Chapter 6 Flashcards
(212 cards)
1
Q
What is sensation?
A
The reception and representation of environmental stimuli by the sensory receptors and nervous system.
2
Q
What is perception?
A
The organization and interpretation of sensory information by the brain that enables us to make meaningful sense of it and use it to recognize objects or events.
3
Q
What are sensory receptors?
A
Nerve endings that enable sensation.
4
Q
What is bottom-up processing?
A
Information processing that begins with sensory receptors and works up to higher, integrative levels of processing. Allows your brain to detect the lines, colours, and angles that form images.
5
Q
What is top-down processing?
A
Information processing that constructs perception from sensory input by drawing on experiences and expectations. Allows your brain to interpret what is detected by your senses.
6
Q
What three steps are basic to all of our sensory systems?
A
Receiving sensory stimulation, transforming it into neural impulses, and delivering it to our brain in the form of neural information.
7
Q
What is transduction?
A
The transformation of one form of energy (such as light) into another form our brain can use and interpret (such as images).
8
Q
What is psychophysics?
A
The study of how we experience physical phenomena psychologically.
9
Q
What is the distinction between sensation and perception?
A
Sensation is the bottom-up process of receiving sensory information, which is then represented by the nervous system. Perception is the top-down process of creating meaning from that sensory information through the brain’s interpretation of what is detected by sensation.
10
Q
What is an absolute threshold?
A
The minimum intensity at which a person can detect a stimulus half the time. “The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus (such as an approaching bike on the sidewalk behind you) 50 percent of the time.”
11
Q
What is signal detection theory?
A
A theory that predicts how and when we will detect the presence of a weak stimulus (or signal) against background stimulation. Assumes that absolute thresholds vary, and that one’s ability to detect a signal depends on experience, expectations, motivations, and alertness.
12
Q
What does one’s ability to detect a weak signal depend on according to signal detection theory?
A
Experience, expectations, motivations, and alertness.
13
Q
What is subliminal?
A
Something that is below one’s absolute threshold.
14
Q
How are we affected by subliminal stimuli?
A
“We do sense some stimuli subliminally—less than 50 percent of the time—and can be affected by these sensations. But although we can be primed, subliminal sensations have no powerful, enduring influence.”
15
Q
What is the difference threshold?
A
The “just noticeable difference,” or the minimum difference between two stimuli required to distinguish between them half the time.
16
Q
What causes the difference threshold to increase?
A
The size of the stimulus. It is easier to detect an addition of 5 decibels to 40 decibels than to 110 decibels.
17
Q
What is Weber’s law?
A
“The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).”
18
Q
When does subliminal stimulation happen?
A
“When, without your awareness, your sensory system processes a signal that is below your absolute threshold.”
19
Q
What is sensory adaptation?
A
“Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.” Nerve cells firing with less frequency as the result of a constant, unchanging stimulus.
20
Q
Why do objects not disappear from our sight because of sensory adaptation when we stare at them for a long time?
A
Because our eyes are constantly moving, ensuring our visual sensory receptors are constantly picking up on change.
21
Q
What is the purpose of sensory adaptation?
A
Allowing us to focus on changes in our environment.
22
Q
Why is it that after wearing shoes for a while, you cease to notice them?
A
Because of sensory adaptation.
23
Q
What is a perceptual set?
A
A set of mental tendencies and assumptions that predisposes us to perceive one thing and not another.
24
Q
What determines our perceptual set?
A
Our schemas, the organizing concepts we form through experience.
25
Besides perceptual set, what influences our interpretations of stimuli?
Context, emotion, and motivation.
26
Does perceptual set involve bottom-up or top-down processing? Why?
"Perceptual set involves top-down processing, because it draws on your experiences, assumptions, and expectations when interpreting stimuli."
27
What is wavelength?
The distance between two wave peaks of a light wave.
28
What is hue?
The colour we experience on account of wavelength.
29
What is amplitude?
