Psychology 40S Test: Sensation and Perception Name:__________________________

Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

____ 1. Miranda and Joy are about to swim in a cool lake. Miranda jumps in and shortly thereafter experiences
adaptation to the cool water. What is she most likely to say?
a. "It's nice once you get used to it."
b. "It feels as cold now as when I first jumped in."
c. "Amazing! This doesn't even feel like cool water."
d. "The water seems to have gotten colder."
____ 2. What do radio waves, X-rays, TV waves, and light waves all have in common? They are all:
a. located at the shorter end of the electromagnetic energy spectrum
b. forms of electromagnetic energy
c. examples of ultra-violet waves
d. in the invisible spectrum
____ 3. The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that receptors in the eye are sensitive to is referred to as the
____ spectrum.
a. visible
b. light
c. upper
d. lower
____ 4. The path that the light takes through your eye is:
a. cornea; pupil; lens; retina
b. pupil; lens; retina
c. lens; cornea; pupil; retina
d. lens, fovea; cornea; retina
____ 5. When you look at objects in dim light, the objects lack color and clarity because:
a. cones are unable to see colors
b. of the process of light adaptation
c. the optic nerve does not register wavelengths of light when it is dark
d. rods do not distinguish colors or fine details
____ 6. A car accident completely destroys Ann's primary visual cortex. The most likely effect of the accident is
that Ann will:
a. experience double vision
b. be virtually blind
c. lose color but not black-and-white vision
d. be able to see close objects but not distant ones
____ 7. An individual who has only one kind of functioning cone will have:
a. night blindness
b. dichromatic color blindness
c. total color blindness
d. problems with light adaptation
____ 8. People who are color blind:
a. discover their problem as soon as they learn to label colors verbally
b. may not discover their problem until later in life
c. usually have their problem discovered for them by their parents at an early age
d. usually have their problem discovered when they start school
____ 9. Vibrations of the eardrum set in motion three small bones in the middle ear. These are:
a. cochlea, basilar membrane, oval window
b. hammer, anvil, stirrup
c. stirrup, oval window, canal
d. anvil, cochlea, hammer
____ 10. The function of the cochlea is to:
a. transform vibrations into nerve impulses
b. move fluid forward toward the oval window
c. house the hammer, anvil, and stirrup
d. house the band of fibers called the auditory nerve
____ 11. Motion sickness is probably caused by:
a. a sensory mismatch between the information from the vestibular system and the eyes
b. the violent bouncing around of the head during a rough stretch of road
c. individual personality factors
d. drug use
____ 12. According to Module Five, recent research shows that ____ can help to reduce the symptoms of motion
sickness.
a. garlic
b. aspirin
c. special breathing techniques
d. L-dopa
____ 13. How many basic tastes can people respond to?
a. three
b. five
c. seven
d. nine
____ 14. Free nerve endings:
a. can transmit information about temperature and pain
b. respond when hairs on the skin are bent or pulled up
c. are the only receptors to respond to vibration
d. have a protective structure surrounding them
____ 15. One of the strongest placebo effects involves:
a. reducing body temperature
b. relieving pain
c. relieving stomach cramps
d. reducing depression
____ 16. In the double-blind procedure:
a. there are blinds (screens) separating the researchers from the subjects
b. both researchers and subjects wear blindfolds in order to guarantee privacy
c. subjects first receive the treatment, then later receive a placebo
d. neither the researchers nor the subjects know who is receiving what treatment
____ 17. Chemicals produced in the brain that have many of the same properties as morphine are called:
a. opsins
b. endocrines
c. endorphins
d. estrogens
____ 18. According to a study describing in Module Five, patients with jaw pain who received a placebo injection:
a. experienced an increase in REI sleep
b. showed increased levels of endorphins
 c. showed decreased levels of endorphins
d. reported less dread
____ 19. Can the ancient Oriental procedure called acupuncture actually relieve pain? Modern science says:
a. yes, because there are some mysteries Western science is not equipped to explain
b. perhaps, because stimulation of certain points may cause the secretion of endorphins
c. no, because there cannot be a relationship between twirling needles in the skin and pain
caused by the nervous system
d. no, because there is no research to date that supports acupuncture
____ 20. Jerry, the man described in Module Five who had electrodes implanted in his visual cortex could see:
a. patches of colors
b. outlines of large objects
c. and navigate around objects
d. shades of light
____ 21. Conduction deafness differs from neural deafness in that:
a. the former cannot be helped
b. the latter cannot be helped
c. the former can be helped with an external hearing aid
d. the latter can be helped with an external hearing aid
____ 22. Neural deafness is caused by:
a. the presence of wax in the auditory canal
b. injury to the tympanic membrane
