PSYCH- major concepts ch 3

Compare and contrast Bottom ups and top down processing. Define perceptual set

Bottom up: initiated by specific characteristics of the stimulus itself. Understanding something by analyzing it. The older you get, the less you use it. Piecing together of systems to create a more ornate system Top down processing: guided by knowledge, expectation, belief, and experience. It's much quicker than bottom up processing. Breaking down of a system to gain understanding Perceptual set: sum of a person's assumptions, and beliefs that led him or her to expect or perceive things in certain situations.

Understand generally how depth and distance perception are handled by the visual system. Define monocular cues and be familiar with pictorial depth cues, motion parallax, and accommodation. Define binocular cues and describe retinal disparity and convergence. Describe the ames room.

Depth perception is the most important aspect of vision because it allows us to interact with objects. Visual cues: information from the world that we use to perceive depth Monocular cues: perceiving things with one eye Pictorial depth cues: texture gradient, linear perspective, shading, occlusion, relative size and height Motion parallax: images of objects at different distances move across the retina at different rates Binocular cues: require the use of both eyes Retinal disparity: difference in retinal images Convergence: signals that come from muscles in your eyes Ames room: manipulates depth perception by using an irregular shaped room

Define and describe the major structures of the ear and what structures of the visual system do each of these correspond to?

Eardrum: hairs move the eardrum and these bones amplify the vibration Cochlea: (like the retina of the eye) organ of auditory transduction. Different frequencies of sound are coded into varying nerve impulses Hair cells: (like the rods and cones of the eye) produce the initial nerve impulses

Regarding visual perception, understand how the brain recognizes edges and determines foreground and background. Describe feature detectors

Feature detectors: specialized brain circuits that function individually to recognize features on an image (inserting edges, figure ground)

Compare and contrast frequency theory and place theory as they relate to pitch perception. Compare and contrast nerve deafness and and conduction deafness

Frequency theory: how quickly the cochlea vibrates. Higher frequencies produce higher rates of neural firing Place Theory: different frequencies activate different places among the basilar membrane *both theories are necessary to cover the entire range of pitches people can hear Nerve deafness: when hair cells are destroyed by loud sounds Nerve deafness: when hair cells are destroyed by loud sounds Conduction deafness: can result from any accident or cause that impairs the functioning of the external or middle ear

What is the stimulus energy for the sense of audition (hearing)? Explain how the amplitude and frequency of sound waves relate to loudness and pitch in auditory perception.

It begins with the sensation of sound, when waves of moving air enter you ear amplitude: the "loudness" of a sound, measured in decibels Higher amplitude= louder sounds Frequency: the "pitch" or how high/ low the sound seems higher frequency= higher pitch, measured in Hertz

Define psychophysics. How might one measure a sensory threshold? Describe the concepts of absolute threshold and just noticeable difference.

Psychophysics: Study of the relationship between physical events and the corresponding experience of those events. The way we study sensation and perception. Threshold: dividing between stimulus energy that we can and cannot sense. If it is below your threshold, it isn't something that you can sense. Absolute threshold: the minimum amount of stimulus energy that you need to stimulate the sense organs half the time you are exposed to it. Just noticeable difference: minimal amount of change in stimulus energy necessary to notice something is different

What is the function of the human eye? Describe the function of the core, pupil, iris, and lens. Describe accommodation. Define and describe the function of the retina.

Pupil: black spot on your eye (a hole) that regulates how much light will get into your eye Iris: colored ring of muscle whose job is to regulate the size of the pupil. Reacts to the brightness of light Cornea: protective layer of clear transparency around the eye and keeps the eye's shape Lens: layer of flexible organic glass. Focuses on images from light in different distances Accommodation: The change in shoe of the lens to focus light at different distances. Related to depth perceptions Retina: organ of visual transduction (transformation of energy)

Define and describe the function of cones and rods. Explain Dark adaptation.

Rods: sensitive only to black and white. Not good for detailed vision, sensitive to light, responsible for night vision Cones: sensitive to particular wavelengths, produce color vision Dark adaptation: nocturnal animals have special systems so that they can see at night, but it takes humans about 30 minutes to fully adapt to darkness.

compare and contrast sensation and perception. Consider how transduction relates to these processes. Discuss how bias in perception can lead to the experience of illusions.

Sensation: simple stimulation of sense organs.It is identical for all people Perception: the result of neural processes that organize and interpret information conveyed by sensory organs. They are different for every person Transduction: transformation of various forms of energy into electrochemical signals sent back to your brain for processing **transduction occurs between sensation and perception Visual illusion: when perception does not accurately represent the world. You perceive something not how it actually is. We perceive the world based on context and our mental state

Define Sensory adaptation and subliminal perception. Does it exist? If so, what does the research show about its practical uses or effects?

Sensory adaptation: sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as the organism adapts (being exposed to a smell then no longer noticing it) Subliminal perception: whether your brain can conceive things that you are actually aware of. It does exist. The only things that we can remember are the things that we pay attention to. It cannot be practically applied.

Define signal detection theory: what other than a detectable stimulus affects sensation? Compare and contrast sensitivity and bias. What are hits, misses, false alarms, and correct regections?

Signal detection theory: a theory that seeks to explain why people detect signals or stimuli in some situations but miss them in others Sensitivity: Threshold level for distinguishing signal from noise Bias: willingness to notice a stimulus (mindset) Miss/ False alarm: when you perceive something that isn't really there Hit/ Correct rejection: correctly perceiving the world

define somatosensation. compare and contrast the kinesthetic and vestibular sense. Where are they localized? Be familiar with the senses of touch, temperature, and pain. Describe the age theory of pain, double pain, and endorphins. Describe the magnetic sense and consider its existence in humans.

Somatosensation: senses that have to do with perceiving the body and its position in space (body position, balance, touch, temperature, and possibly a magnetic sense of direction) Kinesthetic sense: registers the movement and position of the limbs and where they are in relation to other objects Vestibular sense: provides info about how a person is orated relatively to gravity Pain serves to warn people of impeding danger Double pain: resulting from different fibers sending their messages at different speeds endorphins: substances in the brain that have pain killing effects gate theory: input from touch fibers or that which occurs during sympathetic arousal compete with input from pain receptors

Compare and Contrast the trichromatic theory of color vision and the opponent process theory of color vision. Know the colors or color parts for each theory and explain the current perspective on how these theories relate to color vision. Describe after images and colorblindness.

Trichromatic Theory: theory that color vision arises from a combination of neural impulses from three different types of cones, each of which responds to one of the primary colors of light (RED, BLUE, GREEN) Opponent process: if one particular color is present, it causes the cells to inhibit the perception of the complementary color. There are pairs that connote be perceived at the same time (RED/ GREEN, BLUE/ YELLOW, BLACK/ WHITE) Colorblind: Red Green colorblindness comes from not being born with red or green cones. complete colorblindness comes from not being able to perceive color even though you have all of your cones Afterimages: When your opponent cells are overstimulated by a particular color and when it's removed, a negative afterimage occurs.

What is the stimulus energy (physical stimulus) for vision? Describe amplitude, frequency, and wavelength. Explain how the amplitude and wavelength of electromagnetic radiation relate to lightness/ brightness and hue/ color in visual perception.

Visual stimulus: vision is our primary sense of what's going on driven by electromagnetic radiation Amplitude: height= Brightness, low amplitude= not very bright Frequency: speed at which a wave top hits a still object Wavelength: distance between the top of two waves. Longer wavelengths= lower frequency. The color that we see is determined by wavelength Hue= Color

what is sound localization and what two cues are critical to its proper functioning. Under what condition is sound localization not accurate?

doesn't work for sounds directly in front or behind the hearer It is like depth perception for sound Difference in loudness: @ the two ears Onset difference: the sound wave hits the ear at separate times

define and describe the chemical senses of olfaction and gustation. What is the stimulus energy for each? Describe pheromones. How do taste buds relate to gustation? How are gustation and olfaction related?

olfaction: sense of smell gustation: taste Pheromones: chemical substances taste buds: tiny receptors cells mounted on one's tongue and throat People have a much harder time tasting something when their smell is blocked. Altering one sense can effect the other

Define perceptual constancy

perceptual constancy: the perception of characteristics that occur when qualities such as shape and color appear the same to us even though sensory information striking the eye changes. This is learned, not automatic