midterm psy. memory, Research, Brain1

What are the three main types of neurons?

Sensory, motor, and interneurons

What is the difference between the CNS and PNS?

CNS = brain & spinal cord; PNS = nerves that connect CNS to the body.

Somatic vs. Autonomic nervous system?

Somatic = voluntary movement; Autonomic = involuntary (heart rate, breathing).

What does the medulla control?

Heart rate and breathing.

Function of the pons?

Coordinates movement and helps with sleep.

Function of the cerebellum?

Balance, coordination, and fine motor control.

Define sensation

Detection of external stimuli and sending that info to the brain.

Define perception

The brain’s process of organizing and interpreting sensory input.

What is transduction?

Conversion of sensory input into neural signals.

What is bottom-up processing?

Processing that starts with sensory input and builds up to perception.

What is top-down processing?

Processing guided by experience, expectations, and prior knowledge.

What is absolute threshold?

Minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.

What is the difference threshold (just noticeable difference)?

Minimum difference between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time.

What does Weber’s Law state?

Two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion, not a constant amount, to be perceived as different

What is sensory adaptation?

Decreased sensitivity to constant, unchanging stimuli.

What is selective attention?

Focusing conscious awareness on a specific stimulus.

What is inattentional blindness?

Failing to notice visible objects when attention is elsewhere.

What are Gestalt principles?

Ways we organize information into meaningful wholes (proximity, closure, continuity).

What is perceptual constancy?

Perceiving objects as unchanging even when lighting, distance, or angle changes.

Synesthesia

A phenomenon in which one sensation may evoke multiple perceptions, even ones associated with different sensory systems

In vision, the amplitude of a light wave relates to our perception of the brightness of a stimulus. To which perceptual dimension might the amplitude of a sound wave correspond in hearing?

Loudness

Cochlea

A snail-shaped tube that contains the cilia

Frequency is to amplitude as ___ is to

Pitch; loudness

Massaging a sore foot is effective mainly because the action stimulates the release of additional endorphins

False

Ponzo and muller lyre are

Visual illusions

Trichromatic theory

Three types of color receptors

How is stimuli created?

Directly from our senses

Transduction

Conversion of stimuli detected by receptor cells to electrical impulses that are then transported to the brain

Pschophysics

Measures the limit to human sensations

What are ears constantly doing?

Sending background info to the brain

Response bias

Behavior tendency to respond yes to the trials which is independent of sensitivity

How big is electromagnetic spectrum visible to us humans

A small fraction

What do visual receptor cells detect

Shape, color, motion, and depth

What do the receptor cells in the retina do by the light?

Send info to the visual cortex through the optic nerve

What are the two photoceptor cells

Rods and cones

Rods

Detective brightness and respond to black and white

Cones

Respond to red green and blue

The young- Helmholtz trichromatic color theory

color perception is the result of the signals sent by the three types of cones whereas the opponent procss color theory proposes that we perceive color as three sets of opponent colors; red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black 

How does the ability to perceive depth occur?

The use of oculomotor depth cues, binocular depth cues, and monocular depth cues

How does light waves travel through the eye?

Light waves are bent as they pass through the cornea. The lens then focuses the light waves onto the retina