c. malfunction of the ossicles
d. damage to the hair cells
____ 23. A quality inspector at the local manufacturing plant carefully examines a product for flaws using a special
light. The flaws show up as dark green spots of light. For this inspector, the ____ is the point at which a
flaw can be detected.
a. threshold
b. JND
c. gestalt
d. subliminal threshold
____ 24. As part of a psychology experiment, Linda sits in a small, completely darkened room and looks through
an apparatus. At the sound of a tone, she is exposed to a brief flash of light. These lights vary in intensity.
After each tone, she reports whether she saw the flash. The intensity of light that Linda perceives 50
percent of the time is her:
a. just noticeable difference
b. Weber's constant
c. absolute threshold
d. subliminal limit
____ 25. When sensation occurs, we:
a. become aware of the stimulus's meaning and significance
b. perceive
c. experience an activation of our sensory receptors
d. are acutely aware of inconsistencies in our physical environment
____ 26. Craig is taking his family for a car ride. His three-year-old, Katy, and Noelle, who is seven months old,
are both looking out the side windows at approaching cars. Noelle sees bright flashes of lights, while Katy
understands that the flashes of lights are cars. Which of the girls' experiences in the best example of
perception and why?
a. Katy because she makes sense out of the flashes of lights
b. Noelle since she is capable of detecting bright flashes of lights
 c. Katy because her sensory receptors are being stimulated by the lights
d. Noelle because her sensory receptors are transmitting information to her brain
____ 27. Which type of music is most likely to lower your anxiety levels?
a. soft rock
b. classical
c. jazz
d. your favorite
____ 28. The principle of proximity states that:
a. we think things are close together if they look similar
b. if things are close together when they are in our field of vision, we assume they will stay
close together when they leave our sight
c. if we stare at a random collection of objects long enough, they will appear to merge with
one another
d. we tend to group together objects that are close to one another physically
____ 29. A perceptual constancy is defined as the:
a. tendency for all persons to see the world in the same manner
b. ability for several different sensory images to form a perception at the same time
c. tendency to perceive things as unchanging, even though they are changing on the retina
d. ability to utilize only one sense, even though multiple sensations are being experienced
____ 30. What term describes our tendency to perceive sizes, shapes, and colors as remaining the same even
though their physical characteristics keep changing?
a. convergence
b. organizational constancy
c. retinal constancy
d. perceptual constancy
____ 31. A person who is blind in one eye uses more ____ cues than ____ cues.
a. memory; perceptual
b. binocular; monocular
c. monocular; binocular
d. inferential; stimulus
____ 32. Based on research, subliminal messages can:
a. prevent self-fulfilling prophecies from occurring
b. persuade us to buy specific items
c. influence emotional and cognitive processes
d. help us to modify behavior
____ 33. Bem and Honorton report data that support telepathy. The most prudent response to this study is to:
a. conclude that ESP is a reliable phenomenon
b. wait and see if the results can be replicated by someone else
c. judge that Bem and Honorton are frauds
d. question the subjects in the study about their experiences
____ 34. A computer-generated illusionary experience is called:
a. apparent motion
b. a phi movement
c. virtual reality
d. a motion parallax
____ 35. Our first impression of other people is influenced by:
a. figure-ground
b. principles of perceptual organization
c. controlled process
 d. their facial features

True/False
Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

____ 36. The process that refers to changing physical energy into electrical signals is called agnosia.
____ 37. Farsightedness is due to the eyeball being too short.
____ 38. The photoreceptors in your eye are called rods and cones.
____ 39. The trichromatic theory of color vision asserts that there are three kinds of cones in the eye.
____ 40. The rods and cones of the cochlea are stimulated by fluid resulting in nerve messages.
____ 41. Endorphins are produced in situations that involve fear, stress, or injury.
____ 42. Our perceptions are typically exact replicas of the original stimuli.
____ 43. The structuralists say that perceptions are really made up of individual basic elements.
____ 44. According to the gestalt psychologists, perception occurs because of the brain's ability to organize
sensations according to rules.
____ 45. When the image of a stimulus changes shape or size on the retina, we perceive the actual stimulus to be
changing.
____ 46. Linear perspective is a monocular depth cue.
____ 47. A full moon high in the sky is perceived to be closer to you than a moon on the horizon.
____ 48. Testimonial evidence provides hard scientific evidence that ESP exists.
____ 49. A tool that ESP researchers have to determine the reliability of psi phenomenon is replication.
____ 50. Recent research suggests that robotic surgery introduces too much error and is dangerous.