General Psychology Module 3

Transduction:

The term for the sensory process by which energy, be it sound or light, is converted or transformed into a nerve impulse- our action potential.

Sensory Adaptation:

Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after prolonged exposure.

Absolute Threshold:

The amount of energy or stimulation needed for an organism to detect it. It is the minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time.

Difference Threshold:

Smallest distance between two stimuli that can be recognized as being a difference. Also known as just noticeable difference (JND), it refers to the minimum change in stimulation that can be detected.

Signal Detection Theory:

Sensation depends on three things:

a. The intensity of the stimulus (such as the loudness of someone speaking)

b. The degree of background stimulation (that is, what other distractions are present?)

c. The current state of the individual perceiving the stimulus (that is, are you groggy or alert?)

Cones:

Cones enable us to see color.

What is a fovea?

Cones concentrated in the center of the retina, help give us sharp vision.

Rods:

Enable us to see in the dim light. They are more sensitive to light than cones and facilitate night vision.

Optic Nerve:

Bundles of axons from ganglion cells.

Where the optic nerve exits the eye is your _______.

Blind spot.

What are the four steps to the transduction process in the ear?

1. Sound waves enter the inner ear, striking the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, which contains three little bones known as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup due to their shapes.

2. Sound waves move on to the inner ear, the cochlea, which is a snail-like tube. The cochlea is filled with fluid. Just like wind affecting the sea, sound waves send vibrations through this fluid.

3. The basilar membrane is a thin tissue in the cochlea, and it converts the vibrations into electricity through the stimulation of tiny hair cells.

   1. The electrical messages travel to the brain.

Frequency:

The number of vibrations a sound wave completes in a given amount of time.

Pitch:

The highness or lowness of the sound.

Amplitude:

The height of a sound wave, which determines its loudness.

Timbre:

The quality or color of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds, even when they have the same pitch and amplitude.

Skin Senses:

Sense Organ: Skin.

Skin is especially sensitive on your face and hands. Touch stimulates nerves, which sends information to the brain.

Olfaction:

(Smell). Sense organ: Nose.

Odors stimulate nose hairs, which then send electric information to the brain. Olfaction is very powerfully linked to memory.

Gustation:

(Taste). Sense Organ: Tongue.

Food stimulates taste buds on tongue, and information is sent to the brain’s parietal lobe.

Pain:

Sense organ: All over the body.

Specialized pain receptors are set throughout the body, and these send alarm messages to the brain.

Kinesthetic:

(Body position in regard to other body parts).

Sense Organ: Receptors in joints, muscles, tendons.

Moving one’s arms or legs, for example, sends messages to the brain so you have knowledge of what certain parts of your body are doing relative to other parts.

Vestibular:

(Body position in regard to gravity).

Sense Organ: Inner ear.

Movement in the cochlea’s fluid communicates important information to the brain regarding body position and orientation.

Bottom-Up Processing:

Involves focusing on the physical characteristics of a stimulus or object.

Top-Down Processing:

Involves analyzing one’s memories, knowledge, expectations, and other personal factors.

Feature detectors:

Are cells in the occipital lobe that help us with perception, specifically with perceiving human faces.

Perceptual constancy:

The ability to recognize an object as staying constant under different conditions.

Law of Similarity:

We tend to group similar objects. Things that look alike are often assumed to be alike. Generally, this helps our brains to work efficiently, but taken to the extreme, it can feed into some perceptual problems, such as prejudice.L

Law of Proximity:

We tend to group nearby objects. When you walk out the door with mismatched shoes, you can blame this law. Sometimes to be efficient, we just grab things that are nearby, and our brain does not alert us to the fact unless we are actively paying attention.

Law of Continuity:

Our brains more easily make sense of connected and continuous objects rather than disconnected ones. This law can also be applied to social situations, where we often assume that people stay the same rather than expecting their personalities to be different each time we encounter them.

Cells in the occipital lobe that help us with perception, specifically human faces.

Feature detectors.

Binocular and monocular cues give us information about this type of perception.

Depth perception.

Three laws explaining how brains group elements together in the whole.

Laws of perceptual grouping.

Impulse processing that involves analysis of one’s memories, knowledge, expectations and other personal factors.

Top-Down Processing.

Ability to recognize an object as staying constant under different conditions.

Perceptual constancy.

“Whole configuration” - view that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt theory.

Law of Perceptual Grouping that states that our brains more easily make sense of connected objects rather than disconnected ones.

Law of Continuity.

Law of Perceptual Grouping that states that our brains tend to assume that things that look alike are alike.

Law of Similarity.

Principle of Gestalt theory that we focus on a pattern and everything else is the background.

Figure and ground.

Law of Perceptual Grouping that states that we tend to group nearby objects.

Law of Proximity.

Impulse processing involving focus on physical characteristics of a stimulus or object.

Bottom-up processing.