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psych 100 > Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Sensation and Perception Flashcards

1
Q

sensation

A

physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs

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2
Q

transduction

A

physical energy (light/sound) converted into form of energy the brain can understand

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3
Q

perception

A

making sense of the stimuli

  • psychological process of interpreting sensory info
    ex: identify gas leak in house, song reminds you of a specific friend
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4
Q

absolute threshold

A

smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense

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5
Q

signal detection

A

how we measure absolute thresholds

*method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli

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6
Q

false alarm

A

indicating a sound was heard when one wasn’t played

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7
Q

correct rejection

A

correctly identifying a sound when one wasn’t played

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8
Q

differential threshold or JND

A

just noticeable difference

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9
Q

Weber’s law

A

states that noticeable differences is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus
* the bigger the stimulus, the larger the difference

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10
Q

bottom-up processing

A

building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces

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11
Q

top-down processing

A

experience influencing the perception of stimuli

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12
Q

sensory adaptation

A

decrease in sensitivity of a receptor to a stimulus after constant stimulus
ex: weight of clothes, scratches of glasses

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13
Q

vision

A

we see light that bounces off an object and into our eyes

  • enters eye though pupil
  • light passes through lens
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14
Q

retina

A

lens that light passes through

- light is transacted, or converted into electrical signals by cells called photoreceptors

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15
Q

photoreceptors

A

rods- see in dim light (at night)

cones - see colour and detail in brighter light

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16
Q

passage of light

A

optic nerve -> through thalamus-> to primary visual cortex

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17
Q

primary visual cortex

A

info about light orientation and movement begin to come together

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18
Q

agnosia

A

damage to these areas result in the loss of ability to perceive stimuli

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19
Q

ventral pathway

A

pathway of visual processing

- the “what” pathway

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20
Q

dorsal pathway

A

the “where” pathway

- processes location & movement

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21
Q

dark adaptation

A

adjustment of eye to low levels of light

22
Q

light adaptations

A

adjustment of eyes to high levels of light

  • large number of rods and cones are bleached at once, causing us to be blinded for a few seconds
  • red light doesn’t bleach rods
23
Q

trichromatic theory

A

proposes that colour vision is influenced by 3 different cones responding to red, blue, and green

24
Q

opponent-process theory

A

theory proposing colour vision as influenced by cells responsive to pairs of colour

  • our cones send info to retinal ganglion cells that respond to :
  • red-green
  • blue-yellow
  • black-white
25
sound waves
changing in air pressure; physical stimulus for audition
26
audition
ability to process auditory info
27
pinna
outermost portion of the ear (part you can see)
28
auditory canal
tube runs from outer ear to middle ear
29
tympanic membrane
stretched membrane in middle ear that vibrates In response to sound (aka eardrum) - vibrates against three smallest bones in body 1. malleus (hammer) 2. incus (anvil) 3. stapes (stirrup) * amplifies sound
30
cochlea
spiral bone structure in inner ear containing audition hair cells - fluid filled
31
auditory hair cells
receptors in cochlea that transduce sound into electrical potentials * arranged on basilar membrane - humans can detect sounds from 20Hz to 20kHz
32
primary auditory cortex
processes auditory stimuli (temporal lobe) | - tonotopic organization of cochlea maintained here
33
vestibular system
parts of inner ear involved in balance - made of three semi circular canals (fluid filled bone structures containing cells responding to changes in the heads orientation in space * allows us to maintain our gaze on smt while in motion
34
disturbances in system
= vertigo
35
somatosensation
ability to sense touch , pain, and temperature | * transduce physical stimulus into electrical potentials that can be processed in the brain
36
tactile sensations
associated with texture | - transduced by mechanoreceptors
37
primary somatosensory cortex
strip of cerebral tissue just behind the central sulcus engaged in sensory reception of bodily sensations
38
somatotopic map
organization of primary soma cortex, maintaining a representation to the arrangement of the body
39
nociception
ability to sense pain | - protects against harm
40
phantom limbs
perception that a missing limb still exists | phantom limb pain - pain that a limb no longer exists...nerves still sending messages to the brain
41
chemical senses (smell and taste)
ability to process smell and taste - olfaction (smell), gustation (taste) * require transduction of chemical stimuli into electrical potentials
42
odorants
chemicals transduced by olfactory receptors
43
olfactory epithelium
organ containing olfactory receptors | * bind as a lock and key does
44
shape theory of olfaction
theory proposing that odourants of different size and shape correspond to different smells
45
anosmia
loss of ability to smell - happens from head trauma - severs convection btw receptors and projections * happens in boxers
46
taste receptor cells
transduce gustatory info | * taste buds are not the bumps on your tongue, they are in the divots around the bumps
47
tastants
chemicals transduced * binding of chemicals with taste receptors result in our perception of 5 basic tastes - sweet, salty, sour, bitter, unami (savoury)
48
flavour
combination of smell and taste
49
multimodal perception
effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world
50
supper additive effect of multi sensory integration
finding that responses to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component if it were presented on its own
51
Principle of inverse effectiveness
for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on its own) is weak, then the opportunity for multi-sensory enhancement is very large - however, if one component is sufficient by itself, then the effect on the response gained by a simultaneously processing of the other components will be relatively small
52
mcGurk effect
what you see clashes with what you hear

psych 100 (24 decks)

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