The height of a wave from peak to trough, determining the intensity of light and brightness of colours.
30
What is amplitude?
The height of a wave from peak to trough, determining the intensity of light and brightness of colours, or the volume of sound.
31
What is frequency?
"The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second)."
32
What is the cornea?
The outer part of the eye that bends light to increase focus.
33
What is the pupil?
An adjustable opening through which light passes.
34
What is the iris?
A muscle that dilates or constricts in response to light intensity, controlling the size of the pupil.
35
What is the retina?
"The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information."
36
What is accommodation?
"The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina."
37
What is the lens?
A structure behind the pupil that focuses light on the retina.
38
What causes myopia?
When the lens focuses light just before the retina.
39
What are the characteristics of the energy that we see as visible light?
"What we see as light is only a thin slice of the broad spectrum of electromagnetic energy. The portion visible to humans extends from the shorter blue-violet wavelengths to the longer red light wavelengths."
40
What structures in the eye help focus light energy to create vision?
"After entering the eye through the cornea, passing through the pupil and iris, and being focused by a lens, light energy particles strike the eye’s inner surface, the retina."
41
What does the hue of light depend on?
Wavelength.
42
What does the hue of light depend on?
Wavelength. Shorter waves produce colours closer to blue-violet and longer waves produce colours closer to red.
43
What are bipolar cells?
Cells in the retina that react to chemical changes in the rods and cones to activate ganglion cells.
44
What are ganglion cells?
Cells in the retina whose axons combine to form the optic nerve.
45
In what order does light pass through various stages from the retina to the visual cortex?
To the rods and cones, then the bipolar cells, then the ganglion cells, through the optic nerve, through the thalamus, before reaching the visual cortex.
46
What are cones?
"Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations."
47
What are cones?
"Retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina (around the fovea) and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations." Cones also detect white.
48
What are rods?
"Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement. Rods are necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond." Rods detect peripheral motion.
49
What is the blind spot?
The spot where the optic nerve leaves the eye, which has no receptor cells, experienced on the nose side of each retina. The brain fills in the blind spot so you don't perceive it.
50
Which eye's blind spot do objects on your left fall into?
The left eye.
51
Why doesn't the blind spot impair vision?
Because your eyes are always moving and each eye catches what the other eye misses. Even with one eye closed, the brain fills in your blind spot so you don't notice it.
52
What is the fovea?
The area of central focus on the retina, around which the cones are clustered.
53
Why are cones able to detect fine detail?
Because many cones have a direct connection to a single bipolar cell that relays their information to the visual cortex.
54
What are the differences between rods and cones?
There are more rods than cones. Cones cluster at the center of the retina while rods are located around the periphery. Cones only function in well-lit conditions and detect colour and detail. Rods can function in low light conditions and enable black and white vision. Rods don't have a direct connection to a bipolar cell, but work in groups to send information to a bipolar cell.
55
How long does it take for your eyes to adjust to a change in light?
About 20 minutes or more.
56
What is the optic chiasm?
An X-shaped structure formed by the crossing of the optic nerves in the brain.
57
Half of each eye's sensory information arrives in:
The opposite half of the brain.
58
How do the rods and cones process information?
"Light entering the eye triggers chemical changes that convert light energy into neural impulses. Photoreceptors called cones and rods at the back of the retina each provide a special sensitivity—cones to detail and color, rods to faint light and peripheral motion."
59
What is the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic colour theory?
"The theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue—which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color."
60
What is an afterimage?
The phenomenon that occurs when you stare at a colour image for a long time before looking at a blank white space, and seeing the image colour-inverted.
61
What is opponent-process theory?
"The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green." Basically, red and green messages cannot be processed at the same time, but one inhibits the other.
62
How do we perceive color in the world around us?
Colour processing happens in two stages. First, cones sensitive to red, green, and blue respond to different colour stimuli. Then neurons in the retina and thalamus code the information from the cones into pairs of opponent colours.
63
What are feature detectors?
"Nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement."
