Sensation and Perception Test Flashcards
1
Q
Sensation
A
- The activation of our senses
- Sensation occurs in your eyeball, nose, tongue, etc.
- Information from the outside world goes in your body
2
Q
Perception
A
- The process of understanding sensations/interpretation
- The interpretation of raw materials provided by our senses
- E.g. eyeball collects info, but brain interprets it through occipital lobe
3
Q
Absolute Threshold
A
- Minimum amount of info your brain needs to determine what is coming in
- The smallest information of stimulus we need to detect something at a 50% accuracy level
- Each person has different absolute thresholds
- E.g. one person might be able to smell a drop of perfume in a six-room house, but another person might not be able to smell it, so they will need more drops of perfume to detect it
4
Q
Sensory Adaptation
A
- Quickly adjusting to sensory input in a short period of time
- E.g. turning on the lights after watching a video in class
- E.g. adjusting to a cold swimming pool
5
Q
Difference Threshold/Just-Noticeable Difference
A
- How much a stimulus needs to change for us to notice the difference
-E.g. when the temperature gradually decreases, we don’t notice each degree change, we notice once it is much colder
6
Q
Weber’s Law
A
- Mathematical formula that computes JND
- JND is not a constant amount, but a consistent proportion of the original stimulus
- The more intense the stimulus is, the more it will need to change before we notice a difference
7
Q
Senses
A
- Vision, hearing, and touch are all energy senses
- We gather energy from light, sound waves, and pressure
- Taste and smell are chemical senses
8
Q
Transduction
A
- Relevant to all 5 senses
- Process that takes place to convert external environment energy/chemicals into neurons firing
- Makes the sense tell the brain what to perceive
- E.g. retina interprets light to translate it into brain waves for the brain to understand
- Mostly happens in the retina
9
Q
Vision
A
- Our most dominant sense
10
Q
Step 1 of Vision
A
- Gather light
- Light is reflected off objects and gathered by the eye
- Visible light = small sections of the electromagnetic spectrum
11
Q
Sclera and Cornea
A
- White of your eye is sclera
- Cornea and sclera are the same protective layer, but cornea is transparent
12
Q
Pupil and iris
A
- Pupil and iris are the same layer
- Iris contracts and dilates (e.g. turning the lights on and off)
- Iris is a muscle, while the pupil is a whole
- The darker your eyes, the more muscle fibers you have
- This is why people with lighter eyes have degenerative eye problems b/c more light passes through the eye
- Also why they are more sensitive to light
13
Q
Lens
A
- Solid, yet flexible
- Focuses on an image depending on if you’re looking far off or close
- Can only focus on one thing at a time
- E.g. if you hold up your finger and focus on something beyond your finger and then focus on your finger, your lens is changing to focus
14
Q
Fovea
A
- Back center of the retina
- Job is to focus on an object and its details
15
Q
Retina
A
- Interpreter for the eyeball
- Has three different layers (photoreceptor cells, bipolar cells, ganglion cells)
16
Q
Photoreceptor Cells
A
- First layer of the retina
- Some are called cones, while some are called rods
- We have more rods than cones
- Cones see color
- Have the highest concentration of cones in your fovea b/c fovea only has cones, no rods so the further that something goes away from your fovea, the harder it is to see
- Additionally, rods do not see color; only black and white
- At night, you use rods more b/c it is more peripheral vision
- Cones do a lot, but rods are also used as well
17
Q
Ganglion Cells
A
- Come together to form your optic nerves in your eye
- Optic nerve travels to your brain and carries information that the occipital lobe needs
- Optic nerves first have to go through the thalamus, which sends it through neurons to the occipital lobe
- As ganglion cells come together to leave the eyeball, you have something called optic disks and there are not photoreceptors here
18
Q
Visual Fields
A
- Left visual field goes to the right side of the retina and occipital lobe
- Right visual field goes to the left side of the retina and occipital lobe
19
Q
Astigmatism
A
- Has to do with the shape of your cornea
- Shape of cornea is different than a normal eye, which bends the light as it enters the eye
- This is why people with this see blurry lights
20
Q
Nearsightedness (Myopia)
A
- We see upside down and backwards, so our brain is responsible for flipping it
- If you are nearsighted, something is going on with the structure of your eye
- Your eye is projecting what you see, but it doesn’t get to the fovea correctly b/c the eye is projecting too close
21
Q
Farsightedness (Presbyopia)
A
- Same thing as nearsightedness except the eye is projecting too far
22
Q
Prosopagnosia
A
- Also known as face blindness
- Unable to recognize/perceive familiar faces
- In extreme cases, people with prosopagnosia cannot even recognize their own face
23
Q
Blindsight
A
- When a person has fully functioning eyes, but cannot consciously see
- E.g. if you ask them to read something, they won’t be able to
- Usually happens b/c their visual cortex in the brain is damaged, but their eyes are still healthy
- They can still see to some degree
- People with blindsight have different types of things they CAN do
- E.g. some can identify color, but can’t read
24
Q
Colors and Vision
A
- Cones in your retina detect color
- There are three types of cones in humans that lets us see all color
- Amplitude (how high) in vision detects how bright something is
- Frequency (how fast) in vision determines color
- Red is the slowest wavelength
- Violet is the fastest wavelength
25
Q
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic
A
- The cones in our eyes detect red, green, and blue
- These cones are activated in different combinations to produce all the colors on the visible spectrum
- Problem is that this theory does not explain afterimages or colorblindness
26
Q
Opponent-Process Theory
A
- Each cone works together in opposites of colors
- 1 cone detects blue and yellow
- 1 cone detects red and green
- 1 cone detects black and white
27
Q
Afterimages
A
- Seeing the negative colors of what you’re looking at
- E.g. seeing the opposite colors of the American flag and then once you stare at it for a bit and look away, you see the right colors
- Supports the opponent-process theory
28
Q
Color Blindness
A
- Supports the opponent-process theory
- Monochromatism - You only see in black and white
- Dichromatism - You can only see two of the three pairs of cones
- E.g. red-green color blindness is very common; they can see blue-yellow and black-white, but have trouble identifying red and green
29
Q
Sound Waves
A
- Amplitude: Volume, how loud is something is
- Frequency determines pitch and is the length of the wave
E.g. the higher you sing, the faster the sound waves are
30
Q
Outer Ear
A
Pinna - Catches sound and works like a funnel
Auditory Canal - Also funnels the sound waves
31
Q
Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum)
A
- Door between your outer ear and middle ear
- What doctors look at to see if your ear has an infection
- When sounds hit eardrum, vibrations occur
32
Q
Middle Ear
A
- Ossicles include the malleus, incus, and stapes
- These are the three smallest bones in your body
- Takes sound and amplifies it so the cochlea can be activated properly
33
Q
Inner Ear
A
- Oval window - Surface of the stapes and also a membrane, but much smaller than eardrum
- Cochlea - A hollow tube coiled up which has a lot of chambers
- In the chambers, there are fluids
- Basilar Membrane is what the cochlea is made up of
- CIlia are frayed wires throughout the cochlea and transduction takes place for hearing here (neurons firing to help transport sound waves/vibrations to the temporal lobe)
34
Q
Sound Localization
A
- Identifying which direction sound is coming from
- Sound waves hit at different frequencies
- However, it is hard to identify sound when it is right in front of you or right behind you b/c the sound waves hit at the same frequencies
35
Q
Place Theory
A
- There are specific cilia that responds to different frequencies of sound based on where they are located in the cochlea
36
Q
Frequency Theory
A
- The pitch we hear is determined by the frequency of sound waves
E.g. higher frequencies includes higher pitch
37
Q
Conduction Deafness
A
- Sounds cannot get through the middle and outer ear
- Louder sounds may be muffled and it is harder to hear softer sounds
- Has to do with a break in vibration
- E.g. if you’re communicating with a tin can and string and if you get closer to the person and the string is not straight, the vibrations are affected and the sound waves don’t travel
38
Q
Sensorineural (Nerve) Deafness
A
Feels sound, but cannot hear it
39
Q
Touch (Tactile System)
A
- Energy sense b/c it uses energy of pressure and temp
- There are receptors (nerve endings) for pressure, temperature, and pain
- This depends on what is being sensed and being sent to be perceived
- Different receptors for pain are present that are deeper under your skin
- If you touch, they will not be activated, whereas if you punch, they will be activated
40
Q
Concentration of Nerve Endings
A
- Lips and fingertips are more sensitive since they have more sensory receptors
- Heel and elbow are less sensitive since they have fewer sensory receptors
41
Q
Gate Control Theory
A
- Explains how we experience pain
- Some pain messages have high priority
- The higher the priority, the more the gate swings open, the more we feel pain
- All of your receptors have gates, so when one needs more attention, the gate opens more to send more signals to pain
42
Q
Phantom Limbs
A
- When someone is born without a limb or is an amputee, some can still feel the limb
- The brain is mapped and pre-wired to expect signals to limbs that may or may not be there
- Creates weird illusions when limb is not there
- At the site of a severed limb, nerve endings become larger and more sensitive to even the smallest pressure
- Most common form of treatment is mirror therapy
- E.g. if someone lost their right foot they would put a mirror between the legs where they see the amputated foot returns which tricks brain into thinking the foot exists
43
Q
Tinnitus
A
- Ringing or white noise that you hear all the time
- Often struggled with by elderly or older adults
- Interferes with their ability to hear which is distracting and cause mental anguish
- Not a problem with the ear b/c elderly commonly lose hearing, but brain still has receptors that are designed to hear the sounds
- Similar to phantom limb
44
Q
Taste (Gustation)
A
- Chemical sense
- Tongue is covered in taste buds which is the opening of papillae
- This is where transduction happens b/c papillae is under the surface of the tongue’s taste buds that turns chemical signals into neurons firing
- Flavor is a combination of taste and smell so when your nose is blocked, flavor is diminished
45
Q
Different Tasters
A
- Supertasters, medium tasters, non tasters
- Supertasters have a higher concentration of papillae so more signals sent to brain; can be picky eaters or the best foot critics to detect more nuance
- Non tasters have a lower concentration of papillae so they can eat anything and it all tastes the same as they cannot differentiate a lot of different flavors
46
Q
Cravings
A
- Brain craves for all different aspects of taste, so food that meets all of them are more appealing
- Cravings other than junk food means you are missing a nutrient
- Pregnant women and children commonly have a nutrient deficiency and crave things that are not food so they have an uncontrollable urge to eat it in search of nutrients; known as pica
47
Q
5 (6) aspects of taste
A
- Sweet: You are biologically prone to prefer sweet b/c in nature, things are sweet (evolutionary adaptation is that in nature, sweet things are safe)
- Sour
- Salty: Craving this means you are dehydrated b/c when your body is depleted of resources, it needs salt to function
- Bitter: Many poisonous things in nature are bitter; back of the tongue is more sensitive to bitter so it tries to trigger the gag reflex to spit it out; this type is more of an acquired taste (black coffee, dark chocolate, etc.)
- Umani: Japanese word for savory; meat falls in this category however meat replacements are tofu b/c tofu has the Umani flavors
- Oleogustus: Unofficial 6th taste that is an oily/fatty taste
- Spice is not an aspect of taste b/c it is just pain as it hurts pain receptors like eyes, touch, and mouth; spice tolerance comes from exposure; burning your tongue kills papillae, but they grow back
48
Q
Smell (Olfaction)
A
- Chemical sense
- When you smell something, there is an open space behind your nose (biggest sinuses are behind your nose)
- Little hairs in the nose are a filter so this tries to get out things that do not belong in the olfactory bulb b/c the nerve endings in the olfactory bulb is where transduction happens, which goes to the hippocampus
- Nose and throat are connected tubes
- Route to brain is smell, nose receptors, olfactory bulb, hippocampus
49
Q
Pheromones
A
- Small chemical odors that are emitted by humans and animals which increases your attraction towards people and is what draws species together
- Some plants emit them which may attract bees
- Evolutionary argument that you are attracted to a person b/c of the chemical smell that they emit
- Emit different pheromones and different times
- E.g. exercising sweat is different from stress/fear sweat
50
Q
Synesthesia
A
- When people experience a sense in a non-traditional way
- E.g. see sound, taste color, hear touch
- Not everyone can do this
- These people that listen to music say that different pitches evoke other colors
51
Q
Sensory Interaction
A
- When more than one sense is working together to make an overall understanding of something
- E.g. Trained chefs identify food with sight and smell
- Especially relevant with taste and smell b/c they are very connected
- Any sense can interact with each other
52
Q
Body Position Senses
A
- We have other senses other than 5 primary senses
- Vestibular sense, proprioception, kinesthesia
53
Q
Vestibular Sense
A
- Balance (head movement)
- Ability to be balanced and stand still without falling and this relates to cerebellum
- There are three semicircular canals in inner ear off of cochlea
- These tubes are connected and share fluids so sometimes you can have ear infection in inner ear
- Vertigo is the inability to balance and world is spinning; sometimes people have this for weeks, months, or small amounts
- Relates to inflammation of fluid in semicircular canals
