Exam 3 Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What is sensation
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from the environment.
What is perception?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
How are perception and sensation related
We need to understand what’s going on in the world around us.
What is transduction?
is the process of converting one form of energy into another, in this case converting sensory information into neural impulses that we can interpret.
How is transduction the basis of sensation and perception?
It allows for sensation to become perception
What is sensory adaptation?
If any stimulus input is continuous and unchanging, we will gradually lose awareness of that input.
Why is sensory adaption adaptive to have?
We focus primarily on changes in our environment.
Focusing on changes tends to be the most adaptive response.
What is a perceptual set and how does it affect perception
is a mental prediposition to perceive one thing and not another, especially if the stimulus is ambiguous.
Environmental cues that guide perception.
Our beliefs and expectation (schemas and stereotypes).
How does the amplitude of light waves affect color?
determines the brightness of the light.
How does the wavelength of light waves affect color?
determines the hue of the light.
What is the basic anatomy of the eye
The cornea, lens, retina, optic nerve, and blind spots
retina
contains light sensitive rod and cone cells.
includes the rods, cones and fovea
optic nerve
collects all this sensory information and sends it to the brain to be perceived.
blind spot
The optic connects to the retina at a spot without rods or cones
rods
cells that detect black, white, and gray.
Sensitive to movemnet
Necessary for peripheral and night vision.
cones
cells that detect fine detail and color.
Concentrated near the center of the retina.
Work well in bright light.
fovea
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
optic nerve
transmits neural impulses to the brain.
What happens in the retina to convert light into neural impulses
Light triggers chemical changes in the rods and cones.
These changes activate the bipolar cells.
Bipolar cells activate ganglion cells of the optic nerve.
The optic nerve transmits neural impulses to the brain.
What is the visual pathway
Where ganglion axons of the optic nerve cross over at the optic chiasm.
What are some stops on the visual pathway (thalamus, visual cortex)?
After the cross over, They then synapse with neurons in the thalamus.
Neurons then relay information to the visual cortex.
What is parallel processing and why is it important for perception?
To perceive an object, we need information about its color, form, motion, and depth.
The brain delegates the work of processing these facets of perception to different parts of the brain.
After taking a scene apart, the brain integrates these subdimensions into the perceived image.
What are the specific jobs of rods in the retina?
are in the periphery of the retina and respond to black/grey/white in dim light.