Sensation and Perception – Flashcards

Suffers from Prosopagnosia--she can see, but not recognize faces.

Process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Ex: identifying shapes

Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. Ex: processing those shapes, putting them together into an image.

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. Ex: detecting the lines, colors, angles that make up an image, and then processing them.

The focusing of a conscious awareness on a particular stimulus Ex: hearing your voice at a party and zoning in on that one voice.

Failing to see visual objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. Ex: double Dutch viseo

When certain stimuli are so striking and distinct, they will "pop-out" or draw our attention to them. Ex: smiling person in room full of scowling people

Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time Ex: exposing your ears to varying sound levels would reveal where you start hearing sounds

Theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there no single absolute threshold and that detect depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. Ex: the ding of a text message letting you know yo have a message

Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.

To activate, often unconsciously, certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. Ex: flashing "nice" pictures of kittens vs "bad" pictures of a werewolf determines how a subject might view images of peon following (slightly more attractive, or slightly less).

Subliminally presented stimuli can subtly influence people, however research has largely discredited subliminal persuasion as a viable method of persuasion.

Minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a "just noticeable difference" (jnd). Ex: noticing difference when adding 1 g to 10 g, vs adding 1 g to 100 g

Principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage, rather than by a constant amount. It's all about proportion, not amount! Ex: adding 1 g to 10 g, vs adding 1 g to 100 g

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. Ex: entering a smelly room, but getting used to it after a little while

Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret.

Distance between the peaks of a light or sound wave. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from he short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission.

Amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude.

Adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.

Ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.

Transparent structure behind pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

Light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.

Process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond.

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.

Nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.

Point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there.

Central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster.

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement.

Processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

Theory that the retina contains three different color receptors--each one most sensitive to red, green, blue--which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

Staring at something for so long that you tire out your neural response to those colors, you will see their opponent colors when you shift your gaze.

Opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green.

Sense or act of hearing

Number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.

A membrane of the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound waves.

Three tiny bones contained in the middle ear, that help concentrate vibrations

Chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones that concentrate vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window.

Innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.

While soft sounds activate vibrations in the inner-ear hairs finely tuned to that specific frequency, louder sounds induce vibrations that also move the surrounding hairs. Therefore, loudness is interpreted by detecting the number of activated hair cells.

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated Ex: snapping finger behind someone's ear and being able to tell if it's left or right

In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense a pitch.

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.

Coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses.

System for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.

Sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.

Theory that spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.

Attention to pain Learning based on experience Expectations

Presence of others Empathy for others' pain Cultural expectations

Activity in spinal cord's large and small fibers Genetic differences in endorphin production Brain's interpretation of CNS activity

Providing a virtual reality into which one can escape is a powerful distracter for people who are undergoing painful operations, such as a skin repair.

Principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.

Experiences resulting from smell

Receptor cells of 5million+ at top of each nasal cavity, and alert the brain to different odor molecules they are detecting.

Part of the train to which the olfactory receptors direct signals they are receiving. The impulses are then directed to the temporal lobe's primary smell cortex and to parts of the limbic system responsible for memory and emotion.

Information from taste buds travels to an area of the temporal lobe not far from where the brain receives olfactory information, which interacts with taste. The brain's circuitry for smell also connects with areas involved in memory storage, which helps explain why smell can trigger a memory explosion.

An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. Ex: necker cube

Organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

We group similar figures together

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

We perceive objects that are uniform and linked

We fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes.

Binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object.

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

Retinal disparity resulting from holding two finger tips close together and looking past them.

We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away. Because we perceive the lower part of a figure-ground illustration as closer, we perceive it as a figure.

If we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away

If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer.

Parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge with distance. The more they converge, the greater their perceived distance

As we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move. Ex: riding a bus, watching houses, they appear to move

Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes. Thus, given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away. Shading produces sense of depth consistent with our assumption that light comes from above.

Illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition

Study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis