psychology chapter 3

Question 1

What are mechanoreceptors? What’s an example?

Answer 1

respond to mechanical disturbances.

1) Pacinians corpuscles- pressure sensors located inside skin that becomes depolarized when pressure is applied, so signal goes up dendrite as graded potentials.
2) auditory hair cell that detects vibrations caused by sound waves in inner ear and also lead to depolarization.

Question 2

What are chemoreceptors? What’s an example?

Answer 2

respond to particular chemicals.

1) olfactory detect airborne chemicals and allow us t smell.
2) gustatory receptors are autonomic chemorcepectors in walls if carotid.

Question 3

What are nociceptors?

Answer 3

Pain receptors stimulated by tissue injury. May be somatic or autonomic.
Autonomic- pain receptors do not provide the conscious mind with clear pain information.

Question 4

what’s referred pain?

Answer 4

illusion of pain from when nerves cross paths with somatic efferent from skin.

Question 5

What are thermoreceptors?

Answer 5

stimulated by changes in temperature. autonomic and somatic examples.

Question 6

what are electromagnetic receptors?

Answer 6

stimulated by electromagnetic waves.

ex: rods and cones in retina of eye (photoreceptors)

Question 7

What are four properties that need to be communicated to CNS?

Answer 7

1) modality
2) location
3) intensity
4) duration

Question 8

What is proprioception?

Answer 8

refers to awareness of self (body position). ex: muscle spindle to detect muscle stretch.

Question 9

what’s another name for proprioception?

Answer 9

kinesthetic sense.

Question 10

where are olfactory receptors?

Answer 10

in roof of nasopharynx

Question 11

what’s pathway for hearing?

Answer 11

sound waves –> auricle –> external auditory canal –> tympanic membrane –> oval window –> perilymph –> endolymph –> basilar membrane –> auditory hair cells –> tectorial membrane –> neurotransmitters stimulate bipolar auditory neurons –> brain –> perception.

Question 12

What is pitch?

Answer 12

frequency of sound distinguished depending on which region is stimulated by vibration.

Question 13

if a sensory neuron leading from the ear to the brain fires an action potential more rapidly, how will the brain perceive this change?

Answer 13

more rapid firing = increase in volume

Question 14

where are the auditory hair and nerves?

Answer 14

cochlea

Question 15

what are the components of the equilibrium complex?

Answer 15

semicircular canals: utricle, saccule, ampullae

Question 16

what is the path of light ?

Answer 16

light through the eye to the cornea -
aqueous humor - through pupil -
lens - vitreous humor - retina -
optic nerve - brain - the occipital lobe

Question 17

what are the photo receptors?

Answer 17

cones-concentrated in fovea- color and high acuity vision

rods- night vision - periphery of retina- more sensitive to light and movement

Question 18

How does light stimulate photoreceptors?

Answer 18

photoreceptors are hyper polarized when light goes through –> depolarizes bipolar cell –> stimulate AP in ganglion cell –> optic nerve –> brain.

Question 19

What is the term for normal vision?

Answer 19

emmetropia

Question 20

what is the term for nearsightedness? what is the defect? how do you correct it?

Answer 20

myopia- too much refraction at the lens or abnormally long eyeball results in focal length that is too short.
correct with CONCAVE lenses.

Question 21

what is the term for farsightedness? what is the defect? how do you correct it?

Answer 21

Hyperopia- too little refraction or abnormally short eyeball results in focal length that is too long- correct with CONVEX glasses.

Question 22

What is presbyopia?

Answer 22

inability to accomodate/ focus.

Question 23

What is feature detection theory?

Answer 23

explains why a certain are of the brain is activated when looking at a face.

Question 24

What is parallel processing?

Answer 24

A way for our brain to process vast amounts of visual information quickly and effectively by processing visual stimulus simultaneously- holistic image.

Question 25

What are monocular cues? (8)

Answer 25

• depth cues that depend on information that is available to either eye alone and are important for judging distances of objects that are far from us since the retinal disparity is only slight.
  1) relative size
  2) interposition
  3) relative clarity
  4) texture gradient
  5) relative height
  6) relative motion
  7) linear perspective
  8) light and shadow

Question 26

What is signal detection theory?

Answer 26

attempts to predict when and how someone will detect the presence of a given sensory stimulus amidst all other sensory stimuli in background.

Question 27

what are the gestalt principles?

Answer 27

Gestalt- form/ shape in german.

1) emergence- small dots but the whole is a picture ex: mosaic
2) figure/ ground - our perceptual tendency to separate figure or object from everything else based on # of possible variables.
3) multi stability- tendency of ambiguous image to pop back and forth between alternative interpretations in our brains.
4) Gestalt law of grouping- proximity, continuity, common fate, closure and connectedness.

Question 28

what is bottom up processing?

Answer 28

sensory information –> brain processing

Question 29

what is top down processing?

Answer 29

brain perception applied to sensory input.

Question 30

what are examples of hydrophilic hormones?

Answer 30

peptides an amino acid derivatives

Question 31

what is an example of hydrophobic hormones?

Answer 31

steroid