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Intro to Psychology > Chapter 4: Sensation & Perception > Flashcards

Chapter 4: Sensation & Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

What is bottom-up processing?

A

using small components and building up

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2
Q

What is top-down processing?

A

using the larger components and breaking down (guided by experience and expectations)

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3
Q

Perception

A

influenced by both the raw sensory data that’s coming in, the bottom-up processing, but also the top-down processing, which is where your goals, your schemas, your experiences shape that perception

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4
Q

Sensation

A

process through which senses detect visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain

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5
Q

What are the four attributes common to all senses?

A

transduction, sensory adaptation, receptive fields, and thresholds

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6
Q

What is transduction?

A

process through which sense receptors transform physical stimulation into neural impulses

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7
Q

What is sensory adaptation?

A

the process of becoming less sensitive to unchanging sensory stimulation over time

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8
Q

What are receptive fields?

A

region of space where stimuli affect the activity of a cell in a sensory system

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9
Q

What is two-point discrimination (2PD)?

A

the ability to discern that two nearby objects touching the skin are truly two distinct points

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10
Q

Which of the four attributes is responsible for the way the brain filters out large quantities of sensory information?

A

sensory adaptation

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11
Q

Absolute threshold

A

the lowest percentage you can detect a stimulus half the time

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12
Q

What does it mean when a stimulus is below threshold?

A

it is detected fewer than 50% of the time

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13
Q

What is psychophysics?

A

study of stimulus and the brain’s response

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14
Q

What is the difference threshold?

A

the smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can still be recognized as a difference. Also known as the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)

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15
Q

Weber’s fraction

A

smallest change in the magnitude of a stimulus that can be detected expressed as a proportion to the original stimulus. Calculated as delta I/I =k

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16
Q

Signal detection theory

A

determines that sensation is not just a yes/no

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17
Q

What are the four outcomes as determined by the signal detection theory?

A

hit, false alarm, miss, and correct rejection

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18
Q

What is a hit?

A

there was a signal and it was detected

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19
Q

What is a false alarm?

A

thought there was a signal, but there wasn’t

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20
Q

What is a miss?

A

there was a signal that wasn’t detected

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21
Q

What is a correct rejection?

A

decided there was no signal and are correct

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22
Q

What is the sclera?

A

the mostly white part of the eye that provides protection and structure to the eye

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23
Q

What is the cornea?

A

the membrane that goes around the outside of your eye, which protects the eye and bends incoming light waves

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24
Q

What is the iris?

A

the ring-shaped pigmented muscle tissue in the eye, which changes pupil size to regulate the amount of light that enters your eye

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25
Q

What is the function of the lens in the eye?

A

to focus light in your retina, and change shape depending on how far away an object is

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26
Q

When an object is closer to your face, your lens becomes _____

A

rounder

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27
Q

When an object gets farther away, your lens becomes _____

A

flatter

28
Q

What is the vitreous humor?

A

a clear, jelly-like substance that helps to cushion the eyes

29
Q

What do the rods detect?

A

variations in dark and light changes

30
Q

What do the cones detect?

A

blue, red, and green wavelengths of light

31
Q

What is the fovea?

A

the point of central focus in the eye, where cones are concentrated

32
Q

What type of cells form the optic nerve?

A

ganglion cells

33
Q

What is the blind spot?

A

the area where no sensory information is received

34
Q

Where is the visual cortex located?

A

the back of the brain

35
Q

What are the two types of visual pathways?

A

the contralateral visual pathway and the ipsilateral visual pathway

36
Q

How do visual pathways work?

A

when we have light coming in from our left visual field that information is going to the inside of our left eye and the outside of our right eye, and vice versa

37
Q

What is the contralateral visual pathway?

A

when information crosses over to the opposite visual cortex

38
Q

What is the ipsilateral visual pathway?

A

when information goes straight back to the visual cortex

39
Q

What are the three dimensions of color vision?

A

hue, saturation, and brightness

40
Q

What is hue?

A

specific color perceived, determined by wavelength of light

41
Q

What is saturation?

A

the purity of a color, determined by the number of wavelengths that make up the light

42
Q

What is brightness?

A

intensity of color, determined by wave amplitude

43
Q

What are the two types of color mixing?

A

additive and subtractive

44
Q

What is additive color mixing?

A

creating a new color by mixing different wavelengths (light)

45
Q

What is subtractive color mixing?

A

creating a new color by removing wavelengths from a light with a broad spectrum of wavelengths (mixing paints, dyes, or pigments)

46
Q

What are the two theories of color vision?

A

trichromatic theory and opponent-process theory

47
Q

Trichromatic theory

A

eye is receptive to three colors, cones respond to blue, green, and red wavelengths

48
Q

Opponent-process theory

A

three types of visual receptors, each sensitive to a pair of complimentary or opponent colors: red/green, yellow/blue, and white/black

49
Q

What is an afterimage?

A

a visual sensation that remains after a stimulus has been removed

50
Q

What is color blindness?

A

the inability to distinguish some colors (or in rare cases, all colors)

51
Q

What is normal vision?

A

occurs when light is focused directly on the retina rather than in front or behind it

52
Q

What is nearsightedness?

A

visual image is focused in front of the retina

53
Q

What is farsightedness?

A

visual image is focused behind the retina

54
Q

What is the outer ear: ipinna?

A

the external flap of skin and cartilage in your outer ear that collects sound waves

55
Q

What is the eardrum?

A

an oval-shaped membrane in the middle ear that vibrates when a sound wave reaches it

56
Q

What are the ossicles?

A

hammer, anvil, and stirrup

57
Q

What is the function of the ossicles?

A

to intensify eardrum vibration

58
Q

What is the oval window?

A

area where the vibrations are picked up by the eardrum and passed on to the inner ear

59
Q

What is the cochlea?

A

snail-shaped membrane that contains hair receptor cells for hearing (cilia) located in the inner ear

60
Q

What is the basilar membrane?

A

the lining on the inside of the cochlea where the cilia are located

61
Q

What is frequency?

A

number of cycles completed by a sound wave in 1 second; pitch

62
Q

What is amplitude?

A

the height of a wave, determines the loudness of sound

63
Q

What is timber?

A

the complexity and quality of a sound

64
Q

What is the olfactory epithelium?

A

a mucous membrane that holds the receptors for smell

65
Q

How long is the life cycle for olfactory neural receptors?

A

approximately 30 days

66
Q

What is one of the major senses that does not need to go through the thalamus in order to send a signal?

A

smell

Intro to Psychology (3 decks)

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