Final Exam

Question 1

While _____ is how an observer experiences a stimulus in the environment, _____ is the detection of that stimulus via sensory receptors.

Answer 1

perception; sensation

Question 2

The principle of ______ states that transduction must occur in order for an observer to actually perceive a stimulus. One example of this transduction is the conversion of molecules in the air into neural signals.

Answer 2

transformation

Question 3

A major part of an observer’s experience of an environmental stimulus is

Answer 3

Both conscious awareness of the presence of the stimulus AND assigning meaning to the stimulus so as to properly react to it.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT one of the physiological techniques used in perception research?

Answer 4

Adjusting the intensity of a stimulus until the observer can just detect its presence.

Question 5

Because, in many cases, the environment is far too rich and complicated for an observer to perceive everything, the focus of the observer’s perceptual process will be on one or a few ______ stimuli.

Answer 5

attended

Question 6

An example of a person’s ______ threshold would be how quiet the sound of a musical note would have to be (in a completely quiet room) in order to just be detected.

Answer 6

absolute

Question 7

The method of ______ presents stimuli of different intensities in random order to determine an observer’s absolute threshold.

Answer 7

constant stimuli

Question 8

_________ explains that a person’s ability to detect a stimulus is not just due to their threshold and sensitivity, but also their personal decision on whether to say “yes” only if they are really certain they perceive it.

Answer 8

Signal detection theory

Question 9

Sam and Jess participate in an experiment to see how well they can detect (while blindfolded) when a very light stimulus touches their forearm. The results show that Jess had significantly more false alarms than Sam, whereas Sam had significantly more misses than Jess. This would indicate that while Sam had a more _____ decision criterion, Jess had a more _____ decision criterion.

Answer 9

conservative; liberal

Question 10

Define BOTH bottom-up and top-down processing (4pts). Briefly explain how the hollow face illusion occurs using BOTH bottom-up and top-down processing (3pts). Hint: you need BOTH types of processing to properly explain the illusion.

Answer 10

Bottom-up processing is referred to as data-driven processing because it relies on what it is perceiving at a given moment in time. Top-down processing in contrast uses the knowledge that a person has already attained and brings it to a given situation. Bottom-up processing in reference to the hollow face illusion is present because the brain interprets the signals from light on the mask leading to the recognition of the face of Charlie Chaplin. This allows for the interpretation of a face. Top-down processing on the other hand identifies a face and uses what we already know about faces and their general framework to apply it to the face that we are in that moment interpreting. The inside of the mask appears to be like any other face because it should not be any different from any other face that we have seen.

Question 11

Jan tries to focus on the tip of her pencil as she brings it closer to her. She feels the strain on her eye as she does this. What she is feeling in her eye is due to the process called _____.

Answer 11

accommodation

Question 12

Individuals suffering from myopia may have difficulty seeing _______ objects clearly. Often times they are also referred to as being _______.

Answer 12

distant; nearsighted

Question 13

A retinal condition that destroys the cones in the fovea is known as __________.

Answer 13

macular degeneration

Question 14

The Purkinje shift

Answer 14

is when yellows/oranges appear brighter than blues/greens during the day, but blues/greens appear brighter than yellows/oranges at dusk

Question 15

Acuity is better in the ____ than in the _____.

Answer 15

fovea; periphery

Question 16

When visual pigments become bleached they are

Answer 16

detached from the opsim.

Question 17

The “rod-cone break” in the dark adaptation curve occurs after about ___ minutes in the dark. (Hint: there are two possible correct answers and both would be marked as correct)

Answer 17

seven

Question 18

Lorelei’s mother is 60 years old. Because of the condition called ______, the closest distance at which she can focus an object is probably about 100cm.

Answer 18

presbyopia`

Question 19

Which of the following is TRUE about the difference between the rods and the cones?

Answer 19

There are about 120 million rods in the human eye and about 5-6 million cones.

Question 20

_______ reacts to light to start the process of transduction.

Answer 20

Retinal

Question 21

Briefly explain how greater convergence of rods to ganglion cells and the lesser convergence of cones to ganglion cells accounts for differences in the (a) sensitivity to light AND (b) acuity between the two photoreceptors. In your explanation be sure to define convergence, light sensitivity, and visual acuity IN YOUR OWN WORDS

