Week 4 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Sensation & Perception

Course: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Bennett
Objective tested: Objective 4 — how humans sense and perceive the world.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (15% of grade) · Due: end of Module 4.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-04-qti.xml; the reusable item-bank entries and the Canvas placement block are at the bottom of this file.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 4 misconceptions named in the lecture outline.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). Which of the following is an example of PERCEPTION (organizing and interpreting) rather than sensation (detecting)?
- A. Light striking the receptor cells at the back of the eye
- B. The eardrum vibrating in response to sound waves
- C. Recognizing a blurry shape in the distance as your own dog ✅
- D. Pressure receptors in the skin firing when you touch a desk
Feedback: Sensation is the body detecting raw physical energy (A, B, D are all receptors picking up a signal). Perception is the brain organizing and interpreting that signal into meaning — recognizing the shape as your dog is interpretation.

Q2 (MC). Transduction is best defined as the process of —
- A. interpreting a scene using prior knowledge and expectations
- B. converting physical energy, such as light or sound, into neural signals the brain can use ✅
- C. the smallest amount of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time
- D. becoming less sensitive to a constant, unchanging stimulus
Feedback: Transduction is the translation step every sense has — physical energy becomes the neural code the brain reads (in the eye, it happens at the retina). (A is top-down processing; C is the absolute threshold; D is sensory adaptation.)

Q3 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following are Gestalt principles of perceptual organization?
- A. Figure-ground ✅
- B. Proximity ✅
- C. Transduction
- D. Closure ✅
- E. Accommodation
Feedback: Figure-ground, proximity, and closure are Gestalt grouping principles (along with similarity and continuity). Transduction is the energy-to-neural-signal step, and accommodation is the lens changing shape to focus — neither is a Gestalt principle.

Q4 (MC). The absolute threshold refers to the —
- A. smallest difference between two stimuli that a person can detect
- B. minimum amount of a stimulus needed to detect it 50% of the time ✅
- C. point at which a constant stimulus fades from awareness
- D. constant proportion by which a stimulus must change to be noticed
Feedback: The absolute threshold is the smallest stimulus you can detect at all — half the time. (A is the difference threshold/JND; C is sensory adaptation; D is Weber's law.) Don't confuse the absolute threshold (detect it at all) with the difference threshold (detect a change).

Q5 (MC). Which statement about the eye's receptor cells is correct?
- A. Rods are responsible for color vision and fine detail.
- B. Cones are responsible for color vision and fine detail and need good light. ✅
- C. Rods work best in bright light and are concentrated in the fovea.
- D. Cones are responsible for vision in dim light and at the periphery.
Feedback: "Cones for Color." Cones handle color and sharp detail and need good light (concentrated in the fovea). Rods handle dim-light, peripheral, black-and-white vision. The wrong options swap their jobs.

Q6 (Matching). Match each depth cue to its type (binocular = needs both eyes; monocular = works with one eye).
| Depth cue | Correct type |
|---|---|
| Retinal disparity | Binocular cue (needs both eyes) |
| Linear perspective | Monocular cue (works with one eye) |
| Interposition (overlap) | Monocular cue (works with one eye) |
| Convergence | Binocular cue (needs both eyes) |
Feedback: Binocular cues compare the two eyes' views — retinal disparity (the images differ) and convergence (the eyes turn inward for near objects). Monocular cues work with one eye — which is why a flat photo still shows depth — including linear perspective and interposition/overlap.

Q7 (MC). Which scenario is the BEST example of top-down processing?
- A. A sudden, loud crash of dropped dishes instantly grabs your attention.
- B. You easily read a friend's messy handwriting because the surrounding words tell you what to expect. ✅
- C. Your pain receptors fire the moment you stub your toe.
- D. Cold receptors in your skin respond when you pick up an ice cube.
Feedback: Top-down processing is knowledge-driven — your expectations and context (the surrounding words) steer interpretation. (A, C, and D are bottom-up — the raw signal driving the response.)

Q8 (True / False). "Sensory adaptation means we become MORE sensitive to a constant, unchanging stimulus over time."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. Sensory adaptation is reduced — less — sensitivity to a constant, unchanging stimulus (the bakery smell fades; you stop feeling your socks). The receptors stop reporting a signal that isn't changing.

Q9 (MC). Which scenario is the BEST example of bottom-up processing?
- A. You expect a phone call, so you "hear" your phone ring in the shower when it didn't.
- B. You recognize a word instantly because you've read it thousands of times.
- C. With no prior knowledge of the object, you build a perception piece by piece from its raw colors, edges, and shapes. ✅
- D. You read "THE CAT" even though the H and the A are drawn identically, because the words guide you.
Feedback: Bottom-up processing is data-driven — perception built from the raw sensory signal, with no prior knowledge required. (A, B, and D all rely on expectation or memory, which makes them top-down.)

Q10 (MC). The same ambiguous figure is read as the letter "B" when placed between A and C, but as the number "13" when placed between 12 and 14. This shows that perception is shaped by —
- A. the absolute threshold
- B. perceptual set created by context and expectation ✅
- C. sensory adaptation
- D. transduction
Feedback: A perceptual set is a readiness to perceive things a certain way based on context and expectation — same ink, different perception, because the surroundings primed you. That's top-down processing in action.

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q3) lists all three Gestalt principles present (A, B, D) and the two distractors are real Week-4 terms that are not Gestalt principles; the matching item (Q6) pairs four depth cues to the two correct types; no item asserts a fact outside the Week 4 course definitions. No computation in this quiz, so no arithmetic to mis-key.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=PSYC1 · week=4 · objective=4 · topic=sensation-and-perception and deposited in Item Bank: Week 4 — Sensation & Perception. The midterm (Week 8) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 sensation-vs-perception, q2 transduction, q3 gestalt-principles, q4 absolute-threshold, q5 rods-vs-cones, q6 depth-cues-match, q7 top-down, q8 sensory-adaptation, q9 bottom-up, q10 perceptual-set.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 4 Quiz — Sensation & Perception"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Bennett's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"