chap 5 - sensation and perception Flashcards
The process whereby the nervous system converts an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons.
transduction
When light enters the eye, it first passes through what structure?
cornea
The conversion of external energy into something that the nervous system can understand is known as
transduction
Your textbook names _____ basic tastes, but suggests there may be more.
5
Which law tells us that the stronger the stimulus, the bigger the change needed for a change in stimulus intensity to be noticeable?
webers law
Our visual sensory receptor cells are located in the
retina
Light, a central player in our visual perception of the world, is a form of
electromagnetic energy
What structure changes its shape to focus light at the back of the eye?
lens
The central portion of the retina is the
fovea
The complexity or quality of sound that makes instruments, voices, and other sources of sound unique is called
timbre
Odorless chemicals that serve as a social signal to other members of one’s species are called ________.
pheromones
The curved, transparent layer of the eye that covers the iris and pupil, and bends incoming light to focus the visual image on the back of the eye is called the
cornea
Which of the following would NOT be considered one of the ossicles?
pinna
The sense of smell is also known as __________.
olfaction
A disorder of the inner ear would be most likely to impact our
equilibrium/balance
When a sound wave is shown visually, the height of the wave represents the ________ of the sound.
amplitude
The ability to detect physical energy through our sensory systems is known as
sensation
Clay has played professional soccer for seven years and is easily able to tune out the sound of the crowd and all other irrelevant sensory information during the game. Bruce is a rookie and is often distracted by what his opponents are saying and the mood of the crowd. Clay and Bruce are showing differing levels of
selective attention
Which of the following is the most recently identified of the basic taste sensations?
unami
Pete has played lead guitar in a rock band for years. He often would turn the volume on his guitar way up and spend a great deal of time in front of the speakers during the shows. His resulting hearing loss over the past few years is most likely the result of
noise-induced hearing loss
A whistle that gives a sound so high that it can only be heard by dogs, but not humans, exploits which aspect of the auditory system?
pitch
Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far is called
accomodation
The __________ is determined by the frequency of a sound wave.
pitch
With so few taste receptors, our sense of taste needs help from another sense. Which of the following senses helps the sense of taste?
smell
The vestibular senses rely on three ________, which are located in the inner ear. They are fluid-filled structures that provide information about balance and equilibrium.
semicircular canals
Also called kinesthesia, which of the following is the term for your sense of the position of your own body?
Proprioception
Cason is initially blinded as he walks out of a daytime movie. However, very rapidly his eyes begin to adjust to the bright light. What is the best explanation for his rapid recovery?
sensory adaptation
Lucy has been in love with Charlie for a very long time. Everytime they are together, she whispers the word “love” over and over again at a level that is barely audible. Although Charlie never remembers hearing the message, Lucy is convinced that she is getting through to him. Should Lucy be so optimistic?
No; although Charlie may be “hearing” the message subliminally, it is not likely to persuade him one way or the other.
When Stewart wakes up at night and has to walk from his bedroom to the bathroom in the dark, he is most directly aided in this process by his
rods
The name given to the sense of our body position is
proprioception
A __________ is a specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system.
sensory receptor
You just ordered a pizza from your favorite restaurant and can’t wait for it to get here. As time passes, everything you hear sounds like a car driving by. What accounts for your “heightened” sense of hearing?
signal detection theory
Dominic has a hearing problem that is caused by a problem with the ossicles in his inner ear. Technically he would be described as suffering from ________ deafness.
conduction
Brightness refers to the intensity of light. The corresponding term when discussing sound is
loudness
Touch and pain information travels through the brain stem and thalamus to reach the somatosensory cortex, as well as other cortical areas such as the
parietal lobe
The average human being has over _________ olfactory genes.
1,000
As the number of people talking in a room increases, the stimulus intensity needed to detect a change in the number of people talking becomes
greater
The central portion of the retina is the
fovea
A disorder of the inner ear would be most likely to impact our
equilibrium/balance
A blind spot is a part of the visual field we can’t see, where the __________ connects to the __________.
optic nerve, retina
The ability to detect our balance and keep our balance as we move around in our daily life is known as
vestibular sense
Matt is considering the purchase of subliminal self-help tapes to aid him in losing weight. His wife Marge is skeptical about this plan and asks your advice. Based on the evidence presented by your authors, what would you say about the effectiveness of subliminal self-help tapes?
they are ineffective
all of our senses receive sensory stimulation, also called
receptor activation
senses transform sensory stimulation (or information) and transform it into neural information, also called
transduction
neural information (from transduction) is delivered to the brain where it’s interpreted based on our experience, knowledge, etc, this is also called
perception
activation of sensory stimulation to our senses (receptor activation) is highest when stimulus is ____________, then sensory __________ occurs
first detected,
sensory adaptation
define sensation
simple stimulation of a sense organ
define perception
the organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation
define transduction
what takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the central nervous system
what are the 5 senses
vision, audition (hearing), touch, taste, and smell
the lowest level of a stimulus we can detect 50% of the time is________________, and it varies by _____________
absolute threshold,
varies by age, physiology, etc
physiology - the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions
Phosphenes, the McGurk effect, and the Rubber Hand Illusion all demonstrate ________________________
sensory cross-modality
synesthesia is the experience of
cross-modal sensations, such as hearing light, or tasting sounds
humans have sensory receptors in their eyes that respond to _______________ of light energy
wavelengths
visible light is only a small portion of the _________________ spectrum that we can see
electromagnetic spectrum
light waves vary in wavelength, the length of the wave determines the _____, while the amplitude determines ________
hue,
brightness
cornea contains
transparent cells that focus light on the back of the eyes
the lens changes the
curvature (accommodation) to retract light onto back of eye
(glasses change the way light enters the eye to help correct myopia or hyperopia)
the retina is a
thin membrane at the back of the eye
the fovea is
responsible for high-acuity vision, as its densely saturated with cones
the transparent tissue where light enters the eye is called the
cornea
the are of the retina where vision is the clearest is called the fovea, there are no ______ here, only ______
no rods,
only cones
what theory says color vision is based on our sensitivity to three primary colors, and who’s it by
Trichromatic Theory,
Young and Helmholtz
- consistent with three types of cones in the eyes
- explains color blindness
sound waves ___________ and ____________ air molecule, causing change in air pressure
compress
&
expand
the semicircular canal plays a role in
balance
the eardrum _______ in response to sound waves
vibrates
the _________ converts vibration into neural activity
cochlea
what are the 5 basic tastes
sweet,
salty,
sour,
bitter,
unami