Answer 21

Convergence, which is defined as when multiple neurons synapse on a single neuron, has different impacts on the rods and cones. Rod signals converge more than cone signals do, because there are significantly more rods than there are cones in the retina. This convergence of rods to ganglion cells allows them to be more sensitive to light. Less light is required to instigate a reaction from a rod than from a cone. Five rods converge on to one ganglion cell, as compared to five cone receptors that each have their own ganglion cells. When exposed to light, the rods excite the ganglion cell with five times as much activity than the one cone with it’s one cell. It takes 1/5 less excitation to activate the rods’ ganglion cell. Light sensitivity in this case can be defined as a rods increased response to light when compared to a cone because of its greater ganglion cell convergence. Cones on the other hand have a higher visual acuity than rods because of the one to one cone to ganglion cell convergence and the lower number of cones in the fovea. When light hits two cones that are next to each other, each cones ganglion cell receives a signal that fires. Having two separate cones in different locations each receive a signal, indicates that there are two separate locations where it is receiving light, increasing it’s acuity. Visual acuity can then be defined as as a sharpness in vision to detect small details or changes because of the one to one ration of cones and ganglion cells.

Question 22

In the simultaneous contrast effect, gray squares of equal intensities are surrounding by either a dark background or a lighter background. The square on the dark background looks _______ than the square on the lighter background.

Answer 22

lighter

Question 23

A neuron with an excitatory center- inhibitory surround receptive field will respond MOST when we stimulate

Answer 23

only the center

Question 24

For depolarization to occur, the inside of the axon’s cell membrane becomes more positive than the outside because

Answer 24

sodium ions flow inside of the cell membrane

Question 25

In the Hermann grid, gray areas appear at the intersections when

Answer 25

the amount of lateral inhibition at the intersections is greater than between each square

Question 26

The three major parts of a neuron are

Answer 26

dendrites, soma, and axon.

Question 27

The difference in charge between the inside and the outside of the axon’s cell membrane when the neuron is at rest is _____ mV. (Hint: you can enter the number or the words)

Answer 27

-70

Question 28

____________ is the process by which inhibitory transmitters cause the inside of the neuron to become more negative. (Hint: focus on the latter part of this statement to answer the questions properly)

Answer 28

Hyperpolarization

Question 29

As stimulus intensity is increased, recording from a single neuron shows

Answer 29

the rate of firing of the nerve fiber increases.

Question 30

Which of the following is TRUE regarding the action potential (AP)?

Answer 30

The AP is an all-or-none electrical event

Question 31

When neurotransmitters are released into the synapse via the sending neuron’s ___ terminal, they bind with receptors on the ____ of the receiving neuron.

Answer 31

axon; dendrite

Question 32

How are neurons in the retina wired up to produce an on-center-off-surround receptive field? Refer to visual receptors, bipolar cells, horizontal cells, and ganglion cells in your answer. (Hint: there a few figures from the textbook and slides that should be very helpful)

Answer 32

Rods are connected to bipolar cells that connect directly to the ganglion cell to form the center portion of the receptive field. The surround of the receptive field contains rods located near the rods in the first set up, but these rods connect to different bipolar cells which connect to horizontal cells (unlike the first set of rods) which finally connect to the same ganglion cell. The difference between the first set and the second set is the horizontal cell that inhibits the ganglion cell. Stimulation in the center of the receptive field will depolarize and nerve impulses and in the surround of the ganglion cell’s receptive field will lead to hyperpolarization followed by nerve impulses.

1) The On-center cells transmit excitatory signals to ganglion cells when activated (light is present) -> high amount of excitatory signal sent out 2) The off-surround cells transmit excitatory signals (when light is present) to horizontal cells, which then transmit inhibitory signals to the ganglion cells -> low amount of signal sent out

Question 33

The flow of information in the LGN is best described as (Hint: really think about this)

Answer 33

bi-directional, with signals coming from the retina and the cortex to the LGN.

Question 34

_____ cells fire to moving lines of a specific length.

Answer 34

Hypercomplex

Question 35

When a kitten is exposed to an environment of just horizontal lines, the kitten

Answer 35

would have cortical cells that respond to horizontal lines, but none (or very few) to vertical lines.

Question 36

The cortical magnification factor occurs in humans because

Answer 36

the small area of the fovea accounts for a larger area on the cortex.

Question 37

Object discrimination problem: ____ :: Landmark/location discrimination problem :_____.

Answer 37

ventral visual pathway; dorsal visual pathway

Question 38

An area in the _______ called the ___________ is specialized to recognize faces.

Answer 38

temporal lobe; FFA

Question 39

The geniculostriate pathway is for ________, while the tectopulvinar pathway is for ________.

Answer 39

image-based perception; location-based perception

Question 40

For each corresponding location on the retina, area V1 has a _______ that contains a complete set of BOTH ocular dominance and orientation columns.

Answer 40

hypercolumn

Question 41

Which of the following proposed representational coding systems is the LEAST likely to actually be in place in the human visual system?

