Cognitive Psych Quiz 1: Chapter 3

You are at a parade where there are a number of marching bands. You perceive the bands that are all in the same uniforms as being grouped together. The red uniforms are one band, the green uniforms another, and so forth. You have this perceptual experience because of the law of A. simplicity. B. similarity. C. pragnanz. D. familiarity.

B. similarity.

A heuristic is a A. "rule of thumb" that provides a best-guess solution to a problem. B. procedure that is guaranteed to solve a problem. C. series of rules that specify how we organize parts into wholes. D. short algorithm.

A. "rule of thumb" that provides a best-guess solution to a problem.

"Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible" refers to which Gestalt law? A. Good figure B. Similarity C. Familiarity D. Common fate

A. Good figure

Which of the following statements is most consistent with recognition-by-components theory? A. Humans can identify an object if sufficient information is available to enable us to identify an object's basic features. B. Activation of letter units provides the information needed to determine which letter is present. C. Top-down processing influences perception. D. The focusing of attention eliminates illusory conjunctions.

A. Humans can identify an object if sufficient information is available to enable us to identify an object's basic features.

In the text's "animal lurking behind a tree / two oddly shaped tree stumps" example, which Gestalt law did NOT contribute to the incorrect perception? A. Simplicity B. Similarity C. Familiarity D. Good continuation

A. Simplicity

Which of the following is an example of an effect of top-down processing? A. Speech segmentation B. Seeing a flash of lightning in a thunderstorm C. The response of a feature detector D. Perceiving all of the birds in a flock as belonging together

A. Speech segmentation

The sequence of steps that includes the image on the retina, changing the image into electrical signals, and neural processing is an example of _____ processing. A. bottom-up B. top-down

A. bottom-up

The experimental technique that involves removing part of the brain is known as A. brain ablation. B. dissociation. C. fMRI. D. EEG.

A. brain ablation.

When people look at a tree, they receive information about the geons of that object through stimulation of receptors. But they are also aided in identifying the object as a tree by knowledge that a tree often has the sky as a background and sits on grass. This prior knowledge travels down from higher centers to influence the incoming signals. The latter information from the higher centers illustrates A. feedback signals. B. principles of componential recovery. C. the law of good figure. D. the oblique effect.

A. feedback signals.

You look at a rope coiled on a beach and are able to perceive it as a single strand because of the law of A. good continuation. B. simplicity. C. familiarity. D. good figure.

A. good continuation.

Some neurons respond when we watch someone else do something. These are known as A. mirror neurons. B. afferent neurons. C. feature detectors. D. receptors.

A. mirror neurons.

The study of the behavior of humans with brain damage is called A. neuropsychology. B. functional localization. C. positron emission tomography. D. the subtraction technique.

A. neuropsychology.

Damage to the temporal lobe makes the _____ more difficult. A. object discrimination problem B. landmark discrimination problem C. double dissociation problem D. single dissociation problem

A. object discrimination problem

Experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses and information from the senses that can help guide are actions are called A. perception. B. sensation.

A. perception.

When Carlos moved to the U.S., he did not understand any English. Phrases like "Anna Mary Can Pi And I Scream Class Hick" didn't make any sense to him. Now that Carlos has been learning English, he recognizes this phrase as "An American Pie and Ice Cream Classic." This example illustrates that Carlos is not capable of ____ in English. A. speech segmentation B. the likelihood principle C. bottom-up processing D. algorithms

A. speech segmentation

If a word is identified more easily when it is in a sentence than when it is presented alone, this would be an example of _____ processing. A. top-down B. bottom-up

A. top-down

The likelihood principle states that A. we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received. B. we perceive size to remain the same size even when objects move to different distances. C. it is easier to perceive vertical and horizontal orientations. D. feature detectors are likely to create a clear perception of an object.

A. we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received

The pathway leading from the striate cortex to the temporal lobe is known as the A. what pathway. B. where pathway. C. landmark pathway. D. action pathway.

