Top-down processing is perception that is guided by a person's knowledge, expectations and past experience.
Correct Answer
True
True. Top-down processing is goal-directed and draws on what a person already knows, as when you search for your keys only in places they are likely to be. It contrasts with bottom-up processing, which is driven by the incoming sensory input.
Category: Attention and Processing
Question 2
A sound at 0 decibels is at the threshold of pain.
Correct Answer
False
False. Zero decibels is the threshold of hearing, the faintest sound a typical person can detect. The pain threshold is around 130 decibels, the level of a jet taking off nearby.
Category: Light and Sound Waves
Question 3
The loudness of a sound is measured in decibels, a logarithmic unit.
Correct Answer
True
True. Loudness depends on the amplitude of a sound wave and is measured in decibels. Because the scale is logarithmic, each step up represents a large increase in sound intensity.
Category: Light and Sound Waves
Question 4
Light waves with longer wavelengths have higher frequencies.
Correct Answer
False
False. Wavelength and frequency are inversely related, so longer wavelengths have lower frequencies and shorter wavelengths have higher frequencies.
Category: Light and Sound Waves
Question 5
Within the visible spectrum, violet light has the longest wavelengths.
Correct Answer
False
False. Red light has the longest wavelengths in the visible spectrum, while blue and violet have the shortest. The human visible spectrum runs from roughly 380 to 740 nanometers.
Category: Light and Sound Waves
Question 6
Low-frequency sound waves are heard as high-pitched sounds.
Correct Answer
False
False. Pitch follows frequency, so low-frequency sounds are heard as low in pitch and high-frequency sounds as high in pitch.
Category: Light and Sound Waves
Question 7
The lens of the eye changes shape to focus on objects that are near or far away.
Correct Answer
True
True. After the cornea does the first focusing, the lens adjusts its shape to fine-tune focus for objects at different distances, so the image lands on the retina.
Category: Vision
Question 8
The iris is the transparent outer covering of the eye that first bends incoming light.
Correct Answer
False
False. The cornea is the transparent outer covering that first focuses incoming light. The iris is the colored part of the eye, whose muscles control the size of the pupil.
Category: Vision
Question 9
Visual information from the right visual field is processed by the left side of the brain.
Correct Answer
True
True. At the optic chiasm, fibers from the optic nerves partly cross, so input from the right visual field travels to the left hemisphere and input from the left visual field travels to the right hemisphere.
Category: Vision
Question 10
The trichromatic theory proposes three types of cones, each most sensitive to a different range of wavelengths.
Correct Answer
True
True. The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory holds that cones most sensitive to red, green and blue light combine their signals to produce all the colors we see. It describes color coding at the level of the retina.
Category: Vision
Question 11
Binocular disparity is a depth cue that can be used with only one eye open.
Correct Answer
False
False. Binocular disparity requires both eyes, because it is the slight difference between the views the two eyes receive. Cues that work with one eye, such as linear perspective and interposition, are called monocular cues.
Category: Vision
Question 12
Red-green color blindness is more common in females than in males.
Correct Answer
False
False. Red-green color deficiency is an X-linked trait, so it is far more common in males, who have only one X chromosome. Females usually need the gene on both X chromosomes to show the condition.
Category: Vision
Question 13
Hair cells on the basilar membrane are the receptor cells for hearing.
Correct Answer
True
True. Vibrations in the cochlear fluid move the basilar membrane, bending its hair cells, which then generate neural impulses that travel along the auditory nerve to the brain.
Category: Hearing
Question 14
Cochlear implants work by directly stimulating the auditory nerve.
Correct Answer
True
True. A cochlear implant uses a microphone, a speech processor and an array of electrodes to stimulate the auditory nerve directly, bypassing damaged hair cells. It can be an option for some people with sensorineural hearing loss.
Category: Hearing
Question 15
The tympanic membrane is located in the inner ear.
Correct Answer
False
False. The tympanic membrane, or eardrum, belongs to the outer ear and sits at the end of the auditory canal, where it passes vibrations to the ossicles of the middle ear. The inner ear holds the cochlea and the semicircular canals.
Category: Hearing
Question 16
Umami is the taste associated with monosodium glutamate.
Correct Answer
True
True. Umami is a savory taste added to the traditional four of sweet, salty, sour and bitter, and it is linked to glutamate, as in monosodium glutamate.
Category: Other Senses
Question 17
The receptor cells for smell are located in the taste buds of the tongue.
Correct Answer
False
False. Olfactory receptor cells sit in a mucous membrane at the top of the nasal cavity, and their signals go to the olfactory bulb. Taste buds on the tongue hold receptors for taste.
Category: Other Senses
Question 18
Kinesthesia is the perception of the body's movement through space.
Correct Answer
True
True. Kinesthesia relies on receptors in muscles, joints, skin and tendons that respond to stretch and tension. It is closely related to proprioception, the perception of body position.
Category: Other Senses
Question 19
Inflammatory pain arises from damaged neurons that send exaggerated pain signals.
Correct Answer
False
False. Pain that comes from damaged neurons sending exaggerated signals is neuropathic pain. Inflammatory pain is a signal that tissue has been damaged.
Category: Other Senses
Question 20
The Gestalt principle of closure leads people to see an incomplete shape, such as a circle with gaps, as a whole object.
Correct Answer
True
True. Closure is the tendency to organize parts into complete objects, so a broken outline is still seen as a circle or square. It is one of the Gestalt grouping principles, along with proximity, similarity and continuity.
Category: Gestalt Principles