Untitled Flashcards Set

Practice Questions: Sensation and Perception

### Key Concepts:

1. Sensation and Perception

- Question: What is the difference between sensation and perception?

Answer: Sensation is the ability to detect a stimulus and potentially turn that detection into a private experience, while perception is the act of giving meaning to a detected sensation.

2. Transduction

- Question: What is transduction in the context of sensation and perception?

Answer: Transduction is the process by which physical stimuli are converted into neural responses via sensory receptors.

3. The Senses

- Question: Name the five classical senses.

Answer: Seeing (visual), hearing (audition), smelling (olfaction), tasting (gustation), and touching (somatosensation).

- Question: What is multisensory integration?

Answer: Multisensory integration is the combination of sensory inputs from different modalities to form a coherent perception.

- Question: List additional senses beyond the classical five.

Answer: Balance (vestibular), temperature (thermoception), pain (nociception), body awareness (proprioception), internal states (interoception), and possibly time.

4. Interoception

- Question: What is interoception?

Answer: Interoception is the perception of internal bodily sensations, such as hunger or fullness, and is essential for maintaining basic bodily functions.

### Scientific Study of Sensation and Perception

1. Question: What is the focus of studying thresholds in sensation and perception?

Answer: Thresholds involve determining the limits of what can be perceived, such as the minimum detectable stimulus.

2. Question: What does signal detection theory analyze?

Answer: Signal detection theory analyzes decision-making in the presence of uncertainty.

3. Question: Name two tools used in the scientific study of sensation and perception.

Answer: Neuroimaging and computational models.

### Historical Foundations

- Question: Who is considered the founder of psychophysics?

Answer: Gustav Fechner.

- Question: What is psychophysics?

Answer: Psychophysics is the science of defining quantitative relationships between physical stimuli and psychological experiences.

### Philosophical Perspectives

1. Question: Define dualism in the context of mind and body. Answer: Dualism is the belief that the mind exists separately from the material body.

2. Question: What does materialism propose about consciousness? Answer: Materialism proposes that consciousness arises from interactions between matter, and only matter exists.

3. Question: What is panpsychism? Answer: Panpsychism Notable Points

- Question: How does the sensation of stomach fullness arise? Answer: Stomach fullness arises from neural messages triggered by mechanical pressure.

- Question: Can taste receptors in the gut influence behavior? If so, how? Answer: Yes, taste receptors in the gut can influence behavior, though they do not contribute to conscious sensation.