PSYCH 120 Purdue Exam 2 Questions With Complete Solutions

sense organs correct answer: organs that receive stimuli (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin) sensory receptor cells correct answer: specialized cells within the sense organs that send neural impulses to the brain sensation correct answer: the information coming in to your brain; elementary components of an experience (such as bitter taste, patterns of light and dark, or a change in temperature) perception correct answer: the collection of processes used to arrive a meaningful interpretation of sensations Necker cube correct answer: the messages delivered to the brain by this are ambiguous and shift from one interpretation to the other absolute threshold correct answer: the smallest magnitude of a stimulus that can be detected (the weakest detectible stimulus) difference threshold correct answer: the smallest detectable difference between two stimuli Weber's law correct answer: ___________ states that the difference threshold between two things depends on the strength of the original stimulus (the strong the stimulus, the bigger the changes must be in order for them to be noticed, yet changes in weak stimuli are very noticeable) sensory adaptation correct answer: the tendency of sensory systems to perceive the weakening of a sensation due to prolonged exposure to the stimulus light correct answer: the small part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is processed by the visual system hue correct answer: the dimension of light that produces color and is typically determined by the wavelength of light reflecting from an object brightness correct answer: the aspect of the visual experience that changes with light intensity (amplitude) purity of light correct answer: influences the saturation (richness) of perceived colors and is determined by the mix of wavelengths present the human visual spectrum correct answer: _____________ represents a small part of the entire electromagnetic spectrum 400nm - 700nm correct answer: The wavelengths that make up the human visual spectrum are ______________. pupil correct answer: the center of the eye that allows light to enter cornea correct answer: the transparent and protective outer covering of the eye lens correct answer: the flexible piece of tissue that helps focus light toward the back of the eye iris correct answer: the ring of colored tissue surrounding the pupil retina correct answer: the thin layer of tissue that covers the back of the eye and contains the light-sensitive receptor cells for vision fovea correct answer: "central pit" area in the retina where the cone receptors are located accommodation correct answer: the process through which the lens changes its shape temporarily to help focus light on the retina cornea/lens, iris, retina, electrochemical impulses, receptor cells, neural impulse correct answer: process of light entering eye containing photopigment that react chemically to light and lead to a neural impulse correct answer: receptor cells in the retina translate electromagnetic energy of light into inner language of the brain by _____________. rods correct answer: highly sensitive and provide vision of dim light cones correct answer: operates best when light levels are high and are responsible for the ability to see color receptive field correct answer: the portion of the retina that, when stimulated, causes the activity of higher order neurons to change optic nerve correct answer: the collection of nerve fibers that carries visual neural messages to the brain, located in the back of the eye, creates blind spot dark adaptation correct answer: the process through which the eyes adjust to dim light feature dectetors correct answer: cells in the visual cortex that respond to very specific visual events, such as bars of light at particular orientations trichromatic theory correct answer: theory of color vision proposing that color information is extracted by comparing the relative activations of 3 different types of cone receptors (red, blue, green) red, blue, green correct answer: primary colors of light red, blue, yellow correct answer: primary paint colors mixing all of the paint colors will look black because the substance that absorbs all colors equally therefore reflects nothing back to your eye correct answer: mixing primary paint colors produce a different result than mixing primary light colors because _____________ nature fills someone's cones with the wrong photopigment so they essentially only have 2 instead of 3 cone receptors and lose their ability to discriminate between certain colors correct answer: how does the trichromatic theory of color vision explain color blindness? opponent process theory correct answer: theory of color vision proposing that cells in the visual pathway increases their activation levels to one color and decrease their activation to another color. bottom up processing correct answer: processing that is controlled by the physical message delivered to the senses top down processing correct answer: processing that is controlled by one's beliefs and expectations about how the world is organized proximity, closure, similarity, continuation, common fate correct answer: 5 Gestalt principles of organizations proximity correct answer: things that are close together are grouped together in the mind as if they belong together closure correct answer: incomplete figures tend to be seen as complete because our brain fills in missing information similarity