Psyc Ch 4

Inattentional Blindness

"Blindness" caused by not attending to a stimulus Occurs when attention narrowly focused

d. biological transducers.

1. The sensory receptors of your eyes are able to convert light energy into neural energy, which can then be utilized by the brain. Thus, the sensory receptors in your eyes act as a. visual adapters. b. biological assimilators. c. phosphenes. d. biological transducers.

a. retina

10. The layer of light-sensitive pixels in the digital image sensor of a camera is analogous to the layer of photoreceptors in which area of the eye? a. retina b. iris c. lens d. pupil

a. sensation.

2. When Beverly detects the physical energies in her environment with her eyes, ears, and other sensory organs, she is engaging in the process known as a. sensation. b. perception. c. adaptation. d. cognition.

b. data reduction

3. Because our senses select, analyze, and filter information until only the most important information remains, our senses are considered __________ systems. a. convergent b. data reduction c. somesthetic d. replicating

c. sensory adaptation.

4. The decrease in sensory response to an unchanging stimulus is known as a. sensory conflict. b. sensory gating. c. sensory adaptation. d. selective attention.

c. visible spectrum.

5. The spread of electromagnetic energies to which the human eyes respond is called the a. perceptual field. b. gamma quadrant. c. visible spectrum. d. spectral composite.

d. electromagnetic radiation.

6. The visible spectrum is made up of a narrow range of wavelengths of a. spectral particles. b. ionized nanometers. c. phosphenes. d. electromagnetic radiation.

a. 400-700 nanometers

7. Visible light is made up of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of a. 400-700 nanometers. b. 20 to 20,000 C.P.S. c. 300-800 decibels. d. 20 to 20,000 hectometers.

b. focus an image on the retina.

8. The function of the lens is to a. locate an image. b. focus an image on the retina. c. combine the location and projection on the blind spot. d. project an image on the cornea.

a. photoreceptors

9. Within one's eye, the light-sensitive cells are called a. photoreceptors. b. phosphenes. c. tympanics. d. stereocilia.

Extrasensory Perception

Ability to perceive events in ways that cannot be explained by known capacities of the sensory organs

Depth Perception

Ability to see three-dimensional space and to accurately judge distances

Perceptual Construction (similar to perceptual learning)

Actively created by the brain: largely limited to social expectations, not physical (i.e., perceiving coughing as cheating on an exam, or a white pen in one's mouth as a cigarette for the "bad boy" but not the "good boy")

Bottom-Up Processing

Analyzing information starting at the bottom (small units) and going upward to form a complete perception: some blue triangles on a green background

Brightness Constancy

Apparent brightness of an object stays the same, even under changing lighting All objects must be illuminated by the same amount of lightconditions

Blind Spot

Area of the retina lacking visual receptors (where nerves leave the eye and go on to the brain)

Vestibular

Balance, position in space, and acceleration

Parapsychology

Branch of psychology that studies ESP and other psi phenomenon

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Caused by damage to inner ear hair cells or auditory nerve Hearing aids useless; auditory messages cannot reach brain Cochlear Implant: Electronic device that stimulates auditory nerves

Organ of Corti

Center part of the cochlea containing hair cells, canals, and membranes

Perceptual Learning

Change in the brain that alters how we process sensory information

Perceptual Learning

Changes in the brain Alter how we construct sensory information into precepts Expert chess players have superior spatial recognition of chess pieces on a board but only when the pieces are placed in a strategic manner.

Accommodation

Changes in the shape of the lens by ciliary muscles

Impossible Figure

Conflicting information prevents perceptual organization Cannot be organized into stable, consistent, or meaningful perception

Anosognosia

Denial of illness. Almost exclusively left sided hemiplegia. Damage to the right prefrontal and/or parietal lobes.

Kinesthetic

Detect body positioning and body movement

Tympanic Membrane:

Eardrum

Light touch, pressure, pain, cold, warmth Specialized receptors for sensations Free nerve endings produce all five

Five different sensations:

Sense receptors

How does data reduction take place?

respond less to unchanging stimuli Respond most to changes in stimulation

In sensory adaptation, receptors

Figure-Ground Organization

Inborn part of a stimulus stands out as an object (figure) against a less prominent background (ground) -Only one figure can be seen

Flavor

Influenced by texture, temperature, smell, and pain

Perceptual habits

Ingrained patterns of organization and attention If a slammed door usually meant you were about to get yelled at by an angry parent, slammed doors decades after your parents deaths might still cause anxiety.

Photoreceptors

Light-sensitive cells in the eye (rods and cones)

Retina

Light-sensitive layer of cells at the back of the eye

Why would sensory conflict cause nausea?

Many poisons disturb the vestibular system, vision, and the body. Therefore, if you're vestibular system is disturbed, you may have ingested poison. Either way, go ahead and vomit just to be sure.

Perceptual Learning: Motives, Emotion, and Perception

Motivations can influence perceptions Emotions can influence perceptions

Contiguity

Nearness in time and space perception that one thing has caused another

Visible Spectrum

Part of the electromagnetic spectrum to which the eyes respond

Ambiguous Stimuli/Figure

Patterns allowing more than one interpretation Brain interprets same information more than one way

Perception: Gestalt Organizing Principles

Perception involves grouping sensations into an object or figure

Continuation

Perceptions tend toward simplicity and continuity

Conductive Hearing Loss

Poor transfer of sounds from tympanic membrane to inner ear Compensate with amplifier (hearing aid)

Umami

Possible fifth taste sensation; brothy taste Stimulated by monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Top-Down Processing

Preexisting knowledge that is used to rapidly organize features into a meaningful whole: the letter K (which is seen faster by people with first or last names that start with the letter K)

