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PSYC 333 > Quiz 1 (chapter 1-3) finished > Flashcards

Quiz 1 (chapter 1-3) finished Flashcards

1
Q

What are the four ways human’s locate, describe and identify (sense) stimuli around them?

A
  1. Eyes
  2. Ears
  3. Skin
  4. Mouth and Nose
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2
Q

What are some real world applications of machines that can perceive things?

A

-medical devices that restore perception to people who have lost vision or hearing

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3
Q

Finish this: Perception depends on… (2)

A

-the properties of the sensory receptors (i.e. receptors in skin)
-the idea that we can only perceive things through the specific lens of the receptors we are given (I can observe something that isn’t real but appears real because my eyes make it so)

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4
Q

What are the 7 steps in the perceptual process?

A
  1. Environmental stimulus
  2. Light is reflected and transformed
  3. Receptor processes
  4. Neural processing
  5. Perception (interchangeable with 6 & 7)
  6. Recognition
  7. Action
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5
Q

What is an example of environmental stimulus?

A

-a tree that someone is observing

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6
Q

What is the principle of transformation? (2)

A

-stimuli and responses are transformed, or changed, between the environmental stimulus and perception.
-my understanding is that stimuli is changed from one thing to another

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7
Q

Describe the two transformations that occur during the principle of transformation using the tree example.

A

-light hits the tree and is reflected to the person’s eye
-transformed as light reaches the eye

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8
Q

Describe the eye parts (4)

A

-cornea
-lens
-retina
-receptors

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9
Q

What is the cornea?

A

-transparent outer covering that bends light

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10
Q

What is the lens?

A

-ciliary muscles allow this to contract or relax and focus the light for close or far objects

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11
Q

What is the retina?

A

-coating on the interior back of the eye

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12
Q

What are the eye receptors?What do they do? (2)

A

-they include the rods and cones and they convert light into an electrical signal

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13
Q

What is the principle of representation?

A

-everything a person perceives is based not on direct contact with stimuli but on representations of stimuli that are formed on the receptors and on activity in the person’s nervous system.

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14
Q

Can you use the example of the tree to elucidate the distinction between transformation and representation? (2)

A

-the environmental stimulus is transformed into the image on the retina
-this image represents the tree in the person’s eyes

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15
Q

Define sensory receptors (2)

A

-cells specialized to respond to environmental energy
-each sensory system’s receptors respond to specific types of energy

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16
Q

Define Visual Pigment

A

-a light-sensitive chemical which reacts to light

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17
Q

What is transduction?

A

-the transformation of one form of energy (light energy) to another form (electrical energy for example).

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18
Q

Describe the 2 steps in neural processing.

A

-neurons transmit signals from the receptors, through the retina, to the brain and then within the brain
-the neurons also change (or process) these signals as they are transmitted.

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19
Q

Is the path from the receptors to the brain a straight line?

A

-No, there are multiple routes

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20
Q

Define Neural Processing

A

-the changes in the signals that occur as they are transmitted through the neurons

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21
Q

Define the Primary Receiving Area (2)

A

-each sense has one and this is where electrical signals arrive
-in the cerebral cortex

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22
Q

What is the cerebral cortex?

A

-2 mm thick layer that contains machinery for creating perceptions and other functions (learning, memory, and thinking)

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23
Q

Where is the majority of the receiving area for vision in the brain?

A

-occipital lobe

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24
Q

Where is part of the area for hearing in the brain?

A

-temporal lobe

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25
Q

Where is the area for skin senses (touch, temperature and pain)?

A

-parietal lobe

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26
Q

What lobe receives signals from all of the senses?

A

-the frontal lobe

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27
Q

What does the frontal lobe play an important role in?

A

-perceptions that involve the coordination of information received through two or more senses

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28
Q

Define perception

A

-conscious awareness (for example, of the tree)

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29
Q

Define recognition

A

-placing an object in a category (for example, a tree) which gives it meaning

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30
Q

What is visual form agnosia?

A

-an inability to recognize objects (couldn’t recognize people’s faces)

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31
Q

What is action in this process?

A

-it involves motor activities (such as walking toward the tree)

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32
Q

How do we know that perception is a continuously changing process?

A

-you perception, recognition and reaction to environmental stimuli is always changing

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33
Q

What is knowledge?

A

-any information that the perceiver brings to a situation.

