Chapter 5: Sensation and Perception

Peak

(Also, crest) highest point of a wave

Just noticeable difference

Difference in stimuli required to detect a difference between the stimuli

Place theory of pitch perception

Different portions of the basilar membrane are sensitive to sounds of different frequencies

tympanic membrane

Eardrum

Perceptual hypothesis

Educated guess used to interpret sensory information

Cochlea implant

Electronic device that consist of a microphone, a speech processor, and an electrode array to directly stimulate the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain

Conductive hearing loss

Failure in the vibration of the eardrum and or movement of the ossicles

Inattentional blindness

Failure to notice something that is completely visible because of lack of attention

Gestalt psychology

Field of psychology based on the idea that the whole is different from the sum in its parts

Cochlea

Fluid field, snail shaped structure that contains the sensory receptor cells of the auditory system

Hertz is a measure of

Frequency

(Ex) how dim can a light be or how soft can a sound be and still be detected half the time?

Goes with absolute threshold

(Ex) if you are in a very dark theatre and someone receives a message and causes the scene to light up, chances are a lot of people would notice. But if you were at a basketball game and the same thing happened you wouldn't notice

Goes with just noticeable difference

(Ex) a mother is able to hear her baby murmur during the night but does not hear other sounds

Goes with signal detection theory

Taste bud

Grouping of taste receptor cells with hair like extension that protrude into the central pore of the taste bud

Amplitude

Height of a wave

What is described by the concept of perception

How sensory information is interpreted and consciously experienced

What was the original focus of Swets (1964) signal detection theory

Improving the sensitivity of air traffic controller's to plane blips

What has research shown about processing subliminal messages

In laboratory settings, people can process and responded to information outside of their awareness

top-down processing

Interpretation of sensations is influenced by available knowledge, experiences, and thoughts

How does the cochlear implant enable the deaf to here

It receives incoming sound information and directly stimulates the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain

Principle of closure

Organize perceptions into complete objects rather than a series of parts

Closure

Organizing our perceptions into complete objects rather than as a series of parts

Neuropathic pain

Pain from damage to neurons of either the peripheral or central nervous system

Deafness

Partial or complete inability to hear

linear perspective

Perceive depth in an image when two parallel lines same to converge

How does the term Gestalt relate to the psychological studies of perception

Perception involves more than simply combining sensory stimuli; therefore, perception is studied as Gestalt

Pitch

Perception of a sounds frequency

Proprioception

Perception of body position

kinesthesis

Perception of the bodies movement through space

Blind spot

Point where we cannot respond to visual information in that portion of the visual field

Visible spectrum

Portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see

What allows Nancy to run it without watching her feet and hit a baseball without focusing on the bat

Proprioception

Bottom up processing

System in which perceptions are built from sensory input

Thermoception

Temperature perception

Weber's Law

The difference threshold is a constant fraction of the original stimulus

The pupils size is controlled by muscles that are connected to

The iris

Which of the following statements about bow olfactory receptors is false?

They are bulb like structures at the tip of the frontal lobe where the olfactory nerves is begin

Why are olfaction and gustation called chemical senses?

They have sensory receptors that respond to molecules in the food we eat or in the air we breathe

basilar membrane

Thin strip of tissue with in the cochlea that contained the hair cells which serves as the sensory receptors for the auditory system

Similarity

Things that are alike tend to be grouped together

Proximity

Things that are close to one another tend to be grouped together

Sherry offers Matt some salmon. Matt thinks, "how nice. My friend is offering me fish. I wonder where she got it. "This leads Matt to feel happy, appreciative, and curious; he responds with a smile and extended hand. What kind of processing is exemplified by this scenario?

Top-down

Pacinian corpuscle

Touch receptors that detect transient pressure and higher frequency vibrations

Merkel's disk

Touch receptors that respond to light touch

Meissner's corpuscle

Touch receptors that respond to pressure and lower frequency

Cornea

Transparent covering over the eye

Binaural cue

Two-eared cue to localize sound

Honeybees can see light in the ___ range of the electromagnetic spectrum

Ultraviolet

In addition to sweet, salty, sour, and better, what other taste groupings do we possess?

