PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM 1 2025
QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS
Perception - the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us
to recognize meaningful objects and events
Are there really 5 senses? - No, there are from 7-12 different senses
neural transduction - receptors, transduction and neural response
Sensation - activation of sensory receptors due to a stimulus in the environment (physical
stimulus---->neural signal)
Phenomenology - internal experience that everyone has of the external world around
them
Aristotle and the Five senses - Aristotle said there were five senses - smell, sight, touch,
taste, and hearing - but science suggests there are many more than that
Thomas Young - showed that light, like waves, could be diffracted, color recptors
Johannes Mueller - doctrine of specific nerve energies (distinct senses)
Von Helmholtz - perception is constructed from both senses and cognitive processes,
unconscious inference, three basic color receptors
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
, PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
Hering - colors are perceived through 2 pairs of opposing colors (four primary colors, not
three)
Weber's Law - the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion
of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference
Fechner - father of psychophysics, the study of the relation between physical stimuli and
the perception they elicit
Fechner's Law - sensation is a logarithmic function of physical intensity
Gestalt Psychology - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Law of Proximity (Gestalt) - elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit
Law of Common Fate (Gestalt) - visual elements that move in the same speed and/or
direction are parts of a single stimulus
law of closure (gestalt) - we tend to see complete figures even when part of the
information is missing
Law of Similarity (Gestalt) - objects that are similar tend to be grouped together
Law of Good Continuation (Gestalt) - elements that appear to follow the same pathway
tend to be grouped together
Gibson and Direct Perception - sensation is perception, what you see is what you get
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM 1 2025
QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS
Perception - the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us
to recognize meaningful objects and events
Are there really 5 senses? - No, there are from 7-12 different senses
neural transduction - receptors, transduction and neural response
Sensation - activation of sensory receptors due to a stimulus in the environment (physical
stimulus---->neural signal)
Phenomenology - internal experience that everyone has of the external world around
them
Aristotle and the Five senses - Aristotle said there were five senses - smell, sight, touch,
taste, and hearing - but science suggests there are many more than that
Thomas Young - showed that light, like waves, could be diffracted, color recptors
Johannes Mueller - doctrine of specific nerve energies (distinct senses)
Von Helmholtz - perception is constructed from both senses and cognitive processes,
unconscious inference, three basic color receptors
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
, PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
Hering - colors are perceived through 2 pairs of opposing colors (four primary colors, not
three)
Weber's Law - the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion
of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference
Fechner - father of psychophysics, the study of the relation between physical stimuli and
the perception they elicit
Fechner's Law - sensation is a logarithmic function of physical intensity
Gestalt Psychology - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Law of Proximity (Gestalt) - elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit
Law of Common Fate (Gestalt) - visual elements that move in the same speed and/or
direction are parts of a single stimulus
law of closure (gestalt) - we tend to see complete figures even when part of the
information is missing
Law of Similarity (Gestalt) - objects that are similar tend to be grouped together
Law of Good Continuation (Gestalt) - elements that appear to follow the same pathway
tend to be grouped together
Gibson and Direct Perception - sensation is perception, what you see is what you get
PSYC 230 UIUC EXAM
