Sensation & Perception Flashcards
What is important for the psychologist?
to always observe and then obtain knowledge
What kind of behaviour and mental processes do we want to observe and measure?
All Behaviours
What are we all depending on?
Other people to live, and Provide stuff for us
What is a must for behaviour
Perception
What is something percieved by someone?
Stimulis
What are nerve cells
Neurons
What does signal transmission involve? And what does that do to the next Neuron?
Neurotransmitters. It enhances(p) or inhibits(n) the transmission of a signal to the next neuron
What does the transmission between the Neurons do?
Make you conscious of everything around you
What is a Transduction?
When tasting, hearing, seeing thing and then giving signal to your Neurons
What is the Cerebral cortex
your brain
When is the Occipital lope active?
Parietal lope?
Ternporal lope?
when using your vision
Pain and hearing
Taste and smells
What does sensation mean?
Perception?
Elementary sensation of features (could, loud, bitter)
Integration of sensations and existing knowledge/ experiences into a meaningful interpretation (coffee too hot..)
Weber´s law
You can tell the difference between 10g and 20g, not 1010g and 1020g
(jnd= k x m)
Fechner´s law
to hear something 3 times louder, you need to amplify it much louder. (logharicmric)
(S = c log M)
Steven´s law
A perceived intensity was correlated with stimulus intensity. But in a power relationship
S=c M^p
(Result of the colour constansy (does not depend og the amount of light on the picture)
What is the air wave in your cochlea called?
The travling wave (hair cells -> moved by sound wave-> activating the neurons)
How can we hear loud/soft sound and high/low pitch noises?
Through the quantity og hairs bending and the locations (quality) of the hairs
Where do we pick up high/ low pitched noises?
High = in the begning og the cochlea
low = in the peak og the arch in the cochlea
What has the locations of the hairs in the cochlea have to do with our hearing on the long haul?
The hairs in the begning og the cochlea are always in motions (bend) when hearing both high/low noises where the hairs at the end are not, therefore the hairs in the begning are faster warn out.
what does adaptation mean? and why
Behaviour where you adapt to something and therefore does´nt register it anymore (clothes, noises..)
(NOT: )
There is a reason for it, perceptions is aimed at discovering changes
What is an afterimage?
Opponent-process theory: When your eyes adapt to an image, and you see some of it after it disappears.
What is an assembly og connected detectors(Gauges) for? and what can that do?
Green and Red
Yellow and Blue
Makes people who show colorblindness struggle to see the connected color
- if the colours are mixed, it will precive white
When do you perecive the color white?
When a surface reflects all the colours, and therefore mixes the colours
Which colours do we have yellow receptors for?
blue, red and green. Not yellow.
We see the other colours because of the Trichromatic theory.
How many receptors do we have in our eyes?
3 (the once who a mostly sensitive for the wavelength for blue, green and red)
What are the 3 diffrent p values in Steven´s law for p depending on the modalities?
Brightness: (P<1)
Length: (P=1)
Pain: (P>1)
- therefor the different curves
Why do we feel pain?
- dont do this (learn)
- Take a rest (let the body heal)
- therefore does Pain not adapt
Which 2 receptors are involved when feeling pain?
First pain - thick A-Delta fibres
Second pain - thin C-fibres
Where in the brain do we locate where and how bad we are hurt?
Somatosensory cortex
(outer middle/ top part of the brain)
What is the emotional/ motivational component in the brain called? and what does that do?
Limbic system
(middle/ inside of the brain)
- it is what drives people (it hurts, get out..)
If this is damaged the person will know that they are in pain, but will not care
What does the second-order emotional/motivational components do and where are they located?
Prefrontal cortex
(in the frontal/outer part of the brain)
- Teaches you that you should not do what caused pain, again.
How do we know that pain is located in the brain and not in your limbs?
Because of Phantom limb pain
What is the Gate-control theory?
That the brain can amplify (illness or longterm damage -> rest), inhibit (stress/fear or faith -> survival) the signal from the hurt area
How do the Gate theory explain the brain inhibiting pain signals?
The neurons in the periaqueductal grey (PAG) inhibits the pain (closes the gate to the brain)
- Morphine = closes the gate
- Endorphin= opens the gate
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for Smell?
Stimulus: Molecules dissolved in fluid mucous membrans in the nose
Receptor: sensitive ends of olfactory neurons in the olfactory epithelium in the nose
Pathway to the brain: olfactory nerve (1st cranial nerve)
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for taste?
Stimulus: Molecules dissolved in fluid on the tongue
Receptor: Taste cells in the tastebuds on the tongue
Pathway to the brain: portions of facial glossopharyngeal, and vagus nerves (7th, 9th 10th cranial nerves)
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for touch?
stimulus: pressure on the skin
Receptor: sensitive ends of touch neurons in skin
Pathway to the brain: Trigeminal (5th) nerve (above the neck) and spinal nerve elsewhere
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for pain?
stimulus: wide variety of potentially harmful stimuli
receptor: sensitive end of pain neurons in skin and other tissues
pathway to brain: Trigeminal (5th) nerve (above the neck) and spinal nerve elsewhere
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for hearing?
stimulus: sound waves
receptors: pressure-sensitive hairs in the cochlea of inner-ear
pathway to brain: Auditory nerve (8th cranial nere)
What is the stimulus, receptor and pathway to the brain for vision?
Stimulus: Light waves
receptor: light-sensitive rods and cones in retina in eye
pathway to brain: optic nerve (2nd cranial nerve)
What does a binding between a molecule and a receptor do?
It changes the structure which results in electrical change that tends to trigger action potentials in the neurons axon
Why is each type of olfactory different than other types in its degree of sensitivity to particular odorants?
Because any given binding can bind more than one odorant, but some bind more readily to some than others.
what is a glomeruli?
It is a structure which is created, when the axon of the olfactory passes through a thin porous bone and into the olfactory bulb, where it forms synapses upon other neurons.
How many different types of olfactory sensory neurons is there in the olfactory bulb?
350 and for which there is a receiving glomerulus (or a set of 2 or 3)
How are the different odorants characterized?
by its ability to make a unique pattern of activity across the 350 olfactory neurons and the corresponding glomeruli
What indicate the ratio and the activity of odorant A?
ratio=the type of odorant
activity= the amount of odorant
What parts of the brain does the olfactory send output to and why?
To: the limbic system and the hypothalamus (also cerebral cortex)
- the drive and emotional center, so to often unconscious affect us
From where do we “taste” things?
From the olfactory epithelium: Both through our tastebuds but also through the mouth-to-nose back-door route. But it feels located in the mouth where the food is.
around which age do the sexes olfactory impairment?
At the age 65 around 11% women and 25% of men have serious olfactory impairment. 60% and 70% by the age of 85
Why are women often more sensitive to smells?
Olfaction in women are extra sensitive for reproductive purposes (choosing mate, avoid toxic when pregnant and bonding with infants)
Why did the mice choose to mate with the other mice that smelled less like themselves?
So they increased the chance of them being a close relative, so their offspring would have the best possible chances to survive
What can MHC have to do to men and women´s sexual behaviour?
It seems as if women are more sensitive to MHC, and picks more often men who have the biggest difference in MHC from themselves.
Which 5 types of taste receptors have been identified? and which primary tastes do they correspond to?
sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami
what can the taste receptors trigger and where is it located in the brain?
neural impulses in taste sensory, in the frontal lobe (the primary taste center) and other parts of the brain
Why are pregnant women and children often more sensitive to the bitter tastes?
Because we have learned through evolution, that the bitter tastes are often corresponded to poison
What 3 types of claims can you make when studying psychology?
1 Frequency claim (a statement about a characteristic in a population)
2 association claim (the relation about two variables)
3 causal claim (you see a cause and a effect) + where there is two variables (like the association claim)
Which claims can you make from observational research? and which from experimental research?
obs: Frequency + association claims
exp: Causal claim
What is a must in an observation?
That you study natural variation (you do not intervene)
What is a must in an experiment?
That you do intervene/impose, and then observe the variation (manipulate)
Why is it hard to make a causal claim from observational research?
Because the data from the observation can be plausible but not proven. you can not condlude anything for sure (you could make a Causal claim, but just as well a reverse effect (the opposite)
how do you make an experiment?
I goes with I and D goes with D
intervention -> independent variable
data -> dependent variable
which is the dependent and independent variable?
independent: the one you are manipulating/ intervine on
dependent: the one you measure
What is a independent group design?
1 divide into 2 or more groups
2 make the manipulation (the independent variable)
3 all participants are measured on the same dependent variable
which two challenges can occur?
the confounding and obscuring factors
what is the confounding factors?
a variable that causes systematic differences between the groups
- could be: age, iq/ individual differences
-the motivation, setting/ control variable
what is the obscuring factors?
a variable that makes the effect of your manipulation hard to see
- the things thats masks your independent variables effect on the dependent. (individual differences, the external situation, ineffective manipulation, measurement issues)
how can you control the obscuring factors?
by decreasing the individual differences
or by using another design
what is the within- subject design?
You do like the independent group design, but test all participants under both conditions
what is reversibility?
some effects cant be taken away (you cant not unlearn what you learned in the first try)
what is the carry-over effects?
that the participants loose or gain interest and knowledge (if ex. you do the same test but later in the day..)
what is the positive and negative effects to the carry-over effect? and what could be the solution?
positiv: memory, practice and motivation effects
negative: boredom and fatigue effects
solution: take more time between tests, counterbalance and maybe using a reversal design
what is counterbalancing?
by in the with-in subjects design test, you randomly divide the participants and their order of which they do the two tests
what is the randomized block design/ Matched groups?
where you cluster your participants n the basis of an impotent background variable
- no carry-over effects and more control to the individual differences than the “independent group design”
- less control than the “within subject design”
what is participant drop out?
that your participants does not show up to the second test due to lost interest and therefore makes the test unreliable
how can the external situation be obscuring?
it the external situation between subjects it can be obscuring for the fallout
- light, noise, comfort ect.
try to give all participants the same conditions, if not posibel randomize
how can ineffective manipulation be obscuring?
if the manipulation is masked in the experiment you can not conclude anything form it
solution: you need to increase the intensity of manipulation
how can you make a manipulation check?
by asking a question after the manipulation but before the dependent variable
what can be measurement issues?
1 measurement errors (use enough questions, and clear questions)
2 floor(everyone answered wrong) and ceiling(everyone is in the high) effects (makes it harder to see the different answers)
