Sensation & Perception Flashcards
The process by which we receive information from the environment and encode it as neural signals:
Sensation
The process of selecting and interpreting information from the environment (How individuals put things together):
Perception
The study of the relationship between physical energy and psychological experience:
Psychophysics
The first area of psych to be studied as a science:
Psychophysics
The sensory analysis that starts at the entry level and works up to a higher level:
Bottom-up Processing
Constructing perceptions drawing both on sensations coming bottom-up and on our experiences and expectations (applying what we know):
Top-down Processing
The first person to study the relationship between stimulus intensity and sensation intensity
Gustav Fechner
Who created the absolute threshold?
Fechner
- The point at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time2. The minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus
Absolute Threshold
There is no absolute threshold because the threshold changes with a variety of factors:
Signal Detection Theory
The receipt of messages that are below one’s absolute threshold (no trigger):
Subliminal Stimulation
A change between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time:
Difference Threshold
Who discovered Weber’s Law?
Ernest Weber
Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different:
Weber’s Law
What forms do environmental info exists as?
Air vibrations, gases, and chemicals
What the body receives the forms through:
Special Receptor Cells
Converting one form of energy into another:
Transduction
What is receptor sensitivity sensitive to?
Change
A weakened sensitivity due to prolonged stimulation:
Sensory Adaptation
A decline of the sensory sensitivity at the neural level due to repeated stimulation:
Habituation
How is habituation different from sensory adaptation?
Responsiveness can reappear if the stimulation is increased or decreased (Habituation)
What you choose to attend to out of all the stimulation reaching you:
Selective Attention
You can pay attention to multiple sensory inputs:
Divided Attention
You hear/see two different things and are told to pay attention to both:
Dichotic Listening/Viewing
People are asked to name the colors of the words and not read the words:
Stroop Effect
The interference occurs because words are read faster than colors are named:
Speed or Processing Theory
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory info:
Perception
We must perceive a figure from its ground:
Form Perception
Transforms 2D into 3D:
Depth Perception
Brain computes motion as images move across the retina:
Motion Perception
How we recognize an object:
Perceptual Interpretation
The ability to attend selectively to one voice among many:
Cocktail Party Event
Inability to see an object or person in our midst
Inattentional Blindness
A form of inattentional blindness; when you do not notice when something changes because you are so focused on something else:
Change Blindness
What are two perceptual illusions?
Muller-Lyer and Ames Room
Muller-LyerTall arch - the ___ dimension of the arch looks longer than the ____ dimension. However, both are the same:
Vertical; Horizontal
Designed to demonstrate the size-distance illusion:
Ames Room
The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses:
Visual Capture
The tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes:
Gestalt
Gestalt - an ____ ___:
Organize Whole
Gestalt Psychologists are fond of the saying that in perception ___ ____ may exceed the sum of its parts:
The Whole
People tend to perceive objecs in a simple, orderly way:
Law of Pragnanz
The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings:
Figure-ground
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups:
Grouping
Group nearby figures together:
Proximity
Group figures that are similar:
Similarity
Perceive continuous patterns:
Continuity
Spots, lines, and areas are a unit when connected:
Connectedness
Fill in the gaps:
Closure
Depth perception is the ability to see things in ___ and it allows us to judge ____:
3D; Distance
Who created the Visual Cliff?
Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk
Suggested that human infants have depth perception:
Visual Cliff
Require both eyes:
Binocular Cues
Available to each eye separately; used by artistss:
Monocular Cues
Images from the two eyes differ; closer the object, the longer the disparity:
Retinal Disparity
Neuromuscular cue; two eyes move inward for new objects:
Convergence
ConvergenceThe brain uses the ___ at which the eyes are turned to gauge distance:
Angle
Smaller image is more distant:
Relative Size
If one object partially blocks another, we perceive it as closer:
Interposition
Hazy objects are seen as more distant:
Relative Clarity
Course objects appear closer and fine objects are distant:
Texture Gradient
Objects higher in our field of vision appear farther away; vertical is longer than horizontal
Relative Height
Closer objects seem to move faster:
Relative Motion
Parallel lines appear to converge with distance:
Linear Perspective
Closer objects appear brighter; shading produces depth:
Light and Shadow (Relative Brightness)
Objects traveling towards us grow in size and those moving away shirk in size:
Motion Perception
An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession:
Phi Phenomenon
The brain will interpret a rapid series of slightly varying images as continuous movement:
Stroboscopic Movement
Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change:
Perceptual Constancy
Our brains have a template for everything we need to know and we match what we see to the templates:
Template Matching
We see what the best example of something is and see if they are close enough to match:
Prototype Matching
We break down a feature into parts and analyze what it is:
Feature Analysis
Knowledge comes from inborn ways of organizing sensory experiences:
Immanuel Kant
Shows our perception is influence by our environment:
Blakemore and Cooper
Visual ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field:
Perceptual Adaptation
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another:
Perceptual Set
Concepts that organize and interpret unfamiliar information:
Schemas
Perceptual sets are determined by what?
