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Moralfilosofi och metaetik > PSYD13 Delkurs 1 - Perception > Flashcards

PSYD13 Delkurs 1 - Perception Flashcards

1
Q

Define sensation

A

The stimulus detection process by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain

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2
Q

Define perception

A

Making “sense” of what are sense tell us; it is the active process of organising this stimulus input and giving it meaning

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3
Q

Sensory transduction?

A

The process whereby the characteristics of a stimulus are converted into nerve impulses

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4
Q

What is psychophysics?

A

Studies the relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli and sensory capabilities

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5
Q

What is meant by absolute threshold?

A

The lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time, or in other words, the lowest amount of stimulus that is needed for sensory organs to react/cease to react.

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6
Q

What is the Signal Detection theory?

A

This is theory act as a framework to understand how internal and external factors influence one sensitivity to stimuli, more in particular ones sensitivity to a signal (something important) vs distraction.

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7
Q

What is a decision criterion, in relation the absolute threshold?

A

Even though absolute thresholds can be a rough estimate of people sensitivity to sensory stimuli, it is inaccurate. This is because people set their own decision criterion, i.e. = a standard of how certain someone must be that a stimulus is present before they will say they can detect it.

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8
Q

What are the 4 possible outcomes of the Signal Detection theory?

A

Hit, miss, false alarm and correct rejection

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9
Q

What is the difference threshold? (or the just noticeable difference threshold (JND)

A

The smallest difference between 2 stimuli that people can perceive 50% of the time

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10
Q

Weber’s Law?

A

The law states that the difference threshold, or JND, is directly proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus with which the comparison is being made. In simpler terms, this means that the greater the intensity of the stimuli, the bigger the difference has to be

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11
Q

Weber fraction?

A

The aptitude with which we make discriminations across any given class of stimulus range, for example the weber fraction for kinaesthesis (lifted weights) is 1/50, i.e. you can feel a difference in a weight that weighs 50g and 51g

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12
Q

Sensory adaption?

A

Refers to the diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus

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13
Q

Why is sensory adaption beneficial for the brain?

A

Sensory adaption leads to a decrease in neural activity for said stimulus, which allows for an increase in sensitivity for other, perhaps more important stimuli

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14
Q

What are 2 examples of sensory adaption?

A

Light adaption and dark adaption

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15
Q

What is the span wavelengths that the human eye is sensitive to?

A

Wavelengths extending form 700 nanometers (red) down to about 400 nanometers (blue-violet).

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16
Q

What is the lens of the eye?

A

An elastic structure that becomes thinner to focus on distant objects and thicker to focus on nearly objects

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17
Q

What is the retina?

A

It is a multilayered light-sensitive tissue at the rear of the fluid-filled eyeball

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18
Q

Explain visual transduction

A

The visual information enters the eye and is reversed by the lens and cast on the retina, which contains the rod and the cone photoreceptor cells. When the sensory information is cast on the retina, the photoreceptorcells transduct the image into nerve impulses through the photopigments. The rods and cones synapse with bipolar cells -> ganglion cells, who’s axon form the optic nerve -> thalamus -> cortex

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19
Q

Rods?

A

Photoreceptorcells that are sensitive to light (500x more sensitive to lights than cones) and function best in dim light. Are primarily black-and white brightness receptors.

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20
Q

Cones?

A

Photoreceptorcells that are sensitive to colour that function best in bright illumination

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21
Q

Optic nerve?

A

Is made up out of the axons of ganglion cells that send visual information from the eye to the thalamus and cortex

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22
Q

Fovea?

A

Small area in the centre of the retina that contains no rods but many densely packed cones

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23
Q

Optic disk?

A

Where the optic nerve exits the eye which has no receptors, which produces a blind spot.

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24
Q

Visual acuity?

