Chapter 1

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

the process bu which a receptor (i.e. sensory organs) detects stimuli and creates a process of neural activity

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

the act of giving meaning to a detected sensation

Question 3

perception _______ sensation, but not __:___

Answer 3

interprets; 1:1

Question 4

while stimuli in the world follows the laws of physics, our _________ of them does not

Answer 4

perception

Question 5

t/f: our visual system is great at detecting large changes in our immediate environment

Answer 5

false; monkey business video!

Question 6

t/f: our sensory systems are relatively independent

Answer 6

false; McGurk Effect

Question 7

McGurk Effect

Answer 7

visual and auditory systems interacting, video audio saying “ba” but when visual shows someone mouthing “fa” you hear “fa” even when audio doesn’t change

Question 8

t/f: our perceptual system can cause us to perceive things that aren’t really there

Answer 8

true; ex) seeing Jesus in toast because you want to

Question 9

t/f: our perceptual abilities are innate and don’t need to be learned

Answer 9

bit of both!
hard wired to see, hear, etc. but specific structures support perception

ex) visual cortex = vision, but in blind people this part of the brain can respond to auditory/tactile information

Question 10

even with neuroimaging, we don’t really get to see….

Answer 10

your mental perception and have to make inferences and theories instead

Question 11

_______________ is critical for understanding how we perceive the world

Answer 11

scientific approach

Question 12

5 ways we measure sensation/perception

Answer 12

thresholds
scales
signal detection
cellular/neuronal neuroscience
systems neuroscience

Question 13

psychophysics

Answer 13

invented byt Fechner

the science of defining quantitative relationships between physical and psychological/subjective events

showed that the mind can be studied and quantified

Question 14

dualism

Answer 14

the mind exists separately from the material world and thus is not a pure representation of it / 1:1

Question 15

thresholds

Answer 15

generally the minimum difference between stimuli needed to be detected as different

Question 16

two point threshold

Answer 16

within the realm of touch, this is the minimum distance at which two separate sensations can be distinguished

use compass-like device to test this, different parts of the body have more or less sensitivitiesjust

Question 17

noticeable difference (JND)

Answer 17

the smallest detectable difference between two stimuli, or the minimum change in a stimulus that can be correctly judged as different from a reference stimulus

i.e. difference threshold

Question 18

example of JND

Answer 18

how much can you cut back on salt in a recipe before you notice the difference in taste

Question 19

absolute threshold

Answer 19

minimum amount of stimulation necessary for a person to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

Question 20

why does absolute threshold have 50% of the time rather than 100%

Answer 20

to account for other factors as it is impossible to have perfect conditions when testing psychology

Question 21

key point about thresholds is

Answer 21

that they are quantifiable measurements of out perceptual abilities

Question 22

are thresholds always the same?

Answer 22

NO!

Question 23

Weber’s Law

Answer 23

the principle describing the proportional relationship between stimulus and resulting sensation that says the JND is a constant fraction of the comparison

larger stimulus values have larger JNDs and smaller stimulus values have smaller JNDs

Question 24

Weber’s law example

Answer 24

if you are already wet, it will take more rain drops to notice it is raining than if you are dry

Question 25

Fechner's law

Answer 25

formalized weber's law into mathematical terms, such that magnitude of subjective sensation increases proportionally to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity

Question 26

threshold method of constant stimuli

Answer 26

test many stimuli, one at a time, across range including barely perceptible to always perceptible ex. eye test at doctors

Question 27

threshold method of limits

Answer 27

vary the magnitude of a stimulus (or difference between two) until participant notices ex. experimenter turns on stimulus, changes it until participant realizes change

Question 28

threshold method of adjustments

Answer 28

same as method of limits but instead of the experimenter altering the stimuli, the participant alters it themselves

Question 29

scales

Answer 29

measure the "strength" of your sensation, rather than threshold of detection

Question 30

t/f: all sensations have the same scale

Answer 30

false

Question 31

magnitude estimation

Answer 31

give participants a sensation and have them rate its strength, can be freeform or give starting baseline ex) when a doctor asks to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10, a baseline could be a headache

Question 32

Steven's power law

Answer 32

scale based on power/exponent equation

Question 33

on a scaling methods chart in relation to steven's power law, which causes the most stimulus energy? brightness sweetness comparison of lines electric shock

Answer 33

electric shock

Question 34

2 similarities between steven's power scale and fechner's log scale

Answer 34

both make broad assumptions about the "fit" of data to their metrics and about the scales they work on both are only approximations of data and turn out to not really be "laws" (don't apply directly to human experiences)

Question 35

main takeaways from thresholds and scales

Answer 35

- people's internal perception can be modeled - sensation is proportional to other parameters

Question 36

Signal detection theory (SDT)

Answer 36

ability to detect a signal amongst noise

Question 37

SDT accounts for

Answer 37

amount of noise discriminability of the signal biases in the person's response patterns

Question 38

criterion

Answer 38

value that is somehow determined by observer, can change depending on situation i.e. your threshold for deciding if you detected a sensation

