Experimental Psychology
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Experimental Psychology explores the scientific methods and principles underlying the study of human behavior and mental processes. This course emphasizes the design, execution, and analysis of psychological experiments, covering topics such as hypothesis formulation, operationalization of variables, experimental and control group procedures, and data interpretation. Students will engage with classic and contemporary research in areas like perception, cognition, learning, and motivation, gaining hands-on experience through laboratory exercises and projects. By developing critical thinking and methodological skills, students will learn to evaluate psychological research and apply experimental techniques to investigate questions about behavior and the mind.
Recommended Textbook
Sensation and Perception 9th Edition by E. Bruce Goldstein
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) When using the method of limits, the absolute threshold is determined by calculating
A) the stimulus intensity detected 50% of the time.
B) the stimulus intensity detected 75% of the time.
C) the stimulus intensity detected 100% of the time.
D) the average of the "cross-over" points.
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following is a reason for studying perception?
A) To become more aware of your own perceptual experiences.
B) To provide information that may help with a future career.
C) To apply perception to everyday problems, such as highway sign visibility.
D) All of these.
Answer: D
Q3) Cognitive influences affect the _______ level of analysis.
A) physiological
B) psychophysical
C) both physiological and psychophysical
D) neither physiological and psychophysical
Answer: C
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3
Chapter 2: The Beginnings of Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) Reading the eye chart in an optometrist's office is used to measure A) acuity.
B) sensitivity.
C) receptive fields.
D) creativity.
Answer: A
Q2) As stimulus intensity is increased, recording from a single neuron shows
A) the amplitude of the action potential increases.
B) the amplitude of the action potential decreases.
C) the amplitude of the action potential may increase or decrease, depending on the stimulus.
D) the rate of firing of the nerve fiber increases.
Answer: D
Q3) Cone spectral sensitivity is measured by having the observer
A) look up and blink.
B) look straight forward without blinking.
C) look directly into a light.
D) look to the side of a flashing light.
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Neural Processing and Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following proposed representational systems is the least likely to actually be in place in the human visual system?
A) Sparse coding
B) Specificity coding
C) Representation by a small number of neurons
D) Distributed coding
Answer: B
Q2) In the simultaneous contrast effect, gray squares of equal intensities are surrounding by either a dark background or a lighter background. The square on the dark background looks _______ than the square on the lighter background.
A) darker
B) lighter
C) the same as
D) more colorful
Answer: B
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5
Chapter 4: Cortical Organization
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Q1) Prosopagnosia is
A) the difficulty recognizing familiar faces.
B) due to damage to the parietal lobe.
C) due to damage to the MT cortex.
D) the inability to detect movement.
Q2) An area in the _______ called the ___________ is specialized to recognize faces.
A) temporal lobe; FFA
B) occipital lobe; RBC
C) parietal lobe; FFA
D) parietal lobe; area 4H
Q3) When looking at a scene, the different sections of the scene are processed by many different location columns. Through the use of all of the location columns, the entire scene can be perceived. This effect is referred to as
A) fielding.
B) orientation.
C) convergence.
D) tiling.
Q4) (a) Describe research that shows cortical magnification occurs in humans. (b) What is the connection between cortical magnification and acuity?
Q5) Describe how an object such as a tree is represented in the striate cortex.
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Chapter 5: Perceiving Objects and Scenes
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Q1) Computers are better than humans at perceiving objects because A) computers can process information faster than humans. B) computers have higher storage capacity than humans. C) computers can more easily determine the reasons for changes in lightness. D) none of these; humans are better than computers at object perception.
Q2) Border ownership means that when figure-ground segregation occurs, the border between the figure and background A) seems to change color.
B) is perceived to be associated with the background. C) is perceived to be associated with the figure. D) seems to disappear.
Q3) Corey looks at a flock of seagulls flying in one direction, when suddenly five of the seagulls start flying in another direction. He now perceives two groups of birds, because of the Gestalt principle of A) common fate.
B) uniform connectedness. C) synchrony.
D) Pragnanz.
Q4) Discuss three reasons why object perception is difficult for computer vision.
Q5) Name and describe five "global image features".
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Visual Attention
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Sample Questions
Q1) R.M., a patient with Balint's syndrome, reported illusory conjunctions
A) only if the two stimuli were presented for less than 1 second.
