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MCAT Psych/Soc > Ch. 3- Sensation and Perception > Flashcards

Ch. 3- Sensation and Perception Flashcards

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1
Q

what is sensation?

A

physical reality of signals that our sensory organs pick up and send to be processed in the nervous system

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2
Q

what is perception?

A

how our brain interprets signals from our sensory organs

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3
Q

what are sensory receptors?

A

specialized dendrites of sensory neurons that respond to physical stimuli via action potentials to the CNS

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4
Q

what are nerves?

A

bundles of axons of sensory receptor dendrites

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5
Q

what are ganglia?

A

collections of neuronal cell bodies

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6
Q

what are the 4 types of properties that get relayed to the CNS?

A

location (where), modality (what type), intensity (how much), and duration (how long)

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7
Q

what is the differnce between exteroceptors and interoceptors?

A

exteroceptors = receive stimuli from the outside world
interoceptors = receive stimuli from inside the body

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8
Q

what do photoreceptors sense?

A

light

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9
Q

what do mechanoreceptors sense?

A

sound, acceleration, touch (mechanical)

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10
Q

what do chemoreceptors sense?

A

taste, smell (chemicals)

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11
Q

what do baroceptors sense?

A

pressure (type of mechanoreceptor)

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12
Q

what do proprioceptors sense?

A

body position (kinesthetic sense)

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13
Q

what do nociceptors sense?

A

pain (cuts, burns, chemicals)

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14
Q

what do osmoceptors sense?

A

concentration (ie. in blood)

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15
Q

what do olfactory receptors sense?

A

smell

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16
Q

what do gustatory receptors sense?

A

taste

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17
Q

what do hair cells sense?

A

pressure signals in the inner ear (convert to action potentials)

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18
Q

what do thermoreceptors sense?

A

variation in temperature

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19
Q

what are proximal vs distal stimuli?

A

proximal stimuli are the stimuli that directly interact with you
distal stimuli are causing something else to act as a proximal stimulus.
ie. tree = distal stimulus, causing light rays (proximal stimulus) to directly interact with your eyes.

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20
Q

absolute threshold

A

the level of intensity a stimulus has to have in order for your sensory neurons to pick it up

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21
Q

threshold of conscious perception

A

the threshold a stimulus must pass in order for us to consciously perceive it

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22
Q

in between absolute threshold and threshold of conscious perception = ?

A

you’ll experience whatever the thing is, but your brain won’t take up that information.

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23
Q

just-noticeable difference

A

smallest change in magnitude of a stimulus that we can perceive as being different

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24
Q

psychophysical discrimination testing

A

testing whether participants can tell the difference between the two stimuli and then link that to the actual physical properties of the stimuli being studied

