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Psychology > Chapter 4 Quiz-sensation And Perception > Flashcards

Chapter 4 Quiz-sensation And Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

What is an illusion

A

Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn’t match its physical reality

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2
Q

What is sensation?

A

Detection of physical energy by sense organs(including eyes,ears,skin,nose and tongue), which then send information to the brain
-the process by which your sensory receptors(ex. photoreceptors) and nervous system receive stimulus energies from our environment

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3
Q

Describe the perceptual process called filling-in

A

Occurs without our awareness. The brain’s capacity for dealing with inexplicable gaps in a visual image.
-Our brains have the tendency to fill in gaps to perceive an incomplete pattern or object as complete or whole.

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4
Q

What is transduction

A

The process by which the nervous system converts an external stimulus/energy, like light or sound, into electrical energy/activity within neutrons

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5
Q

What is a sense receptor

A

Specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system.
Ex. Specialized cells in the backs of the eye transduce light

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6
Q

What is sensory adaptation

A

Process in which activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected. After that, our response declines in strength
Ex. After we sit in a chair we no longer notice it(unless it an extremely hard seat)

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7
Q

What is psychophysics?

A

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

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8
Q

What is absolute threshold

A

Lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time

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9
Q

Explain the just noticeable difference (JND)

A

The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect. The JND is relevant to our ability to distinguish a stronger from a weaker stimulus, like a soft noise from a slightly louder noise

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10
Q

What is the Webers law?

A

Principle saying that there is a constant proportional relationship between the JND and original stimulus intensity.
-the stronger the stimulus, the bigger the change needed for a change in stimulus intensity to be noticeable.

Ex. Imagine how much light we’d need to add to a brightly lit kitchen to notice an increase in illumination compared to the amount of light we’d need to add to a dark bedroom to notice a change in illumination

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11
Q

What is the signal detection theory developed by David Green and John Swets?

A

Theory regarding how much stimuli are detected under different conditions.
Ex-trying to figure out what a friend is saying on a cell phone when there’s a lot of static in the connection-that is when there’s a high background noise

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12
Q

What is the signal-to-noise-ratio?

A

Ratio where It becomes harder to detect a signal as background noise increases

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13
Q

What are response biases?

A

tendencies to make one type of guess over another when we’re in doubt about whether a weak signal is present or absent under noisy conditions

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14
Q

In signal detection theory, what are the 4 possible responses a subject may have when asked “was there a stimulus”?

A 
True positive(Hit)- report that they heard a sound when it was present
False negative(Miss)-deny hearing a sound when it was present 
False positive(false alarm)-report hearing a sound when there wasn't one
True negative(Correct rejection)-deny hearing a sound when there wasn't one
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15
Q

What helps us measure how biased people are to respond “yes” or “no” to the question “was there a stimuli” in general?

A

The frequency of false negatives and false positives that the subjects respond

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16
Q

State the doctrine of specific nerve energies proposed by Johannes Müller

A

States that even though there are many distinct stimulus energies-like light, sound, or touch-the sensation we experience is determined by the nature of the sense receptors, not the stimulus
-ex. it doesn’t mater to our brain whether light or touch activated the sense receptor:our brains react the same way in either case

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17
Q

Give an example of a cross-modal process

A

Ex. The McGurk effect

  • we integrate visual and auditory information when processing spoken language and our brains automatically calculate the most probable sound given the info from the two sources
  • hearing the audio syllable “ba” while seeing a video track of a different syllable “ga” produces the perceptual experience of a third sound such as “da”
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18
Q

What is synesthesia

A

A rare condition in which people experience cross-modal sensations, like hearing sounds when they see colours

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19
Q

What is the filter theory of attention and how was it tested?

A

This mental theory enables us to pay attention to important stimuli and ignore others. This theory is tested using a task called dichotic listening(people hear 2 diff messages, one in left ear another in right, and are asked to ignore messages in one)
-however, the info we’ve supposedly filtered out of our attention is still being processed at some level(even when we’re unaware of it)

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20
Q

What is the cocktail party effect?

A

Refers to our ability to pick out an important message, like our name, in a conversation that doesn’t involve us

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21
Q

What is inattentional blindness

A

Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere

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22
Q

What is change blindness

A

The failure to detect obvious changes in ones environment

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23
Q

What does hue mean?

