Exam 1 Flashcards
What is the perceptual process?
the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information
What are the first two steps of the perceptual process?
Distal and Proximal Stimuli
If someone is just observing a tree, his perception of the tree is based on what stimulus?
Distal stimulus
If someone is hearing the rustling of the leaves, what stimuli is being used?
Proximal stimulus, its in the “proximity” to the receptors.
The light and pressure waves that stimulate the receptors introduce one of the central principles of perception called….
Principle of transformation
Perception occurs in what senses?
Sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch
We must first sense _____ before we perceive.
Stimuli
What happens during the perceptual process when sound hits the ear?
Stimulus hits receptors alerting the brain.
The minimum stimulation needed to register a particular stimulus 50% of the time is called
Our absolute threshold of sensation.
In the cerebral cortex, what are the 4 primary receiving areas?
Occipital Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Frontal Lobe
OTPF
The transformation of environmental energy such as light sound or thermal energy to electrical energy is called
Transduction
What is step 4 in the perceptual process?
Neural Processing
The changes in signals that occur as they are transmitted through this maze of neurons is called…
Neural processing
What lobe controls skin senses
Parietal Lobe
What lobe receives signals from all of the senses and plays an important role in perceptions that involve the coordination or information received through two or more senses?
Frontal Lobe
What is the primary receiving area for vision ?
Occipital Lobe
The area of hearing is located in part of the….
Temporal lobe
These receptors detect changes in the internal as well as external environment.
Sensory Receptors
Step 5-7 in the perceptual process is
Behavioral Responses
Electrical signals have been transformed into the conscious experience of 
Perception
What comes after the conscious experience in perception an places objects into categories?
Recognition
What is it called when you have problems recognizing objects caused by a brain tumor?
Visual form agnosia
Any information that the perceiver brings to a situation such as prior experience or expectations is called
Knowledge
The rat man demonstration shows what
How recently acquired knowledge can influence perception
An example of how knowledge is acquired years ago can influence the perceptual process is your ability to
Categorize
Processing that is based on the stimuli reaching the receptors
Bottom-up processing (data-based)
The woman sees a moth on the tree because of processes triggered by the moths image on her
visual receptors
An image is “incoming data” which is the basis of
Bottom-up processing
What is processing that is based on knowledge? 
Top-down processing (knowledge-based)
When the woman labels that she is seeing a moth or perhaps a particular kind of moth, she is accessing what she has learned about moths from prior experience, this is an example of what processing
top-down processing (knowledge based)
What are the two stimulus relationships
Stimulus perception relationship and stimulus physiology relationship
 this relationship relates stimuli to behavior responses such as perception cognition and action
Stimulus-behavior relationship
The relationship between stimuli and physiological responses like neurons firing 
Stimulus-physiological relationship
Horizontal and vertical orientations result in better_____ and more brain ______ than oblique orientations 
Acuity (behavioral response) and activation (physiological response)
What is measured in an experiment looking at the relationship between stimuli and behavior? 
Absolute threshold
The smallest stimulus level that can just be detected
 absolute threshold
Three methods for measuring the threshold the method of limits, the method of constant stimuli, and the method of adjustment. What are these methods called
Classical psychophysical methods
Milk and the color white are examples of
Chunking, identical knowledge
Sound, touch, hearing, and taste are examples of
Method of limits
What was a method of two point threshold in class ?
The two point demo, this occurs in the homunculus
If you added small amounts of weight p, what threshold is involved
Relative threshold
Branches out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons
 dendrites
Filled with fluid that conducts electrical signals
Axon or nerve fiber 
Neuron specialized respond to environmental stimuli
Sensory receptors
Electrical signals are recorded from ____ ____ of neurons using small electrodes to pick up the signals
The axons
Value which state is roughly the same as long as there are no signals and that are on is called
Resting potential
The signal identified by the predictable rise and fall of the charge inside the axon 
Action potential
When we refer to neurons as “firing” we are referring to the neuron having 
Action potential
____ refers to how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment
Sensory coding
The idea that one neuron can represent one stimulus or concepts such as a face
Specificity coding
Neurons could be so specific that there could be one neuron in your brain that far is only in response to seeing your
Grandmother
This condition is most common in older people destroys the cone-rich fovea and a small area that’s around…
Macular degeneration
About how many rodes are in the eye?
120 million
About 6 million ___ are in the eye
Cones
Where the optic nerve leaves the eye
Blind spot
Why do we have blind spots ?
One eye covers the blindspot of another,  it is located at the edge of the visual field, the brain fills in the spot
Light reflected from objects in the environment enters the eye through the
Pupil
The focus part of our eye
Cornea and lens
The cornea and lens are responsible for
Forming sharp images of objects
The network of neurons that covers the back of the eye and that contains receptors for vision
Photoreceptors
A thin layer of tissue that covers approximately 65% of the back of the eye near the optic nerve is called
Retina
What is the job of the retina
Receive light from the lens, convert it to neural signals and transmit them to the brain for visual recognition
Receptors have outer segments which contain visual pigment molecules, which have
Two components
What are the two components of visual pigments molecules
- Opsin 2. Retinal
How many neurons are needed for an object in distributed coding ? 
Sparse coding, only a relatively small number of neurons are necessary
Population coding
pattern of firing across many neurons codes specific objects
–Large number of stimuli can be coded by a few neurons.
specificity coding
specific neurons responding to specific stimuli
•Leads to the “grandmother cell” hypothesis
•Recent research shows cells in the hippocampus that respond to concepts such as Halle Berry.
Time a neuron cannot fire again in resting stage
Refactory period
Inferior Temporal Cortex is
The cerebral cortex on the inferior convexity of the temporal lobe
Why is the Inferior temporal cortex so crucial
Its crucial for visual object recognition and is considered to be the final stage in the ventral cortical visual system.
The ________ is a part of the human visual system that is specialized for facial recognition
Fusiform face area
