CH 3: Perception

Question 1

Conscious experience that results from stimulation of the senses.

a. inverse projection problem
b. perception
c. viewpoint invariance

Answer 1

b. perception

Question 2

_____ is a process that can change based on new information, and can be based on principles that are related to past experiences.

a. inverse projection problem
b. perception
c. viewpoint invariance

Answer 2

b. perception

Question 3

With which task would you expect a computer vision system to have the most difficulty?

a. stopping when it gets to a wall
b. turning onto a perpendicular street
c. distinguishing between a dog and a cat
d. identifying a person viewed at an angle

Answer 3

d. identifying a person viewed at an angle

Question 4

Research aimed at developing accurate computer vision systems has _____.

a. been highly successful because computer systems humans share similar accuracy levels across a wide range of tasks
b. enjoyed considerable success, with computers performing with about 80% of the accuracy of the average human
c. yielded mixed results with some areas of success, although computers make errors that humans would not make
d. been an almost total failure outside of the lab and also largely unsuccessful in highly controlled laboratory settings

Answer 4

c. yielded mixed results with some areas of success, although computers make errors that humans would not make

Question 5

Which statement about perception is the most accurate?

a. Perception is insensitive to cognitive processing.
b. Perception occurs at the level of sensory receptors.
c. Perceptions can change when new information is provided.
d. Perception is an internal experience and cannot be studied scientifically.

Answer 5

c. Perceptions can change when new information is provided.

Question 6

People can typically identify a chair whether they are viewing it from behind, in front or the side. This is referred to as _____.

a. visual invariance
b. viewpoint integration
c. visual integration
d. viewpoint invariance

Answer 6

d. viewpoint invariance

The ability to recognize an object seen from different viewpoints.

Question 7

The task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on the retina is called the _____. Humans solve this easily, but it’s still very difficult for computer-vision systems.

a. inverse projection problem
b. figure-ground segregation
c. perceptual constancy
d. viewpoint invariance

Answer 7

a. inverse projection problem

Question 8

The ambiguous stimulus issue refers to the observation that _____.

a. people have difficulty identifying degraded or blurred photos of famous people
b. a particular image on the retina can often be produced by different objects in the environment
c. small changes in lighting, color, size, or orientation often go unnoticed by viewers
d. most people are unable to produce precise descriptions of even very familiar objects

Answer 8

b. a particular image on the retina can often be produced by different objects in the environment

Question 9

Humans are better at identifying ambiguous stimuli such as blurred photos because humans _____.

a. rarely become distracted by extraneous factors
b. can resolve ambiguities by top-down processing
c. rely almost exclusively on bottom-up processing
d. make identifications in a strict, hierarchical fashion

Answer 9

b. can resolve ambiguities by top-down processing

Question 10

Perception starts with _____, which involves stimulation of the receptors, creating electrical signals that reach the visual receiving area of the brain. This type of processing is also called data-based processing.

a. top-down processing
b. bottom-up processing

Answer 10

b. bottom-up processing

Question 11

Perception also involves _____, which is associated with knowledge stored in the brain. This type of processing has also been called knowledge-based processing.

a. top-down processing
b. bottom-up processing

Answer 11

a. top-down processing

Question 12

Jen is fluent in English and German and when she listens to a speaker using either of those two languages, she is able to identify distinct words. However, she has only recently begun learning Pashto and when she listens to a speaker, she finds it difficult to identify any words, even simple words she recognizes in isolation. Jen is best described as experiencing issues with _____.

a. bottom-up processing
b. discontinuity adjustment
c. speech segmentation
d. aural invariance

Answer 12

c. speech segmentation

The process of perceiving individual words within the continuous flow of the speech signal.

