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chapter 3 Flashcards

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1
Q

what is sensation?

A

when our senses react to stimuli

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2
Q

what is perception?

A

to understand and analyze through our senses

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3
Q

what is stimulus?

A

Energy that produces a response in a sense organ.

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4
Q

what is psychophysics?

A

The study of the relationship between the physical aspects of stimuli and our psychological experience of them.

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5
Q

What is the absolute threshold?

A

smallest amount of a stimulus we can detect

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6
Q

what is the difference threshold?

A

minimal difference needed to detect a stimulus change (JND)

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7
Q

what is sensory adaptation?

A

adapting to when our sensory receptors have been exposed to stimuli for a long time

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8
Q

when does sensory adaptation happen?

A

Happens when people become familiar to a stimulus and change their frame of reference

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9
Q

what does our brain do to stimulation?

A

our brain mentally turns down the volume

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10
Q

what does sensory adaptation prevent us from doing?

A

having to continuously respond to unimportant

information

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11
Q

what is selective attention?

A

a process that allows a person to select and focus on particular input for further processing whole simultaneously suppressing irrelevant information

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12
Q

what is inattention blindness?

A

the failure to noice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task

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13
Q

what does vision start with?

A

Starts with light, the physical energy that stimulates the eye

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14
Q

what is light?

A

electromagnetic energy that moves in waves. Measured in wavelengths

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15
Q

what does the size of the wave correspond to?

A

to different types of energy

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16
Q

what is the visual spectrum?

A

the range of wavelengths that humans are sensitive to (its small).

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17
Q

what are rods?

A

more numerous and more sensitive to light, enable us to see in dim light, however, we compromise our color vision and fine detail.

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18
Q

what are cones?

A

allow us to see in color and fine detail, most sensitive in brightly lit conditions

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19
Q

what is dark adaptation?

A

the phenomenon of adjusting to dim light after being in bright light.

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20
Q

what is feature detection?

A

The activation of neurons in the cortex by visual stimuli of specific shapes or patterns. Found that some cells are activated only by lines of a particular width, shape or orientation.

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21
Q

what is Trichromatic theory of colour vision?

A

color perception results from mixing three distinct color systems (red, green, and blue)

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22
Q

what does the trichromatic theory of colour vision suggest?

A

that there are three kinds of cones in the retina

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23
Q

what is perception of colour influenced by?

A

by the relative strength with each of the three kinds of cones activated
Talks about colour blindness

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24
Q

what is the opponent process theory of colour vision?

A

The theory that receptor cells for colour are linked in pairs, working in opposition to each other.

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25
Q

what is sound?

A

movement of air molecules in a particular wave pattern.

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26
Q

sounds arriving at the outer ear in the form of wave like vibrations are funnelled into where?

A

the auditory canal (leads to the eardrum)

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27
Q

what do sound waves vary in?

A

length (wavelength)

height (amplitude): distinguish between loud and soft sounds

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28
Q

what are low frequencies translated into?

A

into a sound that is very low in pitch

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29
Q

what is the lowest frequency that humans are capable of hearing?

A

20 cycles per second

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30
Q

how many separate smells can we detect?

A

10,000

31
Q

what are the four tastes?

A

sweet, sour, salty and bitter

32
Q

do taste buds replace themselves?

A

Replace every 10 days because we would lose our ability to taste after we burn our tongues

33
Q

what do skin senses involve?

A

touch (or pressure), temperature, and pain. Operate through nerve receptor cells

34
Q

are skin senses evenly distributed throughout the body?

A

no

35
Q

what are illusions?

A

false or misleading perceptions help scientists study the processes of perception (e.g., the horizontal-vertical illusion)

36
Q

selection involves which three factors?

A

Selective Attention
Feature Detectors
Habituation

37
Q

what is organization (understanding perception)?

A

assembling of information into patterns that help us understand the world

38
Q

what do we organize sensor information in terms of?

A

Form
Constancy
Depth
Color

39
Q

what are the different things of form perception?

A

figure and ground, proximity, continuity, closure, similarity, simplicity

40
Q

what is proximity?

A

we perceive elements that are closer together as grouped together. We tend to see pairs of dots rather than a row of single dots

41
Q

what is closure?

A

we usually group elements to form enclosed or complete figures rather than open ones

42
Q

what is simplicity?

A

we perceive it in the most basic, straightforward matter that we can

43
Q

what is top down processing?

A

Perception that is guided by higher-level knowledge, experience, expectations, and motivations.

44
Q

what is bottom up processing?

A

Perception that consists of the progression of recognizing and processing information from individual components of a stimuli and moving to the perception of the whole.

45
Q

what does bottom up processing let us process?

A

the fundamental characteristics of stimuli

46
Q

what is figure ground?

A

is the most fundamental principal of gestalt psychology

47
Q

what is the essential point of gestalt?

A

gestalt is that in perception the whole is different from the sum of its parts

48
Q

what is perceptual constancy?

A

The phenomenon in which physical objects are perceived as unvarying and consistent despite changes in their appearance or in the physical environment.

49
Q

what are the four best known constancies?

A

size, shape, colour, brightness

50
Q

what we believe can affect what?

A

what we perceive

51
Q

what can influence perceptions of sensory information?

A

emotions (fear)

52
Q

we are more likely to perceive what?

A

something when we need it

53
Q

what is depth perception?

A

from 2d-3d

54
Q

what is binocular disparity?

A

the difference in the images seen by the left eye and the right eye

55
Q

what does depth perception involve?

A

both binocular (two eyes) and monocular (one eye) cues.

56
Q

what is motion parallax?

A

: is the change in position of an object on the retina caused by the movement of your body relative to the object

57
Q

what are the two binocular cues for depth?

A

Retinal disparity

Convergence

58
Q

what are the six monocular depth cues?

A

linear perspective, interposition, relative size, texture gradient, aeiral perspective, light and shadow

59
Q

what is linear perspective?

A

estimating distance, allowing the two dimensional image on the retina to record the three dimensional world (parallel lines, think of a road)

60
Q

what is relative size?

A

if two objects are the same size, the one that makes a smaller image on the retina is farther away than is the one that provides a larger image

61
Q

what is texture gradient

A

provides information about distance because the details of things that are far away are less distinct

62
Q

what is perceptual adaptation?

A

brain adapts to changed environments

63
Q

what is perceptual set?

A

readiness to perceive in a particular manner, based on expectations

64
Q

what is frame of reference?

A

based on the context of the situation

65
Q

what is aerial perspective?

A

Objects that are farther away seem to be blurred or slightly hazy due to the atmosphere

66
Q

what is interposition?

A

When one object overlaps another, the object that is partially obscured is perceived as being farther away

67
Q

what is light and shadow?

A

Objects that are darkened and obscured may appear further off in the distance than those that are brightly lit

68
Q

what is perceptual constancy?

A

is theperceptionof an object or quality as constant even though oursensationof the object changes

69
Q

what is shape constancy?

A

Regardless of changes to an object’s orientation (such as a door opening), the shape of the object is perceived the same

70
Q

what is brightness constancy?

A

Light-colored things look light, even in dimly lit surroundings. Dark-colored things look dark, even on the brightest days

71
Q

what is colour constancy?

A

Color constancy is the tendency of objects to appear the same color even under changing illumination (eg: yellow banana in sunlight vs. our kitchen with the lights off)

72
Q

How Do People Distinguish Between Figure and Ground?

A

size, contract, blurriness and separation

73
Q

what is weber law?

A

when talking about difference thresholds there is a constant proportion of intensity of an initial stimulus that causes the difference.

psychology test 2 (1 decks)

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