Study Guide for Chapter 1

Be sure to study the terms listed on page 28 of your text.

1.         Does perception afford us a perfectly detailed view of the world? What about an accurate view? What is, according to your authors, the crucial aspect of perception?

2.         In what ways do our perceptual systems avoid sensory overload?

3.         What did Mountcastle posit as our only link to the external world?

4.         In what ways do we (human beings) compensate for stimuli that fall beyond the range of our sensory capabilities?

5.         In what way does perception involve symbolic representation?

6.         What happens if you eliminate or reduce sensory input to the brain?

7.         What are some practical reasons for studying perception?

8.         What are other reasons for studying perception?

9.       What do phenomena such as the Necker cube tell us about the relationship between stimulus, sensation, and perception?

10.       What is the fundamental difference between the psychological and physiological approaches when studying sensation and perception?

11.       Explain the Phenomenal/Naturalistic approach and its advantages and disadvantages. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or vice versa?

12.       What are the primary benefits of the Experimental approach?

13.       What is the “lesion technique” and what are the most obvious limitations of this method?

14.       For what purpose is the Theoretical approach essential?