Psychology In Your Life: Chapter 5 Sensation and Perception

trichromatic theory

3 colors that we see;cyan. magenta,yellow

taste buds

8,00-10,000 taste buds

kinesthetic sense

ability to detect one body part relative to others

bottom up processing

add up characteristics of an object to decide what it is

rods

allows us to see in dim light with no color

difference threshold

amount of change in a stimulus necessary to detect change 50% of the time

vestibular sense

balance; inner ear, fluid in semi-circular canals, tells you position of your head

familiar size

because we know the size of familiar objects we an guess how near or far they are

papillae

bumps on tongue, clusters of taste buds

gustation stimulus

chemicals(what you eat) in solution(saliva)

occlusion

closer objects block objects further away

cones

clustered in center to collect color, needs light to work

iris

colored part, muscle, changing causes pupil to dilate

photo receptor

converts light waves into neural activity

conductive hearing loss

damage to one of the accessory structures

sensory receptors

detect physical stimulation from the external world and the change that stimulation into information that can be processed by the brain

binocular disparity

difference in 2 images on your retina tells your brain about depth perception

sight amplitude

distance from base line to peak, determines brightness

sight wavelength

distance from peak to peak, determines color

outer ear

ear canal, gathers sound

middle ear

ear drum, ossicles, amplify sound

sense organs

ears, tongue, eyes, skin

figure/ground

figure-part you perceive ground-fades away, background

lense

focuses, flips image, and projects it into the retina

primary auditory cortex

hearing

pupil

hole in your eye

Gestalt principles

human tendencies to perceive something in a certain way

relative size

if we know that 2 objects are similar in size if one appears to be larger that means its closer

slow fibers

lack of coating, dull aching pain, constant

monocular cues

learned through life experiences

sight energy

light waves

height in the field

low objects on the retina are closer than higher objects on the retina

fast fibers

miolinated axons, message is sharp and intense

gustation accessory structures

mouth and throat

olfaction accessory structures

nose, nostril, nasal passages

similarity

objects that look similar are perceived as going together, similarity can override proximity

olfaction stimulus

odarants, chemicals in the air

smell

olfaction

gustation receptors

on tongue mostly, taste buds

linear perspective

parallel lines appear to converge as they get farther away

sight accessory structure

part of the eye gathering in raw stimulus, everything up to the receptors

proximity

perceive objects close together going together

transduction

process which sensory receptors change physical stimuli into signals that are eventually sent to the brain

cornea

protective coating

energy/physical stimulus

raw energy in the environment

sensation

raw stimulus in environment when it is detected by your sensory organ

top down processing

rely on experience and expectations to decide what it is we're seeing, look at the big picture

opponent process theory

seeing after images(seeing the middle line when you close your eyes after driving for a long time)

inner ear

semicircular canals, cochlea, converts vibrations into neural impulses

touch accessory structure

skin, hair

absolute threshold

smallest amount of physical stimulation required to detect a sensory input 50% of the time it is present

olfactory cortex

smell

hearing stimulus/energy

sound waves

perception

subjective, individual understanding/interpretation/awareness of a stimulus occurs in your brain at the level of your cortex

main tastes

sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umani

touch stimulus

tactile

gustation

taste

gustatory cortex

taste

hearing frequency

tells us how high or low the sounds are

hearing amplitude

tells us how loud something is

closure

tendency to complete shapes by filling in the blank spaces

continuity

tendency to create continuous figures/shapes

illusory contours

tendency to perceive edges even though they aren't there

sensorineural hearing loss

too much loud sound kills receptors

correct rejection

true signal:no decision:no

false alarm

true signal:no decision:yes

miss

true signal:yes decision:no

hit

true signal:yes decision:yes

texture and gradient

uniform texture as things get closer together we know they're further away

primary visual cortex

vision

Weber's Law

when stimulus is small the amount of change necessary to detect is also small, if it is large the amount of change needed to detect is also larger

thalamus

where sensory receptors send information except for smell

fovea

where the optic nerve leaves the eye there are no photo receptors, blind spot

amygdala

why some smells are memory triggers

sensory adaptation

you get used to it, you stop noticing it