B) only if the two stimuli were presented for less than 2 seconds.
C) if he was told to attend only to the first stimulus.
D) even if he was presented the two stimuli for 10 seconds.
Q2) When Levin and Simons alerted participants that changes in "body position or clothing" would occur in a video of a conversation between two women, approximately ___ % of the participants noticed the changes.
A) 90
B) 75
C) 50
D) 20
Q3) Which of the following is true regarding task-irrelevant stimuli?
A) They are least distracting when you are engaged in a difficult task.
B) They are least distracting when you are engaged in an easy task.
C) They are most likely to distract you when workload is high.
D) They are least likely to distract you when perceptual load is low.
Q4) (a) Define inattentional blindness.
(b) Describe the method and results of Simons and Chabris (1999) research on inattentional blindness.
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Chapter 7: Taking Action
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Sample Questions
Q1) In Janzen and vanTurennout's study of using landmarks as "decision points" in a navigating through a museum, participants
A) had greater brain activation in the MST when they saw "non-decision" points than when they saw "decision points."
B) had lower recognition scores for landmarks than non-landmarks.
C) had greater brain activation in the parahippocampal gyrus for "decision points" than "non-decision points."
D) recognized "decision points" better when cells in their temporal cortex were microstimulated.
Q2) In monkey hand grip experiments, a monkey briefly sees an object, the lights go out, then the monkey is prompted to reach for the object. When the monkey reaches for the object
A) he often will use the wrong grip because he is unable to see the object in the dark.
B) he will use the correct grip only if his attention is redirected to the object.
C) neurons that respond to the specific grip being used will be activated.
D) neurons may be preferentially activated as a result of just seeing the object.
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Chapter 8: Perceiving Motion
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Sample Questions
Q1) A monkey with an intact MT cortex can detect the direction of moving dots when coherence is ____%, while a monkey that has had the MT cortex lesioned detects the direction of the moving dots when coherence is _____%.
A) 1-2; 10-20
B) 10-20; 1-2
C) 1-2; 1-2
Q2) The perceptual grouping of lights in biological motion has been shown physiologically to occur in the _______ area of the cortex.
A) superior temporal sulcus
B) lateral geniculate
C) premotor
D) anterior intraparietal
Q3) (a) Describe the major components and principle of the Corollary Discharge Theory. (b) Describe two behavioral demonstrations that support the Corollary Discharge Theory and specify how the theory predicts the result.
Q4) Describe the case of the woman with akinetopsia. What does this case tell us about the importance of motion perception?
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Chapter 9: Perceiving Color
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Sample Questions
Q1) When light is mixed it is referred to as _______
A) an electromagnetic color mixture.
B) an additive color mixture.
C) a subtractive color mixture.
D) a transitive color mixture.
Q2) The maximum absorption for the long-wavelength cone pigment is at ____ nm.
A) 419
B) 531
C) 558
D) 747
Q3) A monochromat experiences
A) black, white, and grays.
B) black, grays, and greens.
C) different shades of red.
D) different shades of blue.
Q4) When paint is mixed it is referred to as _______
A) a viscous color mixture.
B) an additive color mixture.
C) a subtractive color mixture.
D) a pigmentive color mixture.
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Chapter 10: Perceiving Depth and Size
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Sample Questions
Q1) The anecdote in the book of the pilot misjudging the size of an object on the ground in whiteout conditions is most closely related to which research study?
A) Holway and Boring's (1941) "hallway" study
B) Blake and Hirsch's (1975) "selective rearing of kittens" study
C) Julesz's (1971) "random-dot stereogram" study
D) DeLucia and Hochberg's (1985) "dumbbell Muller-Lyer" study
Q2) Merrill watches his finger with both eyes as he brings it closer to his nose. As the finger gets closer, his eyes move inward and he feels his eye muscles working. Which depth cue is associated with the feeling he is getting from his eye muscles?
A) accommodation
B) convergence
C) both accommodation and convergence
D) atmospheric perspective
Q3) Describe the differences in how depth is perceived in cats, insects, and bats.
Q4) Discuss research that supports the hypothesis that a person's action in the environment affects depth perception.
