Chapter 4

Question 1

Perception

Answer 1

What we perceive in a glance can sometimes contradict the image we receive.

Question 2

Transduction

Answer 2

The process of converting basic sensory information into neural activity that the brain can interpret.

Question 3

Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

Answer 3

1. In order to keep organized information from our five senses: Sight, hear, touch, taste smell; signals from these five sources of input are sent to different brain areas.
2. This notion of separate brain areas is proposed by Johannes Muller 1826.

Question 4

Attention to Input

Answer 4

1. Varies according to the novelty of the information being sent to the brain from our sensory organs. We have evolved to become particularly keen to understand less familiar objects and events. And new stimuli that emerge more suddenly.
2. This is how attentional processes influence sensation and perception. If only attention can be thought of as heightening our sensitivity to stimuli and our environment, we experience the things less familiar to us. It is beneficial to understand and respond quickly to surprising events, and human curiosity has helped us adapt to a range of environments.
3. We are less sensitive to information that are familiar to us, which is useful because it wouldn’t be as useful to devote as much attention to inputs that we already understand very well over new and unfamiliar information.

Question 5

Sensory Adaptation

Answer 5

Sensitivity to tone down familiar inputs. We are set up to devote less attention to very familiar stimuli. Thus we experience adaptation as boredom when engaging in repetitive, routine activities.

Question 6

Pscyhophysics

Answer 6

Methods for investigating what humans can sense from their environment. Gustav Fechner invented this. The goal seeks to measure the relationship between the energy detected by our sensory organs and our psychological experience of that energy.

Question 7

Absolute Threshold

Answer 7

The minimum amount of energy or amount of stimulus that we can detect at least 50% of the time.

Question 8

Difference Threshold

Answer 8

The smallest difference between stimuli we can detect at least 50% of the time. This is also called the just noticeable difference threshold.

Question 9

Weber’s/Fechner’s LAw

Answer 9

Differences in intensity are more difficult to detect at higher intensities. Example, increasing the amount of light in an already lit room will have little impact than the increase from a dim room.

Question 10

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 10

Considers both the amount of stimulation that people receive with their personal threshold for reporting the presence of a stimulus or a change in stimulus intensity. What people report about their sensory depends on the stimulation they receive and the threshold they set for reporting the presence of a stimulus.

Question 11

Structuralism

Answer 11

Focused on the elementary units of perception, which is like focusing on the separate lines that form a connect-the-dots image.

Question 12

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 12

1. Insisted that perception is far more than simply the component parts that go into it. The idea is that something more than the parts emerges out of the way that we organize perceptual features.
2. We infer non-existent motion when the images of the two circles are presented repeatedly and close together in time.

Question 13

Figure Ground Principle

Answer 13

1. We use the visual features of objects to determine which are the objects in our environment and what parts are the background.
2. What we perceive as Figure vs. Ground depends on how we organize visual features.

Question 14

Law of similarity

Answer 14

Grouping objects together according to features they have in common. Ex. Color shape, size.

Question 15

Law of Proximity

Answer 15

Grouping objects together according to their closeness in space.

Question 16

Law of Continuity

Answer 16

Grouping features together when some part of them is obscured by another object. Presume that the object continue behind the obstruction.

Question 17

Law of Closure

Answer 17

We infer that features with pieces missing belong to the same object if the features of the object are consistent for that type of inference. This works when viewing of the object are degraded, example as lighting is poor.
Thus law of continuity and closure determines why we are so skilled in perceiving objects even when we are provided with weak or distorted information.

Question 18

Bottom up Processing

Answer 18

Perception that derives from sensory inputs.

Question 19

Top down processing

Answer 19

Perception that derives from our prior experiences and expectations. However it’s to blame for misunderstanding.

Question 20

Divided attention

Answer 20

Is okay when it is fairly simple. However not when tasks take a lot more cognitive effort.

Question 21

Selective attention

Answer 21

Focusing just on one task. Downside is that you won’t be very aware on other information.

Question 22

Inattentional blindness

Answer 22

Failure to perceive visual events when you are focusing attention on some other task. Ex. When focused on another aspect of the scene, people can even fail to notice a gorilla passing through.

Question 23

Sensation

Answer 23

1. Process that our sensory organs perform when they see the information about the world around them. This is the earliest step to allowing us to know how to respond effectively to events.
2. Sensory organs give us the raw materials that we need to understand the world.
3. There’s sensitivity to different types of energy, these organs send that information about that energy to the brain, which performs further processing.

Question 24

Vision and Properties of Light

Answer 24

Light travel in waves, and the distance is in wavelengths.

Question 25

The visual light spectrum

Answer 25

Light energy are invisible to us, our eyes are not designed to detect those forms of light. Radio waves are too long for us to see while Gamma rays are too short for us to see. Blue and purple are the shortest wave lengths and what we perceive is long wave lengths are red and yellow

Question 26

Amplitude

Answer 26

Distance between lowest and highest length of the wave. The sun is high amplitude while candle is low amplitude, which is safer.

