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MCAT Psych/Soc > Ch. 3- Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Ch. 3- Sensation and Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

what is sensation?

A

physical reality of signals that our sensory organs pick up and send to be processed in the nervous system

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2
Q

what is perception?

A

how our brain interprets signals from our sensory organs

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3
Q

what are sensory receptors?

A

specialized dendrites of sensory neurons that respond to physical stimuli via action potentials to the CNS

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4
Q

what are nerves?

A

bundles of axons of sensory receptor dendrites

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5
Q

what are ganglia?

A

collections of neuronal cell bodies

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6
Q

what are the 4 types of properties that get relayed to the CNS?

A

location (where), modality (what type), intensity (how much), and duration (how long)

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7
Q

what is the differnce between exteroceptors and interoceptors?

A

exteroceptors = receive stimuli from the outside world
interoceptors = receive stimuli from inside the body

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8
Q

what do photoreceptors sense?

A

light

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9
Q

what do mechanoreceptors sense?

A

sound, acceleration, touch (mechanical)

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10
Q

what do chemoreceptors sense?

A

taste, smell (chemicals)

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11
Q

what do baroceptors sense?

A

pressure (type of mechanoreceptor)

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12
Q

what do proprioceptors sense?

A

body position (kinesthetic sense)

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13
Q

what do nociceptors sense?

A

pain (cuts, burns, chemicals)

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14
Q

what do osmoceptors sense?

A

concentration (ie. in blood)

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15
Q

what do olfactory receptors sense?

A

smell

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16
Q

what do gustatory receptors sense?

A

taste

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17
Q

what do hair cells sense?

A

pressure signals in the inner ear (convert to action potentials)

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18
Q

what do thermoreceptors sense?

A

variation in temperature

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19
Q

what are proximal vs distal stimuli?

A

proximal stimuli are the stimuli that directly interact with you
distal stimuli are causing something else to act as a proximal stimulus.
ie. tree = distal stimulus, causing light rays (proximal stimulus) to directly interact with your eyes.

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20
Q

absolute threshold

A

the level of intensity a stimulus has to have in order for your sensory neurons to pick it up

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21
Q

threshold of conscious perception

A

the threshold a stimulus must pass in order for us to consciously perceive it

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22
Q

in between absolute threshold and threshold of conscious perception = ?

A

you’ll experience whatever the thing is, but your brain won’t take up that information.

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23
Q

just-noticeable difference

A

smallest change in magnitude of a stimulus that we can perceive as being different

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24
Q

psychophysical discrimination testing

A

testing whether participants can tell the difference between the two stimuli and then link that to the actual physical properties of the stimuli being studied

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25
Q

Weber’s law

A

for any sensory input, the just-noticeable difference will be a constant proportion of the original input.

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26
Q

does Weber’s law hold at the extremes?

A

not really, if there’s not much difference in how you interact with them (ie. weights on the scales of milligrams or on the scale of thousands of pounds would be very difficult to distinguish)

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27
Q

signal detection theory

A

our brain sorts through stimuli to try to accurately identify what we need to pay attention to

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28
Q

signal detection theory: what is a hit?

A

we correctly perceive a stimulus that is present

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29
Q

signal detection theory: what is a miss?

A

we incorrectly do not perceive a stimulus that is present

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30
Q

signal detection theory: what is a false alarm or false positive?

A

we incorrectly perceive a stimulus that is NOT present

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31
Q

signal detection theory: what is a correct rejection?

A

we correctly do not perceive a stimulus that is not present

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32
Q

sensory adaptation

A

we become used to stimuli and start to ignore them

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33
Q

tonic receptors

A

some receptors that adapt slowly to stimuli and send action potentials as long as the stimulus is present (ie. pain receptors)

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34
Q

phasic receptors

A

receptors that send a quick burst of action potentials in response to a stimulus and then stop

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35
Q

Gestalt laws

A

principles describing how we integrate stimuli into consciously perceived shapes

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36
Q

principle of proximity

A

our brains group objects by proximity to each other

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37
Q

principle of similarity

A

our brains group objects by similarity

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38
Q

principle of good continuation

A

our brains perceive overlapping/intersecting objects as the most continuous line possible

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39
Q

principle of closure

A

our brains fill in the gaps of broken up outlines

40
Q

principle of symmetry

A

our brains group symmetrical objects together more than non-symmetrical objects

41
Q

law of Pragnanz

A

our brains tend to try to group things into a cohesive unit instead of processing them as random parts

42
Q

what part of the eye turns wavelengths of light into action potentials to send to the brain?

A

the retina

43
Q

where is the retina located?

A

in the back of the eye

44
Q

what component of vision do cones deal with?

A

color and fine detail (blue, green, and red)

45
Q

what is the fovea?

A

a small central pit in the center of the macula in the retina, only contains cones

46
Q

what component of vision do rods deal with?

A

light and movement (no fine detail)

47
Q

relatively, how many cones and rods are there in the eye?

A

20 rods for every 1 cone

48
Q

where is rhodopsin mostly concentrated in?

A

rods

49
Q

where are rods located in the eye?

