Chapter 6: Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What is prosopagnosia?
Face blindness
What is sensation?
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
What are sensory receptors?
Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli
What is perception?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
What is bottom-up processing?
Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
What is top-down processing?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations
What three steps are basic to all our sensory systems?
1) Receiving sensory stimulation
2) Transforming the stimulation into neural impulses
3) Delivering the neural information to our brain
What is transduction?
Conversion of one form of energy into another
What is transduction (in sensation)?
Transforming of stimulus energies, such as sight, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret
What is the rough distinction between sensation and perception?
Sensation is a bottom-up process by which your sensory receptors receive and represent stimuli. Perception is a top-down process by which your brain creates meaning by interpreting what your senses detect.
What is absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
Who came up with the idea of absolute threshold?
German scientist and philosopher Gustav Fechner
To test one’s absolute threshold for sound, a hearing specialist would do what?
Send tones, at varying levels, into each of your ears and record whether you could hear each tone. The test results would show the point where, for any sound frequency, half the time you could detect the sound and half the time you could not. That 50-50 point would define your absolute threshold.
What are subliminal stimuli?
Stimuli that people cannot consciously detect 50 percent of the time (below people’s absolute threshold)
What is signal detection theory?
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). It assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
What is priming?
Priming is the idea that exposure to one stimulus may influence a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention.
What is the difference threshold (or the just noticeable difference [jnd])?
The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time
What is the difference threshold also called?
Just noticeable difference (jnd)
What is Weber’s Law?
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)
Using sound as your example, explain how these concepts differ: absolute threshold, subliminal stimulation, and difference threshold.
Absolute threshold: Minimum stimuli needed to detect it 50 percent of the time (such as bike sound behind you on the sidewalk)
Subliminal stimulation: When your sensory systems process stimuli that are below your absolute threshold i.e. you aren’t aware of them (such as a very far biker)
Difference threshold: Minimum difference in stimuli required for you to notice a change 50 percent of the time (such as a biker vs. a runner behind you on the sidewalk)
What is sensory adaptation?
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of contact stimulation
Noticing a bad smell in your room which vanishes after a time that you have spend in the room (but which another person entering the room will notice) is an example of what?
Sensory adaptation
Why doesn’t an object vanish from sight when we continuously stare at it (which it should according to sensory adaptation)?
Because our eyes are continuously moving without our awareness, thus making sure that the stimulation on the eye receptors continually changes
Why is it that after wearing shoes for a while, you cease to notice them (until questions like this draw your attention back to them)?
The shoes provide constant stimulation. Thanks to sensory adaptation, we tend to focus primarily on changing stimuli.
What is a perceptual set?
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
What determines our perceptual set?
Through experience we form concepts, or schemas, that organize and interpret unfamiliar information (our preexisting schemas for monsters and tree trunks influence how we apply top-down processing to interpret ambiguous sensations such as the image of the Loch Ness monster).
Does perceptual set involve bottom-up or top-down processing? Why?
Top-down, because it draws on your experiences, assumptions, and expectations when interpreting stimuli
What three other aspects besides perceptual set influence our top-down processing?
Context, motivation, and emotion
How are we affected by subliminal stimuli?
We do sense some stimuli subliminally (less than 50 percent) and can be affected by these sensations. But although we can be primed, subliminal sensations have no powerful, enduring influence.
What is the point of sensory adaptation?
It focuses our attention on informative changes in our environment
Sensation is to ________________ as perception is to _____________.
a. absolute threshold; difference threshold
b. bottom-up processing; top-down processing
c. interpretation; detection
d. grouping; priming
b
The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called ______________.
Perception
Subliminal stimuli are
a. too weak to be processed by the brain.
b. consciously perceived more than 50 percent of the time.
c. strong enough to affect our behavior at least 75 percent of the time.
d. below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
d
Another term for difference threshold is the _____________________.
just noticeable difference
Weber’s law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by
a. a fixed or constant energy amount.
b. a constant minimum percentage.
c. a constantly changing amount.
d. more than 7 percent.
b
Sensory adaptation helps us focus on
a. visual stimuli.
b. auditory stimuli.
c. constant features of the environment.
d. important changes in the environment.
d
Our perceptual set influences what we perceive.This mental tendency reflects our
a. experiences, assumptions, and expectations.
b. sensory adaptation.
c. priming ability.
d. difference thresholds.
a
What’s the difference between a bee’s visible light spectrum and a human’s?
