Superman's eyes used ________, while his brain used ________.

bottom-up processing; top-down processing

Sensation is to ________ as perception is to ________.

detecting a stimulus; recognizing a stimulus

Given normal sensory ability, a person standing atop a mountain on a dark, clear night can see a candle flame atop a mountain 30 miles away. This is a description of vision's:

absolute threshold.

Which of the following is true?

The absolute threshold for any stimulus varies somewhat.

Concerning the evidence for subliminal stimulation, which of the following is the best answer? (The brain processes some information without our awareness.
Stimuli too weak to cross our thresholds for awareness may trigger a response in our sense receptors. Because the "absolute" threshold is a statistical average, we are able to detect weaker stimuli some of the time.)

All are true.

If you can just notice the difference between 10- and 11-pound weights, which of the following weights could you differentiate from a 100-pound weight?

110-pound weight

In shopping for a new stereo, you discover that you cannot differentiate between the sounds of models X and Y. The difference between X and Y is below your:

difference threshold.

Weber's law states that:

the jnd for any stimulus is a constant proportion.

A decrease in sensory responsiveness accompanying an unchanging stimulus is called:

sensory adaptation.

Which of the following is an example of sensory adaptation?

finding the cold water of a swimming pool warmer after you have been in it for a while

When admiring the texture of a piece of fabric, Calvin usually runs his fingertips over the cloth's surface. He does this because:

if the cloth were held motionless, sensory adaptation to its feel would quickly occur.

The process by which sensory information is converted into neural energy is:

transduction.

Wavelength is to ________ as ________ is to brightness.

hue; intensity

One light may appear reddish and another greenish if they differ in:

wavelength.

The size of the pupil is controlled by the:

iris.

Which of the following is the correct order of the structures through which light passes after entering the eye?

cornea, pupil, lens, retina

The process by which the lens changes its curvature is:

accommodation.

Nearsightedness is a condition in which the:

image falls in front of the retina.

In comparing the human eye to a camera, the film would be analogous to the eye's:

retina.

The transduction of light energy into nerve impulses takes place in the:

retina.

One reason that your ability to detect fine visual details is greatest when scenes are focused on the fovea of your retina is that:

many cones, which are clustered in the fovea, have individual bipolar cells to relay their information to the cortex.

Which of the following is not true of cones? (Cones have a higher absolute threshold for brightness than rods. Cones are highly concentrated in the foveal region of the retina. Cones enable color vision.)

All of the above are true.

In order to maximize your sensitivity to fine visual detail you should:

stare directly at the object.

Assuming that the visual systems of humans and other mammals function similarly, you would expect that the retina of a nocturnal mammal (one active only at night) would contain:

mostly rods.

As the football game continued into the night, LeVar noticed that he was having difficulty distinguishing the colors of the players' uniforms. This is because the ________, which enable color vision, have a ________ absolute threshold for brightness than the available light intensity.

cones; higher

The receptor of the eye that functions best in dim light is the:

rod.

Hubel and Wiesel discovered feature detectors in the visual:

cortex.

The brain breaks vision into separate dimensions such as color, depth, movement, and form, and works on each aspect simultaneously. This is called:

parallel processing.

Which of the following is the most accurate description of how we process color?

Color processing occurs in two stages: (1) a three-color system in the retina and (2) opponent-process cells en route to the visual cortex.

Most color-deficient people will probably:

lack functioning red- or green-sensitive cones.

The Young-Helmholtz theory proposes that:

there are three different types of color-sensitive cones.

According to the opponent-process theory:

neurons involved in color vision are stimulated by one color's wavelength and inhibited by another's.

In the opponent-process theory, the three pairs of processes are:

red-green, blue-yellow, black-white.

After staring at a very intense red stimulus for a few minutes, Carrie shifted her gaze to a beige wall and "saw" the color ________. Carrie's experience provides support for the ________ theory.

green; opponent-process

I am a cell in the thalamus that is excited by red and inhibited by green. I am a(n):

opponent-process cell.

Which of the following explains why a rose appears equally red in bright and dim light?

color constancy

Frequency is to pitch as ________ is to ________.

amplitude; loudness

Dr. Frankenstein has forgotten to give his monster an important part; as a result, the monster cannot transduce sound. Dr. Frankenstein omitted the:

basilar membrane.

Which of the following correctly lists the order of structures through which sound travels after entering the ear?

auditory canal, eardrum, middle ear, cochlea

The inner ear contains receptors for:

audition and the vestibular sense.

The place theory of pitch perception cannot account for how we hear:

low-pitched sounds.

Which of the following is the most accurate explanation of how we discriminate pitch?

For very high frequencies, pitch is coded according to place of vibration on the basilar membrane; for lower pitches, the rate of neural activity in the auditory nerve matches the sound's frequency.

The frequency theory of hearing is better than place theory at explaining our sensation of:

the lowest pitches.

Seventy-five-year-old Claude has difficulty hearing high-pitched sounds. Most likely his hearing problem involves:

the hair cells of his inner ear.

The hearing losses that occur with age are especially pronounced for:

high-pitched sounds.

Nerve deafness is caused by:

damage to the cochlea.

Of the four distinct skin senses, the only one that has definable receptors is:

pressure.

Our experience of pain when we are injured depends on:

our physiology, experiences and attention, and our surrounding culture.

How does pain differ from other senses? (It is influenced by both physical and psychological phenomena. It has no single stimulus. It has no special receptors.)

All of the above are true.

According to the gate-control theory, a way to alleviate chronic pain would be to stimulate the ________ nerve fibers that ________ the spinal gate.

large; close

The phantom limb sensation indicates that:

pain involves the brain's interpretation of neural activity.

While competing in the Olympic trials, marathoner Kirsten O'Brien suffered a stress fracture in her left leg. That she did not experience significant pain until the race was over is probably attributable to the fact that during the race:

the pain gate in her spinal cord was closed by information coming from her brain.

Which of the following is not one of the basic tastes?

bland

Elderly Mrs. Martinez finds that she must spice her food heavily or she cannot taste it. Unfortunately, her son often finds her cooking inedible because it is so spicy. What is the likely explanation for their taste differences?

Being elderly, Mrs. Martinez probably has fewer taste buds than her son.

The receptors for taste are located in the:

taste buds.

Tamiko hates the bitter taste of her cough syrup. Which of the following would she find most helpful in minimizing the syrup's bad taste?

holding her nose while taking the cough syrup

The principle that one sense may influence another is:

sensory interaction.

Which of the following is an example of sensory interaction? (Finding that despite its delicious aroma, a weird-looking meal tastes awful, finding that food tastes bland when you have a bad cold, finding it difficult to maintain your balance when you have an ear infection)

All of the above are examples.

Kinesthesis involves:

information from the muscles, tendons, and joints.

What enables you to feel yourself wiggling your toes even with your eyes closed?

sense of kinesthesis