11.A psychologist Dr. Shonda Romblay is conducting an experiment to determine how different intensities of light affect the sensations these stimuli produce. The field of study she is exploring is called
A)psychomotor processing.
B)parapsychology.
C)psychophysics.
D)psychochemistry.
E)psychological adaptation.
12.The specialized cells in sense organs that detect external stimuli are called
A)dichromats.
B)sensory neurons.
C)bipolar cells.
D)ganglion cells.
E)sensory receptors.
13.Dr. Dawson’s research program is concerned with how a person’s experience changes as the intensity of a sound is increased. Dawson is studying
A)psychophysics.
B)subliminal perception.
C)perceptual constancy.
D)extrasensory perception.
E)parapsychology.
14.The smallest amount of a stimulus that a person can reliably detect is called
A)absolute threshold.
B)difference threshold.
C)just-noticeable difference.
D)perceptual constancy.
E)Weber’s constant.
15.Regarding the absolute and difference thresholds, which of the following statements is FALSE?
A)The amount a stimulus must change to detect a difference is given by a constant proportion of the original stimulus.
B)Just-noticeable difference is another term for difference threshold.
C)People differ in their absolute thresholds.
D)People are more sensitive to changes in pitch than to changes in volume.
E)The difference threshold is the same for each of the senses.
16.Which of the following absolute thresholds for taste is CORRECT?
A)Detecting a gram of salt dissolved in five gallons of water
B)Detecting a difference in tastes between two spots on the tongue, one-eighth of an inch apart
C)Detecting one teaspoon of sugar dissolved in two gallons of water
D)Detecting a teaspoon of vinegar mixed in with two gallons of water
E)Detecting the sweetness of a fruit while blindfolded
17.The minimal difference between two stimuli that people can reliably detect is the
A)absolute threshold.
B)difference threshold.
C)perceptual threshold.
D)sensitivity threshold.
E)Weber’s constant.
18.In the study of sensory system functioning, ______ is to absolute threshold as ______ is to difference threshold.
A)Gustav Fechner; Ernst Weber
B)Ernst Weber; Gustav Fechner
C)Wilhelm Wundt; Ernst Weber
D)Max Wertheimer; Thomas Young
E)Gustav Fechner; Wilhelm Wundt
19.Weber’s law suggests that
A)absolute threshold measurements underestimate true perceptual sensitivity.
B)difference thresholds are a constant proportion of the original stimulus.
C)difference thresholds are a constant quantity.
D)difference thresholds decrease as stimuli increase.
E)difference thresholds increase as stimuli decrease.
20.Difference thresholds are determined by a constant fraction of the magnitude of the original stimulus. This is the premise of
A)Weber’s law.
B)selective attention theory.
C)Gestalt laws of perceptual organization.
D)signal-detection theory.
E)the volley principle.