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34
Q

What is the last factor including in the perceptual process?

A

-knowledge

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35
Q

What does the rat-man demonstration show?

A

-that recently acquired knowledge can influence perception

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36
Q

Define bottom-up processing (data-based processing)

A

-processing that is based on the stimuli reaching the receptors

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37
Q

Define top-down processing (knowledge-based processing)

A

-processing that is based on knowledge

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38
Q

Give an example of someone using both bottom-down and top-down processing.

A

-a pharmacist tries to read the scribble of a doctors note. She starts with the patterns that the doctor’s handwriting creates on her retina. Now, top-down processing can come into play as the pharmacist may use her knowledge of drugs to help her understand what she is reading.

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39
Q

Is top-down processing always involved in perception? (2)

A

-very often it is
-but really simple stimuli may not involve top-down (for example, a bright flash of light)

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40
Q

What have been the two methods in which perception has been studied?

A

-psychophysical approach
-physiological approach

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41
Q

What is the psychophysical approach (psychophysics)?

A

-measures the relationship between the stimuli and the behavioral response.

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42
Q

What is an example of the psychophysical approach in research?

A

-how well could participants see the fine lines in stimuli that were presented at different orientations

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43
Q

What is the simplified perceptual process? (3)

A

-stimuli
-perception
-physiology

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44
Q

What is the oblique effect?

A

-we are able to better see vertical or horizonal things than slanted lines

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45
Q

What is the physiological approach?

A

-measuring two relationships; the relationship between the stimuli and physiological responses and behavioral responses

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46
Q

What is an example of an experiment using the physiological approach?

A

-researchers found that ferrets had larger brain responses to horizontal or vertical orientations than slanted orientations

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47
Q

Define cognitive influences on perception

A

-knowledge, memories and expectations that people bring to a situation influence their perceptions

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48
Q

Define absolute threshold

A

-the minimum stimulus intensity that can just be detected

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49
Q

What were the three main methods that Fechner proposed for measuring thresholds? (AKA classical psychophysical methods)

A

-method of limits
-method of adjustment
-the method of constant stimuli

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50
Q

Why are they called the classical psychophysical methods?

A

-because they were the original methods used to measure the relationship between stimuli and perception

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51
Q

What is the method of limits and what is an example?

A

-experimenter presents stimuli in either ascending or descending order
-playing tones in decreasing intensity until someone can no longer hear them

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52
Q

What is the method of adjustment ?

A

-similar to method of limits where stimuli are either increased or decreased until the stimulus cannot be detected
-however, the observer (not experimenter) adjusts the stimulus until they cannot hear or perceive it

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53
Q

What is the method of constant stimuli?

A

-the experimenter presents five to nine stimuli with different intensities in random order
-threshold is usually defined as as the intensity that results in detection on 50% of the trials

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54
Q

Between the three classical psychophysical methods, which is the most accurate?

A

-the method of constant stimuli, because the stimuli are presented in random order

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55
Q

What is the difference threshold?

A

-the minimum difference between two stimuli before we can tell the difference between them

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56
Q

What is the difference threshold for humans to detect weight differences?

A

-about 2 percent

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57
Q

What is the Weber fraction?

A

-change in stimulus intensity/stimulus intensity = K
-it tells us how sensitive we are to small changes in intensity

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58
Q

What is Weber’s law?

A

-weber’s law tells us that whether you notice the difference between the two depends on how big the pile was
-Weber’s fraction remains the same as the standard is changed

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59
Q

Does each sense have the same Weber fraction?

A

-they are relatively similar, but not the same

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60
Q

What is magnitude estimation?

A

-the relationship between the intensity of stimuli and the perceived magnitudes of it

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61
Q

What is the perceived magnitude?

A

-the observer’s number they assigned to an intensity of a stimuli

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62
Q

What is response compression?

A

-the increase in perceived magnitude of a stimuli is smaller than the increase in stimulus intensity

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63
Q

What is response expansion?

A

-when the intensity of a stimulus changes and the observer perceives it to be more than the actual increase
-perceptual magnitude increases more than intensity

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64
Q

Do the relationships between the perception of a stimulus and the intensity of it follow the same general equation for each sense?

A

-yes, they are called power functions

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65
Q

What is Steven’s Power Law?

