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PSYC 001 > PSYC 001 Chapter 5: Sensory and Perception > Flashcards

PSYC 001 Chapter 5: Sensory and Perception Flashcards

1
Q

<p>What is sensation?</p>

A

<p>The detection of physical stimuli and transmission of that information to the brain. Physical stimuli can be light or sound waves, molecules of food or odor, or temperature and pressure changes. Sensation does not involve interpretation of what we are experiencing.</p>

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2
Q

<p>What is perception?</p>

A

<p>The brain's further processing, organization and interpretation of sensory information. Perception results in our conscious experience of the world. Essence of perception is the construction of useful/meaningful information about a sensation.</p>

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3
Q

<p>Steps from Sensation to Perception</p>

A

<p>Stimulus --> Sensation --> Sensory Coding --> Perception</p>

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4
Q

<p>What is this an example of? A green light emits physical properties in the form of photons (light waves).</p>

A

<p>Stimulus</p>

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5
Q

<p>What is this an example of? Sensory receptors in the driver's eyes detect this stimulus,</p>

A

<p>Sensation</p>

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6
Q

<p>What is this an example of? The stimulus is transduced (translated into chemical and electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain)</p>

A

<p>Sensory Coding</p>

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7
Q

<p>What is this an example of? The driver's brain processes the neutral signals and constructs a representation of a green light ahead. The brain interprets the representation of the light as a sign to continue driving.</p>

A

<p>Perception</p>

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8
Q

<p>What is bottom up processing?</p>

A

<p>Perception based on the physical features of the stimulus.</p>

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9
Q

<p>What is this an example of? You recognize a grapefruit squirt based on your experience of the strong scent, cool moisture, and sharp taste.</p>

A

<p>Bottom up processing</p>

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10
Q

<p>What is top down processing?</p>

A

<p>How knowledge, expectations, or past experiences shape the interpretation of sensory information.</p>

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11
Q

<p>What is this an example of? We are unlikely to see a blue, apple-shaped object as a real apple because we know from past experience that apples are not blue.</p>

A

<p>Top-down processing</p>

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12
Q

<p>What is this an example of? Your perception depends on which interpretation makes sense in the context ofthe particular word (higher level). e.g. Y0U C4N R3AD TH15 W3LL</p>

A

<p>Top-down processing</p>

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13
Q

<p>What is sensory coding?</p>

A

<p>Our sensory systems translate the physical properties of stimuli into patterns of neural impulses.</p>

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14
Q

<p>List the stimuli, receptors and pathways for the following sense: Vision</p>

A

<p>Stimuli: Light wavesReceptors: Light-sensitive rods and cones in retina of eye.Pathway to brain: Optic nerve</p>

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15
Q

<p>List the stimuli, receptors and pathways for the following sense: Hearing</p>

A

<p>Stimuli: Sound wavesReceptors: pressure sensitive hair cells in cochlea of inner earPathways to brain: Auditory nerve</p>

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16
Q

<p>List the stimuli, receptors and pathways for the following sense: Taste</p>

A

<p>Stimuli: Molecules dissolved in fluid on the tongueReceptors: cells in taste buds on the tonguePathways to brain: Portions of (1) facial (2) glossopharyngeal, and (3) vagus nerves</p>

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17
Q

<p>List the stimuli, receptors and pathways for the following sense: Smell</p>

A

<p>Stimuli: Molecules dissolved in fluid on membranes in the noseReceptors: Sensitive ends of olfactory mucous neurons in the mucous membranesPathways to brain: Olfactory nerve</p>

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18
Q

<p>List the stimuli, receptors and pathways for the following sense: Touch</p>

A

<p>Stimulus: Pressure on the skinReceptors: Sensitive ends of touch neurons in skinPathways to brain: Cranial nerves for touch above the neck, spinal nerves for touch elsewhere.</p>

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19
Q

<p>What is the typical pathway of sensory information after it has been transmitted?</p>

A

<p>Thalamus (middle of brain) to Cerebral cortex (where it is interpreted)</p>

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20
Q

<p>What two types of information does the brain need to function effectively when interpreting a stimulus?</p>

A

<p>Qualitative and Quantitative</p>

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21
Q

<p>What is the absolute threshold?</p>

A

<p>The minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before you experience a sensation.</p>

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22
Q

<p>What is the difference threshold?</p>

A

<p>The minimum amount of change required for a person to detect a difference between two stimuli.</p>

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23
Q

<p>How do sensory receptors respond to qualitative differences?</p>

A

<p>They fire in different combinations.</p>

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24
Q

<p>How do sensory receptors respond to quantitative differences?</p>

A

<p>They fire at different rates.</p>

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25

What is the subfield that examines our psychological experiences of physical stimuli called?

