question

Sensation

answer

our sense organs' detection of and responses to external stimuli and the transmission of these responses to the brain

question

Perception

answer

the brain's processing, organization, and interpretaion of sensory signals, resulting in an internal representation of the stimulus that forms a conscious experience of the world

question

Sensory Coding

answer

physical properties of stimuli coded into patterns of neural impulses

question

Transduction

answer

process by which sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they receive physical or chemical stimulation

question

Qualitative and Quantitative Sensory Information

answer

two types of information that are both necessary for our brain to code and process a stimulus

question

Qualitative Information

answer

type of information causing our sensory receptors to respond to qualitative differences by firing in different combinations

question

Quantitative Information

answer

type of information causing our sensory receptors to respond to quantitive differences by firing at different frequencies

question

Psychophysics

answer

subfield of psychology developed during the 19th century by Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner, examines our psychological experiences of physical stimuli

question

Absolute Threshold

answer

minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before one experiences a sensation

question

Difference Threshold

answer

the minimum amount of difference required for someone to just barely notice a change in stimuli

question

Weber's Law

answer

law stating that the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference; our ability to perceive a change is directly related to the difference between two stimulus' average and the change between them

question

Signal Detection Theory (SDT)

answer

theory of perception based on the idea that the detection of a faint stimulus requires a judgment about the presence or absence of the stimulus based on a subjective interpretation of ambiguous information

question

Example of Signal Detection Theory

answer

example of this theory, in which a radiologist is looking at a CAT scan for the kind of shadow that signals an early-stage cancer. Her judgement will likely be affected by her knowledge of the patient, training, experience, motivation, attention, and the knowledge of the consequences of being wrong

question

Signal Detection Research

answer

type of research that involves a series of trials in which a stimulus is presented in only some trials. in each trial, the participant must state whether he or she sensed the stimulus

question

Hit

answer

term used in signal detection research to describe a trial in which a signal is presented and the observer detects the signal

question

Miss

answer

term used in signal detection research to describe a trial in which a signal is presented and the observer fails to detect the signal

question

False Alarm

answer

term used in signal detection research to describe a trial in which a signal is not presented and the observer falsely "detects" the signal

question

Correct Rejection

answer

term used in signal detection research to describe a trial in which a signal is not presented and the observer correctly does not detect the signal

question

Response Bias

answer

term referring to a participant's tendency to report detecting the signal in an ambiguous trial

question

Sensory Adaptation

answer

term describing a decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation; if a stimulus is presented continuously, the responses of the sensory systems that detect it tend to diminish over time; when a continuous stimulus stops, the sensory systems usually respond strongly as well

question

Gustation

answer

the sense of taste

question

Taste Buds

answer

sensory organs mostly on the tongue that come in the form of tiny, mushroom shaped structures called papillae which transduce taste information. there are anywhere from 500 to 10,000

question

Five Basic Qualities of Taste

answer

sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami

question

Umami

answer

taste sensation described as savory or yummy, and is marked by the detection of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter that occurs naturally in foods such as meat, some cheese, and mushrooms

question

Supertaster

answer

term used to describe someone who has more taste buds than normal and is very sensitive to particular tastes

question

Olfaction

answer

the sense of smell which has the most direct route to the brain, but may be the least understood sense scientifically partly because the intensity of smell is processed in brain areas also involved in emotion and memory

question

Olfaction Epithelium

answer

the think layer of tissue, within the nasal cavity, that is embedded with smell receptors

question

Olfactory Bulb

answer

the brain centre responsible for perceiving the information on smell transmitted by smell receptors which is located below the frontal lobes

question

Haptic Sense

answer

the sense of touch conveying sensations of temperature, pressure, pain, and where our limbs are in space

question

Tactile Stimulation

answer

type of stimulation resulting from contact with our skin and giving rising to an integrated experience of touch

question

Gate Control Theory of Pain

answer

theory stating that for us to experience pain, pain receptors must be activated and a neural "gate in the spinal cord must allow the signals through to the brain

question

Pain

answer

major part of a warning system that stops you from continuing activities that may cause harm

question

Fast Nerve Fibers

answer

one of two types of nerve fibers identified with pain, this nerve fiber, characterized by myelinated axons, creates sharp, immediate pain and is activated by strong physical pressure and temperature extremes to lead us to recoil from harmful actions and therefore is protective and/or preventative

question

Slow Nerve Fibers

answer

one of two types of nerve fibers identified with pain, this nerve fiber, characterized by my nonmyelinated axons, creates dull, steady pain and is activated by chemical changes in tissue when are is damaged to keep us from using the affected body parts and therefore helps in recuperation

question

Audition

answer

the sense of sound perception resulting from when the movements and vibration of objects cause the displacement of air molecules

question

Sound Wave

answer

the pattern of changes in air pressure by movements and vibration of objects causes the displacement of air molecules though time which results in the perception of sound

question

Amplitude

answer

term used to describe the loudness of a sound wave

question

Frequency

answer

term used to describe the pitch of a sound wave

question

Hertz

answer

system used to measure a sound's frequency

question

Eardrum

answer

a thin membrane stretched across the ear canal which is vibrated by sound waves and marks the beginning of the middle ear