A

-P=KS^n
-P=perceived magnitude
-K=constant
-S=stimulus intensity
-n=power n

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66
Q

What exponents are linked to response compression?

A

-any n exponent less than 1

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67
Q

What exponents are linked to response expansion?

A

-when n is greater than 1

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68
Q

What is another common way to measure the behavioral response to stimuli?

A

-phenomenological method

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69
Q

What is the phenomenological method? What is a simple example?

A

-a person is asked to describe what they are perceiving or to indicate when a particular perception occurs
-when someone is asked to notice if an object is farther away than another

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70
Q

What is visual search?

A

-Another method used to study perceptual mechanisms
-the observer’s task is to find one stimulus among many, as quickly as possible

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71
Q

What is response criterion?

A

-what it takes for someone to pick an option and how this differs between people
-for example, one person will only say they see light if they are absolutely sure whereas another will say yes if they even see a faint hint of light.

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72
Q

When is response criterion more important?

A

-when we are comparing two peoples responses, but not when we are testing many people and averaging their responses

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73
Q

Define signal detection theory

A

-a theory that the detection of a stimulus depends both on the participants sensitivity to the stimulus and on the participant’s response criterion.

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74
Q

What is the electromagnetic spectrum?

A

-a continuum of electromagnetic energy that is produced by electric charges and is radiated as waves

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75
Q

How can the energy in the electromagnetic spectrum be described?

A

-its wavelength

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76
Q

What is wavelength?

A

-the distance between the peaks of the electromagnetic waves

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77
Q

What is visible light?

A

-the energy within the electromagnetic spectrum that humans can perceive (400-700 nm)

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78
Q

What are short, middle and long wavelengths color wise?

A

-short is blue
-middle is green
-long is yellow, orange and red

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79
Q

What are photons?

A

-small packets of energy
-they are the smallest possible packet of light energy

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80
Q

What is the optic nerve?

A

-the nerve attached to the back of the eye that conducts signals toward the brain

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81
Q

What features of the eye shape what we see?

A

-cornea
-lens
-receptors and neurons in the retina

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82
Q

What are the two transformations the cornea, lens, and retina create for what we see?

A

-the transformation from light reflected from an object into an image of the object
-the transformation from the image of the object into electrical signals

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83
Q

How is light reflected from an object focused on the retina?

A

-through the cornea and lens

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84
Q

What accounts for about 80% of the eyes focusing power?

A

-the cornea

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85
Q

What is accomodation?

A

-the change in the lens shape from the ciliary muscles at the front of the eye tightening and increasing the curvature of the lens so that it gets thicker
-eyes are constantly accommodating to adjust their focus

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86
Q

What is the near point?

A

-the distance at which your lens can no longer accommodate to bring close objects into focus

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87
Q

What is presbyopia?

A

-a condition where the near point increases as a person gets older

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88
Q

What is Myopia or Nearsightedness?

A

-an inability to see distant objects clearly

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89
Q

What are the two types of myopia?

A

-refractive myopia: cornea or lens bends the light too much
-axial myopia: eyeball is too long

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90
Q

What is a far point?

A

-maximum distance at which the eye can see objects clearly without strain.
-people with myopia may have closer far points

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91
Q

What is hyperopia or farsightedness?

A

-someone can see distant objects clearly but has trouble seeing nearby objects

92
Q

Where does transduction occur in the eye?

A

-in the receptors: the rods and cones

93
Q

Where is the starting point for understanding how rods and cones create electricity?

A

-the visual pigment in the outer segment of the receptors

94
Q

What are the two parts of the visual pigment?

A

-a long protein called opsin
-smaller protein called retinal

95
Q

Which is the crucial part of the visual pigment molecule?

A

-retinal, despite its size
-retinal and opsin absorb visual light

96
Q

What happens when a visual pigment molecule absorbs one photon of light?

A

-the retinal changes its shape from bent to straight (isomerization)

97
Q

What does isomerization cause?

A

-a chemical chain reaction that activates thousands of charged molecules to create electrical signals in receptors

98
Q

How do visual pigments effect the perception of visual stimuli?

A

-they create electrical signals
-they help us adjust to dim light and darkness

99
Q

Why do things become brighter once you’ve been in a dark room for a while?

A

-the person’s visual system has become more sensitive

100
Q

What is dark adaptation?

A

-someone’s increasing sensitivity to light in dark areas

101
Q

Do rods and cones adapt to the dark at the same rate?

A

-no

102
Q

Does the ratio of rods and cones depend on the area of the retina?

A

-yes

103
Q

What area contains only cones?

A

-the fovea

104
Q

When we look directly at an object, where does the image land on our retina?

A

-the fovea

105
Q

What is the peripheral retina and what kind of receptors does it have?

A

-it is all of the area outside of the fovea
-it has both rods and cones (but more rods)

106
Q

What is macular degeneration?

A

-a condition where the fovea is destroyed and they got a black dot in their vision

107
Q

What is retinitis pigmentosa?

A

-degeneration of the retina passed down which results in poor vision in the peripheral vision
-it attacks the peripheral rod receptors

108
Q

What is the blind spot?

A

-an area of the retina where there are no receptors
-this is where the optic nerve leaves the eye

109
Q

What is the dark adaptation curve?

A

-function relating sensitivity to light to time in the dark, beginning when the lights go out

110
Q

What is the light-adapted sensitivity?

A

-sensitivity to light in the light

111
Q

How would you measure cone adaptation?

A

-the test light image must fall exactly on the fovea

112
Q

How can we measure rod adaptation?

A

-on someone who has no cones (rod monochromats)

113
Q

What is the whole process of dark adaptation?

A

-as soon as light goes out, sensitivity of both cones and rods increases
-the cones are more sensitive than the rods at the beginning, so we see with our cones right after the lights are turned out
-after about 3-5 mins, the cones have reached their max sensitivity
-at about 7 mins in dark, the rods sensitivity catches up to the cones
-the rods then become more sensitive than cones

114
Q

What is the rod-cone break?

A

-the place where the rods begin to determine the dark adaptation curve

115
Q

Why do the rods take about 20-30 mins to reach their max sensitivity point compared to only 3-4 minutes for the cones?

A

-a process called visual pigment regeneration

116
Q

What is the process called visual pigment bleaching?

A

-after the retinal’s shape changes, it will separate from the opsin molecule
-causing the opsin molecule to become lighter in color

117
Q

What is visual pigment regeneration?

A

-the process by which the retinal returns to its bent shape and becomes reattached to the opsin

118
Q

In normal light levels, do I contain some bleached visual pigment?

A

-yes, I would have some bleached visual pigment and some regenerating or intact visual pigment

119
Q

Why do we experience increasing dark sensitivity?

A

-because once we turn off the lights, our bleached visual pigments become regenerated slowly

120
Q

What two important connections were made about the eyes and the connections between perception and physiology?(2)

A

-our sensitivity to light depends on the concentration of a chemical - the visual pigment
-the speeds at which our sensitivity increases in the dark depends on a chemical reaction - the regeneration of the visual pigment

121
Q

What is detached retina?

A

-when a person’s retina becomes detached from the pigment epithelium

122
Q

What is spectral sensitivity?

A

-the eye’s sensitivity to light as a function of the lights wavelength

123
Q

What are spectral sensitivity curves?

A

-the relationship between wavelength and sensitivity

124
Q

How do you measure a spectral sensitivity curve using the psychophysical method?

A

-they would present wavelengths and measure the observer sensitivity to each wavelength

125
Q

What is monochromatic light?

A

-light of a single wavelength

126
Q
A
127
Q

What is a spectral sensitivity curve?

A

-the relationship between wavelength and sensitivity

128
Q

What is monochromatic light?

A

-light of a single wavelength

129
Q

What device can create monochromatic light?

A

-spectrometer

130
Q

How can we measure the spectral sensitivity curve using the psychophysical method?

A

-an observer is presented one wavelength at a time and their sensitivity to it is measured (stimuli to perception)

131
Q

What does the threshold curve show for wavelength?

A

-the threshold is higher for short and long wavelengths and lower in the middle of the spectrum (shaped like a U)

132
Q

What is the equation for the spectral sensitivity curve?

A

sensitivity=1/threshold

133
Q

How do we measure the cone spectral sensitivity curve?

A

-getting an observer to look directly at a test light so that it stimulates only the cones in the fovea

134
Q

How do we measure the rod spectral sensitivity curve?

A

-measuring sensitivity after the eye is dark adapted (so the rods control vision because they are the most sensitive receptors) and presenting test flashes in the peripheral retina

135
Q

Which eye receptor is more sensitive to short wave-lengths?

A

-rods (most sensitive to 500 nm)
(cones most sensitive to 560 nm)

136
Q

What is the Purkinje shift?

A

-the enhanced perception of short wavelengths during dark adaptation

137
Q

Which visual pigment regenerates faster?

A

-the cone pigment regenerates faster

138
Q

What can we trace the difference in the rod and cone spectral sensitivity curves to?

A

-another property of the visual pigments: the rod and cone absorption spectra

139
Q

What is a pigment’s absorption spectrum

A

-a plot of the amount of light absorbed versus the wavelength of the light

140
Q

How many absorption spectra for the cones are there?

A

-three: because there are three different cone pigments

141
Q

What are the three different cone pigments?

A

-short-wavelength pigment (S) absorbs around 419 nm
-medium-wavelength pigment (M) absorbs around 531 nm
-long-wavelength pigment (L) absorbs around 558 nm

142
Q

What pigments is the spectral sensitivity curve mainly determined by?

A

-medium and long wavelength pigments as there are fewer short-wavelength receptors

143
Q

To clarify, sensitivity to the dark (dark adaptation) and sensitivity to different wavelengths (spectral sensitivity) are determined by what?

A

-the rod and cone visual pigments

144
Q

Does perception occur in the eye?

A

-no, but what we see is definitely affected by what happens there

145
Q

What structures in our body do electrical signals occur in?

A

-neurons

146
Q

What is the key component of neuron?

A

-the cell body

147
Q

What does the cell body of a neuron contain?

A

-mechanisms to keep the cell alive

148
Q

What are dendrites?

A

-they branch out from the cell body of a neuron to receive electrical signals from other neuron’s

149
Q

What is the axon or nerve fiber?

A

-filled with fluid and conducts electrical signals

150
Q

Where are signals transmitted to after they leave the back of the eye through the optic nerve?

A

-they are transmitted to a group of neurons called the lateral geniculate nucleus and then to the visual receiving area in the cortex

151
Q

What is a resting potential?

A

-the neuron, when at rest, stays around 70 mV
-the inside of the neuron is more negative than the outside

152
Q

What is the action potential?

A

-brief electrical impulse that travels along the membrane of a neuron

153
Q

What are important property’s of the action potential?

A

-it is a propagated response
-the action potential remains the same size no matter how intense the stimulus is

154
Q

What is a propagated response?

A

-once the response is triggered, it travels all the way down the axon without decreasing in size

155
Q

What does a propagated response allow neurons to do?

A

-transmit signals over a long distance

156
Q

How do neurons react to an increase in stimuli?

A

-the frequency or rate of the neurons firing increases, not the size of the action potential

157
Q

Is there an upper limit on the number of nerve impulses per second that can be conducted down an axon? If so, why?

A

-yes, because of the refractory period

158
Q

What is a refractory period?

A

-the interval between the time one nerve impulse occurs and the next one can be generated in the axon

159
Q

What is the upper limit of a neuron’s firing?

A

-the refractory period for most neurons is 1ms
-the upper limit firing rate is 500-800 impulses per second

160
Q

What is spontaneous activity?

A

-action potentials that occur in the absence of stimuli from the environment

161
Q

What are ions?

A

-molecules that carry an electrical charge

162
Q

What is the solution outside of the axon of a neuron rich with?

A

-Na+

163
Q

What is the solution inside the axon positively charged with?

A

-K+

164
Q

What are the chemical steps for an action potential?

A
  1. An action potential begins travelling down the axon
  2. Channels in the membrane of the axon open and allow Na+ into the axon
  3. This causes an increase in the positive charge of the axon from the resting potential of -70 mV to the action potential of +40 mV (rising phase of the action potential)
  4. Sodium channels close once the inside reaches +40 mV and potassium channels open
  5. Positively charged potassium leaves the axon, causing the inside of the axon to become more negative (falling phase of the action potential)
  6. Once the potential has returned to -70 mV resting levels, the K+ flow stops
165
Q

How does sodium not build up inside of the axon during this action potential?

A

-the sodium potassium pump stops this as it continuously pumps sodium out and potassium into the fiber

166
Q

What is the synapse?

