Chapter 4 Sensation/Perception Flashcards
(89 cards)
0
Q
How you feel sensations
A
- sensory organs get stimuli
- transduction
- impulses travel to thalamus (smell skips this step)
- thalamus sends it to diff cortices of the brain
1
Q
Transduction
A
Sensory signals being transformed into neural impulses
2
Q
Factors affecting sensation
A
- sensory adaptation
- sensory habituation
3
Q
Sensation
A
Activation of any sense (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, vestibular, kinesthetic)
4
Q
Perception
A
Process of understanding and interpreting sensations
5
Q
Sensory adaptation
A
Decreasing responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation
6
Q
Sensory habituation
A
How our perception of sensations is partially due to how focused we are on them
7
Q
Light
A
- electromagnetic waves in visible light spectrum
- Light intensity
- wavelength
8
Q
Pathway light takes
A
- cornea
- pupil and lens surrounded by iris
- cones and rods of retina
- bipolar cells of retina
- optic nerve (axons of ganglion cells)
- lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus
- visual cortices in occipital lobe
9
Q
Cornea
A
Protective covering around eye, helps focus light
10
Q
Pupil
A
Where light goes through to enter eye
11
Q
Iris
A
Muscles that dilate and contract the pupil to let more or less light in (dilate in dark places, contract in light)
12
Q
Lens
A
Curved and flexible structure used to focus the light entering the eye- called accommodation
13
Q
Retina
A
- At the back of the eye
- made up of specialized neurons activated by different wavelengths of light (performs transduction)
14
Q
Cones
A
- First layer of Retinal cells
- activated by color
- concentrated in center of eye, esp the fovea
- used when you focus on something, but not very useful in low illumination (that’s the reason you can’t see much color when it’s dark)
15
Q
Fovea
A
Center of retina that has the highest concentration of cones
16
Q
Rods
A
- Found in first layer of retinal cells
- cells that respond to black and white
- mostly found in the outer borders of the retina, used in peripheral vision and in low illumination
- outnumber cones 20 to 1
17
Q
Bipolar cells
A
2nd layer of cells in the retina that activate when enough cones and rods are activated
18
Q
Ganglion cells
A
3rd and final layer of retinal cells, activated when a certain amount of bipolar cells fire
- axons of ganglion cells make up the optic nerve
- nerve impulses sent to the brain through optic nerve
19
Q
Blind spot
A
Hole in retina where optic nerve leaves the eye, has no rods or cones
20
Q
Optic fiber
A
Made up of axons of ganglion cells, exits through optic disk to take neural impulses to brain
- impulses from left half of each retina goes to left brain hemisphere, right half of retina go to right half of hemisphere
21
Q
Optic chiasm
A
Place where optic nerves cross each other, meet at the thalamus and then go to corresponding hemisphere
22
Q
David hubel and Torsten Wiesel
A
Discovered that groups of neurons in brains primary visual cortex respond to specific elements of visual stimuli (feature detectors)
23
Q
Feature detectors
A
Cells in the primary visual cortex that respond to only specific elements of visual stimuli
24
Color vision theories
- trichromatic
- opponent-process
- most researchers agree color vision is a combination of both
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Trichromatic theory
- 3 types of cones in retina- detect either red, green, or blue
- activated in diff combination to make all the colors we see
- can't explain afterimages and color blindness
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After image
After staring at one color for a long time, and then looking at a blank space, you will see the same image in a complementary color
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Complementary color
Colors that when mixed make grey
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Colorblindness
Dichromats
- can't see either red/green shades or blue/yellow shades
Monochromats
- can only see shades of grey
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Opponent process theory
cones in retina control a pair of complementary colors, either:
- blue and yellow
- red and green
- black and white
- explains color blindness and afterimages
30
Sound
- waves created by vibrations in the air
- amplitude
- frequency
31
Light intensity
- how much energy light has, brightness
32
Wavelength (light)
distance bw waves of light
- what hue or color we see
- red is longest wavelength, violet is shortest wavelength (Roy g biv)
- reflected wavelengths of light are what we see while absorbed colors are hidden
- black is when all color wavelengths are absorbed, white when all color wavelengths reflected
33
Amplitude
- height of sound wave
| - determines loudness (decibels)
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Frequency (sound)
- length of waves
- determines pitch in megahertz
- low frequency waves are spaced far apart and have a low pitch
