Unit 4 Flashcards
Inattentional blindness
Failing to see visible object when your attention is directed elsewhere
Monkey video
Prosopagnosia
Face blindness
Sensation
The process of receiving and representing stimulus energies through the nervous system
Sensory receptors
Sensory nerve ending that respond to stimuli
Perception
Process of organizing and interpreting info sensory information
Lets us recognize meaningful objects and events
Bottom-up processing
Sensation
Sensory receptors»_space;> brain’s integration of sensory info
Top-down processing
Info processed by higher level mental processes
Constructing perceptions based on experiences and expectations
Mere exposure effect
Exposed to something and then wanting it later
Seeing a product on tv and then wanting to buy it later
Selective attention
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimuli
Cocktail party effect
Being able to pay attention to one voice in a loud room
If someone says your name your consciousness immediately brings that voice into attention
Change blindness
Failing to notice changes in the environment
Transduction
Conversion of one form of energy into another that the brain can use
Psychophysics
The study of the relationships between the physical energy we can detect and its effects on our psychological experiences
Gustav Fechner
Studied our awareness of faint stimuli (absolute threshold)
Absolute threshold
MINIMUM stimuli necessary to detect a particular stimuli 50% of the time
Signal detection theory
How and when we detect stimuli amid background stimulation
Assumes there is no single absolute threshold
Detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivations, and alertness
Subliminal
Below one’s threshold for CONSCIOUS awareness
Priming
Unconsciously activating associations that predispose people’s perception, memory, or cognition
Difference Threshold (just noticeable difference)
MINIMUM stimulus difference a person can DETECT half the time
Ex. Probably notice TV volume going from 10 to 15, but not 40 to 45
Weber’s Law
To be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum PERCENTAGE,
NOT a constant AMOUNT
(Difference threshold but with percentages)
Sensory adaptation
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Going nose-blind
Not feeling the clothes you’re wearing
Perceptual set
Mental dispositions to perceive one thing and not another
What we expect to see is often influenced by what is around us
Context effect
Someone 6’9 will look short standing next to someone 7’9
Motivation on perception
Motivation gives us energy as we work toward a goal
Thirsty person will perceive a water bottle as closet than it actually is
Emotion on perception
Emotion can push perceptions one way or another
Hearing sad music can make people hear the sadder versions of words (mourning instead of morning)
ESP (Extrasensory Perception)
Controversial
Perception can occur apart from sensory input
Ex.
Telepathy - reading minds
Clairvoyance - perceiving remote events (house fire in different state)
Precognition - telling the future
Parapsychology
Study of paranormal phenomena
Ex.
ESP
Psychokinesis - moving stuff with your mind
Wavelength
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next.
Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.
Hue
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light
What we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.
Intensity
The amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave
Influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness
Intensity is determined by the wave’s AMPLITUDE (height).
Color - Short Wavelength
High frequency
Blue colors
Color - Long wavelength
Low frequency
Red colors
Color - High amplitude
Bright colors
Color - Small amplitude
Dull colors
Cornea
The eye’s clear, protective outer layer
Covers the pupil and iris
Pupil
The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
Iris
Colored part of eye
Controls size of pupil opening
Lens
Transparent structure behind the pupil
Changes shape to help focus images on the retina
Retina
Light sensitive inner surface of eye
Contains rods and cones
Accommodation
Eyes’ lenses change shape to focus near/far objects on the retina
Rods
Black and white
120 million
Useful for seeing in dim lighting
Cones
6 million
Colors
Good for seeing details
Optic nerve
Carries neural impulses from eye to the brain
Bipolar cells
Connect rods and cones with the ganglion cells
Ganglion cells
Form the optic nerve
Fovea
central focal point in the retina
Where the eye’s cones cluster
Blind spot
Point where the optic nerve leaves the eye
No receptor cells located there
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
Theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors: red, green, and blue
Can produce the perception of any color when combined
Afterimages
Red + Green
Blue + Yellow
White + Black
Opponent-Process Theory
Theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-vellow, white-black) enable color vision.
Feature detectors
Nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.