Bees cannot see what we perceive as red but they can see ultraviolet light
What are the wavelengths of light that are visible to humans (in nm)?
Around 350nm - 750nm
We perceive the shortest waves in our visible spectrum as what color?
Blue-violet
We perceive the longest waves in our visible spectrum as what color?
Red
What is wavelength?
The distance from the peak of one light wave or sound wave to the peak of the next
Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from what type of waves to what type of wave?
From short gamma waves to long radio waves
What is hue?
The dimension of color that is determined by wavelength of light (what we know as the color names blue, green, and so on)
What is intensity of a light wave or sound wave?
The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave
Intensity of a wave is determined by what?
A wave’s amplitude (height)
What is a wave’s amplitude?
It is it’s height distance from the peak to the bottom of the wave
What does the intensity of a light or sound wave influence?
It influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness
What is the frequency of a wave?
It is the amount of wave cycles that are occurring in a given time period
The shorter the wavelength the __________ the frequency.
higher
The longer the wavelength the ___________ the frequency.
lower
Light enters the eye through what?
The cornea
What part of the eye bends light to help provide focus?
The cornea
What does the cornea of the eye do?
It bends the light to help provide focus
What is the pupil?
A small adjustable opening of the eye
What is surrounding the pupil and controlling its size?
The iris
What is the iris?
A colored muscle that dilates or constricts the size of the pupil in response to light intensity
The iris constricts when it is a sunny day but when does it also constrict?
When you feel disgust or when you are about to answer “no” to a question
The iris dilates in a dark room but when does it also dilate?
When you have sexual desires or are interested
What is the retina?
The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
What is accommodation of the eye?
The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
What is myopia?
Nearsightedness
What are rods?
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement
What are rods necessary for?
Peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond
What are cones?
Retinal receptors that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions
Where on the retina are cones concentrated?
Near the center of the retina (around the fovea)
What do cones do?
They detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations
What is an optic nerve?
The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
What is the blind spot?
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot because no receptor cells are located there
What is the fovea?
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
Where are rods located in the retina?
In the periphery of it
How many cones do we have?
6 million
How many rods do we have?
120 million
How is cone’s sensitivity in dim light?
Low
How is rod’s sensitivity in dim light?
High
How is cone’s color sensitivity?
High
How is rod’s color sensitivity?
Low
How is cone’s detail sensitivity?
High
How is rod’s detail sensitivity?
Low
How long does it take for the eyes to fully adapt to darkness?
Around 20 minutes
What is so special and interesting about the 20 minutes that it takes for the eyes to fully adapt to darkness?
That is usually the time it takes for the twilight transition between the Sun’s setting and darkness
Where is the visual cortex located?
In the occipital lobe at the back of your brain
Some nocturnal
animals, such as toads,
mice, rats, and bats,
have impressive night
vision thanks to having many more ________________ than ______________ in their retinas. These creatures probably have very poor _______________ vision.
rods; cones; color
Cats are able to open their _____________ much wider than we can, which allows more light into their eyes so they can see better at night.
pupils
What is the scientifically correct answer to “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound” ?
No, because the tree only creates air pressure waves. They are only perceived as sound by a human standing close enough to hear it.
What is the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory?
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 color
What is tetrachromatic color vision?
It is a genetic condition where humans (mostly female) are able to see up to 100 million colors
Humans can generally see differences among how many color variations?
More than 1 million
What is colorblindness?
The inability to distinguish between green and red (due to a lack of green-sensitive cones, red-sensitive cones, or both).
Who discovered the afterimage effect?
Ewald Hering
What color vision hypothesis did Ewald Hering form?
That color vision must involve two additional color processes, one responsible for red-versus-green perception, and one for blue-versus-yellow perception
What is the opponent-process theory?
The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision.
Color processing occurs in two stages. What are the two stages?
- The retina’s red, green, and blue cones respond in varying degrees to different color stimuli, as the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory suggested.
- The cones’ responses are then processed by opponent-process cells, as Hering’s theory proposed.
What are the two key theories of color vision?
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory
What are feature detectors?
Nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement
What is parallel processing?
Processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem at once
What is the binding problem?
The question of how the brain binds multiple sensory inputs into a single perception
What is blindsight?
The ability of individuals with blindness to detect and respond to visual stimuli despite lacking awareness of having seen anything
What are the four steps that rapidly occur when a human sees a scene?
- Retinal processing
- Feature detection
- Parallel processing
- Recognition
What is gestalt?
An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
As you read, what makes up the figure and what makes up the ground?