A. what pathway.

Which of the following is NOT associated with recognition-by-components theory? A. Objects are analyzed into parts early in the perceptual process B. Attention is used to combine features in the perception of whole objects C. Basic shapes are combined to form objects D. Bottom-up processing

B. Attention is used to combine features in the perception of whole objects

Which statement best summarizes the focus of the Gestalt psychologists? A. We must understand the basic components of perception. B. We need to identify the number of geons needed for object recognition. C. We want to understand how elements are grouped together to create larger objects. D. We need to identify the neurons that create perception.

B. We need to identify the number of geons needed for object recognition.

Neurons that respond to sounds associated with actions are called A. mirror neurons. B. audiovisual mirror neurons. C. audio mirror neurons. D. visual mirror neurons.

B. audiovisual mirror neurons.

Palmer's experiment, in which he asked people to identify objects in a kitchen, showed how _______ can affect perception. A. illusory conjunctions B. context C. naming association D. attention

B. context

Gauthier and coworkers' experiment on experience-dependent plasticity showed that after extensive "Greeble recognition" training sessions, FFA neurons had a(n) _______ response to faces and an _________ response to Greebles. A. unvaried; unvaried B. decreased; increased C. unvaried; increased D. increased; increased

B. decreased; increased

When you listen to someone speaking a foreign language, the words seem to speed by in an unbroken string of sound. To a speaker of that language, the words seem separated. The Gestalt law that is operating here is the law of A. similarity. B. familiarity. C. nearness. D. good continuation.

B. familiarity.

The theory of unconscious inference includes the A. oblique effect. B. likelihood principle. C. principle of componential recovery. D. principle of speech segmentation.

B. likelihood principle.

People perceive vertical and horizontal orientations more easily than other orientations according to the A. principle of size constancy. B. oblique effect. C. law of pragnanz. D. law of good continuation.

B. oblique effect.

The process by which small objects become perceptually grouped to form larger objects is A. conjunction. B. perceptual organization. C. perceptual discriminability. D. perceptual fusion.

B. perceptual organization.

Generally, if we can see an object's geons, we are able to identify the object. This is known as the A. principle of size constancy. B. principles of componential recovery. C. perceptual organization. D. feedback signal.

B. principles of componential recovery.

The demonstration in your text that asks you to visualize scenes such as an office, a department store clothing section, a lion, and a microscope often results in more details in the scene of the office or department store than the scene with the lion or microscope. The latter two tend to have fewer details because most individuals from modern society have less knowledge of _____ in those scenes. A. physical regularities B. semantic regularities C. pragnanz D. double dissociation

B. semantic regularities

A heuristic for finding a cat that is hiding somewhere in the house is A. to systematically search every room in the house. B. to first look in the places where the cat likes to hide. C. systematically searching every room and looking first where the cat likes to hide are equally fine heuristics D. none of these

B. to first look in the places where the cat likes to hide.

"Perceiving machines" are used by the U.S. Postal service to "read" the addresses on letters and sort them quickly to their correct destinations. Sometimes, these machines cannot read an address, because the writing on the envelope is not sufficiently clear for the machine to match the writing to an example it has stored in memory. Human postal workers are much more successful at reading unclear addresses, most likely because of A. bottom-up processing. B. top-down processing. C. their in-depth understanding of principles of perception. D. repeated practice at the task.

B. top-down processing.

The perception pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway, while the action pathway corresponds to the _____ pathway. A. where; what B. what where C. size; distance D. distance; size

B. what where

Which of the following is NOT an example of a physical regularity in your text? A. Vertical orientation B. Horizontal orientation C. Angled orientation D. Having one object that is partially covered by another "come out the other side"

C. Angled orientation

In which neurological disorder might mirror neurons be most likely to be implicated as a potential cause of the disorder? A. Alzheimer's disease B. Parkinson's disease C. Autism D. Anorexia nervosa

C. Autism

Some perceptions result from assumptions we make about the environment that we are not even aware of. This theory of unconscious inference was developed by A. Goldstein. B. Gestalt psychologists. C. Helmholtz. D. Gibson.

