Ch.4 Sensation And Perception

Front 1

Top-down processing

Back 1

Prior knowledge that affects perception. Starting with higher level processes, then working down

Hint 1

Legos

Front 2

Bottom-up processing

Back 2

Processing that begins with raw sensory data (from sensory receptors) that are sent up to the brain.

Hint 2

Building legos no manual

Front 3

Sensation

Back 3

Process of detecting, converting, and transmitting information from the external and internal environments to the brain. Starts with receptors cells in sense organs such as the eyes, which detect and appropriate stimulus.

Hint 3

Mind's window

Front 4

Perception

Back 4

Process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information into meaningful patterns.

Front 5

Sensory reduction

Back 5

Process that filters through incoming sensations. Cells in reticular formation sends messages via the thalamus to alert cortex. Reticular formation also screens info

Front 6

Absolute threshold

Back 6

Minimum amount of stimulation necessary to detect stimulus. (Ie. Tick of a watch at 20 ft.)

Front 7

Difference threshold

Back 7

The amount of increase in stimilus needed to notice a difference (just noticeable difference)

Front 8

Sensory reduction

Back 8

Process that filters through incoming sensations because otherwise, we would be overwhelmed by unnecessary info. Involves reticular formation

Front 9

Subliminal

Back 9

Pertaining to stimuli presented below conscious awareness. Persuasion minimal, only weak stimuli involved.

Front 10

Sensory adaption

Back 10

Sensory systems reduced responsiveness to unchanging stimuli. Receptors get tored and fire less. Smell and touch adapt quickly, never adapt visual. Also not intense stimuli bc important to pay attention to.

Front 11

Gate-control theory

Back 11

Theory that pain sensations are processed and altered by mechanisms in the spinal cord. Gate closed by impulses from the brain. When body tissue is damaged, impulses from small fibers open the gate. Chemical p opens the gate, and endorphins close it

Front 12

Coding

Back 12

allows stimulus to be interpreted as distinct sensations since the neural impulses travel by different routes from different parts of the brain.

Front 13

Wavelength

Back 13

Distance between waves

Light: determines the hue we see

Sound: frequency determines pitch, short wavelengths=high frequency=high notes

Front 14

Amplitude

Back 14

Height of the wave

Light: determines intensity or brightness of the light

Sound: determines volume

Front 15

Timbre

Back 15

Allows us to distinguish between different instrument and voices

Front 16

Complexity (mix)

Back 16

Determines whether we see a pure color or one that is a mix of different colors

Front 17

Transduction

Back 17

Receptors convert energy from detected stimulus into neural impulses. These are sent along to the brain.

Front 18

Cornea

Back 18

Protects the eyes and bends incoming light to provide focis.

Front 19

Iris

Back 19

Allows the pupil to dialate in response to light intensity or inner emotions.

Front 20

Lens (accommodation)

Back 20

Focuses incoming light rays onto receptors in the back surface. Does this by changing shape (accommodation)

Front 21

Retina

Back 21

Light waves are detected and tranducted into neural signals by vision receptor cells (rods and cones)

Front 22

Rods

Back 22

Only detect white, black, and gray. Enable us to see in dim light and at night

Front 23

Cones

Back 23

Visual receptor cells concentrated near the center of the retina. Responsible for color vision and fine detail most sensitive in brightly lit conditions.

Front 24

Blind spot

Back 24

Back of retina lies an area that has no visual receptors and no vision. Point where blood vessels and nerves enter and exit the eyeball.

Front 25

Fovea

Back 25

Tiny pit in the center of the retina filled with cones; responsible for Sharp vision

Front 26

Ganglion cells

Back 26

Send visual input from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve

Front 27

Trichromatic theory

Back 27

States that color perception results from 3 types of cones in the retina: sensitive to either red, green, or blue

Front 28

Opponents process theory

Back 28

Herings theory that color perception is based on 3 systems of color opposites: blue-yellow, red-green, and black-white. When one in the pair is stimulated, the other does not fire. Stare at one too long and it get fatigued and burns out.

Front 29

Dual process theory

Back 29

Color is processed in a trichromatic fashion at the level of the retina (cones), and in an opponent fashion at the optic nerve and thalamus.

Front 30

Outer ear

Back 30

Pinnacle, auditory canal, and eardrum, which funnels sound waves to the middle ear.

Front 31

Middle ear

Back 31

Hammer, anvil, and stirrup, which concentrate eardrum vibrations onto the cochlea's oval window.

Front 32

Inner ear

Back 32

Cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Generate neural signals sent to the brain

Front 33

Cochlea

Back 33

Three chambered, snail shaped structure in the inner ear containing receptors for hearing

Front 34

How the ear hears

Back 34

Front 35

Frequency theory

Back 35

Explains that pitch perception occurs when nerve impulses sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound wave. Better explains how we hear low sounds

Hint 35

A sound wave with a frequency of 90 hertz would produce 90 action potentials per second in the auditory nerve

Front 36

Place theory

Back 36

Pitch perception corresponds to the particular spot on the basilar membrane that is most stimulated.