A

Colour if light

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24
Q

What are the primary colours

A

Blue, red, green

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25
Q

What is the sclera, iris and pupil? 👁

A

Sclera- the white of the eye
Iris-coloured area containing muscles that control the pupil
Pupil- opening in the centre of the iris that lets in light

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26
Q

Why do our pupils dilate and constrict?

A

Due to a reflex response to light or objects coming toward us.

  • if you are in a bright area, eyes respond with the pupillary reflex to decrease the amount of light allowed into them.
  • pupils also dilate when we’re trying to process complex problems or view physically attractive people (often people find faces with large pupils more attractive than faces with small pupils)
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27
Q

What is the cornea?

A

A curved, transparent layer covering the iris and pupil. It’s shape bends incoming light to focus the incoming visual image at the back of the eye

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28
Q

What is the lens (of our eye)?

A

Transparent disk that bends light, but unlike the cornea, the lens changes its curvature allowing us to fine-tune the visual image(focuses light rays for near or far Vision)

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29
Q

What is the process called accommodation that occurs in the eyes? 👀

A

The lens changes shape to focus light on the back of the eyes. They adapt to different perceived distances of objects (“internal” corrective lenses)
-accommodation either makes the lens flat(far sighted) or fat (near sighted)

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30
Q

What is myopia and hyperopia?

A

Myopia-nearsightedness(inability to see far objects), results when images are focused in front of the retina
hyperopia- farsightedness(inability to see near objects), results when images are focused behind the retina, our cornea is too flat

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31
Q

What is presbyopia?

A

The loss of flexibility in the lens due to aging

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32
Q

What is the retina and acuity and the fovea?

A

The retina is the thin innermost layer/membrane at the back of the eye where incoming light is converted into nerve impulses. It contains sense receptor cells for vision and cells that process visual info and send it to brain.
The fovea is the central part of the retina and It is responsible for acuity(sharpness of vision)

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33
Q

What are rods and cones?

A

Rods- receptor cells(long and narrow) in the retina allowing us to see in low levels of light. There are no rods in the fovea
Cones-receptor cells that are less numerous than rods that allow us to see in colour. Require more light than rods do

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34
Q

What is dark adaptation

A

When we enter a dimly lit room from a bright environment, dark adaptation occurs
-takes about 30 mins or the time it takes rods to regain their maximum sensitivity to light

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35
Q

What is the optic nerve?

A

Travels from the retina to the brain by a bundle of axons of ganglion cells. When optic nerves enter the brain, they turn into optic tracts and send most of their axons to the visual part of the thalamus and then the primary visual cortex(V1) *primary route for visual perception

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36
Q

What is the blind spot

A

The place where the optic nerve connects to the retina. Part of the visual field that we can’t see.

  • region of the retina containing no rods and totally devoid of sense receptors
  • our brain fills in the gaps created by the blind spot
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37
Q

What is feature detection and what are feature detector cells?

A

Feature detection is our ability to use certain minimal patterns to identify objects.
-feature detection cells are cells that detects lines and edges. There are more complex FDC’s at higher-that is, later-levels of visual processing

38
Q

What is the trichromatic theory?

A

Idea that colour vision is based on our sensitivity to three primary colours.
-It dovetails with our three kinds of cones, each maximally sensitive to a different wavelength of light

39
Q

What is colour blindness? Monochromats? Dichromats? Trichromats?

A

The inability to see some or all colours. Most often due to the absence or reduced number of one or more types of cones(genetic abnormalities)

  • monochromats=only have 1 type of cone and thereby lose all colour vision
  • dichromats=have 2 cones, can see most colours
  • trichomats= have 3 kinds of cones, see all colours
40
Q

What is the opponent process theory? What are afterimages?

A

Theory that we precise colours in terms of three pairs of opponent colours: either red or green, blue or yellow, and black or white
-afterimages occur when we stare at one colour for a long time and then look away and see the same image in s diff colour. This appears in complementary colours, which illustrates opponent processing

41
Q

What are the main cases of blindness?

A

Cadaracts-a clouding of the lens of the eye

Glaucoma-a disease that causes pressure on the eye and damages the optic nerve

42
Q

What is blindsight?

A

The ability of blind people with damage to their cortex to make correct guesses about the appearance of things around them.
-possible for humans to use echolocation

43
Q

What is visual agnosia

A

A deficit in perceiving objects- people can tell the shape and colour of an object but can’t recognize or name it

44
Q

What is audition?

A

Our sense of hearing. Next to vision, hearing is probably the sensory modality we rely on most to acquire information about our world

45
Q

What is sound?

