All Free Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. shadowing
• B. selective listening
• C. parallel processing
• D. None of these

Explanation: Selective listening is the ability to focus on one conversation or auditory stream while filtering out competing voices.

• A. perception is the same as sensation
• B. we learn to perceive the world through experience
• C. the whole is more than the sum of its parts
• D. sensation has no effect on perception

Explanation: Gestalt psychologists argued that perception organizes individual sensations into meaningful patterns, so the whole has properties that…

• A. rods
• B. cones
• C. bipolar cells
• D. feature detectors

Explanation: Cones are the retinal receptor cells responsible for colour vision, allowing discrimination among different wavelengths of light.

• A. sensory processes
• B. top-down processes
• C. bottom-up processes
• D. parallel processes

Explanation: Top-down processing begins with expectations, prior knowledge, and context, which guide the interpretation of incoming sensory…

• A. lens
• B. retina
• C. cornea
• D. iris

Explanation: The iris is the coloured muscular ring that contracts or relaxes to regulate the pupil's opening and control how much light enters the…

• A. binocular cue
• B. interposition
• C. perceptual adaptation
• D. organized whole

Explanation: Gestalt psychology emphasizes that perception organizes separate elements into a meaningful whole, or Gestalt.

• A. perceptual set
• B. selective viewing
• C. Stroop interference
• D. frame illusion

Explanation: A perceptual set is a readiness to perceive something in a particular way because of expectations, emotions, or situational context.

• A. vestibular sacs
• B. olfactory receptors
• C. bipolar cells
• D. basilar membrane

Explanation: Olfactory receptors detect airborne chemicals, including the odourants used to signal many household gas leaks.

• A. pupils
• B. corneas
• C. rods and cones
• D. bipolar cells

Explanation: Hair cells transduce sound vibrations in the cochlea, while rods and cones transduce light in the retina.

• A. smell
• B. touch
• C. kinesthesia
• D. pain

Explanation: Opponent-process theory explains colour vision through opposing colour pairs, whereas gate-control theory explains how spinal mechanisms…

• A. binocular disparity
• B. a frame of reference
• C. a linear perspective
• D. bottom-up processing

Explanation: The moon-cloud illusion shows that perceived movement depends on the surrounding visual frame of reference, making the stationary moon…

• A. optic nerve
• B. cornea
• C. retina
• D. iris

Explanation: The retina is the light-sensitive inner layer of the eye and contains rods for low-light vision and cones for colour and detailed vision.

• A. convergence
• B. continuity
• C. interposition
• D. closure

Explanation: Interposition, also called occlusion, occurs when one object partly blocks another, making the blocking object appear closer.

• A. ossicles
• B. eardrum
• C. basilar membrane
• D. tectorial membrane

Explanation: Sound waves first make the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, vibrate; the ossicles then transmit and amplify those vibrations to the inner…

• A. motion cues
• B. depth cues
• C. time cues
• D. all of the above

Explanation: For an unfamiliar object, perceived size depends strongly on depth information because retinal image size alone cannot distinguish a small…

• A. lens
• B. iris
• C. retina
• D. Coptic nerve

Explanation: The iris controls the amount of light entering the eye by constricting or dilating its central opening, the pupil.

• A. figure, ground
• B. good form, good continuation
• C. ground, background
• D. good form, circumscription

Explanation: The figure is the object that attracts attention, while the ground is the apparently continuous background behind it.

• A. more coarsely textured
• B. less hazy
• C. more distant
• D. closer

Explanation: If two objects are assumed to have the same actual size, the one forming the smaller retinal image is judged to be farther away.

• A. increases, decreases
• B. decreases, increases
• C. decreases, decreases
• D. a and b

Explanation: As an object moves farther away, its retinal image decreases, yet we continue to perceive its actual size as stable.

• A. adaptation
• B. accommodation
• C. continuity
• D. threshold

Explanation: Sensory adaptation is reduced sensitivity after prolonged exposure to an unchanging stimulus, so the bath feels less hot over time.