question

Middle Ear

answer

the air-filled central cavity of the ear behind the eardrum

question

Ossicles

answer

three tiny bones in the middle ear that are vibrated by the vibration of the eardrum and transfer this vibration to the oval window

question

Oval Window

answer

membrane located in the beginning of the coclea

question

Cochlea

answer

a fluid-filled tube that curls into a snail-like shape, containing the basilar membrane, hair cells, and the primary auditory signal

question

Basilar Membrane

answer

membrane running through the the centre of the cochlea and upon which the hair cells are located

question

Hair Cells in the Cochlea

answer

the primary auditory receptor; cells located on the basilar membrane that are bent by pressure waves in the cochlea and cause the basilar membrane to fire

question

Cochlear Implant

answer

hearing aid that works by directly stimulating the auditory nerve in the cochlea, not by amplifying the sound because the sound is picked up by a tiny microphone behind the ear, sent through a computer processor, and then transmitted to the implant's electrodes inside the cochlea

question

Auditory Localization

answer

process in which the brain integrates the different timing as well as quantitative and qualitative information coming from each of our two ears

question

Cornea

answer

the clear out covering of the eye that focuses incoming light in a process called refraction

question

Retina

answer

the thin inner surface of the back of the eyeball and contains the photoreceptors that transduce light into neural signals

question

Pupils

answer

the small opening in the eye that lets in and determines how light waves enters the eye

question

Lens

answer

part of the eye that is bent farther inward after the cornea which focuses the light to form an image on the retina

question

Rods

answer

retinal cells that respond to low levels of illumination and result in black-and-white perception and are found on the outer edges of the retina

question

Cones

answer

retinal cells that respond to higher levels of illumination and result in color perception

question

Fovea

answer

the centre of the retina where cones are densely packed

question

Photopigments

answer

chemical that initiate the transduction of light waves into electrical neural impulses

question

Retinal Cells

answer

bipolar, amacrine, and horizontal cells that converge on about a million retinal ganglion cells

question

Ganglion Cells

answer

the first neurons in the visual pathway with axons, which are gathered into a bundle called the optic nerve

question

Optic Nerve

answer

nerve which exits the eye at the back of the retina and has no rods or cones which results in a blind spot in each eye

question

Optic Chiasm

answer

the x-shaped structure formed at the point below the brain where the two optic nerves cross over each other and half of the axons in the optic nerves cross

question

Lateral Inhibition

answer

a visual process in which adjacent photoreceptors tend to inhibit one another

question

Three Dimensions of Color

answer

hue, saturation, and brightness

question

Subtractive Color Mixing

answer

a way to produce a given spectral patter in which the mixture occurs within the stimulus itself (usually pigments) and is actually a physical, not psychological, process and the physical mixing of colors makes the colors absorb (subtract) each other's wavelengths. the resulting color we see corresponds to the wavelengths that are "left over"

question

Subtractive Primary Colors

answer

red, yellow, and blue, because together these pigments absorb nearly all the colors of the visible spectrum and when mixed, produce almost black

question

Additive Color Mixing

answer

a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which different wavelengths of light are mixed. The perception is determined by the interaction of these wavelengths with receptors in the eye and is a psychological process

question

Additive Primary Colors

answer

red, green, and blue, because mixing these colored lights wields white light

question

Opponent-Process Theory

answer

theory that different types of ganglion cells, working in opposing pairs, create the perception of opposite colors

question

Trichromatic Theory

answer

theory stating that there are three types of retinal cone cells that each respond best to a different wavelength of light called "S" (short wavelengths most sensitive to blue light), "M" (medium wavelengths most sensitive to yellow-green light), and "L" (long wavelengths most sensitive to red lights), therefore our perception of colors is determined by ratio of activity among the three types of cone receptors

question

Kinesthetic Sense

answer

perception of the body's position in space and movements of our bodies and our limbs by gathering information from receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints (some include this with the sense of touch)

question

Vestibular Sense

answer

perception of balance gained by information from receptors in the semicircular canals of the inner ear

question

Primary Auditory Cortex (A1)

answer

cortex to which all auditory neurons in the thalamus extend their axons to code the frequency of auditory stimuli

question

Primary Somatosensory Cortex (S1)

answer

cortex to which all tactile neurons in the thalamus project their axons

question

Primary Visual Cortex (V1)

answer

cortex in the occipital lobe responsible for processing visual information, yet up to half of this part of the brain may participate in visual perception

question

Visual Areas Beyond V1

answer

areas of the brain containing neurons that appear to process specific aspects of a visual stimulus and categorized in one of two processing streams: either the ventral or dorsal stream

question

Ventral Stream

answer

one of two processing streams that appears to be specialized for determining "what" an object is by perceiving and recognizing objects, such as determining their shapes and colors

question

Object Agnosia

answer

neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize objects. sufferers cannot identify an object but could draw it from memory

question

Dorsal Stream

answer

one of two processing streams that appears to be specialized for determining "where" an object is and relating it to others in a scene

question

Blindsight

answer

a condition in which people who are blind have some some visual capacities in the absence of any visual awareness