Question 13

In speech, the likelihood that one speech sound will follow another within a word. For example, consider the words pretty baby. In English it is likely that pre and ty will be in the same word (pre-tty) but less likely that ty and ba will be in the same word (pretty baby).

a. speech segmentation
b. transitional probabilities

Answer 13

b. transitional probabilities

Question 14

His contribution to perception was based on his realization that the image on the retina is ambiguous. For example, overlapping rectangles; how does the perceptual system “decide” that this pattern on the retina was created by overlapping rectangles and not by one rectangle being cut out where the other overlaps?

a. helmholtz
b. watson
c. gestalt

Answer 14

a. helmholtz

Question 15

Part of Helmholtz’s theory of _____ that states that we perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have received.

a. unconscious inference
b. likelihood principle

Answer 15

b. likelihood principle

Question 16

Helmholtz’s idea that some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions that we make about the environment.

a. unconscious decision
b. unconscious inference
c. unconscious processing

Answer 16

b. unconscious inference

Question 17

It is just about time for Paxton to receive the weekly call from his mother that has occurred for nearly two years, so when he answers the phone and hears a female voice, he says, “It’s the best mom in the world calling me.” As it happens, it is the instructor from his cognitive psychology class who is returning a call from him. He swears up and down that she really does sound just like his mother. Paxton has fallen prey to Helmholtz’s _____.

a. principle of continuity
b. law of pragnanz
c. likelihood principle
d. assumption of regularity

Answer 17

c. likelihood principle

Question 18

For eons, people have created images in the night sky by connecting the stars into constellations illustrating various animals like bears, dogs, or eagles as well as various deities or heroes. The tendency to connect together points that, when joined, result in straight or smoothly curving lines, and perceive the points as belonging together, is a Gestalt approach known as the principle of _____.

a. figure-ground segregation
b. similarity
c. good continuation
d. simplicity

Answer 18

c. good continuation

Question 19

Proposed that perception is determined by specific organizing principles.

a. law of pragnanz
b. Gestalt approach
c. principles of perceptual organization

Answer 19

b. Gestalt approach

Question 20

This is a mathematical procedure for determining what is likely to be “out there”; it takes into account a person’s prior beliefs about a perceptual outcome and the likelihood of that outcome based on additional evidence.

a. law of pragnanz
b. Gestalt approach
c. Bayesian inference

Answer 20

c. Bayesian inference

Question 21

In Bayesian inference, the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome.

a. likelihood
b. consistency principle
c. similarity prinicple

Answer 21

a. likelihood

Question 22

Miki has a terrible stress-related headache, one of the worst she has ever had. While taking a break from working on a tough term paper, Miki googles her symptoms (e.g., sick to her stomach, dizzy, headache) and finds mention after mention of brain tumors. In fact, nearly three out of four of the hits are about brain tumors, although the majority of the others are stress-related headaches. Suddenly, Miki wonders whether she has a brain tumor. This is most consistent with _____.

a. bottom-up processing
b. Gestalt principles of organization
c. environmental regularities
d. Bayesian inference

Answer 22

d. Bayesian inference

Question 23

The natural environment contains many horizontal and vertical lines, and research has demonstrated that animals have more neurons that respond to stimuli with horizontal or vertical orientations than neurons that respond to other orientations. To the extent that having more neurons that respond to horizontal or vertical orientations conveys a survival advantage and makes reproduction more likely, it is consistent with _____.

a. experience-dependent plasticity
b. Bayesian inference
c. theory of natural selection
d. Gestalt principles of organization

Answer 23

c. natural selection

Darwin’s theory that characteristics that enhance an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce will be passed on to future generations.

Question 24

Kittens who are raised in an artificial environment in which they are only exposed to vertical lines subsequently have neurons that respond to vertical lines and none that respond to horizontal lines. This is most consistent with _____.

a. experience-dependent plasticity
b. Bayesian inference
c. theory of natural selection
d. Gestalt principles of organization

Answer 24

a. experience-dependent plasticity

Question 25

A problem in which the task is to remember an object based on its shape and choose it when presented with another object after a delay. Associated with research on the “what” processing stream.

a. object discrimination problem
b. landmark discrimination problem

Answer 25

a. object discrimination problem

Question 26

Problem in which the task is to remember an object’s location and to choose that location after a delay. Associated with research on the where processing stream.

a. object discrimination problem
b. landmark discrimination problem

Answer 26

b. landmark discrimination problem

Question 27

Gauthier demonstrated experience-dependent plasticity in humans by training them to become experts in recognizing “Greebles,” families of computer generated creatures that have the same general structures but differ in specific features, and using fMRI to measure activity in the subjects’ _____.

