PSY 201 Chapter 5 practice questions

A sound stimulus of approximately ____ dB can cause immediate perforation of the eardrum. 160 120 80 40

160

The absolute threshold of a stimulus refers to the intensity of that stimulus that can be detected _____ percent of the time. 25 50 75 90

50

Which of the following statements regarding the impact of culture on taste and smell is true? The majority of cultures spend a great deal of time and money on products that mask or prevent body odor. Infants are more likely to enjoy the taste of foods their mother ate while pregnant. Vietnamese people put fruit and flower scents into distinctly different categories. Experience plays very little role in taste preference.

Infants are more likely to enjoy the taste of foods their mother ate while pregnant.

What is a critique of the feature detector model of object recognition? It does not account for the fact that our expectations influence what we see. Feature detector neurons have been found in non-human primates, but not in humans themselves. Specific neurons that respond to round, square or irregular shapes do not integrate their signals to recognize multi-shaped objects. It accounts only for the recognition of simple two dimensional shapes, not more complex three-dimensional shapes.

It does not account for the fact that our expectations influence what we see.

What is the role of the amygdala in processing visual information? It interprets the contours of an object. It perceives the intensity of the stimulus. It makes quick emotional judgments about visual stimuli. It decodes the color of the stimulus.

It makes quick emotional judgments about visual stimuli.

If you lived your entire life in an environment without the straight lines and walls of rectangular buildings, you probably would be less susceptible than a city dweller to the perceptual error involved in the ____. moon illusion Ponzo illusion ESP illusion Muller-Lyer illusion

Muller-Lyer illusion

As you listen to your brilliant psychology instructor in class, the sound will travel through which of the following paths? Cochlea, thalamus, acoustic nerve, primary auditory cortex Pinna, acoustic nerve, thalamus, primary auditory cortex Pinna, cochlea, thalamus, acoustic nerve, LGN Cochlea, ear canal, thalamus, primary auditory cortex

Pinna, acoustic nerve, thalamus, primary auditory cortex

Doug lost his left leg in an automobile accident several months ago. He tells his wife that when he was shaving his face one morning, he felt the same scraping sensation on his missing leg. What may account for Doug's phantom limb sensation? Motor cortex redirecting its outputs Misappropriated top-down processing Reorganization of the somatosensory cortex Spinal cord axons attempting to reinnervate the site of the injury

Reorganization of the somatosensory cortex

What evidence best illustrates that the perception of pain is influenced by experience? When men think that other men are watching them, they report feeling less pain in response to an injury. Surgery patients whose family members were allowed to be by their side shortly after surgery reported less pain during recovery. Women who participated in childbirth classes reported less pain during the birthing process. Women reported less pain after receiving an electrical shock if they were allowed to look at pictures of their families.

Women who participated in childbirth classes reported less pain during the birthing process.

The process of transduction is analogous to ____. a sailboat utilizing the wind's energy to glide along the water taking a letter from your mailbox into the house before opening it a person using social media to communicate with friends a rocket ship breaking through the Earth's atmosphere

a sailboat utilizing the wind's energy to glide along the water

Dr. Lau is doing an experiment in which he wishes to determine the lowest concentration of salt that customers will be able to taste in a new soup product. In this experiment, Dr. Lau is interested in measuring the customer's ____. difference threshold top-down perceptual processing just noticeable difference for salt absolute threshold for taste

absolute threshold for taste

A major limitation of the trichromatic theory of color vision is its inability to explain how we can see movement. depth. more than one color at a time. afterimages.

afterimages.

Brightness refers to the amplitude of light. pureness of color. basic color categories. perception of meaningful patterns.

amplitude of light

Sensory adaptation refers to a decrease in sensory response that accompanies perceptual defense. selective attention. threshold shifts. an unchanging stimulus.

an unchanging stimulus.

Cavin recently began wearing prescription glasses after her ophthalmologist informed her that she is affected by astigmatism. She learns that this is caused by ____. an uneven surface of the cornea the loss of elasticity of the lens an irregular eyeball shape the degeneration of the retina

an uneven surface of the cornea

Carmine is preparing a pasta sauce for dinner, and asks his wife to taste it. She recommends more garlic, and he adds three cloves to the sauce. When she tastes the sauce again, she says, "I thought I said to add more garlic!" In this case, the three garlic cloves were: above her absolute threshold. beneath her difference threshold. above her difference threshold. beneath her absolute threshold.

beneath her difference threshold.