The words are the figure and the white space is the ground
At a party, listening to one of your friends, what makes up the figure and what makes up the ground?
Your friend is the figure and other people talking are the ground
What is the figure-ground concept?
The organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
What is grouping?
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
What are the three types of grouping?
- Proximity
- Continuity
- Closure
What is grouping by proximity?
The tendency to perceive things that are closer together as part of a group
What is grouping by continuity?
The tendency to perceive things as continuous
What is grouping by closure?
The tendency to perceive things as being complete and whole objects
In terms of perception, a band’s lead singer would be considered _____________, and the other musicians would be considered _____________.
Figure; ground
What do we mean when we say that, in perception, “the whole may exceed the sum of its parts”?
Gestalt psychologists used this saying to describe our perceptual tendency to organize clusters of sensations into meaningful forms or coherent groups
What is depth perception?
The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional
What does depth perception allow us?
To judge distances
What is a visual cliff?
A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
What was Eleanor Gibson’s and Richard Walk’s famous series of experiments in their Cornell University lab?
They used a visual cliff (a model of a cliff with a “drop off” area that was actually covered by sturdy glass), placed 6-to-14-month-old infants on the edge of the supposed cliff and let their mothers call them over to see if they would crawl over the “cliff”
What is binocular cue?
A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes
What is retinal disparity?
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.
How do 3D movies work?
Moviemakers sometimes film a scene with two cameras placed a few inches apart. Viewers then watch the film through glasses that allow the left eye to see only the image from the left camera, and the right eye to see only the image from the right camera. The resulting effect, as 3-D movie fans know, mimics or exaggerates normal retinal disparity giving the perception of depth.
Retinal disparity works at what kind of distances?
Very short distances (usually right in front of your eyes)
Monocular cues work at what kind of distance?
Large distances (such as 10 or 100 meter)
What is a monocular cue?
A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone
What is interposition (monocular cue)?
If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer
What is linear perspective (monocular cue)?
Parallel lines appear to meet in the distance. The sharper the angle of convergence, the greater the perceived distance.
What are the six monocular cues?
- Relative height
- Light and shadow
- Relative size
- Interposition
- Relative motion
- Linear perspective
What is relative size (monocular cue)?
If we assume (or know) two objects to be similar in size, most people perceive the object that is smaller in our retinal image to be farther away
What is relative height (monocular cue)?
We perceive objects that are higher in our field of vision to be farther away
What is relative motion (monocular cue)?
The farther something is the slower it seems to move (when we are moving in a car or train) and the nearer something is the faster it seems to move past us
How do we normally perceive depth?
Thanks to binocular and monocular cues
What is stroboscopic movement?
A phenomenon where our brain perceives a rapid series of slightly different still images as continuous movement
What is the Phi phenomenon?
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
What is perceptual constancy?
Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change
What are the four types of perceptual constancy?
- Color constancy
- Brightness constancy
- Shape constancy
- Size constancy
What is perceptual adaptation?
The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
What did George Stratton show with his optical headgear?
He used an optical headgear that switched up and down and left and right in his vision. The result of this was that he adapted in 8 days to this new vision.
The characteristic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is ___________________.
wavelength
The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of
a. brightness.
b. color.
c. meaning.
d. distance
a
The blind spot in your retina is located where
a. there are rods but no cones.
b. there are cones but no rods.
c. the optic nerve leaves the eye.
d. the bipolar cells meet the ganglion cells.
c
Cones are the eye’s receptor cells that are especially
sensitive to __________ light and are responsible for our ____________ vision.
bright; color
Two theories together account for color vision.The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains _________________, and Hering’s theory accounts for the nervous system’s having ______________.
three types of color receptors; opponent-process cells
What mental processes allow you to perceive a lemon as yellow?
Your brain constructs this perception of color in two stages. In the first stage, the lemon reflects light energy into your eyes, where it is transformed into neural messages. In this case the light energy stimulates red-sensitive and green-sensitive cones. In the second stage, opponent-process cells sensitive to paired opposites of color (red/green, yellow/blue, and black/white) evaluate the incoming neural messages as they pass through your optic nerve to the thalamus and visual cortex. When the yellow-sensitive opponent-process cells are stimulated, you identify the lemon as yellow.
