Exam 2

Question 1

The process of detecting a physical stimulus, such as light, sound, heat, or pressure

Answer 1

sensation

Question 2

The process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensations

Answer 2

perception

Question 3

The process by which a form of physical energy is converted into a coded neural signal that can be processed by the nervous system

Answer 3

transduction

Question 4

Which path does visual information take on its way to the optic nerve?

Answer 4

photoreceptors, bipolar cells, ganglion cells

Question 5

Lara believes that the size of the just noticeable difference varies depending on its relation to the strength of the original stimulus. Her views are consistent with:

Answer 5

Weber’s Law

Question 6

The ability to see fine details is called:

Answer 6

visual acuity

Question 7

When stepping backwards, Carmine feels a slight lump under his shoe and hears a high-pitched yowling noise. The process by which his brain determines that he has stepped on a cat’s tail would BEST be described as:

Answer 7

perception

Question 8

The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters is called the:

Answer 8

pupil

Question 9

Morton is attending a dinner party with some friends. He notices as he sits at the dinner table that the chair is uncomfortable. However, after a few minutes he no longer notices the discomfort. This phenomenon is called _____.

Answer 9

sensory adaptation

Question 10

As a result of the absence of _____ in the optic disk, we have a tiny hole, known as a blind spot, in our field of vision.

Answer 10

photoreceptors

Question 11

Giulio’s bag of marbles is twice as heavy as Lynn’s. If it takes 5 extra marbles to make Lynn’s bag feel heavier, it will take 10 extra marbles to make Giulio’s bag feel heavier. This best illustrates:

Answer 11

Weber’s Law

Question 12

Where are feature detectors located?

Answer 12

in the visual cortex

Question 13

While strolling through the garden, Jamal suddenly notices the beautiful scent of roses. Jamal is using his _____ sense, and the process by which the odor is converted into neural signals that his brain understands is called _____.

Answer 13

olfactory, transduction

Question 14

Bill wakes up early in the morning, and his room is fairly dark. He can see his shirt hanging on a hook. He knows it’s a red shirt because he hung it up there before bed, but in the dark it looks dark gray. Why is that?

Answer 14

In the dim light, the cones in your eyes are ineffectual.

Question 15

During a hearing test, many sounds were presented at such a low level of intensity that Madeline could not detect them. These sounds were below Madeline’s _____.

Answer 15

absolute threshold

Question 16

Jasvir suffers from myopia. Carmen suffers from hyperopia. Both disorders involve abnormally shaped eyeballs that do not focus incoming light on the retina. For Jasvir, the light from a distant object is focused _____. For Carmen, the light is focused _____.

Answer 16

in front of / behind

Question 17

Two dimmer lights are being turned on, but one isn’t as strong as the other. The point at which Rudy can tell that one light is brighter than the other would be described as the _____.

Answer 17

just noticeable difference

Question 18

A researcher subliminally presents a visual image to study participants, which increases the likelihood that they will later recognize the same briefly presented image. This best illustrates:

Answer 18

that information can be processed outside of one’s conscious awareness.

Question 19

Michael opens his eyes in the morning to see the alarm clock on his dresser. At that point, his eyes are receiving light energy, which they change into neural messages for the brain. This conversion of one form of energy into another is called _____.

Answer 19

transduction

Question 20

Jay is 48 years old. He recently had his sight restored after 45 years of blindness. He could associate people with a feature like their hair color but could not recognize their faces. This suggests that vision:

Answer 20

is partially based on experience.

Question 21

When Tony was painting a landscape, he used many different colors. The technical term for the wavelengths of light that produce the perception of different colors in Tony’s painting is:

Answer 21

hue

Question 22

According to Weber’s law, one would be MORE likely to detect the difference between:

Answer 22

a 1 oz. envelope and a 2 oz. envelope.

Question 23

As a physical stimulus, sound is:

Answer 23

the vibration of air or some other medium.