64
Who discovered feature detectors?
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel.
65
Who discovered trichromatic colour theory?
Hermann von Helmholtz and Thomas Young.
66
Who discovered opponent-process theory?
Ewald Hering.
67
What is a supercell cluster?
A team of nerve cells that responds to complex patterns.
68
What is the fusiform face area?
A brain region located in the temporal lobes that allows us to identify faces. It is especially active in the right temporal lobe.
69
Where are feature detectors located?
In the occipital lobe's visual cortex.
70
What do feature detectors do?
"Respond to specific features of the visual stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. Feature detectors pass information on to other cortical areas, where supercell clusters respond to more complex patterns."
71
What is parallel processing?
"Processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously."
72
How does the brain use parallel processing to analyze a visual scene?
By analyzing the subdimensions of the visual scene (motion, form, depth, colour) simultaneously.
73
In what order does visual information processing occur?
Stimulus, retinal processing, feature detection, parallel processing, recognition.
74
What is the rapid sequence of events that occurs when you see and recognize a friend?
"Light waves reflect off the person and travel into your eyes. Receptor cells in your retina convert the light waves’ energy into neural impulses sent to your brain. Your brain detector cells and work teams process the subdimensions of this visual input—including color, movement, form, and depth—separately but simultaneously. Your brain interprets this information, based on previously stored information and your expectations, and forms a conscious perception of your friend."
75
What is gestalt?
"An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes."
76
What is figure-ground?
"The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)."
77
What is grouping?
"The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups."
78
What is the proximity principle of grouping?
The tendency to perceive figures close together as being part of a group.
79
What is the continuity principle of grouping?
The tendency to perceive continuous patterns rather than discontinuous or alternating ones.
80
What is the closure principle of grouping?
The tendency to fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object.
81
What are three principles of grouping?
Closure, continuity, proximity.
82
How do figure-ground and grouping principles influence our perceptions?
"To recognize an object, we must first perceive it (see it as a figure) as distinct from its surroundings (the ground). We bring order and form to stimuli by organizing them into meaningful groups, following such rules as proximity, continuity, and closure."
83
What is depth perception?
The ability to see in three dimensions, despite the images that reach our retinas being two-dimensional, which allows us to judge distances.
84
What is a visual cliff?
A model of a cliff used in laboratory settings to test depth perception in babies and young animals.
85
What is convergence?
The way eyes angle towards one another the closer an object is to them, assisting in depth perception. A binocular depth cue.
86
What are binocular cues?
A depth cue that relies on the use of two eyes, such as convergence or retinal disparity.
87
What is retinal disparity?
"A binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance—the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object."
88
What is a monocular cue?
A depth cue available to each eye separately.
89
What are some examples of monocular cues?
Relative height, relative motion, relative size, linear perspective, and interposition.
90
What is relative height?
A monocular depth cue - objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away.
91
What is relative motion?
A monocular depth cue. While in motion and fixing our gaze on a specific point, objects farther away from the fixation point appear to move faster.
92
What is relative size?
A monocular depth cue. If we assume two objects are similar in size (such as two people) most people perceive the smaller object as being farther away.
93
What is linear perspective?
A monocular depth cue. Parallel lines appear to converge the farther they are from us.
94
What is interposition?
A monocular depth cue. An object blocking another object is perceived to be closer (such as one person standing in front of another).
95
How do we normally perceive depth?
We are normally able to perceive depth thanks to both binocular cues (such as retinal disparity or convergence) and monocular cues (which include relative height, relative size, relative motion, linear perspective, and interposition).
96
When large and small objects move at the same speed, which objects appear to move more slowly?
The large objects.
97
What is stroboscopic movement?
A perceptual phenomenon where a rapid series of slightly varied images is perceived as continuous movement, as on a film or animation reel.
98
What is the phi phenomenon?
"an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession."
99
How do we perceive motion?