Answer 41

specificity coding

Question 42

______ organization/mapping refers to the notion that neighboring locations on the retina will be processed by neighboring neurons in the LGN AND in area V1.

Answer 42

Retinotopic

Question 43

If a researcher purposely reared a puppy in a tightly controlled environment with NO HORIZONTAL LINES, how would that impact the organization of that puppy’s V1? Briefly explain how that sort of controlled/selective rearing would alter the development of that puppy’s (a) simple cells AND (b) hypercolumns.

Also, briefly explain what types of objects and/or environments they may have difficulty reacting to once out in a “normal” environment.

Answer 43

Raising a puppy in an environment with no horizontal lines would lead a puppy to ignore lines of any other orientation. Its area V1 would not develop the necessary orientation columns to detect lines at a certain angle. The puppy’s simple cells would fail to develop, leaving it completely blind to any object at any orientation that it was deprived. The puppy’s hypercolumns would only notice the lines that it was familiar with, leading it to ignore everything horizontal in its path.

The puppy would have problems seeing a toy laying flat on the ground, like a bone or a rope. It would have difficulty locating a bed on the ground as well. Stairs would probably be a challenge because they are horizontal too, meaning the puppy would never be able to climb them.

Those cells originally created for horizontal lines would be repurposed and tuned to vertical lines too.

Question 44

An example of ______ attention would be if while in a crowded hallway I looked around to find my friend. Therefore, my attention was only being drawn to tall men with long hair and I would keep searching using those characteristics until I found him. (Hint: I’m looking for a specific form of selective attention)

Answer 44

top-down

Question 45

The ____ hypothesis for attention states that one CANNOT process information coming from an unattended channel. Only the attended information can be placed into conscious awareness.

Answer 45

early-selection

Question 46

All of the following are the essential properties of attention EXCEPT

Answer 46

one has to always shift their eyes in order to attend to a stimulus in the environment

Question 47

No matter how engaged someone is in conversation, they are still able to hear another person saying their name from across the room. This is an example of:

Answer 47

the cocktail party effect.

Question 48

Participants are shown a pair of similar pictures separated by a blank interval. The pictures are identical except for a single aspect (e.g., a man is wearing a hat in one scene but not in the other). In these kinds of tasks, participants often find it hard to detect the change. This phenomenon is known as _______.

Answer 48

change blindness

Question 49

When engaged in a _____ search, set size does NOT matter. However, when engaged in a _____ search, set size has an impact on performance.

Answer 49

feature; conjunction

Question 50

While working on a task for a lengthy period of time, people will often change focus to other random thoughts (such as what errands they have to run at the end of the day). This failure of vigilance is often referred to as _____.

Answer 50

mind-wandering

Question 51

Kelly is participating in an attention study. She is asked to fixate on a cross in the middle of the screen and watch for a word to appear in place of the cross. When the word appears she is using ______ attention to perceive it.

Answer 51

overt

Question 52

When presented with superimposed images of a house and a face, Mack is asked to focus on the house. This attentional “focus” results in

Answer 52

increased activity in the PPA

Question 53

According to feature integration theory, the color, orientation, and other features of objects are initially processed in the _________ stage of processing.

Answer 53

preattentive

Question 54

1) Discuss which stage of Treisman’s feature integration theory (FIT) attributes attention to “solving” the binding problem. Provide evidence that supports FIT (from studies and/or patient evidence, presented within the lecture material).
2) Finally, briefly explain why attention is necessary for us to fully perceive an object/sound/smell in our environment.

Answer 54

1. I think that the focused attention stage “solves” the binding problem because it combines object features to understand what is being focused on. Evidence for this comes from research conducted by Treisman and Schmidt (1982) used four objects to force participants to divide their attention which resulted in illusory conjunctions. Another example in support of FIT comes from patients with neurological problems. Patient R.M. suffered from Balint’s Syndrome which leads to an inability to focus/shift attention or combine features when several objects are present in a scene.
2. Attention is necessary because when we are attentive, we interpret all of the details in the environment around us. When we fail to attend to the world around us, accidents could happen that put peoples’ lives at risk.
   3) Need to explain that attention permits us to focus and more deeply process information in our environment so we can respond to it properly (we can’t ALL of the details around us).

Question 55

The reflectance curve for a white piece of paper would

Answer 55

reflect long, medium and short wavelengths relatively equally.

Question 56

When paint is mixed it is referred to as _______

Answer 56

a subtractive color mixture.

Question 57

Red and Green light are projected on a white screen. What color will the screen appear to be?