correct answer: similar things are seen as being related continuation correct answer: images are seen in ways that produce smooth continuation common fate correct answer: objects moving together are grouped together figure ground concept correct answer: when we see something and we separate an image into a figure and a ground (center of our attention is figure, background is ground) the brain knows that distant objects produce smaller images on the retina correct answer: 4 monocular cues of depth perception: 1. liner perspective: parallel lines receding far into the distance converge on a point. correct answer: 4 monocular cues of depth perception: 2. far away objects look blurry/slightly blue-ish correct answer: 4 monocular cues of depth perception: 3. can tell distance based on whether one object casts a shadow on another correct answer: 4 monocular cues of depth perception: 4. monocular cue correct answer: something in the environment that suggest depth and can be seen by only one eye convergence and retinal disparity correct answer: 2 binocular cues of depth perception binocular cue correct answer: produced by two eyes, each with a slightly different view of the world perceptual constancy correct answer: perceiving the properties of an object to remain the same even though the physical properties of the sensory message are changing ames room correct answer: used sloped ceilings and floors to create misleading depth cues ponzo illusion correct answer: uses linear perspective to trick the eye muller-lyer illusion correct answer: the vertical line with the wings turned out appears longer than the line with the wings turned in sound correct answer: the physical message delivered to the auditory system and, unlike light, is a mechanical energy that requires a medium such as air or water in order to move sound takes the shape of a wave correct answer: what shape does sound take? pitch correct answer: the psychological experience that results from the auditory processing of a particular frequency of sound. loudness correct answer: determined by changes in intensity or pressure amplitude frequency correct answer: determines pitch and pressure amplitude determines loudness pinna correct answer: external flap of tissue normally referred to as the ear that helps capture sound tympanic membrane correct answer: the eardrum, which responds to sound waves by vibrating middle ear correct answer: the portion between the eardrum adn cochlea containing three small bones (malleus, incus, stapes) that help intensify and prepare the sound vibrations for passage into the inner ear cochlea correct answer: the bony, snail-shaped sound processor in the inner ear where sound is translated into nerve impulses basilar membrane correct answer: a flexible membrane running through the cochlea that, through its movement, displaces the auditory receptor cells, or hair cells auditory nerve correct answer: where the neural impulses generated by the hair cells leave the cochlea and travel along place theory correct answer: the idea that the location of auditory receptor cells activated by movement of the basilar membrane underlies the perception of pitch; we hear a particular pitch because certain hair cells are responding actively frequency theory correct answer: the idea that pitch perception is determined partly by the frequency of neural impulses traveling up the auditory pathway; higher rates of firing = higher pitch, and vice versa touch correct answer: based on pressure (the message delivered is mechanical); cells in skin are literally deformed due to pressure, which provides neural impulses temperature correct answer: produced by cold and warm fibers responding to cooling and heating of skin by increasing neural impulse production pain correct answer: an adaptive response by the body to any stimulus that is intense enough to cause tissue damage gate control theory correct answer: the idea that neutral impulses generated by pain receptors can be blocked, or gated, in the spinal cord by signals produced in the brain gating errors correct answer: Descending nerve fibers originating in the brain and traveling down the spinal cord open and close the gates by releasing endorphins. In some chronic pain conditions, it's though the fates are perhaps not filtering much at all and unnecessary input from various body parts is constantly getting through olfaction correct answer: the sense of smell phantom pain correct answer: when amputees feel the amputated limb as if its still there and sometimes feel pain in the missing limbs. treated with mirror image therapy sweet, bitter, salty, sour correct answer: 4 basic tastes are super tasters correct answer: have relatively more taste buds than non tasters so they experience exotic or more potent tastes more strongly than non tasters consciousness correct answer: the subjective awareness of internal and external events attention correct answer: the internal processes used to set priorities for mental functioning we are only consciously aware of what we pay attention to correct answer: how are attention and consciousness related? dichotic listening task correct answer: when different auditory messages are presented separately and simultaneously to each ear and the person must repeat aloud one message while ignoring the other cocktail party effect correct answer: the ability to focus on one auditory message and ignore others; the tendency to notice when your name suddenly appears in a message that you've been actively ignoring