"As objects move, we assume that shrinking objects are retreating and enlarging objects are approaching. The brain computes motion imperfectly, with young children especially at risk of incorrectly perceiving approaching hazards such as vehicles. A quick succession of images on the retina can create an illusion of movement, as in stroboscopic movement or the phi phenomenon."
100
What is perceptual constancy?
A top down process of "perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change." For example, we can recognize a person regardless of changes to angle of view or lighting.
101
What is colour constancy?
A principle of perception that suggests the context we view a colour in changes our perception of it. If we know an object is an apple, we perceive it as red even if lighting changes alter the colour.
102
What is brightness constancy?
Our visual ability to perceive objects as having the same level of brightness even though the level of lighting changes. For example, black paper in natural light might be brighter than white paper in dim light, but we still perceive the black paper as dark.
103
What is relative luminance?
Brightness constancy relies on relative luminance. We perceive an object as dark even if it reflects a lot of light because it is dark relative to other objects nearby.
104
What is shape constancy?
The perception that the form of familiar objects remains constant even as our retinas receive changing images of them (such as when a door opens - it appears more trapezoidal, but we know it's the door).
105
What is size constancy?
The perception that an object remains the same size even as our distance from it changes.
106
How do perceptual constancies help us construct meaningful perceptions?
Perceptual constancies enable us to perceive objects as stable despite the changing image they cast on our retinas. Our brain constructs our experience of an object’s color or brightness through comparisons with other surrounding objects. Knowing an object’s size gives us clues to its distance; knowing its distance gives clues about its size, but we sometimes misread monocular distance cues and reach the wrong conclusions, as in the Moon illusion.
107
What is a critical period?
An optimal period when exposure to certain experiences is required for normal perceptual and sensory development. (For example, those born blind who have their vision restored later in life cannot learn to perceive shape).
108
What is perceptual adaptation?
"he ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field."
109
The characteristic of light that determines the color we experience, such as blue or green, is:
Wavelength.
110
The amplitude of a light wave determines our perception of:
Brightness.
111
The blind spot in your retina is located where:
The optic nerve leaves the eye.
112
The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory shows that the eye contains:
Three types of colour receptors.
113
Hering’s theory accounts for the nervous system’s having:
Opponent process cells.
114
The cells in the visual cortex that respond to certain lines, edges, and angles are called:
Feature detectors.
115
The brain’s ability to process many aspects of an object or a problem simultaneously is called:
Parallel processing.
116
In listening to a concert, you attend to the solo instrument and perceive the orchestra as accompaniment. This illustrates the organizing principle of:
Figure-ground.
117
Our tendencies to fill in the gaps and to perceive a pattern as continuous are two different examples of the organizing principle called:
Grouping.
118
The visual cliff experiments suggest that:
crawling human infants and very young animals perceive depth.
119
Perceiving a tomato as consistently red, despite lighting shifts, is an example of:
Perceptual constancy.
120
After surgery to restore vision, adults who had been blind from birth had difficulty:
Recognizing objects by sight.
121
In experiments, people have worn glasses that turned their visual fields upside down. After a period of adjustment, they learned to function quite well. This ability is called:
Perceptual adaptation.
122
What is audition?
The sense of hearing.
123
What determines the perceived loudness of sound?
The height, or amplitude, of sound waves.
124
What is pitch?
How high or low a tone sounds.
125
What determines the perceived pitch of a sound?
The frequency of sound waves. Low frequency = low pitch.
126
What are decibels?
The unit of measurement for sound intensity.
127
What does zero decibels represent?
The absolute threshold for hearing.
128
How many decibels is normal conversation?
60 decibels
129
What are the characteristics of the air pressure waves that we hear as sound?
Sound waves are bands of compressed and expanded air. Our ears detect these changes in air pressure and transform them into neural impulses, which the brain decodes as sound. Sound waves vary in amplitude, which we perceive as differing loudness (with sound intensity measured in decibels), and in frequency (measured in hertz), which we experience as differing pitch.
130
How does the ear transform sound energy into neural messages?
