Sensation and Perception

Question 1

Define sensation

Answer 1

Registering stimulation of the senses

Question 2

Define perception

Answer 2

Processing and interpreting sensory information

Question 3

Define cognition

Answer 3

Using perceived information to learn, classify, comprehend

Question 4

What do mechanoreceptors detect?

Answer 4

Air pressure waves, tissue distortion, gravity and acceleration

Question 5

What do chemoreceptors detect?

Answer 5

Chemical composition (e.g. taste, olfactory)

Question 6

What do photoreceptors detect?

Answer 6

Electromagnetic energy

Question 7

Name the cortex electromagnetic energy (light) is processed in.

Answer 7

Primary visual cortex

Question 8

Name the cortex taste information is processed in

Answer 8

Gustatory cortex

Question 9

Name the cortex olfactory information is processed in

Answer 9

Olfactory cortex

Question 10

Name the cortex sound is processed in

Answer 10

Auditory cortex

Question 11

Name the cortex information from the skin is processed in

Answer 11

Somatosensory cortex

Question 12

Name the cortex movement (gravity and acceleration) is processed in

Answer 12

Temporal cortex

Question 13

What is transduction?

Answer 13

The conversion of environmental energy to nerve signals

Question 14

What is the order of information processing?

Answer 14

Environmental stimulus - Receptors - Intermediate neurons - Thalamus - Receiving area in cortex - Secondary (associative) cortex - Higher cortex

Question 15

What order does information pass through the brain?

Answer 15

Receiving area in cortex - Secondary (associative) cortex - Higher cortex

Question 16

What information does not pass through the thalamus?

Answer 16

Olfactory information (smell)

Question 17

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 17

Perception begins with physical characteristics of stimuli and basic sensory processes

Question 18

What approach did Gibson (1950) support?

Answer 18

Bottom-up processing (“Direct Perception”)

Question 19

What is top-down processing?

Answer 19

The perceiver constructs their own understanding of environmental stimuli based on past experience and knowledge

Question 20

What approach to perception did Gregory (1966) support?

Answer 20

Top-down processing

Question 21

What methods are used to investigate sensation and perception?

Answer 21

• Staining
• Single-cell recordings (electrophysiology)
• fMRI
• Lesion studies
• ERP/EEG
• Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)
• Psychophysics
• Illusions
• Computational modelling

Question 22

What are single-cell recordings?

Answer 22

Using a microelectrode inserted close to the cell to record the action potential of the neuron

Question 23

What did Quiroga et al. (2005) find?

Answer 23

‘Halle Berry neuron’ in the medial temporal lobe of epilepsy patients

Question 24

What are the 2 types of lesion studies?

Answer 24

Animal lesioning and neuropsychology

Question 25

What are the disadvantages of animal lesioning?

Answer 25

- Ethical issues - Studying a faulty system - Brain changes in response to damage

Question 26

What are the disadvantages of neuropsychology?

Answer 26

- Damage can diffuse - Individual variation in damage

Question 27

Give an example of "virtual lesions"

Answer 27

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Question 28

What did Grossman et al. (2005) find?

Answer 28

TMS over the posterior superior temporal sulcus disrupts biological motion

Question 29

What is psychophysics?

Answer 29

Quantifying the relationship between the physical stimulus and the psychological response

Question 30

What is the absolute/detection threshold?

Answer 30

The smallest stimulus intensity needed for detection

Question 31

What is the difference threshold?

Answer 31

The smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected

Question 32

What task is used to measure thresholds in psychophysics?

Answer 32

Two alternative forced-choice task

Question 33

What did Blake et al. (2003) find?

Answer 33

Disrupted biological motion in autistic children

Question 34

What does the "Spinning Dancer" illusion by Kayahara (2003) demonstrate?

Answer 34

Bi-stable perception, as lack of depth cues leads to visual ambiguity