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Princeton Review - GRE Psychology > Chapter 7 - Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Chapter 7 - Sensation and Perception Flashcards

1
Q

_____________ on the retina are responsible for sensory transduction

A

Receptor cells (rods and cones)

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2
Q

Sensory transduction happens through the chemical alternation of _____________

A

Photopigments

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3
Q

_____________ are particularly sensitive to dim light and are used for night vision and are important for peripheral vision.

A

Are also concentrated along the sides of the retina, making them extremely important for peripheral vision

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4
Q

_____________ are concentrated in the center of the retina, in the area called the _____________

A

Cones ; fovea

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5
Q

The _____________ is the area of the retina with the greatest visual acuity

A

Fovea

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6
Q

Good _____________ means that you are able to see fine details

A

Visual acuity

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7
Q

_____________ are particularly sensitive to color and daytime vision

A

Cones

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8
Q

Cones see better than rods because _____________

A

there are fewer cones per ganglion cell than rods per ganglion cell

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9
Q

After light passes through the receptors, it travels through the _____________ cells to the _____________ cells to the _____________ cells.

A

Horizontal ; bipolar ; amacrine

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10
Q

Some information processing takes place as light passes through the receptors and 3 series of cells. Then the information heads to the _____________ cells which make up the optic nerve.

A

Ganglion

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11
Q

The eyes are connected to the cerebral cortex by a _____________

A

Visual pathway

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12
Q

The visual pathway consists of one _____________ connecting each eye to the brain

A

Optic nerve

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13
Q

Along the optic nerve pathway, there is an _____________ in which half of the divers from the optic nerve of each eye cross over and join the optic nerve from the other eye

A

Thus, the pathways are 50% crossed, ensuring that input from each eye will come together for a full picture in the brain. Because of this layout, a stimulus in the left visual field is processed in the right side of the brain and visa versa.

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14
Q

After the optic chiasm, information travels through the _____________ cortex to the _____________ areas of the cortex

A

Striate ; visual association areas

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15
Q

_____________ or _____________ is a theory for color vision proposed by Ewald Hering

A

Opponent-color ; opponent-process

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16
Q

Opponent-process theory suggests that two types of color-sensitive cells exist:

A
  1. Cones that respond to blue-yellow colors

2. Cones that respond to red-green colors

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17
Q

In opponent-process theory, when one color of the pair on a cone is stimulated, the other color is _____________

A

Inhibited

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18
Q

If you look at something red for a long time then focus on a while image, you’ll see a green _____________

A

Afterimage

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19
Q

The tri-color theory was proposed by:

A
  1. Thomas Young

2. Hermann Von Helmholtz

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20
Q

Tri-color theory is also known as _____________ theory.

A

Component

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21
Q

Tri-color theory suggests that there are three types of receptors in the retina: cones that respond to _____________, _____________, or _____________.

A

Red ; blue ; green

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22
Q

Research shows that opponent-process theory seems to be at work in the _____________ whereas the tri-color theory seems to be at work in the _____________.

A

Lateral geniculate body ; retina

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23
Q

_____________ allows the eye to see contrast and prevents repetitive information from being sent to the brain

A

Lateral inhibition

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24
Q

Lateral inhibition is a complex process with the idea that once one receptor cell is stimulated, the others nearby are _____________

A

Inhibited

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25
Q

__________ is the feeling that results from physical stimulation

A

Sensation

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26
Q

__________ is how we organize or experience the sensations

A

Perception

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27
Q

Sensation involves three steps:

A
  1. Reception
  2. Sensory transduction
  3. Electric information travels to brain
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28
Q

__________ takes place when receptors for a particular sense detect a stimulus

A

Reception

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29
Q

The __________ is the part of the world that triggers a particular neuron

A

receptive field

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30
Q

__________ is the process in which physical sensation is changed into electrical messages that the brain can understand

A

sensory transduction

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31
Q

__________ is at the heart of the senses

A

sensory transduction

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32
Q

Electrical information travels down the __________ to the brain, where the information is understood

A

neural pathways

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33
Q

__________ theory asserts that perception and cognition are largely innate

A

nativist

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34
Q

__________ theory asserts that perception is the sum total of sensory input. The world is understood through __________

A

Structuralist ; bottom-up processing

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35
Q

__________ psychology revolves around __________ and asserts that people tend to see the world as comprised of organized wholes

A

Gestalt; perception

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36
Q

Gestalt psychology is affiliated with __________ processing

A

top-down

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37
Q

Current thinking is that perception is partially __________ and partially __________

A

innate/sensory ; learned/conceptual

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38
Q

__________ has been explained by James Gibson as the increasing ability of a child to make finer discriminations among stimuli

A

Perceptual development

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39
Q

The __________, or all of the things a person sees, trains people to perceive

A

Optic array

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40
Q

Light is composed of __________ and __________ measured by brightness and wavelengths.