The outer ear funnels sound energy towards the eardrum, which vibrates when struck. The bones of the middle ear amplify and relay the vibrations through the oval window and the cochlea. Pressure changes in the cochlear fluid, causing the basilar membrane to ripple and bend the hair cells on its surface. Hair cell movements trigger impulses at the base of the nerve cells, whose fibers converge to form the auditory nerve. That nerve sends neural messages to the thalamus and on to the auditory cortex.
131
What is the middle ear?
the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones—hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes)—that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window.
132
What is the cochlea?
a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses.
133
What is the inner ear?
the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.
134
What is sensorineural hearing loss?
the most common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the cochlea’s hair receptor cells or to the auditory nerve; also called nerve deafness.
135
What is conduction hearing loss?
a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.
136
What is a cochlear implant?
a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
137
What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?
The outer ear collects sound waves, which are translated into mechanical waves by the middle ear and turned into fluid waves in the inner ear. The auditory nerve then translates the energy into electrical waves and sends them to the brain, which perceives and interprets the sound.
138
The amplitude of a sound wave determines our perception of:
Loudness.
139
How do we detect volume?
The number of hair cells that are activated by a sound increases at higher volumes.
140
What is place theory?
in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated. (Also called place coding.) Only high frequencies correlate with a specific place on the membrane, however.
141
What is frequency theory?
in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. (Also called temporal coding.)
142
An individual neuron cannot fire faster than 1000 times per second. How, then, can we sense sounds with frequencies above 1000 waves per second?
Because of the volley principle. Neural cells alternate firing in rapid succession in order to reach a combined frequency above what one of them could achieve alone.
143
What is the volley principle?
The principle that nerve cells can alternate firing so that the nerve impulses traveling the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone.
144
Which theory of pitch perception would best explain a symphony audience’s enjoyment of a high-pitched piccolo?
Place theory.
145
Which theory of pitch perception would best explain a symphony audience’s enjoyment of a low-pitched cello?
Frequency theory.
146
How do we detect pitch?
A combination of place theory and frequency theory.
147
What are the four basic touch sensations?
Heat, cold, pressure, and pain.
148
How do we sense touch?
Through the four basic touch sensations - heat, cold, pressure, and pain - that combine to form other sensations like wet or itchy.
149
What are nociceptors?
Sensory receptors that detect signals from damaged tissue or the threat of damage and indirectly also respond to chemicals released from the damaged tissue.
150
What is gate control theory?
the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.
151
Which nerve fibers conduct the most pain signals?
Small nerve fibers in the spinal cord.
152
Which nerve fibers can block pain signals?
Large nerve fibers in the spinal cord (which can be stimulated through massage, acupuncture, or electrical stimulation).
153
What techniques can "close the gate" on pain signals?
Mental distraction (brain to spinal cord messages) or stimulating large nerve fibers (such as through massage).
154
How do our memories of pain differ from the pain we actually experienced?
We don't tend to remember the length of pain, but remember its peak and its end. How intense pain is at the end of the experience dictates how we remember it.
155
What is hypnosis?
a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.
156
What are the two proposed explanations for how hypnosis works?
Social influence theory and dissociation theory.
157
What is a posthypnotic suggestion?
a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors.
158
What is dissociation?
a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.
159
What is gustation?
Our sense of taste.
160
What does sweetness indicate?
An energy source.
161
What does salty indicate?
The presence of salt that enables physiological processes.
162
What does sour indicate?
Potentially toxic acids.
163
What does bitter indicate?
Potential poisons.
164
What does umami indicate?
Proteins to grow and repair tissue.
165
How many taste buds are in each bump on your tongue?
200 or more.
166
How many receptor cells are in each taste bud?
50-100.
167
How often do taste receptors reproduce themselves?
Every week or two.
168
What is anosmia?
The inability to smell.
169
How does our system for sensing smell differ from our systems for touch and taste?