Answer 57

yellow

Question 58

Color matching experiments show that if a person with full color vision is given at least ____ wavelengths to mix together, the person can match any single wavelength.

Answer 58

three

Question 59

The ______ theory of color vision states that color perception is due to the pattern of activity in three different receptors.

Answer 59

trichromatic

Question 60

A monochromat experiences

Answer 60

black, white, and grays.

Question 61

Physiological evidence shows that dichoromats who are classified as deuteranopes do not have the _____ wavelength cone pigment.

Answer 61

medium

Question 62

Dr. Lanzilotti wants to create a stimulus that will produce an afterimage of a red heart shape against a white background. According to the opponent-process theory of color vision, he should make the heart ______ and the background _______.

Answer 62

green; black

Question 63

Which statement below BEST describes the current consensus on the theories of color vision?

Answer 63

The physiology of the cone receptors and the discovery of opponent cells in the retina and LGN show that BOTH theories are correct.

Question 64

According to the _____, lightness constancy will occur as long as the ratio of light reflected from a white surface and a black surface remain constant.

Answer 64

ratio principle

Question 65

According to the information provided in lecture notes, the major social media controversy (which occurred during the winter of 2015) that asked, “What color is the dress?” can be explained by the visual perceptual concept known as color constancy.

  a. Explain the basic concept of color constancy. (2pts)
  b. Discuss which aspects of color constancy can explain why people perceived that dress differently.  Be sure to include the role of top-down processing within your explanation.

Answer 65

a. Color constancy refers to the notion that color is relatively the same in different situations.
b. Top-down processing determines how the dress is perceived. Whether it is interpreted as black and blue or white and gold has to do with our perception of light being reflected on the dress, or a shadow over it. Whether or not the light is shining in front of the dress or behind it changes ones interpretation of the colors of the dress because of how we know light reflects and shadows fall. If the light is coming from behind the dress, then the dress will appear darker (or black and blue) if the light is shining directly on the dress, it appears white and gold. I never quite understood this until now, but I always perceived it as white and gold without question, and I remember this debate well.

Question 66

Movies: _______ :: Waterfall illusion: _____________. (hint: what’s the BEST answer?)

Answer 66

apparent movement; motion aftereffects

Question 67

Larsen et al. (2006) showed that the activation of brain areas is

Answer 67

similar when viewing apparent motion and real motion.

Question 68

According to Corollary Discharge Theory, movement is perceived when

Answer 68

the comparator receives the corollary discharge signal alone OR image displacement signal alone.

Question 69

Newsome, Britten, and Movshon found that as the coherence between the dots’ direction of movement increased

Answer 69

the MT neuron fired more rapidly.

Question 70

The aperture problem is solved by the pooling of responses of a number of V1 neurons. Physiological evidence suggests that this pooling occurs in the ____, an area along the _____ visual pathway.

Answer 70

MT cortex; dorsal

Question 71

A “point-light walker” wears lights on different body locations. When viewed in a dark room, an observer would perceive a(n)

Answer 71

person when the point-light walker is moving.

Question 72

You are driving a car. Which of the following statements is TRUE regarding flow in this situation?

Answer 72

Optic flow does not occur at the focus of expansion.

Question 73

The neurons that signal the monkey’s intention to grab an object are mostly found in the _____. (Hint: simply type the abbreviation)

Answer 73

PRR

Question 74

A specialized group of neurons referred to as ______ neurons are active BOTH when you observe a friend pick up a golf club and swing it AND when you, yourself, pick up the golf club and swing it.

Answer 74

mirror

Question 75

Optical flow neurons” have been found in the monkey’s

Answer 75

medial superior temporal (MST) area.

Question 76

1) What is the primary deficit faced by patients with a brain disorder known as akinetopsia? Give a SPECIFIC example of a scenario that might cause these patients difficulty? (2pts)
2) According to Gibson’s ecological approach, why would patients with akineotopsia have difficulties perceiving the world AND interacting with objects? In your BRIEF explanation, be sure to include a discussion of the optic array (and/or flow) AND affordances.

Answer 76

1. Akinetopsia is also referred to as motion blindness. People with this condition are not able to see objects when they are moving. A situation that comes to mind is something like downhill skiing. A person with akinetopsia would see the slopes in frames (like looking at pictures in a slideshow) instead of the steady movement that a normal person would.
2. People with akinetopsia would have difficulty perceiving the world because what they perceive would not be an accurate representation of how the world really is. There is constant movement all around and motion blindness inhibits that interaction by making everything appear as if it were not moving, only in segments. Optic flow would be impossible in this case because of the inability to see movements in the environment. These movements would appear as if they were in still frames instead of smooth movements. For a person with akinetopsia, understanding affordances might be difficult because of their condition. An example that comes to mind is trying to learn how to play baseball (probably not a solid idea here, but it’s an example). Learning how to throw a ball or swing a bat would probably be extremely difficult because a person has to know where to swing over the plate to hit the baseball and where the moving ball will go to end up in the catcher’s glove. Not being able to perceive motion would reduce that person’s capability to accurately throw the ball or swing the bat in order to play the sport.

