that he didn't notice is consistent with the ________.

motivation-decision model

The idea that we perceive the world while utilizing a combination of senses is known as ________.

multi-modal perception

sensory system that detects smells is ________.

olfaction

Afterimages caused by staring at a blue image then looking away makes you perceive yellow.

opponent-process

Neurons in the retina are excited by one color but inhibited by another color.

opponent-process

The _____ Carries visual information from the retina to the brain

optic nerve

The ________ carries visual information from the retina to the brain.

optic nerve

________ occurs when sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced.

perception

When pain signals get exaggerated, it is because of damage to the

peripheral or central nervous system

Chemical messages often sent between two members of a species to communicate something about reproductive status are called ________.

pheromones

Which correctly describes the process of hearing?

pinna - auditory canal - tympanic membrane - ossicles - cochlea - auditory nerve

The fact that the base of the basilar membrane responds best to high frequencies supports the ________ theory of hearing.

place

Which theory holds that the pitch we hear is determined by the particular location on the cochlea where the hair cells vibrate the most?

place theory

This activity will introduce you to some common monocular cues. Take a guess as to which monocular cue enables you to interpret depth in the following images. For this image, select the monocular cue that lets you know that the animal is closer than the mountain. Note that for this picture, multiple cues may apply, but only one correct answer will be presented.

position

According to the principle of ________, objects that occur close to one another tend to be grouped together.

proximity

If you were to stare at a green dot for a relatively long period of time and then shift your gaze to a blank white screen, you would see a ________ negative afterimage.

red

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, cones in the retina are responsive to ________

red, green, blue

For this image, select the monocular cue that lets you know that the man is closer than the car. Note that for this picture, multiple cues may apply, but only one correct answer will be presented.

relative size

Hearing aids are ineffective in treating ________, which is caused by damage to the hair cells in the cochlea that impairs the transmission of signals about sound to the brain.

sensorineural hearing loss

Decreased sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus is known as ________.

sensory adaptation

Congenital deafness is ________.

something someone is born with

If a sound wave has a high amplitude, it will ________.

sound low

A stimulus presented below the absolute threshold is called

subliminal

The ________ best explains how we hear at low frequencies

temporal theory

When you hear a tone of 200 Hz, the hair cells in the cochlea begin vibrating 200 times per second. This is the idea behind the ________.

temporal theory of hearing

If your eyes see someone saying "ball" but the word you hear is "doll", the struggle to make sense of that information in your brain is consistent with ________

the McGurk effect

What is wavelength?

the distance from one wave peak to the next

Which of the following is most likely if a sound source is to your left?

the sound will be slightly louder at the left ear than the right ear

Which sense relies on the organs of the inner ear to help maintain balance and body posture?

the vestibular sense

According to Gestalt psychology, ________.

the whole is different from the sum of its parts

What skin receptors are activated most when you grab a hot cup of coffee?

thermoreceptors

When the brain receives nociceptive signals from the body, ________.

they can be blocked by the brain's descending pain modulatory system

The quality of a sound that is affected by frequency, amplitude, and timing of the sound wave is known as ________.

timbre

Which type of processing involves the interpretation of sensations and is influenced by available knowledge, experiences, and thoughts?

top-down

Did you read the second "the" in the sentence in the image? You probably didn't, because your brain doesn't expect to have "the" a second time and skips over it so that the sentence works in the context of what you are familiar with. This is an example of

top-down processing

________ involves the conversion of sensory stimulus energy into neural impulses.

transduction

There are three types of cone cells, one for each primary color.

trichromatic

Which taste is associated with monosodium glutamate?

umami

You are trying to describe the taste of a cheeseburger to your vegetarian friend. A good description for the meaty, savory taste you experience would be

umami

Multi-modal perception is the idea that ________.

various sensory modalities are integrated

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

vestibular

Which of the following is involved in maintaining balance and body posture?

vestibular system

The property that differentiates the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see from the part we cannot see is ________.

wavelength

The McGurk effect occurs when ________.

we combine information from speech and from the way the speaker's lips are moving to hear something different from either

At a football game, your friend from ten rows down yells at you to bring them some of your popcorn. At first you couldn't understand what they were asking, but once you saw their mouth, you could make out the request. This is consistent with the ________.

with the results of the Gumby and Pollack study on the audiovisual advantage

Which of the following correctly matches the pattern in our perception of color as we move from short wavelengths to long wavelengths?

yellow, orange, red

You walk by the same billboard on the way to school each day, but have never actually looked at it. When asked to guess which billboard it was from a selection of billboards, you somehow identify the right one because

you subliminally processed the image.