We have four basic touch senses and five basic taste sensations. But we have no specific smell receptors. Instead, different combinations of odor receptors send messages to the brain, enabling us to recognize some 1 trillion different smells.
170
What is kinesthesia?
our movement sense—our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
171
What are proprioceptors?
Sensory receptors that enable us to detect movement and body position.
172
What is the vestibular sense?
our balance sense—our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance.
173
What enables our vestibular sense?
The semicircular canals and vestibular sacs in your inner ear.
174
What are semicircular canals?
Inner ear structures filled with fluid that enable the vestibular sense (balance).
175
What are vestibular sacs?
Calcium crystal filled structures in the inner ear that enable the vestibular sense (balance).
176
Where are the kinesthetic receptors and the vestibular sense receptors located?
In the cerebellum.
177
What is the source of vision?
Light waves striking the eye.
178
What receptors are associated with vision?
Rods and cones in the retina,
179
What are the key brain areas involved in vision?
Occipital lobes.
180
What is the source of hearing?
Sound waves striking the outer ear
181
What receptors are associated with hearing?
Cochlear hair cells (cilia) in the inner ear
182
What are the key brain areas involved in hearing?
Temporal lobes
183
What is the source of touch?
Pressure, warmth, cold, harmful chemicals
184
What receptors are associated with touch?
Receptors (including pain-sensitive nociceptors), mostly in the skin, which detect pressure, warmth, cold, and pain
185
What are the key brain areas involved in touch?
Somatosensory cortex
186
What is the source of taste?
Chemical molecules in the mouth
187
What receptors are associated with taste?
Basic taste receptors for sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami
188
What are the key brain areas involved in taste?
Frontal/temporal lobe border
189
What is the source of smell?
Chemical molecules breathed in through the nose
190
What receptors are associated with smell?
Millions of receptors at top of nasal cavities
191
What are the key brain areas involved in smell?
Olfactory bulb
192
What is the source of kinesthesia?
Any change in position of a body part, interacting with vision
193
What receptors are associated with kinesthesia?
Kinesthetic sensors in joints, tendons, and muscles (proprioceptors)
194
What key brain areas are involved in kinesthesia?
The cerebellum
195
What is the source of the vestibular sense?
Movement of fluids in the inner ear caused by head/body movement
196
What receptors are associated with the vestibular sense?
Hair-like receptors (cilia) in the ears’ semicircular canals and vestibular sacs
197
What key brain areas are involved in the vestibular sense?
The cerebellum
198
What is embodied cognition?
the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments.
199
How does sensory interaction influence our perceptions?
for example, when the smell of a favorite food amplifies its taste.
200
What is sensory interaction?
the principle that one sense can influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.
201
What is the McGurk effect?
When what we see a speaker say and what we hear them say differ, so our brain combines the stimuli into a different word.
202
What is synesthesia?
When the stimulation of one sense triggers the experience of a different sense.
203
What are the three sources of perception?
Emotion, cognition, and sensation.
204
What is extrasensory perception (ESP)?
the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input
205
What are three kinds of ESP?
telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
206
What is clairvoyance?
The perception of remote events without sensory input, such as a house fire across the country.
207
What is parapsychology?
The study of paranormal phenomena such as ESP and telekinesis.
208
If an ESP event did occur under controlled conditions, what would be the next step to confirm that ESP really exists?
Replication.
209
The snail-shaped tube in the inner ear, where sound waves are converted into neural activity, is called the:
Cochlea
210
What are the basic steps in transforming sound waves into perceived sound?
Sound waves are collected by the outer ear, translated into mechanical waves by the middle ear, and turned into fluid waves in the inner ear. The auditory nerve then translates this energy into electrical waves and sends them to the brain, which interprets the sound.
211
The sensory receptors that are found mostly in the skin and that detect painful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals are called:
Nociceptors
212
The gate-control theory of pain proposes that:
small spinal cord nerve fibers conduct most pain signals, but large-fiber activity can close access to those pain signals.