A

photons ; waves

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41
Q

__________ is also known as “color” and is the dominant wavelength of light.

A

hue

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42
Q

__________ is physical intensity

A

brightness

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43
Q

The __________ is the clear protective coating on the outside of the eye

A

cornea

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44
Q

The __________ is located behind the cornea

A

lens

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45
Q

__________ allow the lens to bend in order to focus an image of the outside world onto the retina

A

ciliary muscles

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46
Q

The __________, located on the back of the eye, receives light images from the __________

A

retina ; lens

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47
Q

__________ is famous for a theory of color blindness

A

Herman Von Helmholtz

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48
Q

__________ and __________ discovered that cells in the visual cortex are so complex and specialized that they respond only to certain types of stimuli

A

Some cells respond only to vertical lines, whereas some respond only to right angles and so on

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49
Q

The __________ refers to the entire span that can be perceived or detected by the eye at a given moment

A

visual field

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50
Q

The __________ and __________ relationship refers to the relationship between the meaningful part of a picture (the figure) and the background (the ground)

A

figure ; ground

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51
Q

__________ has monocular and binocular cues

A

depth perception

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52
Q

__________ has been called the most important depth cue

A

binocular disparity

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53
Q

Our eyes view objects from two slightly different angles, which allows us to create a __________ picture

A

three-dimensional

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54
Q

__________ gives us clues about how far away an object is if we know about how big the object should be

A

apparent size

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55
Q

__________ or overlap of objects shows which objects are closer

A

interposition

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56
Q

__________ is gained by features we are familiar with, such as two seemingly parallel lines that converge with distance

A

linear perpsective

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57
Q

__________ refers to how we see texture or fine detail differently from different distances

A

texture gradient

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58
Q

__________ is how movement is perceived through the displacement of objects over time, and how this motion takes place at seemingly different paces for nearby or far away objects

A

motion parallax

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59
Q

__________ and __________ developed the visual cliff apparatus

A

Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk

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60
Q

The __________ apparatus studies whether depth perception is innate

A

Glass floor above a surface that dropped off significantly. Babies and animals were used as subjects, and both avoided the “cliff” area

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61
Q

Afterimages are also know as the __________ effect

A

McCollough

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62
Q

Afterimages are perceived because of __________ receptors

A

Our eyes have partially oppositional system for seeing colors. Once one side is overstimulated and fatigues, it can no longer respond and is overshadowed by its opposite. Explains why you see a dark afterimage after staring at a while light

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63
Q

__________ is the result of regeration of retinal pigment

A

dark adaptation

64
Q

__________ factors into why we see what we expect to see

A

mental set

65
Q

__________ is the overarching Gestalt idea that experience will be organized as meaningful, symmetrical, and simple whenever possible

66
Q

Gestalt ideas:

A
  1. Closure
  2. Proximity
  3. Continuation or good continuation
  4. Symmetry
  5. Constancy (size and color)
  6. Minimum principle
67
Q

__________ the tendency to complete incomplete figures

A

Gestalt idea

68
Q

__________ is the tendency to group together items that are near each other

A

Gestalt idea

69
Q

__________ or good __________, is the tendency to create a whole or detailed figures based on our expectations rather than what is seen

A

Gestalt idea

70
Q

__________ is the tendency to make figures out of symmetrical images

A

Gestalkt idea

71
Q

__________ is how people perceive objects in the way that they are familiar with them, regardless of changes in the actual retinal image

A 
Constancy
-
Gestalt idea
-
A book is perceived as rectangular in shape no matter what angle it is seen from. Size constancy is knowing that an elephant is large no matter how it might appear. Color constancy is knowing the color of an object even with tinted glasses on, for example.
72
Q

__________ is the tendency to see what is easiest or logical to see

A

Gestalt idea

73
Q

__________ can be perceived as two different things depending on how you look at them

A

Perceiving a duck and a bunny in the same image

74
Q

__________ are ambiguous figures, such as the Rubin vase

A

Image changes as two different things depending on which part you see as the figure and which you see as the ground

75
Q

__________ are objects that have been drawn and can be perceived but are geometrically impossible

A

impossible objects

76
Q

The __________ shows how context affects perception

A

Moon looks larger when we see it on a horizon than when we see it in the sky. This is because horizon contains visual cues that make the moon seem more distant than the overhead sky.

