Chapter 6 - Katie

Question 1

what is sensation?

Answer 1

the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects; it occurs when energy in the body stimulates the receptors in the sense organs.

Question 2

what is perception?

Answer 2

the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information

Question 3

what are sense receptors?

Answer 3

specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain

Question 4

what is the doctrine of specific nerve energies and who came up with it?

Answer 4

Johannes Muller, and the principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain.

Question 5

what is synesthesia?

Answer 5

a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes another. (sensory cross-over)

Question 6

what 3 steps allow one to sense something?

Answer 6

1. sensory receptors (scouts)2. sensory nerves in the peripheral nervous system (field officers) transmit what the sensory receptors detected.3. Impulses reach the cells of the brain (command centre)

Question 7

what is the absolute threshold?

Answer 7

the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer.

Question 8

what is the difference threshold?

Answer 8

the smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared; also called just noticeable differences (jnd)

Question 9

what is the signal-detection theory?

Answer 9

a psychophysical theory that divides the detection fo a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision process

Question 10

what is sensory adaptation?

Answer 10

the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious.

Question 11

In response to signal detection if the stimulus and person’s response are both present, what is it?

Answer 11

a hit

Question 12

In response to signal detection if the stimulus is not present but the person’s response is, what is it?

Answer 12

a false alarm

Question 13

In response to signal detection if the stimulus and person’s response are not present, what is it?

Answer 13

a correct rejection

Question 14

In response to signal detection if the stimulus is present but the person’s response is not, what is it?

Answer 14

a miss

Question 15

what is sensory deprivation?

Answer 15

the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation

Question 16

what is selective attention?

Answer 16

the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and the blocking out of others

Question 17

what is inattentional blindness?

Answer 17

failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it

Question 18

what is a hue?

Answer 18

the dimension of visual experiences specified by colour names and related to the wavelength of light

Question 19

what is brightness?

Answer 19

lightness or luminance; the dimension of visual experience related to the amount of light related to the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object.

Question 20

what is saturation?

Answer 20

the thing that make your insta photos look nicer. or vividness or purity of colour; the dimension of visual experiences related to the complexity of light waves.

Question 21

what is the retina?

Answer 21

neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball’s interior, which contains the receptors for the brain.

Question 22

what are rods?

Answer 22

visual receptors that respond to dim light.

Question 23

what are cones?

Answer 23

visual receptors involved in colour vision

Question 24

what is the dark adaptation?

Answer 24

a process by which visual receptors become maximally sensitive to dim light

Question 25

what are ganglion cells?

Answer 25

neurons in the retina of the eye that gather information from receptor cells (by way of intermediate bipolar cells); their axons make up the optic nerve.

Question 26

what are feature detector cells?

Answer 26

cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific features of the environment

Question 27

what is the trichromatic theory?

Answer 27

a theory of colour perception that proposes three mechanisms in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range of wavelength; their interaction is assumed to produce all the different experiences of hue

Question 28

what is the opponent-process?

Answer 28

a theory of colour perception that assumes that the visual system treats pairs of colours as opposing or antagonistic

Question 29

What are Gestalt’s 4 principles?

Answer 29

1. proximity2. closure3. similarity4.continuity

Question 30

What are Gestalts principles described as?

Answer 30

Principles that describe the brains organization of sensory information into meaningful units and patterns.

Question 31

What is the principle of proximity?

Answer 31

things that are near to each other tend to be grouped together

Question 32

What is the principle of closure?

Answer 32

the brain tends to fill in gaps in order to perceive complete forms

Question 33

What is the principle of similarity?

Answer 33

things that are alike in some way tend to be perceived as belonging to each other

Question 34

What is the principle of continuity?

Answer 34

lines and patterns tend to be perceived as continuing in time or space

Question 35

what are binocular cues?

Answer 35

visual cues to depth or distance requiring two eyes

Question 36

what is convergence?

Answer 36

the turning inward of the eyes, which occurs when one focuses on a nearby object

Question 37

what is retinal disparity?

Answer 37

the slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right eye

Question 38

what are monocular cues?

Answer 38

visual cues to depth or distance that can be used by one eye alone

Question 39

What is perceptual constancy?

Answer 39

the accurate perception of objects as stable or unchanged despite changes in the sensory patterns they produce.

Question 40

What are the 5 visual constancies?

Answer 40

1. shape constancy2. location constancy3. size constancy4. brightness constancy5. colour constancy

Question 41

What are some monocular cues to depth? (7)

Answer 41

1. light and shadow2. interposition3. motion parallax4. relative size5. relative clarity6. texture gradients7. linear perspective

Question 42

What is the Muller-lyer Illusion?

Answer 42

two lines that look like different lengths even though they are actually the same

Question 43

what is the gate-control theory of pain?

Answer 43

the theory that the experiences of pain depends in part on whether pain impulses get past a neurological “gate” in the spinal cord and thus reach the brain.

Question 44

what is phantom pain?

Answer 44

the experience of pain in a missing limb or other body part

Question 45

what is priming?

Answer 45

a method used to measure unconscious cognitive processes, in which a person is exposed to information and is later tested to see whether the information affects behaviour or performance on another task or in another situation.

Question 46

Does any evidence indicate that priming works?

Answer 46

nope