Sensation and Perception - Exam 2

What is the function of the pupil?

Control and regulate the amount of light that enters the eye

What is the function of the cornea?

Focusing incoming light and sheilding they eye from outside harm

What is the function of the viterous body?

Maintains the eye’s round shape, transmits light for clear vision, and cushions against physical shock

What is the function of the lens?

To bend light rays to converge and diverge them, forming a clear image. Changes in shape to focus at different distances.

What is the function of the optic nerve?

Transmits visual and sensory information from the retina to the brain for interpretation

What is the function of the fovea?

Provides sharp, high-resolution central vision

What is the function of the retina?

Captures incoming light entering the eye and convert it into electirical nerve signals

What is the function of the rods?

Responsible for vision at low levels of illumination

What is the function of the cones?

Responsible for vision in high levels of illumination and for color and detail vision

What is the function of the ciliary body?

Produces nourishing fluid and changes the shape of the lens to help you focus

What is the function of the suspensory ligaments?

Hold the lens of the eye in place and work iwth the ciliary muscles to change the shape of the lens for focusing

What is the function of bipolar cells?

Receives input from the visual receptors and sends signals to the retinal ganglion cells

What is the function of amacrine cells?

Process and modulate visual signals before they reach the brain. Synapse with bipolar and ganglion cells.

What is the function of ganglion cells?

Receives input from bipolar and amacrine cells. Processes visual information and transmits it as electrical impulses to the brain.

What is the function of horizontal cells?

Connect multiple photoreceptors and bipolar cells sideways to help process visual information

What is the function of the optic chiasm?

To route and reorganize visual signals so that information from each eye’s field is sent to the correct side of the brain

What is the function of the lateral geniculate nucleus?

Acts as a primary relay station and gating control center for visual information traveling from the retina

What is the function of the superior colliculus

A primary center for orientation, gaze, control, and multisensory integration

What is the function of the striate cortex?

Processes incoming visual signals from the eyes to build the foundational building blocks of visual perception

What is the function of the dorsal pathway?

Processes object location, motion, and spatial orientation to provide real-time visual guidance for physical actions

What is the function of the ventral pathway?

Object recognition, identification, and the conscious perception of the visual world’s detailed features

What is cortical magnification?

The large allocation of brain tissue in the cerebral cortex dedicated to processing sensory or motor information from specific regions of the body

What are end-stopped cells?

Specialized visual processing neurons that fire strongly for short lines, but reduce their firing when the stimulus becomes too long

What is a retinotopic map?

The ordered way the brain arranges visual information so that spots next to eachother on the retina are processed y brain cells next to each other in the visual cortex

What are simple cortical cells?

Speciality neurons that act as line and edge detecors by responding best to light or dark in specific orientation

What are complex cortical cells?

Visual neurons that respond to edges and lines of a specific orientation anywhere within a large receptive field, requiring movement or motion to fire effectively

What is selective adaptation?

A neural process where the brain system reduces its sensitivity to a specific, repeated stimulus while keeping it sensitivity to other inputs

What is a receptive field?

The area of the retina where light stimulation affects the activity of a particular neuron

What is an excitatory center and inhibitory surround?

Light in the center increases the neurons response, while light in the surrounding area decreases its response

What is a inhibitory center and excitatory surround?

Light in the center decreases the neuron’s response, while light in the surrounding area increases its response

What is the purpose of center-surround receptive fields?

To detect differences in light and dark, helping the visual system identify edges and contrast

What is lateral inhibition?

When an activated neuron reduces the activity of nearby neurons, making differences in brightness and edges easier to detect

Why is lateral inhibition important for vision?

It enhances contrast between light and dark areas, helping us see edges more clearly

How are center-surround receptive fields related to lateral inhibition?

Lateral inhibition helps create the opposing center and surround responses that emphasize visual contrast.

What is a refreactive error?

A vision problem that occurs when light does not focus properly on the retina

What is myopia (nearsightedness)?

Distant objects appear blurry because light focuses in front of the retina. Near objects are ususally clear

How is myopia corrected?

With a concave lens that moves the focus back onto the retina

What is hyperopia (farsightedness)?

Nearby objects may appear blurry because light would focus behind the retina. Distant objects may be clearer.

How is hyperopia corrected?

With a convex lens that brings the focus forward onto the retina

What is astigmatism?

A refractive error caused by uneven curvature of the cornea or lens, making vision blurry or distorted at near and/or far distances

How is astigmatism corrected?

With specially shaped cylindrical or toric lenses that compensate for uneven focusing

What is oobject recognition?

The process of identifying and understanding what an object is by interpreting the visual information

What is recognition by components (RBC) theory?

A theory that we recognize objects by breaking them down into simple 3D shapes called neons and identifying how they fit together

What are geons?

Simple geometric shapes such as cylinders, cones, and blocks that can be combined to form recognizable objects

How does recognition by components theory explain object recognition?

We identify the basic shapes and how they are arranged to recognize an object, even when its angle or viewing conditions change

What does recognition by components theory not fully explain?

It does not fully explain how we recognize objects that look very similar, objects without clear neons, or how experience, context, and memory influence recognition

What is an example of recognition component theory?

Recgonizing a mug by identifiying its basic cylindrical shape and handle, even if the mug is viewed from a different angle

What is bottom-up processing?

Processing that begins with sensory information and builds towards identifying the whole object.

What is top-down processing?

Processing that uses prior knowledge, expectation, experience, and context other interpret what is seen

What is the fusiform face area (FFA)?

A region is the fusiform gyrus of the brain that plays an important role in processing and recognizing faces

What is prosopagnosia?

Also called face blindess, it is a condition in which someone has difficulty recognizing familiar faces, even though their basic vision may be normal.

What is the experitse hypothesis?

The idea that the brain’s ability to recognize a category of objects improves with experience and practice distinguishing between them

How does the expertise hypothesis relate to face perception?

Because we have extensive experience recognizing faces, we have become highly skilled at noticing small differences between individual faces

What is dichromatism?

Having only two functioning types of cone photoreceptors for color vision of the typical three. This limits the ability to distinguish certain colors.

What is hue?

The basic color we percieve, such a red, blue, green, or yellow

What is saturation?

How pure or intense a color appears.

What is value in color perception?

How light or dark a color appears. A high-value color is lighter, while a low value color is darker.

What is the trichromatic theory of color vision?

The theory that color vision begins with three types of cones in the retina, each most sensitive to different ranges of wavelengths: short (blue), medium (green), and long (red)

What is the opponent process theory?

The theory that color is processed in opposing pairs

What is additive color mixing?

Mixing colored light. The primary colors combining all three at sutiable intensities produces white light

What is subtractive color mixing?

Mixing pigments that absorb certain wavelengths of light.

What are monocular cues?

Depth cues that can be used with just one eye

What is relative size?

If two objects are assumed to be similar in actual size, the one that looks smaller is percieved to be farther away

What is interposition?

When one object blocks part of another, the blocking object is percieved as closer

What are binocular cues?

Depth cues that rely on information from both eyes

What is binocular disparity?

The slight difference between the images received by the left and right eye is because the eyes view the world from different positions