A

Vibration, a kind of mechanical energy travelling through a medium, usually air. The disturbance created by vibration of molecules of air produces sound waves 🌊

46
Q

What is pitch?

A

Corresponds to the frequency of a wave. Higher frequency corresponds to higher pitch, and vice versa.

  • pitch is measured in cycles per second, or Hz
  • younger people are more sensitive to higher pitch tones than older adults
47
Q

What is loudness?

A

The amplitude or height of a sound wave corresponds to loudness(measured in bB)

48
Q

What is timbre?

A

Refers to the quality or complexity of the sound

49
Q

Describe the outer part of the ear

A

Outer- consists of the pinna(part of the ear we see-skin and cartilage flap), and the ear canal.
-has the simplest function; it funnels sound waves onto the eardrum

50
Q

Describe the middle part of the ear 👂🏼

A

Middle- contains the the ossicles, which are the tree tiniest bones in the body named the malleus, incus and stapes(hammer, anvil and stirrup)
-ossicles vibrate at the frequency of the sound wave, transmitting it from the eardrum to the inner ear

51
Q

Describe the inner part of the ear

A

Inner- once sound waves enter the inner ear, the cochlea(bony,spiral shaped sense organ) converts vibration into neural activity.

52
Q

What is the organ of Corti and the basilar membrane?

A

Organ of Corti-tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing
Basilar membrane- membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in the cochlea

53
Q

How does transduction of auditory information take place?

A

When sound waves travel through the cochlea, the resulting pressure deflects the cilia in the hair cells(contained in the organ of Corti), exciting the hair cells. The information feeds into the auditory nerve, which travels to the brain through the thalamus(sensory relay station)

54
Q

What is the place theory?

A

A specific place/hair along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch
-accounts only for our perception of high pitched tones

55
Q

What is the frequency theory?

A

Rate at which neurons fire action potentials reproduces the pitch. (High rate of firing=higher frequency)
-one route to perceiving low-pitched tones. The other is the volley theory(variation of the frequency theory but more complicated, works for tones between 100-5000hz, sets of neurons fire together)

56
Q

Describe the following

  1. Conductive deafness
  2. Nerve deafness
  3. Noise-induced deafness
A
  1. Loss of hearing due to malfunctioning of the ear, especially failure of the eardrum or ossicles
  2. Deafness due to damage to the auditory nerve
  3. Deafness due to loud noises, accompanied by tinnitus(a ringing, roaring, hissing or buzzing sound in the ear)
57
Q

What is olfaction and gustation?

A

Olfaction- our sense of smell

Gustation-our sense of taste

58
Q

What are Odours?

A

Airborne chemicals that interact with receptors in the lining of our nasal passage

59
Q

What are the 5 basic tastes we are sensitive to?

A

Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami(meaty)

60
Q

How are action potentials in olfactory neurons triggered

A

When olfactory receptors come into contact with odour molecules (AP takes place)

61
Q

What are taste buds?

A

Sense receptor in the tongue that responds to different tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami and perhaps fat)

62
Q

With only 5 or 6 taste receptors, why do we taste so many flavours

A

Our taste perception is biased strongly by our sense of smell which explains why we find certain foods “delicious” because of their smell.

63
Q

What is a superstar (when it comes to taste)

A

People who have an over abundance of taste buds -about 25% of people

64
Q

Define pheromones

A

Odourless chemicals that serve as social signals to members of ones species-that alter sexual behaviour.

  • vomeronasal organ helps to detect pheromones in many mammals
  • some say it doesn’t affect humans because the vomeronasal organ(located in bone between nose and mouth) doesn’t develop in humans
65
Q

What’s the most critical function of our chemical senses?

A

To sample food before we swallow it

66
Q

What plays a key role in our smell and taste perception?

A

The limbic system

Ex. The amygdala helps us to distinguish pleasant from disgusting smells

67
Q

What is the somatosensory system?

A

System we use for our sense of touch, temperature and pain

68
Q

How does our body sense light touch, deep pressure and temperature?

A

With mechanoreceptors-nerve endings located on the ends of sensory nerves in the skin
-free nerve endings also sense touch, temperature and especially pain

69
Q

What is the gate control model?

A

Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in the spinal cord.

  • proposes that the stimulation we experience competes with and blocks the pain from consciousness
  • because pain demands attention, distraction is an effective way of short-circuiting painful sensations
70
Q

What is phantom pain

A

Pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb

71
Q

What is proprioception

A

Also called our kinesthetic sense, helps us keep track of where we are and move efficiently.

