Chapter 6 Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment (tongue, skin, nose, eyes, and ears)
Sensation
Process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, enabling us to recognize objects and events as meaningful
Perception
Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli
Sensory receptors
Information processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information. Begins with external stimulation (dog barking or the smell of pizza cooking) and that info comes up the brain for higher processing (technically sensation)
Bottom-up processing
Information processing guided by higher level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. Brain’s ability to handle the general and make it more specific to tasks without having to focus on every single sense (technically perception)
Top-down processing
The conversion of one form of energy into another. Transferring information into a neural impulse. (Getting excited when you hear your favorite song or getting angry when someone is yelling at you)
Transduction
Involves the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. Is tested by defining the point where half the time is stimulus is detected and half the time it is not. (Sight tests, eye exams, and pressure points are all examples of tests of this)
Absolute threshold
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Sensory adaptation
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. Our predisposition or readiness to perceive particular features of a stimulus or a predisposition to see one thing and not another. Also, a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that affect our senses. (If a researcher put a big bouquet of flowers and asked 20 people to describe the flowers, there would be 20 different responses, also kids like fries better if they were served in a McDonald’s container over a regular container, even though they were the same fries)
Perceptual set
The distance from the peak of one light wave or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short gamma waves to the long pulses of radio transmission.
Wavelength
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth
Hue
The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness. Is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height)
Intensity
Transparent part of the outer covering of the eye, the area in which light passes
Cornea
Small adjustable opening specifically through which light passes
Pupil
Colored part of your eye, which is a muscle surrounding your pupil
Iris
Focuses incoming light rays onto an image on the retina
Lens
Lining at the back of the eyeball lined with two types of receptor cells which are rods and cones
Retina
A small area in the center of the retina that has the highest concentration of cones (helps us see in fine detail)
Fovea
The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus on near or far objects, onto the retina
Accommodation
Help us see peripherally and at night or dim light. No color but black, white, and gray. These are extremely sensitive to light and they’re also sensitive to movement
Rods
Responsible for color vision, daytime vision, and detailed vision
Cones
The theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue. Which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three color) theory
The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.
Opponent-process theory
Carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
Optic nerve
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there.
Blind spot
Collect information about the visual world. They are the major output cells of the retina
Ganglion cell
Processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem at once. Brain’s ability to do many things simultaneously
Parallel processing
The tendency to perceive an object we are familiar with to be the same, even as the image stricken the retina changes.
Perpetual constancy
An organized whole.
Gestalt
The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings
Figure-ground
The perpetual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Grouping
Grouping nearby figures together
Proximity
Perceiving smooth continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
Continuity
Filling in the gaps to create a whole object (words dnt ned every lttr)
Closer
The ability to see objects in three dimensions even though images that strike the retina are two dimensional. This allows us to judge distance. It is present at least in part at birth and in other animals
Depth perception
Visual information taken in by two eyes. Allows us to see in 3d
Binocular cues
A binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance, the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object
Retinal disparity
Stimulus or object that serves to guide behavior. Something that catches both eyes (can also be taste, auditory, non-verbal)
Cues
Cues used for depth perception that involve one eye only. You can detect if things are far away or not with only one eye
Monocular cue
Involves the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field (glasses, lenses, surgery
Perceptual adaption
The chamber between the eardrum and the cochlea containing three tiny bones (malleus, incus, and stapes) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window
Middle ear
A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses
Cochlea
The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs
Inner ear
Decoding sound waves
First, sound waves strike the eardrum causing it to vibrate. The tiny bones in the middle ear pick up the vibrations and transmit them to the cochlea. Ripples in the fluid of the cochlea bend the hair cells lining the surface that in turn trigger impulses and nerve cells. Axons from these nerve cells transmit a signal to the auditory cortex
Nerve deafness or damage to the cell receptors, hair cells, or nerve endings
Sensorineural hearing loss
Transmission of hearing is impaired
Conduction hearing loss
A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
Cochlear implant
Touch is a mix of what four distinct senses?
Pressure, warmth, cold, pain
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals are allows them to pass on to the brain. The gate is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain (not noticing a mortal wound in war because the brain is focused on surviving)
Gate-control theory
Specialized sensory neurons that alert us to potentially damaging stimuli at the skin by detecting extremes and temperature, pressure, and injury related to chemicals. They are found in the skin, muscles, joints, bone, and viscera (body organs/body cavaties
Nociceptors
A social interaction in which one person suggests to another the certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Hypnosis
A splitting consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others
Disassociation
A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized
Posthypnotic suggestion
Our sense of smell
Olfaction
Taste is broken up into five subsets. What are they?
Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami
How many receptors does a tastebud have?
200
Olfactory (smell) cells are located in what?
Olfactory bulbs
Our system for sensing the positions and movement of individual body parts. It interacts with our vision.
Kinesthesia (kinesthetic sense)
Sense of movement related to balance. There’s a series of structures in the inner ear that let us know where we are regarding the ground. Involves the cochlea from the ear which is where the fluid is that detects movement
Vestibular sense
Involves the influence of bodily sensations and gestures on your psychological states. It also suggests that our body is responsible for thinking and problem solving. (When watching sports or playing a videogame the body reacts to what’s being seen
Embodied cognition