Psychophysics

26

Who were the researchers who pioneered psychophysics?

Ernst Webet and Gustav Fechner

27

What is the absolute sensory threshold for taste?

1 teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons of water.

28

What is the absolute sensory threshold for smell?

1 drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of six rooms.

29

What is the absolute sensory threshold for touch?

A fly's wing falling on your cheek from a distance of 0.04 inches.

30

What is the absolute sensory threshold for hearing?

The tick of a clock at 20 feet under quiet conditions.

31

What is the absolute sensory threshold for vision?

A candle flame seen at 30 miles on a dark, clear night.

32

What is Weber's Law?

The just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference.

33

What is signal detection theory? (long definition)

This theory states that detecting a stimulus is not an objective process. Detecting a stimulus is instead a subjective decision with two components: (1) sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence ofdistractions from other stimuli, and (2) the criteria used to make the judgment from ambiguous information

34

Draw the signal detection theory matrix (hint: 2x2)

Stimulus Signal On/Off AND Response Given Yes/NoOn, Yes = HitOn, No = MissOff, Yes = False alarmOff, No = Correct Rejection

35

How is a participant's sensitivity to the signal computed?

A formula comparing the hit rate with the false alarm rate. This corrects for any bias the person brings into the testing situation.

36

What type of person is someone who experiences many false alarms?

"yea-sayer"

37

What type of person is someone who is biased towards denying that a signal occurred?

"nea-sayer"

38

Describe the method of a research study on signal detection.

Any research study on signal detection involves a series of trials in which a stimulus is presented in only some trials. In each trial, the participant must state whether heor she sensed the stimulus. A trial of this kind, in which a participant judges whether an event occurs, can have one of four outcomes: hit, miss, false alarm and correct rejection.

39

What is a response bias?

a participant’s tendency to report detecting the signal in an ambiguous trial. The participant might be strongly biased against responding and need a great deal of evidence that the signal is present. Under other conditions, that same participant might need only a small amount of evidence.

40

What is signal detection theory? (short definition)

A theory of perception based on the idea that the detection of a stimulus requires a judgment—it is not an all- or nothing process.

41

What is sensory adaptation?

A decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation. (e.g. the start or stop of the stimulus is noticeable but you get used to the constant noise).

42

What is synesthesia?

the experience of one sensory stimulus producing an unrelated perception. Cross sensory experiences (1 in 2000 to 1 in 200)

43

What is this an example of? When Bill drives the sight of road signs taste gross.

Synesthesia

44

List the primary sensory areas and their location on the brain (four lobes, five senses)

(1) Frontal lobe: Smell, Taste(2) Parietal lobe (top right): Touch(3) Occipital lobe (bottom right): Vision(4) Temporal lobe (bottom of brain): Hearing

45

Where does visual information travel in the "what" stream from the occipital lobe?

To the temporal lobe

46

Where does visual information travel in the "where" stream from the occipital lobe?

To the parietal lobe

47

Transduction is the process of:

  • (a) detecting envrionmental energy through a sense organ
  • (b) converting sensory stimuli into neural activity
  • (c) converting perceptions into neural activity
  • (d) perceiving information

