Week 4 Quiz

A rain-smudged campus flyer reads "Free tutoring in the l_brary," with one letter washed out, and a student reads it as "library" without pausing. What filled in the missing letter?

Select one.

• Bottom-up processing, because the letter shapes alone settle the word
• Top-down processing, because knowledge of words and settings shaped what was seen
• Sensory adaptation, because the smudge stopped being noticed
• Transduction, because the retina converted the light into a word

Light and sound waves are not neural signals. Where does transduction, the conversion of physical energy into neural signals, take place?

Select one.

• In the occipital lobe, which receives the signals and turns them into vision
• In the lens, which focuses light before it is converted
• In the brain as a whole, during perception
• In the sensory receptors, such as rods, cones, and hair cells

Galanter (1962) illustrated that on a clear, dark night a person can detect a candle flame about 30 miles away. Which concept does this illustrate?

Select one.

• The absolute threshold
• The difference threshold
• Sensory adaptation
• Perceptual constancy

One candle is already burning in a dark room, and a second candle is lit beside it. Detecting that the room got a little brighter is an example of which threshold?

Select one.

• The absolute threshold, because the light is faint
• The absolute threshold, because a new candle appeared
• The difference threshold, because light was already present
• Neither threshold, because candles are not psychological stimuli

A whisper that you would notice in a quiet library goes unnoticed at a loud concert. Which statement of Weber's law explains this?

Select one.

• The difference threshold is a fixed amount of change, whatever the background
• The difference threshold is a constant proportion of the original stimulus
• The absolute threshold for sound is the same in every setting
• Sensory adaptation makes every sound at a concert less noticeable

True or false: when you stop noticing a flashing shop sign outside your window after a week, it is because the sign's light has become weaker.

True or false.

• True
• False

A runner sees the red of a stop sign in daylight, but at dusk the colors fade to gray even though shapes and movement are still visible. Why?

Select one.

• The cones need brighter light, and the rods that work in dim light carry no color
• The rods see color, but they need brighter light than the evening sky provides
• The lens stops focusing light onto the retina in the evening
• The occipital lobe adapts to the stop sign and stops seeing red

After the rods and cones of the retina transduce light, the neural signals travel to the brain. Which region of the brain processes vision?

Select one.

• The frontal lobe
• The temporal lobe
• The occipital lobe
• The parietal lobe, which handles touch

Which of these are monocular depth cues, cues that work with one eye alone? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• One object partly blocking another
• Nearer objects looking larger
• Parallel lines appearing to meet in the distance
• The slightly different view each eye gets of the same object
• The brain filling in gaps to see a whole object

Two lines are exactly the same length, but the one ending in flared tails looks longer than the one ending in arrowheads. What does this illusion show?

Select one.

• The retina records the two lines at different lengths, and the brain copies that faithfully
• Sensation and perception are the same process
• The rods are responding to the lines instead of the cones
• Perception is constructed by the brain rather than copied from the stimulus