Question 39

hit

Answer 39

there was a sensation and you detected it ex) your phone buzzed and you checked it

Question 40

correct rejection

Answer 40

there was no sensation and you didn't detect it ex) your phone did not buzz and you did not check it

Question 41

false alarm

Answer 41

there was no sensation but you detected one ex) your phone did not buzz but you checked it

Question 42

miss

Answer 42

there was a sensation but you didn't detect it ex) your phone did buzz but you did not check it

Question 43

sensitivity in SDT

Answer 43

how discriminable the target is from the noise distance between two peaks in the graph (closer together = less sensitivity and vice versa)

Question 44

receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves

Answer 44

demonstrate both the sensitivity and criterion in one line plots hits and false alarms (both yes responses) with greater sensitivity, curve moves closer to top left corner, criterion is represented by point on the curve

Question 45

transduction

Answer 45

physical stimuli being converted to biochemical/electrical signals in our nervous system

Question 46

parts of the neruon

Answer 46

dendrites - receiving info from other neurons axon - signals go down axon terminals - carry signal to other neuron's dendrites

Question 47

neurons generally transmit signals via ____________ at the _______

Answer 47

neurotransmitters; synapse

Question 48

synapse

Answer 48

space between two neurons

Question 49

pre-synaptic neuron _______ neurotransmitters into the synapse while post-synaptic neuron has ______

Answer 49

releases; receptors

Question 50

neurotransmitters trigger an electrical shift in the post-synaptic neuron, leading to the neuron "firing" an ___ _______

Answer 50

action potentials

Question 51

neurons fire in an ___ __ ____ fasion for each action potential/spike

Answer 51

all-or-none

Question 52

how to tell how excited the neuron is during action potential

Answer 52

the number of spikes per second

Question 53

each action potential starts where and ends where?

Answer 53

starts: near cell body of neuron goes down axon ends: axon terminal

Question 54

what neurotransmitters does the electrochemical process involve?

Answer 54

Na+ (sodium) and K+ (potassium) ions

Question 55

3 steps of depolarization in neurons to send signals

Answer 55

1. Na+ rushes in 2. inflow of Na+ depolarizes the membrane to carry the signal 3. neuron recovers by quickly sending K+ out of the cell to get back to resting potential

Question 56

neuronal signals often compete, having excitatory and inhibitory signals, meaning

Answer 56

excitatory - increase in action potential inhibitory - decrease in action potential

Question 57

2 types of nerves and what they control

Answer 57

afferent (send information to the brain), control sensory function efferent (send information from the brain), control motor function

Question 58

electroencephalography (EEG)

Answer 58

electrodes on scalp to directly measure the electrical activity generated by neural firing of a large population of neurons can assess ERPs

Question 59

event-related potentials (ERP)

Answer 59

change in EEG signal as a result of an event, such as sensation

Question 60

EEGs have excellent _________ and poor __________

Answer 60

temporal resolution; spatial resolution

Question 61

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - structural

Answer 61

uses magnets to assess the atomic structure of tissue no radiation but dangerous if metals brought in

Question 62

MRI - functional / fMRI

Answer 62

tracks blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal, which is the ratio of oxygenated to deoxygenated hemoglobin that shifts in response to neural activity (i.e. when neurons fire more, they require more oxygen) an **indirect** measure of brain activity

Question 63

fMRI has excellent ________ but poor __________

Answer 63

spatial resolution; temporal resolution opposite of EEG

Question 64

PET and MEG

Answer 64

PET: similar to fMRI but based on metabolism of brain cells MEG: changes in magnetic activity across populations of many neurons in the brain

Question 65

Velma is searching for clues with Scooby and the Gang, when she, as always, breaks her glasses. According to signal detection theory, what MUST have changed with regards to her vision by losing access to her glasses? A) Her criterion becomes more lax, and she is more likely to accept stimuli as real even if they are not. B) Her criterion becomes more strict, and she is less likely to accept stimuli as real, even if they really are. C) Her sensitivity increases, as she is more able to distinguish between signal and noise D) Her sensitivity decreases, as she is less able to distinguish between signal and noise

Answer 65

D) Her sensitivity decreases, as she is less able to distinguish between signal and noise

Question 66

Bjorn is expecting a phone call. After repeatedly accidentally checking his phone, he has started using a stricter criterion, wanting to avoid false alarms. Which of the following statements reflects what may also happen now that he has a stricter criterion? A) He is more likely to false alarm to noise, accepting as signal. B) He is less likely to detect a real call, missing it as noise. C) He is more likely to detect a real call, discriminating it from noise. D) He is less likely to correctly reject noise, mistaking it as a phone call.

Answer 66

B) He is less likely to detect a real call, missing it as noise

Question 67

Which statement is true about EEG: A) It is a direct measure that has good spatial resolution B) It is an indirect measure that has good spatial resolution C) It is a direct measure that has good temporal resolution D) It is an indirect measure that has good temporal resolution

Answer 67

C) It is a direct measure that has good temporal resolution