Unit 5- Sensation And Perception Flashcards
Bottom-up processing
First process details and then look at the big picture
Top-down processing
Look at the big picture first and then maybe attend to little details
Selective attention
Brain gives complete attention to one task at a time which causes us to often miss other information
Inattentional blindness
Attention directed elsewhere
Signal detection theory
Minimum amount of a sensory stimulus needed to know it exists depends upon motivation, experience, and attention
-opposite of absolute threshold
Absolute threshold
Minimum amount of a stimulus/sense necessary to know that it exists
Difference threshold
Smallest amount of a stimulus/sense needed to notice a change or difference
Weber’s Law
Difference threshold is based on a percentage change of the stimulus/sense
Sensory adaption
Overtime, our senses stop alerting us to existing sensory information
Transduction
Turn a sense into a message
Wavelength
What color depends on
Hue
The color we experience
Intensity
Control brightness of color
-how high up and down the waves are
Pupil
Hole in eye that lets light in
Iris
Color part of eye
-muscle that contracts and dilates to let light in
Lens
Behind pupil; changes shape to focus image on retina
Retina
Entire back covering of eye which contains all receptor cells
Accomodation
Specific to eye
-changes shape to focus image
Rods
Receptor cells that help see black and white; peripheral vision and at night
Cones
Located in fovea
-help see color, work in day, in center of vision
Optic nerve
Connects brain to the eye
Cornea
Protective covering over outer part of eye
Blind spot
Point at which your optic nerve is connected to your retina which contains no receptor cells
Fovea
Center of retina which contains all of the cones
Feature detectors
Specialized neurons in the occipital lobe that help us identify shapes, angles, and movement
Parallel processing
Doing many things at once
Young-Helmhotz trichromatic
We have 3 color cones in our retina that react to combinations of red, green and blue
Opponent process theory
Opposing sets of neurons in our brain that are stimulates by opposite colors
Green->red
Black->white
Yellow->blue
Audition
Hearing
Frequency
Determine the pitch of the sound
Decibles
Way to measure the intensity of the sound
Amplitude
Determines the loudness of the sound
Pitch
Determined by frequency
Middle ear
Amplifies sound
- hammer/anvil/stirrup
- eardrum
- earcanal
Cochlea
Snail looking thing
- filled with fluid and cilia that transduce sound into a neural message
- part of inner ear
Inner ear
Transduce sound
- cochlea
- semicircular canals
- auditory nerve
Pinna
Outer ear
-collects sound
Eardrum
Thin membrane that vibrates to amplify sound
-part of middle ear
Hammer/anvil/stirrup
3tiny bones that help amplify the sound
-part of middle ear
Auditory nerve
Connects to the brain
-part of inner ear
Place theory
Pitch we hear is determined by the location the sound waves strike the cochlea
Problem-wasn’t consistently explaining the low pitch sound
Frequency theory
Pitch we hear is determined by the speed that the sound waves travel
Problem-unable to explain high pitch sounds
Sensorineural hearing loss
Damage to cochlea or inner ear; much harder to treat but can be treated with a cochlear implant
Conduction hearing loss
Damage to outer or middle ear resulting in hearing loss; can be treated with a hearing aid
Cochlear implant
Very controversial because helps basically a def person become not def anymore
Kinesthetic sense
Sense of the position of our body parts in relation to each other
Vestibular sense
Sense of overall body position and balance
Gustatory sense
Taste
Bitter/sour
Poisonous, spoiled
Sweet
Need sugar/glucose for energy
Salty
All cells need salt to function and balance out water
Umami
Meaty
-need protein in body for functioning
Olfactory sense
Smell
Gate-control theory
If enough small nerve fibers are activated by pain, then the large nerve fibers will send a message of pain to the brain
Sensory interaction
Smell and taste have strongest connection with each other
Synesthesia
One sort of sensation produces a other
Coetaneous
Touch
Gestalt
Idea that we as humans prefer to see things as whole images
Figure ground
Organize stimulus into a figure seen against the ground
Similarity
Similar
Proximity
Close to each other
Closure
Fill in shape
Continuity
Like images to flow or be connected/one piece
Depth perception
Seeing objects in three dimensions
Visual cliff experiment
Experiment with infants and baby animals to see if they can perceive depth perception-> they can
-Gibson and Walk
Binocular cues
Depth perception cues that need both eyes open
Retinal disparity
Each eye has its own image and then put together, it gives us a sense of depth
Phi phenomenon
Illusion of movement created when 2 or more lights blink on and off
Perceptual constancy
Recognize objects without being deceived by changes in size, shape, color, etc.
Monocular cues
Depth perception cues that only need one eye open
Visual texture
We can tell that an object is closer to us if we can see more detail of its texture
Interposition
We can tell if an object is closer to us if it is blocking our view of another object
Color constancy
Know an object doesn’t change color based on its surroundings
Size constancy
Know an object doesn’t change size based on its distance away from us
Perceptual set
Perception is based on our expectations or previous experiences
Extrasensory perception
Perception can occur apart from sensory imput
Parapsychology
Do experiments that search for ESP
-study of paranormal phenomena
Elanor Gibson
Visual Cliff
Richard Walk
Visual Cliff
Ernest Weber
Noted something that is now called Webers Law
Herman Von Helmholtz
- Trichromatic
- Place and problem theory
