Sensation and Perception

Question 1

What is sensation?

Answer 1

When sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor

Question 2

What is a sensory receptor?

Answer 2

Specialized neurons that respond to different types of stimuli

Question 3

What is transduction? Example given.

Answer 3

Conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential
Example: light enters eye causes chemical changes in cells at back of eye, these cells relay messages in form of action potentials to nervous system.

Question 4

9 senses and official names?

Answer 4

Vision
Smell: olfaction
Taste: gustation
Touch: somatosensation
Balance: vestibular sense
Body position: proprioception
Body movement: kinesthesia
Pain: nociception
Temperature: thermoception

Question 5

What is absolute threshold? Example given.

Answer 5

Refers to amount of stimulus energy must be present for stimulus to be detected 50% of the time, good measure of sensitivity of sensory system to relevant stimuli
-Example: how dim a light can be to still be detected half of the time

Question 6

What are Subliminal Messages?

Answer 6

Stimulus we receive, but are below absolute threshold, and we are not consciously aware of it

Question 7

What is just noticeable difference (or difference threshold)? Example given.

Answer 7

How much of a difference in stimuli is required to detect a difference between them.
-Example: someone receiving phone notification that makes their phone light up in dark movie theatre (noticed by many) compared to brightly lit basketball game (noticed by few)

Question 8

What is perception?

Answer 8

Refers to way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced

Question 9

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 9

Perceptions built from sensory input

Question 10

What is top-down processing?

Answer 10

How available knowledge, experiences, thoughts influence how we interpret sensations

Question 11

What is sensory adaptation?

Answer 11

Reduction to sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it

Question 12

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 12

Failure to notice something that is completely visible due to lack of attention

Question 13

What is signal detection theory?

Answer 13

Ability to identify stimulus when it is embedded in a distracting background through motivations

Question 14

Auditory and visual stimuli both occur in forms of ____

Answer 14

Waves

Question 15

Define amplitude and wavelength

Answer 15

Amplitude: height of a wave measured from highest point on wave (peak/crest) to lowest point on wave (trough)
Wavelength: measured from peak to peak of wave

Question 16

Define frequency and how it relates to wavelengths

Answer 16

Number of waves that pass a given point in a given time period, expressed in terms of hertz (Hz)
Longer wavelengths = lower frequencies, shorter wavelengths = higher frequencies

Question 17

What are light waves associated with?

Answer 17

Visual stimuli

Question 18

What is the visible spectrum?

Answer 18

Portion of electromagnetic spectrum that we can see, associated with wavelengths from 380 to 720 nanometers (nm)

Question 19

How is wavelength and amplitude of waves associated with light waves?

Answer 19

Wavelength: perception of colour
Red = longer wavelengths, green=intermediate, blue=shorter wavelengths
Amplitude: brightness or intensity of colour
Larger amplitudes appear brighter

Question 20

What are sound waves associated with?

Answer 20

Auditory stimuli

Question 21

How do frequency and amplitude affect sound waves?

Answer 21

Frequency: associated with pitch
Higher frequency = higher pitched
Audible range of sound frequencies is between 20 and 20000 Hz
Amplitude: associated with loudness of sound, measured in decibels (dB)
Higher amplitudes = louder sounds

Question 22

Why can different musical instruments play same note at same volume and sound different?

Answer 22

Timbre: sound’s purity, affected by frequency, amplitude, and timing of sound waves

Question 23

How does light travel through the eye?

Answer 23

Light waves transmitted across cornea and enter eye through pupil, then light crosses lens which will focus images perfectly on the fovea (part of retina_

Question 24

Define:
A) Cornea
B) Pupil
C) Lens

Answer 24

A) Protective covering over eye, focuses light waves
B) Opening in eye for light
C) Curved, clear structure for additional focus

Question 25

Difference between cones and rods in eye?

Answer 25

Cones: specialized photoreceptor cells, dominate vision in bright/light conditions
Rods: specialized photoreceptor cells, dominate vision in dark conditions

Question 26

What does the optic nerve do?

Answer 26

Carries visual information from retina to brain

Question 27

A) Where does visual information go in brain?
B) What are the two streams?
C) What are association areas?

Answer 27

A) Sent to occipital lobe where it decodes information and sends it to one of the pathways
B) Ventral stream: what are you looking at, sends to temporal lobe where neurons identify it
Dorsal stream: where is what I am looking at, sends it to parietal lobe
C) Information from ventral and dorsal sent here to connect the information and put it together

Question 28

What is the trichromatic theory for colour vision?

Answer 28

The three types of cones are each receptive to either red, green, or blue, and all colours in the spectrum can be produced by combining these three colours.

Question 29

What is the opponent-process theory?

Answer 29

Colour is coded in opponent pairs (black-white, yellow-blue, and green-red) and some cells in visual system are excited by one of the opponent colours and inhibited by the other

Question 30

Define:
A) Binocular cues
B) Binocular disparity
C) Stereoblindness

Answer 30

A) Rely on these to experience depth in 3-D world
B) Slightly different view each eye receives
C) Inability to respond to binocular cues of depth