The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called ________________.
feature detectors
The brain’s ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called __________________________.
parallel processing
In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of _________________.
figure-ground
Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called ________________.
grouping
The visual cliff experiments suggest that
a. infants have not yet developed depth perception.
b. crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth.
c. we have no way of knowing whether infants can perceive depth.
d. unlike other species, humans are able to perceive depth in infancy.
b
Depth perception underlies our ability to
a. group similar items in a gestalt.
b. perceive objects as having a constant shape or form.
c. judge distances.
d. fill in the gaps in a figure.
c
Two examples of ______________ depth cues are interposition and linear perspective.
monocular
Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of
a. shape constancy.
b. perceptual constancy.
c. a binocular cue.
d. continuity.
b
After surgery to restore vision, adults who had been blind from birth had difficulty
a. recognizing objects by touch.
b. recognizing objects by sight.
c. distinguishing figure from ground.
d. distinguishing between bright and dim light.
b
Adults with hearing loss have a how much higher risk of depression?
Doubled
What is audition?
The sense or act of hearing
What is frequency?
The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second)
What is pitch?
A tone’s experienced highness or lowness
On what does the pitch of a sound depend?
On the frequency
Loudness depends on what?
The amplitude of the sound waves
What does zero decibel represent?
The absolute threshold for hearing by a human
Every 10 decibel correspond to a __________ increase in sound intensity.
tenfold
If prolonged, exposure to sounds above ___ decibels can produce hearing loss.
85
What is the middle ear?
The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea
The middle ear contains which three tiny bones?
Hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes)
What do the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes) in the middle ear do?
They concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.
What is the cochlea?
A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear
What does the cochlea do?
Sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.
What is the inner ear?
The innermost part of the ear
What does the inner ear contain?
Cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs
What does the outer ear do?
It funnels sound waves to the eardrum
What triggers impulses at the base of the nerve cell, whose fibers converge to form the auditory nerve?
Hair cell movements
The auditory nerve carries the neural messages where to?
To the thalamus and then on to the auditory cortex in the brain’s temporal lobe
What can cause sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness)?
Damage to the cochlea’s hair cell receptors or the auditory nerve
What is sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness)?
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves
What is the most common hearing loss?
Sensorineural hearing loss (nerve deafness)
What is conduction hearing loss?
A less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system (eardrum and middle ear bones) that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.
For now, the only way to restore hearing is what?
A sort of bionic ear, a cochlear implant
What is a cochlear implant?
A device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
The amplitude of a sound wave determines our perception of ________________.
Loudness
The longer the sound waves are, the __________ their frequency and the _________ their pitch.
Lower; lower
The brain interprets loudness from what?
From the number of activated hair cells
What are the two theories of how we know whether a sound is high-pitched or low-pitched?
- Place theory
- Frequency theory (also called temporal theory)
What is place theory?
In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.
What is frequency theory?
In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.
Frequency theory is also called?
Temporal theory
Which theory of pitch perception would best explain a symphony audience’s enjoyment of a high-pitched piccolo? How about a low-pitched cello?
Place theory; Frequency theory
How does our brain compute a sound’s location?
Sound waves strike one ear sooner and more intensely than the other. Using this information the brain can judge where the sound came from.
What are the sensory receptors in the skin that are for sensing pain called?
Nociceptors
Is a man or woman more sensitive to pain?
Woman
What is gate-control theory?
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or 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.
Is a quick and intense pain better / more comfortable for people than an intense pain followed by a long (slightly less intense) pain at the end?
No, the ending of a pain procedure is perceived as most important. People reported to have felt better after a long painful procedure compared to an intense short procedure.
What is hypnosis?
A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.
What are the two theories explaining how hypnosis works?
- Social influence theory
- Dissociation theory
What is dissociation?
A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.
What is posthypnotic suggestion?
A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized.
Which of the following has NOT been proven to reduce pain?
a. Distraction
b. Hypnosis
c. Phantom limb sensations
d. Endorphins
c
What are the five taste sensations?
- Sweet
- Sour
- Salty
- Bitter
- Umami
What’s the survival function of the sweet taste (what does it indicate)?
Energy source
What’s the survival function of the salty taste (what does it indicate)?
Sodium essential to physiological processes
What’s the survival function of the sour taste (what does it indicate)?
Potentially toxic acid
What’s the survival function of the bitter taste (what does it indicate)?
Potential poisons
What’s the survival function of the umami taste (what does it indicate)?
Proteins to grow and repair tissue
Why doesn’t it matter for your taste abilities if you burn your tongue?
Because taste receptors reproduce themselves every week or two
What accelerates the decline of taste buds as you get older?
Alcohol and smoking
What is olfaction?
Our sense of smell
What is it called when people are unable to smell?
