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ANSWER KEY 14 October 2011 - PSY 280H5F PERCEPTION - Test 1 - Duration = 90 min - Worth = 23 % No aids allowed Answer each of the following 16 short questions. The % worth of each question is given within brackets (total: 60%). Do NOT use pencils here. You may use the back of each page if you need extra space. Be clear, concise, and to the point. You may answer in point form if you so prefer. 1. [4%] Lets say you find yourself in a room lit up by 50 candles. It turns out that you would have to add another 10 candles to be able to perceive that the level of illumination in the room has just noticeably increased. Based upon Webers law and the above finding, if another room is illuminated by 25 candles, how many candles would you have to add to this other room to be able to perceive that the level of illumination has just noticeably increased? Just the number will do. 5 2. [4%] According to Stevens power law: S = k*I . Explain what the law leads one to expect when n=1; n<1; n>1, respectively. When n = 1: (the strength of the) sensation grows (changes) at the same rate (in direct proportion to) as changes in stimulus intensity When n > 1: (the strength of the) sensation grows more rapidly than (increases in) stimulus intensity When n < 1: (the strength of the) sensation grows more slowly than (increases in) stimulus intensity or wording to that effect 3. [4%] What process is referred to as sensory transduction?
n

The process by which physical energy (stimulus) is converted into nerve signals (action potentials, nerve firing). 4. [4%] What is the key difference between radiometric and photometric measurements of light sources? Radiometric measures of a light source determine the total amount of energy emitted by a light source (regardless of whether it can be perceived) Photometric measures of light sources determine the total amount of visually effective energy emitted by a light source 5. [3%] Some of the light falling upon an opaque (non transparent) surface will be

_ABSORBED_; some will be _REFLECTED_. In addition to the above, most of the light falling onto a transparent surface will be _REFRACTED_.

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6. [4%] What is anatomically wrong with the myopic eye? In what way is a persons vision affected as a result of myopia? How can myopia be corrected? 2% The eyeball of the myopic eye is too long (relative to the strength of its optics) 1% Such an eye is near sighted (i.e., it can see well near objects but not distant ones) 1% By using a concave lens 7. [3%] What is the function of the pupil?

The pupils function is to regulate the amount of light entering the eye (its size increases as the light decreases and viceversa). See also tb p. 43. 8. [3%] Along with le the lens, the refractory power (optical power) of the NORMAL eye

is determined by the__CORNEA_ 9. [4%] There is a high positive correlation between visual acuity and cone distribution across the retina. Briefly explain. Visually acuity is highest at the fovea, and it declines sharply with increasing eccentricity (with increasing distance from the fovea). Cones are most densely packed (most numerous) at the fovea, and their number (their density) sharply decreases away from the fovea. 10. [3%] What perceptual phenomenon is referred to as lightness constancy?

Lightness constancy refers to the visual systems tendency to perceive (under ordinary environmental conditions) the lightness of an object as constant despite wide variations in the amount of light being reflected by (or falling onto) the object 11. [4%] Your textbook notes that the average convergence ratio of photoreceptors to retinal ganglion cells is about 80 to 1. This statistic, though correct, may be misleading, because it hides large differences between the convergence ratios of rod-driven and of cone-driven ganglion cells. Briefly explain. The convergence ratio of rod driven ganglion cells is much higher than the convergence ratio of cone driven ganglion cells (up to several hundreds of rods converge onto individual ganglion cells, whereas very few cones typically converge onto individual ganglion cells.) 12. [5%] Draw below the receptive field profile of an on-center off-surround ganglion cell (for the purpose of this example you can ignore the differences between P-type and M-type cells; this means for instance that you can ignore here the effects of wavelength) Next, with the help of this profile, explain how the cell will respond when a small spot of white light is briefly projected (turned on for, say 2 seconds)

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i) on the cells center alone; i) the cell will fire above its spontaneous (at rest, background) firing rate ii) on the cells surround alone; the cells firing rate will fall below its spontaneous firing rate iii) on the center, and another spot of light (same duration) is projected onto the surround, both at the same time the cells response will be little affected relative to its spontaneous firing rate (you can write either little changed or not changed: both acceptable) 13. [4%] About half of the fibers that make up each optic nerve are said to be ipsilateral; others are said to be contralateral. What do these terms refer to? To the fact that half of the fibers from each eye remain on the same side of the brain (hemisphere): ipsilateral, whereas the other half cross over (at the optic chiasm) to the opposite side of the brain (emisphere): contralateral 14. [4%] Research has shown that infants barely a few months old already exhibit the oblique effect. This finding is not supportive of the carpentered environment hypothesis as an explanation for the oblique effect. Explain. According to the carpentered environment hypothesis, the fact that people (with normal vision) living in urban settings tend to perceive horizontal and vertical lines better than oblique lines stems from the fact that they grow up in an environment in which horizontal and vertical lines predominate. This biased visual exposure influences the development of orientation preferences among cortical cells. However, the fact that (according to some studies) months-old infants already exhibit the effect does not fit well with this theory, because the amount of environmental exposure received by such infants is very limited. 15. [4%] Cells found within the same column in area V1 of the visual cortex differ from each other in several respects. However, most cells within the same column share two key aspects of their response properties. What are they? You can answer with just three words! (Preferred) Orientation (similar orientation tuning) (Same) ocular dominance (these binocular cells all prefer the input from one eye (eg right eye) over the other) 16. [3%] Some cortical cells exhibit direction selectivity. What is meant by that?