- Dizziness and motion sickness also have to do with this
54
Q
Proprioception
A
- Position of body
55
Q
Kinesthesia
A
- Feedback regarding position of specific body parts; movement
- When your arm is bent up, it is sending slower signals, and when it is stretched out, faster signals
- Amount of nerve signals that the brain receives lets them know where the position is
- If you have coordination, you have a stronger kinesthesia sense
- Signals come from all parts of body
56
Q
Bottom-Up Processing
A
- When you take things in at the sensory level so taking things in as you experience them
- Comes from your senses
- Letting senses come in and then brain interprets it
- E.g. if you don’t know what a lemon tastes like, you’ll probably eat it to see how it is and probably will eat small chunks rather than eating the whole lemon
57
Q
Top-Down Processing
A
- Using prior experiences/memories to analyze sensory information
- E.g. if you put a random lemon on your desk, then you probably won’t taste it b/c you know it is sour
- Prior knowledge b/c you’ve already eaten it
58
Q
Schemas
A
- How you organize and make sense of information
- What you consider to be a food or not a food
- Form them through bottom-up processing, but a part of top-down processing
59
Q
Gestalt Rules
A
- How we make sense of things
- Law of Figure-Ground, Law of Proximity, Law of Similarity, Law of Continuity, Law of Closure, Law of Pragnanz
60
Q
Law of Figure-Ground
A
- The one you are focusing on is the figure
- The background (what you’re not focusing on) is the ground
- E.g. people-cup illusion
61
Q
Law of Proximity
A
- When things are close together, they are often viewed together
- E.g. when you see individual dots, rather than the same dots that are grouped together
- It will be considered as a group
62
Q
Law of Similarity
A
- Makes you perceive something together
- E.g. when teams wear uniforms, they are often seen as a group
- Different than proximity
63
Q
Law of Continuity
A
- When something is disconnected, your brain often tries to connect it and see the fluid motion
- E.g. The S example in the notes
64
Q
Law of Closure
A
- Your brain fills in the gaps and perceives something together, even when it is not
- E.g. Panda example in the notes
65
Q
Law of Pragnanz
A
- Our brain tries not to complicate things and makes sense of the most simplest things
- Olympic rings b/c you see as 5 circles rather than strange shapes in between
66
Q
Attention
A
- Where you focus your conscious level of awareness
67
Q
Inattentional Blindness
A
- Focusing your attention on something different and missing something that you’re not focusing on
- E.g. The basketball and bear video
68
Q
Selective Attention
A
- What you’re selecting to pay attention to
E.g. paying attention to homework when the TV is on as well
69
Q
Cocktail Party Effect
A
- Mostly has to do with hearing
- Tuning out background noise to listen to something specific
- E.g. being able to listen to your friends talk during a loud lunchroom
70
Q
Change Blindness
A
- If a change takes place behind the scenes, you’re more likely to miss it b/c of similarities and it is unexpected
- E.g. if you’re watching a musical and the leads are replaced in the second act, you’ll probably miss it because they sound and act very similar and you don’t really expect a change to happen
71
Q
Depth Cues
A
- We all have depth perception
- Develops, not born with it
- Depth perception happens because of different types of cues
- Monocular cues and binocular cues are depth cues
72
Q
Monocular Cues
A
- Depth cue that can occur with one eye
- Relative Size Cue: When something gets bigger, you are closer to it; When something gets smaller, you are further away from it
- Interposition Cue: Lets you know what’s in-between; If something is being blocked by another thing, the other thing is closer to you than that something
- Texture Gradient: The closer you are to something, the more detail it has
- Shadowing: Your shadow tells you where your light source is coming from; Different types of light sources affect depth of shadows
73
Q
Binocular Cues
A
- Requires two eyes
- Retinal Disparity: When you focus on something, it hits your retina in different places; Different retinas get different pictures; E.g. when you put your thumb up and focus on the flag, you have two thumbs; E.g. when you focus on your thumb, you see two flags instead of one
- Convergence: The closer something is, the more your eyes converge to create that focus; The further something is, the more parallel your eyes are
- Linear Perspective: As something parallel moves further out of distance, it looks like it begins to converge
- E.g. think of railroad tracks
- THIS IS A MONOCULAR CUE
74
Q
Perceptual Adaptation
A
- When something is distorted, your brain tries to fix it
- E.g. the upside-down goggles
- If you wear it long enough, your brain will adjust to it and flip your vision so you can see it