A

Our ability to see fine detail

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25
Photo-pigments
Rods and cones translate light waves into nerve impulses through the action of protein molecules called photo-pigments
26
Dark adaption
The progressive improvement in brightness sensitivity that occurs over time under conditions of low illumination
27
Explain how dark adaption works
Photopigments are depleted cause by light - cones recover faster than rods but aren't as light sensitive which means that they aren't as well fit to produce vision in the dark - after ca 30-40 mins the rods recover and our vision has adapted to the dark
28
Why are fight pilots advised to wear red glasses or sit in a room with red light?
Because rods aren't as sensitive to red wavelength light -> the photopigments molecules aren't depleted cause by high illumination, which results in the rods remaining in a state of dark adaption
29
What is Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory?
Helmholtz theory states that there are 3 types of colour receptor in the retina
30
What are the issues with the trichromatic theory?
1. The theory states that red + green produces yellow, which fails to explain how people who are colourblind and cannot see red and green, can still see yellow 2. Cannot explain the phenomenon of an afterimage (when you look at a flag and see it in reverse when you look away)
31
What is Hering's opponent-process theory?
The theory states that each of the three cone types responds to two different wavelengths. Hering meant that there are a white-black, a yellow-blue and a red-green opponent process. In each of these opponent processes, we code vision as a tension between wavelengths
32
What is the dual-process theory?
The theory combines the trichromatic- and opponent-process theories and states that yes, there are 3 types of cones that are sensitive to different wavelengths (blue, green and red) -> opponent processes occur further along in the visual systems, i.e. in the two types of ganglion cells.
33
What are feature detectors?
A type of cell in the primary visual cortex that respond to different types of visual information
34
How do we know that there are feature detectors?
Well, Wiesel and Hubel (who won a nobel price for this) did an experiment where they measured neural activity in a cat while it was looking at a rod that was rotating. What they found was that when the rod was at a certain angle, a certain area in the visual cortex had high activity (compared to other angles).
35
What is the visual association cortex?
Where features of a visual scene are combined and interpreted in light of our memories and knowledge (i.e. compared to the information in hippocampus)
36
What is parallell processing?
When sensory (ex. visual information) is simultaneously processed and interpreted in separate but overlapping regions, in order to perceive the "whole picture"
37
Marr's computational model?
The theory states that vision is a 3 step process: a) primal sketch b) 2D sketch c) 3D sketch (final image). Marr's theory has been very influential for visual perception.
38
What is Biederman's recognition-by-components theory?
A continuation of Marr's model - he proposed that objects are made up of 36 basic shapes (geons).
39
Retinotopic mapping?
Areas in the retina correspond to different areas in the visual cortex
40
Frequency?
The number of sound waves, or cycles, per second
41
Hertz (Hz)?
The measure of cycles per second. 1 hertz equals 1 cycle per second.
42
Amplitude?
The vertical size of the sound waves - the depth between the peaks and the throughs in the sound wave
43
Decibels (dB)?
Measure of the physical pressures that occurs at the eardrum
44
How does auditory transduction work?
Transduction of waves into electromechanical neural activity takes place in the hair cells: Movement (sound waves) of basilar membrane ———> stimulates hair cells via bending and shearing action ———> shearing force bends cilia ———> contact with tectorial membrane ———> neural activity/neurotransmitter release.
45
Cochlea?
A coiled, snail-shaped fluid-filled structure that contains the auditory receptor cells
46
Basilar membrane?
Sheet of tissue that runs its length - is a receptor surface in the cochlea that transduces sound waves
47
organ of Corti?
Contains thousands of tiny hair cells (the sensory neurons)
48
What is the frequency theory of pitch perception?
The theory states that nerve impulses sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound wave
49
What is the problem with the frequency theory of pitch perception?
Neurons are limited in their rate of firing -> individual impulses cannot match sound wave frequencies above 1000 Hz
50
What is the place theory of pitch perception?
This theory suggests that the specific point in the cochlea where the fluid wave peaks and most strongly bends the hair cells serves as frequency coding cue
51
Monotopic mapping?
Different areas in the cochlea correspond to different areas in the auditory cortex
52
Conductive hearing loss?
Involves problems with the mechanical system that transmits sound waves to the cochlea
53
Sensorineural hearing loss?
Caused by damaged receptors within the inner ear or damage to the auditory nerve itself
54
Gustation?
Sense of taste
55
Olfaction?
Sense of smell
56
What are taste buds?
Small bodies containing taste receptor cells concentrated along the tip, edges and back surface of the tongue
57
