Chap 2

Question 1

Weber’s law

Answer 1

Thresholds are proportional.

Going from 100 to 125 lbs pounds is a 25% increase.
25 to 35 lbs is a 40% increase while all the rest (125-150, 5-6, 225-275) are under 25%

Question 2

Signal detection

Answer 2

Discerning a specific noise within a field of many noises (man listening to music at a loud party and hears wife’s laughter)

• hit if she actually was laughing
• false alarm if not

Question 3

Adaptation example

Answer 3

spiciness subsides as meal goes on

Question 4

Nociceptors

Answer 4

sensory receptors that send signals in response to tissue damage
-important for pain sensation (would be expected during tissue damage)

Question 5

Cornea

Answer 5

gathering and focusing light

Question 6

Iris and Pupil

Answer 6

both involved in regulating the amount of light coming into the eye but not on focusing it

Question 7

Retina

Answer 7

transduces the light into electrical signals that are sent to the brain
-part of the eye which images are projected

Question 8

Lens

Answer 8

serves as a similar function to the cornea
-gathering and focusing light

-causes inversion, so images on the nasal half of the retinal actually originate in the temporal visual field, condition called bitemporal hemianopsia

Question 9

Feature detection

Answer 9

ex. man distinguished a coin from other items (wappers/papers) under the couch by recognizing specific features of the coin (metal surface)

Question 10

Rods and cones

Answer 10

Rods and cones in the retina then convert the electromagnetic radiation into electrical signals

Question 11

Somatosensation

Answer 11

various modalities of touch: pressure, vibration, temperature, and pain

Question 12

5 tastes

Answer 12

sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory)

Question 13

Endolymph location

Answer 13

found in the membranous labyrinth

Question 14

Perilymph location

Answer 14

found in the bony labyrinth

-found int eh space between the membranous labyrinth and the bony labyrinth

Question 15

Endolymph

Answer 15

Potassium-rich fluid that bathes the hair cells of the inner ear

Question 16

Membranous labyrinth and bony labyrinth

Answer 16

contribute to the cochlea and the vestibule, eliminating

Question 17

Pheromones

Answer 17

volatile chemicals given off by organisms that bind with olfactory chemoreceptors and influence behavior
-debatable if pheromones serve a role in humans, but known to affect foraging and sexual behavior in some animals

Question 18

Pheromones

Answer 18

volatile chemicals given off by organisms that bind with olfactory chemoreceptors and influence behavior
-debatable if pheromones serve a role in humans, but known to affect foraging and sexual behavior in some animals

Question 19

Kinesthetic sense (proprioception)

Answer 19

ability to tell where body parts are in three-dimensional space

-sensors for this are found mostly in the muscles and joints

Question 20

Loss of vestibular sense

Answer 20

cause difficulty walking from dizziness or vertigo, not inability to feel one’s feet

Question 21

Top-down processing

Answer 21

ex. proofreader mis-spelled a long word -> related to top-down processing because of the use of recognition and expectations->lead to missing detail

Question 22

Bottom-up processing

Answer 22

analysis of each detail individually before creating a cohesive image

Question 23

Gestalt principles

Answer 23

basis for many optical illusions and include the tendency of people to see continuity even when lines are unconnected

specifically ex. law of closure creates one complete star from five non-touching angles

Question 24

Optic chiasm

Answer 24

houses the crossing fibers form each optic nerve, specifically, the fibers coming from the nasal half of the retina in each eye cross in the chiasm to join the optic tract on the opposite side