Question 24

When one experiences pain, the information is carried from the terminals of sensory neurons, which are known as:

Answer 24

free nerve endings.

Question 25

Sound wave vibrations are transmitted by three tiny bones located in the:

Answer 25

middle ear.

Question 26

Research has shown that when repeatedly exposed to a specialized class of odors, a person becomes more sensitive to and able to discriminate among these odors. There is evidence that this is due to increased activity in the _____ cortex.

Answer 26

olfactory

Question 27

Loudness is measured in ______

Answer 27

decibels

Question 28

Pitch is measured in _____

Answer 28

hertz

Question 29

The outer ear includes the

Answer 29

pinna, the ear canal, and the eardrum

Question 30

3 bones in the middle ear

Answer 30

the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup

Question 31

cochlea

Answer 31

fluid-filled tube that’s coiled in a spiral

Question 32

the sensory receptors for sound are called

Answer 32

hair cells

Question 33

The type of deafness known as _____ deafness occurs if the tiny bones in the middle ear lose their ability to vibrate.

Answer 33

conduction

Question 34

On the day of an important job interview, Jordan wakes up with a slight toothache. As the time for the stressful interview approaches, his anxiety increases and so does his perception of the pain from the tooth. When the interview is over, Jordan is elated because he feels it has gone well and, to his surprise, he feels hardly any pain from that tooth. Jordan's experience is best explained by the theory of _____ plus his positive emotional state.

Answer 34

gate-control

Question 35

An old friend calls Peter on the phone and, though he doesn't have caller ID and hasn't spoken to his friend in a long time, he recognizes her voice immediately. The ability to recognize her voice so quickly after so many years would BEST be described as:

Answer 35

the result of each human voice having a distinctive timbre.

Question 36

Alex turns up the volume on the stereo in his car, which means that the sound's _____ is _____.

Answer 36

amplitude, increasing

Question 37

Shelly trips and rolls down a hill. When she stands up, the dizziness and disorientation she feels are a function of the parts of her ear called the:

Answer 37

semicircular canals and vestibular sacs.

Question 38

Shelly trips and rolls down a hill. When she stands up, the dizziness and disorientation she feels are a function of the parts of her ear called the:

Answer 38

semicircular canals and vestibular sacs.

Question 39

Gretta is 85 years old and having trouble with her hearing. She worked in a factory for many years at a time before there were regulations safeguarding noise levels. Besides normal aging, the MOST likely reason is:

Answer 39

damage to the hair cells.

Question 40

With his eyes closed, Shaun can accurately touch his nose, lips, and ears with his right index finger. Shaun's ability to do this is because of specialized sensory neurons called _____ that are involved in his kinesthetic sense.

Answer 40

proprioceptors

Question 41

After playing in a heavy metal rock band for most of his young adult life, Edwin has suffered a significant hearing loss. Unfortunately for Edwin, a hearing aid will NOT help him. It is likely that he is suffering from:

Answer 41

nerve deafness.

Question 42

This German word means a unified whole, form, or shape.

Answer 42

Gesalt

Question 43

Research using the illusion known as _____ has enabled researchers to demonstrate that culture may shape perception.

Answer 43

Muller-Lyer

Question 44

The binocular cue that relies on the degree to which muscles rotate the eyes to focus on an object is _____.

Answer 44

convergence

Question 45

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

Answer 45

a perceptual set

Question 46

Beth reads about a car accident at a railroad crossing and wonders if it was caused by _____ (a monocular clue concerning parallel lines), which might have led the car's driver to overestimate the distance of the train.

Answer 46

linear perspective

Question 47

In a local psychology experiment, the research assistant asks participants to hold two pencils in front of them and touch the tips together. She then asks participants to do this with one eye closed. They find this difficult, which demonstrates the importance of _____ cues.

Answer 47

binocular

Question 48

Oliver is installing a new printer and has to figure out which of the power cords behind the desk go with the old printer. According to Gestalt principles of perception, the law of _____ will help him solve this problem.