77
Q

The __________ phenomenon is the tendency to perceive smooth motion

A

Explains why motion is inferred when there actually is none. Often by flashing lights or rapidly showing still-frame pictures, such as cartoons.

78
Q

The phi phenomenon is known to induce __________ motion

79
Q

The __________ illusion is the most famous of all visual illusions

A

Two horizontal lines with outward and inward facing arrowheads

80
Q

The __________ illusion is when two horizontal lines of equal length appear unequal because of two vertical lines that slant inward

81
Q

The __________ effect is the way that a single point of light viewed in darkness will appear to shake or move

A

autokinetic

82
Q

The reason for the autokinetic effect is the constant __________ of our own eyes

83
Q

__________ shift is the way that perceived color brightness changes with the level of illumination in the room

A

With lower levels of illumination, the extremes of the color spectrum (especially red) are seen as less bright

84
Q

Pattern recognition is most often explained by __________ and __________

A

In order to pick the letter o out of a page of letters, we would probably first concentrate only on letter with rounded edges and then look for one to match a typical o

85
Q

__________ is the inability to recognize faces. Therefore, they cannot describe who’s face they are seeing.

A

Prosopagnosia

86
Q

__________ found that infants prefer relatively complex sensical displays

A

Robert Fantz

87
Q

__________ addresses minimum levels of stimulation that are needed for detection

88
Q

__________ is the minimum amount of a stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time

A

Absolute threshold

89
Q

__________ is also known as just noticeable difference or JND

A

differential threshold

90
Q

__________ is the minimum difference that must occur between two stimuli, in order for them to be perceived as having different intensities

A

differential threshold

91
Q

Differential threshold was defined by __________

A

E. H. Weber

92
Q

__________ is the upper limit above which the stimuli can no longer be perceived

A

Terminal threshold

93
Q

The lowest pitch sound a human can hear is the __________, whereas the highest pitch sound a human can hear is the __________

A

absolute threshold; terminal threshold

94
Q

__________ applies to all senses but only to a limited range of intensities

A

Weber’s Law

95
Q

Weber’s Law Formula:

A

K (the constant fraction) = Triangle I (increase in intensity needed for jnd) / I (original intensity)

96
Q

Weber’s law states that a stimulus needs to be increased by a __________ fraction of its __________ in order to be noticed as noticeably different

A

constant; original value

97
Q

__________ is built on, and more complicated than, Weber’s Law.

A

Fechner’s Law

98
Q

__________ says that the strength of a stimulus must be significantly increased to produce a slight difference in sensation

A

Fechner’s Law

99
Q

Fechner’s Law Formula:

A

S (sensation strength) = k log R (a logarithm of the original intensity)

100
Q

__________ suggests that subjects detect stimuli not only because they can but also because they want to

A

J. A. Swet’s Theory of Signal Detection (TSD)

101
Q

Swet’s Theory of Signal Detection factors __________ into the picture, which changes the idea of purely mathematical equations and explains why subjects respond inconsistently.

A

motivation

102
Q

Individuals being partly motivated by rewards and costs in detection is called __________

A

response bias

103
Q

A __________ says you can detect a stimulus that is not there

A

false alarm

104
Q

A __________ is correctly sensing a stimulus

105
Q

A __________ is failing to detect a present stimulus

106
Q

A __________ is rightly stating that no stimulus exists

A

correct rejection

107
Q

__________ curves are graphical representations of a subject’s sensitivity to a stimulus

A

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)

108
Q

The __________ or physical intensity of a sound wave largely determines loudness

109
Q

__________ , the pace of vibrations or sound waves per second for a particular sound, determines pitch

110
Q

Frequency is measured in __________ , and humans best hear frequencies around __________

A

hertz (Hz); 1000 Hz

111
Q

Low frequency is perceived as __________

A

low pitch or low tone and visa versa

112
Q

__________ comes from the complexity of the sound wave

113
Q

There are __________ major parts of the ear

A

three

  1. Outer
  2. Middle
  3. Inner
114
Q

Outer ear consists of the parts that you see called the __________ and the __________

A

pinna; auditory canal

115
Q

Vibrations from sound move down the __________ to the middle ear

A

auditory canal

116
Q

Middle ear begins with the __________, which is stretched across the auditory canal

