Sensation and Perception

Question 1

transduction

Answer 1

the action of converting energy into another form (sound waves to sounds in the brain, receptors on tongue to taste)

Question 2

bottom-up processing

Answer 2

taking sensory information and then assembling and integrating it (from touch/action to brain)

Question 3

top-down processing

Answer 3

using models, ideas, and expectations to interpret sensory information; start at cognitive experiences and work backward

Question 4

absolute thresholds

Answer 4

faintest sensory that you can experience (quitest sound you can hear, faintest touch you feel)

Question 5

difference thresholds

Answer 5

minimum difference a person can detect between two stimuli (cinnamon bun looks like Mother Teresa, candles on cake)

Question 6

signal detection theory

Answer 6

some sensory stimulation and we have to signal whether or not it is there (hearing test)

Question 7

hit (terms of hearing test)

Answer 7

when there is a tone and you raise your hand

Question 8

correct negative (terms of hearing test)

Answer 8

no tone and you didn’t raise your hand

Question 9

false alarm (terms of hearing test)

Answer 9

when you claim to hear something that wasn’t there

Question 10

miss (terms of hearing test)

Answer 10

there was a sound and you didn’t indicate that you heard it

Question 11

sensory adaption

Answer 11

when you are constantly exposed to something so you notice it less, keeps us from responding to the same stimulus over and over again (ex. not feeling your shoes or the seat you are in)

Question 12

perceptual set

Answer 12

priming the person to make them see what you want them to (mad and shocked face, young to old woman, hybrid in the middle)

Question 13

perceptual set and context effects

Answer 13

picture with man throwing spear at deer but with an elephant in the background showing some sense of depth

Question 14

demonstration of context

Answer 14

baby not exposed to 2D but could recognize pictures, upside-down face/thatcher illusion, not reading each letter but the word as a whole

Question 15

kinesthetic sense

Answer 15

cerebellum, where your body parts are and what they are doing

Question 16

vestibular sense

Answer 16

cerebellum, sensing that you are upright and when you move/rotate your head; part of the theory of how it impacts our navigation

Question 17

touch

Answer 17

vital to humans, warning system that keeps us safe, shown to help premie babies get back on track

Question 18

vision

Answer 18

occipital, rely on it

Question 19

sensation is to __ as perception is to __

Answer 19

bottom-up processing, top-down processing

Question 20

the process by which we organize and interpret sensory information is called ___

Answer 20

perception

Question 21

subliminal stimuli are

Answer 21

below our absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Question 22

another term for difference threshold is

Answer 22

just noticeable difference

Question 23

weber’s law states that for a difference to be perceived, two stimuli must differ by

Answer 23

a constant minimum percentage

Question 24

sensory adaption helps us focus on

Answer 24

important changes in the environment

Question 25

our perceptual set influences what we perceive. this mental tendency reflects our

Answer 25

experiences, assumptions, and expectations

Question 26

the characterisitic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is

Answer 26

wavelength

Question 27

the amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of

Answer 27

brightness

Question 28

the blindspot in your retina is located where

Answer 28

the optic nerve leaves the eye

Question 29

cones are to the eye’s receptor cells that are especially sensitive to ___ light and are responsible for our ___ vision

Answer 29

bright; color

Question 30

two theories together account for color vision. The young-helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains ____ and Hering’s theory accounts for the nervous system’s having

Answer 30

3 types of color receptors; opponent-process cells

Question 31

what mental process allows you to see a lemon as yellow?

Answer 31

light energy is reflected into your eye, goes through the cones, then opponent-process cells go through thalamus and visual cortex, identifying the brain

Question 32

what three colors are the cones sensitive to?

Answer 32

red, green, and blue

Question 33

the cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called

Answer 33

feature detectors

Question 34

the brains ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called

Answer 34

parallel processing

Question 35

in listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. this illustrates the organizing principle of

Answer 35

figure-ground

Question 36

our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called

Answer 36

grouping

Question 37

the visual cliff experiment shows that

Answer 37

crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth

Question 38

depth perception underlies our ability to

Answer 38

judge differences

Question 39

two examples of ____ depth are interposition and linear perspective

Answer 39

monocular

Question 40

perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of

Answer 40

perceptual constancy

Question 41

after surgery to restore vision, adults who had been blind from birth had difficulty

Answer 41

recognizing objects by sight

Question 42

in experiments, people have worn glasses that turned their visual fields upside down. after this period of adjustment, they learned to function quite well. this ability is called

Answer 42

perceptual adaption

Question 43

snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity

Answer 43

cochlea

Question 44

basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound

Answer 44

outer ear to middle ear to inner ear to auditory nerve to brain

Question 45

_ theory is how we link place with pitch while __ theory is how we sense pitch

Answer 45

place; frequency

Question 46

sensory receptors found mostly in the skin and detect painful or dangerous stimuli are

Answer 46

nociceptors

Question 47

gate control theory

Answer 47

small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals but large fiber activity can close access to those pain signals

Question 48

how did specialized nerve receptors impact our history?

Answer 48

to detect pleasurable tastes enabled ancestors to seek out energy or protein rich foods

Question 49

why are you dizzy after a roller coaster?

Answer 49

your vestibular senses are adjusting

Question 50

a food’s aroma can greatly enhance its taste, an example of

Answer 50

sensory interaction

Question 52

what are our five specialized nerve receptors for taste?

Answer 52

sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami