Psychology: Chapter 4

Sensation

The proccess of detecting and converting raw sensory information from the external and internal enviroments and transmitting it to the brain. Sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin and internal body tissues) detect stimulus, they conver it into neural impulses that are transmitted to our brain.

Perception

The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting sensory information. Turning them into meaningful objects and events.

Bottom Up Processing

Information processing that starts at the “bottom” with an analysis of smaller features and then builds on them to create complete perceptions.

Example: Learning the alphabet before being able to write words.

Top-down Processing

Information processing that starts at the “top” with higher-level analysis (prior knowledge) and then works “down” to recognize indivdual features as a unifed whole.

Example: You hear a loud noise in the sky, your senses recive this information and are able to interpret it as a helicopter based on previous knowledge and expectations.

Transduction

The process of converting sensory stiumuli into neural impulses that are snet along to the brain.

Example: Transforming light waves into neural impulses

Coding

The process in which neural impulses travel by different routes to different parts of the brain; it allows the brain to detect various physical stimuli as distinct sensations.

Psychophysics

The sutdy of the link between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the psychological experience of them.

Difference threshold

The smallest physcial difference between two stimuli that is consciously detectable 50 percent of the time also called the just noticeable difference (JND). The smallest change in somehting that you can actually notice.

Absolute Threshold

the minimum amount of stimulation necessary to consciously detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time. Smallest amount of stimulus you can detect at all.

Subliminal perception

the detection of stimuli below the absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Priming

A form of memory activation that supposedly occurs when expxosure (often unconscious) to previously stored information predisposes (or primes) our response to related stimuli

Sensory Adaptation

The sensory receptors’ innate tendency to fatigue and stop responding to ongoing and unchanging stimuli; an example fo bottom-up processing

Gate control theory of pain

The theory that pain sensations are processed and altered by certain cells in the spinal cord, which act as gates to interrupt and block some pain signals while sending others on to the brain. Pain isnt just physical your brain can turn it up and down like a volume knob.

Example: if you injure your knee, if you rub it, it hurts less.

Blind Spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye. Contains no receptor cells for vision, thus creating a “blind spot”

Retina

The light sensitive inner surface of the back of the eye, which contains the receptor cells for vision.

Rods

Retinal receptor cells with high sensitivity in dim light but low sesitivity to details and color

Cones

Retinal receptor cells with high sensitivity to color and detail but low sensitivity in dim light.

Fovea

A tiny pit in the center of the retina that is densley filled with cones; it is responsible for sharp vision

Trichrmomatic Theory of color

The theory that color perception results from three types of cones in the retina, each of which is most sensitive to either red, green, or blue; other colors result from a mixture of these three

Opponent process theory of color

The theory that all color perception is based on three systems, each of which contains two color opposites. Red vs Green, Blue vs Yellow, and Black vs White.

Audition

The sense or act of hearing

Outer ear

The pinna, auditory canal, and eardrum structures, which funnel sound waves to the middle ear.

Middle ear

The hammer, anvil, and stirrup structures of the ear. Which concrete eardrum virbations onto the cochlea’s oval window.

Inner ear

The semicircular canals, vestibular sacs, and cochlea, which generate neural signals that are sent to the brain

Cochlea

The fluid-filled, coiled tube in the inner ear that contains the receptors for hearing

Place Theory for hearing

We hear different pitches beacsue different sound waves stimulate different sections/places on our cochlea’s basilar memebrane.

Frequency theory for hearing

We hear pitch by the frequency of the sound waves traveling up the auditory nerve

The volley principle for hearing

An explanation for pitch perception suggesting that groups of neurons take turns firing really fast so your brain can keep up with the quick soundwaves

Conduction hearing loss/deafness

A type of hearing loss that results from damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Sensorinerual hearing loss/nerve deafness

A type of hearing loss resulting from damage to the cohlea’s receptor (hair follices) hearing cells or to the auditory nerve

Myopia

Images are focused in front of the retina in nearsightedness

Hyperopia

images are focused behind the retina in farsightedness

Presbyopia

You eye’s lens gets less flexible with age and makes it hard to focus on close objects

Olfaction

The sense or act of smelling; receptors are located in the nose’s nasal cavity

Phermones

Chemical signals released by organisms that trigger certain responses, such as agression or sexual mating, in other members of the same species

Gustation

The sense or act of tasting; receptors are located in the tounge’s taste buds.

Kangaroo Care

Its imparatvie for mothers and babies to have skin-toskin contact in the first hours after birth

Vestibular sense

the sense that provides information about balance and movement'; receptors are located in the inner ear

Kinesthesis

The sense that provides information about the location, oreintation, and movment of indivdual body parts relative to each other; receptors are located in muscles, joints and tendons.

Illusion

A false or misleading perception shared by others in the same perceptual enviroment.

Selective Attention

The process of focusing conscious awareness on a specific stimulus, while filtering out a range of other stimuli occuring simultaneously.

Feature detectors

Neurons in the brain’s visual system that respond to specific characteristics of stimuli, such as shape angle or movement.

Habituation

The brains learned tendency to ignore or stop responding to unchanging information; an example of top-down processing.

Depth perception

The ability to perceive three-dimensional space and to accurately judge distance

Binocular Cues

Visual input from two eyes, which allows perception of depth or distance

Monocular cues

Visual input from a single eye alone that contributes to perception of depth or distance

Perceptual Constancy

The tendency to perceive the enviroment as stable, despite changes in the sensory input (object size, color, brightness or shape)

Preceptual set

The readiness to perceive in a particular manner based on expectations.

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

The perceptual, so-called, “psychic abilities that supposedly go beyond the known senses (telapathy, clairvoyance and precognition)