Chapter 4

Question 1

Lens

Answer 1

a transparent eye structure that focuses the light rays falling on the retina.

Question 2

Pupil

Answer 2

The opening in the center of the iris that helps regulate the amount of light passing into the rear chamber of the eye

Question 3

Retina

Answer 3

the neural tissue lining the inside back surface of the eye; it absorbs light, processes images, and sends visual information to the brain

Question 4

Optic disc

Answer 4

A hole in the retina where the axons from the eye converge and go to the brain

Also known as the blind spot because it is a hole where light cannot be processed

Question 5

Cones

Answer 5

Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in daylight vision and color vision

About 6 million in human eyes

Question 6

Rods

Answer 6

Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in night vision and peripheral vision

About 100 million in human eyes

Question 7

Fovea

Answer 7

a tiny spot in the center of the retina that contains only cones; visual acuity is greatest at this spot

Question 8

Dark adaptation

Answer 8

the process in which the eyes become more sensitive to light in low illumination

Question 9

Light adaptation

Answer 9

the process in which the eyes become less sensitive to light in high illumination

Question 10

Receptive field of a visual cell

Answer 10

the retinal area that, when stimulated, affects the firing of that cell

Question 11

Optic chiasm

Answer 11

the point at which the axons from the inside half of each eye cross over and then project to the opposite half of the brain

Question 12

Feature detectors

Answer 12

neurons that respond selectively to very specific features of more complex stimuli

Question 13

What are the “what and where” pathways for visual processing

Answer 13

Ventral stream (what)
Dorsal stream (where)

Question 14

What is processed in the ventral stream?

Answer 14

processes the details of what objects are out there

the perception of form and color

Question 15

What is processed in the dorsal stream?

Answer 15

processes where the objects are located

the perception of motion and depth

Question 16

What is subtractive color mixing

Answer 16

works by removing some wavelengths of light, leaving less light than was originally there

Question 17

What is additive color mixing?

Answer 17

works by superimposing lights, putting more light in the mixture than exists in any one light by itself

Question 18

What is trichromatic theory?

Answer 18

Holds that the human eye has three types of receptors with differing sensitivities to different light wavelengths

believed that the eye contains specialized receptors sensitive to the wavelengths associated with red, green, or blue

Question 19

What us color blindness

Answer 19

a variety of deficiencies in the ability to distinguish among colors

Color blindness occurs in roughly 8% of males but in less than 1% of females

Question 20

What are complementary colors

Answer 20

pairs of colors that produce gray tones when mixed together

Question 21

What is afterimage?

Answer 21

a visual image that persists after a stimulus is removed

The color of the afterimage will be the complement of the color you originally stared at

Question 22

What is opponent process theory?

Answer 22

holds that color perception depends on receptors that make antagonistic responses to three pairs of colors

The three pairs of opponent colors hypothesized are red versus green, yellow versus blue, and black versus white

The antagonistic processes in this theory provide plausible explanations for complementary afterimages and the need for four names (red, green, blue, and yellow) to describe colors

Question 23

What is a reversible figure?

Answer 23

A drawing that is compatible with two different interpretations that can shift back and forth

Question 24

What is a perceptual set?

Answer 24

a readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way

A perceptual set creates a certain bias in how someone interprets sensory input

Question 25

What is inattentional blindeness?

Answer 25

The failure to see fully visible objects or events in a visual display because one’s attention is focused elsewhere

Question 26

What is feature analysis?

Answer 26

the process of detecting specific elements in visual input and assembling them into a more complex form Feature analysis assumes that form perception involves bottom-up processing

Question 27

What is bottom-up prcessing?

Answer 27

a progression of processing from individual elements to the whole

Question 28

What is top-down processing?

Answer 28

a progression of processing from the whole to the elements

Question 29

What is the phi phenomenon?

Answer 29

The perception of movement from a series of still images (like animations)

Question 30

In an image, what is the figure and the background?

Answer 30

The figure is the thing being looked at, and the ground is the background against which it stands

Question 31

What is perceptual hypothesis?

Answer 31

An inference about what form could be responsible for a pattern of sensory stimulation.

Question 32

What are binocular depth cues?

