Unit 4: Sensation & Perception

Question 1

sensation

Answer 1

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Question 2

perception

Answer 2

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, allowing us to recognize important objects and events

Question 3

sensory receptors

Answer 3

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli

Question 4

bottom-up processing

Answer 4

beginning with the sensory input, the brain attempts to comprehend from there

Question 5

top-down processing

Answer 5

led by experiences and higher-level processes, we comprehend what our brains are familiar with and what we want to see

Question 6

selective attention

Answer 6

our tendency to focus on just a particular stimulus among the many that are being received; although we are surrounded by sights and sounds, smells and tastes, we tend to pay attention to only a few at a time

Question 7

inattentional blindness

Answer 7

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Question 8

cocktail party effect

Answer 8

the ability to focus your attention on one particular voice in hubbub, a great example of selective attention

Question 9

change blindness

Answer 9

failing to notice changes in the visual environment

Question 10

transduction

Answer 10

conversion of one form of energy, such as light waves, into another form, like neural impulses that our brain is able to interpret

Question 11

What is the transduction process?

Answer 11

a. receive sensory information
b. transform the stimulation into neural impulses
c. deliver the neural information to the brain for processing

Question 12

psychophysics

Answer 12

the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

Question 13

absolute threshold

Answer 13

the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Question 14

signal detection theory

Answer 14

a theory predicting how and when we predict weak signals; this theory assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experiences and expectations

Question 15

subliminal

Answer 15

below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Question 16

difference threshold

Answer 16

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time

Question 17

priming

Answer 17

the action, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response

Question 18

Weber’s law

Answer 18

to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, rather than a constant amount

Question 19

sensory adaptation

Answer 19

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Question 20

perceptual set

Answer 20

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another; we see what we expect to see

Question 21

extrasensory perception (ESP)

Answer 21

the controversial claim that awareness can occur partly from sensory input; includes telepathy (mind-to-mind communication), clairvoyance (seeing remote things), and precognition (seeing the future)

Question 22

parapsychology

Answer 22

the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis (the ability of the mind to move objects)

Question 23

wavelength

Answer 23

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next

Question 24

hue

Answer 24

the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of the light; colors like blue, red, green, etc.

Question 25

intensity

Answer 25

the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness; intensity is determined by the wave's amplitude

Question 26

cornea

Answer 26

the eye's clear, protective outer layer covering the pupil and iris; light enters the eye first through the cornea

Question 27

pupil

Answer 27

a small adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light passes

Question 28

iris

Answer 28

a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening by expanding and contracting over the pupil

Question 29

lens

Answer 29

the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

Question 30

retina

Answer 30

the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones + layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

Question 31

accommodation

Answer 31

the process of lens changing its curvature to focus the rays

Question 32

rods

Answer 32

retinal photoreceptors on the side of the eye that detect black, white, and gray and are sensitive to movement; responsible for peripheral vision

Question 33

cones

Answer 33

retinal photoreceptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detects fine detail and create color sensations

Question 34

optic nerve

Answer 34

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain; comprised of the axons of the ganglion cells

Question 35

blind spot

Answer 35

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

Question 36

fovea

Answer 36

the central focal part in the retina around which the eye's cones cluster; this is the area of greatest visual focus

Question 37

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

Answer 37

the theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors (cones) -- one most sensitive to red, one to blue, and one to green-- which, when stimulated, can produce the perception of any color

Question 38

colorblindness

Answer 38

often lacking red and/or green-sensitive cones: vision is monochromatic and or dichromatic and seems 'normal' to them; hereditary

Question 39

opponent-process theory

Answer 39

the theory that cone photoreceptors are paired together (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) to enable color vision; activation of one color of the pair inhibits activation

Question 40

feature detectors

Answer 40

bundles of nerve cells located in the visual cortex of the occipital lobe that responds to a scene's edges, lines, angles, and movements

Question 41

parallel processing

Answer 41

thinking about many aspects of a problem simultaneously; different areas process motion, form, depth, and color and then compile these to on perceived image

Question 42

Gestalt

Answer 42

a German word meaning a “form” or a “whole”; German psychologists noticed that people who are given a cluster of sensations tend to organize them into these forms; Gestalt psychologists believe that in perception, the whole may exceed the sum of its parts; we filter incoming information and construct our perceptions

Question 43

figure-ground

Answer 43

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Question 44

grouping

Answer 44

our mind brings order and form to stimuli by following certain rules for grouping; these rules illustrate how the perceived whole differs from the sum of its parts

Question 45

depth perception

Answer 45

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional, this allows us to judge distance --> sets in when babies begin to crawl

Question 46

visual cliff

Answer 46

Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk (1960) designed a series of experiments in their Cornell University laboratory using a visual cliff, a model of a cliff with a "drop-off" area that was covered by glass to test babies' depth perception

Question 47

binocular cue

Answer 47

depth cues that depend on the use of both eyes; as an object becomes closer or father, both binocular depth cues operate to help us judge distance

Question 48

retinal disparity

Answer 48

by comparing the retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance; the greater the difference between the two images, the closer the object

Question 49

monocular cue

Answer 49

depth cues available to each eye separately when there isn't different retinal images between our two eyes

Question 50

relative height

Answer 50

we perceive objects higher in our field of vision as father away

Question 51

relative size

Answer 51

if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away

Question 52

interposition

Answer 52

if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it to be closer

Question 53

relative motion

Answer 53

as we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move ex: a person on a train might see passing homes as appearing to move, though the train is the object actually moving

Question 54

linear perspective

Answer 54

a type of depth prompt that the human eye perceives while viewing two parallel lines that appear to meet at a distance ex: when a long stretch of highway is seen by the human eye, the lanes seem to join together on the horizon.

