Free Cognitive Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. 1 & 2
• B. 2 & 3
• C. 1 & 3
• D. 4

Explanation: Statements 2 and 3 are correct: visual searches differ in behavioural demands and neural involvement, and the right parietal region has…

• A. People can learn different search strategies, but it does not improve performance over all or on tasks where a target is present
• B. People cannot shift from serial to parallel processing when targets are present
• C. People can learn different search strategies and training does improve performance overall
• D. People can learn different search strategies but it does not improve performance over all or on tasks where a target is absent

Explanation: Training can teach people to adopt different search strategies, although its benefits are limited and are especially weak for…

• A. Within the cortex, the general flow of local information runs vertically
• B. Within the cortex, information flows to cells in other layers above and below the activated cells
• C. Hubel and Wiesel (19613) discovered that all cortical neurons respond best the spots of light
• D. All of the above

Explanation: Hubel and Wiesel showed that cortical neurons respond selectively to features such as lines, edges, and orientations, not that all neurons…

• A. Perceptual set
• B. Vernier acuity
• C. Perceptual template
• D. Vertical organization

Explanation: Vernier acuity is the ability to detect very small misalignments between lines or objects.

• A. Visual system relies on other people's Knowledge of objects to identify ambiguous stimuli
• B. Visual information about protruding objects is impossible to process
• C. Visual system relies on assumptions about the physical world to identify ambiguous stimuli
• D. Both (a) and (c)

Explanation: Because sensory cues can support more than one interpretation, the visual system applies assumptions about how objects normally exist in…

• A. Cells are vertically organized in columns
• B. Cells are horizontally organized in straight lines
• C. Cells are organized around the optic nerve
• D. Cells are vertically organized by volume

Explanation: Cortical neurons are arranged in vertical columns, with cells in each column sharing similar response properties and working together to…

• A. How we perceive individual features of objects when brain is impaired
• B. How we perceive multiple colours to perceive a whole colour
• C. How we integrate touch and vision
• D. How we integrate individual features of objects to perceive a whole object

Explanation: Feature integration theory explains how separate features such as colour, shape and orientation are combined to form the perception of a…

• A. The target/distractor difference is not based on a single feature, but on conjunctions of features
• B. Search time for the target is not constant, but instead rises with the number of distractors
• C. The observer apparently searches through the display serially, scanning each term or small group of items) successively (serial search)
• D. All of the above

Explanation: A conjunction search requires combining two or more features, so the target usually cannot be detected immediately and search time…

• A. Recurrent processing model
• B. Serial processing model
• C. Parallel processing model
• D. Selective adaptation model

Explanation: The recurrent processing model emphasizes feedback loops between higher-level brain areas and earlier sensory-processing stages.

• A. Neurons in V1 adapt to visual stimulation, so their response to a stimulus increases over time with repeated presentation
• B. The localized receptive fields and binocular characteristics of V1 neurons correlate very well with the perceptual characteristics of perceptual after-effects
• C. The neurons in area V1 are prime candidates for the mechanisms that underlie visual after-effects in people
• D. Images of complex objects trees; houses, people are initially analyzed by mechanisms that respond to their local physical characteristics and have no connection with the identity of the objects themselves

Explanation: Neural adaptation normally reduces a neuron's response after prolonged or repeated stimulation, rather than increasing it.

• A. After running your fingers over fine sandpaper, medium sandpaper feels coarser (and vice versa)
• B. After listening to a high tone for a while, a medium auditory tone appears higher
• C. Holding your hand under running cold (or hot) water before testing the temperature of baby's bath water will lead you to misperceive how comfortable the water will be for the baby
• D. After eating chocolate, orange juice tastes more tart

Explanation: After adapting to a high tone, a medium tone is generally perceived as lower, not higher, because of auditory pitch adaptation.

• A. A system of channels can only signal preferred orientation of any single channel
• B. Perceptual information is likely to be merged via a process that combines the activities across all channels
• C. As part of the process of synthesis, channel activities are likely to be weighted according to the level of activity in each channel
• D. The merging process may find the 'center of gravity' of the distribution of activity

Explanation: A single channel signals its preferred orientation, but a whole channel system can represent a distribution of orientations through the…

• A. 1 & 3
• B. 2 & 3
• C. 3 & 4
• D. 2 & 4

Explanation: In the tilt illusion, surrounding orientation can make a vertical pattern appear tilted away from the surround, and colour contrast shifts…

• A. The serial processing model is now known to be inadequate, or at least incomplete
• B. The serial model has been replaced, at or at least modified, firstly by the parallel processing model and then, most recently, by the recurrent processing model
• C. According to the parallel processing model, analysis of different stimulus attributes, such as identity and location, proceeds simultaneously along different pathways, even from the earliest stages
• D. According to the parallel processing model, the fact that there are cones and rods in the retina is evidence for multiple mechanisms that extract information in series from the retinal image

Explanation: Rods and cones provide different parallel mechanisms for analysing retinal information, not mechanisms that extract information in series.

• A. Respond to specific stimulus patterns
• B. Respond to the whole visual field
• C. Respond primarily to stationary objects
• D. Develop only after birth

Explanation: Many sensory neural circuits are tuned to particular patterns or features, such as edges, movement or specific orientations.

• A. Sight cells
• B. Second stage sensors
• C. Feature detectors
• D. Vision neurons

Explanation: Feature detectors are specialised neurons that respond to basic visual properties such as lines, angles, shading and movement.

• A. Relative size
• B. Retinal disparity
• C. Linear perspective
• D. Texture gradient

Explanation: Retinal disparity is a binocular cue because the brain compares the slightly different images received by the two eyes.

• A. Expands; constricts
• B. Constricts; expands
• C. Focuses; constricts
• D. Constricts; focuses

Explanation: In bright light, the iris contracts and makes the pupil smaller, limiting the light that reaches the retina.

• A. Locate in image
• B. Focus an image on the retina
• C. Combine the location and projection on the blind spot
• D. Project an image on the cornea

Explanation: The lens changes shape to focus incoming light precisely on the retina, producing a clear image.

• A. Cognition
• B. Perception
• C. Adaptation
• D. Sensation

Explanation: Sensation is the detection of physical information by sensory receptors, such as light by the eyes or pressure by the skin.