Unit 3 MCQ

Orville is talking with his friends at a cafeteria table when suddenly he is distracted by hearing his name at a neighboring table. Orville's shift of attention most clearly illustrates which psychological concept?

The cocktail party phenomenon

Which of the following is the best definition for absolute threshold?

The lowest strength of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time

Which of the following anatomical structures is involved in the vestibular sense?

Semicircular canals The semicircular canals are involved in the vestibular sense.

Kimmie stood on the sidewalk rather than crossing the street because she saw that the approaching car was quite close to her. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?

depth perception

Which of the following is the process of detecting environmental stimuli and converting them into signals that can be detected by the nervous system?

sensation

Which of the following concepts refers to the diminished sensitivity to a stimulus that occurs due to constant exposure to that stimulus?

sensory adaptation

Tracey was in pain from an ear infection, which her doctor said was in her inner ear. Which of the following is the most likely location of the infection?

the cochlea

Which of the following scenarios is the best example of synesthesia?

Anastasia sees swirls of color when she hears music because stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to the experience of another sensation. Synesthesia is the phenomenon where stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic experiences in a second pathway.

Dr. Ramen recruited 100 adults to participate in her study. The taste buds of each participant were measured, and the participants tasted a number of foods. She found there was a relationship between the size of a participant's taste buds and the number of foods that a participant could taste. What research method did Dr. Ramen use, and what was she most likely studying?

Correlational; the sensitivity of supertasters This is a correlational study. There was no random assignment or control group. Dr. Ramen was most likely studying the sensitivity of supertasters because supertasters tend to have larger taste buds.

Which of the following best illustrates the most predictable effect of schemas on perception?

Grant has more difficulty recognizing a penguin as a bird than he does a blue jay. Blue jays manifest more elements of the "bird" schema than penguins.

Which of the following is the correct order of the eye-to-brain pathway of vision?

Retina, optic nerve, thalamus, occipital lobe

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the opponent-process theory of color vision?

Kayla sees afterimages of opposing colors when she stares at a poster for a long time. The opponent-process theory accounts for afterimages as being determined by the activity of opponent-color systems.

In a study on taste, what would researchers need to do to test participants' ability to distinguish umami from similar sensations?

Place disks soaked in MSG on the participants' tongues. Then replace those disks with disks that have been soaked in water. Compare the participants' reactions.

Marlene had an infection that led to deafness in her left ear. Which of the following will be the most likely impact of losing her hearing in her left ear?

She will have trouble locating the source of sounds. Both ears are necessary for accurate sound localization.

Denise has damaged her auditory nerve and now has difficulty understanding what people are saying. Which of the following descriptions explains how that damage impairs her hearing?

Sound messages fail to be transmitted directly to the brain The auditory nerve is in charge of transmitting messages from the ear to the brain.

A researcher wants to study the human sense of taste over a life span. The researcher has a group of participants taste foods that are salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami. Which study would best allow the researcher to test the sensation of taste as people age, and what is the likely outcome?

The researcher follows the same group of people over the course of 40 years. The researcher also measures the number of people's taste buds throughout the 40 years. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste diminishes and their number of taste buds decreases. A longitudinal study would be the best way to study changes in taste over time because it would allow the researcher to avoid cohort effects.

Bryan perceived a duck instead of other animals when viewing an ambiguous image because he watched a documentary about ducks the previous night. Which of the following best explains why Bryan perceived a duck?

Top-down processing, because his perception of the duck was influenced by past experience.

Which of the following examples best illustrates the concept of interposition?

because the chair partially obscured his view of the sofa, Brendan perceived the chair as being closer than the sofa.

Helena did not recognize her English teacher when she unexpectedly saw him while traveling in Paris, even though she knew him well back in the classroom. The fact that Helena can recognize her teacher back home more easily than in Paris best demonstrates what concept?

perceptual set recognition of her teacher is facilitated by a context in which he would be expected.

Human tactile sense is actually a mix of which of the following distinct skin senses?

pressure, warmth, cold, pain

According to the gate control theory of pain, which of the following contains a neurological gate that controls the transmission of pain messages to the brain?

the spinal cord the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.