Schemas
Explores how humans and machines and interact:
Human Factor Psychology
Explores how machines and physical environments can be adapted to human behaviors:
Human Factor Psychology
The claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input (Sorry, Grandpa):
ESP
Mind to mind communication:
Telepathy
Perceiving remote events:
Clairvoyance
Perceiving future events:
Precogniton
Mind over matter:
Psychokinesis
The most sensitive to wavelengths of energy called visible spectrum:
Human Photoreceptors
The distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next wave and corresponds to the perceptual term ‘hue’ or color.
Wavelengths
Short Wavelength:
Bluish color
Medium Wavelength:
Greenish color
Long Wavelength:
Reddish color
Corresponds to perceptual term brightness and is measured by the height of the wave:
Amplitude/Intensity
Large amp./intensity:
Bright color
Small amp./intensity:
Dull color
A specialised, transparent portion of the sclera through which light enters, allowing us to focus light more sharply:
Cornea
What protects the eye?
Cornea
Pigmented muscle that gives the eye its color and regulates the amount of light:
Iris
Dark hole in the center of the iris that reduces glare; the size of the opening depends on the amount:
Pupil
Reacts to bend the rays of light so that the light is properly focused on the rear of the eye; this focuses light by changing its own:
Lens
Layers of cells containing photoreceptors, rodes, and cones that transduce light energy to electrochemical energy:
Retina
Operates like film in a camera:
Retina
Area in the center of the retina where vision is shaped:
Fovea
The point of central focus:
Fovea
Bundle of ganglion axons that lead out of the eye toward the brain carring info about light:
Optic Nerve to Visual Cortex
Location on the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye on its way to the brain:
Blind Spot
The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to help focus near or far objects on the retina:
Accommodation
Too much curvature of the lens:
Nearsighted Vision
Too little curvature of the lens:
Farsighted Vision
The light rays from distant objects focus in the middle of the retina, so when their image reaches the fovea, the rays are spreading out, blurring the image:
Nearsighted Vision
The light rays from nearby objects come into focus behind the fovea, resulting in blurred images:
Farsighted Vision
Irregularity in the shape of the cornea or lens causing distorted/blurred images on the fovea:
Astigmatism
Located in the retina’s periphery:
Rods
These receive light energy in low light but are unable to detect colors and function in night vision:
Rods
Located in the middle of the retina:
Cones
Detect color in brighter light and function in the daytime:
Cones
Both rods and cones synapse with ___ cells which come together to form ____ cells:
Bipolar; Ganglion
Ganglion cells come together to form your ____:
Optic Nerve
Junction of the two optic nerves where fibers from nasal sides of the two retinas cross:
Optic Chiasm
Point at which approx. 2/3 of the fibers that make up the optic nerve cross over the midline of the brain:
Optic Chiasm
Located in the occipital lobe of both hemispheres which contain he many specialized cells for visual perception:
Visual Cortex
Activation of neurons in the cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus (shape, angle, movement, etc):
Feature Detectors
Processing of several aspects of the stimulus simultaneously. The brain divides a visual scene into subdivisions such as color, depth, form, movement, etc:
Parallel Processing
Who won a Nobel prize for the Parallel Processing research?
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel
A. Three different types of photoreceptors are sensitive to different ranges of wavelengths; ___, ____, and ____ cones:
Red, blue, green
B. Each color you see results from a specific ____ of activation among the three types of receptors:
Ratio
What color results from stimulation of red and green cones?
Yellow
C. The Trichromatic Theory is used to explain ______:
Colorblindness
The most common colorblindess is caused by a malfunction in the ___ cone system:
Green
Which theory are questions A, B, and C relating to?
