PSYC 101 Chapter 4

Microvilli

taste receptors that react with tastant molecules in food.

Figure versus ground perception

size, movement, edge assignment

C-fibers

slower C fibers transmit the longer-lasting, duller pain that persists after the initial injury.

cochlea

snail shaped, fluid filled tube. Have basilar membrane and hair cells/receptor cells/ cilia

The Human Eye (With graph)

1. Cornea 2. Lens 3. Iris 4. Pupil 5. Retina

Gestalt perceptual grouping rules

1. Proximity. 2. Closure. 3. Similarity. 4. Continuity. 5. Common fate.

Taste system contains taste receptors that detect 5 sensations

1. salt 2. sour 3. bitter 4. sweet 5. umami

Gate-control theory

A theory of pain perception based on the idea that signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or gated, by interneurons in the spinal cord via feedback from two directions.

Rubin's Illusion

Ambiguous Edges. A vase and facing silhouettes.

Taste is adaptive

Bitter & sour --> rancid, poisonous Sweet --> high in calories Salt --> important for all bodily functions Umami --> high in protein Supertaster

A-delta fibers

Fast-acting A-delta fibers transmit the initial sharp pain one might feel right away from a sudden injury.

Touch

Four types of mechanoreceptors located under the skin's surface enable us to sense: 1. Pressure. 2. Texture. 3. Pattern. 4. Vibration. Thermoreceptors sense cold and warmth.

How light works?

Light touches Cornea first. Then go through pupil. Then his the Lens. Hit the photoreceptors. Then Bipolar cell. Then Ganglion cell. Then create the optic nerve. All the visual information go to Thalamus. Then acci

Characteristics of light

Light waves vary in wavelength. 1. length (hue) 2. amplitude (brightness) 3. number of wavelengths (purity)

Perceiving Depth and Size

Monocular depth cues: aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye.

Visual Pathway from Eye through brain (Graph)

Objects in the right visual field stimulate the left half of each retina, and objects in the left visual field stimulate the right half of each retina. The optic nerves, one existing each eye, are formed by the axons of retinal ganglion cells emerging from the retina. Just before they enter the brain at the optic chiasm, about half the nerve fibers from each eye cross. The left half of each optic chiasm, representing the right visual field, runs through the brain's left hemisphere via the thalamus, and the right half, representing the left visual field, travels this route through the right hemisphere. So information from the right visual field ends up in the left hemisphere and information from the left visual field ends up in the right hemisphere.

Odorant molecules

Odorant molecules dissolve in muscous membrane of Olfactory Epithelium. Bind to olfactory receptor neurons.

The Human Ear

Outer Ear: 1. Pinna 2. Auditory canal. 3. Eardrum Middle Ear: Ossicles: 1. Hammer. 2. Anvil. 3. Stirrup. Inner Ear: cochlea and semicircular canals. Inner Ear sends auditory messages to thalamus then to brain.

Difference between sensation and perception

Sensation is same among people. Perception is much more individualized.

Where is the sound coming from?

Stereophonic hearing: loudness and timing differences allow us to localize sound.

Nasal Cavity

The nasal cavity (or nasal fossa) is a large air filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face. Each cavity is the continuation of one of the two nostrils.

Perception

The organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation.

Taste (Guesation)

The tongue

Pain

Tissue damage is detected by pain receptors: A-delta fibers and C-fibers

Perceiving Color

Trichromatic Theory: color perceptions from 3 types of comes: Red, Blue, Green.

Phototransduction in the Retina

Two types of photoreceptors in the retina: cones and rods

timbre

a listener's experience of sound quality or resonance (complexity, mix of frequencies)

blind spot

a location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina.

loudness

a sound's intensity (amplitude)

Fovea

an area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods.

hair cells/receptor cells/ cilia

auditory receptor neurons

Semicircular canals

balance

Sound waves

changes in air pressure unfolding over time

Cones

detect color, operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail.

pitch

how high or low a sound is (frequency)

Peripheral vision

lower acuity because almost all cones are in Fovea. Move further away from Fovea, we have more rods and fewer cones, which explains why objects off to the side are not so clear.

Olfactory bulb

made up of axons from ORNs; send messages to brain.

Color deficiency/ color blindness

one or more cone types is missing.

Rods

only gray scale, become active only under low-light conditions for night vision.

sensory adaptation

sensitivity to prolonged stimulations tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions. (e.g. suddenly open the window feeling blind. Feel cold when put feet in the water). But stimulus does not change.

Sensation

simple stimulation of a sense organ. The basic registration of light, sound, pressure, odor, or taste as parts of the body interact with the physical world.

Binocular disparity

the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth.

texture gradient

the fact that the size of elements on a patterned surface, as well as the distance between them, appears to grow smaller as the surface recedes from the observer.

Interposition

the fact that, when one object partly blocks another, you can infer that the blocking object is closer than the blocked object.

Retina

the interface between the world of light outside the body and the world of vision inside the central nervous system.

Linear perspective

the phenomenon that parallel lines seem to converge as they recede into the distance.

retinal disparity

the space between the eyes that allows binocular vision to create depth perception

tongue

the tongue is covered with thousands of small bumps called papillae. Within each papilla are hundreds of taste buds, which are the organ of taste transduction.

basilar membrane

undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid

sensing light

visible light is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see.

Five senses

vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell

Transduction

when sensors in the body covert physical signals from the environment (pressure, light reflections, smell molecule) into neural signals sent to the CNS.