PSY 101 Chp.4-7

What is sensation?

The process of receiving, converting, and transmitting raw sensory info from the external and internal environment to the brain.

What is perception?

Making sense of sensory info by selecting, organizing, and interpreting it.

What is transduction in sensory processing?

The process by which sensory receptors convert a stimulus into a neural impulse. (Specific receptors stimulate specific neurons in the CNS.)

What is the absolute threshold?

The minimum amount of a stimulus that an observer can reliably detect.

What is the difference threshold?

The minimum difference required to notice a stimulus change, also known as 'just noticeable difference'.

What is sensory reduction?

The process of analyzing and filtering incoming sensations before sending a neural message to the cortex. (Brain-based reduction)

What is the role of the reticular formation in sensory processing?

It decides if the stimulus is high enough in priority to be brought to the attention of the conscious part of the brain.

What is selective attention?

Attending only to important sensory info by filtering out unimportant information. (Brain-based reduction)

What is sensory adaptation?

Decreased response to repeated or constant stimuli resulting in less sensory messages being sent to the brain. (Brain-Based reduction)

What is habituation?

A sensory-organ based decreased response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to it. Ex. Spicy foods become less spicy the more you eat them.

What are monocular cues?

Visual input from one eye that allows us to perceive depth or distance.

Where is and what is the function of the fovea?

Located in the center at the back of retina, this area contains only cones. So, it’s responsible for seeing fine detail and color.

Where is and what is the function of the lens?

Located behind the iris. It’s responsible for seeing things up close and farther away by thickening and thinning respectively.

What is the function and where is the retina?

It’s the inside lining tissue of the eyeball. It contains all photoreceptors (rods and cones) to covert light/visuals into vision signals.

Where and what is the function of the optic nerve?

The optic nerve is located at the back of the eye, connecting the retina to the brain. Its function is to transmit visual information from the retina to the brain for processing.

What is the optic disk?

The optic disk is the point on the retina where the optic nerve fibers exit the eye. This produces a blind spot because there are no photoreceptors at that spot.

What are cones?

Photoreceptor cells that transduce info about fine detail and color.

What are rods?

Photoreceptor cells that transduce info about black, white, and grey. They surround the outside of the fovea.

What is trichromatic theory?

States that there are three types of cones (red, green, and blue) in the retina that are sensitive to different but overlapping wavelengths of light.

What makes up the outer ear?

The pinna, ear canal, and tympanic membrane.

All are responsible for funneling soundwaves from the outside and amplifying it to the middle ear.

What makes up the middle ear?

The ossicle bones (anvil, hammer, and stirrup). They further amplify the sound waves to the inner ear.

What makes up the inner ear?

The cochlea and auditory nerve. The cochlea are hair-like cells that are receptors for vibrations. The auditory nerve relays that stimulus to thalamus and then auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. Together they sense sound and where our head is positioned in space.

What is the place theory of pitch perception?

Different locations on the cochlea are stimulated by different pitches. (True for higher pitch sounds.)

What is the frequency theory of pitch perception?

Pitch is sensed based on the firing rate of the auditory nerve. (True for lower pitch/low frequency sounds).

What is bottom-up processing?

Taking sensory info and then assembling and integrating it to understand the world.

What is top-down processing?

Using models, ideas, and expectations to interpret sensory info.

What is perceptual parsing?

The way our visual system divides everything we see into components, including figure-ground distinction.

What are the critical features for perception?

Depth perception, constancy, and motion.

What is no awareness?

Unconscious processes such as associative learning. Freud believes we have unconscious thoughts that direct our behavior.

What is subconcious awareness?

Occurs when people are awake, sleeping, dreaming, incubation, and parallel processing. Basically processes that occur that don’t interfere with our awareness

What are altered states of consciousness?

Produced by drugs, trauma, fatigue. sensory deprivation, and possibly hypnosis. Basically a mental state that is not typical.

What is lower-level conciousness?

Automatic processing that requires little attention. Such as watching a sunset.

What is high-level consiousness?

When individuals actively focus their efforts on attaining a goal. Such as doing a math problem.

What is the significance of the amygdala in memory?

Enhances the formation of a memory by associating it with a strong emotional experience.

What are circadian rhythms?

Daily biological cycles that are about 24 hours long, regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN).

What is the NREM sleep stage?

Stages 1-4 of sleep, necessary to occur before REM sleep.

What is the manifest content of dreams according to Freud?

The surface level appearance of a dream.

What are implicit memories?

Memories affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience.

What are procedural memories?

Motor skills. Ex. riding a bike or driving a car.

What explicit memories?

Memories that involve conscious recall.

What is semantic memory?

Memories about general facts or knowledge. Ex. bananas are yellow.

What is episodic memory?

Memories about personal experiences/life events. Ex. when you graduated highschool.

What is retrieval in the context of memory?

The process of getting information out of storage and bringing it to awareness. It can be done by recall, recognition, or relearning.

What does the term 'chunking' refer to in memory?

Grouping smaller bits of info into larger, more meaningful pieces to improve recall.

What is operant conditioning?

A form of associative learning in which behavior is influenced by consequences.

What is classical conditioning?

A learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

What is spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning?

The reappearance of a previously extinguished response.

What is the difference between proactive interference and retroactive interference?

Proactive interference is when old info makes it harder to learn new info, while retroactive interference is when new info makes it harder to recall old info.

What is anterograde amnesia?

Inability to form new memories after an event of trauma.

What is retrograde amnesia?

Loss of memory for events that occurred before the point of trauma.

What role does the hippocampus play in memory?

Holds explicit and implicit long-term memories and sequences of events, activating related brain areas for retrieval.

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

A biological mechanism for learning and memory involving a long-lasting increase in neural excitability. Either through repeated stimulation or

What is the self-reference effect in memory?

The tendency to remember information better when it relates to oneself.

What is memory consolidation?

The transfer of short-term memories to long-term ones.

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory?

Memory passes through three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Examples of neurotransmitters involved in memory

Epinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine.

Difference between fixed and variable interval reinforcement?

Fixed:  Given after a fixed amount of time since last response.

Variable: Given after a variable amount of time since the last response,

Difference between fixed and variable ratio reinforcement?

Fixed: Reinforcement given after a fixed number of responses.

Variable: Reinforcement given after a variable number of correct responses. Usually centered around an average.

What is the basal ganglia’s and cerebellum’s role in memory?

Creation and storage of implicit and basic memory.

What is the hippocampus and surrounding area’s role in memory?

Holds explicit and implicit LTM and the sequences of events. It activates the areas of the brain associated with a memory.

What is the thalamus’ role in memory?

Formation of new, spatial, working, explicit, and implicit memory.

What is the cerebral cortex’s role in memory?

Responsible for the encoding, storage, and retrieval of explicit and implicit memories.