test 2 Flashcards
sensation
receiving energy from stimuli in our internal or external environment, and transforming this energy into action potentials
transduction
specialized receptor cells converts energy from an external stimulus (light, sound, heat) to an internal electrical signal (action potentials)
3 things sensory systems have in common:
- specialized receptor cells
- transduction
- multiple subsystems
perception
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense
bottom-up processing
sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for understanding
- taking information and trying to make sense of it
top-down processing
- sensation and perception
- started at brain higher levels
- ## allows for organism to sense what is happening and to apply the framework to information from the world
top-down and bottom-up work together
in sensation and perception to allow us to function accurately and efficiently
top-down bottom-up perception EG
when you first listen to a song for the first time you engage in bottom-up processing allowing you to get a feel of the tune. once you know the song well, you can create a perceptual experience in your minds ear, by “playing” it in your head which is top-down processing
sensations begin with…
afferent nerves
- nerves bring information from the world to the brain
- sensory receptors are the openings through which the brain and nervous system experience the world
sensory receptors
specialized cells that detect the stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain
3 main categories of sense organs and sensory receptors fall into 3 main categories
- Photoreception: detection of light (sight)
- Mechanoreception: detection of pressure, vibration, and movement (touch, hearing, and equilibrium)
- Chemoreception: detection of chemical stimuli (smell and taste)
information processed in lobes
- visual information in occupational lobes
- hearing in the temporal lobes
- pain, touch, temp in partietal lobes
extrasensory perception (ESP)
person can detect information from the world without receiving concert sensory impulses like telepathy and precognition
noise
irrelevant and competing stimuli - not only sound but also any distracting stimuli for the sense
different threshold
the degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected
Webers law
the principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different
subliminal perception
the detection of information below the level of conscious awareness
signal detection theory
an approach to perception that focuses on decision making about stimuli under conditions about uncertainty
decision making is a signal detection theory has 2 main components:
(information acquisitions and criterion)
- Information acquisition: refers to the gathering of relevant indicators
- Criterion: standards used to make a decision
attention
focusingawareness on a narrow aspect of the environment
selective attention
focusing on specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
emotional stimuli
words like torture capture our attention
- often quicker and more accurate at identifying emotional stimulus than neutral
emotion-induced blindness
the fact that when we encounter an emotionally charged stimulus we often fail to recognize a stimulus that is presented immediately after
inattentional blindness
the failure to detect unexpected events when our attention is engaged by a task
- more likely to occur when we are focusing and the task is difficult
perceptual set
a predisposition or readiness to perceive something in a particular way
sensory adaptation
change in the responsiveness of the sensory system to the average level of stimulation
light
electromagnetic energy described in terms of wavelengths
- wavelength is a visible light range from 400 to 700 nanometers
- wavelength of light is reflected from a stimulus to determine its hue or colour
- differ in their height or amplitude, determining amplitude of the stimulus
sclera
(eye part)
Outer part of the eye that helps to maintain shape of the eye and to protect it from injury
iris
(eye part)
coloured part of the eye
pupil
(eye part)
- black inner circle
- opening in the center of iris
- contains muscle that controls the size of the pupil and the amount of light that goes in
cornea
(eye part)
clear membrane just in front of the eye
lense
(eye part)
transparent and somewhat flexible disk-like structure filed with gelatinous material
rods
(eye part)
receptors in retina that are most sensitive to light but are not very useful for colour vision and do not allow us ti see in fine detail
cones
(eye part)
receptors used for colour perception and seeing small detail
fovea
(eye part)
tiny area in the centre of the retina which allows us to see fine detail
- only contains cones
optic nerves
(eye part)
carries the visual information to the brain for further processing
- structure of the back of the eye made up of axons from the ganglion cells that carries visual information to the brain for further processing
parallel processing
simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways
binding
in the sense of vision the bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells
two main way see colour:
- trichromatic theory
- opponent-process theory
trichromatic theory
colour perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping ranges of wavelengths
opponent-processing theory
theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colours; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another cell might be excited by yellow and inhabited by blue
figure-ground relationship
we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out and those that are left over
gestalt psychology
a school of thought interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns
3 main principles of gestalt:
- closure: when we view disconnected or incomplete figures, we fill in the spaces and see them as complete
- proximity: when we view objects that are near each other, they tend to be seen as a unit
- similarity: when we view objects that are similar to each other, they tend to be seen as a unit
convergence
cue to depth and distacne where the muscle movement in a persons eyes provide information about how deep and or far away something is
Breland and Breland’s work with “miserly raccoons” demonstrated
A. how principles of reinforcement (derived from studies of rats and pigeons) easily generalize to raccoons
B. differences in appropriate rewards for different species
C. that there are biologically imposed limits to the generality of conditioning principles
D. that raccoons are less conditionable, and therefore less intelligent, than rats and pigeons
C. that there are biologically imposed limits to the generality of conditioning principles
Simon cringes every time he hears a dentist’s drill, even when he is sitting in the waiting room of his dentist’s office. In this example, cringing in the waiting room is
A. an unconditioned response
B. a conditioned stimulus
C. a conditioned response
D. an unconditioned stimulus
C. a conditioned response
Which of the following drugs has the greatest number (and most diverse) negative effects on physical health?