a. DTI
b. PPA
c. FFA
d. PHG

Answer 27

c. fusiform face area (FFA)

Question 28

In monkeys, the “what”, or perception, pathway extends from the occipital lobe to the _____ lobe and the “where”, or action, pathway extends from the occipital lobe to the _____ lobe.

a. temporal; parietal
b. temporal; frontal
c. frontal; parietal
d. parietal; temporal

Answer 28

a. temporal; parietal

Question 29

Wendy hears someone call her name and turns towards the sound. Wendy has just used, in order, her _____ and _____ auditory pathways.

a. who; what
b. what; where
c. where; what
d. what; who

Answer 29

b. what; where

Question 30

Ungerleider and Mishkin surgically ablated the _____ of monkeys and found that the monkeys had a great deal of difficulty performing an object discrimination task.

a. FFA
b. parietal lobe
c. temporal lobe
d. PPA

Answer 30

c. temporal lobe

Question 31

Ungerleider and Mishkin surgically ablated the _____ of monkeys and found that the monkeys had a great deal of difficulty performing an landmark discrimination task.

a. FFA
b. parietal lobe
c. temporal lobe
d. PPA

Answer 31

b. parietal lobe

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT considered part of the effects caused by apparent movement?

a. one image flashes on and off
b. our perceptual system clearly denotes darkness
c. there is a period of darkness lasting a fraction of a second
d. there is a second image that flashes on and off

Answer 32

b. our perceptual system clearly denotes darkness

Question 33

Instead of concluding that there are 15 shapes in total pictured (which is accurate), you are more likely to initially conclude that there are three rows of different shapes due to ___.

a. the oblique effect
b. the principle of good continuation
c. the principle of simplicity
d. the principle of similarity

Answer 33

d. the principle of similarity

Question 34

Testing principles of Bayesian inference necessarily must involve ___.

a. theoretical interpretation
b. logical reasoning
c. biological analyses
d. mathematical procedures

Answer 34

d. mathematical procedures

Question 35

What is the most significant difference, if any, between “Greeble novices” and “Greeble experts?”

a. There are no significant differences between these groups.
b. These experts show greater fusiform face area activation than the novices.
c. These experts show more sophisticated categorical organization than the novices.
d. These experts are more likely to show brain dysfunction than the novices.

Answer 35

b. These experts show greater fusiform face area activation than the novices.

Question 36

Given that Betty is fluent in Spanish, she can tell when one word ends and the next one begins. This illustrates ___.

a. unconscious inference
b. the direct pathway model
c. the likelihood principle
d. speech segmentation

Answer 36

d. speech segmentation

Question 37

Perception is to memory as ___.

a. recent is to past
b. create is to retrieve
c. accurate is to faulty
d. constructed is to restructured

Answer 37

b. create is to retrieve

Question 38

If you spot a jumbled up piece of rope in a park, you will likely perceive it as a single strand due to ___.

a. the principle of good continuation
b. the law of pragnanz
c. apparent movement
d. structuralism

Answer 38

a. the principle of good continuation

Question 39

All of the following are examples of physical regularities in the environment EXCEPT ___.

a. landscapes are often green
b. light comes from above
c. we perceive horizontals and verticals more easily in the environment
d. imagining a changing room in a department store

Answer 39

d. imagining a changing room in a department store

Question 40

Which of the following would be LEAST likely to be part of a scene schema for a college classroom?

a. a computer
b. a lectern
c. a table
d. a jukebox

Answer 40

d. a jukebox

Question 41

Natural selection operates on principles of ___ which underscore the need for ___.

a. learning; reproduction
b. learning; physical strength and beauty
c. evolution; reproduction
d. evolution; physical strength and beauty

Answer 41

c. evolution; reproduction

Question 42

Neurons that fire both when a monkey or person takes an action, like picking up a piece of food, and when they observe the same action being carried out by someone else.

a. similar neurons
b. mirror neurons
c. FFA neurons

Answer 42

b. mirror neurons