Perceptual Psychology

Question 1

What are the spatial properties of the punctate and diffuse fibers in the skin?

Answer 1

• In punctate fibers there are small receptive fields
• they have sharply defined boundaries
• boundaries cover 4-10 ridges on Palm
• In diffuse fibers there are large receptive fields
• ill-defined boundaries
• boundaries cover whole finger and part of palm

Question 2

What is the recognition profile for an odorant?

Answer 2

A recognition profile for an odorant means the pattern of olfactory activation, including which olfactory receptor neurons are activated by it

Question 3

What is coarticulation, and what does it solve in the process of speech production?

Answer 3

• Coarticulation is the overlap between articulation of neighboring phonemes
• it helps us speak at five syllables a second and bridges the gap between consonants and vowels

Question 4

What is the McGurk Effect and what does it reveal about speech perception?

Answer 4

• it is perception of speech affected by both auditory and visual stimulation
• ex. A person sees a tape of someone saying ga with the sound ba and percieving led da
• proves auditory info is a major source for speech perception but visual info can have a strong influence on what we hear

Question 5

What role do the small S-fibers play in the spinal-gate control theory of pain?

Answer 5

Small nerve fibers slowly conduct information about dull or burning pain via spinothalamic pathway

Question 6

What type of sensory information do mechanoreceptors and nociceptors provide to the brain?

Answer 6

• Mechanoreceptors respond to mechanical stimulation of the skin; such as pressure stretching or vibration
• Nociceptors are fibers that respond to stimuli that are damaging to the skin

Question 7

How do supertasters differ from nontasters?

Answer 7

• Supertasters are people that find bitter tastes very unpleasant
• Nontasters hardly detect bitter tastes at all
• Physically supertasters have more than twice as many fungiform papillae on their tongue than nontasters

Question 8

What is categorical perception? What is an example of this?

Answer 8

• Categorical perception occurs when stimuli that exist along a continuum are perceived as divided into discrete categories
• An example of this would be the visual spectrum and how as we move along the spectrum we experience five categories of colors