A. LSD
B. heroin
C. alcohol
D. cocaine
C. alcohol
The most vivid dreams generally occur
A. during REM sleep
B. during NREM sleep
C. during the early hours of sleep
D. when alpha brain waves are present
A. during REM sleep
Continuous reinforcement occurs when
A. reinforcement is delivered continually, regardless of whether or not a response is made
B. it is not known in advance what responses will be reinforced
C. every behaviour engaged in by the subject is reinforced
D. every occurrence of the designated response is reinforced
D. every occurrence of the designated response is reinforced
The successive blinking on and off of the lights on the neon sign gave the impression of beer filling a glass. This illusion of motion is the
A. phi phenomenon
B. constancy principle
C. common-fate principle
D. motion parallax effect
A. phi phenomenon
Petra looked directly into a very bright light and damaged her retina. The opthamologist has told her that she has sustained massive damage to her cones, but for the most part her rods have not been affected. One change that you could predict for Petra’s vision is that she will now have
A. poor vision in low illumination
B. poor peripheral vision
C. no color vision
D. more accurate depth perception
C. no color vision
An electroencephalograph is a device that measures
A. glucose metabolism in the brain
B. muscle tension in the body
C. respiration rates as an index of arousal
D. electrical activity of the brain
D. electrical activity of the brain
Ken used to drool at the smell of peanut butter cookies as they baked, and he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into that first cookie. However, Ken’s new roommate makes terrible peanut butter cookies and the smell of them baking is no longer associated with a wonderful taste experience. Consequently, Ken finds that the smell of the cookies no longer makes him drool in anticipation. This illustrates the classical conditioning process known as
A. spontaneous recovery
B. second-order conditioning
C. extinction
D. avoidance
C. extinction
According to optimal foraging theory, predatory animals will usually
A. pursue small prey that requires little effort to catch
B. pursue large prey that requires greater effort to catch
C. pursue small prey only if foraging in large groups
D. maximize nutritional value relative to the energy they expend in hunting
D. maximize nutritional value relative to the energy they expend in hunting
Nathan is watching the cumulative recorder that is connected to a box where a rat is pressing a lever to receive food reinforcement. The slope of the line is becoming flatter and flatter over time. Based on this output, Nathan can conclude that the rat’s response rate
A. is increasing over time
B. will soon show spontaneous recovery
C. is decreasing over time
D. is caused by inadequate stimulus generalization
C. is decreasing over time
Which of the following statements about dreams is most accurate?
A. Only about 75 percent of all people dream.
B. The reason we do not remember our dreams is that the content of the dream is repressed.
C. People cannot remember their dreams because of too much time passing between when they dreamed and when they try to recall the dream.
D. Most dreams people can remember deal with sexually oriented topics.
C. People cannot remember their dreams because of too much time passing between when they dreamed and when they try to recall the dream.
When Antonio was sick as a child his mother would always make him vanilla pudding; to Antonio it seemed like the vanilla pudding made him feel better. Even now, he still gets a good feeling when he starts to prepare some vanilla pudding, but not when he starts to make any other type of pudding. This example illustrates the classical conditioning process of
A. stimulus generalization
B. instinctive drift
C. stimulus discrimination
D. negative avoidance
C. stimulus discrimination
Of the following, the only sensory system that does not project upward to the cerebral cortex through the thalamus, is
A. vision
B. hearing
C. gustation
D. olfaction
D. olfaction
If selectively deprived of REM sleep, a person will experience __________ later
A. hypochondriasis
B. emotionality
C. NREM
D. “REM rebound”
D. “REM rebound”
Interposition refers to
A. the relationship between bipolar and ganglion cells
B. the processing of auditory information at the cochlear level
C. an environmental depth cue in which closer objects overlap objects farther away
D. the lens’s ability to change shape and focus light directly on the retina
C. an environmental depth cue in which closer objects overlap objects farther away
One hypothesis regarding the cause of crib death in babies is that they stop breathing during sleep, a sleep disorder known as
A. narcolepsy
B. sleep apnea
C. night terror
D. hypersomnia
B. sleep apnea
Which of the following is not one of the four basic tastes?