Precognition

Purported ability to accurately predict the future

Telepathy

Purported ability to communicate directly with someone else's mind (no evidence*)

Clairvoyance

Purported ability to perceive events in ways that appear unaffected by distance or normal physical barriers (no evidence*)

Perceptual Learning: Perceptual Expectancies

Readiness to perceive in a particular manner, induced by small expectations Lead us to see what we expect to see Created by suggestion

Hair Cells

Receptor cells within cochlea transduce vibrations into nerve impulses Once dead they are never replaced

Sound Waves

Rhythmic movement of air molecules Frequency Amplitude Rarefaction and compression

Olfaction

Sense of smell One of the chemosenses Responds to airborne molecules

Gustation

Sense of taste One of the chemosenses Responds to molecules in solids, liquids

Touch, pressure, pain, heat, cold

Skin Senses

Cochlea

Snail-shaped Organ of hearing

Sensations produced by the skin, muscles, joints, viscera, and organs of balance

Somesthetic Senses

Common Region

Stimuli that are found within a common area tend to be seen as a group

Nearness

Stimuli that are near each other tend to be grouped together

Similarity

Stimuli that are similar in size, shape, color, or form tend to be grouped together

Lens

Structure in the eye that focuses light rays

Visual Cliff Studies

Suggests depth perception is partly innate; party learned Glass table with a "shallow" and "deep side Infants will refuse to crawl over deep side Lack of coordination may explain later "crash landings"

Psychokinesis (Mind Over Matter)

Technically not classed as ESP, but often studied Purported ability to influence inanimate objects by willpower

Closure

Tendency to complete a figure so that it has a consistent overall form

Capgras Syndrome:

The belief that your mother/father (or other family member) is an exact duplicate, possibly an alien, clone, or robot. Thought to be caused by a disconnect between the amygdala and the fusiform face gyrus (resulting in no emotional reaction from seeing someone you know/love)

Shape Constancy

The perceived shape of an object remains constant, even when shape of image on retina changes

Size Constancy

The perceived size of an object remains constant, even when size of image on retina changes

Auditory Ossicles:

Three small bones that vibrate link eardrum with the cochlea

b. at least 2 hours

To do well in a university level class it is recommended* that a student study ____ for each hour that class meets per week. a. about 1 hour b. at least 2 hours c. maybe 15 minutes d. Just study a couple of hours the night before a test.

Cornea

Transparent membrane covering the front of the eye bends light rays While the cornea is involved in focusing, it is fixed (the shape of the lens can be changed)

Rods and Cones

Two types of photoreceptors located in retina

Pain control

Unpleasant emotions increase pain (if you think this class is going to be boring... you'd be wrong!)

Sensory Conflict Theory

Vestibular system sensations do not match sensations from the eyes and body

Pinna

Visible, external part of the ear

send fewer and fewer impulses to the brain

When exposed to a constant stimuli,

Hallucination

When people perceive objects or events that have no external basis in reality(that depends on your definition of "reality")

Control

_ and being fully informed reduce pain

The rainbow ruse

a crafted statement which simultaneously awards the subject with a specific personality trait, as well as the opposite of that trait.

Misoplegia

a hatred for the affected limb, or, in some cases, the belief that the affected limb belongs to someone else. Misoplegia has been found to occur when there has been damage to three areas of the brain: the right parietal lobe, right optic thalamus, and/or the right thalamoparietal radiation.

Cotard's Disorder:

a person's "delusion" that s/he is dead. May be similar to Capgras syndrome. Thought to be caused a much more widespread disconnection of all sensory input; hearing, touch, vision, everything is disconnected from the limbic structures. It's an impoverished sense of self, an alienation of self. None of the sensations of the external world have any emotional significance which may cause an existential annihilation

Incus

anvil

Sensation

any time one of your sensory cells is activated.

Positive emotions

broaden perceptual focus

Pleasant emotions

decrease pain (if you're really looking forward to that tattoo it likely won't hurt as much as if you were being punished by hundreds of needles.

Sense receptors

do not transduce all the energies they encounter -only transduce part of their target energy range

Malleus

hammer

Rods

have 100 million -Visual receptors for dim light -Black and white and movement (male advantage)

Cones

have 6.5 million -Visual receptors for bright light (daylight) Color vision and edges (female advantage)

Sane hallucinations/ Charles Bonnet Syndrome:

individuals who are partially blind, but not mentally disturbed, report seeing a variety of images, including but not limited to animals, cartoons, (the brain does not "like" missing data and tends to fill it in)

Transduction

is changing a photon or sugar or heat into an electrochemical message which moves along your nervous system towards your brain.

Chemesthesis

is defined as the chemical sensibility of the skin and mucus membranes. Chemesthetic sensations arise when chemical compounds activate receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain, touch, and thermal perception.

Piquance

is the condition of having a strong, sharp smell or taste which is often so strong that it is unpleasant.

Negative emotions

narrow perceptual focus: increases the likelihood of perceptual blindness.

Phantom Limbs

occur when a limb is amputated but still produces sensations (esp. pain)

Other-Race Effect:

people of all races (i.e., ethnicities) are better at recognizing faces of their own race than of others (and believe other races all look alike). But, when one is in a good mood, the ability to recognize people from other races improves.

Forer effect:

relies in part on the eagerness of people to fill in details and make connections between what is said and some aspect of their own lives

Brain's neuromatrix

still believes limb to be there

Stapes

stirrup

Taste Buds: Taste-receptor organs. Four Taste Sensations:

sweet, salty, sour, bitter Most sensitive to bitter, least sensitive to sweet

Perception

when sensations reach the level of meaningful patterns.