question

Illusions

answer

an image that deceives the visual senses by showing how our brains try to make something two-dimensional instead three-dimensional, and interpret something static as moving and is therefore believed by psychologists to reveal the operations of the mechanisms that help our visual systems determine the sizes and distances of objects in the visual environment

question

Gestalt Principles

answer

series of laws to explain how our brains group the perceived features of a visual scene into organized wholes

question

Principle of Proximity

answer

Gestalt law stating that the closer two figures are to each other, the more likely we are to group them and see them as part of the same object

question

Principle of Similarity

answer

Gestalt law stating that we tend to group figures according to how closely the resemble each other, whether in shape, color, or organization

question

Principle of Good Continuation

answer

Gestalt law stating that we tend to interpret intersecting lines as continuous rather than as changing direction radically

question

Occluder

answer

anything that hides a portion of an object or an entire object from view, which is visually reconciled by the good continuation principle by completing an object behind the obstructed view

question

Principle of Closure

answer

Gestalt law stating that we tend to complete figures that have gaps

question

Principle of Illusory Contours

answer

Gestalt law stating that we sometimes perceive contours and cues to depth even though they do not exist

question

Figure vs. Ground

answer

one of the most basic visual organizing principles, and example of which is the figure illusion where the background and the object switch back and forth but cannot exist simultaneously because the brain cannot identify which is which

question

Bottom-Up Processing

answer

a hierarchical model of pattern recognition in which data are delayed from one processing level to the next, always moving to a higher level of processing

question

Top-Down Processing

answer

a hierarchical model of pattern recognition in which information at higher levels of processing can also influence lower, "earlier" levels in the processing hierarchy

question

Prosopagnosia

answer

neurological deficits in the ability to recognize faces

question

Fusiform Gyrus

answer

area of the brain thought to be specialized for facial recognition

question

Binocular Depth Cues

answer

cues of depth perception that arise from the fact that people have two eyes and contribute to bottom-up processing

question

Stereoscopic Vision

answer

the ability to determine an object's depth based on that object's projections to each eye

question

Binocular Disparity

answer

a cue of depth perception that is caused by the distance between a person's eyes, creating two slightly different views of the world which the brain can use to compute distances to nearby objects

question

Monocular Depth Cues

answer

cues of depth perception that are available to each eye alone for top-down processing

question

Motion Parallax

answer

cues from the relative moment of objects that are at various distances from the observer used by the brain to determine depth perception

question

Example of Motion Parallax

answer

example where as you move, nearby objects pass quickly in your opposite direction while intermediate objects pass more slowly in the opposite direction of the nearby object, and farther away objects appear to match your speed moving in the same direction relative to the intermediate-distance object

question

Size Perception Depends of Distance Perception

answer

relationship stating that the size of an object's retinal image depends on that object's distance from the observer

question

Ames Box

answer

optical illusion in which a diagonally cut room appears rectangular by using cooked windows and floor tiles so that when one child stands in a near corner and another (of similar height) stands in a far corner, the room creates the illusion that they are equidistant from the viewer; therefore, the closer child looks like a chi ant compared to the farther child

question

Ponzo Illusion

answer

optical illusion caused by monocular depth cues that make the two-dimensional figure seem three-dimensional. as the parallel lines appear to converge in the distance, the top line looks farther away and therefore smaller, when in reality they are the same size, which shows how much the brain defaults to using depth cues even when depth is absent

question

Three Phenomena on How the Visual System Perceives Motion

answer

motion after-effects, compensation for head and eye motion, and stroboscopic motion perception

question

Waterfall Effect

answer

effect describing what happens if you stare at a waterfall and then turn away, the scenery you are no looking at will seem to move upward for a moment because when you stare at a moving stimulus long enough, these direction-specific neurons adapt to the motion and become fatigued and when the stimulus is removed, other motion detectors that respond to all other directions are more active than the fatigued motion detectors

question

Compensation for Head and Eye Movement

answer

phenomenon that answers the question: when you see what appears to be a moving object, how do you know whether the object is moving, you are moving, or your eyes are moving?

question

Image Movement System

answer

one of two ways in which the visual system detects movement

question

Eye Movement System

answer

one of two ways in which the visual system detects movement

question

Stroboscopic Movement

answer

a perceptual illusion that occurs when two or more slightly different images are presented in rapid succession

question

Phi Movement

answer

phenomenon in which when two vertical lines are placed close together at intervals the lines appears to move continuously as one line with no breaks

question

Perceptual Constancy

answer

term describing the tendency for the brain to correctly perceive objects as constant despite sensory data that could mislead perception

question

Size Constancy

answer

perception of an object obtained by understanding our distance from an object

question

Shape Constancy

answer

perception of an object obtained by understanding the angle to which we see the object

question

Color Constancy

answer

perception of an object obtained by understanding the wavelengths of light reflected from the object with those reflected from wits background

question

Lightness Constancy

answer

perception of an object obtained by understanding how much light is being reflected from the object and from its background

question

Relative Magnitude

answer

ratio used by perceptual systems to understand an object based on detecting changes from baseline condition and not just responding to sensory outputs

4: Sensation and Perception – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards