Chapter 4- Sensation and Perception

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

the detection of sensory stimuli by the sensory organs..ex) looking at a traffic green light is due to sensory receptors that detect it

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

the organization, identification, and interpretation of the sensory stimuli…what we perceive is the result of what we sense..ex)the green traffic light is understood and percieved to be a sign of continuing to drive.

Question 3

Transduction

Answer 3

first step of sensation is sensory coding, which involves Transduction..which is when external stimulus is changed into chemical and elecrical signals that the brain can interepret.

Question 4

Qualitative processing

Answer 4

the quality of a stimulus…ex the sweetness vs salty of something

Question 5

quantitative

Answer 5

the magnitude of the qualities, they are detected by different firing rates..ex) the relative degree of saltiness or sweetness

Question 6

Psychophysics

Answer 6

develped by weber, fechner, helmholtz,…it is the psychological expereince of physical stimul

Question 7

Sensory thresholds-absolute threshold

Answer 7

the minimum intensity needed before experiencing a sensation @ least half of the time,,,,So its the stimuli intensity you would detect more often then by chance.Ex–1taaspoon of sugar in 2gal of water

Question 8

sublimal(below the threshold) perception

Answer 8

perception of a stimuli that doesn’t meet the absolute sensory threshold.

Question 9

Difference threshold

Answer 9

the minimum amount of difference btw two stimuli so that you can notice the difference…(just noticeable diff.(JND..Ex-..difference btw a show your friend is watching and a commercial, while you read a book….webers law argued they must differ by a constant minimum %.

Question 10

Signal detection theory

Answer 10

Due to how detection of a stimulus requires making a judgement based on presence or absense of it,this detection may depend on a persons experiences, expectations alertness, and motivation….therfore subjective. if hit=detects a presnt stimuli, miss, doesnt detect a present stimuli, false alarm detects an absent stimui, and correct rejection doesnt detect cuz not there

Question 11

sensory adaptation

Answer 11

detection decrease overtime of a stimuli present @ constant levels allowing focus on informative changes—-example if you live near an airport the loudness becomes usual and your sense don’t really don’t detect it because you adapted to that noise

Question 12

Gustation-(Basic sensory processes)

Answer 12

the sense of taste..where chemicals are dissolved in your mouth and picked up by receptors or organs(taste buds) that compose an experience from 5 basic tastes-sour, bitter, sweet, salty, umanii throughout ….the entire taste experience occurs not in your mouth but in your brain…taste relies heavily on the sense of smell(when you get sick you cant taste because you cant really smell)

Question 13

olfaction

Answer 13

sense of smell, closesly related to snese of taste, and has a direct route to the brain, so doesnt go through the thalamus. but the smell intensity is processed in brain areas involved with emotion and memory..(reason smells remind us)

Question 14

haptic sense

Answer 14

sense of tempwarm, cold) pressureat base of hair follices, and pain(receptors everywheere)..where skin is the largest sensoryreception

Question 15

Audition sense-hearing

Answer 15

hearing, and second to vision as a source of info,..movement of hair cells transmits neural signal to auditory nerve

Question 16

Sound Wave-wavelength, Amplitude, Frequency

Answer 16

WL- distance ofrom a point on a wave to same point on the next wave….ampl is the height of the wave, it determines intensity(volume)b/c higher amp higher louder sound, Frequency-# of wavelengths in a given time period, determines pitch.

Question 17

Pinna(ear structure)

Answer 17

place in ear where the sound waves enter to move down the ear canal

Question 18

tympanic membrane:(ear drum)

Answer 18

sound wave makes the ear drum vibrate, which in turn causes the ossicles vibrate

Question 19

ossicles

Answer 19

contain the hammer, anvilm and stirrup, .the ear drum causes it to vibrate and this then makes the oval window vibrate, creating waves in the cochlear fluid(snail looking area)

Question 20

cornea

Answer 20

the eyes thick transparant layer, through whihch the light reaches the eye and is focused

Question 21

pupil

Answer 21

takes role of dertmininh how much light enters eye by dilating and contracting

Question 22

Iris

Answer 22

colored part of the ey that controls the puil movement

Question 23

retina

Answer 23

inner surface at back of the eye that has neurons that transduce light….to right o optic nerve..photoreceptor(rods & cones), bipolar cells, ganglion cells,,,to left of optic nerve

