Ch 5 (EXAM 3)

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

Stimulation of sense organs
raw data

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

Making sense of sensations, organizing and interpreting sensory information

Perception and sensation works seamlessly together, but illusions may occur since they’re separate

Question 3

Absolute threshold

Answer 3

Lowest intensity at which participants notice stimuli 50% of the time
hearing threshold

Question 4

Things that make increase sensations

Answer 4

Expectations
Age
Introversion

Question 5

Difference Threshold

Answer 5

Smallest difference between stimuli needed to notice its different 50% of the time
i.e. weights

Question 6

Weber’s law

Answer 6

Difference between bigger stimuli must be greater to be noticed

Question 7

Selective attention

Answer 7

Focusing on a specific stimuli while ignoring other stimuli
We are bombarded with stimuli and need to distinguish
i.e. moonwalking bear

Question 8

Inattentional blindness

Answer 8

Failure to notice unexpected events when working on a task
i.e. multitasking while driving

Question 9

Sensory adaptation

Answer 9

Getting used to a sensation and no longer noticing it
i.e. sensation of butt on chair
Change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding sensations

Question 10

Bottom up processing

Answer 10

Using individual sensory signals and combing them to perceive whole sensory event
not contextual
Shape->letter->word->sentence

Question 11

Top down processing

Answer 11

Using context and expectations to perceive whole even instead of individual stimuli
i.e. first and last letter trick

Question 12

Visual system

Answer 12

Vision is the most dominant sense for humans
i.e. mcgurke effect
Visual element overrides all other senses

Question 13

Order of light in eye

Answer 13

Cornea, pupil, iris, lens, retina

Question 14

Pupil

Answer 14

Adjustable opening in the center of the eye
can change size and control the amount of light in

Question 15

Cornea

Answer 15

Protective covering, the outermost eye
bends the lightwaves

Question 16

Iris

Answer 16

Ring of muscle around pupil
Controls size of pupil’s opening

Question 17

Lens

Answer 17

Transparent and flexible, changes shape to focus light at the back of the eye and inverts the image

Question 18

Retina

Answer 18

Covered with photoreceptors at the back of the eye, stimulated by light

Question 19

Fovea

Answer 19

Center of retina with the most concentrated cone receptors

Question 20

Blind spot

Answer 20

Where optic nerve attaches to the retina, there are NO photoreceptors in this area

Question 21

Optic nerve

Answer 21

Sends visual signals to the brain for further processing

Question 22

Nearsightedness (myopia)

Answer 22

Faraway objects appear blurry
eye is too long/portruded
Common as it can be caused by environmental factors such as less time outside and more time looking at things up close

Question 23

Farsightedness (hyperopia)

Answer 23

Nearby objects appear blurry
eye is too short/lens is not thick enough
More oftenly genetic

Question 24

Presbyopia

Answer 24

Old people’s vision deteriorated
nearby objects appear blurry (farsightedness) due to lens becoming less elastic with age

Question 25

Glasses

Answer 25

Changes the focus of the image

Question 26

Photoreceptors: Cones

Answer 26

Short and stubby cells in the center of the retina
Exists mainly in fovea (fovea is made only of cones)
sees in BRIGHT lights
Color vision
Fine details

Question 27

Photoreceptors: Rods

Answer 27

Elongated cells on the side of the retina
peripheral vision
night vision in low light
sensitive to light, picks up dimmer lights, but doesn’t pick up color in the dark

Question 28

Animals and vision

Answer 28

Owls: mostly rods since nocturnal
pigeon: mostly cones since not nocturnal

Question 29

Optic nerve

Answer 29

Axons of all neurons in retina gathers together and leaves eye through optic disk
blind spot
hole in retina where there are no light receptors
brain fills up the gap
Or other eye fills up missing vision
Eyes are always moving around so no “fixed” area of the vision is always missing

Question 30

Motor homunculus

Answer 30

Takes up more area of motor cortex if it moves around more/in charge of intricate movements
i.e. face, hands

Question 31

Sensory homunculus

Answer 31

Parietal somatosensory cortex
takes up more space in brain if more receptors exist to pick up fine sensations
i.e. finger and hand

Question 32

Chemical senses

Answer 32

Taste (gustation) and smell (Olfaction)
sensory receptors that responds to molecules in food or air

Question 33

Taste (Gustation)

Answer 33

Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and fatty content
Taste buds: life cycle of ten days, receptors for different tastes here
Taste information goes to medulla, thalamus, and gustatory cortex

Question 34

Smell (olfaction)

Answer 34

Olfactory receptors on the nose
Chemical signals to the olfactory bulb that sends it to limbic system/cerebral cortex instead of thalamus

pheromones
Communicates reproductive status of potential mate, controversial

Question 35

Touch

Answer 35

Meissner’s corpuscles: Pressure and low Hz

Pacinian corpuscles:
Detects transient pressure and high Hz

Merkel’s disks:
Light pressure

Ruffini corpuscles
Stretching

Question 36

Thermoception

Answer 36

Temperature perception

Question 37

Nociception

Answer 37

Pain perception

Congenital insensitivity to pain
born without the ability to feel pain, lower life expectancy

Question 38

Pain

Answer 38

Unpleasant experience, can be physical or psychological, awareness of injury and removal thereof

Neuropathic: damage to PNS/CNS

Inflammatory: damage to tissues

Question 39

Vestibular sesne

Answer 39

Ability to maintain balance and body posture
collects info for controlling body movement and reflexes to changing body position

Question 40

Proprioception

Answer 40

Body position perception

Question 41

Kinesthesia

Answer 41

Perception of body through space