Chapter 5 Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What are sensory receptors?
Specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli
When does sensation occur?
occurs when sensory receptors detect sensory stimuli
What are some sensory systems? (10)
- vision
- hearing
- smell
- taste
- touch
- balance
- body position
- movement
- pain
- temperature
What is absolute threshold?
minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for
the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time
What is just noticeable difference (JND)?
minimum difference in stimuli required to
detect a change or a difference between stimuli
What is perception?
way that sensory information is interpreted, organized, and consciously
experienced.
What 2 forms of processing are involved in perception?
- bottom up processing
- top down processing
What is bottom up processing
system in which perceptions are built from
sensory input.
What is top down processing
interpretation of sensations is influenced by
available knowledge, experiences, and thoughts
What 5 factors affect perception?
- sensory adaption
- attention
- motivation
- beliefs, values, prejudices, and expectations
- life/cultural experiences
What is sensory adaption
not perceiving a stimuli that remains relatively constant over prolonged periods of time
What is inattentional blindness?
Failure to notice something that is completely visible b/c of a lack of attention
What is signal detection theory?
change in stimulus detection as a function of current
mental state
- we think we hear or feel something b/c we’re expecting to perceive it
How can our beliefs or values affect our perception?
If we like or dislike something we tend to reject or accept something related to it
What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?
lines appear to be different lengths although they are
identical
What are the 2 physical properties of waves?
- amplitude
- wavelength
What is the amplitude of a wave?
The height that is measured from peak to the trough
What is the wavelength of a wave?
The measurement from peak to peak
What is frequency?
Number of waves that pass a given point in a given time period
What is the difference b/w longer and shorter wavelengths in terms of frequencies?
Longer wavelength - lower frequencies
Shorter wavelength - higher frequencies
What is the frequency of soundwave known as?
Pitch
High vs low frequencies in terms of pitch
high frequency - high pitched sound
low frequency - low pitch sounds
What is the amplitude of soundwaves known as?
Loudness
higher vs lower amplitude in terms of sounds
higher amplitude - louder sounds
lower amplitude - quieter sounds
What is a blind spot for an eye?
Point of no receptors where info exits the eyes where we cannot respond to visual information
What is the process of visual info being processed? (4)
- light waves travels across the cornea and enters the pupil
- Light crosses the lens and is focused on the fovea (apart of the retina); fovea contains photoreceptors
- Photoreceptors are connected to the retinal ganglion cells which exit thru the back of the eye to form the optic nerve
- Optic nerve then carries this visual info to the brain
What are the 2 photoreceptors in the eye?
cones and rods
What are 3 important things abt cones?
- Better for daytime vision
- Helps see color
- Located in the fovea
What are 4 important things of the rods?
- Better for nighttime vision
- helps to see black and white
- involved in perception of movement in peripheral vision
- located in the periphery of the retina
What is the optic chiasm?
An X-shaped structure where the optic nerves of each eye merges to send visual information to the occipital lobe for processing
What are the 2 visual pathways?
WHAT pathway
WHERE/HOW pathway
What consists of the WHAT pathway? (2)
- object recognition
- object identification
What consists of the WHERE/HOW pathway? (2)
- location in space
- how one might interact with a particular visual stimulus
What is the trichromatic theory of color vision?
All colors can be produced by combining red, green, and blue
What is the opponent process theory?
Color is coded in opponent pairs
black - white
yellow - blue
green - red
What is afterimage?
continuation of a visual sensation after removal of the stimulus
What is depth perception?
our ability to perceive spatial relationships in 3-D
What are the 2 depth cues?
- binocular cues
- monocular cues
What is binocular cues?
cue that relies on the use of both eyes
What is binocular disparity?
slightly
different view of the world that each
eye receives.
What is monocular cues?
cue that relies on only one eye
What is linear perspective?
when two parallel lines seem to converge
What is interposition?
The paritial overlap of objects
What is the 3 divisions of the ear?
outer - pinna and tympanic membrane
middle: ossicles/bones - malleus, incus, and stapes
inner - cochlea and basilar membrane
What the process of auditory transduction? (5)
- Sound waves travel along auditory canal and strike tympanic membrane; it vibrates
- Vibration causes the 3 ossicles/bones to move, which presses the stapes into oval window of cochlea
- Fluid inside cochlea begins to move which stimulates hair cells (sensory receptors) to get activated
- Hair cells generate neural impulses that travel along auditory nerve to brain
- Auditory info is sent to the inferior colliculus then the nucleus of the thalamus and finally to the auditory cortex in temporal lobe for processing
What is the temporal theory?
Frequency is coded by the activity level of a sensory neuron
What is the place theory?
Different portions of the basilar membrane are sensitive to sounds of different frequencies
What are the two cues of localizing sound?
- monoaural cues
- binaural cues
What is monaural cues?
- uses one ear
- each ear interacts with incoming soundwaves differently
What is binaural cues?
- using two ears
- provides info on the location of sound along with a horizontal axis
What is the interaural level difference?
sound coming from one side of the body is more
intense at the closest ear
What is the interaural timing difference?
small difference in the time at which a given
sound wave arrives at each ear.
What is deafness?
Partial or complete inability to hear
What is congenital deafness?
Deafness from birth
What is conductive hearing loss?
Associated with a failure in the vibration of the eardrum and/or movement of the
ossicles
can be caused by age or genetics
What is sensorineural hearing loss?
failure to transmit neural signals from the cochlea to the brain
can be caused by Meniere’s disease and/or other environmental factors
What are the 6 groupings of taste?
- sweet
-salty - sour
-bitter
-umami - fatty foods
What are taste buds?
grouping of taste receptor cells
life cycle of 10 days to 2 weeks
What are pheromones?
Chemical messages sent by another individual
What are olfactory receptor cells?
Receptor cells that serve as the site for odor molecules to interact with chemical receptors
What are the 4 touch receptors?
-Meissner’s corpuscles
- Pacinian corpuscles
- Merkel’s disks
- Ruffini corpuscles
What is the function of Meisnerr’s corpuscles?
respond to pressure and lower-frequency vibrations
What is the function of the Pacinian corpuscles?
detect transient pressure and higher-frequency vibrations
What is the function of the Merkel’s disks?
respond to light pressure
What is the function of the Ruffini corpuscles?
detect stretch
What is thermoception?
temperature perception
What is nociception?
Sensory signal indicating potential harm and maybe pain
What is inflammatory pain?
Signals some type of tissue damage
What is neuropathic pain
caused by damage to neurons of either the peripheral or central nervous system
What is congenital insensitivity to pain?
rare genetic disorder
in which the individual is born without the ability to feel pain.
What is the vestibular sense?
ability to maintain balance and posture
What is proprioception?
perception of body position
What is kinesthesia?
perception of the body’s movement thru space
What is Gestalt psychology?
field of psychology based on the idea that the whole is
different from the sum of its parts
What are the 5 Gestalt Principles?
- figure ground relationship
- proximity
- similarity
- continuity
- closure
What is the figure-ground relationship principle?
Idea that we tend to segment our visual world into figure and ground
figure: focus of the visual field
ground: the background
What is the proximity principle?
The idea that things that are close to one another tend to be grouped together
What is the similarity principle?
The idea that things that are alike tend to be grouped together
What is the continuity principle?
The idea that we are more likely to perceive continuous, smooth flowing lines rather than jagged, broken lines
What is the closure principle?
Closure suggests that we will perceive a complete circle and rectangle rather than
a series of segments