Olfactory bulb?
Forebrain structure that codes olfactory signals at least in part via the specific area of the olfactory bulb that is excited
58
Pheromones?
Chemical signals found in natural body scents
59
Ortonasal olfaction?
The sense of smell that comes from odours inhaled up the nostrils from in front of us; orthonasal olfaction is involved in sensing odours in our surroundings and deciding whether or not to ingest something
60
Retronasal olfaction?
The sense of odours that come from the mouth; it is heavily involved in the perception of flavour while we are eating and drinking
61
Cutaneous touch?
The sense of touch arising from events on the skin surface (incl. temperature and pressure)
62
Proprioception?
Sensory input that provides us with information about the layout and movements of our body and limbs
63
Interoceptive touch?
The sense of touch arising from receptors inside the body, typically in blood vessels and organs
64
Haptics?
The active use of touch and movement to explore objects and surfaces within reach
65
What is the vestibular system?
Apparatus in the cochlea that contributes especially to the sense of bodily movement, and orientation with respect to gravity; it plays a crucial role in maintaining balance
66
What is the McGurk effect?
An effect that shows how visual information has an effect on what we hear
67
What is another example of multisensory perceptual interactions?
The rubber hand illusion
68
What is synasthesia?
"Mixing of senses" i.e. someone who is "unusually good" at association - a clinical condition in which information from one sense channel leads to an automatic sensation in another sense channel
69
Define bottom-up processing
An externally driven process that analyses individual elements of a stimulus and then combines the information to form unified perception
70
Define top-down processing
An internally driven process that is defined by how sensory information is interpreted based on earlier knowledge, concepts, ideas and expectations.
71
What does figure-ground relations refer to?
It refers to our tendency to organise stimuli into a central or foreground figure and a background
72
What are the Gestalt laws of perceptual organisation?
Similarity, proximity, closure and continuity
73
Law of similarity?
When parts of a configuration are perceived similar, they will be perceived as belonging together
74
Law of proximity?
Elements that are near each other are likely to be perceived as the same configuration
75
Law of closure?
People tend to close the open edges of a figure or fill in gaps in an incomplete figure, so that their identification of the form is more complete than it actually were
76
Law of continuity?
People link individual elements together so they form a continuous line or pattern that makes sense
77
What is the law of simplicity (Prägnanz)?
Describes our visual systems tendency to see whole complete forms rather than individual parts. This law describes the Gestalt laws.
78
What is a perceptual schema?
A mental representation or image containing the critical and distinctive features of a person, object, event or other perceptual phenomenon. This is a top-down process! One can also talk about a perceptual hypothesis
79
What are perceptual constancies?
They allow us to recognise familiar stimuli under varying conditions
80
Shape constancy?
Allow us to recognise objects from different angles, ex a chair
81
Lightness constancy?
Allow us to recognise objects in different light, ex a carpet in different times of the day
82
Size constancy?
Is the perception that the perceived size of objects remains relatively constant even though images on our retina change in size with variations of distance
83
What are monocular and binocular depth cues?
The retina only recieves 2D information, but by the help of monocular and binocular depth cues, the brain translates the information to 3D.
84
Examples of monocular depth cues?
1. Patterns of light and shadow 2. Linear perspective 3. An object's height in the horizontal plane 4. Interposition 5. Texture 6. Clarity 7. Relative size 8. Motion parallax
85
Binocular disparity?
Each eye sees a slightly different image
86
Convergence?
A binocular distance cue that is produced by feedback
87
Stroboscopic movement?
Illusory movement produced when a light is briefly flashed in darkness and then, a few milliseconds later, another light is flashed nearby -> it looks like the light moves, or ex: still photographs shown at 24 fps
88
What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?
The picture with two lines, a and b, where one has arrows that makes it look like its pointing at us and one away from us, the one that looks like it points away from us appears longer because it appears to be further away
89
What are critical periods?
Periods during which certain kinds of experiences must occur if perceptual abilities and the brain mechanisms that underlie them are to develop normally
90
What is a perceptual set?
A predisposition to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others
91
Prosopagnosia?
Inability to recognise faces, caused by leisure in FFA
92
What is an example that shows are ability to learn to recognise non-human faces?
The experiment with the so called "Greebles". By practice, there was an increase in activity in the FFA, i.e. the participants gained expertise in the FFA

Moralfilosofi och metaetik (12 decks)

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