Psychology Ch. 5

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

when your body picks up things happening around you (like seeing light or hearing sound) using special parts called sensory receptors, and then sends this information to your brain.

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

what your brain does with what is happeneing around you (the sensory info) . It takes all the different pieces of information, puts them together, and helps you understand what they mean. It’s like your brain is telling you, “That’s a dog barking” or “A car is honking its horn.”

Question 2

Transduction

Answer 2

the process where these sensory receptors translate the outside information (like the tap on your shoulder) into electrical signals. Once the information is in the form of electrical signals, it can travel along the nerves to your brain. When it gets to your brain, your brain can understand the message and react to it.

Question 3

Absolute threshold

Answer 3

The lowest level of a stimulus — like sound, light, or touch — that an individual can detect at least half the time it is presented

like the volume knob on a radio. Imagine you’re turning up the volume very slowly from complete silence. The absolute threshold is the point at which you first start to hear the music

Question 4

Difference threshold

Answer 4

The just noticeable difference between
two stimuli (the minimum amount
of change required for a person
to detect a difference 50% of the
time)

noticing a change in the intensity of a stimulus that’s already present.

Question 5

Every taste experience is composed of a mix of what five basic qualities?

Answer 5

sweet, salty, sour, bitter, & umami (savory)

Question 6

What are the stimuli for smell?
Where are the smell (or olfactory)
receptors located?

Answer 6

airborne chemical molecules that we encounter in our environment. These molecules are often released from objects or substances and become part of the air around us. When we breathe in, these molecules enter our nose. Olfactory epithelium (or mucosa) is a thin layer of tissue
embedded with smell receptors, which transmit information to the olfactory bulb, which is the brain center for smell.

Question 7

Orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 7

Receives info from smell, taste, and visual systems
Flavour perception

Question 8

Mechanoreceptors

Answer 8

Respond to mechanical distortion or pressure
(The most sensitive mechanoreceptors are actually found in the cochlea responsible for sound transduction)

activated by things like touch, pressure, stretching, and sound vibrations.- When something physically touches or applies pressure to your skin, or when your muscles and other tissues stretch, these mechanoreceptors get activated.
They convert this mechanical energy (like touch or pressure) into electrical signals.
These signals are then sent to the brain, where they’re interpreted as different sensations like touch, pressure, vibration, and even sound.

Question 9

The primary somatosensory cortex

Answer 9

part of your brain that acts like a map for touch sensations. Each part of your body is represented on this map, and the more sensitive the body part (like lips or fingertips), the larger its area on the map. This helps your brain process and understand how things feel when you touch them. (Sensory homunculus)

Question 10

Wilder Penfield

Answer 10

A Canadian neurosurgeon and one of the pioneers in the field of neurology. He made significant contributions to our understanding of the brain and its functions, particularly through his work on the mapping of the human brain’s sensory and motor areas.

Question 11

Nociceptors

Answer 11

your body’s alarm sensors for pain. They notice things that could hurt you, like extreme heat or a sharp object. When they detect something harmful, they quickly send a message to your brain, and that’s when you feel pain. They help keep you safe by warning you about possible dangers.

Question 12

Myelinated (“A delta”) fibres

Answer 12

Type of nerve fibers in your body that are responsible for transmitting signals related to sharp, immediate pain. These fibers play a role in quickly signaling your brain when you experience something potentially harmful, like touching something hot or getting a sharp cut

Question 13

Lightly or non-myelinated (“C”) fibres

Answer 13

Another type of nerve fibers in your body that transmit signals related to dull, steady pain. These fibers are involved when you experience a lingering, persistent ache or discomfort. Their slower transmission is associated with a more prolonged and lingering perception of pain. This type of pain might be related to the body’s need for recuperation or healing, signaling that something might be wrong and requiring attention or care.

Question 14

Gate control theory of pain

Answer 14

For pain to be experienced, pain receptors must be activated AND the neural “gate” in the spinal cord must allow the signals through to the brain
If the gate is “open” - pain is experienced
If the gate is “closed” - pain is reduced (or prevented)
e.g., taking meds closes the gate.

Question 15

What is the sensory homunculus?

Answer 15

A tiny person inside your brain. This little person has a map that shows how much attention your brain gives to different parts of your body when you feel things like touch or temperature. But, this map doesn’t show things in the right sizes; it makes some body parts look bigger or smaller based on how much your brain cares about them.

Question 16

Accommodation (eye)

Answer 16

Muscles change the shape of
the lens, flattening it to focus on distant objects,
and thickening it to focus on closer objects

Question 17

Photoreceptors

Answer 17

Tiny sensors in your eyes. When light particles (photons) hit them, they start a chemical reaction. This reaction creates an electrical signal, like a message, that your brain can understand. So, in simple terms, photoreceptors help your eyes turn light into signals that your brain can use to see things.

