Study Questions Number 12
Chapter 6. Sensation and perception (180-203)
Student Name _____________________
Date: 10-6-04
Introduction to Psychology 101
Hal S. Bertilson, Ph.D.
1. Be able to differentiate between sensation and perception. Why are sensation and perception the foundation to learning? (181-182)
2. What is the doctrine of specific nerve energies? When you close your right eye, press lightly on the right side of the lid, and "see" a flash of light seemingly coming from the left you can see touch or pressure. How does the doctrine of specific nerve energies explain this experiment? (183-184)
3. How do functional codes provide us with experiences within a particular sense. Give an example of experiences within a particular sense. (184)
4. How does signal-detection theory take into account that some people are habitual yeasayers and some people are habitual naysayers? Describe signal-detection theory. What four kinds of responses are possible? How does this permit a researcher in separating the decision process from the sensory process? (186-187)
5. What is sensory adaptation? Give an example. (187)
6. Define selective attention. What is its purpose? (189)
7. What physical characteristics evoke the psychological characteristics of hue, brightness, and saturation? (190)
8. Be able to differentiate characteristics and sensitivity of rods and cones. (192)
9. Why do you think that people look at dim objects through a telescope from the corner of your eye? (192)
10. What causes the blind spot? Why are we normally unaware of the blind spot? (192)
11. What various types of feature detectors have been found? What is the brains job? (194-195)
12. Trace the flow of visual information from electromagnetic energy to visual cortex.(190-195)
13. What are the three basic types of cones? (195)
14. How does the opponent-process work? To what do opponent-process cells respond? What accounts for negative afterimages? (195-196)
15. What does gestalt mean? What was the motto of Gestalt psychologists? What are the Gestalt principles? (196-199)
16. How do we perceive depth and distance? (199)
17. What are the five perceptual constancies? How do we perceive visual constancies? (199-201)