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psyc101 > Topic 4 - Sensation & Perception > Flashcards

Topic 4 - Sensation & Perception Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 basic principles of sensation and perception?

A
  1. There is no one-to-one correspondence between physical and psychological reality.
  2. Sensation and perception are active processes.
  3. Sensation and perception are adaptive - the products of evolutionary adaptations that served our survival and reproduction.
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2
Q

Define sensation.

A

The process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain for processing.

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3
Q

Define perception.

A

The process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain for processing.

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4
Q

What is psychophysics?

A

The branch of psychology that studies the relationship between attributes of the physical world and our psychological experience of them.

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5
Q

Define transduction.

A

The process of converting stimulus information into neural impulses.

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6
Q

What are absolute thresholds?

A

The minimum amount of energy needed for an observer to sense that a stimulus is present.

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7
Q

Define signal detection and the two processes involved.

A

A sensation is not a passive experience that occurs when the amount of stimulation exceeds a critical threshold; rather, experiencing a sensation means making a judgement about whether a stimulus is present or absent.

Two processes:

  1. Initial sensory processes
  2. Decision process (reflecting observers response bias)
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8
Q

What is the difference threshold?

A

The lowest level of stimulation required to produce a just noticeable difference (jnd) / sense that a change in stimulation has occurred.

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9
Q

Define sensory adaptation.

A

The tendency of sensory receptors to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.

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10
Q

What is subliminal perception?

A

The tendency to perceive information outside our conscious awareness.

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11
Q

What is subliminal perception?

A

The tendency to perceive information outside our conscious awareness.

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12
Q

What are sensory receptors?

A

Cells in the NS that transform energy in the environment into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain.

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13
Q

What are the 5 steps in creating a neural code?

A
  1. There is a stimulus in the environment
  2. Sensory receptors receive energy (stimulus) and transform it into neural impulses.
  3. Action potentials are generated in sensory neurons adjacent to receptors.
  4. Brain interprets neural code (reads neural code & translates it into something that is psychologically meaningful)
  5. Experience of light, sound, taste, touch, smell and motion.
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14
Q

How is intensity of sensation portrayed in neural code?

A

Usually involves the number of sensory neurons that fire and the frequency.

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15
Q

What factors affect response bias?

A

Expectations and motivation

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16
Q

What is Weber’s law?

A

Regardless of the magnitude of two stimuli, the second must differ from the first by a constant proportion for it to be perceived as different.

This proportion can be reflected as a fraction.

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17
Q

What is Fechner’s law?

A

People only experience a small percentage of actual increases in stimulus intensity and this percentage is predictable.

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18
Q

What is Stevens’ power law?

A

Fechner’s law didn’t apply to all senses.
Pain is opposite - the greater the pain, the less additional intensity is required for a jnd.
Stevens’ power law can predict subjective experience of pain intensity as readily as brightness.

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19
Q

How is light focused in the eye? (4 steps)

A
  1. Light enters through cornea
  2. Then travels through pupil & iris
  3. The lens then alters its shape to focus on objects at various distances (accommodation)
  4. Light is then projected onto the retina that transduces light into visual sensations.
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20
Q

What is the role of the retina?

A

Translates light energy from illuminated objects into neural impulses (psychologically meaningful info)

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21
Q

How does light transform into sight?

A
  1. Rods & cones absorb light & bleach
  2. This creates a graded potential in neighbouring bipolar cells
  3. These cells combine info from many rods/cones & produce graded potentials on ganglion cells (which integrate info from many bipolar cells)
  4. The ganglion cells bundle and form the optic nerve which passes through optic chiasm (where optic nerve splits)
  5. Combined info from eyes travels along two pathways (> thalamus or superior colliculus)
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22
Q

What are the 2 pathways visual info travels along within each hemisphere?

A

Pathway 1: Projects to thalamus and then to the primary visual cortex

Pathway 2: Projects to midbrain which helps control eye movements

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23
Q

What are feature detectors?

A

Neurons in the visual cortex that fire only when stimulation in their receptive field matches a very specific pattern (e.g. horizontal line)

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24
Q

What are the two pathways information flows along from the primary visual cortex?

A

The ‘what’ pathway:
Runs from striate cortex through the inferior temporal cortex & takes primitive features from the striate cortex (e.g line) and integrates them into more complex combinations (e.g. square)

The ‘where’ pathway:
Locates an object in space.
Pathway runs from striate cortex through superior regions of temporal lobes.

25
Q

What are the 3 psychological dimensions of colour?

A
  1. Hue - ‘colour’
  2. Saturation - the colours purity
  3. Lightness
26
Q

What is the trichromatic theory of colour?

A

Theory that humans only perceive red, blue and green. These 3 colours can be combined to create all other colours. This theory applies at eye level.

27
Q

What is opponent-process theory?

A

This theory applies at high visual centres in the brain. All colours are derived from three antagonistic colour systems: black-white, blue-yellow, red-green.

28
Q

What is opponent-process theory?