Question 18

Rods

Answer 18

Tiny cells in your eyes that work in low light. They help you see things in black and white. You’ve got lots of these—around 120 million on the sides of your retinas. They’re the reason you can see in the dark and notice basic shapes and shades.

Question 19

Cones

Answer 19

Eye cells that work better in bright light and help you see colors. You have fewer of these—around 6 million in each retina, mainly in the center part called the fovea. Cones are the reason you can enjoy a colorful and vibrant view on a sunny day.

Question 20

What are the three types of cones

Answer 20

S cones – short wavelengths – blues
M cones – medium wavelengths – green
L cones – long wavelengths – red

Question 21

The cornea

Answer 21

the windshield of your eye - light comes in through the cornea, the cornea and the lens work together to bend light (refract light) onto the retina

Question 22

The pupil

Answer 22

Hole in the iris controlling amount of light in

Question 23

Iris

Answer 23

The colored part of our eye muscles - able to control the pupil size.

Question 24

Retina

Answer 24

The very back photoreceptors. These cells translate the energy from light into a language that your brain can understand

e.g., When you see a yellow flower - the retina translates this so our brain can understand what you are seeing is a yellow flower.

Question 25

Fovea

Answer 25

A little pit right at the back of your eye on the retina. It’s a special spot because it’s where your vision is super sharp. Imagine it as the eye’s high-resolution area, like the center of a camera lens that captures the finest details

Question 26

Optic disc

Answer 26

A hub where the wires (axons) from your eye gather to form a nerve that goes to your brain. It’s the entry point for messages from your eyes to your brain. But here’s the tricky part: this hub creates a tiny “blind spot” in your vision

Question 27

Label this eye

Answer 27

https://www.google.com/search?q=empty+label+of+eye&sca_esv=590380016&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1071CA1075&tbm=isch&sxsrf=AM9HkKm5aMnSC9dvFUZsWLkY7CS9-krDZw:1702483438589&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjW896E5YyDAxV7CTQIHYxMBzcQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1470&bih=738&dpr=2#imgrc=IcSgv8Sc2wCf5M

Question 28

Visual transmission

Answer 28

Rods + cones –> bipolar, amacrine, horizontal course, ganglion cells/optic nerve

Question 29

Trichromatic theory

Answer 29

the perception of color is determined by the particular ratio of color among these three types of receptors(L. M. S)

Question 30

Opponent processing theory

Answer 30

(Hering 1920) Focus on ganglion cells in the retina
Three opposing pairs (if one colour in the pair stimulated, the other is inhibited):
* Red / Green
* Yellow / Blue
* White / Black

If you stare at a red object for a long time, the red cells in your eyes get tired and stop responding as much. When you then look away at a neutral background, the green cells (which were turned off before) are now more active compared to the tired red cells. This is why you might see a green afterimage where the red object was.

Question 31

Motion sensitive neurons

Answer 31

Cells in the visual system that respond to movement. When you repeatedly expose these neurons to a specific type of motion, they can become fatigued or adapt. This adaptation can result in a perceptual phenomenon known as a motion aftereffect, and a classic example of this is the “waterfall illusion.”

When you stare a a waterfall for too long other objects can looks like they are in motion.

Question 32

Dorsal

Answer 32

on the top) (dorsal fin on a dolphin) -the parietal pathways - specialized for spatial perception - us understanding where objects are in space relative to ourselves. (how far I need to reach to pick something up, the shape my hand has to take to pick up my phone vs coffee)

Question 33

Ventral

Answer 33

“what’ stream - down to the temporal lobe - allowing us to determining things and say (yes that is my iphone..

agnosia (trouble for recognizing things) ; prosopagnosia (trouble for recognizing faces.)

Question 34

Figure-ground relationship

Answer 34

Whatever is not the figure (the focus of visual field) is automatically assigned as background

Question 35

Illusory Contours

Answer 35

Imagine seeing lines or shapes that aren’t really there. Illusory contours trick our brains into thinking there are outlines or borders, even when nothing is physically outlining the objects

Question 36

Proximity

Answer 36

The closer two figures are, the more likely we
are to group them together and see them as being part of the same object

Question 37

Similarity

Answer 37

We tend to group figures according to how
closely they resemble each other

Question 38

Continuation

Answer 38

We tend to interpret intersecting lines as
continuous rather than as changing direction radically
(branches behind the tree)

Question 39

Closure

Answer 39

We tend to complete figures that have gaps

Picture of panda

Question 40

Retinal Disparity

Answer 40

Because we have two eyes the visual info we have with only one eye open is different, so what the brain does is it combines info from both eyes using disparity between two retinal imaged to compute distances

Question 41

Monocular depth cues

Answer 41

Include occlusion, relative size,
familiar size, linear perspective, texture gradient, and
position relative to horizon

Occlusion: When one object covers part of another, the covered object seems further away.
Relative Size: Smaller-looking objects are perceived as more distant if we know their typical size.
Familiar Size: We use our knowledge of how large familiar objects are to judge their distance.
Linear Perspective: Parallel lines seem to meet in the distance, like railroad tracks converging.
Texture Gradient: Objects look more detailed when close and less detailed when far away.
Position Relative to Horizon: Objects near the horizon seem farther away than those far from it.

Question 42

Motions cues (motion parallax)

Answer 42

for depth perception include the motion
parallax: Objects that are farther away seem to move more slowly that objects that are close

Question 43

Relative motion

Answer 43

when you are moving and you fixate on a point, anything closer appears its moving in the opposite direction.

Question 44

Bottom-up processing

Answer 44

you don’t start with a preconceived idea of what you’re looking at. Instead, you start with the small details, like colors, lines, or textures, and then combine these details to form a complete understanding or perception. It’s like building your understanding from scratch, starting with the simplest pieces of information and working your way up to the bigger picture.

Question 45

Top-down processing

Answer 45

Imagine you have a plan in your head before you start building a tower of blocks. starting with that plan (the higher-level information) and then using it to influence how you arrange the blocks (the lower-level processing). Similarly, information from your expectations and previous knowledge guides how you see and understand things, affecting the way your brain processes incoming information from your senses.

Question 46

Split brain patients

Answer 46

corpus callosum is getting severed,

Contralateral organization (left side controls right)

Lateralization of function (certain parts have their own specialty)

Question 47

Left hemisphere

Answer 47

The vocal hemisphere (when people are making a vocalized response it is coming from the left hemisphere.)

Question 48

Right hemisphere

Answer 48

being better at spatial relations - more responsible for facial perception.

Question 49

Spatial

Answer 49

anything related to space and the area around us

Question 50

What happens in a split brain patient if there is a teddy bear to their right and a duck to their left?

Answer 50

The teddy bear on the right gets processed by the left hemisphere which is vocal, so when they are asked they will say that it is a teddy bear. - the right hemisphere will point at a bathtub when shown the picture of the duck

When you asked people to explain why they pointed to these images - only the left hemisphere can answer so it makes up a story (the major interpreter)
“The teddy bear sleeps in bed with the child. And children have baths before they go to bed.”

Question 51

Fusiform face area (FFA)

Answer 51

Area of the brain that becomes particularly active when people look at faces (some evidence that it is an “expertise” area and not just for faces)
Located at the intersection of the
occipital and temporal cortices,
and is usually larger on the right side

Question 52

Psychophysics

Answer 52

Testing how your mind and your senses work together. It’s about figuring out the connection between what you experience and what’s really happening in the world. e.g., How bright a light is or how loud a sound is.

Question 53

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 53

Noticing a meaningful signal (like a quiet sound or a faint light) in the midst of background noise and deciding whether to respond or not.

Question 54

Sensory adaptation

Answer 54

When your senses get used to something after being exposed to it for a while. It’s like when you first put on a watch, and you feel its weight on your wrist, but after a while, you don’t notice it anymore

Question 55

Binocular cue

Answer 55

Visual hint that helps you see depth and perceive the world in three dimensions, using both of your eyes. It’s a clue your brain gets when it compares the slightly different views each eye has of the same scene.

Question 56

Cochlea

Answer 56

A snail-shaped, spiral part in your ear that helps you hear. It’s a vital component of the inner ear. When sound enters your ear, the cochlea turns it into electrical signals that your brain can understand.

Question 57

Gustation

Answer 57

Taste

Question 58

gestalt principles

Answer 58

Organize what we see. They help us make sense of the world by grouping things together in meaningful ways. Think of it as your brain’s way of organizing individual elements into a whole picture.

e.g., Similarity: Things that look alike are grouped together.

Question 59

taste bud

Answer 59

Tiny sensory organs on your tongue that help you taste different flavors. They’re like the little taste detectors in your mouth. When you eat something, these taste buds send signals to your brain, allowing you to experience and identify different tastes like sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.

Question 60

vestibular system

Answer 60

(Inner ear) Your body’s internal balance and orientation system. It’s responsible for helping you stay upright, maintain balance, and sense your body’s position in space.