Lecture 14

Question 1

What is hypothesis testing related to?

Answer 1

Top down theory of perception involves testing your hypothesis about what the pattern could be.

Question 2

What allows us to have depth perception?

Answer 2

Depth perception is done via binocular cues like retinal disparity (how far the object is from each retina) and monocular cues such as size cues, parallel lines converging, texture, height relative to horizon.

Question 3

How is color perception done?

Answer 3

Color perception involves the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory, this says we have 3 types of cones which are maximally sensitive to blue, green or red cones, by activating them in different amounts we get the colour, the problems with this are, color blindness occurs in pairs and color after effects. There is also the opponent process theory in which the cones connect to opponent cells which like one colour and hate another color the change in firing rate tells which color it is.v

Question 4

What was phrenology and how did it come about?

Answer 4

Phrenology came about because of Gall and Spurzheim, they decided that protruding parts of the skull must indicate particular function, likewise depressions must show weak function. This was the first major attempt at localization of function besides the pineal gland.

Question 5

What did Broca and Wernicke find?

Answer 5

Broca found Broca’s areas on the left frontal lobe (speaking language problems due to motor speech problems) via broca’s aphasia, Wernicke found Wernicke’s area on the left temporal lobe (understanding language), via Wernicke’s aphasia.

Question 6

What does damage to the occipital and temporal lobe do?

Answer 6

Occipital lobe damage can cause apperceptive agnosia, blindness and blindsight, it is the only lobe that really only deals with vision. The temporal lobe has the superior (auditory), middle(visual) and inferior (visual) temporal gyruson its lateral surface, on its medial surface is the medial temporal lobe, damage to the right medial temporal lobe leads to copying being ok but visual memory is impaired. Damage to the left medial temporal lobe leads to verbal memory problems but hearing is ok.