Lesson 3.1.2.5.1

3.1.2.5.1 Inference from visual cues and past experience to construct reality Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 3.1.2.5.1, Inference from visual cues and past experience to construct reality: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA GCSE Psychology (8182), Unit 2: Perception, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does Gregory's constructivist theory say perception is?

    • A process of storing sensory input in memory so that it can be rehearsed and later recalled in order
    • A process of attention that selects one stimulus at a time for transfer into the short-term store
    • A direct pick-up of information from the environment, with no need for inference or past experience
    • A process of inference, in which the brain builds a model of reality using visual cues and past experience

  2. According to Gregory, what do visual cues and past experience allow the brain to do?

    • Pick up the information in the light directly without making any inference about objects
    • Make inferences about what objects are, so a model of reality can be constructed
    • Recall the serial position of each object in the scene in the order it was seen
    • Store every visual cue in the sensory store for a few seconds before the cue decays

  3. Which theory is the constructivist theory, associated with the influence of nurture?

    • Gibson's theory, which says perception is direct and shaped by innate abilities from nature
    • Bartlett's theory, which says memory is reconstructed using schemas to fill in gaps
    • Murdock's theory, which says recall follows a serial position curve with primacy and recency
    • Gregory's theory, which says past experience shapes how the brain builds perception

  4. What is the role of nurture in Gregory's theory?

    • Motivation determines which visual cues the eyes are able to detect in the environment
    • Innate abilities let the brain pick up the information in the light without any learning at all
    • Past experience teaches the brain which cues mean which objects, so inference becomes possible
    • Culture determines how many items the short-term store can hold for the perceiver at once

  5. How does Gregory explain illusions?

    • Illusions occur because the brain picks up the information directly, which is always misleading
    • Illusions occur because the eyes lack receptors for certain colours, which causes a visual error
    • Perceptual hypotheses based on past experience can be wrong, producing an illusion when the cues mislead
    • Illusions occur because the brain stores the image in full and then decays it too quickly

  6. In Gregory's theory, what is a hypothesis in perception?

    • A fixed record of an object stored in the sensory store, which is kept unchanged for a while
    • A best guess about what an object is, based on cues and past experience, which is tested against the input
    • A direct signal from the environment that tells the viewer the exact size of an object at once
    • A rule for recalling items in a list in the order in which they were first presented to the viewer

  7. Which example best fits Gregory's idea of perception as inference?

    • A person sees a shape in the dark and guesses it is a cup because of its shape and what cups usually look like
    • A person sees a cup in good light and the cup is seen directly without any need for past knowledge
    • A person notices the cup because it is brighter than the table, with no prior experience of cups
    • A person stores the cup in the sensory store for a short time before recalling it in order

  8. What does Gregory's theory predict about people from very different environments?

    • They will perceive more accurately if they have less experience, because inference is then avoided
    • They will always perceive the same objects in the same way, because nurture has no effect on perception
    • They will perceive identical illusions, because the same sensory store operates in everyone equally
    • They may make different inferences from the same visual cues, because their past experience differs

  9. Which evidence would best support Gregory's constructivist view?

    • People recalling the drawing in exact serial order, with the first and last items remembered best
    • People perceiving the same flat drawing directly, with no effect of past experience on the reading
    • People misperceiving a flat drawing as a three-dimensional scene because of the cues they usually use
    • People recognising the drawing faster when it is rehearsed out loud in the short-term store first

  10. Why do illusions support Gregory's theory rather than Gibson's?

    • Because illusions show that perception can be wrong when inferences from experience go wrong
    • Because illusions show that perception is always accurate, which fits direct pick-up of information
    • Because illusions show that sensory memory copies the image in full, with no inference involved
    • Because illusions show that the serial position effect changes the way people perceive a drawing

  11. Which statement describes the way Gregory's theory treats visual cues?

    • Cues are useful only for the eyes, and the brain has no role in using them at all
    • Cues are incomplete, so the brain uses them together with past experience to infer what is seen
    • Cues are stored in the sensory store and used only if they are repeated in the short-term store
    • Cues are complete and need no further interpretation, so the brain only has to store them

  12. In Gregory's view, what is the link between a model of reality and past experience?

    • The model is built from inferences, and past experience supplies the knowledge needed to build it
    • The model is stored in the sensory store, and past experience decides how long it is kept
    • The model is built directly from the light, and past experience has no role in its construction
    • The model is a list of items, and past experience decides the order in which they are recalled

  13. Why might a person with no experience of a particular kind of object misperceive it?

    • Because they lack the past experience needed to make the right inferences about it from the cues
    • Because the object is always too small for the eyes to detect, whatever the person has learnt
    • Because they have too many stored memories of similar objects, which confuses the new object
    • Because the sensory store holds too little information about the object for the eyes to use

  14. Which of these is a key difference between Gregory's and Gibson's views?

    • Gregory sees perception as stored in the sensory store, while Gibson sees it as stored in the short-term store
    • Gregory sees perception as inference built from experience, while Gibson sees it as direct pick-up of information
    • Gregory sees perception as direct pick-up of information, while Gibson sees it as inference from experience
    • Gregory sees perception as based on serial order, while Gibson sees it as based on interference between items

  15. What is the key idea behind the phrase 'to construct reality' in Gregory's theory?

    • The brain stores reality in the long-term store, where it is recalled in the order it arrived
    • The brain builds a model of the world from cues and past experience, rather than receiving it directly
    • The brain rehearses reality until it passes into the short-term store as an exact copy of the scene
    • The brain copies reality exactly from the light, so the model is never built from past experience

  16. Which term describes building a perception from incomplete cues by filling in what is missing?

    • Attention, which selects one cue at a time for transfer into long-term memory for later use
    • Rehearsal, which repeats the cues in the short-term store until they stick in the memory
    • Serial recall, which orders the cues in the list the viewer remembers from earlier on
    • Inference, which fills in what is missing using past experience

  17. A person sees a shadowy outline and infers it is a person on a path. Which Gregory idea fits?

    • Perception as inference, because the outline is interpreted using past experience of people
    • Sensory decay, because the outline fades from the sensory store before it can be recognised
    • Serial recall, because the outline is remembered in the order in which it was first seen
    • Perception as direct pick-up, because the outline contains all the information needed to see it

  18. A traveller from a flat area misjudges the distance of mountains. Which Gregory explanation fits best?

    • Past experience of flat land gives the wrong cues for judging distance in mountains
    • The traveller's sensory store holds the mountains for too short a time to judge them properly
    • The traveller's short-term store is full of mountains, so distance is judged too quickly by them
    • The traveller's eyes lack the receptors needed to detect mountains at a distance from the road

  19. Which result would count against Gregory's constructivist account?

    • Perception of an object that differs between two people with different backgrounds and learning
    • Perception of an ambiguous figure that flips when the viewer's attention moves to another part
    • Perception of an illusion that changes when the viewer's past experience of similar objects changes
    • Accurate perception of an unfamiliar object with no relevant past experience to draw on

  20. Why is Gregory's theory described as constructivist?

    • Because perception is built from stored sensory copies that are rebuilt in the short-term store
    • Because perception is built up by the brain from cues and experience, rather than received directly
    • Because perception is constructed from a serial order of items as they are recalled over time
    • Because perception is built by the eyes from the light, with the brain only storing the result

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