Unit 4: Sensation & Perception

Question 1

Eleanor Gibson

Answer 1

conducted the “visual cliff” experiment and proved that babies have some sense of depth perception

Question 2

Hubel & Wiesel

Answer 2

discovered feature detectors

Question 3

Ernst Weber

Answer 3

created Weber’s law of just noticeable differences, or the difference threshold

Question 4

Gustav Fechner

Answer 4

discovered the absolute threshold

Question 5

JND/Difference threshold

Answer 5

the smallest difference between 2 stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time

Question 6

Weber’s Law

Answer 6

the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus

Question 7

Absolute threshold

Answer 7

the lowest level of stimulation that a person can consciously detect 50% of the time the stimulation is present

Question 8

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 8

sensory receptors reduce their sensitivity to a constant unchanging stimulus

Question 9

Sensory Habituation

Answer 9

pattern of decreased response to a stimulus after frequently repeated exposure

Question 10

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 10

when you focus closely on one thing, you often fail to see other things in plain sight

Question 11

Kinesthesia

Answer 11

perception of body movements, being able to detect changes in body position

Question 12

Vestibular Sense

Answer 12

sense of balance

Question 13

Linear Perspective

Answer 13

monocular depth cue; the tendency for lines that are actually parallel to seem to converge on each other as they get further away

Question 14

Interposition

Answer 14

monocular depth cue; if one object seems to be blocking another object, people assume that the blocked object is behind the first one and therefore further away

Question 15

Convergence

Answer 15

binocular depth cue; the rotation of the two eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object

Question 16

Retinal Disparity

Answer 16

binocular depth cue; since the eyes are a few inches apart and they don’t see the same image, the brain interprets the images on the retina to determine the distance from the eyes

Question 17

Figure Ground

Answer 17

Gestalt Principle; the tendency to perceive object or figures as existing on a background

Question 18

Continuity

Answer 18

Gestalt Principle; the tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than with a complex, broken-up pattern

Question 19

Selective Attention

Answer 19

allows an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information

Question 20

Proprioception

Answer 20

sense of body position