Umami and fat content

Pinna

Visible part of the ear that protrudes from the head

Perception

Way that sensory information is interpreted and continuously experienced

Good continuation

We are more likely to perceive continuous, smooth flowing lines rather than jagged, broken lines

Hair cell

auditory receptor cell of the inner ear

Iris

colored portion of the eye

Afterimage

continuation of a visual sensation after removal of the stimulus

binocular cue

cue that relies on the use of both eyes

monocular cue

cue that requires only one eye

congenital deafness

deafness from birth

binocular disparity

slightly different view of the world that each eye receives

Timbre

sound's purity

Vertigo

spinning sensation

Umami

taste for monosodium glutamate

Ruffini corpuscle

touch receptor that detects stretch

sensorineural hearing loss

failure to transmit neural signals from the cochlea to the brain

congenital insensitivity to pain (congenital analgesia)

genetic disorder that results in the inability to experience pain

monaural cue

one-eared cue to localize sound

Lens

Curved, transparent structure that provides additional focus for a light entering the eye

Hertz (Hz)

Cycles per second; measure of frequency

Pattern perception

Ability to discriminate among different figures and shapes

Depth perception

Ability to perceive depth

electromagnetic spectrum

All of the electromagnetic radiation that occurs in our environment

When light levels are low, the pupil becomes dilated yo

Allow more light to enter the eye (vice versa)

Olfactory bulb

Bulb-like structure at the tip of the frontal lobe, where the olfactory nerves begin

The visible spectrum refers to the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that

Can see

Optic nerve

Carries visual information from the retina to the brain

Signal detection theory

Change in stimulus detection as a function of current mental state

Pheromone

Chemical message sent by another individual

Opponent-process theory of color perception

Color is coded in opponent pairs: black white, yellow blue, and red green

trichromatic theory of color perception

Color vision is mediated by the activity across the three groups of cones

Vestibular sense

Contribute to our ability to maintain balance and body posture

Transduction

Conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential

Wavelength

Length of a way from one peak to the next peak

Photoreceptor

Light detecting cell

Retina

Light sensitive lining of the eye

Decibel (dB)

Logarithmic unit of sound intensity

Trough

Lowest point of a wave

Subliminal message

Message presented below the threshold of conscious awareness

Incus

Middle ear ossicle; also known as the anvil

Malleus

Middle ear ossicle; also known as the hammer

Stapes

Middle ear ossicle; also known as the stirrup

Absolute threshold

Minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time

Tyler's rods do not transform light into nerve impulses as easily and efficiently as they should, so he has difficulty seeing in dim light. This is called

Night blindness

Sensory adaptation

Not perceiving stimuli that remain relatively constant over a prolonged period of time

Frequency

Number of waves that pass a given point in a given period of time

Ménière's disease

Result in a degeneration of inner ear structures that can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, and an increase in pressure within the inner

olfactory receptors

Sensory cell for the olfactory shatem

Nociception

Sensory signals indicating potential harm and maybe pain

Inflammatory pain

Signal that some type of tissue damage has occurred

Interaural timing difference

Small difference in the time at which a given sound wave arrives at each ear

Fovea

Small indentation in the retina that contains cones

Pupil

Small opening in the eye through which light passes

Interaural level difference

Sound coming from one side of the body is more intense at the closest ear because of the attenuation of the sound wave as it passes through the head

temporal theory of pitch perception

Sounds frequency is coded by the activity of a sensory neuron

Cone

Specialized photo receptor that works best in bright light conditions and detects color

Rod

Specialized photo receptor that works well in low light. Involved in our vision of dimly lot environments and our perception of movement on the periphery of our vision field

Sensations

What happens when sensory information is detected by sensory receptor

optic chiasm

X-shaped structure that sits just below the brains ventral surface; represent the merging of the optic nerves from the two eyes and the separation of information from the two sides of the visual field to the opposite side of the barin

figure-ground relationship

segmenting our visual world into figure and ground