Chapter 6 Flashcards
(30 cards)
Where does sensation begin?
The sense receptors which are cells located in the sense organs
Uses neural impulse to communicate
What is synesthesia?
A condition in which stimulation of one sense evokes another
What are absolute thresholds?
The smallest quantity of physical energy that can be reliably detected by an observer
Used to test how sensitive the senses are
What is a difference threshold?
The smallest difference in stimulation that can be reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared
What is signal detection theory?
A psycho-physical theory that divides the detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and decision process
Weeds out yay-sayers and nay-sayers
What is sensory adaptation?
The reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
What is sensory deprivation?
The absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
What is selective attention and inattentional blindness?
Selective attention- focusing of attention on selected aspects of the environment and blocking out others (protects us from overload stimulation)
Inattentional blindness- failure to consciously perceive something you are looking at because you are not attending to it
What are the three psychological dimensions of our visual world affected by light?
- Hue- wavelength of light
- Brightness- intensity of light (amplitude)
- Saturation- complexity of light (widened and narrowness of range of waves)
What is the cornea, iris, pupil, and retina?
Cornea- front part of eye that protects it and bends incoming light toward lens behind it
Iris- controls the amount of light that gets into the eye (gives eye colour)
Pupil- widens and narrows for light
Retina- visual receptors in the back of the eye
What are rods and cones?
Receptors in the retina used for vision
Cones are in the fovea where vision is sharpest (help us see colour) 7-8 mil
Rods are on outer edges (more sensitive to light) 120-150 mil
Why carried info from the back of the eye to the brain?
Collection of axons of ganglion cells that form the optic nerve
Optic nerve leaves eye at the optic disc (blind spot)
What is the trichromatic theory?
First level of processing
Theory of colour perception that proposes three cones in the retina for colour (blue, green, red)
They interact with eachother to show different hues
What is the opponent-process theory?
Second level of colour processing
A theory of colour perception that assumes that the visual system treats pairs of colours as opposing or antagonistic
What are the four gestalt principles?
- Proximity- objects that are close together are often grouped together
- Closure- filling in gaps left on page
- Similarity- things that are alike in some way tend to be perceived as belonging together
- Continuity- lines and patterns tend to be perceived as continuing in time or space
What is perceptual constancy and it’s 5 sub categories?
The accurate perception of objects as stable or unchanged despite changes in sensory patterns
- Shake constancy
- Location constancy
- Size constancy
- Brightness constancy
- Colour constancy
What are the three categories of sound?
- Loudness- intensity of waves pressure (amplitude)
- Pitch- frequency of sound wave (how rapidly air vibrates)
- Timbre- quality of the sound (complexity of sound wave
How does sound enter the ear and convert into what we hear?
Diagram on page 203
Sound wave passes through the eardrum, it vibrates and this vibration is passed along to three tiny bones in the middle ear (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) which intensify the vibration, the stirrup then pushes on a membrane that opens into the middle ear
What is the actual organ of hearing?
Diagram on page 203
The organ of Corti
A chamber inside the cochlea (snail shaped structure inside middle ear)
Contains all the important receptor cells
What can loud noises damage inside the ear?
The hair cells (cilia)
What is the composition of human tongue used for taste?
Diagram on page 205
Taste=gustation
The tongue has tiny bumps called papillae which are lined with taste buds on the sides
The receptor for taste lies within the taste bud, not the taste bud itself
No taste buds on the middle of the tongue
Sweet sour bitter salty
Where are our receptors for smell?
Smell=olfaction
They are specialized neutrons embedded in a tiny patch of mucous membrane in the upper part of the nasal passage
Signals from the receptors are carried to the brains olfactory bulb by the olfactory nerve
What is the gate control theory of pain?
Pain impulses must get past a gate in the spinal cord in order to be felt
(Finishing a competition with a broken bone)
What is a theory for phantom pain involving the brain?
The brain has reorganized itself, the area of the sensory cortex that formerly corresponded to the missing body part has been invaded by neuroma from another area