Question 77

Merrill watches his finger with both eyes as he brings it closer to his nose. As the finger gets closer, his eyes move inward and he feels his eye muscles working. Which depth cue is associated with the feeling he is getting from his eye muscles?

Answer 77

both accommodation and convergence

Question 78

When your professor stands in back of a podium, you perceive your professor as being further away than the podium because the podium blocks the vision of the professor’s body. This is an example of the depth cue _______.

Answer 78

occlusion

Question 79

Several years ago, Bryce, a fan of the Houston Rockets basketball team, saw the player Yao Ming (who is 7’6” tall) standing next to his coach Jeff VanGundy (who is less than 6 feet tall). Bryce correctly perceived the two men as being the same distance away from her. Which depth cue MOST influenced her perception?

Answer 79

Familiar size

Question 80

The imaginary plane in which all objects project to corresponding points in the left and right retina is called the ______.

Answer 80

horopter

Question 81

A stereoscope provides the illusion of depth in 2-D images by

Answer 81

presenting an image to each eye that are from slightly different perspectives.

Question 82

The approximate visual angle of the width of your thumb held at arm’s length is ___ degrees. (Hint: either the number word or the actual number will score as correct)

Answer 82

two

Question 83

According to the misapplied size constancy scaling hypothesis/explanation, we perceive the “arrows pointing out” (“inward fins”) portion of the Muller-Lyer illusion as

Answer 83

shorter, because it is perceived as being closer.

Question 84

Holway and Boring found that

Answer 84

size constancy is more likely to occur if you have more depth cues.

Question 85

The depth cue of ________ is the most important in the Ponzo illusion.

Answer 85

perspective convergence

Question 86

According to the ________ theory of the moon illusion, the overhead moon appears smaller when it is surrounded by a large amount of sky.

Answer 86

angular size-contrast

Question 87

View the four photos presented on slide #22 of the lecture notes. Choose ONE of those photos (be sure to indicate WHICH ONE you’ve chosen) and answer the following questions:

1) What is the major difference between monocular depth cues and binocular depth cues? Why can we use monocular depth cues with this image? (2pts)
2) Name AND describe (explain how we know) THREE depth cues that permit us to determine depth and distance of objects within this scene.

Answer 87

Picture C

1. Monocular means that the cues depend on the function of one eye, while binocular cues depend on both eyes. We can use monocular cues because it is still possible to distinguish between the location of objects in images. Just by looking at this picture it is relatively easy to note the locations and sizes of the objects just by how they appear in a 2D image rather than in the 3D world around us.
2. Occlusion - because certain foods are being blocked and/or are blocking others. The corn is blocking the apple and the pumpkin; and the grapes in front are blocking part of the corn. The wicker basket grapes on the squash in the back.

Relative height - because the objects in the back are perceived as farther away than the objects that are closer which appears true. The grapes, apple, and mini pumpkin at the bottom of the picture are closer than the squash and pumpkin on the wicker basket.

Shadows - shadows show the location of objects relative to light and their position. The corn is located in front of the wicker basket because of the shadow it casts on it.

Question 88

The question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, would there be a sound?” is useful because it highlights that “sound” can be

Answer 88

both a perceptual and physical stimulus.

Question 89

A complex tone can be created by starting with a pure tone, called the ____________, and adding frequencies that are multiples of this first frequency.

Answer 89

fundamental frequency

Question 90

Pitch is primarily determined by the ______ of the sound wave.

Answer 90

frequency

Question 91

The outer ear consists of

Answer 91

the pinnae, the auditory canal, and the tympanic membrane.

Question 92

The role of the middle ear is

Answer 92

to amplify vibrations from the air for transmission through liquid.

Question 93

A complex tone composed of a 440 Hz tone, a 880 Hz tone, and a 1320 HZ tone is presented. Which part of the basilar membrane will respond?

Answer 93

the three different areas characteristic of each individual component

Question 94

When listening to music, which of the following methods will help ensure you hear ALL of the frequencies represented in the piece?

Answer 94

Turn the volume up (e.g., 80 dB) so the music is loud.

Question 95

A physical sound wave will travel ____ through water compared to through the air.

