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