Chapter 3 I Flashcards
What is “synesthesia”?
A sensory experience in on domain accompanied by a sensory experience in another.
What is “emotional synesthesia”?
Specific stimuli are constantly and involuntarily associated with emotional responses.
What is “Grapheme-colour synesthesia”?
Words, letters or digits are associated with specific colours.
What does synesthesia show about the brain?
May reflect hyper-connectivity between parts of the brain associate with different sensory experiences.
Research shows synesthesia may be genetically associated with?
Absolute/perfect pitch.
What is “sensation”?
Stimulation of sense organs. (The absorption of energy.)
What is “perception”?
The selection, organization and interpretation of the sensory input. (Turning input into something meaningful.)
What is “psychophysics”?
The study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experiences.
Who was a particularly important contributor to psychophysics?
Gustav Fechner (1860), worked at University of Leipzeg.
Sensation begins with a ___?
Stimulus. (Any detectable input from the environment.)
What is a “threshold”?
A dividing point between energy levels that do and do not have a detectable effect.
What is an “absolute threshold” for a specific sensory input?
The minimum amount of stimulation that an organism can detect. Define the boundaries of an organism’s sensory capabilities.
As stimulus increases, subject’s probability of responding to that stimuli ______ _______?
Gradually increases.
Through research what was discovered of the “absolute threshold”?
It was arbitrarily defined as the intensity level at which the probability of detection is 50%.
What is a “JND”?
Just Noticeable Difference. The smallest difference in the amount of stimulation that a specific sense can detect.
What is the difference between the absolute threshold and the JND?
The absolute threshold is the JND from nothing.
What does “Weber’s Law” state?
The size of the JND is a constant proportion of the size of the initial stimulus. (Weber fraction.)
What does “signal-detection” theory propose?
That the detection of stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes which are both influenced by a variety of factors. (ie: Possible enemy aircraft simulation in textbook 131)
Responses will depend on the _____ you set for how sure you must feel before you react.
Criterion.
According to signal-detection theory, your performance will also depend on the level of ____?
Noise.
What is “noise”?
All of the irrelevant stimuli in the environment and neural activity they elicit. More noise = harder to pick up signal.
Signal detection theory replaces Fechner’s sharp threshold with the concept of _____?
Detectability.
What is “subliminal perception”?
The registration of sensory input without conscious awareness.
Karremans, Stroebe and Claus’ (2006) study used what to test subliminal messaging?
Lipton Iced Tea. Subliminal presentations at 23/1000 second were shown for half of the subjects. All subjects were later monitored and exposed to Lipton iced tea.
Subliminal stimulation generally produces ____? That can only be detected how and where?
Weak effects. Can only be detected under precise measurement in carefully controlled laboratory conditions.
What is “sensory adaptation” ?
A gradual decline in sensitivity due to prolonged stimulation.
Why does sensory adaptation likely exist?
To keep people tuned into the changes rather than the constants.
Light waves vary in ___ and ___.
Amplitude (height) and wavelength (distance between peaks).
Amplitude of light affects what?
The perception of brightness.
Wavelength of light affects what?
The perception of colour.
Eyes serve what 2 main purposes?
- They channel light to the neural tissue that receives it, the retina.
- They house that tissue.
Where does light enter the eye?
The cornea.
What is the significance of the “lens”?
The transparent part of the eye that focuses the light ray falling on the retina.
What is “accommodation”?
This occurs when the curvature of the lens adjusts to alter visual focus.
What happens to the lens when you focus on a close object?
Lens gets fatter and rounder to give a clear image.
Explain “nearsightedness”?
Close objects are seen clearly but distant ones often appear blurry. Due to the cornea bending light too much or the eyeball being too long.