- 2 theories on how we hear pitch- place theory and frequency theory
35
Pathway sound takes
- Pinna
- ear canal
- eardrum
- ossicles (hammer, anvil, stirrup)
- oval window
- cochlea
- auditory nerve
- temporal lobe
36
Pinna
Outer ear, sound waves first collected here
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eardrum
Thin membrane at the end of the ear canal that vibrates as sound waves hit it
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Ossicles
3 small bones connected to the ear drum, collect the vibrations emitted from the eardrum and transmits it to oval window
- hammer
- anvil
- stirrup
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Oval window
Membrane that is in front of the cochlea
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Cochlea
Ear Structure shaped like a snail's shell after the oval window
- filled with fluid that moves as the oval window vibrates
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Basilar membrane
- floor of the cochlea lined with hair cells that move as the fluid of the cochlea moves from vibrations
- hair cells connected to the organ of corti
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Organ of corti
- Set of neurons connected to hair cells of basilar membrane
- activated by movement of hair cells (performs transduction)
- connected to auditory nerve
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Auditory nerve
Sends auditory neural impulses from organ of corti to temporal lobes
44
Place theory
the level of pitch we sense depends on the location of hair cell movement in the basilar membrane
- explains pitch in higher tones
45
Frequency theory
The level of pitch we sense depends on the rate at which hair cells fire in the basilar membrane
- explains pitch in lower tones
46
Conduction deafness
- when any structure leading up to the cochlea is damaged
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Nerve or sensorineural deafness
Occurs when hair cells of cochlea are damaged, esp by loud noise
- hair cells don't regenerate, so more difficult to treat
48
Sense of touch
- nerve endings all over our body sense touch
- a nerve ending responds to either pressure or temp
- some areas of body more concentrated with nerve endings than others
- we sense placement of touch by where nerve endings fire
- sharp temp or pressure stimulates pain receptors
- gate control theory
49
Gate control theory
- some pain messages have higher priority than others, so they are the ones sent to the brain and others are shut out
- pain killing chemicals "close" the gate to pain sensations
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Tasting sense (Gustafson)
- Chemicals of food absorbed into taste buds of the papillae
- 5 flavors-sweet salty sour bitter and umami
- some taste buds react more strongly to certain flavors than others
- more densely packed the taste buds the more intense you taste food
- flavor is combo of taste and smell
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Papillae
Bumps on the tongue that houses the taste buds
52
Umami
Savory, Meaty taste type
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Smell sense (olfaction)
- Chemicals in the air settle in mucous membrane at the top of each nostril
- absorbed by olfactory receptor cells, as many as 100 diff types
- receptor cells linked to olfactory bulb which sends info to amygdala and hippocampus (connection to limbic system explains why smell easily triggers memory
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Body position senses
- vestibular
| - kinesthetic
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Vestibular sense
- tells us how body is orientated in space
- 3 semi fluid filled canals in ear, when head position changes, fluid swishes to the side and moves hair cells in that area that activate neurons, too much movement causes nausea
56
Kinesthetic sense
- Tells us how a specific body part is orientated in space
| - receptors in muscles and joints give brain info about where our limbs are, this plus visual feedback helps us
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Psychophysics
Study of interaction bw sensation and our experience of them
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Absolute threshold
Smallest amount of a stimulus we can still detect 50% of the time
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Subliminal
Stimuli below our absolute threshold
- subliminal messages can sometimes affect behavior in subtle ways but evidence is not substantial for more complex messages to have any affect
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Just noticeable difference
Smallest amount of change in a stimulus that we can still detect
- controlled by weber's law
- each sense varies according to a constant, constant for hearing is 5%, so sound would have to be increased by this for a difference to be detected
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Webers law
