20 The Nonvisual Senses

TEST
YOUR-
SELF SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Test yourself repeatedly throughout your studies. This will not only help you figure out what you know and don’t know; the testing itself will help you learn and remember the information more effectively thanks to the testing effect.

Basic Concepts of Sensation and Perception

Question

1. Sensation is to ________ as perception is to ________.

absolute threshold; difference threshold

bottom-up processing; top-down processing

interpretation; detection

grouping; priming

Correct!

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2. The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called .

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3. Subliminal stimuli are

too weak to be processed by the brain in any way.

consciously perceived more than 50 percent of the time.

always strong enough to affect our behavior.

below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

Correct!

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4. Another term for difference threshold is the .

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5. Weber’s law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by

a fixed or constant energy amount.

a constant minimum percentage.

a constantly changing amount.

more than 7 percent.

Correct!

Page 276

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6. Sensory adaptation helps us focus on

visual stimuli.

auditory stimuli.

constant features of the environment.

important changes in the environment.

Correct!

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7. Our perceptual set influences what we perceive. This mental tendency reflects our

experiences, assumptions, and expectations.

perceptual adaptation.

priming ability.

difference thresholds.

Correct!

Vision: Sensory and Perceptual Processing

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8. The characteristic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is .

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9. The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception ofThe amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of ________.

brightness

color

meaning.

distance

Correct!

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10. The blind spot in your retina is located where

there are rods but no cones.

there are cones but no rods.

the optic nerve leaves the eye.

the bipolar cells meet the ganglion cells.

Correct!

Question

11. Cones are the eye’s receptor cells that are especially sensitive to _________ light and are responsible for our _________ vision.

bright; black-and-white

dim; color

bright; color

dim; black-and-white

Correct!

Question

12. Two theories together account for color vision. The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains _______, and the opponent-process theory accounts for the nervous system’s having _______.

opposing retinal processes; three pairs of color receptors

opponent-process cells; three types of color receptors

three pairs of color receptors; opposing retinal processes

three types of color receptors; opponent-process cells

Correct!

Question

13. What mental processes allow you to perceive a lemon as yellow?

Answer: Your brain constructs this perception of color in two stages. In the first stage, the lemon reflects light energy into your eyes, where it is transformed into neural messages. Three sets of cones, each sensitive to a different light frequency (red, blue, and green) process color. In this case, the light energy stimulates both red-sensitive and green-sensitive cones. In the second stage, opponent-process cells sensitive to paired opposites of color (red/green, yellow/blue, and black/white) evaluate the incoming neural messages as they pass through your optic nerve to the thalamus and visual cortex. When the yellow-sensitive opponent-process cells are stimulated, you identify the lemon as yellow.

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14. The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called .

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15. The brain’s ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called .

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16. Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called

interposition.

depth perception.

shape constancy.

grouping.

Correct!

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17. In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of

figure-ground.

shape constancy.

grouping.

depth perception.

Correct!

Question

18. The visual cliff experiments suggest that

infants have not yet developed depth perception.

crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth.

we have no way of knowing whether infants can perceive depth.

unlike other species, humans are able to perceive depth in infancy.

Correct!

Question

19. Depth perception underlies our ability to

group similar items in a gestalt.

perceive objects as having a constant shape or form.

judge distances.

fill in the gaps in a figure.

Correct!

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20. Two examples of depth cues are interposition and linear perspective.

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21. Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of

shape constancy.

perceptual constancy.

a binocular cue.

continuity.

Correct!

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22. After surgery to restore vision, patients who had been blind from birth had difficulty

recognizing objects by touch.

recognizing objects by sight.

distinguishing figure from ground.

distinguishing between bright and dim light.

Correct!

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23. In experiments, people have worn glasses that turned their visual fields upside down. After a period of adjustment, they learned to function quite well. This ability is called .

The Nonvisual Senses

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24. The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the .

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25. What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?

Answer: The outer ear collects sound waves, which are translated into mechanical waves by the middle ear and turned into fluid waves in the inner ear. The auditory nerve then translates the energy into electrical waves and sends them to the brain, which perceives and interprets the sound.

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26. theory explains how we hear high-pitched sounds, and theory explains how we hear low-pitched sounds.

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27. The gate-control theory of pain proposes that

special pain receptors send signals directly to the brain.

pain is a property of the senses, not of the brain.

small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals, but large-fiber activity can close access to those pain signals.

the stimuli that produce pain are unrelated to other sensations.

Correct!

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28. How does the biopsychosocial approach explain our experience of pain? Provide examples.

Answer: Our experience of pain is influenced by biological factors (such as sensory receptors that detect pressure), psychological factors (such as our focused attention), and social-cultural factors (such as social expectations about tolerance and expression of pain).

Question

29. We have specialized nerve receptors for detecting which five tastes? How did this ability aid our ancestors?

Answer: We have specialized receptors for detecting sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami tastes. Being able to detect pleasurable tastes enabled our ancestors to seek out energy- and protein-rich foods. Detecting aversive tastes deterred them from eating toxic substances, increasing their chances of survival.

Question

30. is your sense of body position and movement. Your specifically monitors your head’s movement, with sensors in the inner ear.

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31. Why do you feel a little dizzy immediately after a roller-coaster ride?

Answer: Your vestibular sense regulates balance and body positioning through kinesthetic receptors triggered by fluid in your inner ear. Wobbly legs and a spinning world are signs that these receptors are still responding to the ride’s turbulence. As your vestibular sense adjusts to solid ground, your balance will be restored.

Question

32. A food’s aroma can greatly enhance its taste. This is an example of

sensory adaptation.

chemical sensation.

kinesthesia.

sensory interaction.

Correct!

Question

33. Which of the following ESP phenomena is supported by solid, replicable scientific evidence?

Telepathy

Clairvoyance

Precognition

None of these answers

Correct!

Part 7: TEST YOURSELF

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