Q5) Name, define, and give an example (in words and/or drawings) of six pictorial depth cues.
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Chapter 11: Hearing
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Sample Questions
Q1) _________ is the property of increasing pitch that accompanies increases in the tone's frequency.
A) Tone height
B) Tone chroma
C) Tone octave
D) Equal tonality
Q2) Research supports that an infant's ability to recognize the mother's voice is due to A) genetics.
B) the mother's diet during pregnancy.
C) hearing the mother talk while in the womb.
D) a well-developed auditory cortex at birth.
Q3) DeCasper and Fifer used ______________ as the dependent variable to test if Two-day-old infants could identify the sound of the mother's voice.
A) eye movements
B) head tilts
C) pattern of nipple sucking
D) eye blinks
Q4) Discuss the structures and functions of the middle ear.
Q5) Describe how the actions of the cochlea results in transduction.
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Chapter 12: Auditory Localization and Organization
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Q1) Describe the method, results, and implications of the Hofmann et al. research on the role of spectral cues for localization.
Q2) Patient J.G. has temporal lobe damage. While this has not affected his ability to locate sounds, he has difficulty recognizing sounds. This case provides evidence for A) the Jeffress model of auditory localization.
B) what and where pathways in audition.
C) the existence of separate subcortical structures.
D) how and where pathways in audition.
Q3) Vision: figure-ground segregation :: Audition: ________________.
A) the ecological approach
B) intimacy
C) auditiory scene analysis
D) Fourier analysis
Q4) Recanzone (2000) examined localization in A1 and the auditory belt area in monkeys. Results indicated that
A) the belt area is not involved in localization.
B) A1 provides the most specific localization information.
C) localization coded the same throughout the auditory cortex.
D) the belt area provides more specific localization then A1.
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Chapter 13: Speech Perception
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss two sources of the variability problem. Provide examples for each.
Q2) Palmeri et al. (1993) had participants listen to a word list that was spoken by (1) the same speaker, or (2) different speakers. In a subsequent recognition memory test, participants were
A) more accurate when one speaker said all of the words.
B) more accurate when different speakers said the words.
C) faster in responding when different speakers said the words.
D) the same in accuracy in both conditions.
Q3) Top-down processing can help
A) segment acoustic signals.
B) recognize phonemes.
C) recognize words.
D) all of these.
Q4) Spectrograms of sentences show
A) that clear pauses occur between each spoken word.
B) that formant transitions account for the breaks between words.
C) no clear pauses or breaks between words.
D) segmentation of words is easily accomplished by listeners in any context.
Q5) Discuss the methods and results of two studies of the phonemic restoration effect.
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Chapter 14: The Cutaneous Senses
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Q1) The demonstration in which you perceived the texture of a surface using your pen or another "tool" showed
A) it is difficult to determine texture without directly touching the surface.
B) passive touch is more important than active touch in texture perception.
C) texture gradients are more important for vision than cutaneous senses.
D) that you can use vibrations to perceive the texture of the surface.
Q2) The phrase "multimodal nature of pain" refers to
A) pain that occurs from too much heat or too much cold.
B) pain that occurs from sounds that are too loud and skin stimulation that is too intense.
C) sensory and emotional components of pain.
D) real and imagined sources of pain.
Q3) The Meissner corpuscle is associated with A) sensing vibrations.
B) sensing fine texture.
C) controlling handgrip.
D) sensing fine details.
Q4) Discuss research by Osborn and Derbyshire (2010) and Singer et al. (2004) that demonstrate how social situations can affect pain perception.
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Chapter 15: The Chemical Senses
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Sample Questions
Q1) Uchida's optical imaging research showed that larger carbon chains activate areas on the olfactory bulb that are
A) more centrally located.
B) located more to the right.
C) located more to the left.
D) randomly distributed across the glomeruli.
Q2) The relationship between an odorant's smell and its recognition profile is similar to ___________ in vision.
A) stereopsis.
B) binocular cell response.
C) trichromatic coding for color.
D) corollary discharge theory.
Q3) The central part of the tongue has no taste sensations because that part consists primarily of _______ papillae which do not contain taste buds.
A) filiform
B) fungiform
C) foliate
D) circumvillate
Q4) Compare three different methods for studying the physiology of olfaction.
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