Modules 16,17,18

Question 1

What is sensation

Answer 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Question 2

Define perception

Answer 2

The processes of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Question 3

Define bottom-up processing

Answer 3

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.

Question 4

Define top-down processing

Answer 4

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.

Question 5

Provide na example of both bottom up and top down processing:

Answer 5

Ex: bottom up processing allows the sensory systems to observe the lines and colors of flowers, while top down processing interprets what these senses detect

Question 6

What is selective attention

Answer 6

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Question 7

What is inattention blindness

Answer 7

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Question 8

What is change blindness

Answer 8

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Question 9

What do our senses help us to do?

Answer 9

Receive sensory stimulation, often using specialized receptor cells
Transform that stimulation into neural impulses
Deliver the neural information to our brain

Question 10

What is transduction

Answer 10

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In senseation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret.

Question 11

What is psychophysics

Answer 11

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.

Question 12

What are absolute thresholds

Answer 12

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
Ex: Detecting a particular light, sound , pressure, taste, or odor

Question 13

What is signal detection theory

Answer 13

A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that direction depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.
-Tries to understand why people respond differently to the same stimuli

Question 14

What is subliminal

Answer 14

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Question 15

What is prime

Answer 15

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Question 16

What is The difference threshold

Answer 16

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference (minimum difference a person can detect between two stimuli half the time)

Question 17

What is Weber’s law

Answer 17

The principle that for an average person to perceive a difference two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, not a constant amount)

Question 18

What is Sensory adaptation

Answer 18

Diminished sensity as a consequence of cosntant stimulation

-Going into a loud movie theater, you will eventually get used to it

Question 19

What is a perceived set

Answer 19

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
Ex: stereotypes about ethnicity or race

Question 20

What is wavelength

Answer 20

Distance from one wave peak to the next, which determines the hue (dimension of color that determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

Question 21

What is intensity

Answer 21

amount of energy in light waves. This influences brightness

Question 22

Describe the process in which light enters the eye:

Answer 22

Light enters the eye through the cornea, which protects the eye and bends light for focus
Light passes through the pupil (adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.)
The pupil controls the size of the iris (ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.)
Behind the pupil is the lens (transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina)
Retina is the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
The lens focuses the rays by changing the curve in a process called accomodation
Remember: the retina doesn’t see a whole image, but rather they convert particles of light energy into neural impulses

Question 23

What are rods

Answer 23

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond

Question 24

What are cones

Answer 24

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit condition. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations

Question 25

What are bipolar cells?

Answer 25

Activate neighboring ganglion cells

Question 26

What is the optic nerve?

Answer 26

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Question 27

What is the blind spot?

Answer 27

Point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there.

Question 28

What are feature detectors?

Answer 28

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement

Question 29

What is parallel processing?

Answer 29

processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. COntrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving

Question 30

What is the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic three color theory

Answer 30

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors-One mot sensitive to red, one to green, ont to blue-which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

Question 31

What is the OPponent process theory

Answer 31

theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated bby green and inhibited by red: others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green