Visual and Sensory Perception Practice Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering the visual system, light spectrum, perception processing theories, Gestalt principles, and the biology of taste and hearing.

What is the function of the lens in the eye?

A crystal structure located behind the cornea that fine-tunes light focus onto the retina.

What part of the eye acts like a camera sensor and receives light?

Retina

What happens to the image once it is received by the retina?

The image is flipped upside down and must be flipped back by the brain.

What is the fovea?

A tiny spot in the center of the retina that only contains cones, where vision is the sharpest.

What are the primary functions of cones?

They play a key role in daylight and color vision while providing better sharpness and precision than rods.

What role do rods play in vision?

They are key for nighttime and peripheral vision and are $100\times$ more sensitive than cones to dim light.

What causes nearsightedness according to the lecture?

The eyes are a little long, causing the focus of light to land short of the retina.

What causes farsightedness?

The eyes are a little short, causing the focus of light to land behind the retina.

Who are the figures associated with the Trichromatic theory?

Young and von Helmholtz

What are the three receptors sensitive to according to the Trichromatic theory?

Green, red, and blue

According to the Opponent process theory, what are the three pairs of opposing colors?

Red vs green, blue vs yellow, and black vs white.

What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?

Bottom-up processing starts with tiny details to build a bigger picture, whereas top-down processing starts with a bigger picture hypothesis and then recognizes the stimulus.

What is the core idea of Gestalt theory?

That there are wholes, the behavior of which is not determined by that of their individual elements.

Define the Gestalt principle of Proximity.

Stuff that is close gets grouped together.

Define the Gestalt principle of Closure.

Viewers tend to supply missing elements to complete a familiar figure.

Define the Gestalt principle of Similarity.

Similar elements get grouped together.

What are typical characteristics of supertasters?

They are less fond of sweets, consume less high-fat foods, react more negatively to alcohol, and are mostly women.

How do nontasters differ from supertasters?

They have fewer tastebuds per square centimeter than supertasters.

What unit is used to describe sound wavelength (pitch), and what is the human hearing range?

Sound wavelength is described in $Hz$. Humans hear from $20$ to $20000$.

What measures sound amplitude?

Decibels