Chapter 4: Sensation + Perception Flashcards
1
Q
perception
definition
A
the brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs
2
Q
explain how perception occurs within the brain
A
the energy from the raw sensory inputs is tranduced/encoded into neural signals + transmitted along neural axons to auditory centers in the temporal lobe of the forebrain
3
Q
sensation
definition
A
detection of physical energy by sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, nose, tongue) which then send information to the brain
4
Q
sensation
example
A
energy in the form of vibration/sound waves activates specialized auditory receptors in the ears
5
Q
all conscious experiences drived from physical/chemical information flowing through our senses are ____
perceptions or sensations?
A
perceptions
6
Q
when you tickle my back, I get a weird ____
perception or sensation?
A
perception
7
Q
illusion
definition
A
when the way we percieve a stimulus doesn’t match its physical activity
8
Q
____ first allows us to pick up the signals in our environments + ____ then allows us to assemble these signals into something meaningful
perception or sensation?
A
sensation, perception
9
Q
naive realism
definition
A
the belief that we see the world precisely as it is
10
Q
is naive realism correct?
A
no
-the world isn’t precisely as we see it
-we sample only a tiny portion of the world
11
Q
transduction
definition
A
the process of converting an external energy/substance into electrical activity wtihin neurons
12
Q
transduction
example
A
the neural messages are interpreted as meaningful sounds by the auditory cortex + auditory association areas of the temporal lobe
13
Q
sense receptor
definition
A
specialized cell that transduces a specific stimulus
14
Q
sensory adaptation
definition
A
for all of our senses, activation is greatest when we first detect a stimulus
15
Q
for all of our senses, when is activation the greatest?
A
when we first detect a stimulus
16
Q
sensory adaptation
example
A
the initial smell of perfume in a store is super strong, but as you walk around it becomes less strong
17
Q
absolute threshold
definition
A
the minimum intensity of a stimulus necessary for it to be detected at least 50% of the time
18
Q
is absolute threshold the same for every person?
A
no
-differs from person to person for each sense
-may also vary with psychological conditions
19
Q
absolute threshold
example
A
the radio isn’t super loud but goes from none to being able to sense something a little bit
20
Q
just noticeable difference (JND)
definition
A
the smallest difference between 2 stimuli that can be detected by an appropriate sense organ
21
Q
just noticeable difference
example
A
-when listening to the radio in the car, if you turn the volume from 5 to 7, you can already hear the difference in sound
-however, if it’s between 30 and 32 you can’t sense the difference
-therefore, you sometimes need a bigger difference to detect the distinction between the 2 volumes
22
Q
weber’s law
definition
A
-there is a constant proportional relationship between JND + the original stimulus intensity
-therefore, the stronger the stimulus, a bigger change is needed for a change in stimulus intensity to be noticeable
23
Q
signal detection theory
definition
A
how we detect stimuli under uncertain conditions
24
Q
signal-to-noise ratio
definition
A
it becomes harder to detect a signal as background noise increases
25
response bias
| definition
the tendency to guess wrong/untruthfully when in doubt + under noisy conditions
26
what does the frequency of false-negatives + false-positives help us measure?
how biased participants are to respond "yes" or "no" in general
27
true positive
| definition
respond yes, stimulus present
28
false negative
| definition
respond no, stimulus present
29
false positive
| definition
respond yes, stimulus absent
30
true negative
| definition
respond no, stimulus absent
31
32
even though there are many distinct stimulus energies (light, sound, touch)...
the sensation we experience is determined by the nature of the ____
| stimulus or sensory receptor?
sensory receptor
33
phosphenes
| definition
vivid sensations of light caused by pressure on your eye's receptor cells
34
where do phosphenes occur in our brain?
cerebral cortex
-doesn't matter to our brain whether light or touch activated the sensory receptor, our brains react in the same way to either case
35
what do phosphenes look like?
sparks or similar to the multicolored shapes in a kaleidoscope
36
what can phosphenes potentially explain?
certain reports of ghosts + UFOs
37
synesthesia
| definition
a remarkable condition in which people experience cross-modal process
38
synesthesia
| example
hearing sounds when seeing colors
39
why does synesthesia occur?
| 2 reasons
-crosstalk among different brain regions
-a single brain region may serve double duty
40
crosstalk in synesthesia
| example
-hear high tone with ligher colors + low tone with darker colors
-seeing a pat on someone's shoulder + feeling the pat on your own shoulder
41
single brain region serving double duty in synesthesia
| example
neurons in the auditory cortex tune to sound + also respond to touch
-if visual stimuli enhanced touch perception
42
mirror-touch synesthesia
| definition
a person experiences the same sensation that another person experiences
-such as touch
43
lexical-gustatory synesthesia
| definition
words are associated with specific tastes/textures
44
chromesthesia
| definition
sounds trigger the experience of color
45
misophonia
| definition
sounds trigger strong emotions such as anger/fear
46
personification
numbers, letters, or days of the week take on personality characteristics + sometimes have a characteristic appearance
47
personification
| example
-6 might be experienced as a king
-8 might be experienced as a sorcerer
48
number-form synesthesia
| definition
numbers are imagined as mental maps
49
spatial sequence synesthesia
| definition
certain sequences of numbers, dates, or months are perceived as closer/farther in space
50
psychophysics
| definition
the study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics
51
selective attention
| definition
process of selecting 1 sensory channel + ignoring/minimizing others
52
cocktail party effect
| definition
if you go to a party + it is loud, you are still able to continue your conversation
53
exception to cocktail party effect
if you are at a party talking in a group + hear your name being called by someone on the other side of the room, you can still detect that
54
cocktail party effect is under the category of ____
selective attention
55
filter theory of attention
| definition
views attention as a bottleneck through which information passes
-our mental filter slows down information by enabling us to pay attention to important stimuli + ignore others
56
inattentional blindness
| definition
failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere
57
change blindness
| definition
failure to detect obvious changes in one's environment
58
binding problem
| definition
when we percieve an apple, different regions of our brains process different aspects of it
-we don't really know how our brains manage to combine these diverse pieces of information into a unified whole
59
light
| definition
a form of electromagnetic energy with brightness influenced by the intesnity of the reflected light that reaches our eyes
60
hue
| definition
the color of light
61
acuity
| definition
sharpness of vision
62
pupil
| definition
a circular hole through which light enters the eye
63
why does the pupil dilate?
to process complex information + attractive faces
64
cornea
| definition
bends light waves to focus image on retina
65
lens
| definition
bends light to fine-tune visual image
66
where is the lens located?
behind the cornea
67
lens accomondation
| definition
flat or fat
68
flat lens accomodation
| definition
-long, skinny
-lens for distant objects
69
fat lens accomodation
| definition
-short, wide
-lens for nearby objects
70
retina
| definition
has 2 types of receptor cells for seeing light + color
-rods
-cones
71
rods
| definition
-for seeing basic shapes + forms
-long + narrow
-allows us to see in low levels of light
72
cones
| definition
for color vision
73
dark adaptation
| definition
time in the dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity
74
photopigments
| definition
chemicals that change following exposure to light
75
rhodopsin
| definition
photopigment in rods
76
what vitamin improves vision + when?
vitamin A
-only improves vision when vision is impaired due to a vitamin A deficiency
77
fovea
| definition
the central portion of the retina
78
optic nerve
| definition
-contains the axons of ganglion cells
-travels from the retina to the rest of the brain
79
blind spot
| definition
-a part of the visual field we can't see
-a region of the retina containing no rods/sense receptors because axons of ganglion cells push everything else aside
80
what do blind spots contribute to?
our visual illusion
81
feature detection
| definition
our ability to use certain minimal patterns to identify objects
82
feature detector cells
| definition
detect lines + edges
-there are more complex feature detector cells at later levels of visual processing that detect lines of specific lengths, complex shapes, + moving objects
83
trichromatic theory
| definition
we base our color vision on 3 primary colors with having 3 kinds of cones, each maximally sensitive to different wavelengths of light
84
what 3 colors do we base our vision on?- according to trichromatic theory
-blue
-green
-red
85
absence/reduced number of 1 or more types of cones due to genetic abnormalities leads to ____
color blindness
86
color blindness
| definition
inability to see all/some colors
87
monochromat
| definition
-people with 1 type of cone
-lose all color vision
-rare
88
dichromat
| definition
-people with 2 types of cones
-missing only 1
-ex: red-green color blindness
89
trichromat
| definition
having all 3 cones
90
tetrachromat
| definition
4 types of cones
-blue, green, red, + additional cone for a color bewteen red + green
91
opponent process theory
| definition
we perceive colors in terms of 3 pairs of opponent cells
-red or green
-blue or yellow
-black or white
92
afterimages
| definition
-occur when we've stared at 1 color for a long time then look away
-we will often see a different colored replica of the same image
93
does trichromatic theory address afterimage?
no
94
what theory addresses afterimage?
oponent process theory
95
echolocation
| definition
certain animals (bats, dolphins, + many whales) emit sounds + listen to echoes to determine their distance from a wall/barrier
96
blindness
| definition
-the inability to see
-vision is less than/equal to 20/200
97
motion blindness
| definition
a disorder where patients can't seemlessly string still images processed by their brains into the perception of ongoing motion
98
visual agnosia
| definition
a deficit in perceiving objects
99
visual agnosia
| example
if someone can't name something as cake, they would instead ask for the "white triangle shaped piece"
100
blindsight
| definition
phenomenon where blind people still make correct guesses about the visual appearance of things around them
101
reasons why people can have blindsight
| name 2
-echolocation
-they are sensitive to auditory information; this is why they have a stick
102
myopia
| definition
nearsightedness/the inability to see close objects well coupled with an inability to see far objects well
103
why does myopia occur?