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25
Weber's law
for any sensory input, the just-noticeable difference will be a constant proportion of the original input.
26
does Weber's law hold at the extremes?
not really, if there's not much difference in how you interact with them (ie. weights on the scales of milligrams or on the scale of thousands of pounds would be very difficult to distinguish)
27
signal detection theory
our brain sorts through stimuli to try to accurately identify what we need to pay attention to
28
signal detection theory: what is a hit?
we correctly perceive a stimulus that is present
29
signal detection theory: what is a miss?
we incorrectly do not perceive a stimulus that is present
30
signal detection theory: what is a false alarm or false positive?
we incorrectly perceive a stimulus that is NOT present
31
signal detection theory: what is a correct rejection?
we correctly do not perceive a stimulus that is not present
32
sensory adaptation
we become used to stimuli and start to ignore them
33
tonic receptors
some receptors that adapt slowly to stimuli and send action potentials as long as the stimulus is present (ie. pain receptors)
34
phasic receptors
receptors that send a quick burst of action potentials in response to a stimulus and then stop
35
Gestalt laws
principles describing how we integrate stimuli into consciously perceived shapes
36
principle of proximity
our brains group objects by proximity to each other
37
principle of similarity
our brains group objects by similarity
38
principle of good continuation
our brains perceive overlapping/intersecting objects as the most continuous line possible
39
principle of closure
our brains fill in the gaps of broken up outlines
40
principle of symmetry
our brains group symmetrical objects together more than non-symmetrical objects
41
law of Pragnanz
our brains tend to try to group things into a cohesive unit instead of processing them as random parts
42
what part of the eye turns wavelengths of light into action potentials to send to the brain?
the retina
43
where is the retina located?
in the back of the eye
44
what component of vision do cones deal with?
color and fine detail (blue, green, and red)
45
what is the fovea?
a small central pit in the center of the macula in the retina, only contains cones
46
what component of vision do rods deal with?
light and movement (no fine detail)
47
relatively, how many cones and rods are there in the eye?
20 rods for every 1 cone
48
where is rhodopsin mostly concentrated in?
rods
49
where are rods located in the eye?
away from the retina, making peripheral vision best at night
50
what is the first part of the eye that light passes through?
the cornea
51
where are the lens and cornea located in the eye?
near the front of the eye
52
what is the cornea for?
protecting the rest of the eye, and focusing incoming light rays
53
what is the lens for?
focusing light
54
what is accommodation in the eye?
using tiny ligaments to change the focus of the lens to see objects at various distances
55
what is dark adaptation?
the way that rods take awhile to activate and become useful after you've been in the light for awhile
56
what is the pupil?
the black center of the eye that lets light into the eye
57
what is the iris?
the colored ring of the eye that blocks unneccessary light and is connected to dilator and constrictor pupillae muscles
58
what is the ciliary muscle?
part of the ciliary body, adjusts the lens via the suspensory ligaments
59
where is the division between the anterior and posterior chambers?
the lens divides the two chambers
60
what space contains the aqueous humor?
the anterior chamber
61
what space contains the vitreous humor?
the posterior chamber
62
what is the choroid?
a layer behind the retina that has melanin, supplies the retina with blood and absorbs excess light
63
what is the sclera?
the outermost layer of the eye (the white stuff)
64
what is the conjuctiva?
a thin, translucent film that's on the very outermost layer of the cornea and sclera, a thin layer of epithelial tissue that lubricates and protects the eye
65
what is the path a signal takes from the retina to the optic nerve?
cones and rods in retina -> horizontal cells -> bipolar cells -> amacrine cells -> ganglion cells (optic nerve)
66
the right sides of your eyes' field of vision traces back to which hemisphere of the brain?
the left side
67
the left sides of your eyes' field of vision traces back to which hemisphere of the brain?
the right side
68
where do the halves of the optic nerves cross to their correct sides of the brain?
the optic chiasm
69
what parts of the optic nerve get moved across to the correct sides of the brain?
the nasal sides (whatever's reflecting on the inner halves of the retinas)
70
what parts of the optic nerve don't cross over to the other side of the brain?
the temporal sides (whatever's reflecting on the outer halves of the retinas)
71
what is the optic tract?
the bundle of axons carrying visual information
72
what structure does the optic tract run through?
the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which is in the thalamus.
73
what does the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) do?
it relays information from the retinas to the superior colliculus
74
what is the superior colliculus?
receives signals from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), controls the visual startle response, and controls conscious visual perception
75
what types of neurons does the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) have?
magnocellular neurons and parvocellular neurons
76
what are magnocellular neurons and what do they do?
they are the big neurons that detect motion
77
what are parvocellular neurons and what do they do?
they are the small neurons that detect details
78
what kind of relationship is there between spatial and temporal resolution?
you can have one but not both (spatial = detail, temporal = movement)
79
motion parallax
object closest to us appear to move faster, objects fathest from us appear to move slower
80
feature detection
able to grab several detail categories at once (ie. shape, color, timing, motion)
81
parallel processing
integrating multiple detail categories at once (ie. shape, color, timing, motion)
82
serial processing model
consciously looking at one thing at a time and analyzing it in order
83
what is the transduction pathway for sound?
hair cells -> vestibulocochlear nerve
84
where are hair cells located?
inner ear, in the organ of Corti (layer cake organ with hair cells in the middle).
85
what are the structures contained in the outer ear?
the pinna/auricle, earlobe, and the auditory canal up to the eardrum.
86
what are the structures contained in the middle ear?
the eardrum/tympanic membrane, the tympanic cavity, the ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window, and the start of the Eustachian tube.
87
what are the structures contained in the inner ear?
the bony labyrinth (membranous labyrinth, endolymph, perilymph), the cochlea (snail shell in 3 layers/scalae + organ of Corti), the vestibulocochlear nerve, semicircular canals (+ ampulla), and the vestibule (utricle, saccule, otoliths)
88
place theory of hearing
the brain infers information about the pitch of a sound based on which hair cells are sending signals
89
what is somatosensation?
sensations of the body
90
are nerves in the skin evenly distributed?
no, there are more in certain places.
91
what is the two-point threshold?
the minimum distance between two points that are stimulated at the same time on the skin that can be perceived as two separate stimuli
92
physiological zero
the baseline temperature of our skin (about 29-32C)
93
what is the process of processing taste information?
taste center (thalamus) -> gustatory complex
94
what is the process of processing smell information?
olfactory bulb -> olfactory tract
95
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YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

MCAT Psych/Soc (12 decks)

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