Sensation and Perception Flashcards
1
Q
What is the JND
A
Just noticable difference, relationship between physical stimuli and psychological responses. Led to the formation of Weber’s law by Fechner
2
Q
What did Sir Francis Galton do?
A
Measured perception of sensation in 10,000 people.
3
Q
What did Gestal psychology contribute?
A
The visual illusion, refferred to as the PI phenomenon concluded that visual perception has an ingrained wholeness that is different than the analysis of the parts of vision.
4
Q
Psychophysics
A
is the relationship between physical stimuli and psychological responses
5
Q
What is an absolute threshold?
A
the minimum of stimulus energy that is needed to activate the sensory system.
6
Q
What is another word for threshold?
A
Limen
7
Q
What is subliminal perception
A
perception of stimuli below a threshold of conscious awareness
8
Q
What is difference threshold?
A
The difference between a standard stimulus and a comparison stimulus. Try to match the weight of 100 ounces. The difference is the difference threshold.
9
Q
What can difference threshold be refferred to as?
A
JND (but it sues a different units), i.e. if the difference of 100 ounces is 2 oz, then 1 JND = 2 oz
10
Q
What is Weber’s law
A
The change in stimulus intensity of the standard stimulus is constant. ? I/I = K ? the smaller the K the greater sensitivity. So if we have 10 candles if we can make out that 11 make it brighter than K = (11-10)/10=0.1
11
Q
Across modalities how does Weber’s law fit the data?
A
Well except at high and low intensities but it is scaled so that K remains constant.
12
Q
Fechner’s law
A
The difference between intensity of sensation and the intensity of stimulus. Sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases.
13
Q
Steven’s power law
A
Relates the intensity of stimulation to the intensity of sensation
14
Q
Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
A
Suggests that other, nonsensory factors influence what the subject says she senses.
15
Q
What are these other factors in signal detection theory?
A
experiences, motives, expectations
16
Q
Response bias is related to SDT
A
Response bias which refers the tendency of subjects to respond in a particular way due to nonsensory factors. I.e. someone hearing a tone may want to be cautious in clearly hearing a tone before affirming that they heard it.
17
Q
Receiver operating characteristics
A
Are curves that many graphically respresent a subjects resonses by measuring the operating (sensitivity) characteristics of a subject receiving signals.
18
Q
What is the first step in information processing?
A
Reception: receptors that respond to physical external energy
19
Q
What is the second step?
A
Transduction: which is the translation of physical energy into neural impulses
20
Q
What is the third step?
A
via neural pathways information is sent to projection areas
21
Q
Structure of the eye contains:
A
cornea, pupil, iris, lens, retina
22
Q
Cornea
A
clear dome like window: gathers and focuses light
23
Q
pupil
A
The whole that controls the aperature of light entering the eye
24
Q
Iris
A
is the colored part of they, has involuntary and autonomic nerve fibers
25
Lens
Behind the iris helps focus light by controlling the curvature of light that enters the eye.
26
Duplexity
Duplicity theory of vison: which states there are two kinds of photo receptors
27
Cones
Used for color vision, and fine detail, more effective in bright light, allow us to see chromatic and achromatic colors
28
Rods
only allow for achromatic colors, in reduced illumination rods work best, low sensitivity to detail
29
Foeva
Middle section of the retina that contains only cones
30
As you move further away from the foeva
Less cones and more rods.
31
Several layers of nerves between receptor and optic nerve what are they?
horizontal, amacrine, bipolar cells, ganglion cells
32
What is the implication of multiple intermediary neurons in vision?
There is a convergance of signals before transmission on the optic nerve. This results in a loss of detail. Less convergance of cones than rods.
33
What occurs at the optic chasm?
Nerves cross over, stimulus on right side goes to the left side of the brain.
34
Do all the fibers cross?
No only 1/2, the nasal half goes to the opposite side
35
Which side do the left temporal fibers go to?
The left side of the brain
36
Which parts of the brain do they go to? (3 total)
Lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalmus, visual cortex of the occipital lobe and superior colliculus
37
Feature detection theory (FDT)
Certain cells in the visual cortex are maximally sensitive to certain features of stimuli.
38
Who came up with FDT? What was the result
Hubel and Wiesel, won the nobel prize
39
What types of cells does the FDT differentiate?
simple, complex, hypercomplex (catagorized by degree of abstraction needed to understand)
40
What responds to orientation
simple
41
What responds to movement?
complex
42
What respnds to hypercomplex?
shape
43
What are the key concepts of brightness perception?
illumination, brightness, dark adaptation, lateral inhibition
44
What is the objective measure of the amount of light falling on a surface?
Illumination
45
What is the subjective impression of the intensity of stimulus?
Brightness
46
Dark Adaptation
Caused by the regeneration of rhodospin
47
Lateral inhibition
adjacent retinal cells inhibit one another; sharpens and highlights borders between light and dark
48
What is rhodopsin?
The phtopigment that is made up of vitamin A deivative
49
What is the dervative of vitamin A called
It is called retinal and a protein called opsin
50
What is the physiology behind rhodopsin?
Rhodopsin absorbs a photon of light, pigment decomposes into retiene and opsin. It takes time for pigaments to regenerate. You wait for rhodospin to regernate so that you can see better in the dark.
51
What is bleaching?
The breaking of rhodopsin
52
What is simulataneous brightness contrast
A target area of a particular luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when surrounded by a lighter stimulus.
53
Where is simultaneous brightness contrast take place? What is the process called?
Lateral inhibition, neighboring cells within the retina.
54
Color perception
is related to the wavelength of the light entering the eye.
55
What wavelengths can the eye see
About 400-800 nanometers
56
What is the difference additive and subtractive color mixture?
Occurs when you mix pigments, two different types of mixing
57
What is blue + green?
A subtractive color mixture
58
Additive color mixing?
Has to do with lights. Primary colors are red, blue and green. Occurs before reflection off of things.
59
If you add green and red in an additive sense you get?
Yellow
60
Subtractive color mixing
Has to do when you mix pigments. i.e. mix blue and yellow to get green. Primary colors are yellow, blue and red. This occurs with the reflection off of things.
61
What two theories of color vision are there?
Young-Helmhoz theory, trichromatic theory. This theory suggests that the retina contains three different types of color receptors. Which are sensitive to different colors (red, blue, green)
62
Ewald Hering's criticism of trichromatic theory is?
Yellow must be one of the primary colors. Red, blue, green, and yellow are aranged in opposing pairs. Red or green or blue or yellow.
63
What is Hering's theory of color perception called?
opponent process theory of color vision.
64
Who was right?
Helmotz was right about the retina component, Hering was right about the other areas in the visual system i.e. the lateral geniculate nucleus
65
What are afterimages?
Is a visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to a stimulus. ex red square after staring at a white piece of paper.
66
What are the concepts of depth perception?
Interposion/overlap, relative size, linear perspective. They have to do how do we perceive 3D objects on a 2D retina
67
Interposition/overlap
If one object covers another, the partially hidden object as seen as farther away
68
RElative size
Comparison retinal size of object to actual size of object gives clue to depth
69
Linear perspective
Parallel lines appear to converge as they recede in the distance
70
Texture gradients
As scene recedes from viewer, the surface texture of the object appears to change,
71
Motion parallax
when an observer moves, objects in a stationary enviornemtn appear to move relative to the distance of the observer.
72
Binocular disparity (stereopsis)
Each eye sees the scene from a slightly different perspective, the brain combines the two to get perception of depth.
73
Perception of Form, what are the most important concepts.
Figure and ground are the most concepts.
74
Figure is
the integrated visual experience that stands out at the center of attention.
75
Ground is
simply the background against which the figure appears.
76
What are the Gestalt laws that govern figure and ground organization?
proximity, similarity, good continuation, closure, pragnanz
77
Proximity
elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit
78
similarity
elemnts that are similar to one another tend to be grouped together
79
Good continuation
Elements that appear to follow in the same direction tend to be grouped together
80
Closure
The tendency to see incomplete figures as being complete
81
Pragnanz
Perceptual organization will always be as "good" (regular, simple, symmetrical) as possible
82
What is a modern view of sensory perception?
Bottom up and top down processing.
83
Bottom up is
refers to object perception that responds directly to the components of incoming stimulus n the basis of fixed rules (governed by physiology)
84
Top down is
refers to object perception that is guided by coneptual processes such as memories and expectations that allow the brain to recognize the whole object and then recognize the components.
85
What is theory of isomorphism
Suggests that thre is a one-to-one correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the pattern of stimulation in the brain. Has not faired well empirically. Developed by Wofgange Kohler
86
Illusions of motion
Apparent motion, induced motion, autokinetic effect, motion after effect
87
Apparent motion
when two or more stationary lights flicker in succession they tend to be perceived as a single moving light
88
Induced motion
A stationary point of light appears to move when the background moves.
89
Autokinetic effect
A stationary point of light when viewed an otherwise totally dark room appears to move: probably because caused by involuntary movements of they eye.
90
Motion after effect
If a moving object is viewed for an extended period of time, it will appear to move in an opposite direction when the motion stops.
91
Visual constancies and different stimuli
Difference between proximal and distal stimuli. Proximal is the actual information on your sensory receptors. Distal stimulus is the actual object out there in the real world.
92
Size constancy
Tendency for the perceived size of an object to remain constant despite varations in the size of its retinal image.
93
Shape constancy
Tendency for the percieved shape of an object to remain cosntant despite variations in the shape fo its retinal image.
94
Lightness constancy
Tendency for the perceived lightness of an object to remain cosntant despite changes in illumination
95
Color constancy
Tendency for the perceived color of an object ot remain constant despite changes in the spectrum of light falling on it
96
What are major visual illusions
Muller-Lyer, Hering, Ponzo, Wundt, Pggendorff, reversible figure (necker cube)
97
Are babies, with limited experiences confronted by what James called "blooming, buzzing confusion"
Two major ways at looking at this question. Preferential looking and habituation.
98
What do young infants prefer to look at?
Complex, socialy relavent stimulus. This is an example of preferential looking.
99
Habituation
Finding new stimulus is presented to an infant. The infant will orient to it. Once the infant stops looking at it the experimenter will introduce a new stimulus.
100
Innate visual depth perception
Virtual cliff illusion. Even young infants have a disposition for perceiving depth.
101
Dimensions of sound
Objective: frequency, intensity
Subjective: Pitch, Loudnes, Timbre
102
Frequency
The number of cycles per second;measured in hertzes
103
Intensity,
The amplitude measured in decibles
104
Pitch
The experience of frequency
105
Loudness
The intensity of sound
106
Timbre
The quality of the sound
107
Structure of the ear
inner, outer, middle ear
108
pinna
fleshy outer part of the ear
109
Ear drum
typmanic membrane
110
middle ear is made of
3 bones (ossicles): hammer, anvil, stirrup (malleus, incus, stapes)
111
oval window
stapes rests on in the inner ear
112
Cochlea
hearing apparatus on the inner ear (contains fluid)
113
Basilar membrane and organ of Coti are
thousands of hair follicles which is analgous to the rods and cones of the ear.
114
Which nerve is responsible for transmission
audiotry
115
Where does the auditory nerve project?
superior olive, inferior colliculus, medial gniculate nucleus of the thalmus and the temporal cortex
116
Hemholtz's place-resonance theory
The movement of the basilar membrane is what determines pitch. Each different place on the basilar membrane is responsible for different pitches because each is sensitive to a specific vibration.
117
Frequency theory
Suggests that the whole membrane vibrates as a whole. This cannot be maintained above 1000hz
118
Bekesy Traveling Wave
movement is maximal at a different place in the basillar membrane for each frequency. Even though the whole thing does move.
119
What frequency corresponds to what theory.
Frequency theory: below 500hz
place theory: above 4000hz
Both between 500hz and 4000hz
120
Taste buds are called?
Papillae
121
Smell receptors in?
olfactory epithelium
122
Taste and smell go where
thalmus and olfactory bulb
123
What is physiological zero in touch
a neutral temperature
124
Lateral geniculate nuccleus in the thalmus
vision
125
superior colliculus
vision
126
visual cortex in occipital lobe
vision
127
Inferior colliculus
Audition
128
Medial geniculate nucleus in the thalmus
Audition
129
Temproal lobe
Auditon
130
Somatosensory cortex
Touch
131
What is the concept of selective attention
Filter between our sensory stimuli and our processing stimuli. More of an all or none principle. The cocktail party phenomenon is an example of this. Loudness control that dampens out other ancillary stimuli rather than shuts off
132
Dichotic listening, what is this
when ears are presented with conflicting information
133
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Inverted U: 2 axis
1 performance from low to high
2 arousal low to high
best to find the optimum at the peak of the inverted U
