The Visual World Flashcards
Accommodation
Helps determine visual depth
The perception of motion that occurs when different images are presented next to each other in succession. (Often used in movies)
The beta effect
Depth cues that are created by retinal image disparity - that is, the space between our eyes - and which thus require the coordination of both eyes.
Images projected on each eye are slightly different from one another and the visual cortex automatically merged them into one, enabling us to perceive depth.
Binocular depth cues
A hole in our vision because there are no photoreceptor cells at the place where the optic nerve leaves the retina
Blind spot
Inability to detect green and/or red colours
Colour blindness
Visual neurons that are specialized in detecting fine detail and colours
Cones
The inward turning of our eyes that is required to focus on objects that are less than about 50 feet away
Convergence
A clear covering that protects the eye and begins to focus the incoming light
Cornea
Messages from our bodies and the external environment that supply us with info about space and distance
Depth cues
Pulses of energy waves that can carry information from place to place
Electromagnetic energy
When the focus is behind the retina
Farsighted
Specialized neurons located in the visual cortex, that respond to the strength, angles, shapes, edges, and movements of a visual stimulus
Feature detectors neurons
The central point of the retina
Fovea
A meaningfully organized whole
Greater than the sum of its parts
Gestalt
The shade of a colour
Hue
Coloured part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil by constricting or dilating in response to light intensity
Iris
A structure that focuses the incoming light on the retina
Lens
Depth cues that help us perceive depth using only one eye
Monocular depth cues
When the focus is in front of the retina
Nearsighted
Theory that proposes we analyze sensory info not in terms of three colours but in three set of “opponent colours”: red/green, yellow/blue, white/black
Opponent-process colour theory
We perceive a sensation of motion caused by the appearance and disappearance of objects that are near each other
Phi phenomenon
Small opening in the centre of the eye
Pupil
The layer of tissue at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptor cells
Retina
Visual neurons that specialize in detecting black, white, and gray colours
(Help you see in low light)
Rods
Theory stating that the colour we see depends on the mix of the signals from the three types of cones
Trichromatic colour theory
The part of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes detect (only range from about 400 to 700 billionths of a meter)
Visible spectrum
The process of changing the curvature of the lens to keep the light entering the eye focused on the retina
(Occurs when we move our focus from near objects to far objects)
Visual accommodation
Distance between one wave peak and the next wave peak
Wavelength
Explain the Bouncing Balls Illusion
The tendency to perceive two circles as bouncing off each other (rather than passing through each other) if the moment of their contact is accompanied by an auditory stimulus
Effects that concern the influence of the perception of one sensory modality on the perception of another
(Think ventriloquism)
Crossmodal phenomena
A receptive field that can be stimulated by a stimulus from more than one sensory modality
Crossmodal receptive field
A stimulus with components in multiple sensory modalities that interact with each other
Crossmodal stimulus
Explain the Double Flash Illusion
The false perception of two visual flashes when a single flash is accompanied by two auditory beeps
The process by which the perceptual system combines info arising from more than one modality
Integrated
Explain the McGurk Effect
An effect in which conflicting visual and auditory components of a speech stimulus result in an illusory percept
The visual stimulus changes what you’re hearing (baba, fafa)
Of or pertaining to multiple sensory modalities
Multimodal
The effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world
Multimodal perception
Effects that concern the binding of inputs from multiple sensory modalities
Multimodal phenomena
Regions in the brain that receive input from multiple unimodal areas processing different sensory modalities
Multisensory convergence zones
A region of the cortex devoted to the processing of simple auditory information
Primary auditory cortex
A region of the cortex devoted to the processing of simple visual information
Primary visual cortex
Explain The Principle of Inverse Effectiveness
The finding that, in general, for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on its own) is weak, then the opportunity for multisensory enhancement is very large. However, if one component by itself is sufficient to evoke a strong response, then the effect on the response gained by simultaneously processing the other components of the stimulus will be relatively small
The portion of the world to which a neuron will respond if an appropriate stimulus is present there
Receptive field
A type of sense; for example, vision or audition
Sensory modalities
The finding to at the superadditive effects of multisensory integration are observed when the sources of stimulation are spatially related to one another
Spatial principle of multisensory integration
The finding that responses to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component of it were presented on its own
Superadditive effect of multisensory integration
Of or pertaining to a single sensory modality
Unimodal
The parts of a stimulus relevant to one sensory modality at a time
Unimodal components
A region of the brain devoted to the processing of information from a single sensory modality
Unimodal cortex