b

48
What is the cornea?
Thick, transparent outer layer which focuses light
49
What happens after the light enters the lens?
It is bent further inwards and focused to form an image on the retina.
50
Is the lens adjustable?
Yes
51
Which focuses more light, the cornea or the lens?
The cornea
52
What is presbyopia?
As people get older, the lens hardens and it becomes more difficult to focus on close images.
53
What is the retina?
The thin inner surface on the back of the eyeball – it's the only part of the brain visible outside of the skull. It is a part of the central nervous system.
54
What are rods?
Retinal cells that respond to low levels of light and result in black-and-white perception.
55
What are cones?
Retinal cells that respond to higher levels of light and result in color perception.
56
What are the features of rods?
(a) They are responsible for night vision (b) Do not support color vision (c) They are poor at recognizing fine detail.
57
What are features for cones?
(a) Responsible for vision under brighter conditions | (b) Responsible for both color and detail
58
How many rods and cones are in the retina's center?
120 million rods and 6 million cones.
59
What is the fovea?
The area near the retina's center where cones are densely packed.
60
What is the pupil?
A dark circle at the center of the eye in front of the lens which controls how much light enters the eye through contraction and dilation.
61
What does the pupil do in dim light?
It dilates to let more light in.
62
What is the iris?
It is the circular muscle which determines eye color and controls the size of the pupil.
63
What is the process called 'accomodation'?
Muscles behind the iris change the shape of the lens by flattening it to focus on distant objects and thicken it to focus on closer objects.
64
What are photopigments?
protein molecules that become unstable and split in presence of light
65
What is the process of visual sensation?
Electrical signals through photopigments --> Light is transduced by rods and cones --> outputs converge ono retinal ganglion cells --> send signals to the thalamus --> point of exit is the blind spot --> info. reaches visual areas of thalamus and travels to primary visual vortex.
66
What are retinal ganglion cells?
first neurons in visual pathway with axons and to generate action potentials
67
What is the optic nerve?
Where axons are bundled and exit through the back of the retina.
68
What is the optic chiasm?
where half the axons in the optic nerves cross this causes crossover of hemisphere and visual info projection
69
What is the lower, ventral stream?
specialised for perception and recognition of objects (shapes and colours)
70
What is the upper, dorsal stream?
specialised for spatial perception - where an object is an relating it to other objects in the scene
71
what is object amnesia?
Could not identify object when shown, but fine with drawing and memory recall
72
What is trichromatic theory?
Color vision results | from activity in three different types of cones of different wavelengths: "S", "M", "L"
73
Under trichromatic theory, what is the "S" cone?
Short wavelengths (blue-violet light)
74
Under trichromatic theory, what is the "M" cone?
Medium wavelengths (yellow-green light)
75
Under trichromatic theory, what is the "L" cone?
Long wavelengths (red-orange light)
76
What is color blindness?
missing photopigment sensitive to certain wavelengths
77
What are the two types of color blindness?
First: Missing medium or long = red-green blind Second: Missing short = blue- yellow blind
78
what is Hering's Opponent-Process theory?
According to this theory, red and green are opponent colors, as are blue and yellow. When we stare at a red image for some time, we see a green afterimage when we look away; when we stare at a green image, we see a red afterimage.
79
What is hue?
distinctive characteristics that place colour in the spectrum ie greeness
80
What is saturation?
purity of colour. Varies according to mixture of wavelengths.
81
What is lightness?
The lightness of a visual stimulus is determined by the brightness of the stimulus relative to its surroundings.
82
What is the difference between brightness and lightness?
Lightness is relative to the surroundings.
83
What is brightness?
Is the color’s perceived intensity. This characteristic is determined chiefly by the total amount of light reaching the eye—think of the difference between, say, a navy blue and a pale blue of the same shade
84
Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization What is proximity?
The closer two figures are to each other, the more likely we are to group them into the same object.
85
What is similarity?
We group figures according to how closely they resemble each other in shape/color/orientation.
86
What is clustering?
In accordance with the principles of similarity and proximity, we cluster elements of the visual scene. Consider a scene as a whole, not individual parts.
87
What is continuity?
Tend to group together edges or contours that have same orientation (objects partially behind something).
88
What is closure?
We tend to complete figures that have gaps
89
What are illusory contours?
sometimes perceive contours and cues to depth even when they do not exist
90
What is prosopagnosia?
Deficit in the ability to recognize faces. Can tell if something is a face, but cannot recognize who it is.
91
What is binocular disparity / retinal disparity?
This cue is caused by the distance between humans’ two eyes. Because each eye has a slightly different view of the world, the brain has access to two different but overlapping retinal images. The brain uses the disparity between these two retinal images to compute distances to nearby objects.
92
Binocular depth cue – convergence. What is it?
This term refers to the way that the eye muscles turn the eyes inward when we view nearby objects. The brain knows how much the eyes are converging and uses this information to perceive distance
93
What is monocular depth perception?
Also called pictorial depth cues – available from each eye alone.
