sensation, perception, learning

sensation

process in which our senses and nervous system receive stimuli from our environment

Bottom-up processing

used by sensation; info processing of raw material entering though our senses, uses sensory neurons

Perception

Brain organizing and interpreting sensory information

top- down processing

used by perception; info processing that uses our expectations and experiences to interpret incoming sensory information, it interprets what our senses detect

absolute threshold

minimum amount of stimulation a person can normally detect

signal detection theory

there is no set absolute threshold; each person has a different threshold depending on their psychological state(experiences, tiredness, motivation)

difference threshold

the smallest searchable change in a stimulus that a specific sense can detect; noticeable difference

weber's law

size of just noticeable difference is a proportion of the size of the initial stimulus

sensory adaptation

less sensitive to a sensation when you are constantly being stimulated

habituation (perception)

decreasing interest in something you are familiar with

selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular thing while excluding other things; only focus on limited amount of senses we receive

cocktail party effect

ability to pay attention to one voice out of many, especially your name

sensory interaction

one sense influences another

pain, warm, cold, pressure

four basic skin senses

pain

body's warning that something in wrong, it is due to senses and the brain

phantom limb

Brain can "feel" limb that is no longer there

Gate-control theory

incoming pain has to pass through spinal cord "gate" which is possible to close (debated theory)
feel less pain when distract your mind

located on state bids, process chemical molecules into neurons

where are the taste cells located and what do they do?

sweet, sour, bitter, salty: umami

4 primary tastes + maybe 5

taste and smell

what does flavor depend on

super tasters

ppl who have more receptors that can taste food more intensely

200-250

how many taste buds does a person have?

olfactory cilia

receptors of smell

infinite; invoke memories and feelings + mating

how many odors can we smell? what can odors do?

helps with balance

what fluid in the ear help with

place theory

perception of pitch related to vibrations of different places of basilar membrane

frequency theory

perception of pitch related to frequency at which whole basilar membrane vibrates

volley principle

perceiving a pitch depends on both place and frequency theories

auditory localization

locating the source of a sound based on loudness and timing when sound reached your ears

synethesia

experience two or more sense at the same time--> hearing and seeing

cornea

protects eye, helps eye focus

pupil

adjustable opening in eye

iris

regulates size of pupil

lens

behind pupil, focuses light rays on back surface of eye- focus on retina

retina

tissue in back of eye where light rays focus; contains rods and cones

pics are flipped upside down and the brain turns them right side up

what happens when pictures go through the lens

nearsightedness

when you can see fine up close but far is blurry; light rays from lens are focused in front of retina

forsightedness

when you can see far but up close is blurry; light rays from lens are focused behind retina

rods and cones

change light signals into neural signals that are sent to ganglion cells

optic nerve

carries info to your brain from your eye

optic disk- where blind spot is

a hole where optic nerves enter through; whats special at this point?

rods

see black and white, dim light, night vision, peripheral

cones

see color, visual sharpness, precise; cluster around fovea

fovea

point of central focus in each eye that cones cluster around

1- eye to opp hemisphere 2- thalamus 3- occipital lobe(primary visual cortex)

path of vision into the brain

optic chaism

point where optic nerves from each eye cross each other

parallel processing

different kinds of info gathered from same input (same info can be used for different things)

feature detectors

inside visual cortex;highly specialized neurons that respond to complex stimuli

hubel and Wiesel

who discovered/founded feature detectors

trichromatic theory- helmholtz

theory that the eye has 3 types of receptors w different sensitivities to different lights, only see red green and blue

opponent process theory- hering

color depends on receptors that make opp responses
red vs green; yellow vs blue,black vs while; purple vs orange

structural damage from birth to one or more sets of cones

how does trichromatic theory explain color blindness

eye projects opposite color when stimulus is removed

how does opponent process theory explain afterimages

Trichromatic Theory + Opponent Process Theory

what two theories explain color vision in the eye

depth perception

seeing objects in 3D, helps us estimate objects's distance

testing babies depth perception, babies stopped at the cliff bc born with depth perception

what was the visual cliff experiment

binocular- both eyes; monocular- each eye

difference between binocular depth perception and monocular

convergence and retinal disparity

what are the two binocular depth cues

convergence

how far your eyes move inward when looking at something; the more the eyes look inward the closer the object

retinal disparity

brain compares two images from each of out eyes; closer objects have greater disparity

monocular depth cues; 7

they allow us to see depth with one eye; used when looking at objects in the distance, used to give depth to a flat canvas; each eye separately; how many are there

relative size

the larger an object, the closer it is

interposition

if one object block another it is closer

relative height

objects that start higher on paper are further away

texture gradient

objects that you can see texture of are closer

relative clarity

clearer objects are closer

linear perspective

parallel lines seem to meet in the distance

light and shadow

shading produces a sense of depth bc we assume that light comes from above

Gastalt psychology

created organizational principles to explain how visual systems organize information; emphasizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; our brain groups things into meaningful units

figure ground

organizing what we see into objects that stand out from surroundings

similarity

grouping similar objects together, characteristic

proximity

grouping nearby objects

closure

fill in gaps to create a whole

continuity

see smooth patters that continue instead of abrupt endings

simplicity

see complex objects as made of something simpler

common fate

things moving in the same direction are more related than stationary things or things moving in different directions

connectedness

our brain groups objects together that are connected by lines or color

phi phenomenon

illusion of movement when things presented in rapid succession

perceptual constancy

we see objects as unchanging even as the lighting or retinal images change; different situation but same object

color constancy

colors change in relation to objects around them; perception of color is based on comparison

perceptual set

tendency for perception to be influenced by your expectations, emotion, motivation, and culture

priming

providing a stimulus that influences short-term future thoughts and action even though them may not seem to be connected

back masking

expecting to hear messages in music played backwards bc the works are priming your brain

classical conditioning

when a stimulus, after many trials, gains the ability to cause a response that it could not originally cause

pavlov; dogs and bell

who is classical conditioning and what experiment

unconditioned stimulus

stimulus that causes an automatic, unlearned response; not taught- eating the meat

unconditioned response

unlearned, natural reaction to unconditioned stimulus- salivating

neutral stimulus

stimulus that doesn't cause a reaction - bell

conditioned stimulus

stimuli that now gained ability to cause response- bell after conditioning

conditioned response

behavior that occurs as a reaction to conditioned stimulus- salvation

acquisition

initially learned something

extinction

gradual weakening/disappearance of conditioned response

spontaneous recovery

reappearance of response after thought to be extinct

generalization

respond similar to new stimuli that are similar to original stimuli

discrimination

when someone does not generalize response to like stimuli

operant conditioning

learning that occurs when consequences shape responses

thorndikes law of effect

if a consequence given to a response is pleasing, the association between stimulus and response will be strengthened

skinner and his box

who is operant conditioning and what experiment

continuous reinforcement

every response is rewarded

intermittent reinforcement

response is rewarded only some of the time