Answer 95

faster

Question 96

The outer hair cells respond to sound by slightly tilting and changing length. Because of the consequence of this, the action of the outer hair cells is called the

Answer 96

the cochlear amplifier.

Question 97

While ____ frequencies will peak and activate cells near the base of the basilar membrane, ____ frequencies will peak and activate cells near the apex of the basilar membrane.

Answer 97

high; low

Question 98

1) According to the physical properties of a sound wave, what distinguishes two notes that are identical letters but are different octaves? Explain your answer.
2) Explain what is meant by knowing that a guitar and piano can play the SAME note/tone, but each instrument has a different timbre (i.e, define timbre). Using fundamental frequency and harmonic frequencies, describe how the physical sound wave results in a different timbre.

Answer 98

1. The frequencies of the notes in each octave doubles which means that the notes a perceived as similar even in different octaves. This is known as tone chroma. The textbook uses the note A as an example, with the first A having a frequency of 27.5, the second at 55.0, the third at 110.0 and so on. Because the frequencies are doubled based on the previous frequency, they can be interpreted as the same note because they produce the same sensation and interpretation to the ear.
2. Timbre refers to the difference in tone between the guitar and the piano that can be detected just by hearing them played. The difference in timbre results in the guitar having a different fundamental frequency than a piano. Specific harmonic frequencies might vary between instruments which can lead to different frequencies interpreted by the ear, potentially changing the sound waves.

Question 99

Which of the following is NOT a coordinate system for auditory localization?

Answer 99

time

Question 100

Interaural level differences are a cue to auditory localization because the

Answer 100

person’s head creates an acoustic shadow that prevents low-frequency sounds from reaching the far ear.

Question 101

From the auditory nerve, information is passed through a sequence of subcortical structures. Which of the following reflects the correct sequence?

Answer 101

cochlear nucleus, superior olive, inferior colliculus, medial geniculate nucleus

Question 102

Which of the following factors needs to be considered in architectural acoustics?

Answer 102

spaciousness factor, intimacy time, bass ratio **ALL OF THE PROVIDED ANSWERS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

Question 103

Melodic channeling, or the scale illusion, is based on the auditory grouping law ________.

Answer 103

similarity in pitch

Question 104

The ___________ is the auditory space composed of the locations where the interaural time and latency differences are IDENTICAL.

Answer 104

cone of confusion

Question 105

Patient J.G. has temporal lobe damage. While this has not affected his ability to locate sounds, he has difficulty recognizing sounds. This case provides evidence for

Answer 105

what and where pathways in audition.

Question 106

Sound that reaches the ears after bouncing off a wall or a floor is called

Answer 106

indirect sound

Question 107

The principle of auditory grouping called ________ is responsible for melody schema.

Answer 107

experience

Question 108

The importance of similarity of timbre as auditory grouping principle has been supported by

Answer 108

auditory stream segregation.

Question 109

1) Discuss how BOTH bottom-up and top-down processing influence auditory scene analysis (generally).
2) State and explain an auditory grouping principle that illustrates bottom-up processing.
3) State and explain an auditory grouping principle which best illustrates top-down processing.

Answer 109

1. ) Both bottom-up and top-down processing are used in auditory scene interpretation. Bottom-up processing is what occurs when sounds are interpreted by the brain and the brain pieces together what it is hearing based on the information that is presented. Top-down processing occurs when what we hear and understand is driven by the context of the situation we are in and we can fill in the missing pieces.
2. ) Similarity in pitch is an example of bottom-up processing because it uses the sensory information of the notes that are being heard in order to group them.
3. ) Experience uses top-down processing and what we know to understand what is being heard in a given situation. If I am at a production of Grease but cannot understand the words, knowing what the production is about and the context of the show, I will be better able to understand the dialogue and music if I am unable to decipher what the actors are singing/saying.

Question 110

Which of the following is NOT a basic/fundamental property of music?

Answer 110

rhyme

Question 111

When people listen to music, segments of music that are primarily played in a ____ scale are generally perceived as ____, while segments of music primarily played in ____ scale are generally perceived as happy and strong.

Answer 111

minor; sad/moody; major

Question 112

Attributed with thickening of right hemisphere frontal and auditory brain regions, _____ is a condition in which a person is unable to accurately perceive even simple musical properties (ex: pitch).

Answer 112

amusia

Question 113

Seven-month-old infants listened to a regular repeating ambiguous rhythm while they were bounced up and down at two bounces per beat or at three bounces per beat. Later, they were tested to see how they had perceived the rhythm. The results suggest that

Answer 113

the infants’ perception was influenced by and their preference was found to be related to the specific rhythm that they were bounced.

