Barron's Ap Psychology Flash Cards Ch. 4 - Sensation And Perception

Front 1

transduction

Back 1

The process in which sensory signals are transformed into neural impulses. Then sent to the thalamus, which sends them to other parts of the brain. exception: smell

Front 2

sensory adaptation

Back 2

a process that results in decreasing responsiveness to a stimuli due to constant stimulation

Ex. Bad smell (or goodsmell) notice it, but then it goes away.

Ex. Cold poolafter a while get used to it.

Front 3

Habituation

Back 3

Perception of sensations is partially due to how focused we are on them. Stop attending to constant, unchanging stimuli.

Ex. Brain doesn't attend to sound of air conditioning until it is turned off.

Front 4

cocktail-party phenomenon

Back 4

the involuntary switch in attention that occurs when someone calls your name across the room

Ex. hear your name over a crowd ofpeople at a party

Front 5

sensation

Back 5

activation of our senses

Front 6

perception

Back 6

process of understanding these sensations

Front 7

Process of vision

Back 7

dominant sense in human beings
4 steps
step 1: gather light
step 2: translated in eye

*Come, Play, In, Lucy's, Room (Cornea, Pupil, Iris, Lens, Retina)
step 3: transduction (occurs when light activates neurons in the retina)
step 4: in brain (feature detectors)

Front 8

light intensity

Back 8

how much energy the light contains

Front 9

cornea

Back 9

protective covering of the eye that helps focus the light

Front 10

pupil

Back 10

"shutter" of the eye that the light goes in through

Front 11

iris

Back 11

determines how much light gets in the eye by controlling the size of the pupil, colored part of a person's eye

Front 12

lens

Back 12

through accommodation, focuses light that enters the pupil, curved and flexible in order to focus light, as light passes through it, the image is flipped upside down and inverted

Front 13

retina

Back 13

screen on the back of the eye that upside-down and inverted light images are projected onto

Front 14

cones

Back 14

first layer of cells on the retina, directly activated by light that are activated by color

concentrated towards the center of the retina,, clustered around the fovea

Front 15

rods

Back 15

first layer of cells on the retina, directly activated by light, respond to black and white

peripheral vision relies on this

Front 16

fovea

Back 16

indentation at the very center of the retina that contains the highest concentration of cones

Front 17

bipolar andganglion cells

Back 17

When enough cones and rods fire, they activate the next layer of bipolar cells, if enough bipolar cells fire, the next layer of ganglion cells is activated

the last layer of cells on the retina - the axons of ganglion cells make up the optic nerve that sends impulses

Front 18

lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)

Back 18

specific region in the thalamus where impulses sent by the eye are sent - from here, messages are sent to the visual cortices located in the occipital lobes of the brain

Front 19

blind spot

Back 19

the spot where the optic nerve leaves the retina - has no rods or cones

Front 20

optic nerve

Back 20

made up of axons of ganglion cells - impulses from the left side of the retina go to the left hemisphere and vice versa with right

Front 21

optic chiasm

Back 21

spot where nerves cross each other

Front 22

feature detectors

Back 22

activated by impulses from retinal cells, specialized neurons that respondto specific features of the visual stimulus. Detect vertical lines, curves, motion, and etc. Visual perception is a combination of all features.

Front 23

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel's Research

Back 23

Specialized cells in the eye respond to specific visual stimuli.

