Perception Flashcards

1
Q

Describe rationalism.

A

Some propositions are knowable by intuition, and others knowable by deduction through intuition.

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2
Q

Describe empiricism.

A

We have no source of knowledge other than sense experience.

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3
Q

What essential concept was introduced by Alhazen?

A

Critical evaluation.

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4
Q

Describe metamers.

A

Stimuli that are physically different but perceived to be identical.

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5
Q

Describe the central idea in colour vision theory.

A

The trichromacy of colour mixing is due to the fact that we have 3 types of photoreceptor.

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6
Q

How are so many different colours gauged using only 3 light detectors?

A

Colours are represented by the amplitude of responses.

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7
Q

What is understood from L+M opponent processing?

A

Luminance (black/white).

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8
Q

What is understood from L-M opponent processing?

A

The red/green channel.

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9
Q

What is understood from S - (L+M) opponent processing?

A

The blue/yellow channel.

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10
Q

What are 2 potential reasons trichromacy evolved in primates?

A

For frugivory and identifying edible foliage.

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11
Q

What is motion parallax?

A

Depth from motion.

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12
Q

Describe saccadic suppression.

A

Reduction of visual sensitivity when one makes a saccadic eye movement.

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13
Q

Describe the role of the “comparator” in seeing movement.

A

It receives an “efferent copy” of orders to move the eyes, so it can compensate for eye movement in discriminating motion.

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14
Q

What is akinetopsia?

A

No perception of motion.

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15
Q

What are 3 ways the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claim language influences thought?

A

Primes, constrains and alters.

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16
Q

What are the “unique hues” in opponent processing?

A

Red vs. Green and Blue vs. Yellow.

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17
Q

Describe motion aftereffect.

A

The illusion of a stationary object after long exposure to a moving object.

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18
Q

What is interoccular transfer?

A

The transfer of an effect from one eye to the other.

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19
Q

Define psychophysics.

A

The scientific study of the relationship between physical stimuli and psychological effects.

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20
Q

In psychophysics, what is a threshold?

A

The minimum stimulus intensity for a person to exceed some performance level.

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21
Q

Summarise Weber’s Law.

A

The just noticeable difference is a fixed percentage of the stimulus level.

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22
Q

What are the 4 types of answers used to characterise detection performance?

A

Hit, miss, false alarm and correct reject.

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23
Q

Describe the volley principle.

A

Multiple neurons can provide a temporal code for frequency if they have staggered firing rates.

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24
Q

What is azimuth?

A

The direction of sound, determined using ILD bad ITD.

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25
What are cones of confusion?
Regions in space where all sounds produce the same time and intensity differences.
26
What is inverse-square law?
Decrease in intensity is distance squared.
27
Describe how spectral composition of sounds helps people identify their distance.
Higher frequencies decrease in energy more than lower frequencies as sound waves travel from source to one ear.
28
What is auditory stream segregation?
Perceptual organisation of a complex acoustic signal into separate auditory events for which each stream is heard as a separate event.
29
Which mechanoreceptors respond best to steady, downward pressure, fine spatial details and low frequency vibrations?
Slow Adapting I
30
Which mechanoreceptors respond best to sustained pressures and particular skin stretch?
Slow Adapting II
31
Which mechanoreceptors respond best to vibrations between 5 - 50 Hz?
Fast Adapting I
32
Which mechanoreceptors respond best to vibrations between 50 - 700 Hz?
Fast Adapting II
33
Which reflexes are out of conscious control?
Monosynaptic
34
Which reflexes can be consciously moderated?
Polyaynaptic
35
What stimulates A - delta fibre nocioreceptors?
Strong pressure or heat.
36
What stimulates C fibre nocioreceptors?
Intense stimulation: pressure, heat, cold, chemicals.
37
What type of pain is associated with A - delta nocioreceptors?
Quick, shallow pain.
38
What type of pain is associated with C fibre nocioreceptors?
Throbbing pain.
39
Which type of nocioreceptors are myelinated?
A - delta fibres.
40
What are some problems with shape theory of odours?
Scientists are bad at predicting smell from structure of molecules, rats can smell differences between isotopes and sometimes altering shape doesn’t alter smell.
41
How do we recognise so many smells with only 300 receptor types?
They generate a pattern of activation in the cortex, which we learn to associate with a smell.
42
What did Sobel et al. find regarding ‘blind smell’?
There was brain activation to smells not noticeable to participants.
43
Why does the VNO appear not to function in humans?
It is just pseudogenes and degenerate structures in humans.
44
How do you become anosmic?
The cribiform plate is pushed backwards and all OSN axons are sheared.
45
What is retronasal flow?
How olfactory molecules from the mouth are brought to the nasal cavity.
46
What is orthonasal olfaction?
Smells coming from the front.
47
What is retronasal olfaction?
Smells coming from the mouth behind the palate (responsible for taste).
48
Which basic tastes require G-coupled proteins to be sensed?
Sweet and bitter compounds.
49
Describe the labelled lines theory of taste coding.
Each taste fibre carries a particular taste quality.
50
Describe a second theory of taste coding.
There are patterns of activity across many different taste neurons.
51
Where in the mouth is stimulated by fat molecules?
The trigeminal nerve.
52
Why do we need gain control?
Neurons have to code things hat have large dynamic ranges.
53
How does contrast gain control work?
Neuronal inputs are divided by the sum of the local average response.
54
What are 4 signatures of cortical gain control?
Long range, tuning, slowness and complex features.
55
How does the Nachmia and Sansbury’s ‘dipper function’ not follow Weber’s law?
As contrasted decreases, people get better at detecting difference before they get worse.
56
What is p-value hacking?
Adjusting variables until there is a significant result.
57
What is the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy?
Defining success after getting the results.
58
What is the file drawer problem?
When ‘bad’ data is not included in a study.
59
What is a problem with doing multiple comparisons (and tests)?
One result is significant by chance.
60
Describe a psychometric curve.
It characterises the relationship between a physical stimulus parameter and the probability of detecting the stimulus.
61
The firing rate of cells to code low frequency tones is (faster/slower) than high frequency tones.
Slower.
62
Give 3 attributes that all touch receptors have.
Type of stimulation it responds to, size of receptive field and rate of adaptation.
63
How is information about taste sent to the brain?
Via cranial nerves.