Sensation & Perception

Question 1

What is sensation?

Answer 1

The detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain

Question 2

What is perception?

Answer 2

The brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs

Question 3

What is transduction?

Answer 3

The process of converting an external energy to substance into neural energy

Question 4

What is a sense receptor?

Answer 4

A specialised cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system

Question 5

What is absolute threshold?

Answer 5

The lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time

Question 6

What is just noticeable difference (JND)?

Answer 6

The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect

Question 7

What is the signal detection theory?

Answer 7

The psychophysical theory which describe the detection of stimuli under conditions of uncertainty

Question 8

What is cross-modal processing?

Answer 8

The mixing of senses across brain areas

Question 9

What are some examples of cross-modal processing?

Answer 9

McGurk effect
Rubber hand illusion
Synaesthesia

Question 10

What is selective attention?

Answer 10

The process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimising the others

Question 11

True or False: perception is an exact translation of our sensory experiences into neural activity

Answer 11

False

Question 12

True or False: in signal detection theory, false alarms and misses help us to measure hoe much someone is paying attention

Answer 12

False

Question 13

True or False: cross-modal activation often helps us to process information more accurately

Answer 13

True

Question 14

True or False: selective attention may blind us to what is happening right in front of our noses

Answer 14

True

Question 15

True or False: synchronised alpha oscillations (8-12Hz) in different regions of the cortex are used by the brain to coordinate separate processing activities (the binding problem)

Answer 15

False

Question 16

What is brightness?

Answer 16

The intensity of the reflected light that reaches our eyes

Question 17

What is hue?

Answer 17

The colour of light lenses

Question 18

What is accommodation (perception)?

Answer 18

Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far

Question 19

What is the fovea?

Answer 19

The part of the retina where light rays are most sharply focused. Only contains cones

Question 20

What is acuity?

Answer 20

The sharpness of vision

Question 21

What is the photopigment in rods?

Answer 21

Rhodopsin

Question 22

What are ganglion cells?

Answer 22

Nerve cells that transmit visual information from the eye to the brain

Question 23

What is the trichromatic theory?

Answer 23

The idea that colour vision is based on our sensitivity to three different colours (blue, green and red)

Question 24

How many different types of cones are there?

Answer 24

Three

Question 25

What is the opponent process theory?

Answer 25

The idea that we perceive colour as either red or green, or as either blue or yellow

Question 26

What is blindsight?

Answer 26

The remarkable phenomenon in which people with cortical blindness can make correct guesses about things in their environment, even though they cannot see them

Question 27

What is visual agnosia?

Answer 27

A deficit in perceiving objects; they can see the object but are unable to identify it correctly

Question 28

True or False: the visible spectrum of light differs across species and can differ across individuals

Answer 28

True

Question 29

True or False: the lens of the eye changes shape depending on whether lighting conditions are bright or dim

Answer 29

False

Question 30

True or False: although we perceive objects as unified wholes, different parts of our brain process different kinds of visual information, such as shape, colour and motion

Answer 30

True

Question 31

True or False: red-green colour blindness results when rods are missing but cones are intact

Answer 31

False

Question 32

True or False: people with visual agnosia have difficulty naming objects

Answer 32

True

Question 33

What causes colour blindness?

Answer 33

The absence or reduced number of one or more types of cones

Question 34

What is timbre?

Answer 34

The complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices or other sources sound unique

Question 35

What is a cochlea?

Answer 35

A bony, spiral-shaped sense organ used for hearing. Vibrations from sound waves disturb the fluid in the cochlea and travel to the base, where pressure is released and transduction occurs

Question 36

What is the organ of Corti?

Answer 36

Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing

Question 37

What is the basilar membrane?

Answer 37

The membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in the cochlea

Question 38

What are the different parts of the ear?

Answer 38

Outer Middle Inner

Question 39

What does the outer ear consist of?

Answer 39

Pinna Ear canal Tympanic membrane

Question 40

What is the pinna?

Answer 40

The part of the ear we can see, namely its skin and cartilage flap

Question 41

What is the tympanic membrane?

Answer 41

The eardrum

Question 42

What does the middle ear consist of?

Answer 42

Ossicles

Question 43

What are the ossicles?

