lesson 4 modularity and consciousness

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

simple stimulation of a sense organ. It is the basic registration of light, sound, pressure, odor,
or taste as parts of your body interact with the physical world.

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

occurs in your brain as sensation is registered there: It is the organization, identification, and
interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation.

Question 2

transduction

Answer 2

when sense receptors convert physical signals from the environment into neural signals that are sent to
the central nervous system

Question 3

what makes sensory receptors sensitive

Answer 3

each is uniquely sensitive to a particular type of energy. The eye is sensitive to light (but
not to sound); the skin to mechanical pressure (but not to visible light). The eye is sensitive to mechanical
pressure, too, but only a little bit. If you close your eye and push on your eyelid with your finger, you might see
sparkly dots. This mechanical pressure is registered by the receptors in your eye as light, not touch. You perceived light when sensory receptors in the eye were stimulated, even though the
stimulus was not light

Question 4

what physical constrain limits the amount of neurons we have

Answer 4

shape of a woman’s pelvis limits max head size, limits number of neurons, limits capacity for processing sensory information

Question 5

sensory adaptation

Answer 5

sensitivity to
prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current (unchanging) conditions.

Question 6

troxler fading

Answer 6

Stare at the central black dot in image. After several seconds, the grey cloud around the dot will disappear- another example of adaptation (or feeling tongue in mouth, or sensation of pants)

Question 7

psychophysics

Answer 7

methods that
systematically relate the physical characteristics of a stimulus to an observer’s perception.

Question 8

absolute threshold

Answer 8

the minimal intensity needed
to just barely detect a stimulus in 50% of the trials. A threshold is a boundary (like A candle flame 30 miles away on a clear, dark
night)

Question 9

sensitivity

Answer 9

how responsive we are to faint stimuli

Question 10

acuity

Answer 10

how well we can distinguish two very similar stimuli

Question 11

just noticeable different (jnd)

Answer 11

the minimal change in a stimulus (e.g., in its loudness or brightness) that can just barely be detected

*not fixed, depends on sense measured and intensity of standard (original) stimulus

Question 12

weber’s law

Answer 12

for every sense domain, the change in a stimulus that is just noticeable is a constant ratio of the standard
stimulus, over a range of standard intensities.

if you picked up a 1-ounce envelope, then a 2-
ounce envelope, you’d probably notice the difference between them. But if you picked up a 20-pound package, then a 20-pound, 1-ounce package, you’d probably detect no difference

Question 13

Signal detection theory (SDT)

Answer 13

a way of analyzing data from psychophysics experiments that measures an
individual’s perceptual sensitivity (how effectively the perceptual system represents sensory events) while also
taking noise, expectations, motivations, and goals into account

Question 14

what two things must happen to perceive a stimulus

Answer 14

the strength of the sensory evidence for that stimulus

the amount of evidence necessary for your perceptual system to “decide” that the stimulus is present, known as the decision criterion

Question 15

visual acuity

Answer 15

ability to see fine detail

Question 16

what part of light determines hue (color)

Answer 16

length of light wave

Question 17

what part of light determines intensity

Answer 17

amplitude (how high the peaks are)

Question 18

what part of light determines saturation (richness of color)

Answer 18

purity (when light source emitting only one wavelength)

Question 19

how do eyes detect light

Answer 19

Light that reaches the eyes passes first through a clear, smooth outer tissue called the cornea, which bends the
light wave and sends it through the pupil, a hole in the colored part of the eye. This colored part is the iris, which is a translucent, doughnut-shaped muscle that controls the size of the pupil and hence the amount of light that can enter the eye

Question 20

retina

Answer 20

layer of light sensitive tissue lining back of eyeball

Question 21

accomodation

Answer 21

process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina

Question 22

if eyeball too long what does it lead to

Answer 22

nearsight (myopia)

Question 23

if eyeball too short what does it lead to

Answer 23

farsight (hyperopia)

Question 24

what are the types of photoreceptor cells

Answer 24

Cones detect color,
operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail. Rods become active only under
low-light conditions, for night vision

Question 25

blind spot

Answer 25

location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina (test: close left eye and stare at cross, move paper until dot gone)

Question 26

area v1

Answer 26

the part of the
occipital lobe that contains the primary visual cortex

Question 27

what pathway

Answer 27

The ventral (lower) stream travels across the occipital lobe into the lower levels of the temporal lobes and
includes brain areas that represent an object’s shape and identity. Because this stream represents what an
object is, it is often called the “what” pathway