Parallel processes
Processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously
Motion, form, depth, color
Process of seeing
Retinal processing
(rods/cones > bipolar cells > ganglion
cells)
Feature detection
(edges, lines, angles)
Parallel processing
Recognition
Gestalt
Organized form/whole
We tend to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes
Figure-ground
Specific figures stand out from surroundings (ground)
Grouping
Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
Proximity
Continuity
Closure
Depth perception
Ability to see in 3D
Allows us to judge distance
Partly innate
Visual cliff
Laboratory device to test depth perception in babies and animals
Monocular cues
Depth cues available to either eye alone
Linear perspective
Interposition (one object blocks another, we perceive it as closer)
Relative height
Relative size
Relative motion
Light and shadow
Texture and gradient
Proximity
We group objects that are close together
Similarity
We group things that look similar
Binocular cues
Can only be seen with both eyes
Retinal disparity (brain takes left and right eye view to create 3D object)
Convergence (brain takes left and right eye view to judge distance)
Phi phenomenon
Illusion where quick blinking lights look like a single light is moving
Perceptual constancy
Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.
Color constancy
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if lighting seems to alter the color
Light constancy
Perceiving an object to have consistent brightness even if surround lighting changes
Shape constancy
Perceiving familiar shapes of objects as constant
Door stays the same shape even if it looks different as it’s opening
Size constancy
Perceiving objects as having an unchanged size even as distance varies
Perceptual adaptation
Ability to adjust to an changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
Audition
Sense of hearing
Hearing: Amplitude
Loudness
Frequency
Number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
Pitch
Tone’s experienced highness or lowness
Hearing - short wavelength
High frequency
High pitch
Hearing - long wavelength
Low frequency
Low pitch
Hearing - high amplitude
Loud
Hearing - low amplitude
Soft/Quiet
Outer ear
Sound waves travel through AUDITORY CANAL to the EARDRUM
Middle ear
Chamber between the eardrum and cochlea
Vibrations of HAMMER, ANVIL, and STIRRUP are transmitted to cochlea
Cochlea
Fluid filled tube in inner ear
Triggers nerve impulses when sound waves pass through
Inner ear
Innermost part of ear
Cochlea, semicircular canals, vestibular sacs
Basilar membrane
Connects to auditory nerves which go to auditory cortex
Conduction hearing loss
Less common
Damage to mechanical systems that sends sound waves to cochlea
Sensesorineural hearing loss
Damage from repeated exposure to loud noises
Cochlea implant
Device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
Place theory
Theory that links the pitch we hear with the part of the cochlea that is stimulated
High pitched sounds
Frequency theory
Theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone
Low pitched sounds
Types of touch
Pressure
Warmth
Cold
Pain
Sensation of hot
Warm + cold
Biological influences of pain
• activity in spinal cord’s large and small fibers
• genetic differences in endorphin production
• the brain’s interpretation of central nervous system activity
Psychological influences of pain
• attention to pain
• learning based on experience
• expectations
Social influences of pain
• presence of others
• empathy for others’ pain
• cultural expectations
Phantom limb sensations
Feeling pain in a limb that was amputated
Tinnitus
Phantom sounds
Ringing in the ear
Gate-Control Theory
Spinal cord has neurological gate that either blocks pain signals or allows them to reach the brain
Pain treatment
Procedures
Drugs
Placebos
Distractions
Taste buds
Over 200
Catches food chemicals
Age and taste
Growing older = decreasing taste buds and taste sensitivity
Olfaction
Sense of smell
Anosmia
People unable to smell
Odor molecules
Different shapes/sizes
350+ receptor proteins needed to recognize different odor molecules
Olfactory bulb
Receives neural input about odors detected by cells in the nasal cavity
Olfactory nerve
Sensory nerve that conveys sense of smell
Smell greatly influences _______
Taste
Kinesthesis
System for sensing the position and movement on individual body parts
Brain is updated on position of body parts
Vestibular sense
Sense of balance, body movement and position
Semicircular canals
Sensory interaction
Principal that one sense may influence another
Ex. Smell and taste
Embodied cognition
influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments
Synesthesia
When one sensation (hearing a sound) produces another (seeing a color)