Question 114

Envisioning bright fireworks whenever you hear Mozart would be a possible example for an individual who experiences _____, or a “crossing” of their sensory systems and perceptual experience.

Answer 114

synesthesia

Question 115

The problem of variability from the way different people speak can be demonstrated by

Answer 115

the different accents of different speakers, the pitch differences in different people’s voices, the speed at which the speaker talks, **ALL OF THESE

Question 116

Increasing one’s tone at the end of a statement to indicate it’s a question and evoking a sarcastic tone are both examples of ______.

Answer 116

prosodic factors

Question 117

Which of the following is NOT a variation on how consonants are pronounced?

Answer 117

monolabial

Question 118

The McGurk Effect illustrates the importance and influence of ___________ on speech perception.

Answer 118

vision

Question 119

Randy has been diagnosed with Wernicke’s Aphasia. He might display all of the following symptoms EXCEPT

Answer 119

Say a statement such as, “I love wife Cheryl. She pretty. She smart.”

Question 120

1) Discuss how BOTH bottom-up and top-down processing influence our perception of speech.
2) Give EITHER a real-world example OR a concept we discussed which best illustrates bottom-up processing (in speech ONLY).
3) Give EITHER a real-world example OR a concept we discussed which best illustrates top-down processing (in speech ONLY).

Answer 120

1. Bottom-up processing refers to the activation of the brain regions to the signal that that activates the auditory cortex and is interpreted by the brain to give it meaning. Top-down processing refers to what we know about speech through cognition like using grammar and knowledge to perceive speech.
2. The McGurk effect can be an example of bottom-up processing because of how it activates brain regions based on what is being interpreted to make sense of the word(s) being spoken. The words don’t have meaning in these examples but the brain works to correctly interpret the words.
3. The phonemic restoration effect is an example of top-down processing because it uses what we know about the context to fill in the missing segments about what is being discussed.

Question 121

The mapping of the body on the somatosensory cortex can be represented as the

Answer 121

homunculus

Question 122

The ___________ corpuscles are responsible for the perception of rapid vibrations, such as you would experience when using a hand-held massager.

Answer 122

Pacinian

Question 123

The function of the skin is

Answer 123

warning the individual of possible injury, protecting the organism from bacteria and chemical agents, preventing body fluids from escaping, **ALL OF THESE ARE FUNCTIONS OF THE SKIN

Question 124

The _______ are located near the border of the epidermis and surface of the skin, and are associated with sensing fine details.

Answer 124

Merkel receptors

Question 125

The area on S1 associated with the thumb is as large as the area for the forearm. This is an example of

Answer 125

cortical magnification.

Question 126

According to the duplex theory of texture perception, moving your finger across a textured surface can produce vibrations that are interpreted as texture. These vibrations are defined as ____ cues.

Answer 126

temporal

Question 127

Jan is a right-handed violin player – she bows with her right hand and fingers the strings with her left. The cortical representation for the fingers on her left hand is

Answer 127

larger than the area for the fingers on the left hand of a non-musician.

Question 128

Sensory component of pain : ________ :: emotional component of pain : ________.

Answer 128

throbbing; annoying

Question 129

Neuropathic pain : __________ :: Inflammatory pain: _______.

Answer 129

carpal tunnel syndrome; tumor cells

Question 130

When you try to identify a three-dimensional object by touch alone, and are allowed to have control over your hand and finger movements, you are using ______ perception. (Hint: it’s the technical term)

Answer 130

haptic

Question 131

Briefly describe the gate control theory of pain. In your explanation offer up examples of how the gates are opened via bottom-up processes AND how the gates can be closed via top-down (i.e., deliberate/control) processes.

Answer 131

The gate control model suggests that pain signals enter the spinal cord and then travel up to the brain. This model proposes additional pathways impact the strength of the signal that is being sent. Signals that are sent from the neurons in the dorsal horn open the gate allowing excitatory signals to be sent to the transmission cells, and greater activity increases pain. The signals sent to the brain and interpreted as pain make this an example of bottom-up processing.

Top-down processing closes the gate when functions like distraction, expectation, or attention lowers the activity of transmission cells, decreasing the pain. People know what to expect when it comes to pain if they have experienced it before, and mentally preparing can decrease the intensity, as can a distraction. When getting an injection, looking away, listening to music, or talking to the nurse makes the experience less painful than looking directly at the needle.

Question 132

A fifth basic taste discovered many years after the other four is

Answer 132

referred to as umami.

Question 133

The “life-span” of olfactory receptors in humans is

Answer 133

5 to 7 weeks.

Question 134

______ is the impression a person gets from the combination of olfaction and taste.

Answer 134

Flavor

Question 135

The axons of the olfactory sensory neurons project to the ___________ in the brain.

