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Sensation and Perception Flashcards

1
Q

Synesthesia

A

Two or more senses linked

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2
Q

Sensation

A

Detecting external events by sense organs and turning those into neural signals (sourness, loudness)

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3
Q

Perception

A

The more complex organizing of sensory info within the brain and the meaningful interpretations from it

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4
Q

What do sensory psychologists study?

A

Relationship between physical stimulus, psychological response, and sensory experience

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5
Q

Physical stimulus

A

Matter or energy in the world

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6
Q

Psychological response

A

Pattern of chemical and electrical activity in sense organs and CNS

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7
Q

Sensory experience

A

The subjective psychological sensation (perception)

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8
Q

5 major senses

A

Aristotle: Smell, taste, touch/pain, hearing, vision

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9
Q

More senses?

A

balance, limb position, movement

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10
Q

Step 1: reception

A

stimulation of receptors, specialized structures respond to physical stimuli and initiate neural impulses to sensory neurons

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11
Q

Step 2: transduction

A

Physical or chemical stimulation –> nerve impulses

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12
Q

Step 3: messages arriving in brain

A

Sent to many parts of brain, including specific sensory areas of cortex

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13
Q

Qualitative variation

A

Type of energy (eg. different wavelengths), activates different sets of neurons

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14
Q

Quantitative variation

A

Intensity. More/ faster action potentials

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15
Q

Sensory adaptation

A

reduction of activity in sensory receptors with repeated stimulus exposure

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16
Q

Gustav Fechner and William James

A

Psychophysics: How physical energy relates to psychological experience

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17
Q

Absolute threshold

A

Measures sensitivity, faintest detectable stimulus. Weakest amount detectable 50% of the time

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18
Q

Difference threshold

A

Depends on magnitude of original stimulus, minimal difference in magnitude between two stimuli to detect

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19
Q

Weber’s law

A

proportional difference for difference threshold

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20
Q

Signal detection theory

A

Hit, miss, false alarm, correct rejection

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21
Q

Purpose of perception

A

Identify meaningful objects as integrated wholes

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22
Q

How does the brain detect and integrate features?

A
  1. Feature detectors are specialized neurons to detect different individual features
  2. Integrate the features
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23
Q

Gestalt psychology

A

we automatically perceive whole, organized patterns, rather than parts

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24
Q

How do we divide a visual scene?

A

Figure (objects) and ground (background)

