AP Psychology Modules 20 & 21 Sample Quiz

Mrs. Schultz's lack of perception of her husband's words despite listening to the news on the radio suggests selective attention. Selective attention refers to the ability to focus on a specific stimulus or task while filtering out irrelevant information. In this case, Mrs. Schultz's attention was selectively focused on the news, causing her to not perceive her husband's words.

Jerry's constant focus on his watch and failure to notice the robbery happening right in front of him suggests that he suffered from inattentional blindness. Inattentional blindness refers to the phenomenon where individuals fail to perceive unexpected stimuli or events because their attention is focused on something else. In this case, Jerry's attention was fixated on checking the time, causing him to be unaware of the robbery taking place.

The just-noticeable difference (JND) refers to the smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected by a person. In this question, it is given that the JND for a 10-ounce weight is 1 ounce. This means that a person can perceive a difference of 1 ounce when comparing two weights that are 10 ounces apart. To find the noticeable difference for an 80-ounce weight, we can use the same ratio. Since the weight has increased by a factor of 8 (80 divided by 10), the noticeable difference would also increase by a factor of 8. Therefore, the noticeable difference for an 80-ounce weight would be 8 ounces.

Sensory adaptation refers to the phenomenon where our sensory receptors become less responsive to constant or unchanging stimuli over time. In this scenario, the prolonged exposure to high-volume music causes our auditory receptors to adapt and become less sensitive to the loudness of the music. As a result, we fail to realize how loudly the music is blasting. This is a clear example of sensory adaptation.

Transduction is the process by which sensory organs convert physical stimuli, such as sound waves, into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain. In this case, when the local fire department sounds the whistle, the sound waves from the siren are detected by the ears and converted into neural impulses, allowing us to perceive and interpret the sound. Therefore, transduction is the correct answer as it accurately describes the process of converting sound waves into neural impulses.

A stereotype is most similar to a perceptual set because both involve preconceived notions or expectations that can influence how we perceive and interpret information. Just as a perceptual set can cause us to selectively attend to certain stimuli based on our expectations, stereotypes can cause us to interpret the behaviors of individuals from a specific racial or ethnic group based on our preconceived notions about that group. Both concepts involve a cognitive bias that can shape our perception and interpretation of the world around us.

The absolute threshold refers to the minimum level of stimulation that is required for a person to detect a particular stimulus. In this case, Manuel smelled the skunk before his parents did, indicating that his absolute threshold for skunk odor is lower than that of his parents. This means that Manuel is more sensitive to the smell of skunk and requires a lower level of stimulation to detect it compared to his parents.

Bottom-up processing refers to the perceptional process in which the brain constructs a whole image or perception from individual elements or features. In the given scenario, the individual is carefully examining each element in the abstract art to try and form an image. This process aligns with bottom-up processing as it involves analyzing the individual elements to create a complete perception of the hidden representational image.