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MCAT Behavioral Sciences > Behavioral Sciences Chapter 2: Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Behavioral Sciences Chapter 2: Sensation and Perception Flashcards

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MCAT flashcards
1
Q

What is sensation?

A

Sensation is the conversion or transduction of physical, electromagnetic, auditory and other information from the internal and external environment into electrical signals in the nervous system.

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2
Q

What is perception?

A

Perception is the processing of sensory information to make sense of its significance.

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3
Q

What are sensory receptors?

A

nerves that respond to stimuli and trigger electrical signals

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4
Q

What are sensory ganglia?

A

Collections of cell bodies outside the central nervous system - Associated with sensory neurons

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5
Q

What are projection areas?

A

Sensory stimuli are transmitted to projection areas in the brain, which further analyze the sensory input

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6
Q

What is a threshold?

A

The minimum stimulus that causes a change in signal transduction.

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7
Q

What is the absolute threshold?

A

minimum of stimulus energy that is needed to activate a sensory system.

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8
Q

What is the threshold of conscious perception?

A

minimum of stimulus energy that will create a signal large enough in size and long enough in duration to be brought into awareness

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9
Q

What is the difference threshold or just noticeable difference?

A

the minimum difference in magnitude between two stimuli before one can perceive the difference.

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10
Q

What is Weber’s law?

A

states that the jnd for a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus and that this proportion is constant over most of the range of possible stimuli

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11
Q

What is the Signal detection theory?

A

effects of nonsensory factors, such as experiences, motives, and expectations on perception of stimuli

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12
Q

What is response bias?

A

The tendency of subjects to respond systematically to a stimulus in a particular way due to nonsensory factors

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13
Q

What is adaptation?

A

A decrease in response to stimulus over time.

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14
Q

What does the cornea do?

A

It gathers and filters incoming light.

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15
Q

What does the iris do?

A

It divides the front of the eye into the anterior and posterior chamber. It contains two muscles, the dilator and constrictor pupillae, which open and close the pupil.

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16
Q

What does the lens do?

A

The lens refracts incoming light to focus it on the retina and is held in place by suspensory ligaments connected to the ciliary muscle.

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17
Q

What is the ciliary body?

A

The ciliary body produces aqueous humor, which drains through the canal of Schlemm.

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18
Q

What two things does the retina contain?

A

Rods and cones

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19
Q

What do rods do?

A

Rods detect light and dark

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20
Q

What do cones do?

A

Cones come in three forms to detect colors

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21
Q

Where is the macula?

A

Central vision field containing mostly cones, at the center is the fovea, which contains only cones.

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22
Q

Where do rods and cones synapse?

A

Bipolar cells

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23
Q

Where do bipolar cells synapse?

A

ganglion cells

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24
Q

What do horizontal and amacrine cells do?

A

Integrate the signals from ganglion and edge-sharpening

25
Q

What is the eye supported by?

A

vitreous on the inside and sclera and choroid on the outside

26
Q

What is the visual pathway?

A

Through the optic nerve, optic chiasm, optic tracks, lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus, and visual radiations to get to the visual cortex

27
Q

What is the optic chiasm?

A

Contains fibers crossing from the nasal side of the retina of both eyes.

28
Q

Where do the visual radiations run?

A

Through the temporal and parietal lobes.

29
Q

Where is the visual cortex?

A

In the occipital lobe

30
Q

How is color detected?

A

By cones

31
Q

How is shape detected?

A

by parvocellular cells, with high spacial resolution and low temporal resolution

32
Q

How is motion detected?

A

By Magnocellular cells, with low spatial resolution and high temporal resolution.

33
Q

What is bottom-up (data-driven) processing?

A

It refers to recognition of objects by parallel processing and feature detection. It is slower, but less prone to mistakes.

34
Q

What is top-down (conceptually driven) processing?

A

It refers to recognition of an object by memories and expectations, with little attention to detail. It is faster, but more prone to mistakes.

35
Q

What is the gestalt principle?

A

Ways the brain can infer missing parts of a picture when a picture is incomplete.

36
Q

What is the law of proximity?

A

Says that elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit.

37
Q

What is the law of similarity?

A

Objects that are similar appear to be grouped together

38
Q

What is the law of food continuation?

A

Says that elements that appear to follow the same pathway appear to be grouped together.

39
Q

What is subjective contours?

A

Refers to the perception of nonexistent edges in figures, based on surrounding visual cues.

40
Q

What is the law of closure?

A

Says that when a space is enclosed by a group of lines, it is perceived as a complete or closed line.

41
Q

What is the law of pregnanz?

A

Says that perceptual organization will always be as regular simple and symmetric as possible

42
Q

What does the outer ear consist of?

A

the pinna, external auditory canal and tyrannic membrane

43
Q

What does the middle ear consist of?

A

ossicles, malleus, incus and stapes. The footplate of the stepes rests in the oval window of the cochlea. The middle ear is connected to the nasal cavity by the eustachian tube.

44
Q

What does the inner ear contain?

A

the bony labyrinth, filled with endolymph. Consists of cochlea, utricle and saccule and semicircular canals

45
Q

What does the utricle and saccule do?

A

detect linear acceleration

46
Q

What does the semicircular canals do?

A

detect rotational acceleration

47
Q

Where does the auditory pathway go?

A

Starts from the cochlea and travels through the vestibulocochlear nerve and medial geniculate nucleus of the thalamus to get to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe.

48
Q

Where does sound information project?

A

to the superior olive, which localizes the sound and the inferior colliculus, which is involved in the startle reflex.

49
Q

What detects smell?

A

The olfactory chemoreceptors

50
Q

Where does the olfactory pathway start?

A

from the olfactory nerves and travels through the olfactory bulb and olfactory tract to get to higher-order brain areas, such as the limbic system.

51
Q

What are pheromones?

A

chemicals given off by animals that have an effect on social, foraging and sexual behavior in other members of that species

52
Q

How is taste detected?

A

By the taste buds in papillae – sweet, salty, bitter and savory

53
Q

What is somatosensation?

A

refers to the four touch modalities - pressure, vibration, pain and temperature.

54
Q

What is a two-point threshold?

A

minimum distance necessary between two points of stimulation on the skin such that the points will be felt as two distinct stimuli

55
Q

What is physiological zero?

A

The normal temperature of the skim to which objects are compared to determine if they feel warm or cold.

56
Q

What are nociceptors?

A

They are responsible for pain perception

57
Q

What is the gate theory of pain?

A

States that pain sensation is reduced when other somatosensory signals are present.

58
Q

What is kinesthetic sense (proprioception)?

A

Ability to tell where one is in three dimensional space.

MCAT Behavioral Sciences (12 decks)

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