Wk6 Flashcards

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1
Q

Perception

A

Making sense of what our senses tell us. It is not determined by an actual stimulus but our prediction and interpretation of it

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2
Q

Sensation

A

Stimulus-detection process where our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli. The process by which our sensory system detects info from the outside world.

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3
Q

Psychophysics

A

Relationship between physical energy needed to notice a stimuli and sensory capabilities.

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4
Q

Absolute threshold

A

Minimum amount of physical energy needed to notice a stimulus

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5
Q

The difference threshold

A

Smallest difference between 2 stimuli that people can perceive 50% of the time.

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6
Q

Weber’s law

A

The just noticeable difference is directly proportional to magnitude of stimulus.

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7
Q

Signal detection theory

A

Judgements about the presence or absence of stimulus reflect the observers sensitivity to the stimulus and their response bias

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8
Q

Sensory receptors

A

Transform energy in the environment into neural impulses that can be interpreted by the brain.

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9
Q

Transduction

A

Process of converting physical energy into neural impulses.

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10
Q

Response bias

A

The individuals readiness to report detecting a stimulus when uncertain

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11
Q

Fechner’s law

A

The logarithmic relation between subjective and objective stimulus intensity.

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12
Q

Stevens power law

A

As the perceived intensity of a stimulus grows arithmetically the actual magnitude of the stimulus grows exponentially

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13
Q

Sensory adaptation

A

The tendency of sensory receptors to respond less to stimuli that continue without change.

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14
Q

Subliminal perception

A

Process that occurs outside of conscious awareness

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15
Q

2 processes that occur in the eye

A
  1. The cornea, pupil and lens focus light on the retina
  2. Retina transduces the visual image into neural impulses that are relayed to and interpreted by the brain
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16
Q

The cornea

A

A tough, transparent tissue covering the front of the eyeball - light enters through the cornea.

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17
Q

Aqueous humour

A

A chamber of fluid behind the cornea which supplies oxygen and other nutrients to the cornea and lens.

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18
Q

Pupil

A

An opening in the centre of the iris

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19
Q

Iris

A

The pigmented tissue that gives the eye its colour. Muscles fibres in the iris cause the pupil to expand and contract to regulate the amount of light coming into the eye.

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20
Q

Lens

A

Elastic, disc-shaped structure involved in focusing the eyes. Muscles attached to cells surrounding the lens alter its shape to focus on objects at varying distances.

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21
Q

Accommodation of the lens

A

Flattens for distant objects and rounded for closer.

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22
Q

Retina

A

A light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye that transduces light into visual sensations

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23
Q

Rods and cones

A

Light receptors at the back of the retina, when they absorb light they generate an electrical signal stimulating the nearby bipolar cells. There are 120 million rods and 8 million cones.

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24
Q

Bipolar cells

A

Combine the info from many receptors and produce graded potentials on ganglion cells.

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25
Q

Ganglion cells

A

Integrate info from bipolar cells The axons bundle together to form the optic nerve.

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26
Q

Optic nerve

A

Carries visual info to the brain.

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27
Q

Fovea

A

Central region of the retina - most sensitive to small detail so vision is sharpest for stimuli directly in sight

28
Q

Blind spot

A

Point on the retina where optic nerve leaves the eye has no receptor cells

29
Q

Receptive field

A

Region within which a neuron responds to appropriate stimulation

30
Q

Blindsight

A

People are unaware of their ability to see

31
Q

Feature detectors

A

Neurons that fire only when stimulation in their receptive field matches a very specific pattern

32
Q

The What pathway

A

Involved in determining what an object is.

33
Q

The Where pathway

A

Involved in locating objects in space.

34
Q

Young-Helmholtz theory of colour

A

Eye contains 3 types of receptors, each maximally sensitive to wavelengths of light that produce sensations of blue, green or red.

35
Q

Short wavelengths of colour

A

Blue

36
Q

Middle wavelengths of colour

A

Green

37
Q

Long wavelengths of colour

A

Red

38
Q

Opponent process theory

A

All colours are derived from 3 antagonistic colour systems - black-white, blue-yellow, and red-green

39
Q

Parallel processing

A

brain cell teams process combined info about colour, movement, form and depth

40
Q

Retinal processing

A

receptor rods and cones - bipolar cells - ganglion cells

41
Q

Complexity

A

The extent to which a sound is composed of multiple frequencies and corresponds to the psychological property of timbre or texture of sound.

42
Q

The middle ear

A

Eardrum - thin flexible membrane at the outer boundary.

43
Q

The inner ear

A

2 sets of fluid filled cavities hollowed out of the temporal bone of the skull - the semicircular canal (balance) and the cochlea (hearing)

44
Q

Place theory

A

Different areas of the basilar membrane are meximally sensitive to different frequencies.

45
Q

Place theory

A

Different areas of the basilar membrane are maximally sensitive to different frequencies.

46
Q

Frequency theory

A

The more frequently a sound wave cycles, the more frequently the basilar membrane vibrates and its hair cells fire, thus pitch perception is mediated by 2 neutral mechanisms - place code at high frequencies and at low.

47
Q

Hair cells

A

Attached to the basilar membrane then transduce the sound, triggering firing if the sensory neurons whose axons comprise the auditory nerve.

48
Q

Sound localisation

A

Identifying the location of a sound in space

49
Q

Olfactory epithelium

A

A thin pair of structures in the area at the top of the nasal cavities where the transduction of smells occurs

50
Q

Olfactory nerve

A

Transmits info to the olfactory bulbs, multilayered structures that combine info from the receptor cells

51
Q

Gate-control theory

A

Emphasises the role of the central nervous system in regulating pain.

52
Q

Proprioceptive sense

A

Register the body position and movement

53
Q

Vestibular sense

A

Provides info about the position of the body in space by sensing gravity and movement

54
Q

Kinaesthesia

A

Provides info about the movement and position of the limbs and other parts of the body relative to one another.

55
Q

Gestalt principles

A

Argue that the whole is more than the sum of its parts (top-down)

56
Q

Figure-ground relations

A

The organisation of stimuli into a foreground figure and a background

57
Q

Gestalt perceptual law

A

Similarity - Brain groups similar elements together
Proximity - Briain groups objects that are close together
Good continuation - Brain organises stimuli into continuous lines or patterns
Simplicity - Ppl perceive the simplest pattern possible
Closure - Ppl perceive incomplete figures as complete

58
Q

Recognition-by-components

A

We perceive and categorise objects in our environemnt by breaking them down into component parts and then matching them and the way they are arranged against similar sketches stored in memory

59
Q

Perceptual illusions

A

Normal perceptual processes produce perceptual misinterpretations

60
Q

Perceptual constancy

A

Perception of objects as relatively stable despite changes in the stimulation of sensory receptors.

61
Q

Size constancy

A

Objects do not appear to change in size when viewed from different distances.

62
Q

Muller-lyer illusion

A

Two lines of equal length appear to differ in size

63
Q

Colour constancy

A

Tendency to perceive the colour of objects as stable despite changing illumination

64
Q

Shape constancy

A

Maintain constant perception of the shape of objects despite the fact that the same object typically produces a new and different impression on the retina every time we encounter it.

65
Q

Perceptual interpretation

A

Generating meaning from sensory experience

66
Q

Bottom-up processing

A

Processing that begins at the bottom with raw sensory data that feed up to the brain.

67
Q

Top-down processing

A

Starts at the top with the observers expectations and knowledge.