Psyc Ch.4a

Giulio's bag of marbles is twice as heavy as Jim's. If it takes 5 extra marbles to make Jim's bag feel heavier, it will take 10 extra marbles to make Giulio's bag feel heavier. This best illustrates:

Weber's law.

Psychophysical methods are advantageous in studying perception because psychophysics:

offers a reasonably objective way to study perception.

Jennifer can tune her guitar more effectively than Maria because Jennifer is better at detecting whether specific strings are playing too sharp or too flat. Maria apparently has a _____ threshold than does Jennifer.

larger difference

Amad is a strict vegan. He is always on the alert because restaurant meals advertised as vegetarian sometimes contain beef broth. Oftentimes, he is convinced that a dish contains an offending ingredient even when it does not. In signal detection terms, Amad has a(n) _____ response bias.

liberal

Rather than increase food prices, manufacturers sometimes imperceptibly decrease the amount of food in a package. Sticky Foods wants to raise the price of peanut butter but still sell each jar for $2.89. The current jar contains 16 oz. of peanut butter. Assume the Weber fraction for felt weight is 0.05. The smallest jar that will feel the same as the 16 oz. jar to most people will contain _____ oz.

15.2

Amber is expecting an important telephone call. She steps into the shower before leaving for school. Amber feels as if she is straining her ears so that she can hear the phone above the noise of the water. In light of signal detection theory, which statement is probably most accurate concerning Amber's perception of the phone's ring during her shower?

Amber's response bias differs from her response bias during other showers.

Which statement is true regarding sensation and perception?

Sensation involves the activation of sense receptors; perception involves interpretation.

Sensation is to the peripheral nervous system as perception is to the _____ nervous system.

central

It is a busy morning at the coffee shop. "I asked for a caramel shot; there's none in this coffee!" demands one impatient customer. "This coffee's caffeinated, and I cannot tolerate caffeine," barks another. "You are right. I'm sorry. Here is a tall with a caramel shot," the harried barista apologizes to the first customer. "All right, I will pour you another," she tells the second customer, even though she knows the woman's coffee really was decaffeinated. In signal detection terms, the first customer's remark reflects a _____. The second customer's statement indicates a _____.

correct rejection; false alarm

In a typical psychophysical experiment, the absolute threshold is a (n) _____ variable; in a graph, a measure of absolute threshold appears on the _____-axis.

dependent; y

Sherlock, the dog, takes his job of protecting his owners' home very seriously. He sits at the window all day and barks whenever he perceives a threat. The problem is he often barks at innocuous things such as the rustling of the wind or a car door shutting a block away. In terms of detecting threats, Sherlock makes many _____.

false alarms

In a psychophysical experiment, observers first view an adapting stimulus in which small dots on a computer screen all move steadily toward the right. They then view a test stimulus in which they have to determine whether a patch of dots is stationary or moving. According to the text, the adapting stimulus probably will:

increase the observers' absolute threshold for motion detection.

Carmen is reading her psychology text. Her interpretation of the stimuli as particular words is termed _____.

perception

Consider the term "psychophysics." "Psycho-" is to _____as "-physics" is to _____.

perception; stimulus

Dr. Breiland examines the relationship between the physical properties of light, such as its amplitude and wavelength, and a person's perception of color. Which term most accurately describes Dr. Breiland's field of study?

psychophysics

Introspection is to subjective, as _____ is to objective.

psychophysics

Dr. Lockhart varies the amount of sweetener dissolved in a cup of black coffee. Participants rate the sweetness of the coffee. Dr. Lockhart's investigation is an example of _____, and the dependent variable is _____.

psychophysics; sweetness ratings

Sofia is reading her psychology text. The stimulation of receptors in her retina is called _____.

sensation

Anna is reading her psychology text. The activation of receptors in her retina is called _____; her interpretation of the stimuli as particular words is termed _____.

sensation; perception

The local fire department sounds an alarm. The conversion of the siren's sound waves into neural impulses exemplifies the process of _____. the environment into neural signals carried by sensory neurons into the central nervous system.

transduction

Which alternative correctly matches a concept with an example?

transduction--mechanical transduction--mechanical pressure in the ear is converted into neural signals when certain hair cells bend.

Which set contains a discrepant element?

{organization; sensation; identification}