Vision, hearing, and other senses (BS 2)

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

transduction of physical stimuli into neurologic signals

Question 2

absolute threshold

Answer 2

minimum stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory system (how bright, loud, or intense a stimulus must be before it is sensed)

Question 3

threshold of conscious perception

subliminal perception

Answer 3

a stimulus below a given threshold will arrive at the central nervous system but will not reach consciousness

Question 4

difference threshold

just-noticeable difference

Answer 4

the minimum difference in magnitude between two stimuli before one can perceive a difference

Question 5

Weber’s Law

Answer 5

a theory of perception that states there is a constant ratio between the change in stimulus magnitude needed to produce a JND and the magnitude of the original stimulus

Question 6

pathway of light in the eye

Answer 6

cornea - pupil - lens - retina - optic nerve - optic chiasm - LGN - visual cortex of occipital lobe (also goes to superior colliculus)

Question 7

retina

Answer 7

located at back of the eye, contains photoreceptors; converts incoming photons to electrical signals

Question 8

cones

Answer 8

used for color vision and fine detail and contains 3 rhodopsin pigments, function in bright light, highly concentrated at fovea

Question 9

rods

Answer 9

contain a single rhodopsin pigment, effective in low light and allow for night vision; more rods than cones

Question 10

cells of the retina

Answer 10

horizontal cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells (detect edges and contrast), ganglion cells (form the optic nerve)

Question 11

parvocellular cells

Answer 11

function in shape detection in slow moving objects

Question 12

magnocellular cells

Answer 12

function in detection of motion but do not catch detail

Question 13

pathway of sound in the ear

Answer 13

pinna (auricle) - auditory canal - tympanic membrane - malleus, incus, and staples - oval window - cochlea - vestibulocochlear nerve - brain pathway

Question 14

auditory pathway in the brain

Answer 14

auditory nerve - superior olive and inferior colliculus - MGN - temporal lobe

Question 15

somatosensation

Answer 15

the sense of touch, which contains multiple modalities: pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature

Question 16

kinesthetic sense or proprioception

Answer 16

the ability to tell where one’s body is in space

Question 17

bottom-up processing

data-driven

Answer 17

object recognition by parallel processing and feature detection in response to sensory stimuli

Question 18

top-down processing

conceptually driven

Answer 18

object recognition driven by memories and expectations that allow the brain to first recognize the whole object, and then identify components based on existing expectations

Question 19

perceptual organization

Answer 19

the ability to use bottom-up, top-down, and the environment to create a complete picture or idea

Question 20

Gestalt principles

Answer 20

ways for the brain to infer missing parts of a picture when it is incomplete; law of similarity, proximity, continuation, and closure