A. salty
B. citrus
C. sweet
D. bitter
B. citrus
“Manny got out of bed and began doing calisthenics during REM sleep, probably because he was dreaming about boot camp.” What is wrong with this statement?
A. Sleep is a relaxed condition of the body and, as such, precludes physical activity.
B. Research shows that no dreaming takes place in REM sleep.
C. Research shows that we are virtually paralyzed in REM sleep.
D. Manny was never in boot camp so he is not likely to be dreaming about it.
C. Research shows that we are virtually paralyzed in REM sleep.
Alcohol appears to contribute to about __________ percent of student rapes on college campuses
A. 25
B. 50
C. 75
D. 90
D. 90
The kinesthetic system relates to
A. maintaining the relative position of body parts
B. the location of the body in space
C. the sense of forward acceleration
D. sensing body movement, as in a car
A. maintaining the relative position of body parts
Clifford was in an accident and he has lost all the hearing in his right ear. The deafness in this ear will mostly affect Clifford’s ability to
A. localize sounds accurately
B. separate speech sounds from background noise
C. detect high frequency sounds
D. detect high amplitude sounds
A. localize sounds accurately
If you project a red, a green, and a blue light into space, the point at which the three lights cross will lead to the perception of
A. black light
B. ultraviolet light
C. white light
D. “infrared light”
C. white light
Evelyn turned the thermostat up from 68 degrees to 70 degrees; however, she doesn’t think it feels any warmer and she wants to turn it up even higher. Her roommate thinks that it is now too hot, and she wants to turn the thermostat back down. Apparently Evelyn has
A. a smaller just noticeable difference for temperature than her roommate does
B. a lower absolute threshold for temperature than her roommate does
C. a larger just noticeable difference for temperature than her roommate does
D. a higher absolute threshold for temperature, compared to her roommate
C. a larger just noticeable difference for temperature than her roommate does
Which of the following statements about culture and dreams is not accurate?
A. Some basic dream themes appear to be nearly universal across cultures.
B. People in Western societies tend to recall their dreams vividly.
C. In many cultures, dreams are seen as a window into the spiritual world.
D. In Western cultures, dreams are largely written off as insignificant.
B. People in Western societies tend to recall their dreams vividly
The idea that hypnosis is associated with divided consciousness and is an altered state is most consistent with which of the following theories of hypnosis?
A. Barber’s role theory
B. Schachter’s cognitive theory
C. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
D. Hilgard’s dissociation theory
D. Hilgard’s dissociation theory
Harold begins to chew his fingernails every time his teacher enters the classroom. In this case the antecedent is
A. the teacher entering the classroom
B. the fear associated with the teacher
C. anticipated punishment
D. chewing the fingernails
A. the teacher entering the classroom
Sonja put on a new watch this morning and found it uncomfortable because it was so much heavier than her old watch. However, at noon, when a friend asks her if she knows what time it is, Sonja finds she has forgotten she is even wearing the watch. The change in Sonja’s sensitivity to the pressure of the watch illustrates the process known as
A. sensory adaptation
B. perceptual invariance
C. perceptual assimilation
D. adjusting just noticeable differences
A. sensory adaptation
A conditioned stimulus is
A. a stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response without previous conditioning
B. an unlearned reaction that occurs without previous conditioning
C. a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to elicit a conditioned response
D. a learned reaction that occurs because of previous conditioning
C. a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to elicit a conditioned response
Slow-wave sleep refers to stages __________ and an EEG rhythm of __________
A. 1 and 2; theta
B. 2 and 3; alpha
C. 1 and 4; theta
D. 3 and 4; delta
D. 3 and 4; delta
When Lindsay was nine years old the neighbor’s chihuahua bit her on the ankle. Today Lindsay is still terrified of chihuahuas, but she likes almost all other types of dogs. Lindsay’s fear illustrates the classical conditioning process of:
A. instinctive drift
B. stimulus discrimination
C. stimulus generalization
D. negative avoidance
B. stimulus discrimination
Rather than provide details about the party she just attended, Patty tried to give her overall impression, operating on the assumption of __________, that the whole may be greater than the mere sum of its parts.
A. psychophysics
B. holistic psychology
C. Gestalt psychology
D. psychodynamics
C. Gestalt psychology
Dissociation refers to
A. a loss of inhibition by hypnotized subjects
B. a hypnotized subject’s willingness to act out the hypnotist’s suggestions
C. a splitting of mental processes into two separate, simultaneous streams of awareness
D. role playing by hypnotized subjects in response to situational cues
C. a splitting of mental processes into two separate, simultaneous streams of awareness
In order to maximize visual acuity at night, you should
A. look directly at the object you wish to see
B. turn your head at a slight angle to the object
C. close one eye
D. blink your eyes several times to hasten dark adaptation
B. turn your head at a slight angle to the object