Depth cues that require two eyes are known as __________ depth cues. dizygotic bilateral binocular divergent

binocular

Many children like to complete a "connect the dots" activity, where they draw lines between dots in a specific order. The fun seems to be in guessing what the completed picture will be as soon as enough lines are constructed to allow for recognition of the whole image. This type of activity would employ ________ processing. Gestalt top-down three-dimensional bottom-up

bottom-up

When you put a picture puzzle together that you have never seen before, you will be using __________ processing. left-right top-down bottom-up selective

bottom-up

If you are exposed to ancient Peruvian art for the first time and experience some difficulty trying to figure out the meaning and quality of the art, you would be forced to simply examine the specific elements of the art since you do not have any background cultural information to use as a context in understanding the art. This would be an example of left-right processing. top-down processing. bottom-up processing. right-left processing.

bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processing involves the ____. brain's ability to integrate several stimuli simultaneously brain tuning into select information brain's use of incoming signals to construct perceptions brain imposing its own structure on incoming information based on previous experience

brain's use of incoming signals to construct perceptions

Light waves of greater amplitude cause colors to appear saturated. brighter. dull or "washed out." transparent.

brighter

What type of stimuli are responsible for olfaction and gustation? waveform chemical mechanical electrical

chemical

Sensation consists of __________, and perception consists of __________. responding to changes in stimuli; adapting to a non-changing stimulus collecting raw information about the environment; interpreting environmental information interpreting environmental information; collecting raw information about the environment adapting to a non-changing stimulus; responding to changes in stimuli

collecting raw information about the environment; interpreting environmental information

The different wavelengths of light stimuli are interpreted by our visual systems as different ________. visual purities brightnesses visual sizes colors or shades of gray

colors or shades of gray

Edwin is able to see normally in low-light conditions and demonstrates a normal ability to detect movements in his periphery. However, he has great difficulty recognizing different colors. He sees the world mostly in shades of gray. Which of the following structures are either impaired or not present in Edwin's eyes? Cornea Cones Fovea Rods

cones

If you have just walked into a dark movie theatre in the middle of the day, you may not be able to determine which seats are empty and which are full because it can take a long time for ________________ to occur. light adaptation cone regeneration dark adaptation rod regeneration

dark adaptation

Seven-year-old Sangram is not allowed to touch the TV remote. Nevertheless, he uses the remote to change the volume from level 15 to 17. His parents, who are in the next room, seem unaware. The next day, Sangram becomes bold and turns the volume from level 15 to 30. His father yells at him, "Stop playing with the remote!" What prevented Sangram's father from noticing the volume change on the previous day? fixed threshold distinct threshold absolute threshold difference threshold

difference threshold

Which structure is important to the sense of pain? Merkel's disks Pacinian corpuscles free nerve endings Krause's end bulbs

free nerve endings

Dr. Mondragon is performing eye surgery on a patient. As Dr. Mondragon views the retina through the patient's pupil, what type of cells should he see on the front surface of the retina? horizontal cells cone cells rod cells ganglion cells

ganglion cells

The sense of taste is referred to as the vestibular sense. olfaction. gustation. the somesthetic sense.

gustation

Psychophysicists study ____. how the mind interprets sensory stimuli how nature interacts with nurture to influence development the physical basis for mental illness the relationship between the mind and body

how the mind interprets sensory stimuli

What type of sound is particularly effective for many marine mammals because it allows sound to travel for very long distances in water? durasound parasound ultrasound infrasound

infrasound

Which term is more directly associated with perception than sensation? auditory interpretation visual gustatory

interpretation

Perception is defined as the ____. process of encoding experiences transduction of environmental stimuli conversion of electromagnetic energy into electrochemical energy interpretation of sensory information

interpretation of sensory information

When Leslie goes to the eye doctor, her doctor puts drops in her eyes to dilate her pupils. This drug is a sedative that has its greatest effect on what part of the eye? iris sclera cornea lens

iris

The fovea ____. is located in the periphery of the retina is important for detecting form and shape contains only rods is located in the center of the retina, directly behind the pupil

is located in the center of the retina, directly behind the pupil

It is the middle of the day and you are outside in the bright sunlight. In order to give you the best possibility of seeing the colors and detail of a large flower in your garden, you should ____. close one eye look directly at it look to the right side of it look to the left side of it

look directly at it

Owls, who hunt at night, can hear sounds that cannot be heard by humans, which illustrates that, compared to humans, they have a much lower absolute threshold for sounds. higher absolute threshold for sounds. lower sensory adaptation level for sounds. higher sensory adaptation level for sounds.

lower absolute threshold for sounds.

The lock-and-key theory proposes that ____ are stimulated by ____, much like neurotransmitters that fit into receptor sites on the post-synaptic neuron. taste buds; flavors touch receptors; touch olfactory receptors; odor molecules hair cells; sounds

olfactory receptors; odor molecules

Kateria stares at an image of the U.S. flag with the stars black, the field around the stars yellow, and the stripes black and green. She then stares at a white sheet of paper. The afterimage of a red, white, and blue flag is explained by which theory of color vision? gate control trichromatic opponent-process accommodation

opponent-process

The __________ theory best explains the phenomena of complementary colors. feature detection trichromatic opponent-process gate-control

opponent-process

The process by which the brain organizes sensations into meaningful patterns is known as reception. perception. cognition. adaptation.

perception

When listening to your professor's lecture, interpreting the meaning of the professor's words is an example of assimilation. accommodation. perception. sensation.

perception

Seeing "out of the corner of your eye" is important in sports activities and driving. This is known as feature detection. astigmatism. peripheral vision. tunnel vision.

peripheral vision.

