psych test review

When Sanjay recognizes line segments and areas of light and dark as his friend's face at an airport gate, he is demonstrating:

perception.

If you move your watchband up your wrist an inch or so, you will feel it for only a few moments. This BEST illustrates:

sensory adaptation

After hearing that Bryce had served a prison sentence, Janet began to view his genuinely friendly behavior as insincere and manipulative. This BEST illustrates the impact of:

perceptual

_____ is the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.

priming

Studying the relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli (for example, intensity) and the subjective experience of them involves the field known as _____.

psychophyscis

Which sequence BEST orders from first to last the information-processing activities described in the textbook?

sensation; transduction; perception

______________ stimulation occurs below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Subliminal

_____ occurs below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Subliminal stimulation

If people stare at an object, why doesn't it disappear?

Their nerve cells are constantly firing.

A person can detect a single drop of perfume diffused in an area the size of a one-bedroom apartment. This is a(n) _____ threshold.

absolute

"It's so noisy! How can you stand it?" remarks Caitlyn as highway traffic screams past her friend Dave's ground-floor apartment. "I don't even notice it anymore," Dave replies. This exchange BEST exemplifies the concept of sensory:

adaptation

Sensory analysis starts at the receptors and works to integrate the sensory information in the brain. This process is called:

bottom up

Sensory adaptation helps people:

concentrate on more important things.

A snack manufacturer finds that it must increase the salt content of its chips by 8 percent in order for a sample of consumers to notice that the chips are saltier than they were before. This example BEST illustrates the concept of a(n) _____ threshold.

difference

Tanisha asked her roommate to lower the radio as she was trying to study. Her roommate had turned the radio up originally from a volume level of 14 to 15, which was just enough for Tanisha to detect. She turned it back down to 14 after Tanisha asked her to lower it, which satisfied Tanisha. This is probably the result of:

difference threshold

A researcher subliminally flashes words that have either emotionally positive content (for example, puppies, people embracing) or negative content (for example, murder, accidents) immediately before showing participants pictures of houses. Then, when they are asked to rate the houses in terms of attractiveness, the participants should:

give the houses that were viewed following positive images higher ratings.

In an experiment described in the textbook, preschool children preferred the taste of french fries served in a McDonald's bag to the taste of identical fries served in a plain white bag. The type of bag is a(n) _____ variable in this study.

independent

Between 1983 and 1987 thousands of people in New York saw a UFO in the sky. It was estimated to be between 200 and 1000 feet long and had multicolored blinking lights. The UFO sighting turned out to be a hoax. Rather than an actual UFO sighting, what viewers actually saw was a group of small planes with multicolored lights attached. The pilots would fly in formation that gave the impression of a UFO. They were even able to make it appear as though the UFO disappeared by turning off their lights simultaneously. The interpretation of the sighting was influenced by the viewers' perceptual _____.

perceptual set

Racial and ethnic stereotypes can sometimes bias the way one sees others' behaviors. This BEST illustrates the impact of:

perceptual set.

Both _____ and _____ indicate how experiences help to construct perception.

perceptual set; context

When people look at a photograph of an adult-child pair and are told that the two individuals are parent and child, the people tend to say the pair looks more alike than people who are told the pair is unrelated. This is MOST likely due to:

perceptual sets

When subjects look at a picture of the Moon's surface, some of them report seeing a human face. This is due to:

schemas

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

sensation; perception

Carlos was just touched on his cheek, which is a(n) _____. In order for Carlos to know if he was kissed or slapped, Carlos needs a(n) _____.

sensation; perception

Marc is driving his 12-year-old car. He notices a sound coming from the engine, which involves _____ processing. He immediately starts thinking that the sound is similar to the sound his car made the last time he had it repaired, which involves _____ processing.

sensation; perception

After listening to her high-volume car stereo for 15 minutes, Marcy fails to realize that the music is too loud. This BEST illustrates:

sensory adaptation

When Thad arrived at the gym Tuesday morning, he noticed the musty odor of the showers in the locker room. As he finished changing, he did not notice the smell. This is probably the result of:

sensory adaptation.

Once Frederic learned of Amelia's abusive past, he began to perceive her cautious behavior around men as more self-protective than rude. This BEST illustrates the impact of perceptual _____.

set

Two Transportation Security Administration officers are scanning bags at the airport. One of the officers lets a bag go through, but the other officer yells, "Wait, didn't you see that?" Why one officer saw a weapon and the other did not is BEST explained by: Please choose the correct answer from the following choices, and then select the submit answer button.

signal detection theory

Dennis, a nurse, notes that some parents of asthmatic children respond to very small changes in their children's breathing and seek care accordingly. However, other parents do not notice the same small changes. This type of difference in reaction to stimuli is BEST explained by:

the signal detection theory.

Perceptual analysis that is guided by higher-level mental processes such as expectations is called _____ processing.

top down

The fact that perceptions involve more than the sum of sensations BEST illustrates the importance of _____ processing.

top down

Samantha opens her eyes in the morning to see flowers by her bedside. At that point, her eyes are receiving light energy, which they change into neural messages for the brain to process. This conversion of one form of energy into another is called:

transduction

The local fire department sounds an alarm. The conversion of the siren's sound waves into neural impulses exemplifies the process of:

transduction

The size of the difference threshold is greater for heavier objects than for lighter ones. This BEST illustrates _____ law.

webers

Giulio's bag of marbles is twice as heavy as Jim's bag. 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:

webers law