Unit 3 Review - Psychology Flashcards
actual stimulants (not your perception) (sound waves, air waves, etc)
sensation
looking at the pieces / details first, then seeing the bigger picture
bottom-up processing
our brains paint a picture first, then you see the pieces / details
top-down processing
the image your brain creates after being stimulated (everything you see/hear/touch has to be stimulated)
perception
good figure, proximity, similarity, continuation, closure, symmetry
gestalt principles
how are our senses paint a picture (sensation –> perception)
transduction
the minimum stimulus necessary for our senses to pick up change (goes for all senses)
absolute threshold
stimuli which are just in the brain
subliminal
do we or do we not detect a stimulus
signal-detection theory
our difference threshold is based on percentage change, not total change
Weber’s law
our brains stop “painting” certain stimuli because we are “used to” it
sensory adaptation
any experience which influences what you perceive (experiences, smells, actions, etc)
perceptual set
“folders” we put information into
schemas
personal context impacts what we percieve
context effects
influenced to see something specific (can subliminally impact our perception of individuals)
priming
leads to inattentional blindness (can only pay attention to so much so you pay attention to select things)
selective attention
shows how we spotlight our attention depending on where we want it
cocktail party effect
the things you don’t see or hear, or that don’t show in your perception due to selective attention
inattentional blindness
when you don’t see something change
change blindness
our tendency to perceive things as having a figure and a “background” (melody vs the background music, even if they are the same volume)
figure-ground
can be seen with one eye (for depth perception) (occlusion, shading, relative size, distance to horizon, cast shadows, linear perspective, and texture gradient)
monocular cues
visual info taken in by 2 eyes that allow us to have a sense of depth perception (retinal convergence and retinal disparity)
binocular cues
as objects get closer, the image is more different
retinal disparity
size constancy (doesn’t change size as they move), shape constancy (things don’t change shapes as they move), and color/lighting constancy (things don’t change color)
perceptual constancy
sensory interaction between sight and sound to create perception (“fa” vs “ba” but it is the same sound)
McGurk effect
different colors have different types of these (wideness = color; height = brightness)
wavelength
height of wavelength, brightness (high = bright; low = dim)
amplitude
protective membrane of the eye
cornea
opening in the iris of the eye
pupil
adjusts to let appropriate levels of light in (dialation)
iris
magnifying, focus, and directing light
lens
allows for focusing on things that are near and far
accommodation
contains rods and cones
retina
pick up light, not as able to pick up color (in retina)
rods
specialized to pick up color (in retina)
cones
clumps of neurons that develop to recognize certain features
feature detectors
blind spot, wiring to the brain
optic nerve
our perception of color is the combo of 3 distinct colors (red, green, and blue)
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
our perception of color comes in pairs which can’t be active at the same time (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black)
Opponent processing theory
the sense of hearing
audition
where the process begins that channels sound waves into the ear canal (outer ear)
pinna
a tight membrane that vibrates when sound waves hit it
eardrum
where the physical stimuli of the sound wave is converted into a neural impulse (inner ear)
cochlea
lined hair cells that are bent by vibrations (mechanical energy –> neural impulses)
basilar membrane
helps with balance, filled with fluid
semicircular canal
balance / bodily orientation
vestibular sacs
cochlea is unable to sense sound (doesn’t perform transduction)
sensorineural hearing loss
means there was bone damage (can get implants)
conduction hearing loss
high pitch detected based on where the sound hits on the basilar membrane
place theory
hair cells send signals faster so there is more sound
frequency theory
taste buds on our tongues pick up chemicals in the food we eat (“tasty” foods would have been evolutionary beneficial)
gustation
receptors in our nose pick up chemicals in the air, the info goes to the olfactory lobe, the amygdala, then the hippocampus (smell)
olfaction
combo of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain (processed in the somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe) (touch) (wet = cold + pressure)
somatosensation
our spines contain a “gate” which allows or inhibits pain signals from reaching the brain; pain receptors activate small nerve fibers to open the “gate”; touch receptors partially block the “gate” (pain)
gate-control theory
keeps you right side up; semicircular canals filled with fluid that moves
vestibular sense
bodily sense, knowing where your body is without having to look
kinesthesis
kinesthetic sense (bodily), goes with kinesthesis
proprioception
our perception is a creation of all of our senses interacting (dizzy –> sight, semicircular canals, and more)
sensory interaction