Rods are to the____ of the retina, as cones are to the ____ of the retina. left side; right side periphery; center right side; the left side center; periphery

periphery; center

Place theory, frequency theory, duplicity theory, and volley theory, have all been provided as explanations for ____ perception. color taste pitch odor

pitch

Dr. Azure measures sound waves and electromagnetic radiation and relates them to the sensations people experience as loudness and brightness, respectively. Dr. Azure is conducting research in the area of sensory deprivation. physiological psychology. neurological psychology. psychophysics.

psychophysics

The colored part of your eye, called the iris, takes its name from the Greek word for ________. vision hue rainbow beautiful

rainbow

The primary colors of light are ____. yellow, green, and blue red, green, and blue red, yellow, and green red, yellow, and blue

red, green, and blue

Tom is looking out the window at an airport boarding gate. He sees a number of 747s and interprets the smaller ones as being further away than the larger ones. Tom is using ____. texture gradient relative size interposition linear perspective

relative size

Adaptation to darkness is possible because of the presence of __________ in the periphery of your retina. rods fovea iodopsin cones

rods

If your retina contained only rods, you would be unable to ____. see in bright light see shape see anything see color

see color

In order to take your psychology quiz, you must read and process the information. The initial step of your eyes detecting the black marks on the page depends on the process of perception. sensory accommodation. sensory adaptation. sensation.

sensation

When listening to your professor's lecture, hearing the various sounds of the professor's words would involve the process of accommodation. assimilation. sensation. perception.

sensation

Olfaction is another name for the sense of vision. hearing. smell. taste.

smell

Scientists today have the least understanding of which of the five senses? touch vision taste smell

smell

In science fiction movies, when space ships shoot each other, the audience hears a loud bang. In reality, no sound should occur because these sounds are beyond the range of normal human hearing. it is too cold in space for sound to travel. in space, sound travels at the speed of light too fast for humans to hear. sound requires a medium like air, which is absent in the vacuum of space.

sound requires a medium like air, which is absent in the vacuum of space.

Neural impulses from touch travel first to the ____. spinal cord cerebellum thalamus somatosensory cortex

spinal cord

Joan looking at a large field of flowers. Up close she can see individual flowers, but in the distance, they seem to blur together. Joan is using the depth cue of ____. linear perspective interposition texture gradient relative size

texture gradient

If you expect to hear a sound, you may have a better ability to hear it. This would be an example of how ____ can change. the law of perception the just noticeable difference Weber's law the absolute threshold

the absolute threshold

What are the two steps of signal detection? the intensity of stimulus and the observer's criteria the category of stimulus and the observer's criteria the category of stimulus and the conduction velocity the intensity of stimulus and the conduction velocity

the intensity of stimulus and the observer's criteria

Kevin is a participant in a taste-off as part of his campus's Greek Week. He is blindfolded and his nose is pinched off with a clothespin. He is asked to taste a slice of apple and a slice of raw potato. Kevin is likely to ____. perceive the tastes as pleasant because he is having fun at Greek Week think that the apple and the potato are the same perceive the tastes as aversive because he can't see the food recognize the apple but not the potato because the apple is acidic

think that the apple and the potato are the same

When you put a picture puzzle together that you have seen many times, you will be using __________ processing. selective left-right bottom-up top-down

top down

Dr. Hsieh is grading her students' essays, and is able to read all of them despite the fact that each is submitted with different handwriting. Because she expects to see letters forming words and words forming sentences, her perception of the written works is guided by ________ processing. bottom-up top-down transduced Gestalt psychology

top-down

You hear a speaker at a scientific seminar say something that sounds like, "It is easy to wreck a nice beach." You know that the topic of the talk is language comprehension, so you decide that what the speaker really said was, "It is easy to recognize speech." In making this inference, you are primarily employing the word superiority effect. top-down processing. convergent thinking. bottom-up processing.

top-down processing.

The process of converting a sensory stimulus to a neural signal that can be sent to the brain is called ________. transduction habituation interpolation adaptation

transduction

Much, if not all, of the two-step process of sensation and perception is slow-moving. unconscious. conscious. observable.

unconscious

If you want to raise the pitch of Coach Knight's voice so that it can be heard only by dogs, you will need to decrease its frequency. amplitude. wavelength. timbre.

wavelength (when the wavelengths are closer together, that means the frequency is higher and therefore the pitch is higher)

According to the trichromatic theory of color vision, cones in the human retina are maximally responsive to all but which of the following hues of light? blue red yellow green

yellow