Front 37

Olfactory bulb

Back 37

Where most olfactory information is processed before being sent to other parts of the brain. Part of the limbic system, temporal responsible for conscious recognition, and limbic system explains the spark of emotional memories. Each odorous chemical appears to excite a portion of this.

Front 38

Nerve deafness

Back 38

Inner ear deafness resulting from damage to cochlea, hair cells, or auditory nerves. Most common cause is loud noises.

Front 39

Pheromones

Back 39

Airborne chemicals that affect behavior, including recognition of family, aggression, territorial marking, and sexual mating.

Front 40

Taste sensations

Back 40

Dissolved foods flow over bumps on our tongue called papillae and into the pores to taste buds, containing the receptors for taste.

Front 41

Skin senses

Back 41

Pain, touch (pressure), temperature (cold and warm). Protects internal organs, provides brain with survival skills, and tells us when we are touching something

Front 42

Vestibular sense

Back 42

Sense of body and balance. Located in the inner ear, composed of vestibular sacs and semicircular canals.

Motion sickness caused by sensory overload in this and random versus expected movements (passenger vs drive)

Front 43

Kinesthesis

Back 43

Sensory system for detecting body posture, orientation, and movement of individual body parts.

Front 44

Selective attention

Back 44

Filtering out and attending only to important sensory messages

Front 45

Feature detectors

Back 45

Specialized neurons that respond only to certain sensory information.

Front 46

Prosopagnosia

Back 46

Failure to recognize faces

Front 47

Habitation

Back 47

Brain's reduced responsiveness to unchanging stimuli. People use novelty, intensity, and contrasts to combat this

Front 48

Inattentional blindness

Back 48

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Front 49

Change blindness

Back 49

Failing to notice changes in the environment (form of inattentional blindness)

Front 50

Cocktail party phenomenon

Back 50

Example of selective attention. When you hear your name from across the room, you will involuntarily switch your attention.

Front 51

Gestalt principle

Back 51

How the brain organizes sensory impressions into a whole

Front 52

Figured ground

Back 52

Ground is always seen as farther away than the figure

Front 53

Proximity

Back 53

Close together, grouped together

Front 54

Continuity

Back 54

Front 55

Closure

Back 55

Tendency to see a finished unit from an incomplete stimulus

Front 56

Similarity

Back 56

Front 57

Perceptual constancies

Back 57

Size, shape, color, brightness

Front 58

Ames room illusion

Back 58

Based on unusual construction of the room. Through a peephole, it appears to be a normal cubical room, when it is actually trapezoidal. Our brain assumes the people are the same distances away with different size in body when it is the opposite

Front 59

Retinal disparity

Back 59

Binocular cue to distance in which the separation of the eyes causes different images to fall on each retina

Front 60

Convergence

Back 60

The closer the object, the more the eyes turn inward

Front 61

Linear perspective

Back 61

Parallel lines converge as they get farther away

Front 62

Interposition

Back 62

Objects obscure or overlap are perceived as closer

Front 63

Relative size

Back 63

Close objects cast a larger retinal image

Front 64

Aerial perspective

Back 64

Distant objects appear hazy and blurred compared to close objects

Front 65

Light and shadow

Back 65

Brighter objects are perceived as being closer than darker objects

Front 66

Relative height

Back 66

Objects positioned higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away

Front 67

Confirmation bias

Back 67

Acknowledging confirming events and ignoring non supportive evidence

Front 68

Innumeracy

Back 68

Failing to recognize chance occur ancestors for what they are owing 5o a lack of training in statistics and probability

Front 69

Willingness to suspend belief

Back 69

Refusing to engage critical thinking skills because of wishful thinking or personal need for power or control

Front 70

Vividness problem

Back 70

Anecdotes, sincere testimonials, are more easily remembered than scientific info

Front 71

Webers law

Back 71

Principle that in order to perceive difference threshold, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant percent rather than a constant stimulus. Amount varies depending on the sense and intensity of the stimulus. Large when stimulus intensity is high, and small when it is low.

Front 72

Signal-detection theory

Back 72

Theory prediciting how and when we detect the oresence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Investigates how motivated we are to detect certain stimuli and what we expect to perceive. Ex. Expect and text more likely to detect it.

Front 73

Energy sense

Back 73

Vision, hearing, and touch. Takes form of light, sound waves, and pressure

Front 74

Chemical sense

Back 74

Taste and smell. Senses gather particles.

Front 75

Survival functions of basic taste

Back 75

Sweet-energy source

Salty- sodium essential for physiological processes

Sour- potential toxic acid

Bitter- potential poison

Umami- proteins to grow and repair tissue