Answer 135

glomeruli in the olfactory bulb

Question 136

Dogs are more sensitive to smells than humans because

Answer 136

dogs have many more olfactory receptors than humans.

Question 137

Olfactory signals from the thalamus project to

Answer 137

the insula and the frontal operculum cortex.

Question 138

Areas on the tongue covered primarily with filiform papillae are similar to ______ in vision.

Answer 138

the blind spot

Question 139

The substance amiloride

Answer 139

blocks the flow of sodium to taste receptors.

Question 140

In regard to specificity vs. distributed coding , most researchers conclude

Answer 140

basic taste qualities are determined by specificity coding, and distributed coding is important for discriminating subtle differences.

Question 141

Olfactory signals from the glomeruli project to

Answer 141

the piriform cortex in the temporal lobe, the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex in the frontal lobe, **ALL OF THE PROVIDED ANSWERS ARE CORRECT

Question 142

What is the difference between tasters and non-tasters?

What is the proposed cause(s) for this difference? Is this proposed cause more directly impacting bottom-up or top-down processes?

Answer 142

The main difference between tasters and non-tasters is the ability to detect 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP for short).

Tasters detect this bitter chemical while non-tasters cannot, which signifies that tasters have higher numbers of taste buds than non-tasters. I think this more directly impacts bottom-up processing because it deals with the incoming stimulus of taste and tries to interpret this sensory input.

Question 143

“Viewpoint invariance” means

Answer 143

humans can easily recognize objects when seen from different viewpoints.

Question 144

Corey looks at a flock of seagulls flying in one direction, when suddenly five of the seagulls start flying in another direction. He now perceives two groups of birds, because of the Gestalt principle/law of _______.

Answer 144

common fate

Question 145

Which of the following is a general determinant of figure-ground segregation?

Answer 145

A lower region is more likely to be perceived as figure than an upper region.

Question 146

Copolla et al. (1998) gave students at Duke University digital cameras and told them to go to different areas on campus and take a picture every two minutes. Based on known physical regularities in the environment, what would you expect the photos to reveal?

Answer 146

Horizontal and vertical orientations were the major physical regularities.

Question 147

Which of the following is true regarding inversion effects?

Answer 147

Face processing is impacted more versus processing of other objects.

Question 148

The Potter (1976) experiment demonstrated that humans need approximately ________ to perceive the gist of a scene.

Answer 148

250 milliseconds

Question 149

A patient who has been diagnosed with _____ agnosia is able to copy down pictures but has difficulty assigning meaning to the object(s) (ex: “This is something that you look at and smell and is pretty in your garden”).

Answer 149

associative

Question 150

Imagine you are walking outside on a beautiful autumn day. A few yards in front of you is a big, wide oak tree. Behind the tree you perceive a bicycle, BUT you’re only actually seeing each end of the bicycle. Your ability to perceive a bicycle, even when it’s obscured, can be explained by the Gestalt law of _____.

Answer 150

good continuation

Question 151

As opposed to a recognition system which looks for geons, the _____ approach states that for each object we have a specific image stored in memory AND mental rotation of the stored image may be required to match it to the object we are currently perceiving.

Answer 151

multiple views

Question 152

The ___________ problem shows that numerous physical stimuli can create exactly the same image on the retina.

Answer 152

inverse projection

Question 153

Define the role of top-down processing in object recognition. Support your answer by providing AND briefly explaining TWO specific and distinct concepts and/or studies that primarily and/or heavily involve top-down processing.

Answer 153

Top-down processing involves using our previous knowledge or expectations to influence the identification of objects. Our basic understanding of what we expect to see uses our previous knowledge to fill in what we know about what we see. Priming can play an important role in object recognition because people will be more likely to recognize a word if they are expecting a specific word to be presented. Like in cognition last semester, the professor put the word “elephant” on the board before class and made it so about half of the class saw the word. Halfway through class he put “_ _ e _ _ _ _ t” and we were supposed to fill in the blanks with what we thought it was. Of course the students that saw the word knew that it was “elephant” because they were primed to expect it later on, but the others that did not have the existing knowledge had no idea what the word could possible be, as one might expect. Another example comes from Lange, Thomas, Dana, and Dawes (2011), who conducted a study in which participants listened to a low quality audio recording and one group was told it was a job interview and the other group was told it was a criminal interrogation. This previous knowledge that participants received led them to interpret the sentence “I got scared when I saw what it had done to him” as “…what I had done to him” instead. This is because they were expecting this kind of dialogue from this recording based on the kinds of things a criminal might say.