Chapter 5: Sensation & Perception

Question 1

bottom-up processing

Answer 1

stimuli –> nerve impulse –> brain regions

Question 2

strabismus

Answer 2

no natural coordination of eyes

Question 3

binocular cues

Answer 3

retinal disparity between eyes, closer objects require convergence from muscles

Question 4

gestalt principles

Answer 4

humans are hardwired to create meaning out of sensation

Question 5

perception

Answer 5

recognition+identification of a sensory stimulus, inferring meaning

Question 6

top-down processing

Answer 6

perception processes led by cognitive processes

Question 7

hemi-neglect

Answer 7

ignore completely one side of visual field
due to damage of where pathway

Question 8

what pathway (ventral stream)

Answer 8

occipital to temporal cortex

Question 9

place theory

Answer 9

different frequencies activate different regions on basilar membrane

Question 10

prosopagnosia

Answer 10

inability to identify and remember faces

Question 11

association areas

Answer 11

links sensory info with language comprehension

Question 12

figure-ground

Answer 12

objects either are perceived in the background or foreground

Question 13

ageusia

Answer 13

inability to taste, head trauma

Question 14

proximity

Answer 14

visual stimuli near one another tend to be grouped

Question 15

shading

Answer 15

gradations of darkness on the surface of a real object or on a depiction of an object, providing a depth cue.

Question 16

gate control theory of pain

Answer 16

patterns of neural activity create gain preventing message from reaching areas where they’d be perceived as pain

Question 17

where pathway (dorsal stream)

Answer 17

occipital to parietal lobe

Question 18

visual agnosia

Answer 18

damage to what pathway, describe objects but not identify them, can not discriminate b/w similar things

Question 19

trichromatic theory

Answer 19

3 different sensors for each colour corresponding to different wavelengths

Question 20

closure

Answer 20

tend to fill in small gaps in objects

Question 21

sensory adaptation

Answer 21

repeated exposure to same stimuli brings decreased response

Question 22

tonotopic map

Answer 22

information from specific parts of cochlea mapped to specific parts of cortex

Question 23

amblyopia

Answer 23

untreated strabismus which results in blindness in one eye

Question 24

opponent process theory

Answer 24

colour pairs work to inhibit one another

Question 25

perceptual constancies

Answer 25

top-down tendency to view objects as unchanging despite shifts in stimuli

Question 26

familiar size

Answer 26

assume similar objects=similar size

Question 27

cingulotomy

Answer 27

destruction of cingulate cortex, help with chronic pain

Question 28

elevation

Answer 28

higher an object is in the visual plane is seen as further away

Question 29

ataxia

Answer 29

impaired coordination

Question 30

sensation

Answer 30

act of using sensory systems to detect environmental stimuli and transmission of this info to brain

Question 31

visual angle

Answer 31

object size/distance, the further the object the less it subtends the retina

Question 32

ansomia

Answer 32

inability to smell

Question 33

similarity

Answer 33

stimuli resembling one another tend to be grouped

Question 34

relative size

Answer 34

if 2 objects same size, one seems smaller if it is farther away

Question 35

familial dysautonomia

Answer 35

inability to detect pain/temp, can regain

Question 36

cones

Answer 36

6 millon, cover entire fovea area, colour, sharpness

Question 37

phantom limb sensation

Answer 37

sensations/hallucinations coming from amputated limbs

Question 38

good form

Answer 38

stimuli forming a shape tend to be grouped

Question 39

Touch (organs)

Answer 39

free nerve endings, meissner's corpuscles, Merkel's discs, Ruffini's end, pacinian corpuscles

Question 40

texture gradient

Answer 40

we see more detail when things are close

Question 41

frequency theory

Answer 41

different frequencies converted to different rates of action potential in ear

Question 42

rods

Answer 42

100 million, highly sensitive to light, night vision

Question 43

sensory transduction

Answer 43

converting stimuli into neural impulses

Question 44

absolute threshold

Answer 44

minimal stimulus necessary for detection

Question 45

difference threshold

Answer 45

smallest difference b/w stimuli we can detect

Question 46

linear perspective

Answer 46

parallel seem to converge in the distance

Question 47

interposition

Answer 47

an object blocked by another is seen as further away

Question 48

continuity

Answer 48

stimuli along same plane tend to be grouped

Question 49

size constancy

Answer 49

refers to our assumption that size is a constant and that if an object changes its visual angle on the retina, it is the distance that changed, not the size of the object

Question 50

Size illusions

Answer 50

where when the visual angle is the same on both lines, but the distance cues convince us that one is closer and the other is farther --> the further one must be bigger