Revealed the pattern of organization of brain cells that process vision, feature detectors

Front 24

trichromatic theory (Young-HelmholtzTheory of Color Vision)

Back 24

theory hypothesizes that we have three types of cones that detect red, blue, and green that combine to form colors we see - does not explain after images and color blindness

Front 25

opponent-process theory (Ewald Hering Theory of Color Vision)

Back 25

sensory receptors in the retina come in pairs - if one sensor is stimulated, its pair is inhibited from firing - explains afteriamges - fatigue after a while and pair will fire and you'll see afterimage

Front 26

Characteristics of Sound waves

Amplitude

Frequency

Back 26

Amplitude--​height. determines loudness in decibels

Frequency--length, determines pitch (hertz)

Front 27

Process of Hearing

Back 27

1. sound waves collected in the pinna (outer ear)

2. waves travel down auditory canal

3. reach the eardrum (tympanic membrane)

4. hammer, anvil, stirrup transmit the vibrations to the oval window

5. as the oval window vibrates, the fluid in the cochleamoves

6. hair cells on the basilar membrane (floor of cochlea) move, hair cells are connected to the organ of corti (neurons activated by movement of hair cells)

7. transduction occurs (organ of corti fires, auditory nerve sends these impulses to the brain)

Front 28

ear canal/auditory canal

Back 28

canal sounds waves travel down

Front 29

ear drum

Back 29

tympanic membrane - thin membrane that vibrates as the sound waves hit it - head of a drum

Front 30

hammer, anvil, stirrup (ossicles)

Back 30

series of three small bones attached to the tympanic membrane

Front 31

oval window

Back 31

membrane attached to the cochlea

Front 32

cochlea

Back 32

structure shaped like a snail's shell - filled with fluid - as the oval window vibrates, the fluid moves

floor is lined with hair cells

Front 33

organ of corti

Back 33

attached to the cochlea - neurons activated by movement of hair cells - when fluid moves, hair cells move and transduction occurs

Front 34

place theory

Back 34

hair cell sin the cochlea respond to different frequencies of sound based on where they are located in the cochlea.

Explains HIGH PITCH

Front 35

frequency theory

Back 35

lower tones are sensed by the rate at which the cells fire. hair cells fire at different rates in the cochlea

Explains LOW PITCH

Front 36

Volley theory

Back 36

Neural cells fire in volleys thatare correlated with the frequency of sound

Explains MID RANGE PITCH

Front 37

conduction deafness

Back 37

something goes wrong with the system of conducting the sound to the cochlea (organs within ear, ear drum, HAS)

Front 38

senorineural (nerve)deafness

Back 38

hair cells in the cochlea are damaged by loud noise - prolonged exposure to noise that loud can permanently damage the hair cells of your cochlea

Front 39

SkinSensations

Back 39

cold , warmth, pressure, pain

Front 40

pain receptors

Back 40

nerve ending that responds to sharp simulation - useful in potentially dangerous situations

Front 41

gate-control theory

Back 41

some pain messages have higher priority than others, ​gate is open to it, and shut to lower priority messages

endorphins swing the gate shut

Front 42

4 taste (gustation) senses

(Chemical sense)

Back 42

sweet, salty, sour, and bitter

Front 43

papillae

Back 43

bumps you can see on the back of your tongue, contain taste buds

Front 44

taste buds

Back 44

located all over the tongue and some parts of the cheek and roof of mouth - the more densely packed together on the tongue, the more intense taste

Front 45

Process of Smell (Olfaction, chemical sense)

Back 45

1. molecules of substances rise into the air 2. molecules are drawn into the nose

3. they settle into a mucous membrane 4. absorbed by receptor cells

5. olfactory bulb gathers messages from the olfactory receptor cells

6. sends this information to the brain

Front 46

olfactory bulbs

Back 46

are in olfactory system that receives olfactory receptor cells and sends them to the brain - nerve fibers from this connect to the brain at the amygdala and the hippocampus

Front 47

limbic system

Back 47

system that receives information from the olfactory system made up of the amygdala and the hippocampus responsible for emotional impulses and memory

Front 48

why is smell such a powerful trigger for memories?

Back 48

olfactory senses connect directly to the amygdala and the hippocampus which are responsible for emotional impulses and memory. All other sense impulses are sent through the thalamus before being sent to the appropriate cortices.