A

away from the retina, making peripheral vision best at night

50
Q

what is the first part of the eye that light passes through?

A

the cornea

51
Q

where are the lens and cornea located in the eye?

A

near the front of the eye

52
Q

what is the cornea for?

A

protecting the rest of the eye, and focusing incoming light rays

53
Q

what is the lens for?

A

focusing light

54
Q

what is accommodation in the eye?

A

using tiny ligaments to change the focus of the lens to see objects at various distances

55
Q

what is dark adaptation?

A

the way that rods take awhile to activate and become useful after you’ve been in the light for awhile

56
Q

what is the pupil?

A

the black center of the eye that lets light into the eye

57
Q

what is the iris?

A

the colored ring of the eye that blocks unneccessary light and is connected to dilator and constrictor pupillae muscles

58
Q

what is the ciliary muscle?

A

part of the ciliary body, adjusts the lens via the suspensory ligaments

59
Q

where is the division between the anterior and posterior chambers?

A

the lens divides the two chambers

60
Q

what space contains the aqueous humor?

A

the anterior chamber

61
Q

what space contains the vitreous humor?

A

the posterior chamber

62
Q

what is the choroid?

A

a layer behind the retina that has melanin, supplies the retina with blood and absorbs excess light

63
Q

what is the sclera?

A

the outermost layer of the eye (the white stuff)

64
Q

what is the conjuctiva?

A

a thin, translucent film that’s on the very outermost layer of the cornea and sclera, a thin layer of epithelial tissue that lubricates and protects the eye

65
Q

what is the path a signal takes from the retina to the optic nerve?

A

cones and rods in retina -> horizontal cells -> bipolar cells -> amacrine cells -> ganglion cells (optic nerve)

66
Q

the right sides of your eyes’ field of vision traces back to which hemisphere of the brain?

A

the left side

67
Q

the left sides of your eyes’ field of vision traces back to which hemisphere of the brain?

A

the right side

68
Q

where do the halves of the optic nerves cross to their correct sides of the brain?

A

the optic chiasm

69
Q

what parts of the optic nerve get moved across to the correct sides of the brain?

A

the nasal sides (whatever’s reflecting on the inner halves of the retinas)

70
Q

what parts of the optic nerve don’t cross over to the other side of the brain?

A

the temporal sides (whatever’s reflecting on the outer halves of the retinas)

71
Q

what is the optic tract?

A

the bundle of axons carrying visual information

72
Q

what structure does the optic tract run through?

A

the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which is in the thalamus.

73
Q

what does the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) do?

A

it relays information from the retinas to the superior colliculus

74
Q

what is the superior colliculus?

A

receives signals from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), controls the visual startle response, and controls conscious visual perception

75
Q

what types of neurons does the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) have?

A

magnocellular neurons and parvocellular neurons

76
Q

what are magnocellular neurons and what do they do?

A

they are the big neurons that detect motion

77
Q

what are parvocellular neurons and what do they do?

A

they are the small neurons that detect details

78
Q

what kind of relationship is there between spatial and temporal resolution?

A

you can have one but not both (spatial = detail, temporal = movement)

79
Q

motion parallax

A

object closest to us appear to move faster, objects fathest from us appear to move slower

80
Q

feature detection

A

able to grab several detail categories at once (ie. shape, color, timing, motion)

81
Q

parallel processing

A

integrating multiple detail categories at once (ie. shape, color, timing, motion)

82
Q

serial processing model

A

consciously looking at one thing at a time and analyzing it in order

83
Q

what is the transduction pathway for sound?

A

hair cells -> vestibulocochlear nerve

84
Q

where are hair cells located?

A

inner ear, in the organ of Corti (layer cake organ with hair cells in the middle).

85
Q

what are the structures contained in the outer ear?

A

the pinna/auricle, earlobe, and the auditory canal up to the eardrum.

86
Q

what are the structures contained in the middle ear?

A

the eardrum/tympanic membrane, the tympanic cavity, the ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window, and the start of the Eustachian tube.

87
Q

what are the structures contained in the inner ear?

A

the bony labyrinth (membranous labyrinth, endolymph, perilymph), the cochlea (snail shell in 3 layers/scalae + organ of Corti), the vestibulocochlear nerve, semicircular canals (+ ampulla), and the vestibule (utricle, saccule, otoliths)

88
Q

place theory of hearing

A

the brain infers information about the pitch of a sound based on which hair cells are sending signals

89
Q

what is somatosensation?

A

sensations of the body

90
Q

are nerves in the skin evenly distributed?

A

no, there are more in certain places.

91
Q

what is the two-point threshold?

A

the minimum distance between two points that are stimulated at the same time on the skin that can be perceived as two separate stimuli

92
Q

physiological zero

A

the baseline temperature of our skin (about 29-32C)

93
Q

what is the process of processing taste information?

A

taste center (thalamus) -> gustatory complex

94
Q

what is the process of processing smell information?

A

olfactory bulb -> olfactory tract

95
Q

repeat after me: YOU CAN DO THIS!!

A

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

MCAT Psych/Soc (12 decks)

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