Assignment Instructions

For your Midterm essay exam, you will complete 10 essay questions which focus on the course readings. Midterm essay answers must be attached as a Word document to the appropriate assignment page, not typed into the assignment student comments boxes. In addition to writing a 300 word answer to each essay question with APA formatted citations and references (APA title page and reference page are required. Each question should be answered clearly and numbered) students will answer each question thoroughly and completely, providing examples where required.

Answer the questions below in your Midterm exam.

1. Describe the process of perception as a series of steps, beginning with the environmental stimulus and culminating in the behavioral responses of perceiving, recognizing, and acting.

2. Because the long axons of neurons look like electrical wires, and both neurons and electrical wires conduct electricity, it is tempting to equate the two. Compare and contrast the functioning of axons and electrical wires in terms of their structure and the nature of the electrical signals they conduct.

3. What are the two answers (one “simple” and the other “profound”) to the question, “Why is our perception of colors and details worse in dim illumination than in bright illumination?”

4. What is color constancy? Describe three factors that help achieve color constancy. What is brightness constancy? Describe the factors that are responsible for brightness constancy. Lastly, compare and contrast color constancy with brightness constancy.

5. When you walk from outside, which is illuminated by sunlight, to inside, which is illuminated by “tungsten” illumination, your perception of colors remains fairly constant. But under some illuminations, such as street lights called “sodium vapor” lights that sometimes illuminate highways or parking lots, colors do seem to change. Why do you think color constancy would hold under some illuminations, but not others?

6. What is sensory adaptation? How does it occur within the various senses? What function does sensory adaptation serve? Provide a relevant example that illustrates your point.

7. What are the characteristics of the energy that we see as visible light? Provide an example illustrating how these characteristics are expressed when someone sees a rainbow. What types of things (situations and/or objects) can interfere with these characteristics?

8. How does the eye transduce light energy into a neural message? What is the blind spot in the eye and how does it impact the transduction of light energy?

9. How is visual information processed in the brain? What are some things (situations and/or objects) which can impede visual information being processed in the brain? Please include a relevant example to illustrate your answer.

10. What theories contribute to our understanding of color vision? Discuss at least two relevant theories of color vision.