A

tympanic membrane

117
Q

The tympanic membrane is also known as the __________

118
Q

Behind the tympanic membrane are the __________ , (three small bones), the last of which is the __________

A

ossicles; stapes

119
Q

Sound vibrations bump against the __________ , causing the ossicles to vibrateW

A

tympanic membrane

120
Q

The inner ear is responsible for both __________ and __________

A

hearing; balance

121
Q

The inner ear begins with the __________ , which is tapped upon by the __________

A

oval window; stapes

122
Q

Vibrations of the stapes activate the fluid filled, snail-shell like __________, which contain the ear parts for hearing

123
Q

The movement of the cochlear fluid activates the hair-cell receptor on the __________ and __________ .

A
  1. basilar membrane

2. organ of corti

124
Q

Movement on the basilar membrane is called the __________

A

traveling wave

125
Q

The __________ (which also respond to hair movement) are sensitive to tilt and provide our sense of balance

A

vestibular sacs

126
Q

Receptor cells in the inner ear activate nerve cells that change the information into an _____________ the brain can process

A

Electrical message

127
Q

The auditory system that leads to the auditory cortex consist of the:

A
  1. Olivary nucleus
  2. Inferior colliculus
  3. Medial geniculate body
128
Q

_____________ is also famous for the place-resonance theory of sound perception

A

Hermann Von Helmholtz

129
Q

The _____________ theory states that different parts of the basilar membrane respond to different frequencies

A

Place-resonance theory

130
Q

The degree to which one of our ears hears a sound prior to and more intensely than the other can give us information about the origin of the sound is called _____________

A

Sound localization

131
Q

In sound localization, high frequency sounds are localized by _____________, whereas low frequency sounds are localized by _____________

A

Intensity differences; phase differences

132
Q

_____________ is often used in studies of auditory perception and selective attention

A

Dichotic presentation

133
Q

In _____________ tasks, subjects are asked to shadow or repeat one of the messages to ensure that the other message is not consciously attended to

A

Dichotic presentation

134
Q

Hair receptors in the nostrils send their messages to the _____________, which lies at the base of the rain

A

Olfactory bulb

135
Q

Smell has been strongly connected to _____________ and the perception of _____________

A

Memory; taste

136
Q

Humans distinguish 5 basic tastes:

A

Sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami (meaty/savory)

137
Q

Taste receptors are called the _____________ or _____________

A

Taste buds; papillae

138
Q

Human skin have 5 senses:

A

Touch, pain, cold, and warmth

139
Q

_____________ in the skin detect pain and temperature changes

A

Free nerve endings

140
Q

_____________ are receptors in skin that detect touch or contact

A

Meissner’s corpuscles

141
Q

_____________ are touch receptors that respond quickly to displacements of skin

A

Pacinian corpuscles

142
Q

The size of the _____________ for touch is largely determined by the density and layout of nerves in the skin

A

Two-point threshold

143
Q

_____________ is the temperature that is sensed as neither warm nor cold

A

Physiological zero

144
Q

_____________ and _____________ came up with the Gate Control Theory of Pain

A

Ronald Melzack; Patrick Wall

145
Q

The _____________ looks at pain as a process rather than just a simple sensation governed in one center in the brain

A

Gate control theory of pain

146
Q

_____________ and _____________ assert that pain perception is related to the interaction of large and small nerve fibers that run to and from the _____________

A

Melzack; Wall; spine

147
Q

Pain may or may not be perceived depending on different factors, such as _____________

148
Q

_____________ occurs when amputees feel sensations of pain in limbs that have been amputated and no longer exist

A

Phantom limb pain

149
Q

_____________ are neuromodulators that kick in to reduce or eliminate the perception of pain

A

Endorphins

150
Q

The _____________ reflex is the sentence to turn toward an object that has touched you

151
Q

_____________ use perceptual cues to make artificial situations seem real

A

Simulations

152
Q

_____________ is the process of tuning in to something specific (like what your date is saying) while ignoring all of the other stimuli in the background

A

Selective attention

153
Q

_____________ is perceiving a stimulus that one is not consciously aware of, such as the unattended message in dichotic presentation or visual information that is briefly presented

A

Subliminal perception

154
Q

_____________ or _____________ is information from receptors in joints and muscles that tell us about the positioning of our own body

A

Kinesthetic sense; proprioception

155
Q

_____________ deal with thirst

A

Osmoreceptors

Princeton Review - GRE Psychology (3 decks)

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