when images are focused in front of the rear of the eye due to our cornea being too steep or our eyes being too long
104
parallel processing
| definition
phenomenon of attending many sense modalities simultaneously
105
parallel processing
| example
when you sense weight, feel, etc. when holding an object
106
bottom-up processing
| definition
from raw input to concept
-like a detective; come up with a decision based on little information
107
bottom-up processing
| example
I smell something very good + I hear a popping sound in the oven- I decide the perception of mom's cooking
108
top-down processing
| definition
from expectation to raw
-we already have expectations/theories that we use to apply to raw evidence
109
top-down processing
| example
someone texts me "idk" but since I already have this concept, I can use it for processing
110
perceptual constancy
| definition
the process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions
111
shape constancy
| definition
our ability to perceive objects as the same shape no matter what position they are in
112
size constancy
| definition
our ability to perceive objects as the same size no matter how far away they are from us
113
color constancy
| definition
our ability to perceive color consistently across different levels of lighting
114
different/same parts of the brain process different aspects of visual perception
different
115
humans have an innate tendency to perceive meaningfullness out of...
inherently meaningless or fragmented sensory impressions
116
original laws of Gestalt perceptual grouping
| name 6
-proximity
-similarity
-closure
-continuity
-symmetry
-figure-ground
117
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
proximity
| definition
objects physically close to each other tend to be perceived as unified wholes
118
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
similarity
| definition
all things being equal, we see similar objects as comprising a whole, much more so than dissimilar objects
119
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
closure
| definition
if there is a gap in the image of a familiar object, we will mentally fill in the missing portion to form a meaningful whole
120
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
continuity
| definition
any visual elements that suggest a continued line will be grouped together
121
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
symmetry
| definition
we perceive objects that are symmetrically arranged as wholes more often than those that aren't
122
# Gestalt perceptual grouping
figure-ground
| definition
we make instantaneous decisions to focus attention on what we believe to be the central figure
-we largely ignore what we believe to be the background
123
subjective contours
| definition
the phenomenon where our brains often provide missing information about outlines
124
bistable image
| definition
an image that can be perceived in 2 ways
125
emergence
| definition
a perceptual Gestalt that almost jumps out from the page + hits us all at once
-related to bistable image
126
phi phenomenon
| definition
the illusory preception of movement produced by the successive flashing of images
-the flashing lights that seem to circle around a movie sign
-these lights are actually jumping from 1 spot to another, but appear continuous
-shows that our perceptions of what's moving + what's not is based only on partial information, with our brains taking their best guesses about what's missing
127
depth perception
| definition
the ability to see spatial relations in 3 dimensions
128
depth perception
| example
enables us to reach for a glass + grasp it rather than knock it over + spill its contents
129
monocular cues
| definition
perceiving 3 dimensions using only 1 eye with pictoral cues
130
monocular cues
| name 7
-relative size
-texture gradients
-interposition
-linear perspective
-height in plane
-light + shadow
-motion parallax
131
relative size
| definition
all things being equal, more distant objects look smaller than closer objects
132
texture gradients
| definition
the texture of objects become less apparent as objects move farther away
133
interposition
| definition
if 1 object that is closer blocks our view of another objects behind it + we know this, we know which object is closer + which is farther away
134
linear perspective
| definition
the outlines of rooms/buildings converge as distance increases to a vanishing point
-in reality, lines in parallel never meet but they appear to do so at a great distance
135
height in plane
| definition
in a scene, distant objects tend to appear higher + nearer objects tend to appear lower
136
light + shadow
| definition
objects cast shadows that give us a sense of their 3D form
137
motion parallax
| definition
the ability to judge the distance of moving objects from their speed
138
is motion parallax pictoral?
no
139
binocular cues
| definition
view of 2 visual fields with both eyes
140
binocular disparity
| definition
left + right eyes transmit quite different information for near objects but see distant objects similarly
141
binocular convergence
| definition
when we look at nearby objects, we focus on them reflexively by using our eye muscles to turn our eyes inward
142
audition
| definition
our sense of hearing
143
biaural cue
| definition
localizes sound sources heard by both ears
144
monaural cue
| definition
localizes sound sources heard by 1 ear
145
subliminal perception
| definition
processing of sensory information that occurs below the level of conscious awareness
146
extrasensory perception (ESP)
| definition
perception for events outside the known channels of sensation
147
precognition
| definition
acquiring knowledge of future events before they occur through paranormal means
148
telepathy
| definition
reading other people's minds
149
clairvoyance
| definition
detecting the presence of objects/people hidden from view
150
sound
| definition
mechanical vibration
151
what does pitch correspond to?
