_____ are neurons that fire in response to specific edges, lines, angles, and movements.
Rods
Cones
Ganglion cells
Feature detectors
Bipolar cells
Signal detection theory is most closely associated with which perception process?
Vision
Sensory adaptation
Absolute thresholds
Smell
Context effects
Which of the following represents perceptual constancy?
We recognize the taste of McDonald’s food each time we eat it.
In photos of people, the people almost always are perceived as figure and everything else as ground.
We know that the color of a printed page has not changed as it moves from sunlight into shadow.
From the time they are very young, most people can recognize the smell of a dentist’s office.
The cold water in a lake doesn’t seem so cold after you have been swimming in it for a few minutes.
You friend tells you that a cloud looks like your math teacher; you look up and agree. Which principle explains why this is so?
Selective attention
ESP
Perceptual set
Shape constancy
Bottom-up processing
The process by which rods and cones change electromagnetic energy into neural messages is called
adaptation.
accommodation.
parallel processing.
transduction.
perceptual setting.
Which of the following is most likely to influence our memory of a painful event?
The overall length of the event
The intensity of pain at the end of the event
The reason for the pain
The amount of rest you’ve had in the 24 hours preceding the event
The specific part of the body that experiences the pain
Frequency theory relates to which element of the hearing process?
The rate at which the basilar membrane vibrates
The number of fibers in the auditory nerve
The point at which the basilar membrane exhibits the most vibration
The decibel level of a sound
The number of hair cells in each cochlea
Which of the following best represents an absolute threshold?
A guitar player knows that his D string has just gone out of tune.
A photographer can tell that the natural light available for a photograph has just faded slightly.
Your friend amazes you by correctly identifying unlabeled glasses of Coke and Pepsi.
A cook can just barely taste the small amount of salt she has added to her soup.
Your mom throws out the milk because she says the taste is “off.”
Which of the following describes a perception process that the Gestalt psychologists would have been interested in?
Depth perception and how it allows us to survive in the world
How we notice the various flavor elements in a dish
How an organized whole is formed out of its component pieces
What the smallest units of perception are
The similarities between shape constancy and size constancy
Which sensory process are the hammer, anvil, and stirrup involved in?
Detecting intense colors
Processing information related to our sense of balance
Transmitting light energy to ganglion cells
Transmitting sound waves to the cochlea
Smelling the foul odors of the locker room
Which of the following might result from a disruption of your vestibular sense?
Inability to detect the position of your arm without looking at it
Loss of the ability to detect bitter tastes
Dizziness and a loss of balance
An inability to detect pain
Loss of color vision
The experience of a smooth picture at the movies, even though the actual film is made up thousands of separate pictures is due to
the phi phenomenon.
perceptual set.
stroboscopic movement.
relative motion.
the illusory effect.
As you look down the road, the lines of the road seem to come together in the distance, even though you know they do not. Which depth cue explains this phenomenon?
Relative motion
Retinal disparity
Interposition
Light and shadow
Linear perspective
Which of the following phrases accurately describes top-down processing?
The entry-level data captured by our various sensory systems
The effect that our experiences and expectations have on perception
Our tendency to scan a visual field from top to bottom
Our ability to detect letters of a word before we know what the word is
The fact that information is processed by the higher regions of the brain before it reaches the lower brain
Meghan’s friends seek her out for help with their problems because she can “see the future” and know what the outcome of an event will be before it happens. Her friends think that Meghan has the power of
telepathy.
clairvoyance.
precognition.
psychokinesis.
sensory interaction.
As she looks down the hallway, Elaine is not tricked into thinking that the friend who is closer to her looks larger than the friend who is farther down the hall. Which monocular cue helps her with this understanding?
Interposition
Linear perspective
Interposition
Relative height
Relative size
Because of the repeated exposure to loud noise they experience during their daily jobs, airport ground workers are most susceptible to damage to which of the following?
Olfactory nerve
Cochlea
Ganglion cells
Bipolar cells
Hammer, anvil, and stirrup
Which of the following is the best example of sensory interaction?
Simultaneous exposure to warm and cold produces the skin sensation of hot.
Some cones have the ability to detect red and green or blue and yellow light.
You notice a slight flicker of a light when there is a sound that accompanies it.
Pitch perception is explained by the frequency and place theories.
You fail to notice the odd smell of your friend’s room after an hour.
After looking at a yellow, black, and green American flag for a minute, you shift your gaze to a white wall. Which of the following best explains why you “see” a red, white, and blue flag when looking at the white wall?
Frequency theory
Young-Helmholtz theory
Opponent-process theory
Ganglion-bipolar theory
Weber’s law
Free-Response Questions
Ester is walking to class when she notices someone in the distance suddenly duck into a dark doorway. As she chases the figure, she misjudges the distance and runs into the door and falls down. She laughs when she discovers that the mystery person is her roommate, who was avoiding Ester, because she had borrowed Ester’s favorite sweater without permission and was afraid Ester might be angry.
Use the following terms to explain the perceptual processes involved in this scenario.
Gate-control theory
Vestibular sense
Selective attention
Signal detection theory
Binocular cues
Perceptual set
(6 points)
Describe, from the beginning of the process to the end, how your brain is perceiving the words you are reading right now. Use the following terms in your answer.