Human Sensation & Perception Test 1

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

the psychological study of how we acquire and process info through our senses. Conscious experience that results from stimulation of the senses. Perception deals with complex processes that involve higher-order mechanisms. Higher brain mechanisms that interpret events and objects. (ex: memory and brain activity)

Question 2

Sensation

Answer 2

involves simple “elementary” processes that occur right at the beginning of the sensory system. Detecting elementary properties of a stimulus. (ex: when light stimulates receptors in the eye)

Question 3

Taste

Answer 3

gustation

Question 4

smell

Answer 4

olfaction

Question 5

touch

Answer 5

Pain, temp, pressure, itch

Question 6

Touch subsections and their meanings

Answer 6

cutaneous-skin
proprioception - from self
kinesthetic - from joints
haptic - activity of any of these

Question 7

Balance

Answer 7

vestibular

Question 8

Time

Answer 8

Debated as to whether its cognitive action or senses

Question 9

Classical Description of Perception

Answer 9

Passive fidelity

Question 10

Phenomonological Method

Answer 10

explaining the experience of a particular stimulus.

Question 11

whats wrong with phenomenological approach

Answer 11

accessibilty: cant be sure they know what they are talking about and know and it means and they could be lying

Question 12

3 main approaches to perception

Answer 12

physiological, psychophysical, and cognitive

Question 13

physiological approach to perception

Answer 13

focuses on the relationship between stimulus and neural processing. We see red instead of green what is happening in the brain to cause us to see red instead of green and where is happening. Physiological approaches want to know how differences in stimuli change processes in perception

Question 14

Psychophysical Approach

Answer 14

look at the relationship between the stimulus and perception they would focus on seeing how change in stimulus effects change in perception. For example how would an individual changing Tiger change our perception of tiger?

Question 15

Cognitive approach

Answer 15

is concerned with the relationship among context, past experience, and perception. For example someone who is not an experienced knitter would possibly sort their yarn by color and a more experienced knitter would sort their yarn by weight. How do people with different goals perceive different things?

Question 16

Absolute threshold

Answer 16

is set at 50% and if you can see something like a star it must be noticed at least 50% or more otherwise it’s below that absolute threshold and is considered subliminal perception. It’s the smallest stimulus level that can just be detected.

Question 17

Difference Threshold

Answer 17

Difference threshold is when one can detect that something is different from something else. It is the smallest difference between two stimuli that enables us to tell the difference between them. An example of measuring absolute would be the lowest volume of sound detectable and an example of measuring difference would be to have an individual hold two bags of sand and see if they could detect the difference between the two.

Question 18

Weber’s Law

Answer 18

as the magnitude of the stimulus increases-so does the JND. Depending on where you start will determine how big the threshold is. DL/S=K where DL is the difference threshold, S is the standard stimulus, and K is constant aka Weber’s fraction.

Question 19

Method of limits

Answer 19

psychological method for measuring threshold in which the experiment presents sequences of stimuli in ascending and descending order.

Question 20

MEthod of Constant stimuli

Answer 20

Method of Constant Stimuli is where you would select several stimulus levels known to surround the threshold. Then present each level to a participant in an unpredictable order with each level presented several (e.g. 20 or more) times each. The participant would be required to say “yes” or “no” to each stimulus presentation, and compute proportion of “yes” responses to each level. The researcher would graph the proportion of yes responses as a function of stimulus intensity.

Question 21

Method of adjustment

Answer 21

is similar to method of limits in that the stimuli intensity is either increased or decreased until stimulus can barely be heard however here the subject does the adjusting continuously, not the experimenter, until he or she can just barely detect the stimulus.

Question 22

Magnitude Estimation

Answer 22

the subject assigns numbers to stimulus that are proportional to the subjective magnitude of the stimulus. This differs for different types of stimuli. For example a person’s response effect would be big for electric shock but not for brightness. However, change in stimulus doesn’t always mean a change in response.

Question 23

The “Hard” question

Answer 23

why we should have consciousness and why should we feel it. Why does red feel red etc. What it feels like to be you has to do with experience unique to you. Your experiences have made you, you. If someone tells you about their qualia what is the physical correspondence that I can observe and the experience. What is happening in the brain when we have a particular feeling? Ex: what is happening when we see experience tiger?

Question 24

The “easy” question

Answer 24

uestions what is happening in the brain, it focuses on the neural correlates. How neural activity correlates to consciousness and how it relates to the brain is considered part of the easy problem. We will address easy problem.

Question 25

qualia

Answer 25

the experiences fundamental feeling of what something feels like tigers color, fuzzy, etc.

Question 26

Response Compression

Answer 26

is the result when doubling the physical intensity of a stimulus less than doubles the subjective magnitude of the stimulus

Question 27

Response Expansion

Answer 27

the result when doubling the physical intensity of a stimulus more than doubles the subjective magnitude of the stimulus. If we double the magnitude we would think it doubled if fidelity where true however our perceived value of change is not the same as the actual value of change which means we are actively organizing things so we can respond. We respond to a doubled increase in shock as much more because our body sees this as danger and pain and wishes to get away from it.

Question 28

Response criteria

Answer 28

the subjective magnitude of a stimulus above which the participant will indicate that the stimulus is present. Your threshold for pain shouldn’t change but your response criteria may. Example: when your doctor asks if you have had abdominal pain you may say yes if there is pain, if there has been a history of stomach cancer in your family, if there is flu going around. In this case it would be more beneficial for you to say yes because the payoff is higher for a “hit” or even a “false alarm” than if you were to say no and there actually be something wrong (miss).

Signal detection theory

Question 29

psychophysics

Answer 29

how changes in stimuli affect how we experience them

Question 30

physiology

Answer 30

focus on how transduction and transmission affect perception and rocgniition

Question 31

cognitive

Answer 31

the experience and expectations

Question 32

to have complete perceptual process

Answer 32

you need to find concrete data- we would need to do intrusive exoeriements and this is ethical issue.
• Non human subjects cant communicate and their senses are better than ours. Ex: dogs smell does not equal ours

Question 33

Cerebrum or cerebral cortex

Answer 33

is the largest part of the human brain, associated with higher brain function such as thought and action. The cerebral cortex is divided into four sections, called “lobes”: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe.

Question 34

thalamus

Answer 34

sensory switch board or mail room

Question 35

frontal lobe

Answer 35

recieves info from all senses and plays important role in perception that involves coordination or info recieved through 2+ senses

Question 36

Temporal Lobe

Answer 36

auditory

Question 37

Parietal lobe

Answer 37

skin senses (touch, temp, pain)

Question 38

occipital lobe

Answer 38

vision

Question 39

Cell body

Answer 39

contains mechanisms to keep cell alive

Question 40

dendrites

Answer 40

branch out from cell body to recieve electrical signals from other neurons

Question 41

axon or nerve fiber

Answer 41

filled with fluid that conducts electrical signals (SOME HAVE long axon, short, or none at all)

Question 42

sensory receptors

Answer 42

neurons specialzed to respond to different stimuli

Question 43

Synapse

Answer 43

gap between the end of one neuron (presynaptic neuron) and the cell body of another neuron (postsynaptic neuron)

Question 44

how SSRI works

Answer 44

blocks neuron from taking back in serotonin (The REUPTAKE INHIBITION PART) the synapse is the space between the axon and the presynaptic neuron and it does not touch. The synapse is where the chemical messages flow and communicate to the other neuron. Some can have inhibitory effect some can have an excitatory effects. Inhibitory meaning decreasing the firing rate and excitatory meaning increasing the firing rate

Question 45

All or Nothing law of neural firing

Answer 45

the neuron fires or it doesn’t: there is not strong or weak firing.

Question 46

The spontaneous firing of the neuron

Answer 46

has no pattern it fires randomly.

Question 47

The refractory period

Answer 47

is the period of time during which the neuron cannot fire because it just did fire

Question 48

excitatory neuron

Answer 48

a neuron that triggers a positive change in the membrane of a post synaptic neuron it connects to.

Question 49

inhibitory neuron

Answer 49

triggers a negative change in the membrane of a post synaptic neuron it conencts to.

Question 50

excitatory if (ESPSs)

Answer 50

if they increase the likelihood of a postsynaptic action potential occurring,

Question 51

inhibitory (or IPSPs) if

Answer 51

hey decrease this likelihood of a postsynaptic action potential occurring,.

Question 52

Sensory Code

Answer 52

what happens in our brain that allows us to have an experience

Question 53

Specificity theory

Answer 53

experience because of neurons firing. You see red because red neurons are firing. Onion smell neurons. Neurons for literally any experience

Question 54

Across fiber pattern theory

Answer 54

activity in any single cell is not important, but across many cells there is a pattern. This explains how a limited number of neurons give unlimited experiences.