Movement selective cells respond (best) to one direction of motion only

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******************************************************* Answer each of the following 20 questions, each of which is worth 2% (total: 40%). Use the red scantron sheet. 1. Our senses are capable of directly detecting a. only a restricted range of the energy available. b. most energy available. c. virtually all acoustic energy. d. virtually all electromagnetic energy. 2. Which view holds that perceptual experience depends on the operation of the nervous system with no requirement for the involvement of some non-physical force? a. solipsism b. nave realism c. subjective idealism d. none of the above 3. Transcranial magnetic stimulation a. is only used with animals owing to the physical damage it causes b. is a technique very similar to PET scans c. is a reversible form of the lesion technique d. measures the size of the evoked potential 4. Subjective contours a. are also experienced by animals other than humans. b. arise because the visual system assumes that near objects occlude far objects. c. are created by the brain. d. all of these 5. Which of the following would NOT be considered a near sense? a. touch b. hearing c. taste d. All of these are near senses. 6. The critical difference between seeing and hearing appears to depend most crucially on the a. different forms of physical energy involved. b. areas of the brain that are stimulated. c. strength and type of the stimulus. d. differences between the eyes and the ears. 7. If the distance from the eye to an object is doubled, the visual angle a. doubles. b. halves. c. is unaffected d. none of the above 8. The single most common cause of blinding eye disease in North America is a. glaucoma. b. macular degeneration. c. retinal detachment

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d. cataract. 9. Successive stimulation of the eye with these three wavelengths of light: 440, 530, and 560 nanometers, should yield the respective color perceptions of a. red, green, blue. b. violet, green, yellow. c. blue, red, yellow. d. blue, green, red. 10. The human visual system can work effectively at light levels that differ by a factor of about a. 100,000. b. 1 million. c. 10 million. d. 100 million. 11. In which of the following ways do M and P retinal ganglion cells differ? a. receptive field size b. relative numbers c. conduction speed d. all of these 12. Which of the following phenomena is/are thought to be due to center-surround antagonism? a. Mach bands b. Hermann grid c. both a and b d. Helmholtz gradient 13. Night blindness can result from a. cone impairment. b. vitamin C deficiency. c. vitamin A deficiency. d. None of the above 14. To establish the dark-adaptation curve of the rod system alone, you would present the test light a. at 300 nanometers wavelength. b. at 700 nanometers wavelength. c. in the center of the retina. d. in the periphery of the retina. 15. Within strict time limits, increased duration of a visual stimulus can be traded off for a lower intensity of the stimulus. This is referred to formally as the a. Fechners law b. Riccos law. c. Pipers law. d. Blochs law. 16. Which of the following regarding the LGN is NOT true? a. The LGN is in a feedback loop with the cortex: it sends its fibers to the cortex which in turn sends fibers to it. b. It consists of 6 layers of cells

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c. it receives inputs from the reticular activating system. d. it is the only center considered so far that hosts multisensory cells which integrate visual and auditory information. 17. One of the primary functions of the superior colliculus a. is in guiding eye movements toward objects located away from fixation. b. is in directly contributing to the processing of shape and size information. c. is in controlling the activity level of the LGN d. all of the above 18. Blindsight refers to a. cortically blind peoples ability to use sound cues for orienting. b. cortically blind peoples ability to identify the location of a light they cant see because of cortical damage. c. residual visual abilities following retinal damage. d. visual illusions in cortically blind people. 19. Lesioning the M pathway impairs an observers ability to perceive a. color. b. texture. c. flicker d. both a and b 20. If Kevin had a permanent loss of color vision owing to damage to a portion of his brain, he would be experiencing a. prosopagnosia. b. achromatopsia. c. akinetopsia. d. aphasia. ******************************************************************* YOUR GRADE: Short Questions: ___________ MC questions : Total: points out of 60 40

_____________ points out of

_____________ points out of 100

This test was marked by s.stalinski@utoronto.ca Queries about the marking of the test MUST be addressed first to the TA, and as soon as possible since as you know there is a time limit for the querying of each item of course work. You should contact her by email for an appointment. If after seeing her you remain dissatisfied you may ask the Instructor to remark the test. Be advised that in the latter case the new mark, if not unchanged, may be lower as well as higher than the one originally obtained.