chap 5 - sensation and perception Flashcards by colleen kelley

The process whereby the nervous system converts an external stimulus into electrical signals within neurons.

transduction

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When light enters the eye, it first passes through what structure?

cornea

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The conversion of external energy into something that the nervous system can understand is known as

transduction

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Your textbook names _____ basic tastes, but suggests there may be more.

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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

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Our visual sensory receptor cells are located in the

retina

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Light, a central player in our visual perception of the world, is a form of

electromagnetic energy

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What structure changes its shape to focus light at the back of the eye?

lens

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The central portion of the retina is the

fovea

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The complexity or quality of sound that makes instruments, voices, and other sources of sound unique is called

timbre

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Odorless chemicals that serve as a social signal to other members of one’s species are called ________.

pheromones

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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

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Which of the following would NOT be considered one of the ossicles?

pinna

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The sense of smell is also known as __________.

olfaction

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A disorder of the inner ear would be most likely to impact our

equilibrium/balance

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When a sound wave is shown visually, the height of the wave represents the ________ of the sound.

amplitude

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The ability to detect physical energy through our sensory systems is known as

sensation

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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

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Which of the following is the most recently identified of the basic taste sensations?

unami

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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

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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

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Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far is called

accomodation

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The __________ is determined by the frequency of a sound wave.

pitch

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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

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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

The somatosensory system responds to sensory information about

temperature, touch, and pain

how do we construct out representations of of the external world?

through sensation (the physical detection of energy) and perception (the raw sensory data sent to the brain)

define sensation

the detection of physical energy by our sense organs, which send that information to the brain.

define perception

the brain's interpretation of raw sensory data

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

our senses _________ the information our brain recieves

encodes

sensation and perception are related, but _____________ events

seperate

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

audition (hearing) works by sending _________, causing changes in _____________ in the ear canal

vibrations, air pressure

pressure of a surface against the skin signals its _______, ________, and _____________

shape, texture, and temperature

molecules dispersed in the air, or dissolved in saliva, reveal what?

the identity of substances that we may or may not want to eat

what is psychophysics

the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics

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

the smallest amount of stimulus change we can detect is called the

Just Noticeable Difference

what law describes that, the stronger the stimulus, the great the change needed for a detectable difference

WEBERS LAW

The signal detection theory describes how stimuli are detected under different conditions amid

environmental "noise"

_______________ is described as the sensitivity to prolonged stimulation __________ over time as an organism adapts to its conditions

sensory adaptation, declining

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

the choice of which sensory input to focus on and which to "turn down" is called

selective attention

The cocktail-party effect refers to

the ability to focus one's attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli

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

sclera is the

white portion of the eye

iris is the

colored portion of the eye that controls how much light enters the eye

pupil is the

hole where light enters the eye

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 process of the lens changing shape to help focus near or far is called

accommodation

photoreceptors that detect color, operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail are called

cones

photoreceptors that become active under low-light conditions for night vision care called

rods

the two types of photoreceptor cells are

cones - color, daylight, fine detail rods - low light, black and white, "night vision"

the photoreceptor type cones are found in the ________ of the retina and have an abundance of _______ million

center, 6 million

the photoreceptor type rods are found in the ________ of the retina and have an abundance of _______ million

periphery, 120 milion

the are of the retina where vision is the clearest is called the fovea, there are no ______ here, only ______

no rods, only cones

different theories of color perception explain different aspects of our ability to

detect color

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

what theory is based off 3 antagonistic colors, and who's it by

Opponent Process Theory, Hering - red/green - blue/yellow - black/white

what are the two light theories called that you focused on in class

Trichromatic Theory and Opponent Process Theory

sound waves ___________ and ____________ air molecule, causing change in air pressure

compress & expand

low frequency means the pitch is

low

high frequency means the pitch is

high

the semicircular canal plays a role in

balance

the eardrum _______ in response to sound waves

vibrates

the _________ converts vibration into neural activity

cochlea

the flexible out flap of the ear is called the

Pinna

what are the 5 basic tastes

sweet, salty, sour, bitter, unami

unlike receptors for sight and hearing, taste receptors _____________________

replenish themselves, however number of taste buds diminishes over time

the combination of taste and smell makes

flavor

smell is intimately related to _____________ and __________ behavior

emotional, social

odorant molecules travel through the nose to the _____________________, where they bind to receptors

olfactory epithelium

receptor cells that initiate the sense of smell are called

Olfactory Receptor Neurons

biochemical odorants emitted by other members of its species that can affect an animals behavior or physiology are called

Pheromones