Question 55

Phi phenomenon

Answer 55

our brain perceives a rapid series of slightly varying lights as continuous movement and constructs this movement in our heads ex: when we perceive two adjacent stationary lights blinking on and off in quick succession as one single light moving back and forth

Question 56

perceptual constancy

Answer 56

a top-down process that recognizes objects without being deceived by changes in their color, brightness, shape, or size

Question 57

color constancy

Answer 57

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

Question 58

shape constancy

Answer 58

perceiving an object as having an unchanging shape, even while our distance from it varies

Question 59

perceptual adaptation

Answer 59

the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Question 60

audition

Answer 60

the sense or act of hearing

Question 61

frequency

Answer 61

the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time, like per second

Question 62

pitch

Answer 62

a tone's experienced highness or lowness, depending on frequency

Question 63

middle ear

Answer 63

contains the eardrum and significant bones of the organ, the ossicles

Question 64

cochlea

Answer 64

a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlea fluid trigger neural responses

Question 65

inner ear

Answer 65

contains the cochlea, the auditory nerve, and the semicircular canals that control balance

Question 66

sensorineural hearing loss

Answer 66

damage to the cochlea's hair cell (cilia) receptors or the auditory nerve; those who experience this may hear sound but have trouble discerning what is being said

Question 67

conduction hearing loss

Answer 67

damage to the eardrum and middle ear bones that conducts sound waves to the cochlea; less common than sensorineural hearing loss

Question 68

cochlear implant

Answer 68

translates sounds into electrical signals that are transmitted to the cochlea, and, via the auditory nerve, relayed to the brain

Question 69

place theory

Answer 69

... presumes that we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different spots along the cochlea's basilar membrane: the brain determine's a sound's pitch by recognizing the specific area or membrane that is generating the neural signal

Question 70

frequency theory (temporal theory)

Answer 70

suggests the brain reads pitch by monitoring the frequency of neural impulses traveling up the auditory nerve; the whole basilar membrane vibrates with the incoming sound wave, triggering neural impulses to the brain at the same time as the sound wave

Question 71

pain

Answer 71

a biopsychosocial experience; in a pain circuit, sensory receptors respond to potentially damaging stimuli by sending an impulse to the spinal cord, which passes the message in the brain, which interprets the signal as pain

Question 72

gate-control theory

Answer 72

states 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 (like soreness) and is closed by activity in larger nerve fibers (like a massage) or by information coming from the brain (like distracting thoughts)

Question 73

taste/gustation

Answer 73

on the top and sides of one's tongue are 200 or more taste buds, each containing a pore that catches food chemicals

Question 74

smell/olfaction

Answer 74

we smell something when molecules of a substance carried in the air reach a tiny cluster of receptor cells at the top of each nasal cavity; is the only sense to NOT pass neural information through the thalamus

Question 75

synesthesia

Answer 75

in select individuals, the brain circuits for two or more senses become joined, and the stimulation of one sense, like hearing sound, triggers the experience of another, like seeing color; synesthetes may hear music as color or experience numbers as tastes

Question 76

kinesthetic sense

Answer 76

position and motion detectors in muscles, tendons, and joints sense the position and movement of body parts

Question 77

vestibular sense

Answer 77

fluid-filled semicircular canals and a pair of calcium-crystal filled vestibular sacs located in the ears monitor the head's and body's movements

Question 78

sensory interaction

Answer 78

our senses influencing each other ex: how when we have a cold, food tends to have less flavor --> smell affecting taste

Question 79

embodied cognition

Answer 79

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

Question 80

Gustav Fechner

Answer 80

German scientist and philosopher who demonstrated the non-linear relationship between psychological sensation and the intensity of a stimuli --> absolute threshold

Question 81

David Hubel

Answer 81

with Weisel, discovered how the visual system builds an image from simple stimuli into more complex representations in information processing --> feature detectors

Question 82

Harry McGurk

Answer 82

discovered the phenomenon of the impact of visual cues on speech perceptions, particularly the identification of spoken syllables

Question 83

Ernst Weber

Answer 83

German physician who is considered one of the founders of experimental psychology; his studies on the sense of touch introduced the concept of the difference threshold that future psychologists would research further

Question 84

Torsten Wiesel

Answer 84

with Hubel, discovered how the visual system builds an image from simple stimuli into more complex representations in information processing --> feature detectors