Question 24

Photreceptors-rods & cones

Answer 24

rods are found in periphery, resond to low light and help with night vision…..cones are found in center, respond to high light, color vision, and visual acuity, the fovea is packed with these cones

Question 25

Bipolar cells

Answer 25

cells in the retina that collect neural signals dfrom the rods and cones and then pass on to retinal gangluaon cells

Question 26

ganglion cells

Answer 26

cells that come itno contact with th ef rist neruons in the visual pathway with axons, They collect and organize neural signals to be sent to optic nerve

Question 27

optic nerve

Answer 27

through which neural signals are transmitted to the brain. the optic nerve leaves the eye through hole called blind spot(no rods nor cones)

Question 28

pathway to brain

Answer 28

the right eye and optic nerve signals go to the left visual cortex and the left eye singals go to the right visual cortex

Question 29

kinestetic sense

Answer 29

position of body and limbs in space and in relation to one another

Question 30

vestibular sense

Answer 30

sense of balance…..fluid in our head moves as our head moves

Question 31

gate control theory

Answer 31

says there is a “gate” in the spinal cord allowing pain transmission, small fibers open the gate to let pain go through but large fibers close the gate…showng pain may be perceptual process in the brains..bc you can be distracted and the gates are closed so dont feel pain

Question 32

figure ground

Answer 32

in recognizing any figure the rain assigns the rest of the scene a background…ex..the letters made from looking up at the sky with surrounding skyscrapers.

Question 33

Young=helmholtz trichromatic theory

Answer 33

the eye contains cones sensitive to red, green, blue wavelengths that when stimulated in combo can produce diff colors

Question 34

subtractive color mixing

Answer 34

physical mixing of diff color wavelengths to remove reflective wavelengths..ex mixing paints where pigments absorb some colors of the spectrum and what is reflected are the left colors. the subtractive colors are red, blue and yellow

Question 35

additive color mixing

Answer 35

psychological process ocurring when different wavelengths ineteract or are percieved by the eye within the eyes receptors….ex stage ligths..so we get brighter colors

Question 36

opponent process theory

Answer 36

opposing processes in the retina allow for the perception of colors besides red green blue..but red and green,,are opposite completely bc when neuron is on then green is off and vise versa

Question 37

color constancy

Answer 37

we percieve objects to haea consistent clor even if they are different tones of it -perception is contextual based on surroundings..ex..grass is green even if its night time and it doesnt look green

Question 38

gestalts principles-proximity

Answer 38

the closer two figures are the more likely we are to see them as part of the same object

Question 39

Gestalt-similarity

Answer 39

figures are grouped together depending on how similar they are to each other

Question 40

gestalt-continuation

Answer 40

we interepret ntersecting lines as being continuis rather than individual parts…example a rectangle in the back with a cylinder in the middle…the rectangle is still continuous acc to us

Question 41

gestalt-closure

Answer 41

we mentally complete figures even if there are gaps in their boundaries…ex a triangle with gaps is still seen as a triangle

Question 42

illusory contours

Answer 42

tend to perceive contours(boundary) even when they dont exist…

Question 43

cross race effect

Answer 43

ppl are better at recognizing members of their own race or ethicity

Question 44

prosopaganda

Answer 44

the inability to recognize faced

Question 45

depth perception-monocular, binocular, motion

Answer 45

3d obejcts are only 2d on retina, but are percieved 3d….

Question 46

monocular cue

Answer 46

cues of depth available to each eye alone..such as linear perspective-parallel lines converging in the distance,,,the greater convergence the greater distance perceived..sunset)…..texture gradient=uniform pattern.the smaller the pattern the greater the distance.cherries in big pile

Question 47

binocular cue-retinal disparity

Answer 47

cues of depth perception ariisng from fact that we have 2 eyes…. gathered from slightly diff retinal images from each eye,…the greater the dispartiy btw images the closer object is

Question 48

binocular-convergence

Answer 48

how much the eye turns inward when looking a en object is used to judge the distance to it

Question 49

motion cue-motion parallax

Answer 49

relative moments of objects at varying distance…objects further move slower while those closer zoom by–ex)when we are inside a car looking out a window at the diff objects

Question 50

size, shape, color, lightness constancy

Answer 50

size is same…ex…railroad tracks or ppl behind in the distance are not miniature….shape:door open or closed is still a rectangle..color…depending on background reflected colors look different,,,lightness..leafs are have same lightness even under shade