Sensation Vocab

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

Physical process of 5 main senses (Touch, taste, sight, smell, sound)

Question 2

Bottom-Up processing

Answer 2

Little details to big picture (Male brains)

Question 3

Perception

Answer 3

Mental process of interpreting info (Brain)

Question 4

Top-Down Processing

Answer 4

Big picture, then analyze little details (Female brains)

Question 5

Absolute Threshold

Answer 5

Minimum amount needed to fire

Question 6

Difference Threshold

Answer 6

Minimum amount of change needed to fire

Question 7

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 7

How/when we detect things
1.Neurons firing
2. Surroundings
3. Us

Question 8

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 8

Neurons stop firing for same message

Question 9

Selective Attention

Answer 9

What we choose to focus on

Question 10

Vision

Answer 10

Light waves

Question 11

Parts of the eye

Answer 11

Cornea protects eye so light enters pupil, an opening regulated by the iris, which is a muscle. Light hits lens focusing image onto retina where rods & cones change light to neural impulses. Fovea, central focus point, sends neural impulses through optic nerve to brain

Question 12

Trichromatic (three-color) Theory

Answer 12

Process color with three cones receptors (red, green, and blue)

Question 13

Color Deficiency

Answer 13

Lack one of three types of cones

Question 14

Opponent-Process Theory

Answer 14

Process color with three pairs cone receptors (red-green, yellow-blue, black-white)

Question 15

Hearing

Answer 15

Sound waves

Question 16

Parts of the ear

Answer 16

Travels down the auditory canal hitting the eardrum vibrating the hammer anvil and stirrup. Vibrations reach the oval window moving fluid and hair cells in the cochlea turning sound to neural impulses traveling through the auditory nerve to the brain. (Temporal Lobe)

Question 17

Pitch

Answer 17

High or low based on frequency (frequency = wavelength)

Question 18

Decibels

Answer 18

Loud or soft based on amplitude (amplitude = wave height)

Question 19

Smell and Taste

Answer 19

Chemical sense

Question 20

Olfactory Cells

Answer 20

Project from brain to process smell. Taste Buds do the same on tongue. Taste + smell = flavor. Taste = salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami

Question 21

Touch

Answer 21

Mechanical sense. Pain, warm, cold, pressure. Gate control theory - pain travels on own set of fibers

Question 22

Kinesthetic Sense

Answer 22

Mechanical sense. Sense of body position and movement

Question 23

Vestibular Sense

Answer 23

Mechanical sense. Sense of body orientation and balance - located in semicircular canals