94
What is occlusion?
A near object occludes (blocks) an object that is farther away.
95
What is relative size?
Far-off objects project a smaller retinal image than close objects do, if the far-off and close objects are the same physical size.
96
What is familiar size?
Because we know how large familiar objects are, we can tell how far away they are by the size of their retinal images.
97
What is linear perspective?
Seemingly parallel lines appear to converge in the distance.
98
What is texture gradient?
As a uniformly textured surface recedes, its texture continuously becomes denser.
99
What is position relative to horizon (DaVinci)?
All else being equal, objects below the horizon that appear higher in the visual field are perceived as being farther away. Objects above the horizon that appear lower in the visual field are perceived as being farther away
100
What is an Ames box?
depth illusions; plays with linear perspective and other cues; makes far corner appear close; misleading depth cues lead to size misjudgement
101
What is a Ponzo illusion?
monocular depth cues make 2D figure seem 3D; parallel lines appear to converge in the distance - perceive 2 parallel lines as diff sizes
102
What is the waterfall effect?
stare at moving object then stationary scene, stationary seems to move in opposite direction --> evidence of motion sensitive neurons.
103
What is object constancy?
It's the opposite of illusions. Brain correctly perceives objects as constant despite sensory data that could lead it to think otherwise - ie mirror image, near and far, colour despite same light amount
104
What to you need to know for size constancy?
Need to know distance
105
What do you need to know for shape constancy?
Need to know angles
106
What do you need to know for Color constancy?
Need to compare wavelengths reflected from object to those of the background
107
What do you need to know for lightness constancy?
Need to know how much light is reflected from the object and the background
108
What is a sound wave?
The pattern of the changes in air | pressure during a period of time is called a sound wave
109
What does a sound wave's amplitude determine?
Determines its loudness. Higher amplitude = louder
110
What is a sound wave's frequency?
Determines its pitch. higher frequency = higher pitch.
111
How is sound frequency measured?
Hertz
112
What is the pathway for auditory sensation/perception?
Waves enter outer eat --> travel down auditory canal to eardrum --> Eardrum vibrates and vibrations transfer to ossicles (three tiny bones) --> transfers vibrations to oval window (membrane in inner ear). This oscillates the basilar membrane (cochlear fluid). Stimulates hair cells --> auditory nerve.
113
What is vestibular sense?
uses info from receptors in the inner ear canals to maintain balance
114
What is sound localisation?
Brain integrates diff sensory info to locate sound source
115
What is a cochlear implant?
Small device that helps with hearing implants.
116
What is temporal coding?
A mechanism for encoding low frequency auditory stimuli in which the firing rates of cochlear hair cells match the frequency of the sound wave.
117
What is place coding?
A mechanism for encoding high frequency auditory stimuli in which the frequency of the sound wave is encoded by the location of the hair cells along the basilar membrane
118
What is gustation?
Gustation – keeps poison out of the system.
119
What are the five basic taste sensations?
Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
120
What are papillae?
Taste buds
121
What are supertasters?
People who experience intense taste sensations | Genetics not because of number of taste buds.
122
What is olfaction?
Sense of smell
123
What is the olfactory epithellum?
A thin layer of tissue, within the nasal cavity, that contains the receptors for smell.
124
What are oderants?
Chemical parties which enter the nose.
125
What are pheromones?
involved in social behaviour, chemicals released by animals that trigger physiological or behavioural reactions. Not conscious of but processed
126
What is haptic sense?
conveys sensations of temp, pressure, pain
127
What is kinesthetic sense?
A system related to touch.
128
How is tactile stimulation generated?
When something comes into contact with the skin.
129
How does become perceived?
Touch info goes to thalamus then to primary somatosensory cortex in parietal lobe
130
What are the two types of pain?
Fast fibers for sharp, immediate pain. Slow fibers for chronic, dull, steady pain.
131
What makes the two types of pain fibers different?
the myelination or nonmyelination of their axons, which travel from the pain receptors to the spinal cord. As discussed in Chapter 3, myelination speeds up neural communication. Myelinated axons, like heavily insulated wire, can send information quickly. Nonmyelinated axons send information more slowly
132
What is gate control theory?
According to this theory, we experience pain when pain receptors are activated and a neural “gate” in the spinal cord allows the signals through to the brain. n. The theory states that pain signals are transmitted by small-diameter nerve fibers. These fibers can be blocked at the spinal cord (prevented from reaching the brain) by the firing of larger sensory nerve fibers. Thus, sensory nerve fibers can “close a gate” and prevent or reduce the perception of pain
133
What closes the pain gate?
Distraction, visualizing the pain positively, drugs
134
What opens the pain gate?
Worrying, focusing on the pain
135
What is the autokinetic effect?
Tendency to perceive a stationary point of light as moving in a dark room. Often due to try eye movements.
136
What is the phi phenomenon?
occurs as the on-off process of lights is perceived as movement. lights are flashed very quickly and are perceived as motion. what makes motion pictures possible.
137
Lateral inhibition
capacity of a neuron to reduce the activity of its neighbors doesn’t account for all effects

PSYC 001 (4 decks)

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