Studied by 2 people
Sensation
involves how an organism receives stimuli and info from the surrounding world via sensory organs
Perception
cognitive processes of receiving encoding, storing and organizing sensations
Bottom-up processing
starting with sensory receptors and work up to brain’s integration of sensory information for processing
Topdown processing
Construct perceptions coming from sensations( coming from bottom-up) and on our experiences and expectations
Signal Detection Theory
Ability to identify a stimuli when it is embedded in a distracting background
Psychophysics
study of the links between physical stimuli & psychological experience.
Subliminal Stimulation
Stimulus which is below one’s threshold for conscious awareness.
Difference Threshold
Smallest difference between two stimuli which a subject can detect 50% of the time (Just Noticeable difference)
Weber’s Law
The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion, not a constant amount, for a difference between them to be detected
Divided Attention
While performing simple motor skills simultaneously, for more cognitively complex tasks, we can only focus on one thing at a time
Stroop effect
recognizes the color of the word first which interferes with our ability to read the word aloud
Selective Attention
The process of directing our awareness to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the environment
Cocktail Party Effect
Being able to focus on what a person says with noise around
Absolute Threshold
the stimulus energy needed to be detected 62% of the time
Inattentional Blindness
Selectively attending to one part of the environment and missing the other
Change Blindness
Specific form inattentional blindness in which we fail to notice changes in our environment
Sensory Adaptation
A reduction in sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it and is adaptive. Physiological adaptation
Habituation
A kind of learning where your nervous system selectively filters out stimuli. A pattern of decreased response to a stimulus after frequently repeated exposure. Psychological adaptation
Transduction
Conversion of one form of energy to another; receptor cells take incoming energy and change it into neural impulses
Sensory Interaction
Experiments result in two or more senses working together because one sense can influence another
Wavelength
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next which determines hue or color for vision
Wave height
Intensity- The amount of energy in a light or sound wave or wave’s amplitude
Cornea
outer portion, bends light to provide focus
Pupil
adjustable opening in the center eye
Iris
A colored ring muscle that controls the size of pupil
Lens
Changes shape to help the eye focus; Accomodation
Retina
A light sensitive surface that contains rods and cones
Bipolar Cells
Receive messages from photoreceptors and transmit them to Ganglion Cells
Ganglion Cells
Converges the Bipolar cells to the optic nerve
Optic Nerve
carries neural impulses to the brain (thalamus)
Fovea
the center focus point
Cones
Far fewer, located in the center of the retina and gives color and light vision
Rods
Far more numerous, located on the periphery of the retina, do not give color vision and give twilight vision
Synesthesia
to perceive together; perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in second sensory or cognitive pathway
Nearsightedness
Objects near are clear; object far away are blurry. Visual image is focused on the front of the retina
Farsightedness
Objects near are blurry; visual image is focuses behind the retina
Normal Vision
Light is focuses directly on the retina
Astigmatism
irregularly shaped cornea, multifocal points
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
Retina contains 3 different color receptors; ones most sensitive to red, green, blue.
Opponent Process Theory
Opposing retinal processes enable color vision; so some stimulated by green, but inhibited by red
Feature Detectors
nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus such as shape, angle or movement
Parallel Processing
Brain processes many aspects simultaneously; divides a visual scene into sub-dimensions.
Color Constancy
Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color under different conditions of illumination
Audition
the sense or act of hearing
Wavelength or Frequency:
# of wavelengths that pass a point in a given time which determines pitch
Pitch
tone’s experienced highness or lowness
Wave height or amplitude
loudness or intensity measured in decibels
Pinna
external part of the ear
Auditory Canal
tube that runs from outer ear to the middle
Eardrum
A tympanic membrane that vibrates with sound waves
Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup
smallest bones; vibrate from the eardrum
Cochlea
coiled, bony, fluid filled tube which sound waves trigger neural impulses and is filled with hair cells
Semicircular Canals
fluid filled tubes to help keep balance; connect to vestibular sacs
Place Theory
links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
Frequency Theory
the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, enabling us to sense its pitch
Congental Deafness
people who are born deaf
Conduction Hearing Loss
caused by the damage to the system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves
Cochlear Implant
A device for converting sounds into electrical signals, to stimulate the auditory nerve into the cochlea
Four distinct skin senses
pressure, warmth, cold and pain
Pain
the way your body tells you that something is wrong
Nociceptors
sensory receptors that detect pain
A Delta Fibers
alarm system; sharp immediate pain
C Fibers
dull, aching pain
Beta Fibers
sense touch
Phantom Limb Pain
some people report strong sensations of pain in missing limb
Gate Control Theory
neurological “gate” in the spinal cord which opens to allow small fibers of pain through but larger fibers can override the small ones to stop pain
Gustatory System
chemical senses which include sweet, salty, sour, bitter umami
Sweet
energy source
Salty
sodium essential to physiological processes
Sour
potentially toxic acid
Bitter
Potential poisons
Umami
proteins to grow and repair tissue
Taste buds
clustered taste cells
Fungiform papillae
Bumps on the tongue where tase buds are located
Processes
Molecules enter taste pores of taste buds and stimulate taste cells
Nerve impulses travel via the facial nerve or glossopharyngeal nerve to the brain
Nerve impulses reaches the thalamus, where it is rerouted to the temporal lobe of the cereberal cortex
The taste stimuli is processed by the gustatory cortex
Olfaction
Smell is a chemical sense
Pheromones
Chemical messages sent by another
Smell Process
olfactory receptors => olfactory bulb located below frontal lobe=> olfactory areas in temporal lobes=> limbic system
Kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
Vestibular
the sense of body movement and position and spatial orientation, including the sense of balance which is located in the inner ear
Perceptual Illusion
when senses conflict, reveal how we organize and interpret sensations and use visual data to help solve this problem
Perceptual Set
A readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way
Distal stimuli
stimuli that lie in the distance (that is, outside the body)
Proximal stimuli
the stimulus energies that impinge directly on sensory receptors
Ponzo
the horizontal lines are the same length
Poggendorff
the two diagonal segments lie on the same straight line.
Upside-down T
the vertical and horizontal lines are the same length.
Zollner
the long diagonals are all parallel.
Gestalt
An organized whole where there is a tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes
Figure-ground:
Organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
Grouping
After distinguishing the figure from the ground, our perception needs to organize the figure into a meaningful form using grouping rules
Closure
Although grouping principles usually help us construct reality, they may occasionally lead us astray.
Motion Perception
inferring speed and direction of elements based on input perceived
Stroboscopic Movement
Perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of varying images; aka Phi Phenomenon
Depth Perception
Ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional and allows us to perceive distance
Convergence
Neuromuscular cue to tell brain the closeness of an object.
Retinal Disparity
Difference between how each retina experiences the world
Relative Height
Vertical dimensions seem longer than identical horizontal
Relative Size
Allows you to determine how close objects are to an object of a known size.
Note 
Flashcard (62)