  • our sense of body position
  • works with our vestibular sense(equilibrium or balance)
72
Q

What is our vestibular sense

A
  • also called our sense of equilibrium, enables us to sense and maintain our balance as we move about.
  • our sense of equilibrium or balance
  • works together with proprioception(sense of body position)
73
Q

How do we sense motion? And what are the semicircular canals?

A

We sense motion when the semicircular canals detect movement and gravity.
-the semicircular canals are three fluid filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance

74
Q

What is the field of psychology called human factors?

A

They optimize technology to better suit our sensory and perceptual capabilities

75
Q

What are bottom-up and top-down processes?

A

Bottom-up: processing in which a whole stimulus is constricted from its parts

Top-down: conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectations

*two kinds of processing work hand in hand

76
Q

What is a perceptual set?

A

Set formed when expectations influence perceptions-an example of top-down processing

77
Q

What is perceptual constancy? And what are the 3 kinds of perceptual consistency?

A

The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions.
-there are shape, colour, and size constancy

78
Q

What are Gestalts 6 main principles of perception?

A
  1. Proximity
  2. Similarity
  3. Continuity
  4. Closure
  5. Symmetry
  6. Figure-ground
79
Q

What is the phi phenomenon

A

The illusory perception of movement produced by the successive flashing of images

80
Q

What is motion blindness?

A

A serious disorder in which patients can’t seamlessly string still images processed by their brains into the perception of ongoing motion.

81
Q

What is depth perception

A

The ability to judge distance and spatial relations in three dimensions

82
Q

What are the two kinds of cues to gauge depth?

A
  1. Monocular Depth Cues- stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye
  2. Binocular depth cues-stimuli that enable us to judge depth using both eyes
83
Q

What are the six pictorial cues to help us perceive depth (monocular cues rely on pictorial cues) (pg. 154)

A
  1. Relative size
  2. Texture gradient
  3. Interposition
  4. Linear perspective-vanishing point, impossible figures
  5. Height in plane
  6. Light and shadow
84
Q

What is motion parallax

A

A monocular depth cue that’s not pictorial. It is the ability to judge the distance of moving objects from their speed

85
Q

What are the 2 cues of binocular depth cues

A
  1. Binocular disparity-
  2. Binocular Convergence- when looking at nearby objects we focus on them reflexively by using our eye muscles to turn our eyes inward(convergence),
    - our brains are aware of how much our eyes are converging and we use this info to estimate distance
86
Q

What is perception

A

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information
- enables us to recognize meaningful objects and events
Perception=(sensation + interpretation)

87
Q

What is criterion?

A

The amount of energy needed to detect a stimulus/ for a “yes” response

88
Q

What are 4 cognitive factors that affect the criterion(d’)

A
  1. Alertness- more alert=lower d’
  2. Expectation- expected=lower d’
  3. Familiarity- familiar=lower d’j
  4. Motivation- motivated=lower d’
    * all lower criterion(d’) but also make you more likely to have a false alarm
89
Q

What are the three dimensions of light and what is the range of the visual spectrum?

A
  1. Hue-the dominant wavelength
  2. Saturation-purity
  3. Brightness- intensity(light/dark)

Range: 380-760nm (varies between species and people)

90
Q

Describe the geniculostriate pathway( the main pathway for vision) -7 steps

A
  1. Retina( transduction of light stimulus)
  2. Optic nerve(Axon that leaves back of eye and has info from one eye)
  3. Optic Chiasm (half of axons cross over to the other side)
  4. Optic tract (has info from one visual field)
  5. Thalamus (*lateral geniculate nucleus)
  6. Optic radiation (brings info from thalamus to primary visual cortex)
  7. Primary visual cortex(VI)- then to the striate cortex
91
Q

Describe the steps for the Tectopulviner pathway(works unconsciously)

A
  • ## following destruction of V1, the Geniculostriate pathway is impaired(blind), however the pathway is still intact and object location is perceived (blindsight)
    1. Eyes send projections to the tectum(superior colliculus)
    2. These projections go to the pulvinar nucleus(thalamus)
    3. Then to the parietal lobe
      *bypasses the primary visual cortex
92
Q

What is the function of nociceptors

A

Respond to intense pressure, extreme temperature(45°), burning chemicals that can damage skin

Psychology (10 decks)

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