Unit 3

Who emphasized that in order for a person to detect a difference between two stimuli, it was the percentage change that mattered, not the amount?

Ernst Weber

Which of the following individuals is BEST known for their research of absolute thresholds?

Gustav Fechner

Animals that have excellent night vision are MOST likely to have...

an abundance of rods

When Bella was at a restaurant with her friends, she failed to notice the different when her first waiter left to go on a break and a second waiter took his place. Bella's failure to notice the change in waiters is an example of...

change blindness

Mrs. Gabriel was teaching a lesson on ethics and she had the students form groups of four to discuss their feelings about a controversial topic. Although the classroom got very loud, Mrs. Gabriel was able to hear her name from across the classroom when a student needed help. Which of the following BEST describes this phenomenon?

cocktail party effect

Katie loves to go to her local library and has participated in summer reading programs for several years that are organized by the lead librarian, Mrs. Higgins. Although Katie has known Mrs. Higgins for a long time, she failed to recognize her when she was walking down the street during a community art festival. This recognition failure is due to which of the following?

context effects

When we are required to perform two or more tasks at the same time, such as driving the car and carrying on a conversation, what do we have?

divided attention

Which of the following visual processes provides humans the ability to distinguish between different shapes, angles, and moving objects?

feature detection

Selena was recently diagnosed with spinal meningitis. After days of having a high fever, Selena was left with complete deafness in her left ear. Her doctor explained that Selena was suffering from sensorineural hearing loss. Which part of her ear was MOST likely damaged and caused her sensorineural hearing loss?

her cochlea

Which of the following is the colored muscle that controls the amount of light that enters the eye?

iris

Timmy moved to a different school over the summer. At his last school, he had a very strict teacher that he was afraid of because she would yell at the class all of the time. When he came to his new school and sat in class on the first day, he perceived his new teacher as angry and strict as well, even though she was just going over the school rules that all teachers had to discuss on the first day. What influenced Timmy's mistaken perception?

perceptual set

Our sense of hearing is achieved as sound waves travel through several steps to become neural impulses. Which of the following is part of the outer ear?

pinna

Angelique's psychology teacher, Mrs. Murphy, always makes students get out of their seats to participate in demonstrations. Today was Angelique's turn. Mrs. Murphy has Angelique face the class, close her eyes, and touch her fingers to her nose. Angelique was so nervous and embarrassed that she forgot to ask what the demonstration was supposed to show. What was Mrs. Murphy trying to show her class by using Angelique?

proprioception

Because she was listening to the news on the television, Ms. Jones did not perceive a word her husband was saying. Which of the following is illustrated in this example?

selective attention

In a famous experiment, subjects viewed a group of three people in white shirts passing a basketball. When asked to count the number of times the team in black passed the ball to each other, most subjects failed to notice a person in a gorilla costume walking across the screen. This experiment illustrates which of the following psychological principles?

selective attention can make people less sensitive to unexpected changes in their environment

When Karen looks at an object, her sensory receptors detect the color and shape. What is this process called?

sensation

Xavier finds the smell of a new restaurant to be very strong at first, but after spending time eating in the restaurant, he no longer notices the smell. The process of getting used to a sensory experience is referred to as...

sensory adaptation

Freddy cannot wait until the end of class. He leaves class with permission and starts walking in an empty school hallway. Another student enters the hallway and starts walking towards Freddy. As the student walks closer to Freddy, the image of the student on Freddy's retinas gets bigger, but Freddy knows the other student is not actually increasing in size. Which of the following BEST explains what is happening?

size constancy

Alex can easily tell the difference between 1-lb bag of flour and a 5-lb bag, but he cannot tell the difference between lifting 200 lbs and 205 lbs in the weight room. Which of the following explains Alex's inability to determine the heavier weight's differences?

Weber's law

A sensation is the process of turning physical energy like light, pressure, or sound into neural signals that travel from the sensory system to the brain. Which term BEST describes this process?

transduction