Question 27

Saturation

Answer 27

1. Light that consists of a mixture of different wavelengths have low saturation and at the extreme, we perceive the many mixtures of light waves as white. However when light wave lengths are all the same, we perceive the light to be vivid. 2. What we perceive as color represent the wavelengths that bounce off of objects. Blue, black absorb all light.

Question 28

Cornea:

Answer 28

The clear part in front. Direct light to the correct spot into the back of the eye.

Question 29

Lens (Behind pupil)

Answer 29

the clear part that changes shape. Its job is to bend light according to the distance of object we are trying to focus. Close objects require us to be more spherical. Bringing far objects require our lens to be flat.

Question 30

Accommodation

Answer 30

The lens must be round to bring near objects into focus and flat to bring far objects into focus.

Question 31

Photoceptors

Answer 31

Transduce light energy into neural signals

Question 32

Ganglion Cells

Answer 32

Take signals or information about light absorption from photoreceptors and relay that information to the brain.

Question 33

Optic Nerve

Answer 33

Where the axons of ganglion cells get bundled together.

Question 34

Rods

Answer 34

Are more sensitive to light, and they do not provide as fine grained an image as the cones.

Question 35

Cones

Answer 35

1. Less sensitive to light so we don't rely on them as much in the dark. 2. Different cones respond to different wavelengths, so we rely on them for color vision.

Question 36

Fovea

Answer 36

Each ganglion cells are connected to a single cone photo receptor, whereas about 10 rod photo receptors connect to a single ganglion cell, the outer region of the retina.

Question 37

Dark adaptation

Answer 37

The process of rods and cones adjusting their sensitivity to darker lighting conditions.

Question 38

Tri-Chromatic (Or Young Helmholtz) Theory

Answer 38

Color vision: Depends on three types of cones that are each sensitive to different wavelengths of light that correspond to the colors blue, green and red.

Question 39

Opponent Process Theory: Explains negative afterimages

Answer 39

Cells that respond to, say green, get exhausted over time when presented with something green. And viewing green inhibits cells that respond to red. Tired Green ganglion cells can't compete with a rebound effect from the previously inhibited red ganglion cells, once we stop viewing something green. And instead of a return to a neutral state, we end up experiencing an illusion of red after staring at green.

Question 40

Nearsightedness

Answer 40

OR Myopia. Prevents bringing far scenes into focus.

Question 41

Farsightedness

Answer 41

or Hyperopia. Prevents bringing close objects into focus. Glasses and contact lenses correct this problem.

Question 42

Optic Chiasm

Answer 42

Optic nerve fibers crosses over from left side to the right side, and the optic nerve fivers crosses over from the right to the left side. Result is that information from both eyes gets processed by the visual cortex on the back of our brains.

Question 43

From the eyes to the brain

Answer 43

Left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere. And left visual cortex processes information from the right visual field processed by the left hemisphere.

Question 44

Occipital cortex

Answer 44

Cells in the occipital cortex of humans and other animals respond to edges presented at a specific orientation and at a specific location in the visual field.

Question 45

Perceptual Constances

Answer 45

We are able to unconsciously correct for these variations and perceive the properties of objects as constant (or unchanging).

Question 46

Ventral stream of visual processing

Answer 46

Deals with processing visual information according to its identity.

Question 47

Shape Constancy

Answer 47

Different viewing angles do not lead us to conclude objects are changing shape.

Question 48

Color Constancy

Answer 48

Light and shadow change the wavelengths that bounce off of objects to strike our retinas.

Question 49

Size Constancy

Answer 49

The size of image an object projects varies with distance, but we are able to correct for this variability.

Question 50

Dorsal stream of visual processing

Answer 50

Deals with processing visual information for the purpose of guiding motor actions (enabling use of the pencil for writing).

Question 51

Depth Perception

Answer 51

Despite the 2D image projected to our retinas, depth perception enables us to perceive the world in 3D.

Question 52

Binocular Depth Cues

Answer 52

One of the cues of the two is called convergence. The extreme form of convergence requires us to cross our eyes. Another is called retinal disparity: Use viewing angles to determine how far an object is away from us. 3D movies use the retinal disparity to trick our eyes.

Question 53

Monocular Depth Cues

Answer 53

Accommodation: Lens changing shape in response to bringing close vs. far objects into focus. This is one source of information we can use to determine the distance of objects. Motion Parallax: Helps with depth perception when we are on the move. In those situations, visual inputs that are closer to us will appear to move faster and in the opposite direction as our own movements. Whereas ones that are further away appear to move slowly as if they are going the same direction. Landscape artists often rely heavily on monocular depth cues to give their pieces depth.

Question 54

Interposition (Monocular depth cues)

Answer 54

In which one can infer that an object is closer than another one because it obscures the view of the other object.