Answer 43

The three tiniest bones in the body - named the hammer, anvil and stirrup - which vibrate at the frequency of the sound wave, transmitting it from the the tympanic membrane to the inner ear

Question 44

What does the inner ear consist of?

Answer 44

Cochlea | Semicircular canal

Question 45

What is the semicircular canal?

Answer 45

Three fluid filled structures that play a role in balance

Question 46

What is the place theory?

Answer 46

a theory of hearing which states that our perception of sound depends on where each component frequency produces vibrations along the basilar membrane.

Question 47

What is frequency theory?

Answer 47

A theory that states that the frequency of the auditory nerve's impulses corresponds to the frequency of a tone, which allows us to detect its pitch.

Question 48

What is the volley theory?

Answer 48

states that groups of neurons of the auditory system respond to a sound by firing action potentials slightly out of phase with one another so that when combined, a greater frequency of sound can be encoded and sent to the brain to be analyzed

Question 49

What is conductive deafness?

Answer 49

Deafness due to the malfunctioning of the ear, especially a failure of the eardrum or the ossicles

Question 50

What is nerve deafness?

Answer 50

Deafness due to damage to the auditory nerve

Question 51

What is noice-induced hearing loss?

Answer 51

Loss of hearing due to the damage of hair cells due to exposure to loud noises

Question 52

True or False: sound waves are converted to neural impulses by creating vibrations of the fluid inside the cochlea

Answer 52

True

Question 53

True or False: we can determine the location of a sound because the pitch seems higher in the closer ear

Answer 53

False

Question 54

True or False: place theory states that each hair cell in the inner ear has a particular pitch or frequency with which it is most responsive

Answer 54

True

Question 55

True or False: as we age, we tend to lose hearing for low-pitched sounds more than high-pitched sounds

Answer 55

False

Question 56

What is a perceptual set?

Answer 56

The relation between a stimulus and its context. Grouping things together that make sense

Question 57

What are perceptual constancies?

Answer 57

The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions

Question 58

What are Gestalt principles?

Answer 58

Rules that govern hoe we perceive objects as whiles within their overall context

Question 59

What are the different Gestalt principles?

Answer 59

``` Proximity Similarity Closure Figure-ground Symmetry Good continuation ```

Question 60

What is a bistable image?

Answer 60

An image we can perceive in one of two ways

Question 61

What is depth perception?

Answer 61

Our ability to judge distance and three-dimensional relations

Question 62

What are monocular depth cues?

Answer 62

Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye

Question 63

What is a binocular depth cue?

Answer 63

Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using both eyes

Question 64

What are some examples of monocular depth cues?

Answer 64

``` Size Texture gradient (detail) Interposition (objects in front/behind) Linear perspective Height in plane Light and shadow ```

Question 65

What are some examples of binocular depth cues?

Answer 65

Binocular disparity | Binocular convergence

Question 66

What is binocular disparity?

Answer 66

The difference between the images of each each. The more similar the image, the further the object is away

Question 67

What is binocular convergence?

Answer 67

The extent to which our eye muscles are causing our eyes to look inwards. The more inwards our eyes, the closer the object

Question 68

True or False: in top-down processing we construct a whole stimulus from its parts

Answer 68

False

Question 69

True or False: we perceive depth only when we have two slightly different view from our eyes

Answer 69

False

Question 70

True or False: the firing rate of even a single neuron can code the presence of a perceptual Gestalt

Answer 70

True

Question 71

True or False: the earths atmosphere enlarges the appearance of the moon, creating the moon illusion

Answer 71

False

Question 72

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 72

Constructing a whole stimulus from its parts. For example: perceiving an object on the basis of its edges

Question 73

What is top-down processing?

Answer 73

Perceiving a stimulus based on our expectations on what it should be

Question 74

What is the binding problem?

Answer 74

Our brain processes different elements (shape, size, colour etc.) of an object in different areas. Any of these elements alone do not reflect the entire object but when the come together the object can be interpreted

Question 75

How many rods are there per ganglion cell?

Answer 75

120 rods

Question 76

How many cones are there per ganglion cell?

Answer 76

6 cones

Question 77

What is the photopigment in cones?

Answer 77

Photopsin