AP Psychology
Dr. J. Dishowitz
Unit 4 Study Guide
Unit 4 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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Define perception. Compare and contrast perception and sensation.
Discuss the debate among the constructivist, computational, and ecological viewpoints as to how
perception works.
Explain how feature analysis works.
Compare and contrast bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
Discuss the influences on top-down processing. Your answer should include expectancy, motivation, and
schemas.
Define network processing. Explain the parallel distributed processing models of pattern recognition.
Define psychophysics and absolute threshold. Explain the influence of noise and response criterion on
perception.
Define subliminal perception. Discuss the debate about the degree to which people's behavior can be
influenced by subliminal perception.
Define and describe signal-detection theory. Be sure to include sensitivity to stimuli and response criterion
in your answer. Describe how information can change the response criterion.
Describe Weber's law. Define just-noticeable difference (JND). Explain the equation JND = KI.
Describe Fechner's law.
Define accessory structure, transduction, and receptor.
Define adaptation and give an example.
Define coding, temporal coding, and spatial coding. Explain why sensory information must be coded before
it reaches the brain.
Define the doctrine of specific nerve energies.
Describe the six characteristics of sensory representation for vision, hearing, and the skin senses. Define
topographical representation and primary cortex.
Define sound. Describe the physical characteristics of sound, including amplitude, wavelength, and
frequency.
Describe the psychological characteristics of sound, including loudness, pitch, and timbre. Discuss the
relationship among pitch, frequency, and wavelength as well as that between amplitude and loudness.
Name and describe the accessory structures of the ear.
Describe the roles of the cochlea, basilar membrane, hair cells, and auditory nerve in the process of auditory transduction. Name and describe the types of deafness.
Describe the process of coding auditory information. Discuss the relationship between place theory and the
frequency-matching theory in frequency coding.
Describe how information is relayed to the primary auditory cortex, how the cortex codes the frequency
and location of sounds, and why this coding is important for language.
Define visible light.
Define light intensity and wavelength. Describe how both are related to what you sense.
Define and describe the accessory structures of the eye, including the cornea, pupil, iris, and lens.
Define retina and explain how accommodation affects the image on the retina.
Define photoreceptors and photopigments. Describe how these structures are involved in transduction and
dark adaptation.
Define rods, cones, and fovea. Explain why acuity is greatest in the fovea.
Define convergence and lateral inhibition. Describe the role of the bipolar and interneuron cells in convergence and lateral inhibition.
Describe the center-surround receptive field of ganglion cells.
Define hue, saturation, and brightness.
Describe the tri-chromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision. Discuss the phenomena each
explains, including complementary colors.
Describe the physical problem that causes colorblindness.
Describe the path that visual information follows on its way to the brain, including the roles of the optic
nerve, the optic chiasm, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and the primary visual cortex. Know what creates
the blind spot.
Describe parallel processing of visual properties and hierarchical processing of visual information using
feature detectors.
36. Define olfaction. Describe the transduction process in the olfactory system. Discuss the path that olfactory
information follows to the brain. Define pheromones and vomeronasal organ.
37. Define gustation and papillae. Describe the relationship among taste, smell, and flavor.
38. Define somatic sense or somatosensory system. Describe the transduction process in the skin senses,
including touch, pain, and temperature.
39. Describe the gate-control theory of pain sensation. Define analgesia. Know the names of the body's natural
analgesics.
40. Describe the evidence concerning acupuncture and the conclusions that are most reasonable.
41. Describe the types of information that the vestibular sense provides. Discuss the role of the vestibular sacs,
otoliths, and semicircular canals in the sensation of vestibular information.
42. Define proprioception and kinesthesia. Name the source of kinesthetic information
43. Describe the two basic principles of perceptual organization: figure-ground and grouping. Define and give
examples of proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, texture, simplicity, common fate, and common
region.
44. Discuss how auditory scene analysis organizes our perception of sounds.
45. Define and describe depth perception.
46. Describe the stimulus cues that influence depth perception. Your answer should include relative size, height
in the visual field, interposition, linear perspective, reduced clarity, light and shadow, textural gradient, and
movement gradient.
47. Describe the cues to depth provided by accommodation, convergence, and binocular disparity.
48. Describe the cues used to perceive motion. Your answer should include looming, the brain's ability to sense
the position of the eyes and head, and the illusion called stroboscopic motion.
49. Define perceptual, size, shape, and brightness constancy.
50. Describe the impact of culture on perception.
51. Describe an infant's perceptual abilities.
52. Define attention. Describe the research on the covert shifting of attention.
53. Describe the influences that determine the ease of directing or dividing our attention. Explain parallel
processing.
54. Describe the influence of perceptual studies on the development of aviation and computer displays.
1. Complete sensation in the absence of complete perception is best illustrated by
A) Weber's law.
B) prosopagnosia.
C) conduction deafness.
D) color constancy.
E) sensory interaction.
2. As you look at an apple, its reflected light travels to the eye. The rods and cones absorb the light and help
transmit the information to the brain. This process best illustrates
A) sensation.
B) top-down processing.
C) perception.
D) selective attention.
E) psychophysics.
3. The process of receiving and representing stimulus energies by the nervous system is called
A) priming.
B) synaesthesia.
C) accommodation.
D) sensation.
E) perception.
4. The process by which we select, organize, and interpret sensory information in order to recognize meaningful
objects and events is called
A) sensory adaptation.
B) parallel processing.
C) sensation.
D) perception.
E) accommodation.
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5. Patients' negative expectations about the outcome of a surgical procedure can increase their postoperative
experience of pain. This best illustrates the importance of
A) transduction.
B) accommodation.
C) sensory adaptation.
D) difference thresholds.
E) top-down processing.
6. Trying to see a hidden representational image in a piece of abstract art by looking carefully at each element in
the picture and trying to form an image employs which kind of perceptual process?
A) selective attention
B) interposition
C) perceptual adaptation
D) bottom-up processing
E) retinal disparity
7. The ability to pay attention to only one voice at a time is called
A) gestalt.
B) change blindness.
C) frequency.
D) the cocktail party effect.
E) sensory interaction.
8. Ohio State University pedestrians were more likely to cross streets unsafely if they were talking on a cell phone.
This best illustrates the impact of
A) place theory.
B) gate-control theory.
C) selective attention.
D) the phi phenomenon.
E) retinal disparity.
9. When Jason briefly turned to summon the waiter, his wife quickly switched her glass of red wine with his glass
of white wine. Jason's failure to notice that his chosen wine had been replaced best illustrates
A) place theory.
B) sensory interaction.
C) change blindness.
D) parallel processing.
E) figure-ground.
10. The minimum amount of stimulation a person needs to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time is called the
A) adaptation threshold.
B) difference threshold.
C) subliminal threshold.
D) absolute threshold.
E) change threshold.
11. Which theory emphasizes that personal expectations and motivations influence the level of absolute thresholds?
A) signal detection theory
B) frequency theory
C) opponent-process theory
D) place theory
E) bottom-up theory
12. A subliminal message is one that is presented
A) while an individual is under hypnosis.
B) below one's absolute threshold for awareness.
C) in a manner that is unconsciously persuasive.
D) with very soft background music.
E) repetitiously.
13. In experiments, an image is quickly flashed and then replaced by a masking stimulus that inhibits conscious
perception of the original image. In these experiments, the researchers are studying the effects of
A) accommodation.
B) tinnitus.
C) priming.
D) blindsight.
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E) prosopagnosia.
14. Giulio's bag of marbles is twice as heavy as Jim's. If it takes 5 extra marbles to make Jim's bag feel heavier, it
will take 10 extra marbles to make Giulio's bag feel heavier. This best illustrates
A) the opponent-process theory.
B) accommodation.
C) the McGurk effect.
D) sensory adaptation.
E) Weber's law.
15. Diminished sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus is known as
A) accommodation.
B) blindsight.
C) sensory adaptation.
D) transduction.
E) equilibrium.
16. The process by which our sensory systems convert stimulus energies into neural messages is called
A) priming.
B) sensory adaptation.
C) transduction.
D) parallel processing.
E) sensory interaction.
17. Light-wave amplitude determines the
A) intensity of colors.
B) color hue we experience.
C) firing of rods in the retina.
D) curvature and thickness of the lens.
E) parallel processing of a scene.
18. Intensity is to brightness as wavelength is to
A) accommodation.
B) frequency.
C) amplitude.
D) hue.
E) disparity.
19. The amount of light entering the eye is regulated by the
A) lens.
B) iris.
C) retina.
D) optic nerve.
E) feature detectors.
20. Which of the following is the correct order of structures light passes through in the eye?
A) lens, cornea, pupil, retina, iris
B) retina, lens, cornea, rods, cones
C) cornea, iris, pupil, lens, retina
D) pupil, optic nerve, retina, lens, rods
E) pupil, cornea, retina, lens, optic nerve
21. Compared with rods, cones are
A) more sensitive to dim light and more sensitive to fine detail.
B) less sensitive to dim light and less sensitive to fine detail.
C) more sensitive to dim light and less sensitive to fine detail.
D) less sensitive to dim light and more sensitive to fine detail.
E) more sensitive to any light and less sensitive to fine detail.
22. The ability to simultaneously recognize the color, shape, size, and speed of an oncoming automobile best
illustrates
A) sensory interaction.
B) kinesthesis.
C) parallel processing.
D) subliminal perception.
E) blindsight.
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23. According to the opponent-process theory, cells that are stimulated by exposure to ________ light are inhibited
by exposure to ________ light.
A) red; blue
B) blue; green
C) yellow; green
D) blue; red
E) yellow; blue
24. Sound wave vibrations are transmitted by three tiny bones located in the
A) vestibular sacs.
B) semicircular canals.
C) inner ear.
D) cochlea.
E) middle ear.
25. The cochlea is a
A) fluid-filled tube in which sound waves trigger nerve impulses.
B) fluid-filled tube that provides a sense of upright body position.
C) fluid-filled tube that provides a sense of body movement.
D) set of three tiny bones that amplify the vibrations of the eardrum.
E) specific area of the auditory cortex.
26. Movement of the hair cells along the basilar membrane
A) allows us to sense our body's position and movement.
B) causes the olfactory bulb to send signals to the primary smell cortex.
C) initiates transduction and the transmission of neural messages to the auditory cortex.
D) stimulates the taste receptor cells and helps us to distinguish between different taste sensations.
E) produces large-fiber activity in the spinal cord that closes the “gate” so we don't feel pain.
27. Receptor cells for kinesthesis are located in the
A) fovea.
B) inner ear.
C) joints, tendons, bones, and ear.
D) olfactory epithelium.
E) auditory cortex.
28. Which of the following play the biggest role in our feeling dizzy and unbalanced after a thrilling roller coaster
ride?
A) olfactory receptors
B) feature detectors
C) basilar membranes
D) semicircular canals
E) eardrum
29. The brain's release of endorphins reduces
A) pain.
B) tinnitus.
C) prosopagnosia.
D) retinal disparity.
E) sensation.
30. After losing his left hand in an accident, Jack continued to experience pain in his nonexistent hand. His
experience illustrates
A) bottom-up processing.
B) sensory adaptation.
C) phantom limb sensations.
D) the vestibular sense.
E) top-down processing.
31. Olfactory receptor cells are essential for our sense of
A) kinesthesis.
B) smell.
C) touch.
D) hearing.
E) equilibrium.
32. Who emphasized that the whole may exceed the sum of its parts?
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A) evolutionary psychologists
B) parapsychologists
C) behaviorists
D) Gestalt psychologists
E) psychoanalysts
33. Which of the following is a binocular cue for the perception of distance?
A) relative size
B) retinal disparity
C) relative motion
D) linear perspective
E) visual cliff
34. Interposition is a cue for depth perception in which closer objects
A) create larger retinal images than do distant objects.
B) obstruct our view of distant objects.
C) reflect more light to our eyes than do distant objects.
D) appear lower in the horizontal plane than do distant objects.
E) reflect light to one eye more quickly than the other.
35. The perception that Bugs Bunny is hopping across a movie screen best illustrates
A) the Müller-Lyer illusion.
B) retinal disparity.
C) the Ponzo illusion.
D) stroboscopic movement.
E) opponent-process.
36. Lightness constancy refers to the fact that
A) the frequency of light waves has a fixed relationship to the brightness of the light.
B) objects are perceived to have consistent lightness even if the amount of light they reflect changes.
C) light waves reflected by an object remain constant despite changes in illumination levels.
D) the perceived whiteness of an object has a constant relation to its lightness.
E) one of the depth cues involves perceiving dimmer objects as being farther away.
37. The philosopher John Locke believed that people
A) learn to perceive the world through experience.
B) are endowed at birth with perceptual skills.
C) experience the whole as different from the sum of its parts.
D) are unable to adapt to an inverted visual world.
E) are born with the ability to perceptually adapt.
38. As the text notes, “Once we have formed a wrong idea about reality, we have more difficulty seeing the truth.”
This best illustrates the impact of
A) synaesthesia.
B) the phi phenomenon.
C) top-down processing.
D) retinal disparity.
E) transduction.
39. Stereotypes are mental conceptions that can strongly influence the way we interpret the behaviors of individuals
belonging to specific racial or ethnic groups. A stereotype is most similar to
A) a feature detector.
B) perceptual adaptation.
C) a perceptual set.
D) a difference threshold.
E) gate-control theory.
40. Clairvoyance refers to the
A) extrasensory transmission of thoughts from one mind to another.
B) extrasensory perception of events that occur at places remote to the perceiver.
C) perception of future events, such as a person's fate.
D) ability to understand and share the emotions of another person.
E) ability to interpret neural patterns as perceptions.
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