Psychology I Flashcards
Processing the environment
what are the two types of visual cues?
binocular vision (retinal disparity) and monocular cues
what is convergence?
convergence is a binocular vision cue.
when something is far away, our eye muscles are relaxed. when something is close, the muscles in our eyes are turning our eyeballs.
what are the different types of monocular cues?
relative size interposition relative height shading and contour motion parallax constancy
what is the sensory adaptation in hearing?
during loud noises, the small inner muscle contracts, which dampens the vibrations that go into the inner ear. this protects the ear drums from being blown and damaged. it DOES NOT work for immediate loud noises.
what is the sensory adaptation for touch?
sensory nerves become desensitized to extreme temperatures, which become saturated so that they stop firing so much
what is the sensory adaptation for smell?
able to detect low concentrations of chemcicals in the air initially. over time, sensory smell receptors become desensitized
what is the sensory adaptation for proprioception?
able to adapt sense of self and knwoing where you are with environment changes
what is the sensory adaptation for sight?
there is down regulation in extreme light, which causes the pupils to constrict and the rods & cones to desensitize
upregulation in dark situations which causes the pupils to get bigger and the rods and cones become more sensitive to light.
what is the just noticeable difference
the threshold at which you are able to notice the increase or change in any situation.
what did weber notice in 1834 in rregards to the increment threshold and background intensity
noticed that the ratio of increment thrershold to the background intensity is constant.
as the background intensity gets bigger, the incremental threshold gets bigger, this holds true for every type of sensory stimulus
what is the absolute threshold?
the minimum intensity of a stimulus that is needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
what are some factors that the absolute threshold of sensation are influenced by?
expectations, experience, motivation, and alertness
what is the 50% of stimuli that cannot be detected called?
subliminal
what are the different types of somatosensation?
temperatures - thermoception
pressure - mechanoception
pain - noiceception
position - proprioception
what are the different types of timing of somatosensation?
non-adaptive: equal amount of space between each successive action potetional
slowly-adapting: slow to adapt to the change in stimulus. the space between the action potentials increase
fast-adapting: fires very quickly as soon as the stimulus starts, and then stops firing and then it will fire again once the stimulus stops
what is the location for somatosensation based on?
dermatomes
what is the vestibular system important for?
balance and spatial orientation
what is endolymph?
fluid that flows through the three semicircular canals that are orthogonal to each other. shifting endolymph assist our brains with sensing what plane our heads are rotating in, which ultimately causes changes in balance.
what is the purple of the otolithic organs (utricle and siccule)?
linear acceleration and gravity
What are the carbonate crystals in the ear responsible for?
they are attached to the hair cells in viscous substnace.
when the crystals move, they physically pull (acceleration and gravity) on hari cells that they are attached to. Once the pull happens, an action potential begins and sends the message to the brain.
what is the signal detection theory?
looks to see how we make a decision. Decision making, Under conditions of uncertainity.
There are two big strategies in the signal detection theory. What are they?
Conservation - always say no unless you are 100% sure that the signal is present. Bad thing about this, all rejections, some misses
Liberal - always say yes. will get a few hits, but also some false alarms
What is bottom up processing?
Stimulus influences or perceptrion
What is top down processing >
Uses background knowledge to influence perception