CHAPTER SIX PSYCH 1115

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from the environment

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Question 3

Bottom-up processing

Answer 3

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

Question 4

Top-down processing

Answer 4

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Question 5

Transduction

Answer 5

Conversion of one form of energy into anotherIn sensation, the transformation of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses the brain can interpret

Question 6

Signal detection theory

Answer 6

Predicts how and when we will detect a faint stimulus amid background noise.

Question 7

Individual absolute thresholds

Answer 7

Vary depending on the strength of the signal and on our experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness

Question 8

Absolute threshold

Answer 8

Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the timeCan see a far-away light in the dark, feel the slightest touch

Question 9

Priming

Answer 9

Activating, often unconsciously, associations in our mind, setting us up to perceive, remember, or respond to objects or events in certain way

Question 10

Difference threshold (just noticeable difference)

Answer 10

Minimum difference a person can detect between any two stimuli half the time; increases with stimulus size

Question 11

Weber’s law

Answer 11

For an average person to perceive a difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (not a constant amount); the exact proportion varies, depending on the stimulus.

Question 12

Subliminal stimuli:

Answer 12

Stimuli that are too weak to detect 50 percent of the time.

Question 13

Subliminal persuasion:

Answer 13

May produce a fleeting, subtle, but not powerful, enduring effect on behavior (Greenwald, 1992).

Question 14

Sensory adaptation

Answer 14

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Increases focus by reducing background chatter
Influences how the world is perceived in a personally useful way
Influences emotions

Question 15

Emotion adaptation

Answer 15

Gaze at the angry face on the left for 20 to 30 seconds, then look at the center face (looks scared, yes?).
Now gaze at the scared face on the right for 20 to 30 seconds, before returning to the center face (now looks angry, yes?). (From Butler et al., 2008.)

Question 16

Perceptual set

Answer 16

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Schemas organize and interpret unfamiliar information through experience.
Preexisting schemas influence top-down processing of ambiguous sensation interpretation, including gender stereotypes.

Question 17

Context effects

Answer 17

a given stimulus may trigger different perceptions because of the immediate context.

Question 18

Wavelength

Answer 18

Distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmissions.

Question 19

Hue

Answer 19

Dimension of color is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth.

Question 20

Intensity

Answer 20

Amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness. Intensity is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height)

Question 21

Accommodation

Answer 21

The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Question 22

Rods and cones

Answer 22

Cones and rods provide special sensitivities
Cones are sensitive to detail and color
Rods are sensitive to faint light

Question 23

Color processing occurs in two stages

Answer 23

The retina’s red, green, and blue cones respond in varying degrees to different colour stimuli, as suggested by the young-helmholtz trichromatic theory.
Cones responses are then processed by opponent-process cells, as hering’s theory proposed.

Question 24

Feature detection

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Hubel and wiesel

Answer 25

The brain’s computing system deconstructs and reassembles visual images.
Specialized occipital lobe neuron cells receive information from ganglion cells and pass it to supercell clusters

Question 26

Parallel processing

Answer 26

Studies of patients with brain damage suggest that the brain damage suggests that the brain delegates the work of processing motion, form, depth, and color to different areas. After taking a scene apart, the brain integrates these subdimensions into the perceived image.

Question 27

gestalt principles

Answer 27

Gestalt psychologists propose principles used to organize sensations into perceptions
Form perception
Depth perception
Perceptual constancy

Question 28

: visual organization

Answer 28

How do we organize and interpret shapes and colours to create meaningful perceptions?
People tend to organize pieces of information into an organized whole, called a gestalt.

Question 29

Figure - ground

Answer 29

Organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Question 30

Depth perception

Answer 30

The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional
Allows us to judge distance
Is present, at least in part, at birth in humans and other animals

Question 31

The visual cliff

Answer 31

Test of early 3-D perception
Most infants refuse to crawl across the visual cliff
Crawling, no matter when it begins, seems to increase an infant’s fear of heights

Question 32

Binocular cues

Answer 32

Two eyes improve perception of depth

Question 33

Retinal disparity

Answer 33

Binocular cue for perceiving depth
The brain calculates distance by comparing images from two eyes
Used by 3-d filmmakers

Question 34

Monocular cue

Answer 34

A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone 
Light and shadow
Relative motion
Relative size
Linear perspective 
Interposition 
Relative height

Question 35

Motion perceptions

Answer 35

Humans are imperfect at motion perception

When large and small objects move at the same speed, the large objects appear to move more slowly

Question 36

Phi phenomenon

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Perceptual constancy

Answer 37

Objects are perceived as unchanging - having consistent, brightness, shape and size - even as illumination and retinal images change

Question 38

Color constancy

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Restored vision and sensory restriction

Answer 39

Effects of sensory restriction on infant cats, monkeys, and humans suggest there is a critical period for normal sensory and perceptual development
Without stimulation, normal connections do not develop

Question 40

Perceptual adaptation

Answer 40

Ability to adjust to hanged sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Sound waves: from the environment into the brain
Sound waves compress and expand air molecules
The ears detect these brief pressure changes

Question 41

Hearing : sound characteristics

Answer 41

Amplitude (height) determines the intensity (loudness) of sound waves
Length (frequency) determines the pitch
Sound is measured in decibels (dB)

Sound waves are bands of compressed and expanded air
Human ears detect these changes in air pressure and transform them into neural impulses, which the brain decodes as sounds
Sound waves vary in amplitude, which is perceived as differing loudness, and in frequency, which is experienced as differing pitch

Question 42

decoding sound waves

Answer 42

Sound waves strike the eardrum, causing it to vibrate
Tiny bones in the middle ear transmit the vibrations to the cochlea, a coiled, fluid - filled tube in the inner ear
Ripples in the fluid of the cochlea bend the hair cells lining the surface, which trigger impulses in nerve cells
Axons from these nerve cells transmit a signal to the auditory cortex

Question 43

Perceiving loudness, pitch, and location

Answer 43

Place theory in hearing
Theory that links the pitch heard with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated ; best explains high pitches

Frequency theory (temporal theory) in hearing 
Theory that the rate at which nerve impulses travel up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling its pitch to be sensed; explains low pitches

Combinations of place and frequency theories
Handling the pitches in the intermediate range

Question 44

touch

Answer 44

Sense of touch is actually a mix of four distinct skin senses:
Pressure
Warmth
Cold
Pain
Other skin sensations are variations of the basic four

Question 45

The pain circuit

Answer 45

The sensory receptors (nociceptors) respond to potentially damaging stimuli by sending an impulse to the spinal cord
The spinal cord passes the message to the brain, which interprets the signals as pain