Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

The conversion of the stimulus to neural impulses

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

Interpreting stimuli and making sense of them

Question 3

How is an external stimulus experienced?

Answer 3

Stimulus: anything that activates our sensation systems

Question 4

Constancy

Answer 4

We experience perceptual stability even though the sensed stimulus changes. The three constancies are shape constancy, size constancy, and brightness constancy

Question 5

The Autokinetic Effect

Answer 5

Stationary objects can appear to move

Question 6

Transduction

Answer 6

translation of stimulus energy into an electrical code/neural impulse

Question 7

Difference Threshold

Answer 7

The minimum difference for a person to be able to detect the difference half the time. (in color weight, pitch, temperature, etc.)

Question 8

Weber’s law

Answer 8

For two stimuli to be perceived as different, they must differ by a constant minimum percentage and not a constant amount.

Question 9

Color Perception: The Trichromatic Theory

Answer 9

three kinds of cones sensitive to different wavelengths, explains color blindness well.

Question 10

Color Perception: Opponent Process Theory

Answer 10

Receptor cells are linked in pairs, working in opposition to each other, explains afterimages

Question 11

Rods

Answer 11

a type of receptor cell in the retina, helps with low light (night vision) and peripheral vision. There are approximately 120 million rods in the retina.

Question 12

Cones

Answer 12

A type of receptor cell in the retina, helps with bright light and near the fovea (centralized). Approximately 6 million cones in the retina.

Question 13

Afterimages-color opposites

Answer 13

red-green
blue-yellow
black-white

Question 14

Bipolar cells

Answer 14

receive information directly from rods and cones and sends this information to ganglion cells

Question 15

Ganglion Cells

Answer 15

collect and summarize visual information, which is moved out of the back of the eyeball through a bundle of ganglion axons called the optic nerve

Question 16

simultaneous contrast

Answer 16

objects look lighter against a dark back ground than against a light background

Question 17

Lateral inhibition

Answer 17

when a receptor (a cone) fires, it inhibits its neighbors because they serve a similar function, its purpose is to emphasize change.

Question 18

Binocular disparity

Answer 18

a depth cue using both eyes

Question 19

What is are three examples of monocular depth cues? And what are they?

Answer 19

Texture gradient: distant objects are denser
Linear Perspective: parallel lines appear to converge in the distance
Relative Size: distant objects are smaller

Question 20

Place Theory

Answer 20

the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated

Question 21

Frequency Theory

Answer 21

the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequencies of a tone, thus enabling us to sense pitch

Question 22

McGurk Effect

Answer 22

Visual and auditory information interact, can cause mistakes in perception

Question 23

Name four skin sensations

Answer 23

touch/pressure
warmth
cold (warm and cold have different receptors)
pain

Question 24

Gate-control theory

Answer 24

the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
gate opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers
gate closed by activity in larger fibers (transmitting touch or warmth signals) or by information coming from the brain (expectations)

Question 25

What type of smell do we have? How many different types of smell receptors do we have and how many different odors can we smell?

Answer 25

A poor sense of smell. 350 different types, of smell receptors and we can detect about 10,000 different odors.