Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception Flashcards
The processing of stimuli to create sensory understanding
Perception
What Sensation?
Features of environment used to create understanding of the world
What is transduction?
Sensations from the environment into something meaningful
Bottom-Up Processing:
Taking what you sense from the environment and then trying to understand what it means
Top - Down Processing:
Using prior knowledge that influences what we sense
What are the 6 Gestalt Principles?
- Figure Ground
- Proximity
- Similarity
- Closure
- Good Continuation
- Common Fate
Describe the Gestalt Principles.
- Figure Ground: Priority to what’s in your face
- Proximity: Object close are grouped together
- Similarity: physically similar objects are grouped together
- Closure: Perceive whole objects even if pieces are missing
- Good Continuation: See continuous flowing lines
- Common Fate: Objects that move together are grouped together
Where are rods and cones located?
The Retina
What is the Fovea?
Area of concentration cones in the center of the retina
What type of environment does cones function in? Rods?
Cones function in bright lights while rods function in low light
What is the role of cones?
Aid in visual acuity and color vision
What is the blind spot?
Where the message leaves the eye and enters the brain via the optic nerve
Bundled axons that exit the eye and enter the brain; allows for transduction
Optic Nerve
Transduced information from the eyes that allows for perception from wavelengths
Color
What are the 3 colors humans can see and what length are their wavelengths?
Red, Blue, and Green
Red=Long
Blue=Short
Green=Medium
How do we perceive color?
Wavelengths
What is the Trichromatic Theory?
Color info is identified by comparing activation of red, blue, and green
Depth Perception:
Brain uses bottom-up and top-down processing to understand retinal information
Only requires one eye to understand message of depth
Monocular
Occlusion:
One image partially blocks the view of the second image
Input from both eyes to compare images from each eye to understand how far away an object is:
Binocular
The form of energy that travels in waves, or vibration of air molecules
Sound
Pinna:
External Part; sound enters
Ear Canal:
Auditory Canal; moves sound towards the eardrum
Tympanic Membrane:
Transfer energy via vibrations to the ossicles
Ossicles:
Ear Drum
The Ossicles is composed of:
- Malleus
- Incus
- Stapes
What is the Cochlea?
Vibrations from the oval window are transferred here and transduced
A flexible piece of tissue where the hair cells are located:
Basal Membrane
Part of the Ear that is responsible for Balance and proprioception:
Semicircular Canals
How do we perceive taste and smell?
Activation of Chemoreceptors
The sense the smell:
Olfactory
Which sense passes the thalamus?
Olfaction
Gustation:
The sense of taste
What are the 4 basic taste?
- Sweet
- Salty
- Bitter
- Umam (savory)
How do we process touch and motion?
Object makes contact –> message travels to the spinal cord –> touch and motion are processed