Front 49

vestibular sense

Back 49

tells us about how our body is oriented in space - controlled by three semicircular canals (partially filled with fluid) that give the brain feedback about body orientation

Ex. Maintaining balance

Front 50

kinesthetic sense

Back 50

feedback about the position and orientation of specific body parts - receptors in our muscles and joints send information to our brain about our limbs

Ex. Need to know where body parts are when walking

Front 51

perception

Back 51

process of understanding and interpreting sensations

Front 52

psychophysics

Back 52

study of the interaction between the sensations we receive and our experience of them

Front 53

absolute threshold

Back 53

the smallest amount of stimulus we can detect; the minimal amount of stimulus we can detect 50 percent of the time

Vision: Ex. Candle flame 30 mi. away

Hearing: Watch ticking 20 ft. away

Front 54

subliminal

Back 54

stimuli presentedbelow our absolute threshold

Front 55

difference threshold/just-noticable difference

Back 55

smallest amount of change needed in a stimulus before we detect a change

Ex. Add 1 ounce to 10-ounce weight, you will detect a difference.

Front 56

Weber's law

Back 56

stated by Ernst Weber - change needed is proportional to the original intensity of the stimulus

Ex. if music was being playedsoftly, a small increase in sound would be noticeable… if music were beingplayed loudly, it would require a much greater increase in sound to perceive asdifferent

Front 57

signal detection theory

Back 57

investigates the effects of the distractions and interference we experience while perceiving the world, tries to predict what we’ll perceive among competing stimuli. Takes into account how motivated we are to detect certain stimuli and what we expect to perceive

Ex. predictshow and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amidbackground stimulation (noise)

Front 58

false positive

Back 58

a perceived stimulus that is not really there

Front 59

false negative

Back 59

not perceiving a stimulus that is present

Front 60

top-down processing

Back 60

perceive by filling in gaps in what we sense by using prior knowledge, experience, and expectations

Ex. Walk into room and see desk in rows, know it is test day

Front 61

schemata

Back 61

mental representations of how we expect the world to be

Front 62

perceptual set (expectancy)

Back 62

predisposition to perceive something in a certain way

Front 63

backmasking

Back 63

supposed hidden messages musicians recorded backward in their music in the 1980s

Front 64

bottom-up processing (Feature Analysis)

Back 64

only using features of the object to build a complete perception

Ex. recognizing a person by their voice

Ex. putting together a puzzlewithout a picture.

Front 65

figure-ground relationship

Back 65

organizationof the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from theirsurroundings (ground)

Front 66

proximity (Gestalt principle of organization)

Back 66

objects that are close together perceived as belonging in the same group

Front 67

similarity (Gestalt principle of organization)

Back 67

objects that are similar in appearance are perceived as belonging in the same group

Front 68

continuity (Gestalt principle of organization)

Back 68

objects that form a continuous form are grouped together

Front 69

closure (Gestalt principle of organization)

Back 69

similar to top-down processing, objects that make up a recognizable image are more likely to be perceived as beloning in the same group even if the image contains gaps that the mind needs to fill in

Front 70

constancy

Back 70

our ability to maintain a constant perception of an object despite the change in angle, variations in light and so on

Ex. Size constancy

Ex. Shape constancy

Ex. Brightness constancy

Front 71

​phi phenomenon

Back 71

series of light bulbs turned on and off at a particular rate appear to be one moving light

Front 72

mononcular cues

Back 72

depth cues that need only one eye

Ex. linear perspective (parallel lines converge with distance)

Ex. ​relative size cue (larger objects appear closer)

Ex. interposition cue (objects that block the view to other objects must be closer)

Ex. Shadowing

Front 73

binocular cues

Back 73

depth cues that need both eyes

Ex. binocular (retinal) disparity (closer the object, the more disparity there will be between the images from each eye)

Ex. convergence (the more the eyes converge, the closer the object must be)

Front 74

Illusion

Back 74

Incorrect perceptions. Occur when our brains cannot correctly interpretspace, size, and depth cues.

Ex. ​​Muller-Lyer Illusion