5. Kafli Flashcards
How many senses do we have?
Five
How does sensation occur?
The sense organs translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses and then send them to the brain
What is it called when a person interprets what their senses are telling them?
Perception
The process whereby the characteristics of a stimulus are converted into nerve impulses is called?
Sensory transduction
The scientific field that studies the relationship between the physical characteristics of a stimulus and sensory capabilities is called?
Psychophysics
The stimulus detection process by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain is called?
Sensation
Sensory transduction is the process whereby the characteristics of a stimulus are?
Converted into nerve impulses
Psychophysics studies the relationship between the physical characteristics of a stimulus and..?
Sensory capabilities
The concern with absolute limits of sensitivity and the difference between stimuli is best associated with the study of..?
Psychophysics
The lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time is called?
Absolute threshold
How does sensation occur?
The sense organs translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses and then send them to the brain
The higher the absolute threshold is, the ___is the observer.
Less sensitive
What are the examples of measuring absolute thresholds?
- From which amount onwards can participants taste sugar in 1l bottle of water
- From which distance can participants hear a tick of a watch under quiet conditions
- From which distance can participants see a candle flame on a clear, dark night
What are the two kinds of sensitivity that the field of psychophysics is concerned with?
The absolute limits of sensitivity and differences between stimuli
Signal detection theory states that the idea of decision criterion is more reasonable than the idea of a fixed absolute threshold for detecting a stimulus. Why is that?
- There is no single point on the intensity scale that separates non-detection from detection
- An individuals sensitivity fluctuates
- There is a range of intensities over which the uncertainty about the presence of a stimulus varies
The active process of organising stimulus input and giving it meaning is called?
Perception
Signal detection theory is..?
Concerned with the factors that influence sensory judgements
Signal-detection research tells us how well participants can discriminate trials from which a stimulus was presented from trials in which it was not. The resulting discriminability index is called?
d’ (‘d prime’)
The smallest difference between two stimuli that people can perceive 50% of the time is called?
The just noticeable difference
The law that states that the difference threshold or just noticeable difference, is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made is called?
Weber’s law
Signal detection theory states that the idea of a decision criterion is more reasonable than the idea of a fixed absolute threshold for detecting a stimulus. Why is that?
- There is a range of intensities over which the uncertainty about the presence of a stimulus varies
- An individual sensitivity fluctuates
- There is no single point on the intensity scale that separates non-detection from detection
Fechner extended Weber’s original work by showing that there is a logarithmic relationship between stimulus intensity and the intensity of the sensation. This means that, the higher up the scale of intensity we go..?
The more stimulus needs to increase in order for the sensation to increase
The aptitude with which we make discriminations across any given class of stimulus range can be expressed as?
Weber’s fraction
Paul jumps in to go swimming. At first the water is cold and he starts shivering. Over time he yells to his friend to come on in the water feels great. This is an example of..?
Sensory adaptation
Sensory adaptation refers to the fact that we become less and less sensitive to an unchanging stimulus. Following this logic, how come stationary objects do not fade away when we stare at them?
We continuously make tiny, involuntary eye movements, which keep retinal images changing
Light adaptation makes it so that we adapt to an increased level of background light, so that it is possible to distinguish objects from the background, despite both the object and the background..?
Having very similar levels of light
Stimuli in the environment that are unchanging tend to..?
Diminish perceptual sensitivity to them
Thanks to sensory adaptation, stimuli are processed by our brain in a very efficient and economic way. Sensory adaptation ensures that..?
- Sensory systems particularly respond to changes in stimulation
- Adaptation occurs in response to unchanging/constant stimulation
What are the two steps of sensory transduction?
- Impulses are converted to the appropriate brain areas
- The energy of physical stimulations is converted into nerve impulses
Dark adaptation makes it so that we adapt to a lower level of light, and____our sensitivity to objects that are specified by smaller levels of light
Increases
What is the normal stimulus for vision?
Electromagnetic energy
The adjustable opening behind the cornea, that can dilate (get wider) or constrict, and influences the amount of light that enters the eye is called the..?
Pupil
Photoreceptors in the retina synapse with..?
Bipolar cells
How are light waves measured?
In nanometers
Which part of the eye is an elastic structure that becomes thinner in order to focus on distant objects and thicker to focus on closer objects?
Lens
If a person’s lens is not thick enough and the image is focused on a point behind the retina, the person most likely suffers from..?
Hyperopia
The part of the eye that contains rods and cones is called the?
Retina
The part of the eye that is multi-layered, light-sensitive tissue located at the rear of the fluid-filled eyeball is called the?
Retina
In dim light, visual processing mainly depends on?
Rods
The colour receptors that function best in bright illumination are called?
Cones
Which part of the eye has a focus similar to the camera?
Lens
Mark can see nearby objects, but has difficulty seeing distant objects. Mark is most likely suffering from..?
Myopia
The centre of the retina, which houses no rods but only cones, is called the?
Fovea
The rods located in the eye help us to see..?
Black and white
The colour receptors that function best in bright illumination are called?
Cones
Which part of the eye is an elastic structure that becomes thinner in order to focus on distant objects and thicker to focus on closer objects?
Lens
In order to look directly at an object, we move our eyes such that the object falls on which part of the retina?
The fovea
Black-and-white brightness receptors are called?
Rods
The fovea, the central part of the retina, only contains cones. These cones are connected to a single bipolar cell, making _____ higher for images that fall on this part of the retina
Visual acuity
Rods and cones translate light waves by way of protein molecules called?
Photo-pigments
Research has shown that ____ have greater light sensitively than_____
Rods, cones
The fovea houses densely packed?
Cones
In dim light, visual processing mainly depends on..?
Rods
The fact that the human visual system is able to differentiate between very small differences in light wavelengths, allows us to see..?
Colour
Photo-pigments are involved in..?
Translating light waves by way of protein molecules
Evolution might have adapted our visual system in order to see colours, because..?
- Colour vision helps to discriminate between ripe, unripe and rotten fruit
- Colour vision helps to gather food efficiently
Rods function best in..?
Dim light
Cones function best in..?
Bright light
The progressive improvement in brightness sensitivity that occurs over time under conditions of low illumination is called?
Dark adaptation
Which eye condition helps to identify a limitation in the trichromatic theory of colour vision?
Red-green colour blindness
The main property of a colour is called its..?
Hue
Which theory of colour vision was based on the discovery that any colour in the visible spectrum can be produced by some combination of the wavelengths that correspond to the colours blue, green and red?
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
The trichromatic theory does a poor job of explaining which colour?
Yellow
According to Herning’s opponent-process theory, which processes play a role in colour vision?
- A yellow-blue process
- A red-green opponent process
- A white-black opponent process
Which findings made the dual-process theory reconcile the trichromatic and the opponent process theory?
- We indeed have three kinds of cone cell
- Ganglion cells that respond with a high firing rate to green, for example, will show decreased firing in response to the opponent colour red
Which visual deficiency is caused by one of the cone types having an altered spectral sensitivity, or by an absence of photo-pigment in certain cones?
Colour-deficiency
Which theory on colour vision states that each of the three cone types respond to two different wavelengths?
Herning’s opponent-process theory
Where in the brain are the primary visual areas located?
Occipital lobe
The fact that there is one-to-one correspondence between tiny regions of the retina and particular groups of neurons in the visual cortex, is called
Retinotopic mapping
The dual process theory on colour vision..
Combines the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory
Which of the following stages are included in Marr’s model of visual processing?
- Primal sketch
- Two-and-a-half D sketch
- Three-dimentional
In Biederman’s recognition by components theory, the simple 2D or 3D forms such as cylinders, cones, circles and rectangles, corresponding to the simple parts of an object are called
Geons
Ganglion cells that respond with a high firing rate to green, will show ____ firing in response to the opponent colour red
Decreased
What are the invariant properties of edges, that allow us to identify geons, according to Biederman’s recognition by components theory?
- Cotermination
- Symmerty
- Curvature
- Colinearity
- Parallel
Primary visual cortex:
- Colour processing
- Orientation processing
- Shape processing
- Depth processing
Visual association cortex:
- Combining basic features into objects
- Relating visual information to memory
- Relating visual information to prior knowledge
Sound occurs through..?
Sound waves
Most common sounds are in which type of frequencies?
Lower
Are sound waves a form of mechanical energy?
Yes
The number of sound waves, or cycles, per second is called
Frequency
Amplitude is measured in?
Decibles
In auditory perception, the vertical size of the sound waves, the depth between the peaks and the troughs in the sound wave is called..?
Amplitude
The absolute threshold for hearing is..?
0 decibels
The process of the ear ‘translating’ pressure waves into nerve impulses, is called..?
Auditory transduction
Which of the following are structures of the middle ear?
- The anvil
- The stirrup
- The hammer
The coiled, snail-shaped tube inside the ear, that contains the basilar membrane, is called the..?
Cochlea
The vertical height of a sound wave is referred to as?
Amplitude
The part of the inner ear that rests on the basilar membrane is called the..?
Organ of Corti
The membrane that runs the length of the cochlea is called the..?
Basilar membrane
During auditory transduction, the ear ‘translates’ pressure waves into..?
Nerve impulses
Sound waves striking the eardrum, the vibration of fluid inside the cochlea, and the bending of hair cells demonstrates..?
Sound passing through the inner ear
The cochlea inside the ear houses the..?
Basilar membrane
The loudness we experience is the result of both the rate of firing in the axons of the auditory nerve and the specific hair cells that are..?
Sending messages
Which theory maintains that pitch perception occurs when nerve impulses that are sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound wave?
Frequency theory
Which theory of pitch perception states that the specific point in the cochlea where the fluid wave peaks and most strongly bends the hair cells servers as a frequency coding cue?
Place theory
