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.
Sensation is to _______as perception is to.
b
The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called _______.
perception
Subliminal stimuli are
d
Another term for difference threshold is the._______ _______ _______.
just noticeable difference
Weber’s law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by
b
Sensory adaptation helps us focus on
d
Our perceptual set influences what we perceive. This mental tendency reflects our
a
The characteristic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is _________.
wavelength
The amplitude of a sound wave determines our perception of loudness. The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of ________.
a
The blind spot in your retina is located where
c
Cones are the eye’s receptor cells that are especially sensitive to _________ light and are responsible for our _________vision.
c
The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called. _________ _________.
feature detectors
The brain’s ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called _________ __________.
parallel processing
Two theories together account for color vision. The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory shows that the eye contains __________, and the opponent-process theory accounts for the nervous system’s having ________.
d
What mental processes allow you to perceive a lemon as yellow?
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.
Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called
d
In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of
a
165
The visual cliff experiments suggest that
b
Depth perception underlies our ability to
c
Two examples of ________depth cues are interposition and linear perspective.
monocular
Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of
b
After surgery to restore vision, patients who had been blind from birth had difficulty
b
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 ________ ________.
perceptual adaptation
The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the __________.
cochlea
What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?
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.
Of the four skin senses that make up our sense of touch, only _______ has its own identifiable receptor cells.
a
We have specialized nerve receptors for detecting which five tastes? How did this ability aid our ancestors?
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.
_________is your sense of body position and movement. Your __________ ________specifically monitors your head’s movement, with sensors in the inner ear.
Kinesthesia; vestibular sense
Why do you feel a little dizzy immediately after a roller-coaster ride?
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.
A food’s aroma can greatly enhance its taste. This is an example of
d
Which of the following ESP events is supported by solid, replicable scientific evidence?
d
Answering these questions will help you make these concepts more personally meaningful, and therefore more memorable.
What types of sensory adaptation have you experienced in the last 24 hours?
Can you recall a time when your expectations influenced how you perceived a person (or group of people)? What happened?
People often compare the human eye to a camera. Do you think this is an accurate comparison? Why or why not?
What would your life be like without perceptual constancy?
How would you respond if, after you were injured, a friend said, “The pain is just in your head”?
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