the frequency of the sound wave
152
higher frequency = ____ pitch
higher
153
unit for pitch
hertz
154
place theory
| definition
a specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch
155
place theory is for high/low pitched sound?
high (5,000-20,000 Hz)
-hair cells located at the base of the basilar membrane are most excited by high-pitched tones
156
frequency theory
| definition
rate at which neurons fire the acction potential reproduces the pitch
157
frequency theory is for high/low pitched sound?
low (up to 100 Hz)
158
volley theory
| definition
sets of neurons fire at their highest rate, slightly out of sync with each other, to reach overall rates up to 5,000 Hz
159
volley theory is for high/low pitched sound?
low (100-5,000 Hz)
160
amplitude
| definition
corresponds to loudness
161
for amplitude,
loud noise = ____ amplitude
increased
162
unit for amplitude
decibels
163
timbre
| definition
the quality + complexity of a sound
164
why do different musical instruments + human voices sound different?
because they differ in timbre
165
outer ear
| definition
-consists of pinna + ear cannel
-funnels sound waves onto the eardrum
166
pinna
| definition
the part of the ear that we see
-skin + cartilage flap
167
middle ear
| definition
contains the ossicles
168
ossicles
| definition
the 3 tiniest bones in the body (hammer, anvil, + stirrup)
-vibrate at the frequency of the sound wave, transmitting it from the eardrum to the inner ear
169
inner ear
| definition
where the cochlea converts vibration into neural activity
-contains organ of Corti, basilar membrane, + semicircular canals
170
cochlea
| definition
bony, spinal-shaped sense organ used for hearing
171
organ of Corti
| definition
tissue containing the hair cells necesary for hearing
172
basilar membrane
| definition
membrane supporting the organ of Corti + hair cells in the cochlea
173
auditory nerve
| definition
sends information into the brain through the thalamus
174
thalamus
| definition
sensory relay station
175
semicircular canals
| definition
in the inner ear, responsible for balance
176
conductive deafness
| definition
deafness due to malfunctioning of the ear
177
nerve deafness
| definition
deafness due to damage to the auditory nerve
178
noise-induced hearing loss
| definition
hearing loss due to damage to our hair cells from loud sounds
179
age-related hearing loss
| definition
byproduct of the loss of sensory cells
-degeneration of the auditory nerve
180
olfaction
| definition
smell
181
where are olfactory receptors located?
in the nasal passages
182
gustation
| definition
taste
183
where are taste buds located?
in papillae
184
tongue taste map
| definition
-a myth
-describes the tongue's sensitivity to different flavors
185
when olfactor receptors come into contact with odor molecules (airborne chemicals), what happens?
action potentials in olfactory neurons are triggered
-smiilar for gustatory perception
186
pheromones
| definition
odorless chemicals that serve as a social signal to members of one's species
187
body senses
| definition
touch, body position, + balance
188
somatosensory system
| definition
senses touch, temperature, + pain
189
what does the somatosensory system sense with specialized nerve endings?
-light touch
-deep pressure
-temperature
190
what does the somatosensory system sense with free nerve endings?
-touch
-temperature
-ESPECIALLY pain
191
are nerve endings evenly distributed?
NO
-nerve endings are mostly in the fingertips
-followed by lips, face, hands, + feet
192
where are the fewest free nerve endings found?
middle back
193
describe how touch + pain information create perception
-first they activate local spinal reflexes
-then travel to brain sites dedicated to perception
194
gate control model
| definition
idea that pain is blocked/gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in the spinal cord
-accounts for how pain varies from situation to situation, depending on our psychological state
195
phantom pain
| definition
pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb
196
proprioception
| definition
-sense of body position
-keeps track of where we are + helps to move efficiently
197
what is the "kinesthetic sense"?
proprioception
198
proprioceptors
| definition
-stretch receptors in muscles
-force detectors in muscle tendons
199
describe how proprioceptive information creates perception
proprioceptive info ->
spinal cord ->
brain stem + thalamus ->
somatosensory + motor cortexes + intention ->
perception of location
200
vestibular sense
| definition
sense of balance + equilibrium
-enables us to sense + maintain our balanace as we move about
201
what senses equilibrium + maintain balanace?
the 3 semicircular canals in the inner ear filled with fluid
202
describe how vestibular information travels to cause reflexes
vestibular info ->
brain stem ->
reflexes that coordinate eye/head movements
203
describe how vestibular information travels to create balance
vestibular info ->
cerebellum ->
catch balance when falling