Answer 48

good continuation

Question 49

Darrell has just arrived at the beach. The sand beneath his feet is rough and uneven, and he can see individual small stones, sea shells, and other debris. However, the texture of the sand toward the water appears smooth, even, and perfectly flat. He is experiencing the monocular distance cue of:

Answer 49

texture gradient

Question 50

Georgianna is seated on a bus before it departs. She looks to her right, and the bus next to hers begins to move. As a result, she feels as though she is moving. This is an example of:

Answer 50

induced motion.

Question 51

Peter is shopping in the mall when he notices an "exit" sign from which the "i" missing. He hardly notices the missing letter, as he immediately recognizes it as an exit sign and has no trouble reading it. A Gestalt psychologist would explain this ability to fill in gaps in an incomplete image as the _____.

Answer 51

law of closure

Question 52

Sammy's father throws him a ball. The image of the ball on Sammy's retina grows larger and larger, yet Sammy doesn't see the ball as growing. This illustrates the concept of _____.

Answer 52

size constancy

Question 53

Jerry has agreed to participate in a friend's psychology project. He is asked to judge the length of two equal lines. He concludes that the one with outward-pointing arrows is longer than the one with inward-pointing arrows. He has just experienced:

Answer 53

the Muller-Lyer Illusion

Question 54

If Fred holds a letter he is reading very close to his nose, and Charlie holds the same letter at arm's length when he reads it, Fred will experience _____ Charlie.

Answer 54

more convergence than

Question 55

To reduce the experience of pain, Delores looks away and focuses on a picture on the wall as a nurse sticks a hypodermic needle into her arm. Delores is using the pain control technique of _____.

Answer 55

distraction

Question 56

Information from the sensory receptors, the rods and cones, is first collected by specialized neurons, called ______

Answer 56

bipolar cells

Question 57

In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect to the bipolar cells; the bundled axons of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve.

Answer 57

ganglion cells

Question 58

The ______ pathway seems to be responsible for processing information about form, color, brightness, and depth

Answer 58

primary

Question 59

The ______ pathway seems to be involved in processing information about the location of an object.

Answer 59

secondary

Question 60

The point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers from each eye meet and partly cross over to the opposite side of the brain.

Answer 60

optic chiasm

Question 61

three properties of color perception

Answer 61

hue, saturation, and brightness

Question 62

Our perception of color is primarily determined by the ________ of light that an object reflects.

Answer 62

wavelength

Question 63

different frequencies cause larger vibrations at different locations along the basilar membrane

Answer 63

place theory

Question 64

basilar membrane vibrates at the same frequency as the sound wave

Answer 64

frequency theory

Question 65

long wavelengths

Answer 65

red light

Question 66

medium wavelengths

Answer 66

green/yellow light

Question 67

short wavelengths

Answer 67

blue light

Question 68

The theory that color vision is the product of opposing pairs of color receptors: red–green, blue–yellow, and black–white; when one member of a color pair is stimulated, the other member is inhibited.

Answer 68

opponent process theory

Question 69

sweet, umani, salty, sour, bitter

Answer 69

5 primary tastes

Question 70

The distinctive quality of a sound, determined by the complexity of the sound wave.

Answer 70

timbre

Question 71

The technical name for the sense of balance, or equilibrium

Answer 71

vestibular sense

Question 72

one sense induces experience in another sense

Answer 72

Synesthesia

Question 73

face blindness- inability to recognize faces

Answer 73

Prosopagnosia

Question 74

where an individual doesn't attend to visual, auditory, or sensory stimuli presented from one side of the body

Answer 74

Sensory neglect

Question 75

a delusion that other people one should recognize, such as family members, become impostors because they are no longer able to experience emotional warmth when they see those people

Answer 75

Capgras delusion

Question 76

binocular disparity

Answer 76

Because we have two eyes that are slightly spaced apart on our faces, we get a slightly different view of the world from each