Answer 32

clues about distance based on the differing views of the two eyes.

Question 33

What is retinal disparity?

Answer 33

refers to the fact that objects within 25 feet project images to slightly different locations on the right and left retinas, so the right and left eyes see slightly different views of the object

Question 34

What are monocular depth cues?

Answer 34

clues about distance based on the image in either eye alone

Question 35

What are pictorial depth cues?

Answer 35

cues about distance that can be given in a flat picture

Question 36

What are the 6 pictorial depth cues?

Answer 36

□ linear perspective □ Texture gradients □ Interposition □ Relative size □ Height in plane □ Light and Shadow

Question 37

What is perceptual constancy?

Answer 37

a tendency to experience a stable perception in the face of continually changing sensory input Ex. Someone's face gets bigger as they get closer, but we understand their face isn't actually growing, just coming towards us

Question 38

What are the Gestalt principles?

Answer 38

Gestalt = form or shape I\This states that the whole can be greater than it's parts

Question 39

What does the external ear consist of?

Answer 39

The pinna: the cone of the ear that we see

Question 40

What does the middle ear consist of?

Answer 40

Eardrum Ossicles

Question 41

What are the ossicles and what is their function?

Answer 41

The hammer, anvil, and stirrup. They transmit air vibrations from the outer ear into the inner ear

Question 42

What does the inner-ear consist of?

Answer 42

Cochlea Basilar membrane

Question 43

What is the cochlea and where is it located?

Answer 43

A fluid-filled, coiled tunnel that contains the receptors for hearing. It is in the inner-ear.

Question 44

What is the basilar membrane and where is it located?

Answer 44

Membrane in the cochlea that holds the auditory receptors, called hair cells. Waves in the fluid of the inner ear stimulate the hair cells which transmit neural impulses.

Question 45

What are the two theories of hearing?

Answer 45

Place theory Frequency theory

Question 46

What does place theory state?

Answer 46

A pitch is heard because it vibrates a hair cell on the basilar membrane that corresponds to that pitch, sending a neural impulse to the brain

Question 47

What does frequency theory state?

Answer 47

A pitch is heard because it vibrates the whole basilar membrane and all hair cells. The cells register the frequency of the pitch and send a neural signal

Question 48

What is auditory localization?

Answer 48

locating the source of a sound in space

Question 49

What is the gustatory system?

Answer 49

The sensory system for taste

Question 50

What are gustatory receptors?

Answer 50

clusters of taste cells found in the taste buds that line the trenches around tiny bumps on the tongue

Question 51

What are the four primary tastes?

Answer 51

sweet, sour, bitter, and salty

Question 52

What is sensory adaptation?

Answer 52

a gradual decline in sensitivity to prolonged stimulation

Question 53

What is the olfactory system?

Answer 53

Sensory system of smell

Question 54

What are the cell receptors for smells and where are they located?

Answer 54

olfactory cilia hairlike structures located in the upper portion of the nasal passages

Question 55

What are pain receptors and where are they located?

Answer 55

mostly free nerve endings in the skin

Question 56

What does the fast pathway for pain relay to the thalamus?

Answer 56

Registers localized pain and relays it to the cortex in a fraction of a second This is the system that hits you with sharp pain when you first cut your finger

Question 57

What does the slow pathway for pain relay to the thalamus?

Answer 57

This pathway (which also carries information about temperature) conveys the less localized, longer-lasting aching or burning pain that comes after the initial injury. Lags a second or two behind the fast system

Question 58

What does gate-control theory state?

Answer 58

Holds that incoming pain sensations must pass through a “gate” in the spinal cord that can be closed, thus blocking ascending pain signals.

Question 59

What is the fifth taste detectable by our tongue?

Answer 59

Umami, the savory taste of glutamate found in foods such as meats and cheeses

Question 60

How many taste buds do non-tasters have when compared to supertasters?

Answer 60

One-fourth

Question 61

What are the four sensations of touch?

Answer 61

Pressure, warmth, cold, pain

Question 62

What are the two regions of processing for touch?

Answer 62

Thalamus and the somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes

Question 63

What the natural painkillers produced by the body?

Answer 63

Endorphins