A

-the small space between neurons

167
Q

Whatare the steps after an action potential reaches the end of a neuron? What happens after this? (3)

A
  1. They trigger the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters that are stored in synaptic vesicles in the sending neuron
  2. The neurotransmitters flow into the synapse and to small areas on the receiving neuron called receptor sites that are sensitive to specific neurotransmitters
  3. Once a neurotransmitter makes contact with a receptor site matching its shape, it activates the receptor site and triggers a voltage change in the receiving neuron (key to a lock)
168
Q

What are the two types of responses that can occur at a receptor site on a neuron?

A

-excitatory response
-inhibitory response

169
Q

What is an excitatory response?

A

-this occurs when the inside of the neuron becomes more positive (depolarization)

170
Q

What must occur to trigger an action potential?

A

-enough excitation must occur to increase depolarization to the level indicated by the dashed line

171
Q

What is an inhibitory response?

A

-occurs when the inside of the neuron becomes more negative (hyperpolarization)

172
Q

Does a neuron receive both excitation and inhibition and which would it listen to?

A

-yes it receives both
-the response of the neuron is determined by the interplay between the two

173
Q

What are neural circuits?

A

-interconnected groups of neurons

174
Q

What are the five types of neurons that make up a retina?

A

-receptors
-bipolar cells
-ganglion cells
-horizontal cells
-amacrine cells

175
Q

Which retinal neurons have short axons and which have long?

A

-receptors and bipolar cells have short axons
-ganglion has long axons like neurons

176
Q

What is neural convergence (convergence)?

A

-when a number of neurons synapse onto a single neuron

177
Q

What are private lines?

A

-many of the foveal cones have private lines to ganglion cells, so that each ganglion cell only receives signals from one cone

178
Q

What does the greater convergence of the rods compared to the cones translate into?

A

Two differences in perception:
1. the rods result in better sensitivity than the cones
2. The cones result in better detail vision than the rods

179
Q

What is two reasons that rods are more sensitive in the dark than cones?

A

-it takes less light to generate a response from an individual rod receptor than from an individual cone receptor
-rods have greater convergence than cones

180
Q

What do cones have because they have less convergence?

A

-better visual acuity

181
Q

What is acuity?

A

-the ability to see details (for example

182
Q

What is the preferential looking technique?

A

-if an infant looks at one stimulus more than another, it means they can tell the difference between the two

183
Q

What is the visual evoked potential?

A

-when the stimulus is noticeable enough that the visual cortex generates an electrical response

184
Q

Where is the visual pigment contained in a receptor?

A

-in the receptor’s outer segments

185
Q

Why do infants have low acuity?

A

-their cones are spaced far apart

186
Q

Describe how electrical signals are like the scenic route

A

-electrical signals do not take the highway straight to their destination, instead they take the scenic route stopping at gas stations and changing their route as they interact at each stop

187
Q

Define lateral inhibition

A

-Neurons inhibit neighboring neurons to enhance contrast and sharpen edges

188
Q

What does lateral inhibition do? (2)

A

-lateral inhibition makes the edges and contrast of things stand out
-an example is a black line on a white page

189
Q

What are the steps of lateral inhibition using our example of the black line on the white page?

A
  1. The receptor cells directly stimulated by the black line send strong signals to their neighboring cells
  2. However, these neighboring cells also receive inhibitory signals from the directly stimulated cells
  3. As a result, the activity of the neighboring cells is suppressed
  4. The suppression creates a contrast between the activated cells directly stimulated by the black line and the inhibited neighboring cells
  5. The contrast enhances the perception of the black line’s edges, making them appear sharper and more distinct against the white background
190
Q

What are Mach bands?

A

-illusory light and dark bands near a light-dark border

191
Q

What is simultaneous contrast?

A

-when our perception of the brightness of color of one area is affected by the presence of an adjacent or surrounding area

192
Q

What is belongingness?

A

-an area’s appearance is influenced by the part of the surroundings to which the area appears to belong

193
Q

What is white’s illusion?

A

-the two grey rectangles in the black horizontal grids that look to be different colors but are not

194
Q

What is the receptive field?

A

-the area of the retina that must receive light in order to obtain a response in any given fiber

195
Q

Do the receptive fields overlap?

A

-yes they do

196
Q

What way are cat receptive fields arranged?

A

-in a center-surround organization

197
Q

What is a center-surround organization?

A

-the area in the center of the receptive field responds differently to light than the area in the surround of the receptive field

198
Q

What is the excitatory area?

