Chapter 5- Sensation And Perception Flashcards
What is transduction?
Process of changing one form of energy into another
Like changing light waves into neural signals
What is synesthesia?
When a stimulation to one sense leads to perceptual experience in another
-like hearing a curse word and getting a bad taste in mouth
Explain Weber’s law
To be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant PROPORTION
NOT a constant amount
Explain sensory adaptation
Reduced sensitivity in response to constant stimulation
What are the parts of the eye?
Retina
Fovea
Optic nerve
Blind spot
What is the retina?
The inner surface of the eye
Contains rods, cones, and optic nerves
What is the fovea?
The point of central focus
If I concentrate hard on looking at something, I’m using my fovea
What does the optic nerve do?
The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
What is the blind spot?
The point where the optic nerve leaves the eye
This area is “blind” because it has no receptor cells
What is feature detection?
Nerve cell in the brain that responds to specific features of a stimulus, such as edges, lines, and angles
What is parallel processing?
Brain cell teams process combined info. about color, movement, form, and depth
Explain the summary of visual information processing
Scene happens ---> Retinal processing ---> Feature detection ---> Parallel processing ---> Recognition
What are the gestalt principles of perception?
Our tendency to integrate pieces of info. into meaningful wholes
- Form
- Depth
- Constancy
Explain the concept of figure-ground
The organization of objects (figure) distinguished and separate from its surroundings (ground)
What is grouping?
Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into meaningful groups
What is binocular cue?
A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes
What is retinal disparity?
By comparing images from two eyes, the brain computes distance
The greater the disparity (difference) between the two objects, the closer it is
What are the monocular cues?
Relative height (objects higher in our vision are perceived farther away)
Relative size
Interposition (if one object partially blocks view of another, we perceive as closer)
Relative motion
Linear perspective (when parallel lines appear to meet at a distance)
Light and shadow (shading produces a sense of depth perception)
What is perceptual constancy?
Perceiving objects as unchanging (same color, size, shape) even as illumination and retinal images change
What is perceptual adaptation?
In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
What is audition?
Hearing
What is the cochlea?
A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear.
Sounds traveling through cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses
What do the hair cells in the ear do?
Translate physical movement into a neural signal
Explain touch
Our skin only sense pressure, warmth, cold, and pain
A cold, yet dry metal feels wet
Only pressure has identifiable receptors
Explain stuff about pain
Touch is not only a bottom-up property of senses, but a top-down product by our brain and it’s expectations
We see, hear, taste, smell, and feel pain with our brain
Hypnosis helps with pain relief
What are the 5 basic tastes and their functions?
Sweet (energy source)
Salty (sodium essential to physiological processes)
Sour (potentially toxic acid)
Bitter (potential poisons)
Umami (proteins to grow and repair tissue)
What is sensory interaction?
The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste
Talk about kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
What is vestibular sense?
The sense of body movement and position, especially sense of balance
What is a perceptual set?
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
-cop points hair dryer at you, but you think it’s a radar gun