Anosmia
How many olfactory receptors do humans have?
20 million
How many olfactory receptors do dogs have?
200 million
How does our system for sensing smell differ from our sensory systems for touch and taste?
We have four basic touch senses and five basic taste sensations. But we have no specific smell receptors. Instead, different combinations of odor receptors send messages to the brain, enabling us to recognize some 1 trillion different smells.
What is kinesthesia?
Our movement sense—our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
What is the vestibular sense?
Our sense of balance—our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance.
Where are the kinesthetic receptors located?
In our joints, tendons, and muscles
Where are the vestibular sense receptors located?
In our inner ear
What is sensory interaction?
The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste
What is the McGurk effect?
What if our eyes see a speaker form one sound but our ears hear another sound? Surprise: Our brain may perceive a third sound that blends both inputs. Seeing the mouth movements for ga while hearing ba we may perceive da. This phenomenon is known as the McGurk effect.
What is embodied cognition?
The influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.
What is synesthesia?
In a few select individuals, the brain circuits for two or more senses become joined in a phenomenon called synesthesia, where the stimulation of one sense (such as hearing sound) triggers an experience of another (such as seeing color)
What is the key brain area involved in vision?
Occipital lobes
What is the key brain area involved in hearing?
Temporal lobes
What is the key brain area involved in touch?
Somatosensory cortex
What is the key brain area involved in taste?
Frontal temporal lobe border
What is the key brain area involved in smell?
Olfactory bulb
What is the key brain area involved in kinesthesia (sense of body position)?
Cerebellum
What is the key brain area involved in the vestibular sense (sense of body movement)?
Cerebellum
What are the four types of touch receptors?
- Pressure
- Warmth
- Cold
- Pain
What is extrasensory perception (ESP)?
The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input (includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition)
What is telepathy?
Mind-to-mind communication
What is clairvoyance?
Perceiving remote events, such as a house on fire in another state
What is precognition?
Perceiving future events, such as an unexpected death in the next month
What is psychokinesis (or telekinesis)?
Ability to move matter with your mind
What is parapsychology?
The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis (also called telekinesis)
What’s an estimate by Charpak and Brock that shows that the improbable becomes inevitable with enough time and people?
By one careful estimate, chance alone would predict that more than a thousand times per day, someone on Earth will think of another person and then, within the next five minutes, learn of that person’s death.
If an ESP event occurred under controlled conditions, what would be the next best step to confirm that ESP really exists?
The ESP event would need to be reproduced in other scientific studies
The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the ___________.
Cochlea
What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?
The outer ear collects sound waves, which are translated into mechanical waves by the middle ear and turned into fluid waves in the inner ear. The auditory nerve then translates the energy into electrical waves and sends them to the brain, which perceives and interprets the sound.
______________ theory explains how we hear high-pitched sounds, and ____________ theory, extended by the ______________ principle, explains how we hear low-pitched sounds.
Place; frequency; volley
The sensory receptors that are found mostly in the skin and that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals are called ____________.
Nociceptors
The gate-control theory of pain proposes that
a. special pain receptors send signals directly to the brain.
b. pain is a property of the senses, not of the brain.
c. small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals, but large-fiber activity can close access to those pain signals.
d. pain can often be controlled and managed effectively through the use of relaxation techniques.
c
How does the biopsychosocial approach explain our experience of pain? Provide examples.
Our experience of pain is influenced by biological factors (such as genetic differences in endorphin production), psychological factors (such as our attention), and social-cultural factors (such as the presence of others)
We have specialized nerve receptors for detecting which five tastes? How did this ability aid our ancestors?
We have special receptors for sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Our ancestors avoided aversive tastes because it could be a toxic substance and they detected pleasurable taste to find energy- or protein-rich foods.
__________________ is your sense of body position and movement. Your __________________________ specifically monitors your head’s movement, with sensors in the inner ear.
Kinesthesia; vestibular sense
Why do you feel a little dizzy immediately after a roller- coaster ride?
Your vestibular sense regulates balance and body positioning through kinesthetic receptors triggered by fluid in your inner ears. Wobbly legs and a spinning world are signs that these receptors are still responding to the ride’s turbulence.
A food’s aroma can greatly enhance its taste.This is an example of
a. olfaction.
b. synesthesia.
c. kinesthesia.
d. sensory interaction.
d
Which of the following ESP phenomena is supported by solid, replicable scientific evidence?
a. Telepathy
b. Clairvoyance
c. Precognition
d. None of these phenomena
d