A

-when light presented to a spot in the center increases firing rate

199
Q

What is the inhibitory area?

A

-stimulation of the surround causes a decrease in firing

200
Q

What is center-surround antagonism?

A

-when a spot of light becomes large enough that it covers the inhibitory area, the excitation of the center is counteracted by the inhibitory area
-this neuron responds best to a spot of light that is the size of the excitatory center of the receptive field

201
Q

Where is the receptive field?

A

-it is ALWAYS on the retina, because that’s where the stimuli are received

202
Q

Signals leaving the eye travel where?

A

-the lateral geniculate nucleus and then to the occipital lobe of the cerebral cortex

203
Q

What is the superior colliculus?

A

-an area of the brain that receives some signals from the eye
-plays an important role in controlling movements of the eyes

204
Q

What is the striate cortex?

A

-the visual receiving area
-area V1 to indicate that it is the first visual area in the cortex

205
Q

What are some of the uses of the LGN?

A

-regulate neural information as it flows from retina to cortex
-it also receives more signals from cortex than retina, giving backwards flow

206
Q

What are simple cortical cells?

A

-cells with a side-by-side receptive field

207
Q

What is an orientations tuning curve?

A

-the relationship between orientation and firing

208
Q

What is the difference between complex and simple cells?

A

-complex cells respond best to bars of a particular orientation
-only when a correctly oriented bar of light moves across the entire receptive field will a complex cell respond
-simple cells respond to small spots of light or to stationary stimuli

209
Q

What are end-stopped cells?

A

-a cell that fires to moving lines of a specific length or to moving corners or angles

210
Q

What are simple, complex and end-stopped cells some times called because they respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as orientation or direction of movement?

A

-feature detectors

211
Q

What are characteristics of the receptive field for complex cortical cells?

A

-responds best to movement of a correctly oriented bar across the receptive field

212
Q

What are characteristics of the lateral geniculate receptive field?

A

-center-surround receptive fields very similar to the receptive field of a ganglion cell

213
Q

What are characteristics of the ganglion (optic nerve fiber) receptive field?

A

-center-surround receptive field
-responds best to small spots, but will also respond to other stimuli

214
Q

What is selective adaptation?

A

-prolonged exposure to a specific stimulus reduces the sensitivity of sensory neurons tuned to that stimulus. In other words, it’s a process by which prolonged exposure to a particular stimulus causes a decrease in the response of neurons that are specifically tuned to detect that stimulus, while leaving the responses of neurons tuned to other stimuli relatively unaffected.

215
Q

What two physiological effects are caused by selective adaptation?

A

-the neuron’s firing rate decreases
-the neuron fires less when that stimulus is immediately presented again

216
Q

What is selective rearing?

A

-if an animal is reared in an environment that contains only certain types of stimuli, then neurons that respond to these stimuli will become more prevalent

217
Q

What is neuro plasticity?

A

-(experience dependent plasticity)
-the idea that the response properties of neurons can be shaped by perceptual experiences

218
Q

What is prosopagnosia?

A

-people with temporal lobe damage are unable to recognize faces

219
Q

What is sensory coding?

A

-the firing of neurons represents various characteristics of the environment

220
Q

What is specificity coding?(2)

A

-Specificity coding means that certain brain cells are like specialists—they’re really good at recognizing specific things.
-an object is represented by the firing of a neuron that responds only to that object

221
Q

What is a grandmother cell?

A

-a neuron that responds only to a specific stimulus
-slightly different than the specificity coding as this is more specific and hypothetical

222
Q

What is distributed coding?(2)

A

-contrast to specificity coding
-where information is represented by the collective activity of multiple neurons rather than being localized to individual neurons.

223
Q

What is sparse coding?(2)

A

-Brain’s efficient strategy where only a few neurons represent a concept, like packing essentials for a trip, optimizing resources.

-majority of neurons remain silent

224
Q

What is the mind-body problem?

A

-the philosophical inquiry into how mental experiences and physical processes are related in the human experience.

225
Q

What is the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC)?

A

-refers to the specific neural activity or mechanism that is directly associated with conscious experience.

226
Q

What is often called the easy problem of consciousness?

A

-finding the neural correlate of consciousness

227
Q

What is the hard problem of consciousness?

A

-how physical responses cause experience

PSYC 333 (1 decks)

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