Question 28

where pathway

Answer 28

The dorsal (upper) stream travels up from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobes (including some of the
middle and upper levels of the temporal lobes) and includes brain areas that identify where an object is and
how it is moving. Because the dorsal stream allows us to perceive spatial relations,
researchers originally dubbed it the “where” pathway

Neuroscientists later
argued that because the dorsal stream is crucial for guiding actions, such as aiming, reaching, or tracking
with the eyes, the “where” pathway is more appropriately called a “perception for action” pathway

Question 29

damage in ventral stream can cause

Answer 29

ability to identify objects by sight was greatly impaired,
although ability to identify them by touch was normal. This suggests that visual representation of objects,
but not memory for objects, was damaged (shown clock, dont know it’s a clock until you touch it)

Question 30

damage in dorsal stream

Answer 30

have difficulty using vision to
guide reaching and grasping (know it’s a clock but dont know where it is to grab it)

However, they can still identify objects they see
because their ventral streams are intact (two streams are distinct)

Question 31

binding problem

Answer 31

how the brain links features together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather
than free-floating or miscombined features

Question 32

parallel processing

Answer 32

brain’s capacity to perform
many activities at the same time

Question 33

illusory conjunction

Answer 33

a perceptual mistake whereby the brain incorrectly combines features from multiple objects

Question 34

perceptual contrast

Answer 34

although the sensory
information from two things may be very similar, we perceive the objects as different (black and blue or white and gold dress)

Question 35

gestalt principles

Answer 35

simplicity, closure, continuity, similarity, proximity, common fate

Question 36

perceptual organization

Answer 36

process of grouping and segregating
features to create whole objects organized in meaningful ways (like seeing illusion of face/vase, we flit back and forth between interpretations because they look so similar)

Question 37

size and distance illusion is based on what principle

Answer 37

When
you view two objects that project the same retinal image size, the object you perceive as farther away will be perceived as larger. Such illusions are typically constructed to be viewed from just one vantage point—for this reason, they are called forced perspective illusions (ames room)

Question 38

multisensory

Answer 38

stimulating multiple senses at the same time

Question 39

ventriloquist illusion

Answer 39

You depend on your visual system for reliable information about spatial location; when you see a moving mouth, simultaneously with hearing speech, you perceive the speech as coming from that mouth. We “believe” our visual system over our auditory system when it comes to determining the
spatial location of an event.

Question 40

change blindness

Answer 40

when people
fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene. occurs even when major details of a scene are changed—changes that we incorrectly believe we
couldn’t possibly miss (watching one thing in video and missing 26)

Question 41

inattentional blindness

Answer 41

a failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention (watching phone while driving can cause crash)

Question 42

what does sense of hearing depend on

Answer 42

changes in air pressure unfolding over time

Question 43

what does frequency (sound) correspond do

Answer 43

perception of pitch; low frequency is low pitch sound and vice versa

Question 44

what does amplitude (sound) correspond do

Answer 44

perception of loudness; low amplitude is soft sound and vice versa

Question 45

what does complexity (sound) correspond do

Answer 45

perception of timbre; simple complexity is pure tone and v

Question 46

what does learning involve

Answer 46

the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.

Question 47

habituation

Answer 47

a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus
results in a gradual reduction in responding.

Question 48

sensitization

Answer 48

occurs when presentation of
a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

Question 49

what did behaviorism dismiss

Answer 49

insistence on measuring only observable, quantifiable behavior and its dismissal of mental activity as irrelevant and unknowable

Question 50

Classical conditioning

Answer 50

when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a
response (pavlov dogs spit), conditioning produces learned behaviors

Question 51

distal senses

Answer 51

olfaction vision audition

Question 52

proximal senses

Answer 52

touch taste

Question 53

Visual form agnosia

Answer 53

damage to what pathway (ventral), cant identify objects but can see them

Question 54

hemispatial neglect

Answer 54

damage to what pathway (ventral) can only process one side at a time, draw full clock on one side only, dont even eat food on that side

Question 55

grasping deficits

Answer 55

damage to where pathway (dorsal) and cant grasp on to things and cant tell where they are

Question 56

expectancy effect

Answer 56

dont see anything in picture of dots until i tell you there is something now you can make it out

Question 57

hard wiring

Answer 57

causes us to see human like attributes in everything

causes us to expect certain outcome like ball going certain way when hit

Question 58

features of modules

Answer 58

domain specific (do one specific thing, like whatsapp cant give you directions

Question 58

features of modules

Answer 58

domain specific (do one specific thing, like whatsapp cant give you directions