Exam 5: A: Sensation and Perception

The loudness of a sound is dependent primarily on the frequency of the sound wave.

What is the operational definition of the absolute threshold?

A consultant is trying to convince a manufacturer that changing the taste of their drink product slightly will not be detected as much as if they were in the perfume business where clients would detect a similar slight change in odour.Based on Weber's research with different sense dimensions,is the consultant's claim accurate and if so,why?

The __________ is the area of the retina that contains densely packed cones and forms the point of sharpest vision.

What have scientists discovered about pain mechanisms?

Explain the gate-control theory of pain.How can it explain the perception of pain that is not proportional to the incoming painful stimulus?

Retinal disparity and convergence are two pictorial cues to depth.

Where are the kinesthetic receptors located?

A perceptual set is a readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given context.For example,a new mother is perceptually set to hear the cries of her child.

Taking his first train ride,a child is amazed at how quickly the fence posts along the tracks are whizzing by,but the farm in the distance hardly seems to move.Which term best describes this phenomenon?

Amacrine cells integrate information across the retina,linking bipolar cells to other bipolar cells and ganglion cells to other ganglion cells.

How can you see this question? Now that you know all about the visual system,a question such as this is simple! Trace the process of vision from the moment light energy hits the retina until the time the signal reaches the visual cortex in the brain.Include a short description of the concept of receptive fields and the work of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel that won them the Nobel Prize.

In their early theories,the Gestalt psychologists argued that what you perceive depends on laws of organization,or simple rules by which you perceive shapes and forms.Describe these "simple" rules,then show how the perceptual constancies also contribute to our view of the world as invariant,constant and stable,even though we are sometimes fooled by ambiguity and illusions.

Why was the opponent-process theory preferred over the trichromatic theory of colour vision?

Psychologists who study sensation and perception distinguish between the __________ stimulus,which is the physical object in the world,and the __________ stimulus,which is the optical image on the retina.

Gustav Fechner coined the term psychophysics,which refers to the study of the relationship between the intensity of a physical stimulus and the magnitude of an individual's sensory experience.

Which cognitive process is best defined as apprehending objects and events in the environment,sensing them,identifying them,and reacting to them?

A woman who is a new mother is also a deep sleeper.Yet,when her newborn son cries in the middle of the night,she awakens quickly.Which concept best explains this mother's response?

In an experiment on attention described in the textbook,researchers attempted to create visual displays that would put goal-directed selection and stimulus-driven capture into competition.What did the findings suggest?

A man returns from the doctor after having been informed that he is suffering from nerve deafness.Should he be concerned?