A

This theory applies at high visual centres in the brain. All colours are derived from three antagonistic colour systems: black-white, blue-yellow, red-green.

29
Q

Define frequency.
How is it expressed?
What psychological property does it correspond to?

A

A measure of how often a wave cycles. Expressed in Hertz (Hz).
Corresponds to the psychological property of pitch.

30
Q

What is a wave cycle?

A

Each round of expansion and contraction of the distance between molecules of air.

31
Q

What is complexity?

What psychological property does it correspond to?

A

The extent to which a sound is composed of multiple frequencies.
Corresponds to timbre.

32
Q

Define amplitude.

What psychological property does it correspond to?

A

Refers to the height and depth of a wave - The difference between max and min pressure level.
Measured in decibels (dB)
Corresponds to loudness.

33
Q

Revise transduction in ear. Process of moving through outer & inner ear.

A

See notes.

34
Q

Revise transduction in ear. Process of moving through outer & inner ear.

A

See notes.

35
Q

What are the roles of the outer, middle and inner ear?

A

Outer ear: Collects and magnifies sounds in the air

Middle ear: Converts waves of air pressure into movements of tiny bones

Inner ear: Transforms these movements into waves in fluid that generate neural signals

36
Q

What are the two theories that explain how we sense pitch?

A

Place theory & frequency theory

37
Q

Explain place theory.

A

Different tones produce different waves in the basilar membrane. Different ‘peaks’ of the waves lead to hair cells in different locations firing > transmits different info to brain.

38
Q

Frequency theory.

A

The more frequently a wave cycles, the more frequently the basilar membrane vibrates and its hair cells fire

39
Q

What neural pathways do sound “waves” follow from the ear?

A

Auditory nerve from each ear > medulla > axons to midbrain > thalamus > transmits info to the auditory cortex in temporal lobes

40
Q

What is sound localisation? What are the two main cues?

A

Identifying the location of a sound in space.
Loudness - how far sound is from you
Timing - which ear the sound is closer to

41
Q

What are the environmental stimuli for olfaction?

A

Gas molecules

42
Q

Where does olfactory transduction occur and how?

A

The olfactory epithelium.

Molecules get trapped in mucus of epithelium where they make contact with olfactory receptor cells that transduce the stimulus into olfactory sensations.

43
Q

Neural pathways of olfaction?

A

Olfactory receptor cells > form olfactory nerve > olfactory bulb > primary olfactory cortex in frontal lobe > thalamus & limbic system

44
Q

What are the two pathways of gustation and what is their main role?

A

1 - to thalamus & primary gustatory cortex - identify tastes

2 - leads to limbic system - immediate response to food e.g. spitting out off food

45
Q

What are the two pathways of gustation and what is their main role?

A

1 - to thalamus & primary gustatory cortex - identify tastes

2 - leads to limbic system - immediate response to food e.g. spitting out off food

46
Q

3 touch qualities.

A

Pressure
Temperature
Pain

47
Q

What is gate control theory?

A

When sensory neurons transmit info to the spinal cord, input from other nearby sensory neurons, as well as messages descending from the brain, can inhibit or amplify their pain signals.

As C-fibres arrive more slowly, they may arrive at a closed gate if sensory info from A fibres has already arrived

A fibres = large, quick, sharp
C fibres = slow, small, dull/burning

48
Q

What are the two proprioceptive senses?

A

Vestibular and kinaethesia

49
Q

What is the vestibular sense?

A

Provides information about the position of the body in space by sensing gravity and movement.

50
Q

What are the 2 vestibular organs and what do they do?

A

Semicircular canals - sense acceleration or deceleration in any direction the head moves.

Vestibular sacs - sense gravity and the position of the head in space.

51
Q

What is kinaesthesia?

A

Provides information about the movement and position of the limbs and other parts of the body, relative to one another.

52
Q

What are the two main features of perception?

A

Organisation and interpretation.

53
Q

Define perceptual organisation

A

Integrates sensations into percepts (meaningful perceptual units, such as images of an object), locates them in space and preserves their meaning as the perceiver examines them from different vantage points.

54
Q

Define form perception.

A

Refers to the organisation of sensations into meaningful shapes and patterns

55
Q

What do gestalt proponents argue.

A

That in perception the whole (the precept) is greater than the sum of its parts.

56
Q

What are the 6 gestalt principles?

A
  1. Figure-ground perception: we inherently distinguish between the figure and background.
  2. Similarity: the brain tends to group similar elements together.
  3. Proximity: Objects that are close to each other are grouped together.
  4. Good continuation: If possible, the brain organises into continuous lines or patterns.
  5. Simplicity: People tend to perceive the simplest pattern possible.
  6. Closure: People tend to perceive incomplete figures as complete.
57
Q

What is the recognition-by-components theory?

A

We perceive and categorise objects in our environment by breaking them down into component parts and matching these with similar sketches store in memory.

The brain breaks images down into ‘geons’ (small geometrical forms) and from the list of 20-30 geons we can construct the outline of any object.

58
Q

Depth perception…

A

psyc101 (9 decks)

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