C. Helmholtz.

The results of Gauthier's "Greeble" experiment illustrate A. that neurons specialized to respond to faces are present in our brains when we are born. B. that training a monkey to recognize the difference between common objects can influence how the monkey's neurons fire to these objects. C. an effect of experience-dependent plasticity. D. that our nervous systems remain fairly stable in different environments.

C. an effect of experience-dependent plasticity.

A difference between a heuristic and an algorithm is A. heuristics usually take longer to carry out than algorithms. B. algorithms are usually less systematic than heuristics. C. heuristics do not result in a correct solution every time as algorithms do. D. algorithms provide "best-guess" solutions to problems more so than heuristics.

C. heuristics do not result in a correct solution every time as algorithms do.

Speech segmentation is defined as A. creating a sentence from a series of spoken words. B. ignoring the spaces between the spoken words of a sentence. C. organizing the sounds of speech into individual words. D. recognizing a few words out of many when hearing a largely unfamiliar language.

C. organizing the sounds of speech into individual words.

The landmark discrimination problem is more difficult to do if you have damage to your _____ lobe. A. frontal B. temporal C. parietal D. occipital

C. parietal

The landmark discrimination problem is more difficult to do if you have damage to your _____lobe. A. frontal B. temporal C. parietal D. occipital

C. parietal

The recognition-by-components approach proposes that there are a number of basic features such as A. movement and brightness. B. curvature and tilt. C. rectangular solids and cubes. D. horizontal lines and vertical lines.

C. rectangular solids and cubes.

Maria took a drink from a container marked "milk." Surprised, she quickly spit out the liquid because it turned out the container was filled with orange juice instead. Maria likes orange juice, so why did she have such a negative reaction to it? Her response was most affected by A. reception of the stimulus. B. bottom-up processing. C. top-down processing. D. focused attention.

C. top-down processing.

Which of the following is not a geon? A. Cylinder B. Pyramid C. Cone D. Circle

D. Circle

Amhad is doing an experiment in which he has to choose between the object he has been shown previously (the target object) and another object. Choosing the target object will result in a reward. What sort of task is Amhad doing? A. Landmark discrimination problem B. Dissociation task C. Greeble recognition task D. Object discrimination problem

D. Object discrimination problem

Evidence for the role of top-down processing in perception is shown by which of the following examples? A. When someone can easily select a target that has a feature distinct from distracters B. When someone cannot read an illegible word in a written sentence C. When someone easily identifies an object even though that object is unexpected in that context (e.g., identifying a telephone inside a refrigerator) D. When someone accurately identifies a word in a song on a radio broadcast despite static interfering with reception

D. When someone accurately identifies a word in a song on a radio broadcast despite static interfering with reception

The example of how we might perceive something that looks like an animal hiding behind a tree in the woods was used to illustrate the operation of A. heuristics. B. the Gestalt law of organization. C. an algorithm. D. both heuristics and the Gestalt law of organization.

D. both heuristics and the Gestalt law of organization.

Things that form patterns that are meaningful are likely to be grouped together according to the law of A. simplicity. B. similarity. C. pragnanz. D. familiarity.

D. familiarity.

When a double dissociation occurs, this indicates that two functions A. are absent. B. involve the same mechanism. C. are present. D. involve different mechanisms.

D. involve different mechanisms.

Charlene sees her boyfriend across campus and waves. Even though the image he projects on her retina from that distance is quite small, Charlene does not perceive him to have shrunk at all. Instead, she perceives him as far away because of A. the light-from-above heuristic. B. algorithmic thinking. C. experience-dependent plasticity. D. size constancy.

D. size constancy.

The "indentations in the sand / bumps in the sand" example from your text illustrates A. semantic regularities. B. the oblique effect. C. size constancy. D. the light-from-above heuristic.

D. the light-from-above heuristic.

In the "finding faces in a landscape" demonstration in your text, once you perceive a particular grouping of rocks as a face, it is often difficult not to perceive them this way. This is due to A. the inverse projection problem. B. a shift in your attentional focus. C. a recency effect. D. your prior knowledge.

D. your prior knowledge.