Question 55

Object brightness (Monocular depth cues)

Answer 55

This is another cue that we can use since the light received by our retinas from objects that are further away will be in lower intensity than the light from closer objects.

Question 56

Linear perspective:

Answer 56

Occurs when parallel lines proceed into the distance. When they do, the lines appear to get closer together.

Question 57

Texture Gradient (Monocular depth cues)

Answer 57

Help with depth perception because far objects will tend to be less defined and blurry at far distances.

Question 58

Height in Plane (Monocular Depth Cues)

Answer 58

Cue to distance since aspects of the environment are higher than our visual field will tend to be further away.

Question 59

Relative Size (Monocular depth cues)

Answer 59

Useful depth cue since an object will project a smaller image onto our retinas if it is further away from us.

Question 60

The auditory system

Answer 60

Ears collect sound waves and use that information to detect the source of the content and location of the noise or just to enjoy the experience of listening.

Question 61

Sound waves

Answer 61

the effect on air molecules caused by some physical disturbance. If someone shouts or pounds the table it displaces the surrounding air molecules. Which in turn displaces air molecules near by, and that keeps happening in all directions until the force of the initial event dissipates. 2. Two properties of sound: 1. frequency, which is the pitch of the sound. Short wavelength is higher frequency sound and low wavelength is low frequency sound. 2. Amplitude is the height of the sound wave. This is the displacement of the air molecule caused by the sound's origin. We measure sound amplitudes by decibels (DB)

Question 62

Pinna (Sensory organs for hearing)

Answer 62

Flexible outer flap of the ear, which channels sound waves into the ear canal.

Question 63

Eardrum

Answer 63

Membrane that vibrates in response to sound waves

Question 64

Semicircular canal

Answer 64

One of three fluid filled structures that play a role in balance.

Question 65

Cochlea

Answer 65

Converts vibration into neural activity

Question 66

Ossicles

Answer 66

Bones of the middle ear

Question 67

Auditory canal

Answer 67

Conducts sound waves to the eardrum.

Question 68

Malleus

Answer 68

Hammer

Question 69

Stapes

Answer 69

Stirrup

Question 70

Higher Frequency sounds (place theory of hearing)

Answer 70

Produces more displacement of hair cells nearest to the stapes.

Question 71

Lower frequency sounds (Place theory of hearing)

Answer 71

Produce more displacement of hair cells further along the basilar membrane

Question 72

Place theory of hearing

Answer 72

The idea is that the brain uses which hair cells are sending the strongest signals to determine whether a sound is higher or lower in pitch.

Question 73

Frequency Theory of Hearing

Answer 73

The stapes taps against the cochlea at a frequency that matches the frequency of the sound wave striking the eardrum. This will also cause the basilar membrane to vibrate at this same frequency, causing hair cells along the basilar membrane to vibrate at that frequency too. The theory is that hair cells send signals to neurons connected to them according to the frequency they are vibrating. Such signals would allow us to perceive the pitch of a sound in a way that relates directly to the frequency of a sound.

Question 74

Volley Principle

Answer 74

Many neurones work as a team could alternate their firing to achieve a rate of firing well above 1000 times per second.

Question 75

Sound Localization

Answer 75

Sound coming to the nearest ear will have a higher pitch.

Question 76

Inferior Colliculli

Answer 76

Guide as a processing information location, and will guide our new sound to our old sound.

Question 77

The sense of touch

Answer 77

Gives us information about temperature, pressure and location. And sends signals to our somatosensory cortex.

Question 78

Haptics

Answer 78

Active exploration of objects to learn their properties

Question 79

Kinesthesis

Answer 79

Sensors in our muscles, joints, and tendons that give us a sense of the position of our body parts in space.

Question 80

Fast Fibres

Answer 80

For sharp intense pain caused by injury.

Question 81

Slow fibres

Answer 81

For the persistent throbbing pain that persists after an injury occurs. Sent to the spinal cord.

Question 82

Gate Control Theory

Answer 82

The idea that some spinal cord cells send pain signals to the brain and others that inhibit transmission of pain signals to the brain. Being in a state of arousal (or distracted by other sensations) seems to activate spinal cord fibres that suppress transmission of pain signals.

Question 83

Phantom limb pain

Answer 83

Absence of a limb still gives feelings of pain and signals to the brain about the pain. This is because of hyper sensitivity in neurons of that region.

Question 84

The gustatory system

Answer 84

Basic components of taste are: Salty, sour, bitter, sweet and Umami (Savory: Seaweed)

Question 85

Papillae

Answer 85

Bumps on our tongue. Connected to it are dendrites of nerves that come up. Taste buds are the only sensory organ capable of regenerating, they do so about every ten days.

Question 86

Thalamus

Answer 86

Signals from the tongue first go to the thalamus then to a primary gustatory cortex region located in the insula.

Question 87

The Olfactory System

Answer 87

Air go into our noses and go into the olfactory epithelium (receptors, cilia little hair). Then go into our brain structure called the olfactory bulb and trigger positive and negative reactions.