Question 1

When Vincente picks up Tillie for their date he notices that her perfume smells wonderful, but that she is wearing too much of it. The information that the perfume smells good is processed in Vincente's ____________; the information that Tillie is wearing too much perfume is processed in Vincente's ____________.

Accepted Answer

A)  prefrontal cortex; amygdala 
B)  amygdala; prefrontal cortex 
C)  olfactory epithelium; thalamus 
D)  thalamus; epithelium

Question 2

After being in a car crash, Yuri has the selective inability to recognize faces. He is most likely suffering from ____________ due to damage to his ____________.

Accepted Answer

A)  agnosia; primary visual cortex 
B)  agnosia; fusiform gyrus 
C)  prosopagnosia; primary visual cortex 
D)  prosopagnosia; fusiform gyrus

Question 3

A grey square is placed first on a white sheet of paper and then on a black sheet of paper. The square will be ____________ on the black as on the white background.

Accepted Answer

A)  equally bright but appear darker 
B)  equally bright but appear lighter 
C)  brighter and appear lighter 
D)  less bright but appear equally light

Question 4

Mick is getting a tattoo. The tattoo artist creates tiny points adjacent to each other on the skin to tattoo a line. The information from the needle pricks will be represented in the primary somatosensory cortex:

Accepted Answer

A)  by a single cell with a receptive field responsive to tactile lines 
B)  as a pattern of neural responses that code indirectly for location 
C)  in the same general area that processes tactile information from the arm 
D)  in a line of adjacent points

Question 5

Imagine that you are participating in a friend's psychology experiment. She asks you to close your eyes and hold out your finger. She tells you that she will prick your finger with a needle in the same place several times and then will start to prick other places. Your task is to tell her when you first feel the pin prick in a different place. She then repeats the same process but starts on your back. You might predict that the distance at which you could first detect a pin prick in a new location would be:

Accepted Answer

A)  much smaller on the finger than the back 
B)  much smaller on the back than the finger 
C)  approximately equal in the two places 
D)  a little bit smaller on the finger than the back

Question 6

When you are on a small bluff, the ocean sand looks smooth and uniform, but when you sit down on the sand you can see all of the bumps and colours. This is an example of which depth cue?

Accepted Answer

A)  position relative to the horizon 
B)  figure to ground 
C)  texture gradient 
D)  motion parallax

Question 7

If the muscles of one eye are paralyzed, making it impossible to change the point of focus of that eye, which kind of depth cue will become unavailable?

Accepted Answer

A)  linear perspective 
B)  disparity 
C)  occlusion 
D)  motion parallax

Question 8

When Maggie comes home, she is surprised to see that her roommate has painted their living room red. The room looks so dazzlingly red because the paint has absorbed the ____________ wavelengths of light and is reflecting the ____________ wavelengths to Maggie's eyes.

Accepted Answer

A)  long; short and medium 
B)  long and short; medium 
C)  short and medium; long 
D)  long and medium; short

Question 9

In a single person, gustation involves ____________ taste buds, all located on the ____________.

Accepted Answer

A)  500 to 1,000; tongue and mouth 
B)  5,000 to 10,000: tongue, throat, and mouth 
C)  500 to 10,000; tongue, throat, and mouth 
D)  500 to 1,500; tongue, throat, and mouth

Question 10

It is a warm summer day and a group of friends has decided to go on a picnic. Unfortunately, the watermelon they brought has attracted some stinging wasps. Who would experience the most pain if one of these wasps were to sting:

Accepted Answer

A)  Bianca, a 26-year-old woman 
B)  Tony, a man who has been stung only once before 
C)  Marie, a woman currently undergoing estrogen replacement therapy 
D)  Bryan, a man currently undergoing testosterone replacement therapy

Question 11

If you look at a square made up of alternating red and blue stripes for several minutes, then look immediately at a blank white sheet of paper, you will see a square with alternating green and yellow stripes. This results from pairs of ____________ that work ____________ to produce the effect.

Accepted Answer

A)  cones; in concert 
B)  cones; in opposition 
C)  ganglion cells; in concert 
D)  ganglion cells; in opposition

Question 12

Jasmine wants to get Uchenna's attention in the library. She whispers to avoid disturbing other students. However, she speaks so softly that Uchenna cannot hear her and keeps reading. Jasmine's voice is:

Accepted Answer

A)  below Uchenna's absolute threshold 
B)  below Uchenna's difference threshold 
C)  above Uchenna's absolute threshold but below Uchenna's difference threshold

Question 13

Zheng and Glenn are talking about how a guy can tell if a woman likes him when they first meet. Given your knowledge of sensory systems, you could suggest that they look to see if the woman:

Accepted Answer

A)  turns down the corners of her mouth 
B)  has enlarged pupils 
C)  gives off a subtle odour 
D)  starts to speak more softly

Question 14

Consider the pattern: XXY XXY XXY. People perceive this pattern as consisting of three groups of three letters each. Which Gestalt principle accounts for this outcome?

Accepted Answer

A)  similarity 
B)  good continuation 
C)  proximity 
D)  common region

Question 15

The law that states that the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion of the original stimulus is:

Accepted Answer

A)  Fechner's Law 
B)  Weber's Law 
C)  Köhler's Law 
D)  Wernicke's Law

Question 16

The axons from ____________ cells form the ____________, which exits the eye at the back of the retina.

Accepted Answer

A)  ganglion; optic nerve 
B)  amacrine; optic nerve 
C)  ganglion; optic chiasm 
D)  amacrine; optic chiasm

Question 17

The illusion of the Ames room works because:

Accepted Answer

A)  size is computed from an incorrect estimate of distance 
B)  distance is inferred from an incorrect assumption about size 
C)  the conflicting distance cues make a depth determination ambiguous 
D)  the conflict between size and distance cues is incorrectly resolved

Question 18

The ____________ does most of the focusing of the light onto the retina and the ____________ allows for more accuracy of focusing.

Accepted Answer

A)  cornea; pupil 
B)  pupil; lens 
C)  lens; cornea 
D)  cornea; lens

Question 19

From an adaptive standpoint, the disproportionate area of the cortex devoted to vision suggests that our visual system ____________ than our other senses.

Accepted Answer

A)  developed more complexity 
B)  played a larger role in sexual selection 
C)  developed later in the course of evolution 
D)  facilitated survival more greatly

Question 20

Sadie can frequently tell when her friends are going to make major changes in their lives. She attributes this to extra sensory perception. Which of the following is most like the response that a psychological scientist would give her?

Accepted Answer

A)  There is no such thing as ESP. 
B)  She is probably responding unusually well to subtle social cues. 
C)  She is probably misremembering what she thought before the event happened. 
D)  She is probably determining her friends' behaviour based on her own subconscious desires.

Exam 5: Sensation and Perception

When Vincente picks up Tillie for their date he notices that her perfume smells wonderful, but that she is wearing too much of it. The information that the perfume smells good is processed in Vincente's ; the information that Tillie is wearing too much perfume is processed in Vincente's .

After being in a car crash, Yuri has the selective inability to recognize faces. He is most likely suffering from due to damage to his .