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
Created the Opponent Process Theory:
Edward Hering
Suggests that receptor cells are linked in pairs, working in opposition to each other:
Opponent Process Theory
In the _____, some neurons are turned on by red but off by green:
Thalamus
List each colors’ opposite:Red and ____Blue and ____White and ____
Green, Yellow, Black
Color of an object remains the same under different illuminations. However, when the context changes, the color of an object may look different:
Color Constancy
Movement of air molecules brought about by a source of vibration:
Sound
Conversion of sound waves into neural impulses (in the hair cells of the inner ear):
Acoustic Transduction
Number of wave cycles that occur in a second:
Frequency
Sounds are described as high or low due to the change in pressure created by sound waves:
Pitch
Pitch is measured in __:
Htz
A short wavelength = a ___ pitch:
High
A long wavelength = a ___ pitch:
Low
Feature of wave patterns that allow us to distinguish between loud and soft sounds:
Amplitude
Amplitude is measured in ___:
Decibels
A large amplitude = ___ sound:
Loud
A short amplitude = a ___ sound:
Soft
Corresponds to the perceptual term quality:
Complexity
What is another term for quality?
Timbre
A standard unit for measuring a sound’s loudness:
Decibel
Every increase of __ decibels ____ a sound’s intensity:
6; Doubles
Noise related to ___ decibels or higher can cause prolonged hearing loss if heard over prolonged periods of time:
80
External flaps of skin and cartilage:
Pinna
Part of the outer ear that tends to the tympanic membrane:
Auditory Canal
Separates outer ear from the middle ear:
Eardum
Vibrates with receiving sounds:
Eardrum
The three bones in the middle ear that are set in motion by the eardrum:
Ossicles
Thin membrane leading to the inner ear:
Oval Window
Coiled tube in the inner ear that contains fluid that vibrates in response to sound and triggers the receptors:
Cochlea
Subject to pressure changes in the cochlear fluid:
Basilar Membrane
Belong to organ of conti which is triggered by fluid movement and bend, causing the cells to send neural messages to the brain:
Hair Cells
Different areas in the basilar membrane respond to different frequencies:
Place Theory
Place Theory___ frequencies produce waves that peak near the close end:
Higher
Place TheoryLow frequencies travel ___, peaking at the far end, being interpreted as low pitch:
Further
The entire basilar membrane acts as a microphone, vibrating in response to a sound:
Frequency Theory
At very high frequencies, nerves fire one after another:
The Volley Principle
Since we have two ears, sounds that reach one ear faster than the other causes us to ____ the sound:
Localize
What does the brain use when localizing?
Parallel Processing
Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea:
Conduction
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerve:
Sensorineural
When hair cells degenerate, will they regrow?
No
What type of frequency can old people hear well?
Low frequencies
Old people suffer hearing loss when listening to which frequency?
High Frequencies
Electronic Devices that enable the brain to hear sounds:
Cochlear Implant
An illusion that’s created when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to a third sound:
McGurk Effect
Someone with hearing loss can experience a sound of silence or a ringing sound in the ears:
Tinnitus
Use of sound waves and echoes to determine where objects are:
Echolocation
Taste buds are chemical sensitive receptors that respond to four basic stimulus qualities:
Sweet, sour, salty, and bitter
What is the ‘fifth’ category?
Umami
How long does it take to replace taste buds?
10 Days
What else influences taste? (3)
Smell, texture, and temperature
When one sense affects another sense:
Sensory Interaction
What do smells originate from?
Gases and chemicals in the air.
When is the sense of smell sparked?
When molecules of a substance enter the nasal passages and meet the olfactory cells.
Where does smell meet the olfactory cells?
The Olfactory Epithelium
What is the term for losing the sense of smell?
Anosmia
Why are strong memories made through the sense of smell?
Because the smell and memory regions are closely connected (Hippocampus)
What sensations is touch a mixture of? (3)
Temperature, pressure, and pain
What does a cell release when it is injured?
Substance P
What does Substance P do?
Transmits pain messages to the brain
What are the most sensitive areas in the body?
The nose and upper lip
What two temperatures create ‘hotness’?
Warm and Cold
The level of stimulation at which pain is first perceived:
Pain Threshold
What is the disease where people cannot feel pain?
CIPA
Nerve receptors in the _____ _____ lead to specific areas of the brain related to pain:
Spinal Cord
Neural receptors, ____, can be stimulated and close the gate, reducing the experience of pain:
Endorphins
What theory is referred to in questions 18 & 19?
Gate-Control Theory
Gives the brain info about where specific body parts are located:
Kinesthesis
What keep track of where are the body parts are?
The Muscles and Joints
The sense that informs the body of its orientation and balance:
Vestibular Sense
Located in the inner ear and contains fluid:
Semicircular Canals
When the fluid moves a lot, you feel:
Dizzy
An unusual condition in which exposure to one sensation evokes an additional one:
Synesthesia
