Chapter 2: Sensation & Perception Flashcards
Sensation
“Sensation more appropriately aligns with transduction, which is the conversion of physical, electromagnetic, auditory, and other information from our internal and external environment to electrical signals in the nervous system.”
Perception
The processing of sensory information to make sense of its significance.
Sensory Receptors
Nerves that respond to stimuli and trigger electrical signals.
Sensory Ganglia
Collections of cell bodies outside the central nervous system. Sensory ganglia help transmit data to the CNS.
Common Types of Sensory Receptors
Photoreceptors (sight), hair cells (hearing), nociceptors (pain), thermoreceptors, osmoreceptors (osmolarity of the blood), olfactory (smell) receptors, and taste receptors.
Absolute Threshold
The minimum of stimulus energy that is needed to activate a sensory system.
Threshold of Conscious Perception
The minimum of stimulus energy that will create a signal large enough in size and long enough in duration to be brought into awareness.
Difference threshold or Just-Noticeable Difference (JND)
Minimum difference in magnitude between two stimuli before one can perceive this difference.
What is the difference between Absolute threshold and Conscious Perception threshold?
A stimulus below the absolute threshold will not be transduced, and thus never reaches the central nervous system. A stimulus below the threshold of conscious perception arrives at the central nervous system, but does not reach the higher-order brain regions that control attention and consciousness.
Weber’s Law
States that the jnd for a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus, and that this proportion is constant over most of the range of possible stimuli.
Thus, for higher magnitude stimuli, the actual difference must be larger to produce a jnd.
Extremely high and low ends of each range must have larger differences.
Signal detection theory
Refers to the effects of nonsensory factors, such as experiences, motives, and expectations, on perception of stimuli.
What does signal detection experiments allow us to look at?
Response bias. In a signal detection experiment, a stimulus may or may not be given, and the subject is asked to state whether or not the stimulus was given.
There are four possible outcomes: hits, misses, false alarms, or correct negatives.
What are trials in which a signal is presented? Without a signal?
With signal = Catch trial.
Without signal = Noise trial.
Possible Outcomes from a Signal Detection Experiment Trial
Hits, in which the subject correctly perceives the signal.
Misses, in which the subject fails to perceive a given signal.
False alarms, in which the subject seems to perceive a signal when none was given.
Correct negatives, in which the subject correctly identifies that no signal was given.
A significant proportion of misses or false alarms gives an indication of response bias in the subject.
Adaptation
Refers to a decrease in response to a stimulus over time.
Cornea
Gathers and filters incoming light.
Iris
The iris is the colored part of the eye. The iris contains the dilator pupillae, which opens the pupil under sympathetic stimulation; and the constrictor pupillae, which constricts the pupil under parasympathetic stimulation.
Ciliary muscle
Contraction of the ciliary muscle, a component of the ciliary body, is under parasympathetic control. As the muscle contracts, it pulls on the suspensory ligaments and changes the shape of the lens, a phenomenon known as accommodation.
