Unit 4: Sensation and Perception

Question 1

What is Agnosia?

Answer 1

Loss of the ability to perceive stimuli

Question 2

What is Anosmia?

Answer 2

The loss of the ability to smell

Question 3

What is Audition?

Answer 3

Ability to process auditory stimuli. Also called hearing

Question 4

What is the Auditory Canal?

Answer 4

Tube running from the outer ear to the middle ear

Question 5

Receptors in the cochlea that transduce sound into electrical potentials

Answer 5

Auditory hair cells

Question 6

what is Binocular Disparity?

Answer 6

Difference is images processed by the left and right eyes

Question 7

What is Binocular Vision?

Answer 7

Out ability to perceive 3D and depth because of the difference between the images on each of our retinas

Question 8

What is Bottom-Up Processing?

Answer 8

Building up to perceptual experience from individual pieces

Question 9

What is Chemical senses?

Answer 9

Our ability to process the environmental stimuli of smell and taste

Question 10

What is the Cochlea?

Answer 10

Spiral bone structure in the inner ear containing auditory hair cells

Question 11

What are the Cones in our eyes?

Answer 11

Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to color.

Question 12

Where are the cones in our eyes located?

Answer 12

Primarily in the fovea

Question 13

What is Dark Adaptation?

Answer 13

Adjustment of eye to low levels of light

Question 14

What is Differential Threshold (or difference threshold)?

Answer 14

The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli

Question 15

What is the Dorsal Pathway?

Answer 15

Pathway of visual processing. The “where” pathway

Question 16

What is Flavor?

Answer 16

The combination of smell and taste

Question 17

What is Gustation?

Answer 17

The ability to process gustatory stimuli. Also called taste

Question 18

What is Just Noticeable Difference (JND)?

Answer 18

The smallest difference needed in order to differentiate two stimuli

Question 19

What is Light Adaptation?

Answer 19

Adjustment of eye to high levels of light

Question 20

What are Mechanoreceptors?

Answer 20

Mechanical sensory receptors in the skin that respond to tactile stimulation

Question 21

What is Multimodal perception?

Answer 21

The effects that concurrent stimulation in more than one sensory modality has on the perception of events and objects in the world.

Question 22

What is Nociception?

Answer 22

Our ability to sense pain

Question 23

What are Odorants?

Answer 23

Chemicals transduced by olfactory receptors

Question 24

What is Olfaction?

Answer 24

Ability to process olfactory stimuli. Also called smell

Question 25

What is Olfactory Epithelium?

Answer 25

Organ containing olfactory receptors

Question 26

What is Opponent-Process Theory?

Answer 26

Theory proposing color vision as influenced by cells responsive to pairs of colors

Question 27

What are Ossicles?

Answer 27

A collection of 3 small bones in the middle ear that vibrate against the tympanic membrane

Question 28

What is perception?

Answer 28

The psychological process of interpreting sensory information

Question 29

What is a phantom limb?

Answer 29

The perception that a missing limb still exists

Question 30

What is phantom limb pain?

Answer 30

Pain in a limb that no longer exists

Question 31

What is the pinna?

Answer 31

The outermost portion of the ear. What we can see

Question 32

What is the Primary Auditory Cortex?

Answer 32

Area of the cortex involved in processing auditory stimuli

Question 33

What is the Primary Somatosensory Cortex?

Answer 33

Area of the cortex involved in processing somatosensory stimuli

Question 34

What is the Primary Visual Cortex?

Answer 34

Area of the cortex involved in processing visual stimuli

Question 35

What is the Principle of Inverse Effectiveness?

Answer 35

The finding that in general, for a multimodal stimulus, if the response to each unimodal component (on it's own) is weak, then the opportunity for multisensory enhancement is very large. However, if one component by itself is sufficient to evoke a strong response, then the effect on the response gained by simultaneously processing the other components of the stimulus will be relatively small

Question 36

What is the Retina?

Answer 36

The cell layer in the back of the eye containing photoreceptors

Question 37

What are the Rods in the eye?

Answer 37

Photoreceptors of the retina sensitive to low levels of light

Question 38

Where are the rods in our eyes located?

Answer 38

Around the fovea

Question 39

What is Sensation?

Answer 39

The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs

Question 40

What is Sensory Adaption?

Answer 40

Decrease in sensitivity of a receptor to a stimulus after constant stimulation

Question 41

What is Shape Theory of Olfaction?

Answer 41

Theory proposing that odorants of different size and shape correspond to different smells

Question 42

What is Signal Detection?

Answer 42

Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli

Question 43

What is Somatosensation?

Answer 43

The ability to sense touch, pain and temperature

Question 44

What is the Somatotopic map?

Answer 44

Organization of the primary somatosensory cortex maintaining a representation of the arrangement of the body

Question 45

What are Sound Waves?

Answer 45

Changes in air pressure. The physical stimulus for audition

Question 46

What is the Superadditive effect of Multisensory Integration?

Answer 46

The finding that responds to multimodal stimuli are typically greater than the sum of the independent responses to each unimodal component if it were presented on its own

Question 47

What are Tastants?

Answer 47

Chemicals transduced by taste receptor cells

Question 48

What are Taste Receptor Cells?

Answer 48

Receptors that transduce gustatory information

Question 49

What is Top-Down Processing?

Answer 49

Experience influencing the perception of stimuli

Question 50

What is Transduction?

Answer 50

The conversion of one form of energy to another

Question 51

What is the Trichromatic Theory?

Answer 51

Theory proposing color vision as influence by three different cones responding preferentially to red, green and blue

Question 52

What is the Tympanic Membrane?

Answer 52

Thin stretched membrane in the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound. Also called the eardrum

Question 53

What is the Ventral pathway?

Answer 53

Pathway of visual processing. The "what" pathway

Question 54

What is the Vestibular System?

Answer 54

Parts of the inner ear involved in balance

Question 55

What is Webers Law?

Answer 55

States that just noticeable difference is proportional to the magnitude of the initial stimulus