Which of the following concepts helps to explain why three people could look at the same sketch and report seeing three different things?
sensory readiness
perceptual set
cognitive interpretation
stimulus ambiguity
What do we mean when we say that perception is influenced by a perceptual set?
The brain is only capable of perceiving so many things.
People often perceive what they expect to perceive.
Perception is based on detection of specific features.
Perception is less about the person and more about the situation.
Mike and Sandy were walking down the street, and Mike was telling Sandy a story about a party he went to. As they were walking, a car full of clowns drove past and waved at them. Sandy waved back. Later, Mike reported truthfully that he had never seen the clowns and did not notice that Sandy waved at them. Which of the following could explain this apparent lapse in perception?
inattentional blindness
bottom-up processing
hyperfocus
phi phenomenon
Feature analysis assumes that we progress from individual elements to the whole in the formation of our perceptions. Which of the following processes describes feature analysis?
bottom-up
subjective processing
top-down
Vanessa describes a new melody that she heard at a concert by telling you each of the individual notes in the order that they were played. In providing this type of description, which type of processing does Vanessa appear to use?
opponent process
figure-ground
Sima was listening to a tape recording of a famous speech that was being played backward. She just heard gibberish until a classmate told her that the phrase “meet me in St. Louis” was clearly spoken. The tape was rewound and as Sima listened she clearly heard the phrase this time. Which of the following models of perception is illustrated by Sima’s ability to detect the phrase the second time through the tape?
Gestalt
top-down processing
Which type of processing is most important for the ability to rapidly process words that you are reading?
lateral
feature analysis
Tracy has terrible handwriting, and many of her individual characters are tough to tell apart, but her roommate is able to read her notes just fine. Which of the following types of processing allows Tracy’s roommate to read the notes?
opponent processing
Which of the following is an example of the phi phenomenon?
mixing of coloured lights to produce different colours
flashing lights that produce the illusion of movement
drawing a two-dimensional image that shows depth
seeing a reversible figure differently after priming
The lights around the movie marquee flashed on and off in succession. However, Jerome did not perceive them as separate lights flashing, but instead saw a continuous band of light moving around the edge of the marquee. What is this type of perception known as?
feature detection
Shelby created an animated scene using her computer. She drew a frog as he started to jump, and then drew the frog landing. The computer created 10 pictures between these two points, each of which adjusted the frog’s position very slightly. When the entire sequence of 12 pictures is displayed in rapid succession, the frog appears to hop smoothly. Which of the following leads to this perception of animation?
Why is it difficult to see a chameleon that has blended in with its background?
Perceptually, the chameleon and the background share a common fate.
The illusion of relative size leads us to think that the chameleon has disappeared.
We cannot easily distinguish between figure and ground in this case.
The perceptual principle of shape constancy prevents us from seeing the chameleon.
Zachary is looking at a reversible figure that first appears to be a vase and then appears to be two faces. His perception of the figure keeps switching between these two interpretations. What causes the switch in perception?
The Gestalt principle of simplicity doesn’t work for reversible figures.
The figure-ground distinction in reversible figures is often ambiguous.
The Gestalt principles of proximity and closure are both at work in reversible figures.
Reversible figures cause people to experience the phi phenomenon.
What becomes inverted in paintings or drawings that lead to ambiguous interpretations?
open processing and closed processing
figure and ground
sensation and perception
top and bottom
What does the Gestalt principle of proximity state?
Figure and ground can be ambiguous.
Objects nearer to each other are seen as forming a unit.
Bottom-up processing is more likely with close items.
Centre-surround cells that are closer fire more often.
Natalie looked out her apartment window at the traffic jam below. There was very little space between the front of one car and the rear of the next, but there were wide spaces between the side of one car and the side of another car. Which of the following Gestalt principles explains why Natalie saw several rows of cars, rather than a cluster of cars?
proximity
simplicity
similarity
closure
During the halftime show of the football game, the cheerleaders did a routine where they used red and blue pompoms. At one point, they held all of their pompoms in a pattern so that the blue ones formed the shape of the team’s logo. Which Gestalt principle is illustrated in this example?
Because of which Gestalt principle do we often perceive a series of dots on a printed form as a “solid” line?
constancy
symmetry
When Justin looked up at the night sky, he perceived the three stars that make up the belt in the constellation Orion as a line, rather than as individual stars. Which Gestalt principle does Justin’s perception of the night sky illustrate?