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25
Circumscription
we detect the form surrounding the other form as the ground
26
Gestalt principles of grouping
tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups (Proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, closure, illusory contours)
27
Lower threshold
Higher sensitivity
28
Conservative response bias vs liberal response bias
- must be sure - more likely to say they hear it
29
Plasticity of perceptual systems
neurons change sensitivity/ selectivity with experience
30
What is the visible spectrum
electromagnetic energy that humans can detect (750 - 390 nm) --> property of sensory receptors
31
Wavelength
percieved as hue (colour), related to frequency (cycles/ second). QUALITY
32
Amplitude
max height, perception of intensity/ brightness. QUANTITY
33
colour purity
how many wavelengths make up the light (saturation). Spectral colours have smallest number
34
cornea
the transparent covering of the eye, gives the eye colour
35
Pupil
where light passes after cornea, hole in iris muscle
36
Iris
Muscle that can increase or decrease pupil size to adjust light entering
37
Lens
Bends the light and uses accommodation: lens thickness is adjusted by specialized muscles to change degree of light bending
38
Fovea
where light is focused, in retina
39
Retina
back of the eye, contains rods and cones. converts light energy to electrical energy
40
Nearsightedness
Myopia. Where faraway objects project too far in front
41
Farsightedness
Hyperopia. Where near object overshoots
42
Presbyopia
Lens gets less elastic with age
43
What happens when light hits photoreceptors? (Cells?)
Causes chemical changes which causes shape changes and alters ion flow in/out. Generated electricity passes to bipolar and ganglion cells which triggers action potentials
44
Optic nerve
Where action potentials converge, connects at the back of the retina and creates a blind spot that brain fills with info from surroundings
45
How is what the retina perceives different than the brain's perceptions?
Retina senses images as upside down, flipped horizontally, and 2D, brain flips it back
46
Rods
-All have same photopigment type -120 million rod cells, more in periphery -sensitivity (ability to detect). Night vision
47
Cones
-3 possible pigment types (colour) -5 million cones cells, densely clustered in fovea -acuity (sharpness) -more one-to-one connections
48
Foveation
constant eye movement to focus stimuli directly on fovea
49
What happens when the info from the cones gets to the brain?
Processed by visual cortex
50
Cortical magnification factor
fovea receive more cortical representation
51
hierarchical analysis
higher and higher levels create more complete representations
52
anatomical organization (vision)
eyes -> optic nerves -> brain -> optic chiasm
53
After optic chiasm
Info diverges. Axons from left of each retina go to the left hemisphere and vice versa. Axons arrive in specialized visual nucleus of thalamus then to primary visual cortex
54
Retinotopical organization
adjacent portions of retina go with adjacent areas of the cortex
55
single-cell recording
measures action potentials, determines feature detectors
56
After feature detectors? (Where?)
Info passed to secondary visual cortices (association) and organized into shapes. At the border of occipital and temporal lobes
57
Adjacent temporal (highest level)
combines basic info with more complex
58
Visual agnosia
vision without knowing
59
Ventral visual pathway
Along temporal, the "what"
60
Dorsal visual pathway
joins parietal, the "where" and "how". Perception of movement processed in middle temporal cortex
61
Categories of movement in dorsal visual pathway
Left/right, up/down, radial
62
Akinetopsia
Can't perceive motion
63
Sound general pathway
Vibrations -> waves -> pressure -> interpreted as sound
64
Human range of sound
20-20 000 HZ
65
Higher frequency (for sound)
Perceived higher pitch (quality)
66
Higher amplitude (for sound)
higher intensity/ loudness (quantity
67
How is a change of 10 dB perceived?
Loudness doubles
68
Complexity of sound
determines timbre/quality
69
Human voice range (Hz)
60-7000
70
Pinna
Outer ear, sound funnel evolved to capture sound waves. No movement so relies on structure
71
Canal
Enhances certain frequencies and protects tympanic membrane
72
Tympanic membrane
boundary between outer and middle ear, tight membrane that moves in/out with pressure changes
73
Ossicles
Hammer, anvil, stirrup: amplifies sound. Then oval window
74
Fluid in inner ear
Requires energy to move, protects inner ear by dampening vibrations
75
Cochlea
turns fluid vibrations to neural energy. Fluid movement causes basilar membrane to vibrate, causing cilia to bend
76
Cilia
triggers neural impulses. Pushing and pulling leads to action potential bursts
77
Pathway after cilia
Auditory nerve -> brainstem -> auditory nucleus of thalamus ->primary auditory cortex
78
Frequency theory
brain uses frequency of hair cell firing to indicate pitch. Does not explain how we distinguish pitch and loudness
79
Cilia firing
1000 times per second, alternate firing rate to achieve faster combined frequencies
80
Place theory
Helmholtz. Different pitches from different places along basilar membrane. High Hz beginning narrow stiff hairs, low Hz to tip (wider/ floppier). Pitch depends on where, loudness depends on how much
81
Frequency vs place theory
-low -high
82
Tonotopic organization
maps in primary auditory cortex, high. processed near back and low near front
83
How does the brain use the contrast between ears
Timing and intensity to locate a sound, can detect 0.000027 second difference between ears. Better when we can see the objects
84
Priming
Exposure to one stimulus or multiple stimuli influences response to another stimulus (e.g. ambiguous figures)
85
Top-down processing
Sensory info plus other info from previous experience or larger context
86
Multi sensory perception
Integration of info from different senses by the nervous system
87
Visual dominance effect
When we get conflicting information from two senses, vision wins
88
Speech perception
Need both auditory and visual modalities
89
McGurk effect
Perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates the interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception (two pieces together make third perception)
90
Bottom-up processing
What we perceive based on sensory inputs (perception without additional meaning)

Psych 101 (8 decks)

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