PSY10007 Week 4 Modules - Sensation and Perception

Flashcards about sensation and perception, covering topics such as study methods, the importance of sensation and perception, sensory systems, vision, audition, taste, smell, and cutaneous senses.

According to Ben Williams, what is a good way to study sensation and perception?

Begin by reading the lesson outlines, then watch the videos, then read the text, and then reread the text, each time making your own notes and elaborating on them every time, focusing on finding connections between all the ideas.

Why are sensation and perception important?

They are how we gather information about our environment and begin to interpret it, serving as our only contact with reality.

What is sensation?

A concrete physiological process that focuses on the body and the nerves in the body and turning environmental stimuli into a neural message.

What is perception?

A more abstract psychological process where we look at how neural signals are interpreted and turned into an experience or knowledge of how we should act.

What is adaptation in the context of sensory systems?

If a stimulus doesn't change, the sense that is receiving it becomes less responsive over time.

What is the general structure that all sensory systems share?

A stimulus, accessory structures, specialized receptors that transduce the stimulus, sensory nerves that carry the signal to the central nervous system, the thalamus as a relay station, and specific areas of the cortex for more complex processing.

What is the role of accessory structures in sensory systems?

Anatomical features that modify the signal, helping us adapt and control the stimuli so that the receptors underneath can deal with it better.

What is the role of specialized receptors in sensory systems?

Cells that transduce the physical stimulus into a neural signal.

What are the two types of neural codes?

Spatial codes, where the location of the stimulus corresponds to a place in space, and temporal codes, which involve how fast a nerve fires or a pattern of firing.

How is vision structured?

The stimulus is electromagnetic radiation or light. The accessory structures are the cornea, aqueous humor, iris, pupil, and lens. The specialized receptors are rods and cones in the retina.

What is accommodation in the context of vision?

The process of the lens flattening out when looking at objects far away and squeezing up to look at objects that are nearby.

What are rods and cones?

Specialized receptor cells in the retina where cones predominate at the center of our vision and are very sensitive to fine grained detail and color, and rods are mostly at the periphery of our vision and they're not color sensitive.

What is the fovea?

The area in the retina with the highest visual acuity and the highest concentration of cones.

What is the optic chiasm?

The point where the nerves cross over from one side of the brain to the other in the visual pathway.

What is the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)?

The relay station for vision in the thalamus.

What is the primary visual cortex (V1)?

The early cortical area for higher visual processing where most of the cells have a form of edge detectors.

What are the 'what' and 'where' pathways in vision?

The 'what' pathway deals with identifying what an object is, and the 'where' pathway deals with locations in space.

How is audition structured?

The stimulus is patent energy in the form of vibrations of air molecules. The accessory structures are the pinna, ear canal, and the bones (malleus, incus, stapes). The specialized receptors are hair cells in the organ of Corti.

What is amplitude in the context of sound?

The amount of compression and rarefaction in a waveform, correlating with the psychological experience of loudness.

What is frequency in the context of sound?

The number of times a waveform repeats in a second, measured in hertz, and perceived as pitch.

What is timbre?

The characteristic quality of a sound, determined by the shape of the waveform.

What is the function of the pinna?

To act like a funnel and to focus the sound energy.

What is the tympanic membrane?

Also known as the eardrum, it collects to three little bones called the malleus, the incus and the stapes

What is the cochlea?

The inner ear structure containing the hair cells that transduce vibrations into neural impulses.

How is taste structured?

The stimulus is chemicals dissolved in saliva. The tongue and papillae. The specialized receptors are taste buds containing receptor cells for sweet, bitter, salty, sour, umami, and astringent tastes.

How often are taste buds replaced?

Approximately every ten to fifteen days.

What are the four basic tastes?

Sweet, bitter, salty, and sour. Also Umami and Astringent.

How is smell structured?

The stimulus is odorant molecules. The accessory structure is the nose. The specialized receptors are hair cells in the olfactory epithelium.

What is the olfactory epithelium?

The receptor site for smell, located at the roof of the nose.

What is retronasal olfaction?

The process by which smells get to the olfactory epithelium via the back of the mouth.

What is verbal olfactory gap?

You always say, that thing's red or that thing's loud. But we always say, this thing smells like a strawberry. We always compare it to an object, not to the stimulus dimensions.

What are cutaneous receptors?

The receptors that we typically think of as something like touch and temperature, also known as the somatosensory system. They deal with different sensations, such as pressure, motion, vibration, temperature and pain.

Where are cutaneous receptors located?

All over our bodies in, on, and under our skin.

How are temperatures detected?

One set of receptors, which we're going to call the warm receptors, and they generally fire and they increase their firing as more heat is applied to the body. And we also have cold detectors that do the opposite. They fire more as the area that they're attached to gets colder and colder.

What is proprioception?

Senses where your body is in space and how you currently have your limbs positioned is figured out by two systems known as the kinesthetic sense or body position; and the vestibular system, which mostly has to do with balance.

What is the kinesthetic sense?

All about the position of your body parts. Special receptors called proprioceptors, which are in the muscles and joints, send information to your brain about how flexed or how stretched a muscle is and what the angle of a joint is, how a particular limb is bent.

What is the vestibular sense?

Deals mostly with balance and the position of your head.