Christina was skiing down a hill when the trail broke into two separate trails. One trail turned off at sharp angle and looked to Christina like a new trail; the second trail appeared to be the same trail that she had been on. Which Gestalt principle is illustrated by this example?
continuity
commonality
You are looking at a book. What type of stimulus is the book, from a perceptual perspective?
sensory
distal
proximal
You interpret a trapezoid shape projected on your retina as a rectangular book. What have you just formulated?
psychophysical law
perceptual hypothesis
Gestalt principle
The disparity between the images on the left and right retinas is used for depth perception. If there is greater disparity for the left and right images of your coffee cup, and less disparity for the left and right images of your pen, then which of the following is true?
Your cup is closer to your right eye.
Your cup is closer to your left eye.
Your cup is closer than your pen.
Your pen is closer than your cup.
Stacia has lost all of her vision in her left eye. What will happen to Stacia’s perceptual abilities?
She will lose her ability to perceive colours accurately.
She will be more vulnerable to perceptual illusions that incorporate differences in relative line length.
She will no longer be able to utilize convergence as a perceptual cue.
She will be unable to perceive depth.
Which depth cue relies on information about the position of your eyes?
relative size
binocular disparity
accommodation
convergence
What increases as you keep focusing on your finger as it moves closer to your face?
depth perception
acuity
motion parallax
As Briana drove down the highway, the pickets of the fences moved past her in a blur, but the mountains in the distance didn’t appear to move at all. What was Briana experiencing?
binocular cue for depth called retinal disparity
monocular cue for depth called motion parallax
binocular cue for depth called convergence
pictorial cue for depth called texture gradient
Tran was painting a picture of a jet on a runway; however, in his painting, the sides of the runway are parallel to each other. His picture seems to lack depth. Which monocular depth cue has Tran failed to make use of?
linear perspective
height in plane
The sand at Zane’s feet appeared coarse, and he could see the individual grains of sand. However, the sand down the beach appeared to blur together. Which depth cue is most prominent in this example?
interposition
texture gradient
light and shadow
What is interposition?
a lens’s ability to change shape and focus light directly on the retina
the processing of auditory information at the cochlear level
an environmental depth cue in which closer objects overlap objects farther away
the relationship between bipolar and ganglion cells
Gabriella was looking for shelter from the sudden cloudburst, and at first she had difficulty judging whether the old barn or the farmhouse was closer. When she noticed that the barn partially obscured the corner of the house, she headed for the barn. Which depth cue did Gabriella use?
Images that occupy more space on your retina are seen as nearer, relative to images that occupy less space. What is this depth cue called?
retinal disparity
Ashley is trying to create a small model village on the mantle of her fireplace. She bought three-inch-high figures to put at the front of the mantle and smaller figures to put near the back that will appear to be very far away. What depth cue is Ashley using?
Which of the following is implied by the phenomenon of perceptual constancy?
Movement of an object can disrupt our ability to perceive it.
Two objects may be perceived as being the same even though they produce different retinal images.
We have an easier time remembering items that have remained constant, compared to objects that have changed.
Our ability to perceive changes in an object is inhibited if we have been exposed to that object for an extended period of time.
As I walk closer to my friend, she perceives that I am the same person even though the image on her retina changes as I move. Which of the following terms is used for this perceptual ability?
object permanence
perceptual constancy
binocular depth perception
Three-year-old Keeghan was flying in a plane for the first time. As the plane descended for its landing, Keeghan became very excited because he saw all the buildings and cars get bigger and bigger. He asked his father how big the houses would grow. Which aspect of perception FAILED in this example?
binocular depth cues
Which visual illusion accounts for the fact that the corner of a building thrust toward the viewer looks shorter than an inside corner thrust away from the viewer?
Ponzo illusion
illusion of relative size
Müller-Lyer illusion
horizontal-vertical illusion
In the Ames room, people are seen to get smaller or larger as they move about. What does this demonstrate about our perception?
The proximal stimulus is unrelated to the distal stimulus.
The actual distal stimuli are the primary determinants of perception.
Perception depends on the assumptions we make about stimuli.
Bottom-up processing controls most perception.
What is the moon illusion?
We perceive the moon to be perfectly round, when it is really elliptical.
We perceive the moon to be dimmer in some seasons than in others.
We perceive the moon to be larger on the horizon than overhead.
We think we see the moon when in fact it is not there.
Which of the following is true of optical illusions?
They are influenced by our experiences.
They are perceived only if your vision is compromised.
Once you understand the “trick,” then you won’t see the illusion anymore.
They are more pronounced in children.