- the more intense a stimulus originally is, the more difference in the stimulus is needed for it to be detected as a just noticeable difference
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Perceptual theories
- signal detection theory
| - top down and bottom up processing
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Signal detection theory
- how motivation to detect a certain stimuli and expectations affect our perception
- motivation and expectations called response criteria or receiver operating characteristics
- some perceptual mistakes are much more serious than others, also altering perception
- false positive- perceive something not there
- false negative- not perceiving something that's there
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Top down processing
- when we use our experience or schemata to fill in gaps in what we perceive
- is shorter than bottom up processing but more prone to error
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Perceptual set
Predisposition to perceive something a certain way
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Bottom up processing
- aka feature analysis
- perceiving something by looking at its individual elements first and putting them all together for out final perception
- takes longer than too down but is more accurate
67
Principles of visual perception
- figure ground relationship
Gestalt rules
- proximity
- similarity
- continuity
- closure
- constancy (size, shape, brightness)
Motion
- stroboscopic effect
- phi phenomenon
- auto kinetic effect
monocular depth cues
- linear perspective,
- relative size,
- interposition,
- texture gradient,
- shadowing
binocular depth cues
- retinal disparity,
- convergence
68
Figure ground relationship
How a viewer decides what part of an image is the figure and what is just the background (vase and faces illusion)
69
Gestalt views on visual perception
We perceive images as groups not as isolated elements
70
Proximity
Gestalt rule visual perception
| - objects closer together are perceived as being of same group
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Similarity
Gestalt rule visual perception
| - objects similar to each other perceived as grouped together
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Continuity
Gestalt rule visual perception
| - objects that form a continuous smooth form more likely to be perceived as same group
73
Closure
Gestalt rule visual perception
- like top down processing, objects that make recognizable image perceived to be of same group even if gaps need to be filled by mind
74
Constancy
Principle visual perception
- ability to maintain constant perception of an object despite its changes in how we see it according to angle of vision, light variations etc
- size- getting closer or farther to an object does not make it bigger or smaller
- shape- objects viewed from diff angles will appear diff shape but we know nothing has changed
- brightness- even tho diff light variations will make objects appear diff color, we know it is the same
75
Stroboscopic effect
Perceived motion
| Images in a series of still pics presented at a certain speed will be perceived to be moving even tho they are not
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Phi phenomenon
Perceived motion
| Series of light bulbs turned on and off at a particular rate will make it seem as though the light is moving
77
Auto kinetic effect
Perceived motion
| Ppl will report seeing a spot of light in a dark room move while staring steadily at it
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Monocular depth cues
Depth cues that don't depend on both eyes
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Binocular depth cues
Depth cues that depend on both eyes
80
Linear perspective
Monocular depth cue
| - parallel lines like railroad tracks converge in the distance
81
Relative size cue
Monocular depth cue
| - objects closer are larger, farther makes smaller
82
Interposition
Something partially blocking the form of something else is in front of it and this closer to us
83
Texture gradient
Monocular depth cue
| - objects more detailed in texture are closer to us
84
Shadowing
Monocular depth cue
| - imply a light source and depth and position to objects
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Retinal disparity
Binocular depth cue
- each eye views an object at a diff angle so it produces a slightly diff image, the closer an object is the more disparity there is
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Convergence
Binocular depth cue
| - the more eyes get closer together, the closer an object is to us
87
Effects of culture on perception
- some perceptual rules have been found to be learned
- cultures that don't use monocular depth cues in art don't see depth in pictures using these
- muller lyer illusion only fools cultures who have a lot o right angle structures in their society
88
Extrasensory perception
- having a sensation outside of the listed known sensations
| - psychologists skeptical
