Week 8

Question 1

Sensation

Answer 1

Physiological process that underlies transformation of the chemical, mechanical, light and sound energy in the world into electrical activity in the brain

Question 2

Perception

Answer 2

Psychological process involved in the organization and interpretation of sensations

Question 3

Transduction

Answer 3

Conversion of physical energy into electrical potentials - happens in sensory receptor cells, which are specialized neurons

Question 4

Quantitatively

Answer 4

Referring to amounts or quantities that can be measured objectively

Question 5

Qualitatively

Answer 5

Pertaining to some quality or characteristic other than magnitude (wavelength/sound/light)

Question 6

Gustation

Answer 6

Sensing with taste

Question 7

Olfactory

Answer 7

Sense of smell

Question 8

Somatosenses

Answer 8

Bodily senses.
Proprioception
Vestibular senses

Question 9

Proprioception

Answer 9

A sense of relative position of lims and other parts of the body, due to receptors in muscles and joints, sometimes called kinesthesis

Question 10

Vestibular senses

Answer 10

Senses involved with balance

Question 11

Receptor cells

Answer 11

Specialized neurons that transduce physical energy (light etc) into electrical signals

Question 12

Adequate stimulus

Answer 12

Type of physical energy to which a sensory receptor is especially tuned

Question 13

Sensory adaptation

Answer 13

A change, usually decreased, in sensitivity that occurs when a sensory system is repeatedly stimulated in exactly the same way

Question 14

Fatigue

Answer 14

Neurons that are subjected to steady, continuous stimulation become unable to send signals across synapses

Question 15

Pattern (or population) code

Answer 15

Instead of information being conveyed by single cell nerves or a small group of cells, it is conveyed in the activity across a whole population (a lot) of cells

Question 16

Temporal code

Answer 16

uses the rate at which the neurons are firing to determine perception

Question 17

Place coding

Answer 17

Depends on the location of the neurons firing to determine perception

Question 18

Spontaneous rate

Answer 18

Rate of neural firing when no stimulus is present

Question 19

Rate of firing

Answer 19

Codes the intensity of the stimulus

Question 20

Multisensory

Answer 20

Relating to or involving more than one physiological sense

Question 21

Cranial nerves

Answer 21

12 pairs of nerve fibres that travel onto and out of the skull and carry all sensory information (except somatosenses) from parts of the body below the neck

Question 22

Psycophysics

Answer 22

The study of how sensation relates to perception

Question 23

Sensory thresholds

Answer 23

The point at which a stimulus triggers the start of an afferent nerve impluse

Question 24

Difference threshold

Answer 24

The just noticeable difference between 2 stimuli

Question 25

Webers Law

Answer 25

The size of the just noticeable difference of a stimulus divided by its initial intensity is a constant

Question 26

Fechner's Law

Answer 26

In every sensory domain, each just noticeable difference represents an equal step in the psychological magnitude of a sensation. This means that changes in stimulus can be compared across sensory domains, for example, between vision and touch

Question 27

Steven's Power Law

Answer 27

Proposed relationship between the magnitude of a stimulus and its perceived intensity and strength

Question 28

Absolute thresholds

Answer 28

Minimum value of a stimulus that can be detected

Question 29

Cognitive factors

Answer 29

Factors that involve thought processes, including changes in attention, expectation and altertness

Question 30

Signal detection theory

Answer 30

Mathematical theory of the detection of stimulation in which every stimulus event requires discrimination between the signal (stimulus) and noise (consisting of both background stimuli and random activity in the neurons system)

Question 31

Receiver operating characteristics

Answer 31

Graph of hits and false alarms of participants under different motivational conditions; indicated people's ability to detect a particular stimulus

Question 32

3 perpetual decisions

Answer 32

1. Assuming what you're looking at 2. Based on previous knowledge of what that thing is, decide how far away it is 3. If the spots are getting bigger, it must mean it's getting closer

Question 33

Unconscious inferences

Answer 33

Perception us built up from elemental sensations - but this doesn't explain illusionary contours

Question 34

Gesalt Grouping Rules

Answer 34

A set of rules that describe when elements in an image will appear to group together

Question 35

Constructivist approach

Answer 35

Perceptions are constructed from degraded, bare bones sensory input, plus guesswork based on knowledge and experience