Ch. 3- Sensation & Perception

Question 1

Explain sensation:

Answer 1

Process by which a stimulated sensory receptor creates a pattern of neural messages that represent the stimulus in the brain

Question 2

Explain perception:

Answer 2

Process that makes sensory patterns meaningful

Question 3

How does stimulation become sensation?

Answer 3

The brain senses the world indirectly because the sense organs convert stimulation into neural messages

Question 4

Specialized neurons that are activated by stimulation and transduce (convert) the incoming stimulus into electrochemical signals

Answer 4

Sensory Receptors

Question 5

What is transduction?

Answer 5

Sensory process that converts the information carried by a physical stimulus into the form of neural messages

Question 6

What do neural impulses carry?

Answer 6

The codes of sensory events in a form that can be further processed by the brain

Question 7

What is a sensory pathway?

Answer 7

Bundles of neurons that carry info from the sense organs to the brain

Question 8

What is the absolute thresh-hold?

Answer 8

The minimum amount of stimulation necessary for a stimulus to be detected

Question 9

Smallest amount by which a stimulus can be changed and the difference can be detected

Answer 9

Difference Thresh hold/ JND

Question 10

What is Weber’s Law?

Answer 10

The size of the JND is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus

Question 11

Explain the signal detection theory:

Answer 11

Sensation depends on the characteristics of the stimulus, the background stimulation, and the detector

Question 12

How are the senses alike/difference?

Answer 12

The senses all operate in much the same way, but each extracts different information and sends it to its own specialized processing regions in the brain.

Question 13

Synesthesia is…

Answer 13

Mixing sense (ex: tasting music, hearing color)

Question 14

What is the relationship between sensation and perception?

Answer 14

Perception brings meaning to sensation; so perception produces an interpretation of the world, not a perfect representation of it.

Question 15

What are the two pathways of the brain?

Answer 15

Temporal-what

Parietal-where

Question 16

Blindsight means damage to…

Answer 16

The “what” pathway-makes people unaware of objects

Question 17

the “what”pathway identifies ______.

The “where pathway identifies ______.

Answer 17

1. What an object is and what the context is

2. Location of an object

Question 18

Cells in the cortex that specialize in detection of specific stimulus features

Answer 18

Feature detectors

Question 19

Unsolved mystery concerning the processes used by the brain to combine many aspects of sensation into a single percept

Answer 19

Binding problem

Question 20

Taking sensory info and then assembling and integrating it

Answer 20

Bottom-up processing

Question 21

Using models, ideas, and expectations to interpret sensory information

Answer 21

Top-down processing

Question 22

What is a perceptual constancy?

Answer 22

Ability to recognize the same object under different conditions, such as changes in illumination, distance, or location

Question 23

Don’t notice unexpected changes (gorilla thing)

Answer 23

Inattentional blindness

Question 24

Don’t notice a difference from before

Answer 24

Change blindness

Question 25

Demonstrably incorrect experience of a stimulus pattern; shared by others in the same perceptual environment

Answer 25

Illusions

Question 26

What is the law of Prägnanz?

Answer 26

Brain tries to make things simple

Question 27

View that perception is primarily shaped by prior learning and experience

Answer 27

Learning-based inference

Question 28

Readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given context

Answer 28

Perceptual Set