Unit 4: Sensation and Perception Flashcards
What is Agnosia?
Loss of the ability to perceive stimuli
What is Anosmia?
The loss of the ability to smell
What is Audition?
Ability to process auditory stimuli. Also called hearing
What is the Auditory Canal?
Tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear
Receptors in the cochlea that transduce sound into electrical potentials
Auditory hair cells
what is Binocular Disparity?
Difference is images processed by the left and right eyes
What is Binocular Vision?
Out ability to perceive 3D and depth because of the difference between the images on each of our retinas
What is Bottom-Up Processing?
Building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces
What is Chemical senses?
Our ability to process the environmental stimuli of smell and taste
What is the Cochlea?
Spiral bone structure in the inner ear containing auditory hair cells
What are the Cones in our eyes?
Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to color.
Where are the cones in our eyes located?
Primarily in the fovea
What is Dark Adaptation?
Adjustment of eye to low levels of light
What is Differential Threshold (or difference threshold)?
The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli
What is the Dorsal Pathway?
Pathway of visual processing. The “where” pathway
What is Flavor?
The combination of smell and taste
What is Gustation?
The ability to process gustatory stimuli. Also called taste
What is Just Noticeable Difference (JND)?
The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli
What is Light Adaptation?
Adjustment of eye to high levels of light
What are Mechanoreceptors?
Mechanical sensory receptors in the skin that respond to tactile stimulation
What is Multimodal perception?
The effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world.
What is Nociception?
Our ability to sense pain
What are Odorants?
Chemicals transduced by olfactory receptors
What is Olfaction?
Ability to process olfactory stimuli. Also called smell
What is Olfactory Epithelium?
Organ containing olfactory receptors
What is Opponent-Process Theory?
Theory proposing color vision as influenced by cells responsive to pairs of colors
What are Ossicles?
A collection of 3 small bones in the middle ear that vibrate against the tympanic membrane
What is perception?
The psychological process of interpreting sensory information
What is a phantom limb?
The perception that a missing limb still exists
What is phantom limb pain?
Pain in a limb that no longer exists
What is the pinna?
The outermost portion of the ear. What we can see
What is the Primary Auditory Cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing auditory stimuli
What is the Primary Somatosensory Cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing somatosensory stimuli
What is the Primary Visual Cortex?
Area of the cortex involved in processing visual stimuli
What is the Principle of Inverse Effectiveness?
The finding that in general, for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on it’s 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
What is the Retina?
The cell layer in the back of the eye containing photoreceptors
What are the Rods in the eye?
Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to low levels of light
Where are the rods in our eyes located?
Around the fovea
What is Sensation?
The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs
What is Sensory Adaption?
Decrease in sensitivity of a receptor to a stimulus after constant stimulation
What is Shape Theory of Olfaction?
Theory proposing that odorants of different size and shape correspond to different smells
What is Signal Detection?
Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli
What is Somatosensation?
The ability to sense touch, pain and temperature
What is the Somatotopic map?
Organization of the primary somatosensory cortex maintaining a representation of the arrangement of the body
What are Sound Waves?
Changes in air pressure. The physical stimulus for audition
What is the Superadditive effect of Multisensory Integration?
The finding that responds to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component if it were presented on its own
What are Tastants?
Chemicals transduced by taste receptor cells
What are Taste Receptor Cells?
Receptors that transduce gustatory information
What is Top-Down Processing?
Experience influencing the perception of stimuli
What is Transduction?
The conversion of one form of energy to another
What is the Trichromatic Theory?
Theory proposing color vision as influence by three different cones responding preferentially to red, green and blue
What is the Tympanic Membrane?
Thin stretched membrane in the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound. Also called the eardrum
What is the Ventral pathway?
Pathway of visual processing. The “what” pathway
What is the Vestibular System?
Parts of the inner ear involved in balance
What is Webers Law?
States that just noticeable difference is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus
