Sensation and Perception

Question 1

What is the process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain for initial processing.

Answer 1

Sensation

Question 2

What is the process by which the brain selects, organises and interprets sensations?

Answer 2

Perception

Question 3

What is the term for the ability to recognise object under different viewing conditions e.g lighting, viewpoint?

Answer 3

Perceptual constancy

Question 4

What is the theory that measures the ability to distinguish between information-bearing patterns and ‘noise’ that distracts from the information, and threshold influencing factors such as experience, expectations, and physiological state?

Answer 4

Signal Detection Theory

Question 5

What are the five senses?

Answer 5

1. Audition (Hearing)
2. Vision (Seeing)
3. Olfaction (Smell)
4. Gustation (Taste)
5. Touch, Kinesthesis, Equilibrium

Question 6

What is the process of converting stimulus information into neural impulses?

Answer 6

Transduction

Question 7

The ______________ is the minimum amount of energy needed for an observer to sense that a stimulus is present.

Answer 7

Absolute threshold

Question 8

The _______________ is the lowest level of stimulation required to sense that a change in stimulation has occurred.

Answer 8

Difference threshold

Question 9

________________ is the tendency of sensory systems to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.

Answer 9

Sensory adaptation

Question 10

____________________ is the tendency to perceive information outside our conscious awareness.

Answer 10

Subliminal perception

Question 11

What are the four aspects of perceptual organisation?

Answer 11

Form perception, depth or distance perception, motion perception and perceptual constancy.

Question 12

________________ involves generating meaning from sensory experience.

Answer 12

Perceptual interpretation

Question 13

_________________ lies at the intersection of sensation and memory, as the brain interprets current sensations in the light of past experience.

Answer 13

Perceptual interpretation

Question 14

What is the process that emphasises the role of sensory data in shaping perception?

Answer 14

Bottom-up processing

Question 15

What is the process that emphasises the influence of prior experience on perception?

Answer 15

Top-down processing

Question 16

All sensory systems have specialised cells called _______________ that respond to environmental stimuli which generate action potentials in adjacent sensory neurons.

Answer 16

Sensory receptors

Question 17

According to ________________ theory, sensation is not a passive process that occurs when the amount of stimulation exceeds a critical threshold; rather, experiencing a sensation means making a judgement about whether a stimulus is present or absent.

Answer 17

Signal detection

Question 18

____________ is the tendency of sensory receptors to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.

Answer 18

Sensory adaptation

Question 19

_____________ is the tendency to perceive information outside our conscious awareness.

Answer 19

Subliminal perception

Question 20

According to this law - a second stimulus must differ by a constant proportion from the first for it to be perceived as different, regardless of the magnitude of two stimuli.

Answer 20

Weber’s law

Question 21

According to this law, the magnitude of a stimulus grows logarithmically as the subjective experience of intensity grows arithmetically so that people subjectively experience only a fraction of actual increases in stimulation.

Answer 21

Fechner’s law

Question 22

According to ________________ law, subjective intensity increases in a linear fashion as actual intensity grows exponentially.

Answer 22

Stevens’ power law

Question 23

The retina contains two types of light receptors, or photoreceptors called __________________ which were named for their distinctive shapes.

Answer 23

Rods and Cones

Question 24

What cells are stimulated by the Retina?

Answer 24

Bipolar cells

Question 25

What cells integrate the information from multiple Bipolarcells?

Answer 25

Ganglion cells

Question 26

Ganglion cell axons bundle together to form the ___________, which carries visual information to the brain.

Answer 26

optic nerve

Question 27

What is the fovea?

Answer 27

The central region of the retina, that is most sensitive to small detail, meaning vision is sharpest for stimuli directly in sight.

Question 28

Why do humans have a blind spot?

Answer 28

The blind spot (or optic disk) occurs at the point on the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye, and has no receptor cells.

Question 29

Retinal cells that ‘see’ colour?

Answer 29

Cones

Question 30

Retinal cells that ‘see’ black, white and grey?

Answer 30

Rods

Question 31

From the optic nerve, visual information travels along which two pathways, to the visual cortex.

Answer 31

1. Superior colliculus (in the midbrain)
2. Lateral geniculate nucleus (in the thalamus)

Question 32

Which visual neural pathways in humans is particularly involved in eye movements.

Answer 32

Superior colliculus in the midbrain

Question 33

What is blind sight?

Answer 33

Blind sight is where there may be damage to one of the neural pathways, but the brain still receives some of the visual input signal, so an individual may be unaware of their ability to see. However, they can still describe part of t=what they have ‘seen’

Question 34

Beyond the primary visual cortex, visual information flows along two pathways, name them.

Answer 34

The ‘what’ pathway (involved in determining what an object is) and the ‘where’ pathway (involved in locating the object in space, following its movement and guiding movement towards it).

Question 35

__________________ in the primary visual cortex respond only when stimulation in their receptive field matches a particular pattern or orientation.

Answer 35

Feature detectors.

Question 36

What is the phenomenon where an individual’s Feaure detectors fail, causing face blindness?

Answer 36

Prosopagnosia

Question 37

Which two theories explain what is known about colour vision?

Answer 37

1. Trichromatic, theory - three types of retinal receptors, sensitive to wavelengths experienced as red, green or blue.
2. Opponent-process theory - blue–yellow, red–green and black–white system, explains after images.