Sensation and Perception Flashcards
Bottom up processing
The process of looking at small pieces first then the big picture
Top down processing
The process of looking at the big picture first then the small pieces
Difference Threshold
The smallest amount of stimulus needed to notice a change
Signal detection theory
The minimum amount of a stimulus needed to know it exists. Depends on motivation, focus, and previous experience
Weber’s Law
The change in stimulus to meet the difference threshold must increase or decrease by a consistent percentage
Selective attention
Conscious awareness that our brain is focused on at a given point in time
Absolute threshold
Minimum amount of a stimulus needed to know it exists
Sensory adaptation
When our brain stops alerting us to sensory information it has already processed
Pupil
Open space in the middle of the eye
Retina
Reflective coloring in the back of your eye that contains all of the rods and cones
Cones
Help us see color better during the day, at the center of our vision (Fovea)
Blind spot
Where the optic nerve connects to the retina and there are no receptors there
Iris
Colored part of our eye, the muscle opens and closes to let light in
Optic nerve
The nerve that connects your eye to to your brain
Fovea
Where most of your cones are located
Young-Helmhotz (Trichromatic Theory)
We have three types of color cones (Red, Blue, Green) and combinations of them help us see color
Intensity
How big the wavelengths are
Lens
A disk that changes shape to reflect light on the correct part of the retina
Rods
The receptor cells on your retina that allow us to see black and white and better at night
Cornea
Protective covering over the eye
Feature detectors
Specialized cells in your occipital lobe that identify angles, shapes, and movement
Opponent process theory
Opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) when one fires the other has to fire back
Middle ear
Three small bones in the ear, the hammer, anvil, and stirrup and they vibrate to amplify sound
Pinna
Collects sound waves
Auditory nerve
Connects the your ear to the brain
Sensorineural hearing loss
Damage to the inner ear (cochlea, auditory nerve) can be treated with cochlear implants
Frequency
Frequency of sound waves determines pitch
Cochlea
A snail shaped coil who transducers sound into a neural message for your brain
Eardrum
Thin membrane that vibrates to amplify sound
Place theory
The pitch we head is determined by the location that the sound waves strike the cochlea. Doesn’t explain lower pitched sounds
Conduction hearing loss
Damage to the outer or middle ear, also attributes to the deafness you get as you age, it can be treated with a hearing aid
Pitch
The speed at which sound waves travel
Inner ear
Made up of the cochlea and auditory nerve
Hammer/Anvil/Stirrup
Make up the middle ear, vibrate to amplify sound
Frequency theory
The pitch we hear is determined by the speed the sound waves travel down the auditory nerve. Can’t explain very high pitched sounds
Cochlear implant
An implant near your cochlea that can cure deafness or at least help hearing
Kinesthetic sense
Our sense of where our body parts are in relation to each other
Vestibular sense
Your sense of overall body position
Gustatory sense
Your ability to taste Sour-poisoness Sweet-energy Bitter-poison/spoiled food Salty-sodium (for muscles to work properly) Unami-meaty taste (provides protein)
Umami
Meaty taste (provides protein)
Olfactory sense
Smell
Gate-control theory
When enough touch receptors are active it will open a large fiber gate in the spinal cord
Sensory interaction
Smell and taste are both dependent on each other
Synesthesia
Mix up of the senses
Ex: tasting sounds
Gestalt
Our brain likes to see things as “wholes”
Proximity
Our brain groups things together that are close together
Visual cliff
A test to see wether babies have depth perception (they do)
Monocular cues
Depth perception question that we are able to perceive with one eye open
Perceptual set
Expectations and prior experiences affect our perceptions
Continuity
The ability to keep things the same
Binocular cues
Depth perception question you need both eyes open to see
Visual texture
We know that objects have more texture detail when viewing them from a close distance
Similarity
Our brain groups things together that look the same
Depth perception
The ability to see how close or far away something is and judge it based on your vision
Retinal disparity
Each eye has a slightly different image and when put together these images help us perceive depth
Interposition
When we judge depth based on which objects are in front of each other in a space
Color constancy
We know that items do not change color based on their location and the light surrounding them
Ernest Weber
Created Weber’s law- the change in stimulus to meet the difference threshold must increase or decrease by a consistent percentage
Herman Von Helmholtz
The trichromatic theory- we have three types of colors (Red,Blue,Green) and combinations of them help us see color
Elantra Gibson and Richard Walk
Visual cliff experiment- a test to see wether babies had depth perception (they do)
Inattentional blindness
A psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits
Transduction
The transportation of stimuli to the central nervous system
Wavelength
How sounds and light waves are measured
Parallel processing
The ability of the brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli of differing quality
Hue
The degree at which a stimuli can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow
Accommodation
What occurs when new information or experiences cause you to modify your existing Schemas (a plan or theory)
Audition
Hearing
Cutaneous sense
Touch
Phi phenomenon
The optical illusion of perceiving a series of still images, when viewed in rapid succession, as continuous motion
Figure ground
Relating to or denoting the perception of images by the distinction of objects from a background from which they appear to stand out
Perceptual constancy
Perceiving objects as having constant shape, size, and color regardless of changes in perspective, distance, and lighting
Extrasensory perception
The faculty of perceiving things by means other than the known senses
Ex: telepathy
Parapsychology
The study of phenomenas or psychic experiences into a broader study of psychology and the open mind.
